The Formula for United Change

Recently I was talking to one of my mentors, Mike Cavanaugh, and we were discussing the overwhelmingly successful transition our church experienced when he resigned as the founding and senior pastor for more than 20 years and handed it off to a young eagle, Joshua Finley. During that year of transition, our church of about 800 fully embraced every step of the transition. When we finally got together to vote in Pastor Josh, we were mildly shocked to receive a unanimous vote. Now, if you’ve been around the church world for any length of time, you’ll know that’s a veritable miracle all by itself.

During our discussion, Pastor Mike shared with me a formula that I’ve heard for a few years and which he has consistently used as a guiding principle whenever he has had to initiate change with his congregation. It’s a formula that will help facilitate united change.

Here’s the formula: Communication + Time = United Change

That’s it. Lots of communication, combined with lots of time, maximizes your chances for united change. Check out this excerpt from a book I read recently by Tim Stevens, called Vision: Lost and Found. He outlines how his church implemented a vision for a huge change, note how this formula so perfectly fits their strategy.

I started by identifying four groups that we believed we had to have represented if our vision process was going to be complete and inclusive.

Influencers – This included our entire staff and every volunteer leader in the church….

Participants – Additionally, we wanted to hear from all the volunteers and those in small groups, Bible studies, etc….

Attendees – We then wanted to catch everyone else who attended the weekend service….

Community – And, if possible, we wanted to hear from people in the community who did not attend our church….

I then recommended breaking our process into four distinct phases:

Listening – it would take us a few months, but we wanted to make sure we had enough time to hear from everyone who wanted to participate. This required enough focus so people knew we were serious when we asked the questions.

Drafting – It was going to be daunting, but we wanted to consolidate the dreams and visions of thousands of people and write an initial vision document that capture the heart of the {whole} church.

Finalizing – Then, we would have a few cycles where we would send the written draft back out to gain feedback. This would help us refine the next version so it was more concise and clear.

Communicating – And finally, we would agree on a final vision that would become our guiding document for years to come. We would then begin to communicate that vision to everyone who would listen.

With these four groups and four phases as our guiding template, we began a process that would result in bringing energy and momentum back to the church like we hadn’t felt in years.

How might this formula, and Tim Steven’s strategic plan, serve you in the new initiatives you are working on this year?