Resistance
to change comes due to a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include
fear, tradition, lack of confidence in people, focus, timing, ignorance, and
faithlessness. People fear the unknown and change brings with it the
unknown. Questions are raised as to what will we be like in the
future? How will my role change as a leader or lay person? Leaders
initiating changes must be intellectually ready to answer any question that
might come their way. Tradition is another reason people are
resistant to change. In his book, “The Purpose Driven Church”, Rick Warren quotes Ralph
Neighbour as saying that the seven last words of the church are, “We’ve never
done it that way before.” This statement oozes with tradition and has been
spoken in thousands of churches across America and the world. When a church
immortalizes a building, a program, past leader, or several other
things, it has committed a grievous sin of epic proportion. I say
this because the mind has been set and positive change will almost surely not
happen and the church will die! Change is not a naughty word!  God is
in the business of change. He changes lives, people’s situations, minds,
hearts, and I could on and on. So why does the church think that change is
a dirty word?

 

In
“Strategies For Change”, Lyle Schaller asks a question, “What is the
number one issue facing Christian organizations on the North American continent
today?” He answers that question this way, “The need to initiate and
implement planned change from within an organization. That is the number
one issue today for most congregations…” Schaller begins this book
comparing covenant community to a voluntary association as to which is more
effective in the change process. Most churches will fall into the
voluntary association category. These churches for the most part are those
that started with the purpose of being a community of believers that had a
common purpose of reaching others. Through the years, that group has
evolved into one that relies on committees, congregational rule, pot lucks,
placement of untrained or wrongly gifted individuals in leadership
roles. They have became a maintenance organization, maintaining the status
quo, making sure the boat is never rocked, thus change rarely occurs. A
covenant community is at best opposite of the voluntary association. These
people have a purpose, they have goals, and they know how to get where they are
going. They usually rely on a board of elders, of which the pastor is the
head elder. Many of the changes and decisions are made by this board,
eliminating the bureaucracy that slows down the process of change. They
more often than not are lead by a benevolent dictator, a leader who
leads. His motto could very well be, “lead, follow, or get out of the way!”

If a pastor wants to raise the hair on the elders of the
church, try changing the music. It has
to be the most hotly contested area for change in churches across America. You can change the constitution of the church more easily than you can
change the music program. It is said
that Spurgeon often referred to his music department as the war department. Others will fight change even if it is
something as simple as moving a class to another room or changing the order of
service. As mentioned earlier, change
means doing something we have never done before and being afraid of the
possible consequences. People get too
hung up on form rather than substance and when this happens the ministry
possibilities for the Lord pass us by.

 

The best place for change to start is not with the other guy
or with the other program, but with me. If I do not allow myself to be changed, then I haven’t learned a thing
from college course or the books I have read. If I am going to be a change agent or an implementor of change, I must
have my heart, my programs, and my life changed in order to lead people to
change.