Love that Growth; Hate that Change.

by William Cowles

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - Leo Tolstoy

 

I don’t know if Tolstoy attended church, but he certainly understood the mindset most of us struggle with in church leadership. Everyone wants to be part of a thriving, growing faith community, but no one wants to change their own church experience. You know how it goes…

•  The Pastors say a 9:30 service time fits better with young adults’ schedules – but, regular attenders like it at 10:30.
•  The preschool program is yielding little fruit – but, it is a signature program in the neighborhood and a source of church pride .
•  The mission outreach team can’t get volunteers for community service – but their annual neighborhood clean-up is a tradition they can’t cancel.

The demand for growth but the denial of change is a problem that church leaders face every day.  So how do you push people past denial and into actionable change? 

Pastor Cary Nieuwhof, of Connexus Community Church near Toronto, Canada, offers six things church leaders can do to deal with people who push for growth then pull back from change. Here’s a brief recap of his list:

1. Tell The Truth – Sometimes great leadership is simply about pointing out the truth that nobody else wants to talk about.
2. Plot Trajectory -- Ask two questions: If we continue doing what we’re doing today, where will we be 1 year, 2 years and 5 years from now? If we change X, where will we be 1 year, 2 years and 5 years from now?
3. Ban Delusional Talk – Most of us become crazy people when we’re fighting change. So, as a leader, ban delusional talk around your table. Call it out. In love, let people see how crazy their thinking really is.
4. Get an Outside View – If your team doesn’t immediately respond healthily to a call for change, you might be ripe for an outside voice to help you arrive at a new place.
5. Offer Constant Feedback -- Keep people honest. Continue to point the group back to the truth. Honestly, gracefully, but truthfully.
6. Draw a Line and Call it For What it Is – At some point you have to stop talking and start doing. If you’ve been in an honest dialogue for at least a year and are not making progress (that is, you haven’t made a plan for change you are ready to act on), you have come to a moment of truth.

Common change-stopping positions I’ve heard repeatedly during my years in church leadership include:

• “Of course we want the church to grow, but we can’t abandon our core traditions and programs. That’s what we’re known for. “
• “If only more people would come to our worship service, they’d love the experience as much as we do.”
•  “We raised our children here, and we still love children. We just need more young families to come visit so we can show them how much we love them.”

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, when leaders buy into this kind of passive-aggressive resistance to change, the inevitable happens – inertia, decline, and then death. 

We believe that local churches offer faith-seekers connections with God and support for Christian living that are worth growing. And we know that new growth doesn’t happen without change – significant, painful, powerful, effective change.  That’s the way God designed all of Creation to flourish. That’s the life He calls us to live as followers of Jesus. 

Nieuwhof’s blog offers an effective strategy for dealing with one of the most common problems church leaders face. Read the entire blog, What To Do When People Want A Church To Grow…But Not Change, here:

More than 100 years past Tolstoy’s wise observation, the stakes are the same. If we want to change the world, we have to grow the church. If we want to grow the church, we have to change ourselves.