Church leaders are anxious for their churches to grow. Staying the same is effectively going backwards as congregations age, become more insular, and less flexible. Anxiety’s effect on our thinking narrows our focus and shortens our planning horizon. Anxious thinking makes us vulnerable to casting about for simple solutions that promise quick results. For example, just run this training package from a mega-church, copy this program that’s working across town, get in a bunch of consultants to diagnose the malaise.
Any or all of those options may be useful, but unless they address the underlying culture, they run the risk of just consuming time and energy with little sustainable outcome. Programmatic interventions sometimes promise cultural change, but by themselves are relatively impotent.
Culture is personal, based on deeply-held presuppositions that are rarely recognized and even more seldom questioned. Culture is reinforced by hundreds of decisions and behaviors that have often become presumed and habitual. People can undergo training, run a new program and read a consultant report, nodding in enthusiastic agreement while simultaneously perpetuating a counter-missional culture simply by their unchanged, everyday actions.
We may spend money, time and effort trying to change, and all too often find ourselves stuck in the same groove.
It is not unusual for gatekeepers to exert seemingly insurmountable influence on church culture.
Leaders have a disproportionate influence on culture. Such leaders may be paid ministry staff, members of a leadership team, or longstanding gatekeepers. It is not unusual for gatekeepers to exert seemingly insurmountable influence on church culture. Sometimes a pastor’s efforts at culture change are swiftly and elegantly extinguished by well-entrenched gatekeepers.
If this is sounding all too familiar, and you feel like giving up, perhaps you should. By that I don’t mean resign, I mean give up on changing everyone else.
The first person to make a searching examination of the way their habits of thought and deed impinge upon mission aspirations is you—whether you’re the senior pastor, an associate, a church council member, or a volunteer leader.
Thom Rainer studied churches that grow consistently by new conversions. He observed that their pastors spent on average 30 percent of their work time with unchurched people. Conversely they spent far less time than other ministers on pastoral visitation, administration and so-called janitorial tasks. If you are a church leader, what does your time allocation say about you—personally?
Think about decisions around allocation of resources like budget, staff time, facilities use. What cultural priorities do these decisions reflect? Are you prepared to thoughtfully and consistently take a dissenting position, even though you know you’ll get shouted-down, voted-down and maybe even taken-down? Remember the goal is not to change others but to clearly and courageously represent your thinking and your commitments.
Jesus advocated for a very different way of being to his surrounding religious culture. He called it entering the kingdom (his kingdom). He demonstrated his commitment to this new way by his choices, his priorities and his words.The power-wielders around him didn’t change their ways, but that was not his primary goal. He was defining himself and his values. In time those willing to change their ways joined him and eventually changed the course of history.
A missional culture can begin to take root when one person is willing to change their thinking and their behaviors, define themselves and their commitments, and hold their course in the face of the pressure from the prevailing culture to change back and stop being difficult.
Originally published by Pathways 4 Mission. Republished with permission.
Ken Morgan has worked as a consultant, trainer and coach to church planters, church ministers and denominational leaders in a wide variety of traditions across Australia and beyond since 1998. He’s currently the Head of Parish Mission Resourcing for the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. A graduate of Tabor College and Victoria University, He makes his home in Melbourne. Ken is author of "Pathways: Local Mission for All Kinds of Churches" and "Like A Boss: the Process and Privilege of Supervising People".
