I grew up in a military family and one of the features of that life is moving. We moved every couple of years. What's behind moving personnel? Is it just filling vacancies as when someone has retired or been promoted? Yes, that's some of it. But some of it has to do with keeping things fresh.
No doubt there is a lot of positive power associated with people being in place for a long period of time. They know who's who and what's what. Call so and so if you want this done. The thing-a-ma-bob is under the copy machine. The reason we don't have one of those is that the hurricane twenty years ago knocked it down.
That same positive can be also restricting. "We've always done it that way" may have been fine for yesteryear and for all of us. But what if it isn't for today and the people we need to gain for tomorrow? What if there is new wine needed and all there are are old wineskins? It's a pain to move house but it is good for throwing out stuff you don't need anymore that you would have held on to if you weren't moving.
Sometimes I think the Methodists have it right to move pastors every five or six years. It keeps a congregation from getting too in a rut. Upsetting? Yes. Helpful? Perhaps.
And if you change the pastor but the session and staff stays the same throughout the pastoral changes?
I don't know where I am going with all this except perhaps to say that we may need an earthquake to rearrange things and sometimes they come in nature or by accident. How could we get the benefits of restructure by design?
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