Change is hard. We all know this. We’ve all experienced this. It removes what we’re used to and replaces it with something foreign. It makes us uncomfortable, like a new character on a sit-com or our favorite restaurant changing menus. Change is hard (to do).
But does this make change bad? I am of the belief that a changing organization is an alive organization. When changes take place for reasons that are not arbitrary, evidence exists that the organization in question is responding to its audience. And in such scenarios, change is good.
I’ve been a part of a church community for the past 5 ½ years called Epoch Church. We are a small community, so changing plans or adding ideas is not as hard as it may be for a congregation of 6,000+. Nonetheless, we are not exempt from the difficulties of change. I was recently asked by my pastors to take a leadership role regarding our small groups. We are big believers in small groups at Epoch – we feel this is where life is most lived out together. This is where the most growth, relationship building, and intercessory prayer takes place for us. And while we have been fortunate to have a growing small group ministry, we also recognized the need to re-vamp.
The “Problem”
We realized that in our 5 ½ year history, our small groups have always run the same way. We gather, discuss the sermon from Sunday, pray together, and visit. This is pretty basic, and most small groups around America (at least) probably follow a similar format. We’ve never had an uproar of disappointment over how these meetings take place, but as a team of church leaders, we wanted to direct our small groups to be more life giving. We wanted to find out how our time together could be more dynamic. How people could be more mentally and spiritually stimulated. How our small groups could make a greater impact on our church community and our downtown Little Rock community.
The Process
Immediately after being asked to spearhead our small groups, I met with each small group leader to hear their ideas. I spoke with other participants who weren’t necessarily leading a small group, but cared about the direction in which they were headed. The feedback received was much better than anything I could have come up with on my own. Some wanted small groups to focus more on evangelism. Others wanted to incorporate more education on missions. Several expressed the desire to do more service with their small groups as a way of teaching people that serving others is supposed to be a normal way to spend our time. And still some wanted to figure out ways specifically impact the SOMA district, the area of Little Rock where we are centrally located.
From these meetings, it was clear that our small groups could use some re-tooling. Great ideas came at us from great people. The next question was could we incorporate all of these ideas into our small groups – and if so, how? Something I was intent on doing was making sure our small group gathering didn’t become a burden on people’s schedule, so there was another wrench thrown into our planning. Organizational change, and specifically how to communicate it, is an interest of mine. It’s fascinating how easy it is to do this the wrong way. It’s way too early tell whether or not we did this the right way, below is the approach we used for restructuring our small groups and communicating these changes.
The “Solution”
The first change we made was to break-up our small groups in 10-week cycles, with 2 of those weeks technically being “off-weeks”. This fell into our idea of making the small groups more life-giving. We did not want a church full of overworked, busy people. We wanted to provide them with at least 1 night within those 10 weeks where they were free to enjoy time with a spouse, take out a hurting friend for coffee, get things done around the house, etc. The other “off week”, we will provide a corporate gathering for all small groups, such as a game night, community dinner, or other similar activities. The structure of “8 on, 2 off”, we hope, will give people both the ability to rest and to be actively involved in a life-giving small group.
The second change we implemented was the idea of having small group leaders incorporate 3 new elements somewhere within the 8 weeks of meeting together. These elements are: a night of internal service (serving each other), a night of external service (serving the SOMA district), and a focus on evangelism & missions. How each small group would implement these elements would be decided by them and their leader. Research suggests that people are more willing to adopt changes when they feel close to the policy-makers (Hartkamp, ter Hoeven, & Pieterson, 2008, p.14). We recognized that groups will feel closer to their leader than they will the small group pastor or church pastor. It made sense, then, to make groups their own “policy-makers” rather than construct a centralized policy for all to follow. With each group being made up of individuals with God-given passions, we felt the best way to cultivate growth and impact on our internal and external communities was by allowing each group more ownership in how they operated.
The final change was to focus our small group ministry on our church’s core values: community, authenticity, simplicity, spiritual formation, service, cooperation, diversity, and creativity. If these values are truly core to our church, they should be fleshed out in as many ways as possible. As a result, each small group leader will educate and remind his group with these core values when decisions are made within the group.
Final Thoughts
You’ll notice that 2 sections of this post have a word in quotations. To say that what were dealing with was a problem is a stretch. It amazes me how much the Lord has protected our church, despite our lack of experience, resources, and people. I’ll take problems like that any day – those are fun. For two separate reasons, it is also a stretch to say that we’ve found our solution. First, we only recently implemented these proposed changes. Over the next 5 months, we will observe the growth of our groups in number, in depth, and in outreaching effectiveness. Second, even if we conclude that we found a good solution for now, this will not be the last time we need to change things up. Organizations – churches included – “either change or die” (Beer & Nohria, 2000, p. 133). The church must engage today’s world, and society’s need for agility and the ability to embrace change is increasing (Grill & Carver, 2008, p. 3). The Church must offer the world something they won’t find elsewhere. Obviously, we offer the message of Jesus, but we must also offer opportunities for the world to meet Him.
References:
Hartkamp, M., ter Hoeven, C., & Pieterson, W., (2008). Resolving resistance: the role of commitment to change in public organizations. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 2008 Annual Meeting
Beer, M. & Nohria, N. (2000). Cracking the code of change. Harvard Business Review, May-June, 133-141.
Grill, Kristine; Carver, Leilani. (2008).Organizational change as sensemaking, not resistance, in nbc’s the office. Conference Papers -- National Communication Association, 2008
Showing posts with label Organizational Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organizational Change. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
How Great the Pain of Searing Loss...
This has been a tough week for me. Two of my favorite shows went off the air. Their series finales were shown on Sunday and Monday nights. I'm speaking of Lost and 24. No more Jack Shepherd. No more CTU. No more Smoke Monster sightings or digital tick-tock commercial breaks. No longer will I hear Sawyer's insulting quips, Chloe's ridiculously bad acting, or either shows uncanny ability to make me eager to get to the next week. They are done. And I am all alone.
Not really alone, per say. I'm actually one of millions affected by the ends of both. These are two of the longest relationships I've had with shows, both of which I began in my first year out of college. I've watched every single episode. I am fully invested in every major character, and it almost feels like losing someone who played an integral part of my life. Of course, I'm being dramatic. Life will go on, other shows will take their place, and each actor will go on to other projects. While I and many others will argue that there may never be a show like Lost or 24 again, it will be ok. We will survive.
It's incredible how hard it can be to lose something so ingrained in our everyday function. Either show was a normal topic of conversation among friends. Both contained thematic elements I'd casually reference with others whom I knew watched. One of my buddies even checked into his honeymoon suite under the name Jack Bauer. Now that these programs no longer exist, there will be an adjustment period for many. And this time I'm not being dramatic; literally, we will have to adjust to our new reality.
Change is a difficult thing. I say that as someone who welcomes new surroundings, ideas, and people. I don't typically like routine, I can't stand monotony, and I absolutely abhor life without progress. So while I enjoy change, I know it's not easy. In fact, change is one of the hardest things for churches to endure. Anytime individuals have a constant (nice Lost reference) removed from them, it regularly takes a while for life to settle down. Organizations are made up of multiple individuals, in many ways subscribing to a group-think mindset. Once again, the adjustment is more drastic because the change affects many. Because there are multiple types of changes that churches must deal with, I'm going to focus on one in this post: when one of your own moves away.
I hate losing people. It's hard when people leave over conflict or differing preferences or any other reason you could think of. But when people move away, its almost harder because they want to go to a new city or new job, but not a new church. They are sad and you are sad. And it gets worse if they are people who had many responsibilities in the church. I write this with someone in mind.
At the end of the summer in 2008, Epoch Church had to go through this very thing. We lost Justin and Robyn Bourlon, when Justin took a new position with Kraft in Rogers, Arkansas, located 3 hours away. They had both been there from the beginning. Justin had left a church he was attending to be a part of the start-up, and Robyn became a part of the church immediately after she moved to Little Rock. They become engaged and married while they were with Epoch, Justin headed up our finance committee, they were small group leaders, etc., etc. It was a hard loss. Oh, not to mention that Justin was and is one of my closest friends. Several others in the church were in the same boat as I was. It was incredibly difficult to have been such a big part of their lives, for them to be such a big part of ours, and to know that there were several roles that needed filling in a church without a lot of resources.
Soon after, a newlywed couple in our church volunteered to lead a small group. They had agreed to take the first year of their marriage to not accept other responsibilities and focus on each other. They reached their 1 year anniversary a month after the Bourlons moved away, and they recognized the need existing in their church. A few months after this, a new couple began coming to Epoch who had moved to be campus ministers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Several months later, our small groups expanded and they became leaders. Just before this, a recent college graduate named Sam moved to Little Rock and became active with Epoch. He was in the process of passing his CPA. Therefore, he was an obvious choice to lead the finance team. He accepted and has willingly served ever since. Flash forward almost two years since Justin and Robyn left, and we still miss them. We could still use them. But their absence led to a realized need among the community. People volunteered to take their place.
Do you know why muscles get bigger when you lift weights? If muscle fibers are strained enough, they tear. Through the synthesizing of protein, these torn muscles are rebuilt with the capacity to take on the load that was previously applied to them. Through this process of the body adapting, lifters get stronger. This is an accurate picture of what can happen in a church when volunteer leaders leave. Much like a pruned bush, a broken bone, or an over-worked bicep, churches can grow stronger through these instances. If Justin and Robyn had not left, who knows if that first couple would have stepped up to become small group leaders? Maybe Sam would have never been asked to join the finance team. The Bourlon's absence, from an organizational stance, may have been a positive thing because of the urgency with which people in the church recognized a need for more leaders.
Change can be a tough pill to swallow. But in this case, we clearly see how a young church had an opportunity to be strengthened by losing some of its key leaders. I am not suggesting that you should be happy when leaders go; on the contrary, I dread the next time I see a friend move off (or I move off myself). What I firmly believe, however, is that churches must view changes within their communities as opportunities to be strengthened. And if you've noticed, I have only focused on organizational structure - I've said nothing about the work of the Holy Spirit, who is far better at preparing us to embrace and grow during changing times than we could prepare for on our own. The next time your church loses someone crucial to its mission, take your time to mourn. Take your time preparing for what must be done to fill their shoes. But be excited over who will step up and carry the load. When a church follows God's direction, there is literally no limit to who He will use and how He will use them, and what He will accomplish with what He has.
In other words, change can be an awesome thing.
Not really alone, per say. I'm actually one of millions affected by the ends of both. These are two of the longest relationships I've had with shows, both of which I began in my first year out of college. I've watched every single episode. I am fully invested in every major character, and it almost feels like losing someone who played an integral part of my life. Of course, I'm being dramatic. Life will go on, other shows will take their place, and each actor will go on to other projects. While I and many others will argue that there may never be a show like Lost or 24 again, it will be ok. We will survive.
It's incredible how hard it can be to lose something so ingrained in our everyday function. Either show was a normal topic of conversation among friends. Both contained thematic elements I'd casually reference with others whom I knew watched. One of my buddies even checked into his honeymoon suite under the name Jack Bauer. Now that these programs no longer exist, there will be an adjustment period for many. And this time I'm not being dramatic; literally, we will have to adjust to our new reality.
Change is a difficult thing. I say that as someone who welcomes new surroundings, ideas, and people. I don't typically like routine, I can't stand monotony, and I absolutely abhor life without progress. So while I enjoy change, I know it's not easy. In fact, change is one of the hardest things for churches to endure. Anytime individuals have a constant (nice Lost reference) removed from them, it regularly takes a while for life to settle down. Organizations are made up of multiple individuals, in many ways subscribing to a group-think mindset. Once again, the adjustment is more drastic because the change affects many. Because there are multiple types of changes that churches must deal with, I'm going to focus on one in this post: when one of your own moves away.
I hate losing people. It's hard when people leave over conflict or differing preferences or any other reason you could think of. But when people move away, its almost harder because they want to go to a new city or new job, but not a new church. They are sad and you are sad. And it gets worse if they are people who had many responsibilities in the church. I write this with someone in mind.
At the end of the summer in 2008, Epoch Church had to go through this very thing. We lost Justin and Robyn Bourlon, when Justin took a new position with Kraft in Rogers, Arkansas, located 3 hours away. They had both been there from the beginning. Justin had left a church he was attending to be a part of the start-up, and Robyn became a part of the church immediately after she moved to Little Rock. They become engaged and married while they were with Epoch, Justin headed up our finance committee, they were small group leaders, etc., etc. It was a hard loss. Oh, not to mention that Justin was and is one of my closest friends. Several others in the church were in the same boat as I was. It was incredibly difficult to have been such a big part of their lives, for them to be such a big part of ours, and to know that there were several roles that needed filling in a church without a lot of resources.
Soon after, a newlywed couple in our church volunteered to lead a small group. They had agreed to take the first year of their marriage to not accept other responsibilities and focus on each other. They reached their 1 year anniversary a month after the Bourlons moved away, and they recognized the need existing in their church. A few months after this, a new couple began coming to Epoch who had moved to be campus ministers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Several months later, our small groups expanded and they became leaders. Just before this, a recent college graduate named Sam moved to Little Rock and became active with Epoch. He was in the process of passing his CPA. Therefore, he was an obvious choice to lead the finance team. He accepted and has willingly served ever since. Flash forward almost two years since Justin and Robyn left, and we still miss them. We could still use them. But their absence led to a realized need among the community. People volunteered to take their place.
Do you know why muscles get bigger when you lift weights? If muscle fibers are strained enough, they tear. Through the synthesizing of protein, these torn muscles are rebuilt with the capacity to take on the load that was previously applied to them. Through this process of the body adapting, lifters get stronger. This is an accurate picture of what can happen in a church when volunteer leaders leave. Much like a pruned bush, a broken bone, or an over-worked bicep, churches can grow stronger through these instances. If Justin and Robyn had not left, who knows if that first couple would have stepped up to become small group leaders? Maybe Sam would have never been asked to join the finance team. The Bourlon's absence, from an organizational stance, may have been a positive thing because of the urgency with which people in the church recognized a need for more leaders.
Change can be a tough pill to swallow. But in this case, we clearly see how a young church had an opportunity to be strengthened by losing some of its key leaders. I am not suggesting that you should be happy when leaders go; on the contrary, I dread the next time I see a friend move off (or I move off myself). What I firmly believe, however, is that churches must view changes within their communities as opportunities to be strengthened. And if you've noticed, I have only focused on organizational structure - I've said nothing about the work of the Holy Spirit, who is far better at preparing us to embrace and grow during changing times than we could prepare for on our own. The next time your church loses someone crucial to its mission, take your time to mourn. Take your time preparing for what must be done to fill their shoes. But be excited over who will step up and carry the load. When a church follows God's direction, there is literally no limit to who He will use and how He will use them, and what He will accomplish with what He has.
In other words, change can be an awesome thing.
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