"Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." These words from the Ash Wednesday liturgy not only remind us of our mortality, but also raise our awareness that life is fraught with transition. Transition is the process of adapting to change. Everyone experiences transition. We experience as we grow up, leave home, marry, start a family, grow old, and prepare to die. We manage transition when we move from one home to another, enroll in a new school, start a new job or career. We grieve and ultimately accept the loss of family and friends. Sometimes we choose our transitions, and at other times they choose us. Either way, transition can be a time of stress and anxiety even in joyful contexts (think of the stress of planning a wedding!).

The same is true in the life of God's people. The story of the Hebrews' sojourn in the wilderness is one of transition from slavery to freedom, full of the trials of forming a nation. The gospel stories that suffuse our worship in Holy Week follow Jesus and the disciples as they face the death and resurrection not only of Jesus, but of their hopes and dreams as well.

The transitions we face as congregations can be either sudden - like a change in pastoral leadership - or long-term, like the cultural forces shaping our role and influence in society. All of them involve five stages: (1) the original status quo; (2) a time of "unfreezing" as we react to the prospect of change and unlearn old patterns that no longer work; (3) a "neutral zone" period in which we might feel lost or wandering as we scan for new solutions; (4) a "refreezing" period in which we begin to implement the behaviors that adapt to the change; and (5) the emergence of a new status quo.

For Israel the five stages can be concisely identified as Egypt/ Exodus/ Wilderness/ Conquest/ and Canaan. For congregations in pastoral transition, they might be experienced as old pastor/ departure & early interim/ Interim (with interim pastoral leadership)/ call & "honeymoon"/ and new pastor.  Each phase is necessary to navigate the change successfully. Rushing to a new pastor by compressing or omitting a phase will almost always compromise the ability of the new pastor to bond with the congregation, leading to a "de facto interim" pastorate. It is like rushing into a new marriage following divorce or the death of a spouse; we aren't emotionally ready to enter into a mature relationship between emotionally whole persons, putting the new marriage at risk.

Transitions are never easy, but approached with patience, mutual trust, and a sense of humor, they can be times of discovery and growth.

Periodically I will return to the theme of transition in my column to address how we as congregations and as a presbytery can navigate the transitions we confront both from within and without our respective communities of faith. As we head towards Holy Week and Easter, let us remember how Jesus prepared his disciples for the cross and what lay beyond: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me" (John 14:1). We don't face transitions alone, but in the company of Christ and the power of his Spirit.

May you have a blessed Lent and a joyful Easter!