Ohio Ministries News & Views

Managing Change & Transition

Below is an article I wrote a few years ago in an effort to help pastoral leaders understand change and transition, especially as they are played out in the life of the church.  Ministries are often made or destroyed by our ability to successfully navigate the waters of change.  Most congregations are either plateaued or in decline.  Translated this means they are dying and if they keep doing what they have been doing they will continue to get what they've been getting which does not translate to health and growth.  My hope is that in the article below that leaders will at the very least come to some level of understanding of why we resist change and how the smart leader will seek to lead through these difficult waters.  Most of the information in this article is from Managing Transition by William Bridges.

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All of us charged with leadership of the church struggle with bringing about change.  We all know that people resist change, and sometimes it seems that Christian folk resist it all the more. We who are the recipients of the most life- changing message the world has ever received often seem the most resistant of all.  In order to better understand the resistance to change in the church, we need to understand something about systems and homeostasis. Simply put, once an organization gets in motion, it tends to continue moving in the same direction. Once a system is established it tends to continue to behave in the same way as when it started.  Behaviors thus tend to get molded into predictable patterns.  The introduction of change interrupts or disturbs the homeostasis and thus the pull (like gravity) is to restore that state of equilibrium. A wise leader is one who understands that just as too much status quo can be harmful to an organization so can too much flux.  A successful ministry is one where the leader understands the continual tension between flux and status quo. For a ministry to successfully move forward, there must be a balance.

Organizational Rules and Goals

Within every organization there are rules by which the organization operates. The wise leader will understand there are three basic types or categories and that all three apply but some are more weighted than others.

1. Formal Rules. Typically these are things like job descriptions, contracts and bylaws. Formal rules are usually written and a part of the organization’s system of operations. They spell out how the organization operates and conducts its business.

2. Informal Rules. These are rules that generally are unwritten but that represent informal agreements. These are the spoken and agreed upon rules by which everyone typically agrees to operate. An example would be a worship board’s decision not to play the drums in the early service given the persons who typically worship in that hour.

3. Tacit Rules. Tacit rules, agreements and goals can undermine and destroy any ministry and attempts at change. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand tacit rules and agreements. Tacit rules and agreements are those “rules” that every organization has that are always unwritten and even unspoken. They are rules that everyone just sort of knows. The unwary minister who breaks one of these rules can potentially have his/her ministry destroyed or at least damaged as a result. An example of a tacit rule would be how one should dress for church. Another would be what kind of music or instruments are played in worship. Most persons just “know” these rules and agree to live by them.

The thing to keep in mind about an organization like the church, is that the minute any of these rules are changed or violated, the whole system gets out of balance and the system responds by trying to go back to homeostasis.  Therefore, the introduction of change when it breaks or moves against one or more of these rules is an upstream swim, a battle against gravity, with the system wanting to go back to how things were.  In every organization there are goals---formal, informal and tacit. The church, for example, may have a formally stated goal to grow. However there may be a tacit goal to remain small so the members essentially discourage outsiders.  An important reality to  embrace is this: Tacit goals and rules will always win out over formal and informal ones. Thus the reality of why it is so difficult to grow the church.

Change and Transition

God is a God of change. While He doesn’t change in His nature or His Law, He is in the business of changing lives. He desires, for example, to change the sinner into a child of God.  In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus even tells us to go into the entire world and, in essence, to change it. The pastor’s task in the church is to bring the church to where God wants it.  In order to rightly understand change, however, we need to understand the difference in change and transition for they are not the same. Below is a brief explanation of the difference:  Change is external and situational. It’s a new building, a new minister, a new service or style of service, etc.  Transition is internal and psychological. As such it is the psychological process that people go through to come to terms with the change.

An example would be a move from New York to LA. You are in a new house, a new job, etc. This is the change. A transition hasn’t taken place, however, until the new house feels like home, etc. A key point to understand at this point is this:

***Unless transition occurs, change will not work.***

For successful change to occur, the leader must bring people along and help them to transition, which ultimately leads to support and satisfaction. William Bridges in “Managing Transition” says, “It’s not change that does us in but the transition that people usually resist.”  It’s important to note that transition begins with an ending. We successfully transition when we finally are able to let go of what was.

Transition Steps

1. The Ending Zone. The ending zone begins when something is ending, when we are losing something. In such a time the wise leader will help the people identify what is being lost and why. Specifics are necessary. The leader must be as specific as possible about the change. The leader is wise to be up front and give as many of the details and answer as many of the potential questions and objections as possible. An important formula to know concerning change is this:  Change = Loss = Grief.

That is change brings a sense of loss and loss brings grief, which must be allowed to express itself. I have often said that grief can be delayed but it cannot be denied. Grief will always eventually have its way with us.  As leaders we must understand that for many change always results ultimately in grief.  As leaders we need to expect, accept and respect the signs of grieving in our church.  The pastor or leader can then seek to find ways of compensating for the losses by trying to give something back that has been taken away.

A key thing to do in times of change is to give people information---again and again and again. You can’t over communicate during times of change and transition. Define what is over and what isn’t. What will change and what will not? Mark the endings. Create activities that mark the ending of something. Treat the past with respect and never belittle what was. Instead honor and even celebrate it.

2. The Neutral Zone. The Neutral Zone can best be described as the land between what was and what is. It’s that uncomfortable feeling before the new begins to feel right. It’s that time when the old way is gone but the new way doesn’t yet feel right. To make it even more graphic, it’s that time when you feel like a trapeze artist swinging back and forth and you’ve let go of the one bar but you haven’t yet grabbed hold of the other. It’s that “in the air” time between what was and what will be.

The Neutral Zone is a very dangerous zone but also one that offers many opportunities. The temptation during this time is to run because you feel frightened in this “no man’s land.” That temptation often fleshes itself out as the desire to go back to the old ways or to go to a new church because of the fear. However, if you escape prematurely, you will not only compromise the change but lose a great opportunity.  The negative aspect of being in the Neutral Zone is that it is a scary and hard place to be.  The positive aspect is that it is a creative place that begs creative ideas.

Most people have difficulty in the Neutral Zone because we just want to go from the old to the new. However, transitioning isn’t like crossing the street but it’s more like the Israelites in the wilderness. It took Moses 40 years to get the Israelites ready to transition into the Promised Land. What this illustrates for us is that sometimes the old ways of thinking have to die out before a successful transition can take place.

To successfully work through the Neutral Zone every organization needs three different kinds of people:

• A Clarifier. This is a respected and beloved individual who can clarify and interpret to the people what is being done. This needs to be someone who has an ability to make things clear and understandable.

• A Comforter. This person is a nurturer who can stand with people grieving the change. This is someone who is a good listener and who has an empathetic ear.  They need, however, to be loyal to the leadership seeking to make the change.  Care and wisdom should be exercised in choosing this person.

•  A Confronter. This is someone who can confront rumor and innuendo and give correct information in a non-offensive manner. 

 These three persons perhaps along with others can form a Transition Monitoring Team to facilitate upward communication from the people to the leadership. This team can be effective in countering false information and rumors and be a group that the people feel comfortable in going to with their issues and concerns.

3. The New Beginnings Zone. We need to be mindful that “a new beginning” is a psychological thing. Most can get to this place if care and patience are exercised.  There’s a small percentage (usually around 10%) that will never successfully transition.  The thing to remember about this zone is that a new beginning can be fostered and

encouraged but never forced or coerced.

To arrive in the New Beginning Zone, people have to have four things:

• A purpose.  Why are we doing this? This must be explained clearly and in numerous ways and multiple times. This helps people begin to reason through the change. This is where we present the facts.

• A picture. People need ideas. They need help seeing in their mind’s eye a picture of the outcome. Visual aids are key at the point.

• A plan. Create a plan. Spell it out as succinctly and as detailed as possible. 

 • A part to play. What part will each individual play in this new beginning? This is essential to help people to have ownership.

In the Ending Zone the leadership needs to help people say goodbye to what was.  Identify specifically what they are losing but show them what they are gaining.  In the Neutral Zone you need to realize that you are not there yet. This is the time to resist the temptation to run or to go back to Egypt. It is also the time to use some transition management by providing a Clarifier, a Comforter and a Confronter.

In conclusion, why do we need to change? There are many reasons why but let me share but one.  It comes from a favorite picture that I possess of a sailboat on the ocean.  It is dusk with a full moon having just risen from the depths of the sea. The picture is titled “Risk” and beneath the title are these words. These are words by which I live my life and that drive my ministry:

You can never discover new lands unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Randall Spence

Director of Ministries

How To Lead Congregational Turnaround

As a veteran of thirty years of pastoral ministry, I was privileged to begin ministry as an associate in a church that was in a growth pattern in which the church doubled in size.  As a senior pastor, I led two congregations that had been in decline for years.  In the course of our ministry, God was to bless and both congregations experienced turnaround and dramatic growth.  Through the years many have asked me, "What is the key to turning around a declining congregation?"  In the article below I have tried to take a very complex subject and reduce to it's simplest elements what I believe were the keys to turnaround, at least in my experience.  I hope you find it helpful.

Randall Spence

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To take a church that is plateaued or in decline and to help it experience turnaround and revitalization is no simple matter, nor is it a matter of following a set of rules or steps.  While it isn’t rocket science nor next to impossible to do, it does require hard work on the part of the pastor and leadership along with an unrelenting commitment to do so.  It is not unlike swimming against the current as there is never a time when one can cease the effort. 

The primary reason every church plateau’s and eventually enters into decline is because in time every organization tends to turn inwards on itself.  That is, churches stagnate and decline when the focus becomes on the members rather than on those outside.   When the primary ministry question becomes, “What ministries best meet the needs of my family and me?” rather than, “What ministries will reach people estranged from God and bring them to faith in Him?” then that church has begun to travel on a downward slope whether they know it or not.  Anytime the membership becomes the primary focus of the church’s ministry, that church is on the road to death.

What is described below is not an attempt to reduce that which is complex and unique to every situation into a simplistic formula.  Rather it is an attempt to take my personal learnings from having led two congregations in turnaround and reduce it to some simple principles that I believe need to happen and in the order given.  This is one pastor’s experience that has been informed not only by that experience but that of others as written in books and articles.  I’ve tried to be an apt learner as I’ve asked the question, “What does it take to turn a plateaued or declining church around and for that church to experience revitalization?”  Below are my conclusions:

The Plan & the Priorities

1.  The critical first step is that the pastor must clearly see his/her need for personal transformation and the congregation’s need for the same.  John Maxwell, Robert Quinn and others tell us that a changed organization begins with a changed leader.  All organizational change begins in the leader.  Until the pastoral leader is convinced that the Great Commission forms the marching orders of the church, we will go about church business as usual simply tending to the needs, demands and expectations of our flock.  And unless our theology is that Jesus is “the way” and the only way to God and that lost people are doomed to an eternity apart from God, we will lack the evangelistic zeal necessary and the fire in our bellies to do the hard work of transformation.

Os Guinness writes of meeting a Chinese businessman.  In the course of the conversation the man said to Guinness, “When I meet a Buddhist monk, I meet a holy man.  When I meet a Christian minister, I meet a religious manager.”  All too readily we move from being a “holy man/woman” to a “religious manager.” 

2.  The pastor as the spiritual leader must define and enunciate the congregation’s reality.  If the congregation is plateaued or in decline, he/she must help them see this and come to the conviction that this state is not acceptable to God and that if not corrected will eventually lead to death.  It has been said that the chief task of leadership is to define reality.  If so, the pastoral leader must define that reality and create a sense of crisis and urgency.  This can be done through sermons, in board meetings, and in congregational planning sessions.  Jim Collins says that great organizations and leaders are those willing to face the brutal facts of their realities while not succumbing to them. 

3.  The pastor must lead the church in doing things to create momentum.  One of the laws of science tells us that the most difficult part of getting an object moving is breaking inertia.  It takes far more energy to do so than to sustain movement.  If there is movement in the congregation in a negative direction, it takes all the more effort to stop the negative direction and to get the object moving in a forward direction.  Here it is important to help the congregation begin to feel different about itself by getting a few small wins under their belt.  Critical to transformational change is helping the people believe they can change and then in leading them to do so.  I suggest starting this whole process through sermons in which the possibility of a new day is expressed and followed up with a visioning day or two in which anyone interested in the congregation’s future is invited to come and participate.  The goal for this day is simple—to create an action step or two the congregation can take in order to alter its current reality and to create momentum.

4.  Three teams should be created---a Visioning Team, a Prayer Team and an Implementation Team.  The task of the Prayer Team is to pray that the Lord would give the church a new burden for reaching out beyond its walls to people who are disconnected to God and to ask for guidance in the whole visioning process.  The prayer’s focus should be on the congregation once again returning to its first love and to becoming attuned to the heartbeat of God and to winning people estranged from God.

The Visioning Team’s task is to dream and to strategize together what God would have them do to reach lost and disconnected people.  In the language of Henry Blackaby, the intent here is not simply to create activity but to discover where God is at work in His world and to join Him there. 

The Implementation Team’s task is to help in the implementation of the things the congregation should adopt as steps towards turnaround. 

This could be a time in which to invite in Ohio Ministries for a Coaching Weekend.  There are several values to doing so.  First of all, outsiders can see the church as visitors see it.  Secondly, the coaching team will lead the leadership in identifying the congregation’s strengths, their challenges (weaknesses), and some initiatives the congregation can take to move from where they are to the next level.

In some cases all the above may necessitate putting in abeyance the sections of the congregation’s bylaws that speak to how ministry gets done.  It may also mean revisiting the church’s budget to place the dollars in those areas where it is needed to carry out the new plans.  Don’t make the mistake of creating plans for turnaround and then not funding it.  That is to set it up for failure.

An important part of this is for the pastor and the leadership to work with a coach in helping to implement the plan for transition.  There is great value in having an outsider who understands congregational turnaround walk with you as you seek to implement the plan to lead the church to obedience to the Great Commission.

5.  The pastor, leadership and congregation must make lost people the priority in all the congregation does.  This represents a philosophical stance, an attitude that must be adopted and that must prevail in the church.  As stated above, the biggest reason congregation’s plateau and enter decline is because the priority of the church becomes the membership and their needs and wants.  A trend in every organization is to turn inwards to serve the current constituency.  Knowing this to be true, and given that the members screams of “serve me” are loud and demanding, the bias must always be towards reaching those on the outside.  While the church exists for both the believer and the sinner, the bias must be towards reaching the sinner. 

As a part of this, it is necessary that the congregation embrace the attitude that the pastor’s priorities and theirs are to reach people for Christ.  An interesting study of church plants revealed that those congregations that grow have a pastor and people who busy themselves with inviting people to church and looking for ways to serve people outside the congregation.  Those church plants that have minimal growth have pastors who focus more on the membership and who are not busily inviting others to the church nor their members.  It’s not rocket science but simply a matter of the answer to the question, “Where is your focus---on the inside or the outside?” 

6.  The pastor must make sure the leadership and major stakeholders are with him in charging this hill.  To fail to do so is suicide.  A failure of many leaders comes from impatience and from failing to get “buy in” from the key stakeholders. 

7.  Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to reach new people and to assimilate them into the church.  This is where the Implementation Team comes into play as they seek to carry out the plan that has come out of the visioning sessions and the Visioning Team. 

8.  Make the necessary changes to attract new people.  This may mean things like cosmetic upgrades to the facility, service times, the kinds of programs/ministries offered, etc.  A bias should be towards reaching families with children and youth. 

Nothing good ever comes without a cost and endeavoring to lead a church through transition comes with a heavy cost.  Here are some of the kinds of costs involved in leading change:

What To Expect (the Cost of Change) 

1.  Resistance to the changes proposed.  It has been observed that the church is the most change resistant organization in the world.  In proposing change leaders must be aware that change will always bring conflict.  Every church says they want to grow but few really do.  We all want to lose weight or to get in shape until that demands that we push back from the table, put on the running shoes or to hit the gym. 

One of the questions I asked my people to ask of themselves whenever a change was proposed was this:  “Is this change a violation of my personal preferences and wants or a violation of scripture?”  I also taught them the adage, “Methods are many, principles are few, methods always change, principles never do.”  Our principles are the unchanging Word of God.  We don’t mess with the message.  How we package that message, however, must change.  That is our methods of presenting the unchanging message must change with changing times.  The problem with most is that they cannot distinguish between the message and the method.  As pastoral leader I sought to teach them how to distinguish the difference. 

2.  An exodus of people who cannot embrace the change.  While change will result in an exodus, if God is in those changes more will come than will leave.  Good and God fearing people can unwittingly become roadblocks to progress and to accomplishing change.  The pastoral leader and the congregation must adapt an attitude that it is okay to lose people.  Until and unless they do, they will always cave in to the demands or the desires of those who resist the change.  Too often God’s plan is thwarted by churches being held hostage to the preferences of a few.

3.  A cry to go back to the way things used to be.  We must be aware that change is physical and can happen in a moment.  Transition, however, is psychological and takes time.  For example, you could move to a new house tomorrow.  That would be a change.  Transition has occurred, however, the day you look around that new house and can say, “This feels like home.”  No two people transition at the same pace.  Some very quickly and readily while at the other end of the spectrum are those few who will never transition.  They will never get used to the change.

A good example of change and transition are the Hebrews in the wilderness.  The change took place when Moses led them out of Egypt.  However, every time they got hungry, thirsty or afraid, they railed against Moses and cried out, “Why did you lead us into this wilderness to die?”  Every pastor and leadership team must know that it is the nature of human nature to want to go back to what was even if that was not the preferred.  We human creatures tend to prefer the familiar to the unknown even when the unknown will be better. 

4.  The need for the pastor and leadership to stay the course and to keep pushing.  It takes time to create a new culture and it takes a mountain of energy.  Getting the church to keep an outward focus in tantamount to the fish that continually swims upstream.  It must be continuous and unrelenting.  It’s not unlike trying to overcome gravity.  The pressure to turn inwards never goes away.

NOTE:  Unless the pain of remaining the same is perceived as being greater than the pain of change, permanent and transformational change is not likely to happen.  

Randall Spence
Director of Ministries

 

 

 

The Plight of Mrs. Pastor

Pastor Stephen Collins posted on Facebook an article from the blog Church Whisperer by Blake Coffee.  Knowing the plight of pastor's spouses to be one of those things we don't often talk about, but also knowing it to be a real and needed topic to discuss, I reposted it.  It has drawn more comment than anything else I have posted to date so I decided to place it in our blog in the hope that many others will read it.  Several years ago a Christian psychologist who worked with many ministry families told me that often the loneliest person in the church, when the pastor is a male, is the pastor's wife.  Often she watches as people and the church devour the man whom she loves but has little or no recourse.  She often feels she has no voice.  The result is she suffers in silence.  And often in an effort to protect his wife, the pastor's response is to keep "the stuff" that eats away at his heart and soul to himself.  I find that most who leave ministry do so because this "stuff" finally bleeds the life from them and their only recourse for survival, they feel, is to leave the ministry. 

While this article is not one to enjoy, I hope it will be of some benefit to both pastoral couples and to the churches they lead.  

Blessings,

Randy Spence, Director
Ohio Ministries

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In raising daughters, there are the years when you have lots of say about who they see and who they do not see…and then those years come to an end and you learn to just keep quiet (mostly) and pray a lot.  For my own girls, I have been praying their entire lives that, if other men must come into their lives–and, alas, they apparently must–that those men would know God and walk with Him and be shaped by Him to love my girls well.

But in my most vulnerable moments, ones when my worldly anxieties creep in and I allow myself to have an opinion on the matter, if I am completely honest with God I probably have periodically thrown in an extra prayer such as, “…and God, please don’t let them marry a minister.”  I have my reasons.

I myself am a pastor’s son.  I’ve been around the church my whole life.  I have made a career of working with conflicted churches and counseling pastors and church leaders alike through those difficult seasons.  I have seen “up close and personal” the results of church fights in thousands of lives.  And of all the casualties of mean-spirited Christians and of all the lives and careers I have seen destroyed, the most helpless and defenseless (and typically innocent) of all is…the minister’s spouse.

If ministers have had any decent training at all, chances are pretty good that somebody along the way (maybe a seminary professor, maybe a wise friend) has warned them that they have chosen a difficult path, one wrought with mean people and disappointment.  So when trouble comes and I am counseling them and I say to them, “Welcome to ministry”, they usually know exactly what I mean.  They are neither shocked nor surprised.  But the chances are just as good that nobody warned their spouse of that.  When she married a man of the cloth, it  only reinforced her dreams of a beautiful family and lots of friends and a life filled with Spiritual rewards.

Then, when that young minister hits his first bump in the road, he comes home and shares it with his wife, who may or may not handle it well.  The minister then concludes that maybe he should not share all his difficulties with his spouse, that maybe he should “protect her” from that ugliness.  So she becomes excluded from it from that point on.   Or maybe he doesn’t exclude her at all.  Maybe he brings her through all the pain with him.  Either way, whether she’s in the loop or not, the loop ends there.  If she is in the loop, she cannot talk with anyone else about the difficulties and is left to watch her husband be ravaged by church people.  If she is not in the loop, she is left to her own imagination  to consider what kind of people (at her own church) must be causing her husband to lose his faith in the church.  In either case, she is all alone and is powerless to help.  It is an unbelievably vulnerable place, utterly defenseless.

If you think I am making this up or am otherwise not a good source for this story, then spend some time at Mrs. Pastor’s blog, which paints the picture better than I ever could…I don’t know “Mrs. Pastor”, don’t know where she lives or what church she calls home. I don’t know many details at all about her plight, but because of my ministry, I have heard her story a thousand times.

In my denomination alone, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of pastors’ wives struggling with  depression and even various addictions and other dysfunctions born out of their search for a place to turn for escape.  It may be the biggest problem which nobody knows about.  The happy life she signed on for when she married a man of God is suddenly a life of depression, betrayal, and unspeakable secrets.  Because that is an ugly reality of the church…it is filled…FILLED with flawed, broken people who behave badly and who desperately need the Spirit of God and each other.  Those people hurt ministers.  That is a fact of ministry.

So, here is what I am calling on you to do this weekend.  First, give your pastor a long, appreciative hug and tell him that you love him.  Second, give his wife a long, appreciative hug and apologize to her for all the pain your church surely causes her husband.  She will probably cordially deny that, but you know it is true.  Third, pray for them, that God will find a way to comfort them even in the midst of their difficult calling.

Oh, and one final post-script: as of the writing of this post, the men in both my girl’s lives have surrendered to full-time Christian ministry.  I love both those men dearly.  But if they change their minds about their career choice, I’m sure I’ll find a way to be o.k. with that too.  

© Blake Coffee

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.