In transition, you use the best of your congregation’s heritage to serve the needs of new people and introduce them to Jesus. Connecting God’s work in the past with God’s call to the future authorizes a change process in an older congregation. However, change is difficult even when this connection is made, because change requires transition.	fred@churchover40.com
	Transition is the process people must go through before change can work. It has three phases: 1. Saying goodbye to old ways, even though they made us successful in the past; 2. Shifting into neutral, coping with uncertainties, coming to grips with what we are being asked; and 3. Moving forward and behaving in new ways. (Source: Leading Transition by William Bridges and Susan Mitchell, in On Leading Change, edited by Frances Hesselbein. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002, pp. 33-45.)
	Pastors and lay leaders should be aware of transition. It is a difficult, often painful process. People going through transition need understanding and support. They need time to grieve what is being lost. Only then can they become excited about the new thing God is doing in and through the congregation. The challenge for leaders is to care for people in transition while continuing to move ahead with the changes that must be made if the congregation is to reach new people.
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