I do. I hate springing forward.
The whole idea of losing an hour’s sleep and hoping to get on track somewhere down the road is more than I want to take. I find myself constantly asking “at this point yesterday, what time was it?”
But. . .I love the idea of having an extra hour’s daylight in the afternoon. My running program works so much better once we “spring forward.” There must be a dozen reasons why I love Daylight Saving Time.
Therein, lies the dilemma of churches and pastors. We love changes. We just don’t like the process of getting there. For that reason, pastors and churches must learn some basic principles of change.
First, no one likes change. I love the little saying that “only babies like change.” To hear them cry, I’m not even sure that babies like change.
Second, you must sell the reason for the change. The reasons must be meaningful and they must be well articulated. Any good salesman knows you usually don’t sell on the first try.
Third, you show the people you don’t have any other real choice. If you want an extra hour of daylight, you have to put up with one hard week of adjustment.
Fourth, you must give people the time to get adjusted to the idea of change. In this case, you would start preparing them for time change last October when we moved from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time. The longer you give people to get accommodated to the idea, the easier the transition will be.
Fifth, you show that the change is workable and logical. They must be able to see the value on the other side.
Finally, you must communicate the idea and the reasoning over and over.
I love time change. I can’t wait to get to run this afternoon.
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2 Responses
They shall seek to change times and seasons. The arguments offered were savings on fuel and I forget the rest. However, they admitted on the last debate over the issue, when the shortened the time of standard time that no savings had ever been accomplished. The whole thing began with Ben Franklin telling of a town in France where they experimented with this idea in the 1700s. There is nothing like the interruption of circadian rhythm to bring about psychological disruption so that others may direct our thinking. O by the way, they eventually plan to do away with standard time (not that means much) altogether. In any case, the chickens and the cows still get up at the same time every morning, being prompted to do so by the electro magnetic influences of the sun. And by the slavery is coming back right here in the good ole USA. Laws that restricted the corporations have been or being repealed, workers rights taken away, the destruction of the middle class. We need an awakening.
Falling back is sometimes hard for us, but just think to fall forward someday that glorious day we will spring forward into the arms o Jesus.