Making
change exciting, expectant and urgent.
Many of the pastors I have encountered in the past
have told me very forcefully that people don't like change. They believe that
the one constant in a person's life should be their church and therefore it should
be the same yesterday, today and also tomorrow. I would disagree with this and
say that people don't mind change- in fact they find it refreshing. As long as
the change and need for change is vital, necessary and communicated well.
One person alone will find it hard to communicate
the excitement and urgency, but a group of like minded people all expressing the
same thing- that change is needed and why, will be far more successful. The
more people you have that agree to changes the easier the process will be.
The senior
leader of a midsized church of about 450 wants to introduce changes that he
feels will take the church to the next level. He calls a meeting of the elders
of the church. The meeting goes something like this; The senior leader
described the following, The church is full and for all intents and purposes
the church has stopped growing. All the statistics show this. If the church
wants to continue in part of its vision "To reach the community for
Christ" then the senior leader believes that a second Sunday morning
service is needed. The elders listen, and then relate that the senior leaders
predecessor, had seen the same problem and tried to introduce a second service,
the problem was that they were not convinced of the need for it then nor are
they now. They were comfortable with what they had, they saw a full vibrant
church, the bank accounts were good. The church was a stable part of the local
community everybody was happy. One elder said that they had seen ten families
join the church in the last twelve months, this despite the fact that when the
last senior leader left the church three years earlier 45 families had left the
church.
We must realise that growth is not just the job of
the pastoral staff but of every department of the church. If people matter and
we want to reach the lost for Christ then we need to look at ourselves to see
if we have become a 'Fellowship' a cosy spiritual huddle or a vibrant, healthy,
Christ centred church.
The senior
leader in our story was successful in launching the second Sunday service and
this did result in growth, he ramped up the excitement and expectancy levels in
the following way;
He met with his Executive pastor and explained what
he wanted and why. He referred to the overcrowded cafe area after the morning
service, it always seemed to be over 80% full. He talked about the Sunday Kids
program and how staff were struggling to cope. This area also seemed to be over
80% full. Even the parking lot appeared at times to be overcrowded. He pointed
to the stats that reflected no growth and the fact that the vision of the
church was to reach the community for Christ. He also pointed out that the
community, through construction of a new suburban housing project, had grown
threefold in the last five years and very few families had come to the church
from the new suburb. He then met with all his ministry leaders the heads of the
various departments of the church, he explained what he wanted and why. Over a
two month period he preached on change and why God brought about changes. He
communicated with all his connect group leaders. He set a date for the change
and the start of the second service. At every opportunity he spoke about the
need for the change and why. He encouraged his staff to do the same he met each
challenge with excitement and instilled the sense of urgency needed for it. He
didn't have endless meetings or workshops about the need for change- these are
rarely helpful. He approached it as though change was a normal part of church
growth.
Why not try it.
The above is an extract from my book:Turn this Church Around
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