Category: Change

Years ago I heard a friend of mine coin the phrase, “Facelift, Overhaul, Funeral”. The idea was that sometimes we are forced to admit an area of ministry needs an upgrade.

Ideally, the upgrade will just require a simple facelift. A few tweaks and all is well. The other day I drove by Joy Community Church in Rochester, NY and they were painting the exterior of the building.

Facelift.

Then there are times when something needs an overhaul. Usually, we aren’t looking forward to this because there is going to be a considerable investment in time or money involved. An overhaul is when we make considerable changes, not only to the exterior/appearance of the ministry, but to the internal structures, systems & strategies. Last year I took on the project of overhauling the Elim Fellowship website. We moved the whole site to a different web platform, web host and web programmer. I can say with confidence that it’s definitely an improvement over the old one.

Overhaul.

And of course, sometimes a funeral is the order of the day. Really, who enjoys a funeral? But sometimes we have to admit that the season of success for that area of ministry is over. Hopefully, we have the wisdom to end things with grace. Years ago as a youth pastor I started a coffee house for teens. It was very successful for about 4 years. Then the time came for us to admit that we had a good run but it was time to focus on other things.

Funeral.

TO DO:
Meet with your team this week and set aside one hour. In that hour, ask the question, “Which systems, strategies & ministries need a Facelift? Overhaul? Funeral?”

Image from khorzhevska at istockphoto.com.

Pastor Joshua Finley is the Lead Pastor at Elim Gospel Church in Lima, NY. – a thriving church of about 800 located in the middle of (almost) nowhere.  I had the great privilege of serving with him at the church for several years before making my move to Elim Fellowship in 2011. Josh is an outstanding communicator & leader, and certainly understands a thing or two about change!

“When you are through changing you are through!” –Bruce Barton

Change is a healthy necessity in every area of our lives. Marriages, friendships, businesses, churches, governments, even TV sitcoms, all require a steady diet of change in order to remain or become healthy.

Though few people would disagree with that statement, ALL of us resist change on some level. There is a reason for this. Meaningful change comes with a very real price tag.

“The place between where you are and where you want to be is a painful decision you are either willing or unwilling to endure.” –Samuel Chand

“There is no such thing as a great victory at bargain prices.” –Gen. Eisenhower

“Not all hurt is harmful. Much of it is beneficial and necessary.” –Dr. Henry Cloud

My prayer is that you and I will make the painful choices necessary to lead wisely and courageously into the future God has planned for each of us.

A pastor once told me a long-standing family left his church because of the new colors painted on the walls in the sanctuary. Upon further investigation I discovered a few things about the church. First, change didn’t happen often. Second, when it did happen, it was almost always a surprise. Finally, the pastor was overjoyed by the recent departure of this particular couple. It seems they played a substantial role in the first point above.

As a ministry coach it’s my job to recommend change. Nobody really asks for my input unless they see change in the mix. However, quite often we just aren’t ready for the repercussions. The fact is, properly rolling out change takes a lot of communication & time – as well as a good measure of wisdom.

In his book, Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code, Samuel Chand bottled up the ‘Diffusion of Innovations‘ theory into an easy to understand application for the local church. In essence, it summarizes the general distribution of ’embracers’ to change in your congregation. Used wisely, this information can become a valuable asset when rolling out almost any change. Enjoy.

• Excited Embracers (2% of group)
  They are the dreamers and visionaries who are usually recognized as leaders or policymakers.

• Early Embracers (18% of group)
  They are respected and influential, and they eagerly get on board when the concept is explained. Leaders treasure these people on their teams.

• Middlers (60% of group)
  They feel more comfortable with the status quo, and they listen carefully to anyone who resists change. They are willing to get on board only when they are convinced that everybody else will, too.

• Late Embracers (18% of group)
  They resist change as long as possible, offering objections all along the way. Eventually, they will go along with the majority, but with a large measure of skepticism and without any enthusiasm at all.

• Never Embracers (2% of group)
  They are steadfastly committed to the past, and they continue to resist change long after the rest of the team is working hard to achieve success.

What does this model suggest to you regarding HOW to roll out change in the church?

I just finished reading Jim Collins’ book entitled, “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies”. My heart and passion is that the local church would truly emulate that title and be visionary organizations that reach the world for Christ with longevity and strength.  I was particularly interested to read this about visionary organizations from the book:

“Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and – quite literally – accident. What looks in retrospect like brilliant foresight and preplanning was often the result of ‘Let’s just try a lot of stuff and keep what works.’”p.9

If you attended the Elim Fellowship May Leadership Conference a few weeks ago, you’ll remember our keynote speaker, Mark Batterson, encouraged us to try new things at our churches & ministries, and call them ‘an experiment’.

Where do you need to break the mold (or kill the cow) and try something new this summer or fall?

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are ‘affiliate links.’ This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR Part 255: ‘Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” 

Are you a visionary person? Is your church a visionary church?

According to author, Jim Collins in his widely acclaimed book, ‘Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies‘, if you don’t have a drive to constantly improve, you are probably not a visionary leader. 

Harsh, but very possibly true. In this day and age, if we aren’t willing and able to self evaluate on a regular basis, we’ll be left behind. Here’s what Jim says on page 84:

In a visionary company, the drive to go further, to do better, to create new possibilities needs no external justification. Through the drive for progress, a highly visionary company displays a powerful mix of self-confidence combined with self-criticism. Self-confidence allows a visionary company to set audacious goals and make bold and daring moves, sometimes flying in the face of industry conventional wisdom or strategic prudence; it simply never occurs to a highly visionary company that it can’d beat the odds, achieve great things, and becomes something truly extraordinary. Self-criticism, on the other hand, pushes for self-induced change and improvements before the outside world imposes the need for change and improvement; a visionary company thereby becomes its own harshest critic. As such, the drive for progress pushes from within for continual change and forward movement in everything that is not part of the core ideology.

When is the last time you gave a good solid look at your Sunday morning experience, the worship, perhaps even your Sunday message? (Check out my services page if you’d like some help on that!) I dare/challenge you, this week, to write down just ONE area that you know needs to be evaluated, discussed and challenged to improve in your church. Please, please, pick something critical and important. The top four recommendations I would pick for you would be (1)worship, (2)message, (3)preschool ministry, (4)guest experience.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This past year I noticed something fascinating about my personal influence with others. I have a reputation among my friends & colleagues for being very efficient and productive. When I stumbled across a new tool for managing tasks, projects & people I naturally shared my find with those around me. I sent a few emails, wrote a couple of posts and engaged in some personal conversations about it.

None of that is fascinating. 

What is interesting to me has been people’s response. A lot of people have already incorporated this tool into their own lives, and have also become evangelists for it.

Today I was doing some research and stumbled across a term called “Opinion Leadership“. An opinion leader has a much stronger chance to influence those around him than others, because people hold his opinion in high regard for some reason, in this case because of my expertise in productivity.

It begs the question, “Who are the opinion leaders at your church?”

Understand, an opinion leader is not the same thing as a leader. It’s possible they have influence because of a competence, but it’s just as possible their influence is related to their outstanding character, history in the church, position in the community and more. In fact, it may be that a positional leader in the church has little true influence with the congregation compared to an opinion leader.

The opinion leader is most certainly someone to invest time getting to know. He or she will play a big role in encouraging or discouraging whatever new initiative you are attempting to roll out to the congregation. One of the most strategic activities you can do is to identify your opinion leaders and include them in your new initiative, in some way, early on. The more likely that they grab hold of your vision, the more likely others will adopt it as well.

What are you doing to strengthen your relationship with the opinion leaders at your church?

photo credit: jurvetson via photopin cc