Change Isn’t Enough
What is needed in the Church today is not change. The Church needs a culture of change. When you develop a culture of change, people lean into change—they anticipate it. They expect it. They know it’s coming and are looking forward to the results. The believe it makes a difference. They begin to guess at what it might be. They propose changes and are worried that things have gone flat when there is not change.
Creating this culture at your church will require a strong change work-ethic…it’s an organizational muscle you’ll need to build. But the reward? Being able to respond to God’s leading quickly and without hesitation.
Tomorrow we’ll talk more about how to develop a culture of change at your church, but today I’d like to know…
Where have you seen the need for change demonstrated? Think beyond the Church. Are there particular examples (good or bad) we can learn from?
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Great Post! Change IS desperately needed and is inevitable…we need to change from a ME to a WE culture and get on board where the culture IS. Come on Church…we CAN do this !
We CANNOT stop change. 20 years ago everything was different and 20 years from now EVERYTHING will be different. God’s message will NEVER change but how people hear and embrace it will.
I work in a large Christian ministry where change is often needed, but comes slow because of the “machine” that the ministry has become after 50+ years of ministry and history. When a ministry has that much history behind it, it can be very difficult for different generations to agree on the needed changes. The younger guys often have a really different view of change and the time it should take compared with the middle-aged guys that have been here for 20 and 30 years.
Right now, we are in a leadership transition, and the new leader is being very careful about the changes he makes during the time of transition. Sometimes that is a really good thing. Other times, it has really frustrated the staff, because the long-term direction isn’t fully in view yet.
Good post- a culture of change is what we’ve been building over the last decade at our church and it has taken a lot of “muscle” in order to move in that direction. But here are some of the ways we did it at McLean Bible Church, DC:
- Vision for Change was cast by Senior Pastor
- Change language built into DNA Core Values “Taking Risks for God”
- Multi-Campus push
- Creating the right management team who understands change and lives it
- Hire the right people throughout ministry
- Reorg when needed
- Not allowing finances to determine steps we take that we believe God is calling us to
- Re-up our vision cast every 6 months
Thanks Craig.
Our staff is actually planning on discussing a culture of change next week, so you definitely got my attention. Until we develop a culture of change for church then every change is going to be painful and reluctantly made and overdue and divisive. I am not sure how to get there, but it definitely includes courage and greater faithfulness to what God wants to do through us.
we need buy-in for change
“Culture of change”. Outstanding phrase… when does the book come out? Most companies and churches I observe desperately need to grasp this idea.
One Australian denomination has been telling all its senior pastors of 50 and over to step down to allow 20 year olds to take over.
Is change or even a culture of change what is needed? If the change is for the church to become more like Christ, then I’m all in. If it is change for the sake of change, then I don’t agree.
Harry - Are you saying that the change in the Australian denomination is a postive or negative change?
[...] family members who are members there and told … http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/ Change Isn't Enough – LifeChurch.tv : swerve Sep 2, 2009 Good post- a culture of change is what we've been building over the last decade [...]
[...] Change Isn’t Enough Swerve Blog, this post by Bobby Gruenewald What is needed in the Church today is not change. The Church needs a culture of change. [...]