Leading Change in Your Church

Leading Change in Your Church
Part Four

    Last week I continued a series on leading change in the church by pointing out that we need to make sure it is the right change, at the right time, and it is done in the right way. I went on to discuss the challenges we face in making the right changes. Today I want to address the timing issue.
 
     Much of the answer to the “when” question revolves around your prayer life and your personality. If you are the one leading the charge, then you need to have significant self-awareness regarding your propensity for change. If your personality lends itself to fire, ready, aim approach to change, then you already know your way ahead of your people. I shouldn’t have to tell you to slow down, but just in case you are still wondering: SLOW DOWN! You’ve got a lot of great ideas, and you want to get them ALL accomplished in the next few weeks; however, your people are probably already worn out as they have been trying to implement the ten new things you wanted them to do last month.
 
     Now I must confess that I’m using a little pastoral hyperbole, but I hope that in so doing, I have made my point. Have you taken the time to prioritize all the various changes you think need to be made? Have you considered the change tolerance of your church--how many changes can they handle in a given period of time? Have you stopped to consider who will be impacted the most by the changes you are considering?

​     Additional considerations for all of us when we are leading change can be gleaned from chapter three of Bridges’ book Managing Transitions. Here are the chapter headings:

• Identify Who’s Losing What
• Accept the Reality and Importance of the Subjective Losses
• Don’t Be Surprised at Overreaction
• Acknowledge the Losses Openly and Sympathetically
• Expect and Accept the Signs of Grieving
• Compensate for the Losses
• Give People Information, and Do It Again and Again
• Define What’s Over and What Isn’t
• Mark the Endings
• Treat the Past with Respect
• Let People Take a Piece of the Old Way with Them
• Show How Endings Ensure the Continuity of What Really Matters

 ​     At the other end of the spectrum of leadership personalities are those of us who are unwilling to make changes that we already know need to be made. Sometimes those of us with a special portion of compassion are very reluctant to make changes we know will hurt certain individuals. By focusing on what some might loose, we overlook the potential of what everyone else would gain through a needed change. We often overlook the reality that people who will be most impacted by a change sometimes are the very ones who already know that change is needed. There are a lot of people serving in the wrong place in our churches (round pegs in square holes), and they know they are not being effective. Help them find their “sweet spot,” and they, along with the church, will have a better chance of flourishing.
 
    Others of us are slow to make changes because we suffer from paralysis by over analysis. This can be driven by indecision or the inability to discern what changes are “the best.” Not all whom God calls into the leadership role of pastor have the gift of discernment. If you are one of them, there are multiple options for you. Find someone in your church who is a good strategic thinker and lean into their abilities. In your pastors’ network, specifically ask fellow pastors to help you talk through your options. Plus, you are surrounded by Great Commission Baptist (SBC) leaders who have years of experience. They are ready, willing, and able to help you individually or to assist your church in a consultation role. You are not alone!
 
      Ultimately the timing issue, “when is the right time to implement the right change,” is a matter of prayer. Our culture is so accustomed to change that we just “assume” the changes we are imagining are both right and ready for today. Is there a place in your leadership system where you take potential changes to influencers or to a leadership team within your church? When you do that are you looking for a rubber stamp or feedback? Do you take time to pray with them and to seek ongoing prayer for divine leadership? I guess what I am asking is, do you practice what James told us to do?

​“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” (4:13-16)

  Knowing who you are and who He is will give you great clarity in knowing when the right changes need to be implemented.
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Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, DoM
Heartland Church Network
402-551-0608