“Making Changes in the Established Church” (Part One)

Everything needs to change, just about.  And surely the methods of an established church are going to be changing all the time.

And some of the serious difficulties we get into as pastors are related to surprises or changes.  People hate both.

So let’s talk for the next few weeks about how we make changes in a church that has been in existence over ten years at least, and that in many cases has experienced some really good changes and sometimes has had havoc because of an initiating leader’s attempt to make changes that were not received well.

I’m writing from the experience of talking with many pastors, almost every day, and also from the experience of 43 years of pastoring with many changes.  Those changes included seven building programs, two total constitutional rewrites, changing from one service to two or three or four or five; changing the type of church organization, and the many different changes in ministries and additions of new ministries.

I also write with a background of talking with many pastors and church boards that have had great pain when making changes.

And of course, like you, I have been observing huge changes in areas of church leadership and even policy and even theology.

So there’s going to be some caution here as well as some suggestions about making good changes.

Reminders About the Established Church

1. It is not good to receive the call to an established church with an agenda to change the church drastically unless that has been agreed upon in receiving the call.

Because the church belongs to Christ, everybody should see what He wants.  But because we can’t always figure that out, there should be mutual agreement between the pastor and the main board and the people.  It seem unethical to not point out what changes a new pastor would be thinking of making.

Obviously sometimes one doesn’t know what should change when going in.  But other times – well, I know of a person who clearly wanted to turn an established church in the direction of the Willow Creek model but did not tell them that and began doing that when he arrived.

That seems both unkind and unethical.

2. It is not good to try to change a church just because of your personal desire.

Obviously, you can’t get away from your personal desires because they get carried along with your heart and brain every minute of the day.  But the issue is to evaluate your desires related to the true needs of the church.

That means getting others involved in this decision and getting their input before it is ultimately decided.

Tomorrow we will continue this discussion of ways to effect meaningful change in a church.

One Response to ““Making Changes in the Established Church” (Part One)”

1. lakehills101 says:

   February 16, 2010 at 11:09 pm

   Thanks for the article. A pastor of many years, I realized a few years ago that I needed to embrace some changes in order to be more effective at reaching the lost. A pastor speaking at a conference on this very subject warned us all to be certain we were following God, because “there will be blood and it will be yours.” Boy, was he right!

   ~ Mike