Change in the Church
Posted on July 7, 2009
Filed Under Design Thinking, Uncategorized, change, future, leadership
I spend the majority of my time working with leaders of local churches. Talk about a group that struggles with change!! One of the most significant ongoing “challenges” that these leaders face is that they have experienced success with something in the past, and are having trouble adjusting to the currently reality.
Churches have a great deal of trouble distinguishing between their “methods” and their “work”. No product or service delivery “method” is effective forever, but the “work” of the church never changes. When it is being effective, suffering is being relieved, people are finding hope, and lives are being changed for the better. It is vital that the church finds ways to be effective.
I consistently see churches continue to offer programs that were only effective in the 1950s,60s and 70s. There seems to be some odd idea that the world will go back to that time, and these things will work again!
Change is a threatening word to the church, but there are ways to change without compromising the core of who you are and what you believe. Again, differentiating between your methods and your work is the first step. After that, you should look to those within the community being served to see what God is doing. In many churches, is has been all top-down decision making. Now, especially in churches that are built on a small group model, there is decentralization in what type of efforts that can be undertaken. Let the people who are a part of the church begin to determine the ministries where they will personally engage.
New and very innovative ministries can emerge when there is a small group of people making decisions for themselves. It’s related to the concept of “apps” development for facebook and iphone. People see what is needed, and make it happen. The people at the top resource those on the front lines.
The church leadership can also ask a few groups to try something, and then evaluate the results. This can save many hours (and $) for the church and uncover new dynamic methods of doing the work of the church. If a group hits on something big, the larger organization can choose to either inform other groups or to make an organizational effort. This creates a large number of prototyping opportunities that could not happen in the standard top down approach that most churches utilize.
Finally, remember that the work of the church is based on the very concept of change.
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