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

This week we are beginning an examination of change in the church. We started yesterday by seeing some suggestions on how change can be effectively implemented. Today we continue with those suggestions:

3. Sometimes leaders become unaware of how people are reacting to their leadership decisions because these leaders are isolated or insulated, or because the people are not honest with them.

This one’s a caution, and obviously it’s not good when we don’t know what people are really thinking.  One major cause of this would be avoidance of being with them regularly, in the halls, in the restaurants, in small groups.  Pastors easily live lives of quiet isolation, in their study, in their personality if people see them as not easily approachable, and in their homes.  There’s very little of going to the “parsonage” to get the key to the church anymore!

This means we have to have ways of knowing what the people are thinking of course.

One obvious way is having a board that is very open with their opinions and feedback.  It’s also essential that we all have friends and discipleship groups and contacts which bring up reactions or needs of the people.

4. We must honor what others have done in the past, not act as if previous ministries do not matter.

Every established church has a history, and sometimes the “bull in a China shop” approach tends to look like the place is starting over the day the new senior arrives.  Everybody must do his or her homework about what has been strong, and we should even honor the past.

5. Just because it has been done or exists as an attitude does not mean it was or is good in God’s opinion.

The other part of #4 is this, that just because we have beat a dead horse as a church or kept something going for a long time does not mean we should continue to do so.  Of course.

Every pastor must be first an evaluator and a strategist about how these things are effective in lives.

6. The same church that understood the missional reasons to do things a certain way to do things in the past can understand the missional reasons to do things in a different way.  So many ideas fail for a lack of purpose, or just for budget reasons.  Mission, mission, mission in a church is just like “location, location, location” in real estate.

Many times a new idea about change is turned down because people do not understand the reason behind it and just simply do not like surprises or changes.  But if they hear the stories of changed lives and the purposes behind something…

7. The church is God’s, and changes should be made to glorify Him and to keep the unity that He desires in the local church.

This is a tough assignment that calls for daily wisdom.

Tomorrow we will examine the non-negotiables that must not change…