During my undergrad studies I took numerous management classes and often our class discussions would be centered around the importance of being flexible and nimble in business. We would go through numerous case studies of businesses that were once at the top of their industry, and after 10 years of remaining stagnant (without change in structure or approach) they began struggling to compete with other businesses.
The connections to the local church on this topic are numerous. Granted, churches aren’t competing against other churches to retain the most people. But if eternity is at stake and businesses are constantly changing and adapting to stay at the forefront, why shouldn’t churches?
The goal with churches isn’t to be at the forefront of their industry, but it is to effectively step into people’s lives with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Tony Morgan shared this on his blog yesterday:
“Leaders have to choose between control and innovation. You can’t have both. You can define the desired outcomes. You can create the boundaries, but you can’t expect your team to be creative, innovative or artistic if you try to control every element of the execution. If you must have full control, you just need to know that you are also choosing to shut down new ideas and innovations in your organization.
Unfortunately, the Church is notorious for religiously keeping things the way they’ve always been but hoping we’ll somehow achieve different results. Avoiding new approaches. Top-down, centralized leadership. Preserving the traditional ways of doing things. Sound familiar?” (full post here)
Churches are well known for being slow to change. After growing up as a PK (Pastor’s Kid), now attending seminary, and working at a church, I find myself accepting this about the local church.
But the reality is, when I am honest with myself, everything in me wants to fight the idea that it ok for churches to be stagnant and slow to change.
I can give you two principles that almost always hold true:
- What used to work, does not work anymore.
- If you aren’t changing, you’re falling behind.
Why is it that churches do a great job of ignoring those two principles?
Pingback: Friday Feeds | Consuming Worship()