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

In a fast-paced world, change is all about us—and change-management is an essential skill for leaders—including pastors. There are some things, however, that must not change in the church…

What are the Non-negotiables?

Here the question is related to what ideals or practices or ideals of the church should not be tampered with and are not open to change.

A. Our view of Scripture and primary doctrine.

While tertiary and minor areas can be changed and so can our church position on such things, it usually is a constitutional matter and actually an integrity and godliness matter to stay with the original statement of faith and the primary beliefs and doctrines.

So when we talk about changes in the local church, we’re not talking about changing issues of clarity in the Bible.

B. Our values should not change.

The wording of them or the careful presentation of them is open to improvement or course.  But churches must honor why they started and those values that are important to God.

Usually there are synonyms for these but they are going to point in five directions:

1. Grace, and that is believing and understanding how much God loves us and what He has done for us, especially in Christ;
2. Worship, our response to God and the way the church assembles to do this but also individually obeying;
3. Community, our sense of love for each other in middle-sized and small groups but also one-on-one;
4. Mission, our declaration of who we are and what we headed for, including missions for the world;
5. Integrity, the honesty of living one life and not a duplicit experience.

These things are set in cement or gold.  They should not be changed.

C. Our unity and mood.  Our love and kindness and respect for each other.

No one wants to “railroad” change into the church, and the initiating leader will respect and honor the love and unity that is there.  He will work within that system to bring about a desire for the changes if they are imperative.

To dishonor the biblical desire for unity especially in I Corinthians 12, and our Lord’s prayer for unity as voiced in John 17 – to do this is to misrepresent God’s grace and our call.

D. The priesthood of believers; the leadership of love.

These are non-negotiables.  They are there in the Bible.  Every person is a priest before God and to be honored as one.  The leader is to lead with grace and humility, not forceful dictatorship.  We are all to honor each other’s opinions in a careful way.

This sometimes becomes a difficult area to honor, for it does not mean that every believer’s opinion is guiding the church!

E. Financial and ethical integrity.

Of course this should be put on paper, but of course it is an area that is broken many times.  Sometimes it starts with just not having good policies related to finances, or allowing one person too much freedom with the books or money itself.

But obviously nothing should compromise the very carefully planned and protected integrity of the church in these areas.

F. Hard work!

The work of the pastor and even approaches of churches are done in many different ways, and some of it relates to the personality of the leadership.  But one common denominator is this one – the desire to give your heart and a lot of time to the efforts, and to be captured by the mission.  Pastors who believe they can build a strong ministry with minimal hours are probably going to lament the lack of growth and effectiveness all the time.  They will have plenty of time to lament, but this is not a good choice.

G. We cannot just settle for status quo.

Just because it has gone on this way for a year or two does not mean it will be successful next year.  And we should not simply be satisfied with what has happened.  The challenge of the church is always calling for more vision and more changes and more efforts.

That is not discouraging when we realize how exciting it is to be a pioneer and to be always evaluating how lives are being touched by the church.  And how God is being honored.

Next week we will talk about common mistakes made in the established church.  And – think ahead about this! – what changes we feel like should clearly be made in the church.