Transitions and Shifts

In the previous two blog posts, we have explored the process of transition and the opportunities available to us to experience God’s presence in a deeper way through transition. In this final post of the series, I want to now bring these threads together as we consider how transition plays a role in our approach to community. 

The Dwellings Team is passionate about three key shifts we feel the Western church needs to make in our approach to discipleship in order to more fully center ourselves around the presence of Jesus. These shifts are isolation to family, information to transformation, and spectators to participants. (If you would like to hear more about these specific shifts, check out our Podcast here.)

As we talk with men and women—both those in ministry and the “ordinary” follower of Jesus—we have sensed a lot of resonance around these shifts. People long for the destination, but don’t always realize there is a necessary and often uncomfortable journey of transition in between. In what follows, we’ll take a closer look at how the Transition Bridge Tool can help give language to a church or ministry’s experience making these three shifts, and we will ask how a community might collectively experience God’s presence in deeper ways as they make these shifts.  

Transition Bridge Applied to Shifts

The five stages of the Transition Bridge are: Settled→Unsettling→Chaos→Resettling→Settled.

When we think through the three shifts, we are essentially providing the names for the “Settled” stages on either side of the Transition Bridge.

For example, our Spectators to Participants shifts might look like this: Spectators→Unsettling→Chaos→Resettling→Participants. 

I believe this way of viewing the shifts is helpful because it neutralizes the idea that these changes can be made easily and overnight. If a traditional church staff wanted to make a shift to becoming a community where everyone participates, they cannot expect this to be achieved in one Sunday or through one program. Rather, they must realize that they are undergoing a transition as a community and many of the qualities of the Transition Bridge stages will likely apply. 

For example, a talented staff member of a church might begin to feel underappreciated and a longing for the past—elements of the Chaos Stage—as they are inviting members into greater levels of participation. A community making the shift from isolation to family might have to work through the surface-level relationship aspect that accompanies the Resettling Stage before experiencing the kind of rich depth they are after. Or a small group making the shift from information to transformation might begin to become overly critical of discipleship resources that involve learning —an element of the Unsettling Stage. 

There are also many within the Dwellings community who feel led to make a significant shift in their form of church from a traditional expression to a house church. Again, it is important to understand what a significant transition this might be for many people in their community.

This kind of shift might look like this:  

Traditional church→Unsettling→Chaos→Resettling→House church.

Remember to be patient and gracious with yourselves and the community as a whole. 

If your community is undergoing a transition, you might consider teaching the Transition Bridge Tool to your community. The power of this tool resides in its ability to provide common language for those in your community. With common language, a community will be better equipped to produce a culture of understanding and journey together through the transition. 

God’s Presence in the Midst of Shifts

In the last post, I also detailed three ways transition can help us to experience God’s presence by exposing our trust structures, unmasking our false selves, and revealing our needs. I believe the process of transition required in pursuing our three shifts—or any kind of group transition—can provide opportunities for your community to experience God’s presence in a deeper way. 

According to Robert Mulholland, trust structures are, “those deep inner postures of our being that do not rely on God but on self for our well-being." When an entire community is undergoing any kind of transition, trust structures will be exposed. Some of the trust structures we’ve encountered have been an overreliance on the 40-minute sermon, overemphasis on professional church leaders, and overplanned church programming—notice my intentional use of the “over” modifier. The tricky thing about trust structures is that they are often good things that we have over elevated. Rather than seeking God as our true place of refuge and security, we rely on our trust structures to be our fortress. The process of transition forces us to open our hands and often shows us the areas we desire to quickly reestablish our grasp. Your community’s journey through transition can be a beautiful opportunity to grab hold of Jesus and trust his leadership above all else. Stop and think back to the COVID Pandemic or a recent, significant transition for a moment. What structures were taken away? Which did you seek to reestablish most quickly? Prayerfully ask the Lord if this might reveal a trust structure that you are overly dependent upon. 

While the concept of false self is typically only thought of on a personal level, it can also occur at the communal level. If we allow them, transitions can also be helpful in unmasking these corporate false selves. For example, a suburban middle class church might be deeply shaken by a transition because core attributes like safety, comfort, and excellence have collapsed. Like trust structures, the things that comprise our false selves are not necessarily bad. They can become unhelpful, however, whenever we feel we need them in order to make ourselves more worthy of God’s love or people’s approval. This is why it can be an act of God’s grace for him to allow us to be stripped of anything that prevents us from seeing ourselves as a community that is valuable simply because we are loved by God. Our true identity as a community — men and women accepted and loved by God—can then lay the foundation to seek God asking, “Who are you truly calling us to be at this time and in this place?” You might be surprised who God is collectively calling you to be and more importantly, who he is calling you not to be. 

Finally, a community can also experience God’s presence through transition by acknowledging and bringing their needs before God. Slowing down as a community and acknowledging a need like a renewal of vision for your neighborhood or the healing for deep wounds reminds us that we are not God. Instead, acknowledging our needs ought to lead us into God’s presence to seek his provision. As a collection of men and women, we might be effective on paper in achieving ministry goals, but as Jesus said, we can do nothing if we are disconnected from him (John 15:5). When we extend our hands to our loving Father and ask him to fill them with exactly what we need, we put our faith into action by trusting that Jesus meant what he said when he taught us to, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Needs don’t have to be obstacles to overcome. Instead, they too can be doorways into God’s presence. 

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God has always used the discomforts of transition as an opportunity for his people to experience his presence. Israel was led from slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land where they experienced God’s presence in their midst through the tabernacle. Jewish men and women were called from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant experienced God’s presence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But his people often rejected these opportunities in the face of the discomforts of transition.

The Israelites complained in the wilderness about wanting to return to their food in Egypt and many early Jewish Christians were tempted to turn back to live under the Old Covenant. Transitions are not easy, especially for those who are called to help lead people through them. But they can be powerful and worth it. 

Better understanding the dynamics of transition can go a long way in helping a community become aware of God’s presence. As David says, “Where can I go from your presence?” God is present in transition and longs to meet us there. But will we meet him? The invitation is open, all we need to do is accept.