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Today as I was taking my dog, Pablo, for a walk I thought about how much change the church has seen in my lifetime. When I trained for ministry, ministers stood behind a pulpit and preached. Music was pretty much an organ with a piano helping out from time to time. People coming to church were dressed in their ‘Sunday best.’ In my hometown most of the stores were closed on Sunday and it never occured to me that church worship would be at any other time other than Sunday morning after Sunday School. Change is here to stay even in the church. I am attempting to learn new ways to minister and to be faithful to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. It is so easy to think that tradition (how it has been done before) needs to be carried on and it vital to the mission. Tradition is important but it is not the message. The message does not change but how it is presented and what language is used to present it does and in fact must change to speak to a changing world. I struggle with this fact. Some days I want to retreat and just keep things the same as always. It seems to take less energy and thinking. But I know in my heart that God calls us to struggle and it is in struggling that we grow.