Change and transition have been with us since the beginning of creation. We would like the church to be an island of stability, but instead it is right in the midst of the action. That is both exciting and scary. We have choices to make about how we respond to that trust. In every experience of transition, rather than a beginning a middle and an end, there is an ending, an in-between time, and a beginning.
Every transition begins with an ending.
The crucial issue is how we handle the in-between time , which we may call the neutral zone or the liminal time, where we stand between the old and the new. It can be a time of grieving and healing as we wait for a new pattern to emerge. This reflects the way many of us feel about our church . Its old ways are dead, and the new hasn't yet been born. This neutral time is often a time of chaos, but rather than being afraid of chaos we may see it as a time of creativity .