Fall is my favorite season! The leaves are changing, the air gets cool and crisp. There are apples to be picked and pumpkins to carve. Fall is an incredible season of change as the earth readies itself for the stillness that accompanies winter.
But change is also hard. Often it comes with a great deal of work. While the leaves change without our efforts, the garden in my backyard requires tending and care in order to prepare it for winter. Plants must have their final harvests before the frost. Annuals must be pulled out and discarded. Others must be prepared to weather the cold, pruned back, and transformed into something new as they await the spring in silence. But nature isn’t the only thing changing around us. Every community, every group, every part of our lives is constantly shifting, adapting to the world around us in every turn. And though we might not like it, this applies to the church too.
Our churches are sacred communities bound together in love, following Jesus as we carry forward traditions from the past and rise to meet new people in the present. Too often however, we get stuck in the past. We cling to what was, instead of embracing the reality of what is right now. Change is hard, but change also means life! God is constantly inviting us into relationship, transforming us with love so that we can carry that love into the world. Our churches should be changing too!
That doesn’t mean that we lay aside our cherished traditions or give up everything that has held meaning. We can continue sacred traditions while also changing our response to the present realities. Perhaps we have far fewer people and can no longer support a ministry we once shared. Maybe our community has transformed and the needs we were meeting are no longer the needs that are present in our neighborhood. Churches must adapt in response to these needs. They must be willing to acknowledge that change is necessary and then do the hard work. Like preparing a garden for winter, churches must roll up their sleeves, acknowledge their realities, and put in the effort to prepare for what lies ahead.
At the Good Friday Collaborative, we want to partner with you in this work. We know how difficult it can be to assess current realities and lead efforts to change. Since our founding, we have been working to help church leaders and congregations have open, honest conversations about their work with an eye focused on congregations at the end of their life cycle. As we have grown, we at Good Friday have been in our own conversation about the work that we do and we are excited to share our next steps in ministry. While we are still committed to supporting leaders and congregations at the end of their life cycles, our mission has grown much larger as we realize that the impact of this work goes beyond faithful completion of a congregation’s ministry.
As we rise to meet these needs and respond to the call of the Spirit, we are thrilled to share the new mission of The Good Friday Collaborative.
The Good Friday Collaborative equips the church for faithful change by:
supporting congregations taking their next step
guiding leaders through missional endings
cultivating theology & practices of death and resurrection
We look forward to partnering in the hard work of change with leaders in every part of the church from local congregations to judicatories.
Looking for possible next steps?
Check out our Congregational Endings Best Practices Guide for Judicatory Leaders and our assessments.
