I am finding that many ministry models are getting tired feeling. Some are getting reinvigorated. But most of our church cultures need tweaked or modified or in many cases re-done from top to bottom. Getting churches to go through a re-tooling process is one of the most treacherous processes we meet. After all we have convinced people that the way we do it is the best way to do things — and then we come along and say the model is tried and needs to be revisited.
The following are eight steps to tweaking or changing your ministry model:
- There has to be an urgency about wanting or needing to change. If this doesn’t happen in a group the leaks and onions look pretty good when the going gets tough.
- Build a strong coalition of leaders. Not getting the real strength of the organization behind you can cause things to fizzle out.
- Making the vision simple. If you can explain your target and call in two sentences you don’t know what you want or what you are talking about.
- Over communicate. 50% of the communication of a group in change has to go to the “new” way of doing things. Repeat and then repeat some more to make any progress. It can take three tofive years of repetition before a group gets the pathway down.
- Remove obstacles. If you can’t get rid of major blockers to the change and vision give up and go start your own church all over again. Change is too difficult to deal with cynics and nay sayers.
- Create short term wins.
- Have major celebrations of progress but not too often and make sure real progress has been made.
- Make culture not programs.
In another edition I will talk about building a church within a church or outside the church as a way to tweak a tired ministry model. But consider the above and count the cost before you set out on a strong change process.
