Worship Weblog

Alban Weekly on 'Leading in a Culture of Change'

Posted by cicw

Monday, May 4th, 2009

From Alban Weekly:

If this approach to change were taken in a congregation, there would be no formal engagement in a step-by-step change process. Instead, these various elements would be introduced over time:

• The church board would take time on a regular basis to consider the dynamics of change in a congregation and the forces at work in the world and community that make traditional congregational approaches to ministry less effective than they once were. (For example, the board in the congregation I serve has taken a half-hour at the beginning of each of its meetings to explore issues related to change.)
• The pastor would begin to introduce concepts that underlie a vision for the congregation. (I began talking about being a disciple-forming community in my discussions with the search committee members, and when I discovered that this concept resonated well with them, I began to talk about it more frequently and more broadly after beginning as pastor.)
• The congregation would begin to engage in specific actions that affirmed the vision and began to actualize it. (As part of our worship, we have begun regular commissioning services, which acknowledge the ways church members are living out their lives as disciples and pledge the church’s support to them in that effort.)
• Conversations among church leaders would formalize a new understanding of the congregation’s purpose and vision. (We used the development of a new church brochure that explains how we seek to be a disciple-forming community.)
• The congregation would begin to address issues of its life and ministry from the perspective of its developing understanding of the vision for the future to which God is calling it. (This concern enters the discussion as we talk about which Sunday school curriculum would work best for us, how to make visitors feel more welcome, and how we develop the annual budget. Virtually every decision we need to make can be viewed from the perspective of being a disciple-forming congregation.)
• Leaders would take every available opportunity to discuss issues related to change and vision. (I make reference to this emerging vision in sermons regularly and have developed a number of brief phrases that others in the congregation use to reinforce their own understanding of the new direction in which we are moving.)

continued…

Tags: albanweekly, change, communities, congregations, pastors