http://www.mikecalhoun.wol.org/blog/blog/changehttp://www.mikecalhoun.wol.org/blog/blog/changeI think the key is purpose. Change for the sake of change is bound to make people angry. If the purpose is clearly communicated, it's harder to hold down old traditions unless the purpose for them is equally compelling. Most of the time, traditions become stale because the original intent has been lost over time. Tradition is wisdom without reflection. Objectives drive change.Ray Deck IIIWed, 07 Jul 2010 05:15:30 -0400http://www.mikecalhoun.wol.org/blog/blog/changehttp://www.mikecalhoun.wol.org/blog/blog/changeCultivating and motivating change is something we struggle with in our church. We are a country church, slowly growing and we have a WOL teen club. Before my husband and I came to this pastorate 13 years ago the church was split and about to close. They lost a whole generation of young marrieds and there children. At that time there were no youth groups,(children or teen) and about 15 older teenagers. They were all HS age and we did get a youth program started. Six years ago we started a WOL club.Our church has grown and we built a new auditorium and Sunday School wing across the road from the original building. The old building is used for youth ministries. Teens in the basement and children in the old auditorium. We have a very traditional music service and we are striving to incorporate more praise and worship along with hymns. The next step would be to incorparate non traditional instruments in the praise time. In general we are not keeping our teens once they graduate. Some quit attending in their later teen years. This year we graduated our first teen who had completed the entire 7-12th gr. WOL program. We have 4 teens working as STC at the Inn this summer and 3 teens seeking to go as STC to France WOL camp next summer. The struggle is the worship style. Our teens are patient with it, bu when they go off to college or Bible Inst. and get used to modern worship services ours seem dull to them when they return. The older adults are adament against modern worship services, but can we afford to loose another group of young adults to other larger churches. My husband is very concerned. We have graduated out of our church app. 35 teens in the 13 years we have been here. There was a time period where there were no older teens, but now we have about 14 teens (6-12th gr) in our club. In those 13 years only one has gone into any form of ministry and he is a lay youth leader in a large church. App. only 4 attend church anywhere. One couple and one single still attend our church, but sporadically. Many have moved away, but some have returned after college and still do not attend our church. What can we do to maintain and send out this generation of young people into ministry either in our church or another? How do we get past just being on the sidelines and actively involved in reaching out for Christ? Cindy HostetlerTue, 06 Jul 2010 14:03:08 -0400http://www.mikecalhoun.wol.org/blog/blog/change