Beloved,

Come as you are; you can change inside. I hope you have noticed our church sign by now, after it has been there for a few years. Fr. Roger and Beau used to change the message regularly, but I have been too lazy to change it. I prayed for a church-sign fairy to appear one day and change it miraculously. Wishful thinking.

“Come as you are; you can change inside” has become my mantra now that I see it every day. The message sparked a few interesting conversations. Some took it as an invitation to give the church a dramatic makeover, with ideas such as upgrading church furnishings, singing more contemporary hymns, or changing worship style with extra gadgets. The uplifting energy in their sharing ideas reminded me of celebrity gurus on house makeover TV shows. If you just do such and such, the church will attract more of this and that. When we think of changes, we often mean only the kind of changes others must make, but rarely the changes we must make. When considering a solution to a problem, it is usually easier to think of getting something new to fix it or replace the old. If someone could just volunteer to change the sign, a brand-new message will show up every week! I am guilty as charged. 

“Come as you are; you can change inside” is intended to convey a spiritual transformation. The message invites us to renew our understanding and appreciation for God’s blessings and mercy. However, such renewal is never easy, as it can trap us in complacency if approached without caution, because we can deceive ourselves with our clever minds. As I faced the same church sign for as long as I could remember, I caught myself being trapped in the very idea of complacency. Renewing my mindset was merely a change from my guilty conscience for leaving it stagnate to justification for my inaction with various excuses; writing this message is a good example. Cough, cough. The devil’s in the details.

“Come as you are; you can change inside.” It means boldly acknowledging our shortcomings, trusting in God’s mercy, and wrestling with ourselves to take action to be a better follower of Christ. It means neither being a flashy home improvement guru for someone else’s house nor using our critical thinking skills to justify ourselves to stay complacent. We all have room for improvement within ourselves before critiquing someone else’s messy, cluttered closet. Resistance to change inside is real and always requires challenge. We are a loving, stubborn bunch. 

It is for this reason that the Lift Up Our Hearts capital campaign for the installation of a new lift is significant. We, as a parish, boldly acknowledged the rising need, trusted in God’s mercy, and wrestled with ourselves to pitch in and take action, not just for our convenience, but for enhancing accessibility to all who use our building, even though it necessitated an internal change. I am grateful to the vestry for helping us navigate this spiritual journey. We are deeply thankful to you for your generosity in making this project possible. We are making our church building better than we found it, together. 

It’s easy to demand change from others. Just as easy is spending energy to justify our stubbornly fixed mindset. Implementing internal changes requires effort. Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) Life is too short to hold onto our self-righteousness. As Jesus teaches us, we must deny our stubborn selves by unloading our baggage, so that we can pick up our cross and follow Jesus. That is how we surrender to change inside. 

Finally, I agree with you that the sign needs to be updated with a new message. I will leave it as is for July in light of this article, but I promise to update it more regularly. Thank you for your patience. 

With Love, 

Fr. Andrew