“It takes courage to be a change leader in the church. Opposition and resistance often come frequently and fiercely. But too much is at stake to do otherwise. . . . The choice is simple: change or die.”
Thom Rainer, in his book Who Moved My Pulpit?, couldn’t be more right in his statement here. The fact is, if there’s anything constant in ministry and in life, it’s change. (I wrote an article here on Leading Change in the Church).
When it comes to introducing change, your change initiative will face one of three fates:
- It’ll never get off the ground because it will be seen as a bacteria, virus, or foreign matter and subsequently be rejected.
- The change will happen, but because it doesn’t fit into your vision, strategy, and values, you will inevitably end up changing things again.
- The change will move you closer to the vision, strategy, and values that God has called you to embrace because you started with discernment by using the three steps for introducing change.
So what are the three steps for introducing change?
Step One: SWOT Analysis
The next time you or one of your team members comes up with a new idea, take some time before presenting it and run it through a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. This is a great way to systematically think through and discern the broader impact that these ideas will have, while keeping the unique DNA of your organization (vision, strategy, and values) at the forefront.
When you put every new idea through a SWOT analysis, you will discipline yourself and your team to design initiatives proactively around the strengths and opportunities that this new idea presents for your organization, rather than as a reaction to weaknesses and threats from inside or outside.
Step Two: Conversation Checklist
If, after putting your new idea through a SWOT analysis, you still feel strongly about the benefits that this will bring to your organization, the next step is to determine who you need to talk to in order for the new idea to stick.
List the key departments and teams, as well as the decision makers and power custodians. When introducing any change, it’s also important to consider how it will affect the influencers—whether or not they have formal authority—since they will play a crucial role in the success of the idea’s implementation. So be sure to list them as well. Also systematically think through who is going to be directly affected by this new change initiative, and how they will be affected.
Step Three: Team Idea Audit
Once you finishing listing everyone, schedule time to have a conversation with each department, team, and influencer that you marked as having a direct or indirect relationship with the new idea. When together, the focus of the meeting would be to collaborate on the idea and get their thoughts by doing a SWOT analysis together. Instead of sharing your SWOT analysis with them, do a new one together with each point person. Help them answer each quadrant by thinking through how the idea will affect their team.
Once you complete step three, and you feel that moving ahead with this idea is best for your organization, then finish this three-step process by writing out your next steps for today, next month, in three months, in six months, and a year from now.
These steps to discerning whether or not you want to begin the change process are important on a few levels.
- First of all, they are a practical way to evaluate new ideas that will cause change in the church
- Second, they provide a process to evaluate the extent to which those new ideas—take the five micro-shifts presented in No Silver Bullets as an example—will work in your church
- Third, and most important, this approach ensures that you filter every new idea through the vision, strategy, and values of your church
But there’s one question that’s begging to be asked. What are your church’s vision, strategy, and values?
Unless they capture the DNA of your church, in a manner unique from every other church in your area, you will not be able to successfully implement any lasting change.
If you’re interested in seeing and grabbing a copy of my SWOT Analysis Template, Conversation Checklist, and Ministry Area Idea Audit, see chapter six of my book, No Silver Bullets. That’s the chapter in which this article was adapted from. And chapter seven is where you’ll learn how to discover and unpack your church’s vision, strategy, and values.