"... nothing will be impossible with God."

In Luke 1: 37, we overhear the Angel Gabriel telling Mary, "…nothing will be impossible with God."

God is in the business of making impossible things possible. Another word for this is transformation. A tired congregation finds new life. A person with a substance addiction finds healing. A city divided by racism finds reconciliation. God is at work turning around individuals, churches and communities.

But in order for us to participate in God's work of transformation, we could use a change in thinking. A paradigm shift. A different way of seeing. We may not be visited by angels, but we can help one another learn to see things from a different perspective.

I'm grateful to some friends who are helping me learn to see my role differently as I participate in God's work of transformation. Maybe these paradigm shifts will help you, too.

Shift #1: The shift from changing others to changing ourselves. Not long ago, I was grousing to a trusted friend about someone in the church who was driving me crazy. I expected my friend to sympathize with my righteous anger and agree with me that the other person was wrong. Instead, my courageous friend asked, "Have you prayed for this person to be in the yoke with you as you lead the congregation?"

Frankly, I didn't want the person in the yoke with me—or anywhere in the field with me for that matter! But that gentle nudge helped me see that I needed God to change the way I looked at this person. This person wasn't my antagonist, but a fellow student of Christ who believed he was doing the best thing for the congregation.

It's much easier to see God's transforming work in our churches and communities when we've allowed God to do work our own lives. Too often, we seem quick to change everything around us without recognizing that it is really ourselves in need of change.

Shift #2: The shift from making church members to making disciples of Jesus. For decades, the Protestant Church in America was successful in making fine church members. Church members are devoted to their congregations and show it by attending regularly, teaching classes, volunteering behind the scenes and even giving money generously. But with burnout and boredom on the rise, we are learning that church activities can become a source of stress for people and often a roadblock to a life-giving relationship with Christ. We can no longer assume that church activity naturally leads to living daily in obedience to Christ.

But be careful—this shift-of-thinking comes with a price. Most of us (especially pastors like me) are very used to making church members - it's the system we are familiar with and it's what most of us have been trained to do. And so to do differently will require a change in how we lead.

Slowly, alongside everyone else in the congregation, I'm learning the beauty and challenge of following Christ into the world and trying to discover what individuals need to help them on that path. As we begin to shift from making church members to making disciples, God will use us to make others curious about Jesus and his way of life.

Shift #3:  The shift from church growth to community transformation. I wonder how our cities  would look different if, instead of competing with other congregations for growth, we worked together to bless the community. At some point in the last few years, leaders of our congregation stopped asking, "How much do we want to grow over the next five years?" and started to ask, "How will this community look different in five years because we are here?"

It's a subtle shift in thinking, but one that turns our focus outward. As William Temple said, "The church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non-members." May it be so.

Through Christ, we see God making impossible things possible—in our lives, in our congregations and in our communities. What "gift of the impossible" are you praying for?

Matt Rosine is the teaching pastor of First Colony Christian Church in Sugar Land, Texas. You can drop him a note at matt@fcccdoc.org.