Leading Change in the Church - Lesson 14

The next is to empower broad-based action. Now, what do we mean by that? Remove the obstacles to the future state as best you can, structures, policies, processes that tend to block the change, the preferred future. Think carefully about structures and policies and processes. Give as much freedom as possible to make it work. Encourage new ideas and risk taking. Whenever change is upon us, that willingness to try things even if they don't work the first time through, creates a learning environment. What we mean by that it's okay to risk; it's even okay to fail, but let's learn from our failures, not just continue to repeat the failures, but to learn from them. I think that's a healthy risk-taking environment. 

Aim at 90% involvement to solve problems. In other words, the leadership doesn't have to come out with all the solutions to the problems that you face. Put these out before people. Encourage them to take ownership and to figure out how we're going to work through these things together. It simply means that we want to involve as many people in solving the problems, and as many people as we can, rather than holding this and controlling it so close to a small group of people. Enable everyone to act by providing -- remember the ARIA -- appropriate authority, appropriate resources, appropriate information, and appropriate accountability. 

As we enable others, as we empower this broad-based action, this change, this preferred state, begins to filter its way through the church. One thing I also might say at this point, when you're talking about risk taking, is the principle is leadership takes the blame; others get credit. Very important principle as we're going through change. Leadership takes the blame; others get credit. 

Now we're still in a change state here. Four, five and six, remember, are when the system's unfrozen and now we're changing. Number six is generate short-term wins. Firstly, plan for visible improvements, improvements that people can see, they can feel they can touch. You know, sometimes change initiatives are hard; they're difficult. People need to see those goal posts along the way so that we can get there together, and there need to be public times of celebration even in the process. So plan for and find visible improvements, things that you can brag about. Create the improvements. Recognize and reward those involved with the improvements. In other words, create opportunities for people to win during this process. So generate short-term wins. As I said, sometimes the goal is long term, so we want to make these goalposts along the way so that people can enjoy the gains that we're making and see those milestones along the way. Some churches call those spiritual markers, and I think that's a helpful church language that we can arrive at together along the way. 

Once we've changed, now we want to proactively be involved with refreezing. Now, again, remember Lewin's theory that it's going to naturally refreeze, but there are some things that we can do to ensure that this refreezes in the right form, if you will. The first is consolidate our gains. Use credibility from your wins. In other words, those markers along the way, use those credibilities to change policies and structures that don't fit the future. In other words, there are going to be some things that people are going to resist changing in terms of process. Remember, processes are less flexible, and as you start going through these changes, use those opportunities, use the wins to buy capital, if you will, within the church in order to do the necessary policy changes and structure changes that don't fit that future state.

Promote and develop people who can implement the vision or implement the future state. This goes back to our culture discussion. We want to reward the kind of behavior that's going to underline the kind of culture that God is calling us to create. So, promote and develop people who can implement this vision. 

This is an important one: Reinvigorate the process with new projects. It's kind of interesting, when you start a change initiative, sometimes if we stay too long in one space, people put all their energy into that one space, and one of the devices that can be used is create new spaces so that it continues to keep people moving and gives people the assurance that we're going to get there. Sometimes we make the mistake of stopping because we sometimes get that that feeling, oh, we just don't have this quite right, and in the change initiative, sometimes it's important to initiate new projects, even if the one that we're working on isn't shored up and perfect altogether yet. 

And then finally, anchor new approaches in the culture. Institutionalize the connections between new behaviors and church effectiveness. The way we do that is by the people that we choose to develop as leaders to carry the church into the future. That's the major way, is identifying leaders who can carry the church into the future under that change initiative. That's how we anchor the new approaches. And remember the five mechanisms, five primary mechanisms for organizational culture. If you remember these -- I don't know if you can remember these -- what we measure, how we respond to crisis -- remember these? -- what we tend to reward, how we use our resources, and what we model and teach. So if you go back to your study on organizational culture, those devices, those mechanisms, those handles, if you will, are the key handles to anchor these new approaches within the church culture. 

The studies would suggest that people become more open to change as change is handled well through these kinds of processes. If it's handled poorly, people tend to resist it the next time it comes around. So again, it's important to establish this kind of an approach that really lends itself to more effectiveness. There're no guarantees. 

I want to just conclude here by stating that, having said all this, there are probably in rare occasions times in which leaders are called to bring about change when all the odds are against them, and I think of Jesus himself. He instituted change, but he ended up going to the cross, and it looked for all the world as if he had failed. But it's about what happened after the cross that made the difference. There are great stories about people tackling change, knowing full well that perhaps their change, if all is equal, if the human factors are lined up, that the odds are just not very good that these things are going to happen, but they did them anyhow because they believed with all of their hearts before God that this was the right thing to do, recognizing that probably they will pay a huge price and a penalty for that. There are the rare, rare occasions where that is the calling of individuals, so I just want to say that as a final statement, because having said all this, this is hopefully a helpful way in most change initiatives to walk a collective through it in a God-honoring way, but there may be times when God is honored by taking the road less traveled and the path that that is unpopular. 

I preached at a memorial service of a friend of mine. He was determined to be an advocate of the truth, and I said at his funeral that he lived by the words, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” But he was also quite aware of what Flannery O'Connor was said to have added, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you odd.” And he was very aware of the fact and was ready to face the fact when his opinions and his initiatives in life were not popular. So, there is that place in which we recognize the need and take courage and face whatever consequences are before us, trust God. So, I just wanted to state that as we are closing this section. 

I have for you, which we're not going to work through, but it's a case study called “Drifting on the Wave of Change,” and I offer it to you and those of you that are taking this online, I want to ask you to work through this and work through the questions at the end, and think carefully about what the ramifications are in this unfreeze-change-refreeze process and how that might work out in this scenario. 

But let me just close our session tonight with a couple of final thoughts. One is there are some simple realities about change initiatives. They usually have three phases, and the first phase is ‘this is never going to work’; the second phase is ‘it costs too much,’ both in people and resources and everything; and the final phase is ‘I knew it was a good idea,’ and that's kind of the process that people tend to go through. 

The ultimate reality is that -- Steve Jobs made this statement, and Steve Jobs had his own problems, of course, but he talked about putting a dent in the universe. As leaders, we have this potential, and through change initiatives that are handled in a godly way and a God-honoring way, we all have a potential to put a dent in the universe. So it's personal. Are we willing to be used of the Lord to bring about a healthy change and to do the kind of sacrificing that’s necessary to make that happen? And so, we end where we begin. Change really begins with us, and as we are new creations in Christ, old things pass away, all things become new, it really is about me, and as we seek him in humility, we learn along the way, we apply these processes, and we trust him for the future.