Business Perspective: Successful organizations understand that innovation and change is their natural state.
Anyone who has an itch to make a difference in their local church can be an agent for change. No matter whether old or young, lay or ordained. Consequently leaders and managers of their churches must be vigilant to uncover and encourage those with the itch. They must also be humble enough to recognize that they are not solely in charge of change.
Church people seem to like stability. The reality is that if constant change is not happening in your church it is standing still or worse, dying, or dead.
This is not to underestimate the leadership and managerial difficulty of change. It is a challenging and frustrating process.
Most churches change and grow through a series of changes suggested by people throughout the congregation. This process often happens outside the formal structure of the church. Consequently these changes while important are not maximized profitably. It is important that the leadership of the church recognizes who is driving the change so that it can be nurtured and directed to fulfil the mission of the church.
Such change happens through a balance of good pastoral care and openness to a range of new ideas emerging sometimes from unlikely places within the church.
It will come as a surprise to many that the church has to change and adapt in just the same way as all other organizations. One of the best ways to see that God’s Spirit is moving in a congregation is to see how much adaptation has been made over the last five years. Another measure is to look at how many people have joined and to ask them why.
Too often clergy think that they are structurally bound to lead all change and they become frustrated when people do not respond well to their ideas. The secret is to gain the agreement of key people and groups and to make sure that everyone knows what is expected of them to drive the change into something profitable for the church. It is important to check progress at agreed times on the journey of change. Always celebrate success publicly, thank those who have profitably contributed while evaluating and learning from your mistakes. The process of change inevitably involves both.
Change agents can often be viewed by the leadership as ‘the awkward squad’, always complaining or disagreeing. Successful leaders recognize that all church members are potentially change agents.
A church committed to continual change is like a ship that has left the safety of the harbour and which has to navigate a way across the open seas to new destinations. The crew has to trust their captain and be willing to use their skills to get to the new place. The crew will be encouraged and willing to put in new ideas to make the voyage exciting with actions as well as with words. Too many churches are like ships seemingly stuck in dry dock waiting for something to happen. The reality is, they are never going to sail, and if they put to sea, they will inevitably sink.
For reflection and discussion
1 How is change understood in your church?
2 When did you last stifle a change initiative and why?
3 Who is responsible for change in your church?
4 What suggestions for change are you prepared to revisit?
Great Idea 10: Be Discontented!
KEITH LAMDIN
There are three essentials for every leader – discontent, vision and courage – all shaped by discipleship of the risen Christ and a passion for God’s kingdom.
Great Idea 11: Be Friendly with Science and Medicine
DAVID TAYLOR
You created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well
Psalm 139.13–14
Top Tip: Science should be regarded as a way of trying to come to terms with the world around us.
Business Perspective: Successful commercial organizations understand that customers live in many different worlds. Their product range takes account of the different experiences and needs generated by these worlds. No successful business would deny the existence of another world but would attempt to engage with it in order to increase profitability.
There are practical and theological reasons why we should be friendly with science and medicine. On a practical level we need to embrace science and medicine because they are part of the world in which we live. This is also the theological reason!
It is easy to see science as a threat, and faith as an irrational response to a rational world. In practice science is simply a way of explaining the rational. Most scientists would probably qualify that by saying that science is a way of trying to measure and understand things, as best we can, given what we already know. Very few scientific facts can be relied on as being absolute truths, but most will be reasonably good approximations to reality. So science should simply be regarded as a way of trying to come to terms with the world around us.
There is a tendency to try to polarize the arguments, by stating that science and faith do different things, and on the one hand that is self-evidently true. However, it is a mistake to think that neither has anything to say to the other.
Science can give us a much greater and detailed picture of the wonders of creation, and faith can respond to that with awe and delight. Faith, in turn, can show that some of the wonders cannot be measured in metres or kilograms but that the human response is actually part of the understanding.
The full picture only comes into focus when the two perspectives are aligned. We know so much about the creation of the cosmos which is exciting, as is the fact that there is so much more to learn about it. Without an understanding of the human place in the cosmos we would miss the full picture and risk damaging it irrevocably.
Christian understanding of the place of humans in the cosmos is shaped by what we find in scripture and through faith in Jesus.
There is a second reason why we should befriend science and medicine. That is because, as science and technology advance, we need to be able to help people think through the implications of the possible. This could be by asking challenging and thought-provoking questions regarding ethics, or by pointing out the possibility of unintended consequences. Of course, people of other faiths or none can and do raise ethical questions and point out moral dilemmas, but we have undeniable insights into what it means to be a person.
We can offer a really valuable service to a scientist or a clinician if we can sit and actually listen to the things that concern them. It often helps to have some understanding of the underlying science, because then the conversation is more informed. But it is also good if we just provide a listening ear for those with a burden and allow them to talk themselves through a problem.
In a perfect world, the relationship between science, medicine and the Christian faith would be a conversation, each informing the other, bringing fresh perspectives and shaping each others’ values and understanding.
That can only happen if we befriend science and medicine.
For reflection and discussion
1 How do you take time to celebrate the
