Adaptability as Faithfulness
I am going to begin with a confession: I did NOT have the ability to adapt as a young person. Up until the day I graduated high school, there was a lot of sameness: same home, same church, same school, same neighborhood, same family, and same friends.
I began learning how to adapt in my 40s when I began traveling to other countries. Over the years, I have learned how to camp out, how to travel to five countries in Asia for two weeks with only a carry-on, how to sleep in airplanes and on trains, and how to survive in the summer without air conditioning in countries near the equator. I have adapted to being without electricity for hours on end, eating questionable food, and avoiding tap water.
Travel is an excellent training ground for adaptability, but it isn’t necessary. In a world that is constantly changing—culture, technology, and innovations—our ability to adapt is no longer optional; it is essential.
Simply put, adaptability is the capacity to adjust to new conditions and unexpected challenges while maintaining what really matters.
I remember when my 17-year-old son thought it would be a good idea to “teach” his 15-year-old sister how to drive by putting her behind the wheel one morning while I was in the shower. It was pouring rain, cars were parked on the street, and she would have to do a three-point turn to return to the house. I got out of the shower to discover that my car and children were gone.
I will now skip to the punishment phase.
I took their cell phones away. After a few days, my son came to me sheepishly, apologizing for his impulsive decision and then he said, “Mom, you should probably know that when you take my phone away, it has no effect on me. I hardly ever use it. But it is the most serious form of punishment you could choose for [his sister].” That was my cue to adapt and find some other form of punishment for him. I think he came to regret that confession.
At work, especially when you are not the boss, you have to adapt to changing policies and procedures. When leadership changes, you have to adapt to the changing culture and climate of the workplace.
The need for adaptability is everywhere.
How is this reflected in our churches? Many churches fail to realize that their cultural, social, and technological landscapes are also changing, as it is in the rest of the world. The ability to adapt is essential for staying effective to the mission and to remaining spiritually relevant in a changing world.
It fascinates me that the very people who are at the forefront of adaptation at work and in their personal lives resist adapting at church because it means change, which can be scary and uncomfortable at first.
Need an example? How about the church whose Ladies Bible Class continues to meet on Tuesday mornings, even though all of the congregation’s women between the ages of 25 and 50 have full time jobs. The handful of 70-90 year olds who meet faithfully each week love to remember the days when the class had 50 or more women. This church has failed to adapt to the needs of their current membership.
What if they actually met with the women who work full time and ask what they need or what options for fellowship and study would appeal to them?
Here’s another: many churches have adapted their Sunday evening from a second service to small groups. But other churches continue to have a second service on Sunday night because “this is the way we’ve always done it,” even though attendance has dwindled dramatically.
When I was a child, we had a strong Wednesday-night attendance. Schools did not have practice or games on Wednesday. There was little to compete with church. That has drastically changed, and churches have had to adapt what they offer on Wednesday night. Some have suspended the Wednesday-night service altogether.
If a church wants sustainability, or even to grow, then leadership must look for ways to adapt to the current culture(s) of their people.
If both parents work full time, that needs to be taken into consideration when planning children’s-ministry events. If a church that was once upper middle class is now more lower middle class, then the cost for catered lunches or events away from the building will need to be adapted to what most can afford. If there are several children who are shuttled from their mom’s house to their dad’s house and are not going to be at church every week, then having a bulletin board highlighting those with perfect attendance is unnecessarily hurtful.
Adaptation also includes meeting the needs of different generations, which is only necessary if you want different generations represented in your churches. The older generation tends to like sameness. Other generations prefer variety. The older generation typically prefers “sacred hymns,” many of which were written hundreds of years ago. Other generations prefer more modern worship songs with simple, easy-to-understand language. Why not sing a mix of both? When we cannot adapt to the needs of a different generation, they find a church that will.
If your church needs to learn how to adapt to meet the needs of different generations, church leadership could begin by putting together a team from within the church, made up of a man and a woman from each generation, beginning with teens. Be curious. Ask thoughtful questions. Create an atmosphere where they feel safe being candid with what they need, relative to what the church offers, and don’t be afraid of what you will learn.
Some churches refuse to adapt because they fear that it is actually compromise. But adaptability is faithfulness. Faithfulness to the mission, faithfulness to loving others, and faithfulness to relevance in a changing world. Fear-based leadership does not lead with faith. Choose faith over fear. Then watch your church flourish.
