Plant or transition?

From Gordon MacDonald’s book Who Stole My Church?:

Our experience leads me to say that if you want to be part of a church that is radically different than anything you’ve ever known, then plant one – start one. You can create new programs, new rules, and new structures. And you’ll have about a one-in-five chance that it will survive. And if that’s your call, go for it. There’s a lot of nobility in planting churches. It’s happening all over the countryside.

But if you are willing to be patient in one of those old churches (like ours) that is pretty high up the S-curve, then put your head down and go to work. Be patient, be prayerful, seek allies, build alliances with other generations. You’ll probably have to convince a lot of people, and they’ll come dragging their feet…But as time passes, somehow the Spirit of God will grab at hearts, and you just may see a miracle – a hundred year-old church that acts with the spirit of an enthusiastic teenager.