Jeff Johnson: Hardage & Texas Baptists face change together

I resist change or making changes, and the more set my routines of life become, the more I don’t make change. I am finding in my own life, as I get older, it is easier to get in the habit of defending positions rather than making discoveries.

Jeff JohnsonYet I know—and probably too often preach—life is “change or be changed.” Because life is change, nothing ever stays the same.

In the early 1990s, I took a doctoral seminar on church growth. We read a book by Lyle Schaller titled Strategies for Change that asked: “What is the No. 1 issue facing Christian organizations on the North American continent? Dwindling numbers? Money? Social justice? Leadership? Television? Sexuality?” After three decades of study, this was his conclusion—“the need to initiate and implement planned change from within.”

Still, not all change is good. Cancer cells change—not for the good, but for the worse. Change can be diabolical or divine.

The Apostle Paul’s pleading to the Philippians to “imitate me” demonstrates just how well he knew the sword of change is double-edged. Paul was changing the church severely. He challenged both the pagan lifestyles of the Gentiles and the law-fixated actions of the Jews. But all the changes with which people were experimenting were not for the good. Some changes led so far from the message and ministry of Jesus, they were transformed into “enemies of the cross.”

“To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal,” warned Simone Weil. The church needs to be very careful, or it will get the disease of “trendinitis.”

I had the honor of completing doctoral work with our executive director, David Hardage. He, too, read Schaller’s book way back in the early 1990s. Hardage has been tasked with leading Texas Baptists through change and transition. He has consistently, throughout his short tenure, reminded us being a Texas Baptist Christian is not about celebrity, but integrity; trailblazing, not trend-setting. In the coming days, Texas Baptists, under his leadership, will see and experience change. I am one Texas Baptist excited about these changes—both the challenges and opportunities. In the coming days, we will have a choice.

We live in a choice culture for sure: Choice is no longer a choice. I expect society to give me choices and the church to do the same. In fact, some have come to believe we are owed choices—school choice, personal choice, religious choice.

But wait a minute. Be careful. Choice is not a virtue. Choice is not a value system. Choice is not a reason for living. The Bible does not say, “… and now abides faith, hope, love and choice, but the greatest of these” is choice. No, as a Christian, I live to love; I live to serve; I don’t live to make choices.

Texas Baptists have been given the most amazing power in the universe—the power to choose, the power to become. However, our virtue? Society says “choice, keep your options open.” The Bible says: “Keep the faith, hope and love.”

Especially amid change.

Jeff Johnson is president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and pastor of First Baptist Church in Commerce.