Leading change in a small church

I told our congregation recently that no one likes change except a wet baby. They all laughed because it's a funny line and because it's true. Congregations do not like change, and neither does the pastor for that matter. Change is often hard and always challenging. It's easier to keep doing what makes everyone comfortable, but this seldom leads to growth. People do not grow by doing what they've always done and neither do churches. When pastors serve a church that is change-resistant or has not experienced any change in a long time, what is the best way to proceed?  S-l-o-w-l-y.

This a challenge for me. Patience is not one of my spiritual gifts, but I have learned that anything important that needs to change in a church will take much longer than I think it should. Some pastors get too far ahead of their congregations which can lead to an early exit.

One important thing to remember when leading change is to start small and let the church get some wins under their belt. When that small change is accomplished, celebrate before moving on to the next challenge.

In my first church we needed to do something that would cost the church about $1,600.00. The church did not have that much money so we began raising the funds for the project. It took us a year to raise $1,600.00, but we were able to do the project. The congregation felt good about their success so we were ready to move on to the next project that needed done. Guess what, that one would also cost &1,600.00. We were able to raise it in about 9 months. Now we had two small victories that we could build on which we did. More changes were introduced into the church, most of which were successful leading to a more positive image the church had of itself.

Notice I said most changes were successful. Some of the ones we attempted failed, but because we had more victories than losses, those losses did not have a negative impact on the church. We were able to look at it as an effort to change something that didn't work without feeling defeated.

The second thing to remember when introducing change is to create a sense of urgency. Failing to create a sense of urgency is one of the major reasons most change efforts fail. There must be a reason for the change, and the more urgent the reason the more likely the church will support it. If there is no urgency, it becomes easier to put it on the back burner for another time.

Change does not have to have an negative impact on a church. When properly presented pastors often find their people are not as change-resistant as they might have thought.