Podcast Episode #124
SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play
Leading change is one of the most difficult things pastors and church leaders will do in a church. But it’s also one of the most needed things in many churches. So how a pastor or church leads through change will dramatically affect the results churches will have when changing. Today, we cover the five most common mistakes made when leading change. We also talk about elephants. Yes, elephants.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Many times, new pastors or leaders in a church make change before earning trust from the church.
- Communication is not just telling others what needs to be done, but listening to them as well.
- The more a leader listens, the more he or she earns trust.
- When leading change, there must be a sense of urgency.
- Bullet tests are often more beneficial in churches than a shotgun approach.
- Fear is the last thing you need when initiating change in the church.
The five most common mistakes church leaders make when leading change are:
- Failure to earn trust.
- Not understanding the right pace.
- Failure to articulate the need and the urgency.
- Failure to form an informal alliance.
- Not launching new initiatives as a trial run.
Episode Sponsor
Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church. Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.
Feedback
If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Autopsy of a Deceased Church.
Love the article, our church is in a transition from being part of a large church to being independent. One of our biggest challenges and from what I’ve learned from other deacons at other churches is the problem of lack of volunteers and it seems as though it’s the 20/80 rule ( 20% of the people do 80% of the work. I don’t really have a question just more or less looking for ideas to help with this.
Thank you, Dallas. We will be addressing that issue extensively in the first six months of Church Answers.
There was a book out in the last five years on the 80-20 rule in churches but I don’t find it on my shelf nor do I recall the author. Google “80/20 rule in churches” and you will get a number of references.
Hi Thom,
Good list. I’ve done all those, I think.
May I add one? Pete Drucker wrote that “the most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question” (The Practice of Management). Perhaps another mistake might be failure to fully understand the change that is actually needed?
Just a thought.
Thanks!
Mark
That’s a great add. Thanks, Mark.
Excellent insight, Dr. Rainer! Two excellent resources are “Sense of Urgency” and “Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea From Getting Shot Down” by John Kotter.
I love those Kotter resources! Thanks, Mike.
Troublemaker Memoir (Part 6): Live and learn the hard way
Thom Rainer nailed it when his blog this morning (May 15) itemized the five most common mistakes church leaders make when leading change. In fact, I made every one of the five mistakes—and just in this past four months. Let’s talk about each of them and what I did wrong as chair of the leadership team of my church. Maybe I can give some perspective, while showing a bit of humility, but not giving up to effect change in our congregation:
1. Failure to earn trust. I took the job as chairman after being in the congregation less than two years. The person who was in line for the two-year term had a job that would not permit the time it took to lead the church. The chairman of the gifts committee caught me after church last fall and asked if I’d take the leadership of the board—taking me aback for I didn’t know congregants well and they didn’t know me. Not enough time to build trust, in other words. Nor to earn it. Yes, I had chaired the study group that came up with a new vision and mission for the church, and that gave me a leg up, but that wasn’t enough to gain the confidence of everyone.
2. Not understanding the right pace. I admit, I’m a man in a hurry, and while I knew that major change needs to be paced out over time, and that leadership requires moving at the pace of the board, not at the gallop at which I wanted to go. So a proposal to bring in a consultant only three months into the year was just more than the board could accept. The other thing we did not do was to have the pastor do a sermon series on change, on the spiritual side of change, of talking about the first century church or of the lessons we could receive from the book of Acts. Gaining a biblical understanding of change and the urgency of making changes must come first.
3. Failure to articulate the need and the urgency. Management expert John Klotter in “Leading Change” makes the case for establishing a sense of urgency right from the start if change is desired. And he says, “Never underestimate the magnitude of the forces that reinforce complacency and that help maintain the status quo.” I did articulate the need for urgency, but more was needed. Downward trends in attendance over seven years was not enough to shake people to understanding what we needed to do in evangelism and outreach.
4. Failure to form an informal alliance. Being new to the church and the board, the smart move would have been to form a study group of five or seven “influentials” in the church to identify what changes were needed and how to go about implementing them or selling them to the board. That’s probably the most important approach to effecting change in a church. With a study group we will do that this summer—identifying the goals and changes we think important and then how to go about effecting them.
5. Not launching new initiatives as a trial run. Best to use the words “let’s try it for a while” or “give it a test run and see how it goes,” or words to that effect. Such as when you want to change the hours of Sunday services, or introducing a second service. Doing new things, no matter how simple it seems to you, threatens people, and they will back off.
Rainier ended his blog with these thoughts: “Leading change is one of the most difficult things pastors and church leaders will do in a church. But it’s also one of the most needed things in many churches. So how a pastor or church leads through change will dramatically affect the results churches will have when changing.” Right on, Thom, you got it right.
Great article. Can we share it with the Presiding Bishop and General Convention?
Absolutely. Thank you for asking.
Many of these mistakes are also secular management mistakes. What about the church where the need to change has been communicated clearly, a reasonable pace has been suggested but the resistance to change is almost entirely spiritual? What about when the elder board is made up entirely of the 1/3 resistant to change because they are spiritually stagnant themselves and they cannot conceive of what a spiritually healthy church looks like? Or where “legacy” families just swap out leadership positions with their own family members (ex: grandpa was an elder, dad was an elder, now the son will be an elder simply on the basis of family connections.)? How do you change people’s minds who don’t perceive the urgency to change no matter how many times you explain it (the mindset seems to be, “I’m comfortable and happy, how can you be so mean to say our church is unhealthy”)?