The Church Leaders’ Guide to Leading Through Change
It is no secret that our world, our communities, and our churches are facing rapid change. Issues related to technology, globalization, immigration, economic instability, and racial unrest all affect the church. The Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study pointed out that adults with no religious affiliation grew from 36.6 million Americans in 2007 up to 55.8 million Americans in 2014. This means that almost ¼ of adults in the U.S. now state that their religion is “nothing in particular.” 1
The rise of a post-Christian culture in America is causing some church leaders to work harder and see fewer results. It is clear that pastors and other church leaders need to examine new strategies in order to reach a society that is growing to me more and more irreligious every day.
As many church leaders gain a vision of the future for their churches, they often run into a wall. Some churches do not change very easily. For some, the value of church is that it does not change. It becomes a sanctuary from the rapid changes in our culture.
Yet, for those church leaders who are determined to lead their church through change, help in sometimes needed in steering a new course.
Enter an unlikely mentor: Marshall Ganz. Ganz is the son of a rabbi and has had helped to lead social and political movements for decades. His chapter “Leading Change” in Harvard Business School’s Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice 2 provides some seasoned wisdom on the subject matter. I will outline some of the highlights of this chapter.
1. The example of Moses.
- Moses identified the change he wanted: freeing his people.
- Moses identified his unique capacity to make change: being an Egyptian Prince.
- Moses failed to solve the problem on his own: killing an Egyptian taskmaster.
- Moses learns that he must include God, his family, and his people in the process of change.
- Moses developed leaders by selecting one leader out of every 10 men, then one out of each of these leaders, and so on.
2. Leadership Practices
- Relationships are essential in leading through change.
“Commitment to a shared future and the consequences of a shared past transform an exchange into a relationship” (p. 532). Leading people who feel that they have a relationship with one another (peer-to-peer and member-to-leader) can make leading through change easier.
- Effective change requires that your people understand the “new story.”
“A social movement tells a new story” (p. 533). What is the next chapter in the story of your church? Is there an obstacle to overcome or a goal to be met? Leading a church through change means that your vision needs to be easily understood and communicated by everyone. This should not be underestimated. Ganz explains that “When we experience the ‘world as it is’ in deep dissonance with the ‘world as it should be,’ we experience an emotional dissonance, a tension only resolvable through change” (p.535). He later explains that “Fear can paralyze us…hope inspires us…solidarity (love, empathy) can move us to act (p.536).
This chapter goes into detail on how the leader can define the character, the setting, the challenge, the choice, the outcome, and the moral of the story. The value of good communication by the leader is explicit.
- Leading through change means devising a strategy
Churches are often under-resourced. They must be creative in developing a strategy to reach their goal. The illustration that Ganz gives is David and Goliath.
The starting point of David’s success was his courage (p.547) but more is needed. “David committed to fighting Goliath before he knew how he would do it (p.548). David’s motivation caused him to seek creative ways to reach his goal. He knew why he had to do it before he knew how he could do it.” (p. 548).
David defined his problem. He was a shepherd boy, untrained in warfare, matched up against a giant warrior who was trained and experienced in killing men. His solution was creative. “David did not know how to use King Saul’s weapons, but he did know how to use stones as weapons” (p. 549). David reimagined the battlefield. Instead of a place where men fought with swords, he imagined a field where a lion or a bear threatened his sheep. Church leaders need to work within their strengths. They also need to identify the strengths of their people. Creative thinking can sometimes cause a solution to be identified.
- Leading through change involves catalyzing action.
“Action refers to the work of mobilizing and deploying resources to achieve outcomes” (p.553). The key to this action involved getting people to make commitments. The phrase that Ganz uses over and over is “Can we count on you?” (p. 554). This may be uncomfortable for church leaders. Yet, how many times have church leaders complained that a leader forgot to show up, or canceled at the last minute? Ganz is crystal clear on his point “Securing commitment is thus the primary means by which social movements can get resources that they need to do their work” (p.554).
3. Structuring Change in the Church
I especially appreciated Ganz’s identification (via Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould) that time can be seen as a cycle (a daily, monthly, annual routine), but can also be seen as an arrow (which has a launch, a trajectory, and an end) (p. 556-557).
Leading a church through change can involve a “campaign.” A campaign involves 5 steps: a foundation, a kickoff, peaks (sub-goals), THE peak (final goal), and resolution (celebration and evaluation). Whether a church needs to raise funds for something (i.e. new building or additional staff) or has another goal in mind (relocation, becoming multi-lingual, or evangelizing the community) a campaign can be an effective strategy.
4. Leadership Development
Much has been written in the business world about shared leadership. In the church world, autocratic leadership structures are often the norm. Ganz state that “command and control structures alienate participation” (p. 559). He lifts up teamwork and collaboration in leadership. He encouraged teams to solve problems together by confronting conflict by proposing a process that involved these steps:
- Defining the problem
- Establishing outcome criteria
- Generating alternatives
- Evaluating alternatives
- Making a decision
- Learning from the decision (p.560)
“Leading Change” is just one chapter that might be of value to a church leader. The chapters on “A Clinical Approach to the Dynamics of Leadership,” “Leadership in a Globalizing World,” as well as several chapters on leadership development are valuable as well. While church leaders might not initially flock to a Harvard Business School publication, I can see great value in this collection of leadership wisdom.
1. http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/
2. Nohria, Nitin, and Rakesh Khurana. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice: An HBS Centennial Colloquium on Advancing Leadership. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2010.
About the Author
Stu Cocanougher
9 responses to “The Church Leaders’ Guide to Leading Through Change”
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A good post Stu. I find the concept of managing change easier than the reality. I have read several books on this subject (including Kotter’s very good book) and have written papers on the subject. However, trying to manage and lead through change requires the wisdom of Solomon and a good level of pain (change = loss = pain).
Oooh, good insight, Geoff! Change = loss = pain. The reality is hard.
I enjoyed Ganz’s paper also, Stu. It was sorta neat to find Biblical references in the book.
I tried to relate it to my church, “old growth” Dutch CRC. “Tradition” is king. We don’t want change. So I’m not sure even if our pastor wanted to try and change something how he would ever get it off the ground.
But I have visited other churches that have many programs and care groups and other things going on. I can see where the principles in the book might be really helpful if you are dealing with people who really do want to hear the “story” and be inspired and energized to work in the Kingdom!
(PS – Moses, David, Saul, and Solomon were leaders but all were human. They all had issues, didn’t they?”
Stu, It is interesting that people who follow a God that evolves. His method of creation changed. He first spoke then he was intimate with the creation of man. He didn’t heal people the same. He didn’t communicate with everyone the same.
Why are we as Christians leaders, fearful of change?
I love the cartoon!
“A God who evolves.” Now THAT is a theological can of worms.
Stu in reading your post it felt like I was reading a sermon series on leadership 🙂 I appreciated how to defined the various aspects of change and leadership. “Church leaders need to work within their strengths. They also need to identify the strengths of their people. Creative thinking can sometimes cause a solution to be identified.” God created us to be creative. The fallacy of being a leader is that we do not yield strength and creativity to others so that we can come to a more collaborative and effective solution. Diversity of thinking is important to the sustainability and growth of any church or organization.
“Moses identified his unique capacity to make change.
Moses failed to solve the problem on his own,
Moses learns that he must include God, his family, and his people in the process of change.”
Great to see Moses as a leadership model here. What do we recognize in ourselves that makes us unique? What are our past experiences, our wounds, our natural situation (family, location, etc.) that can be used as assets for a community to be changed? And yet… the recognition that we cannot lead change on our own; we must depend on others to support and effect change. I would add to that a danger that comes from being a leader “supported” by others, rather than being a leader that supports others to do the leading (leading from behind, as Christal suggests in her post).
This is good, Stu. I’m especially glad you pointed this out: “Effective change requires that your people understand the ‘new story.’” I don’t think we do this very well in many organizations, especially the church. We don’t make the people a part of the visioning process, so they don’t own it. We spring it on them as a finished product and then expect them to catch our excitement. One exception I have seen is with the Quaker tradition as I have experienced it from time to time. No change happens unless all hearts are clear.
“No change happens until all hearts are clear.” That concept is so different than modern leadership theory. Most leadership speakers/writers will tell you that when you try to make an organizational change, you will always lose some who refuse to make the change.