Change is never easy for people. However, a good leader knows that change is in incredible tool to increase Kingdom fruit and effectiveness (see John 15:2). Previous blog posts have explained the behind the scenes reorganization we’re going through at VALLEY Christian Church this summer (HERE). As we’re beginning to make some prayerful, God given, conclusions about the future direction of our church (for the next five years), the time now starts to communicate changes to all the leadership and ultimately, the whole church family. In my opinion, this is where many leaders/pastors make huge mistakes and actually jeopardize their future plans before they even get off the ground. Here is an approach for communicating change that I learned several years ago. It has helped me immensely in leading through changing times.
1. Meet with smaller groups of influencers first (and walk them through steps 2-5).
2. Explain the current ministry system
3. Explain the challenges the current ministry system creates
4. Explain your vision for where you want to take the ministry and how the new ministry system will make that vision a reality.
5. Explain the advantages of the approach.
Take this approach about 20x with smaller groups of people before ever thinking about sharing the changes with the whole church. By using this approach, when the time comes to “go public” with the new plans, about 80% of the church will already be on-board, nodding their heads and ready to start!
