Honeysett on Leading Change

What do leaders bring to the table to help put the supremacy of God at the heart of all church life and church activities?

1. The leader's life. This is the big different and addition to secular leadership models. In the world we incentivise change with remuneration. In the church we do it with godly role modelling. Timothy and Epaphroditus are used in Philippians 2 as the examples of godly discipleship and behaviour. Paul is unafraid to say "follow me as I follow Christ." The most important element in what a change-bringing leader does is what is that leader like?

2. Aligning motives to Christ. Our identity is deeply rooted in Christ. "I no longer live but it is Christ who lives in me." Unless leaders and congregation are saying a whole-hearted amen to that then change to bring motives in line with Christ is impossible. There are two key elements in such aligning of motives:

(a) a clear view of Jesus in the Bible; of what he calls us to to do; a deep desire to humble ourselves and do what he does. Because a willingness to accept the cost of carrying the cross means we have already accepted the sacrifice that change requires

(b) a clear view of other people - especially leaders - who are sacrificially following Christ on whom we can model our discipleship

3. Clear discernment. Leaders bring analysis of the situation that is readily graspable

4. A knowledge of the means at the churches disposal to bring change, and to bring it positively rather than negatively

5. Good communication of vision so that there is a growing sense of stakeholding and teamwork. This is hard when people have been allowed to join the congregation with no sense of team or purpose, no connection to vision and values

6. An ability to structurally organise the church around vision. It is no good for a church to have a great mission statement but assume that it just happens because we have a good mission statement. No, we have to organise around the mission statement for it to have any concrete reality

7. An ability to apply the consequences of vision to every area of church life, evaluating every area according to vision. This is usually the stumbling block because you have to introduce evaluative processes to an informal culture which isn't used to them. And you will need to stop doing things that don't meet the vision, but those things will be emotionally important to some people in the church

Honeysett on Change

I think of the change-making leader as the one who:



* Deals in core motivations, helping the congregation align their motivations to Christ and Christ's purposes
* Clarifies present and future need with biblically-driven future vision
* Helps others understand and embrace godly opportunity through clear communication
* Focuses cooperative teamwork with enthusiasm and joy in God
* Smooths transition with wisdom and the affection of Christ
* Absorbs angst with prayerfulness, compassion and kindness, minimising future distress

Honeysett on Change

Spiritual leadership is NOT the same as other organisational leadership. That is not to say we don't have a lot to learn from secular leadership models and theory, but those models will only take us so far.

Spiritual leadership involves knowing what God wants for his people in his local church, using God's methods to get them there, relying on God's power to do it. Therefore the process of change and the methods of initiating change that are available to Christian leaders are not necessarily the same as in any other organisation.

Organisational change in churches starts with spiritual roots. Roots of godliness, spiritual perception and hunger for God. That is the baseline starting point. When we meet situations where it seems impossible to bring necessary organisational change because of the sheer degree of resistance, our first response is to pray and teach into these areas. Because gospel-centred change emerges from gospel-centred convictions about ourselves, about God, about the church and its purpose.

If you don’t believe that the purpose of the church is to declare God’s excellencies to a dying world, then any call to change it to produce that is threatening. If you think that activities are good in and of themselves regardless of any connection with glorifying God, magnifying him and drawing attention to him, then you will never be able to stop those activities or replace them with ones that do.

Unless the reality of God’s promises grip people they won’t adjust their lives to base all they do on them. Unless the grace of God in Christ is thrilling them, they won’t attempt new things with an attendant risk of failure, because they are content with the way things are.

Marcus Honeysett on Church Growth

The growth of the Kingdom of God involves constant change, by definition. A church that wants to be in exactly the same place in 10 years time is extremely complacent. It will atrophy. Leaders the the people who mainly expect to receive and shape God-given vision and direction for where the church and its mission should be in the future.

However all churches tend towards liking stability and predictability in their organisational life. Change is the biggest threat to the security. Therefore being able to lead through change is critical to church and kingdom growth.

I can think of 6 reasons why change might be necessary in a church:

1. Some area of church life, activity or witness is not as good as it could be. Some things may need to stop to allow the capacity to develop new ones

2. The church has distanced itself from the present. Any church that deals with the realities of its surrounding culture by withdrawal or avoidance is doomed to never speak the gospel to that culture. Far too many churches in the UK have decided that their ideal era is some time before the present. Every year that passes makes them a year more out of touch

3. The church has a wrong view of itself. For example they have become the inward looking pastoral community rather than a biblically outward looking missional community

4. Problems arise that need fresh solutions

5. A church becomes structurally set up to run favourite activities rather than to facilitate all the believers in living out gospel vision

6. Comfort has replaced kingdom growth. The church has become satisfied with the unchanging status quo

Whether a church develops for future gospel extension or concretises itself in the past will largely be decided by whether leaders are allowed to lead for change, and how they lead for change.

Tim Chester on Repentance

Trying to change to impress God, others or ourselves puts us at the centre of our change project. It makes change all about my looking good. It is done for my glory. And that's pretty much the definition of sin. Sin is living for my glory instead of God's. Sin is living life my way, for me, instead of living life God's way, for God. Pharisees do good works and repent of bad works. But gospel repentence involves repenting of good works done for wrong reasons.

Wiersbe on Leadership by Principles

Methods are many, principles are few. Methods always change, principles never do.

Ivan Illich on Change

Ivan Illich was once asked what is the most revolutionary way to change society. Is it violent revolution or is it gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. Neither. If you want to change society, than you must tell an alternative story.