Keeping Your Faith In Transition Times

Mark Hsi

Honolulu, Hawaii USA

Many of us in church leadership are sensing we are in a season of transition. We may not know where we are transitioning to but we perceive that God is bringing us through a time of deep, substantive change.

The dictionary definition of transition is “the journey from one state or place to another.” Transition is the journey from the known and the familiar to the unknown and unfamiliar. It is the journey from the old towards the new: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43: 18-19).

The classic example in the Old Testament of transition is the passing of the baton from Moses to Joshua. It is a rather seamless transfer, as Moses walks into the sunset full of vitality and strength, “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Deuteronomy 34: 7). It is not decrepitude that initiates this transfer but rather the realization that the anointing upon Moses’ life ended on one side of the Jordan, even as Joshua’s would begin on the opposite side of the Jordan.

A popular concept in church leadership circles of late has been discussion of the sigmoid curve. This bell shaped curve has been used to describe the life cycle of an organization or church. It starts out in relative chaos and disorder but then moves into a time of organization, focus and growth. But eventually a plateau is reached and the inevitable peak gives way to a slow decline that accelerates as time goes on.

The implication is that unless organizations and churches go through a process of renewal and reinvention, where a new growth cycle occurs, a new sigmoid growth curve, they will invariably sink into irrelevance.

Transition is all about renewal and reinvention. It is God beginning within us a new growth curve to rescue us from continuing on the same pathways of success that once were life giving but now spell decrepitude if continued upon for too long.

We all would like our transitions to be so seamless as the story of Moses and Joshua. To have God move us from strength to strength, without a diminishment of momentum or productivity. To go from big to bigger, strong to stronger, great to greater.

And yet, there is another story of transition, this time in the New Testament, that God seems to be allowing in the lives of many of his leaders. It is the transition between John the Baptist and Jesus.

John knew that no matter how every successful his ministry was, that his would need to be eclipsed by the one who was to come. He was not bothered when it was pointed to him that Jesus was baptizing more people than he was, in fact it filled him with joy: “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3: 29-30).

John knew prophetically that as the new, Jesus, began to increase, that the old, John, would need to begin to decrease. He recognized this and affirmed it as good.

And yet, as the transition process unfolded, it seemed anything but joyful for John. John’s ministry did indeed decline but not in a way that he had anticipated. As he sits in prison, he sends out his disciples to ask Jesus a wrenching question: "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matthew 11: 3).

On one level, it is unthinkable that John would ask this. John’s testimony that Jesus was the Messiah was one that Jesus used to prove the authenticity of His claims to his opponents: "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. "You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth” (John 5: 31-33).

Did John suddenly forget what he saw that day along the banks of the Jordan? Of course he did not. He was questioning his understanding and perception of what he saw on that day, in light of what he was experiencing as a man in prison.

To move from the old and into the new is not an easy thing. It is not easy to leave behind all that we have ever known and to journey like Abraham who went “even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11: 8). What about our vision statements? Our strategic planning? Our five/ten/twenty years goals? In a time of transition, such tools can actually be detrimental to our future if they have been formulated with a mindset that is looking more at past victories and successes than a faith walk into the unknown.

When God does a new thing, it is not merely an amped up version of an old thing.

When Jesus hears this question from John, we can only imagine how He felt. If anyone knew who Jesus was, it would be John. But now John was having his doubts.

Jesus’ words to John are profound in their implication for all who are going through massive transition in their lives: “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." (Matthew 11: 6).

It is an interesting thought that one of the reasons that a person would fall away would be because of Jesus. Not because of money, not because of worldly distractions or addictive compulsions. But because of Jesus. Or perhaps more specifically, because of what Jesus allows to happen to us in times of transition.

Our faith in Jesus can be severely tested during times of transition. Not our faith in right doctrine, such as the substitionary work of atonement at the cross, heaven and hell, etc. Rather our faith that God really is at work in our lives and that He is leading us to new places of fruitfulness that we have never known.

The story of John reveals three ways that God will test us by in times of transition. In my casual observation, I have seen all three ways in operation in the lives of church leaders, myself included, who are navigating the stormy seas of transition.

Diminishment of an area that made us feel significant and successful

We have been taught to expect ever increasing ministry growth as a sign of God’s favor. What are we to do when the opposite occurs? How can God be glorified in a time of diminishment and reduction? That must have been the question on John’s mind as he saw his ministry begin to pass the point of no return. How could God be glorified in this? How could God allow this? Is this really You God? The answer, in John’s case, was yes.

The message of transition is that something old must be brought to an end so that something new can begin. Even though John prophesied his own decrease, “He must increase; I must decrease”, it was another story when it actually happened.

And so it is with us.

Some of us will fight this diminishment, not realizing that the new can not begin until the old is brought to a close. I don’t mean the death of a church or a business, or a ministry; rather I mean the death of the old ways of thinking, seeing, and doing. Self preservation of the old things is perhaps one of the most dangerous things to do in times of transition.

Imprisoned by circumstance and situation

I have noticed that God is allowing many in leadership to feel somewhat imprisoned of late by difficult circumstances and situations that seem almost impervious to prayer. It may be a difficult ministry situation, financial situation, or family situation. It may even be the activities of an enemy, like King Herod, who seems to be able to overpower us.

Why would God allow such a thing?

Perhaps because there are some things that can not arise except in a place of captivity.

Psalm 105 speaks of the story of Joseph: “They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD proved him true. (Psalm 105: 18-19).

The word of the Lord was proven true while he was in prison.

Sometimes the word of the Lord can come to us in a new and fresh way only when we have been somewhat removed from most all of what formerly defined us in regards to ministry fruitfulness and success. This is the teaching of the wilderness. Sometimes the new highway God creates has to be built in the barren wilderness: “ A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).

Being in prolonged periods of imprisonment/wilderness breaks us of our self sufficiency. Our strength is broken. Our former fruitfulness gives way to barrenness.

But it is often only then that we can learn to live in strength of the Lord: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10).

He must increase; we must be decreased.

God’s seeming inaction in regards to His promises

John had an expectation of what things would be when the Messiah came. These were not just wishful thinking but were based upon God’s prophetic promises proclaimed so frequently throughout the Old Testament.

As he sat in a dark prison cell and carefully reviewed all the prophetic promises of God, John experienced a massive bout of disillusionment. How could he reconcile his desperate circumstances in light of the promises of God?

Can anyone out there relate?

To be disillusioned means that we have been holding onto some illusions about life, about God. The Jesus we have crafted in our minds is not always the Jesus who really is. That is why Jesus said that it is possible to fall away because of Jesus Himself and how He choose to intervene or not intervene in our lives.

When the God who can do all things chooses to do seemingly nothing, what are we to do?

A dear friend of mine spoke a scripture recently that hit me as prophetic for the season: "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" (John 21: 15).

We have typically used this passage of scripture to underscore the importance of sacred (church) activities over secular activities. It is the reason that many of us left secular employment to enter into full time vocational ministry.

Certainly that application is valid but it struck me when my friend uttered this text that the ‘these’ Jesus referred to could apply to more than secular employment (commercial fishing).

It could refer to family, to hobby, to money, to even church and ministry. Any of ‘these’ can actually crowd out our love for Jesus.

I remember vividly once crying out to the Lord on behalf of my church. I was almost besides myself in my passionate intercession for the people under my care. What God spoke to me, I will never forget: “Why don’t you pray to me like that for your family?”

I was stunned. I was expecting the heavens to open and the dove to descend, not this rebuke from the Lord. Of course, what God was doing was putting His finger on an area of idolatry in my life: church ministry.

To perfect our love for Him, God will at times withhold His promised blessing on the ‘these’. It can be our finances, our church ministries, our broader platform of influence in Christendom at large.

Disillusionment can be one of the best things that could happen in the life of leader because it causes us to shed our illusions and come to grips with the Jesus who is rather than the Jesus we have crafted in our minds.

It is said of marriage that the real love begins when the illusions and expectations of our earlier days are exposed as delusional. A delusional love must die in order of a more mature love to being. Perhaps the same could be said of our relationship with God.

Sometimes God is not as committed to our ministries in their current state than we are. God was not as committed to the ministry of John as John himself was. (My proof? Why did John even have disciples after Jesus came on the scene? Was he trying to keep his ministry alive when it was really time to submerge completely the old into the new?)

Will God fulfill His promises? Of course He will. But He reserves the right to fulfill His word in ways we never dreamed of. Isaiah could have spent the rest of his life looking for the pregnant virgin God prophesied about only to find he would have to wait 600 years!

True Breakthrough

We are all perhaps praying for some level of breakthrough, whether in our families, our finances, or our ministries. Circumstantial breakthrough is really not hard for God. If He can part the Red Sea , He can certainly breakthrough in your circumstance.

But God is after something far more precious than circumstantial breakthrough. He is wanting to form a breakthrough people who have broken through the inertia of our past ways of thinking, seeing, and doing. He does not just want to do a new thing, He wants to produce a new you.

If you are feeling the squeeze of transition, rejoice, for God is doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it?