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Church Champions Update ArchivesCHURCH CHAMPIONS UPDATE: IDEAS, IMPACT AND INNOVATIONThe weekly update for Church Champions edited by Dave Travis For the week of October 13, 2000 This week:
Why not forward a friend the Update today? On a longer plane ride this week I finally caught up to some of my random article reading files, so forgive the delay in getting these thoughts to you. The July-August 2000 Harvard Business Review has an article by Eric Abrahamson entitled "Change without Pain" that I found helpful. It is a common question around our shop, usually from pastors and church leaders: "Is there a way to change our church's direction/values/approach/relevance or similar word without blowing it up?" My common answer is no there is not. And then I get reflective and help them process this answer. These calls usually come from very bright, forward looking pastors that find themselves called to mature, slowly declining but stable churches. They want to see change and usually wanted to see it happen yesterday. The bottom line is that real change does require some pain and more time than one expects. However, I find this article encouraging as well as useful because of the language frameworks it established for looking at a change process. As I read it remembered several successful changes in churches that I have seen over the past 10 years. Here are the key concepts of the article. First, major change initiatives must be interspersed with periods of smaller, organic changes. He calls this approach "dynamic stability." Church leaders often want to implement swift, radical changes all at once. This often leaves a no survivors, all or nothing approach that can lead to the death of the organization. Abrahamson suggests that strong organizations and their leaders understand the processes of tinkering, kludging and pacing. The tinkering concept we can all understand. This is essentially changing a process or program that already exists in a way that is helpful to the organization. Nothing new is created. This is a small-scale change designed to improve an existing process. For example, in a church, this may involve a behind the scenes change to improve guest follow-up. Kludging is also tinkering, but "with a college education." It involves more parts. Some of these parts can come from importing ideas from other places. These are usually well defined, chunk changes. Think addition not modification. An example would be the addition of a new children's program, or a new worship service that does not replace what is already present. Pacing reflects the organization's capacity for change. Good leaders recognize "the early signs of change fatigue: cynicism and burnout." Abrahamson's advice is to keep the change coming but vary between kludging and tinkering at a pace the organization can accomplish. Here are three of his guidelines for dynamic stability. "Reward Shameless Borrowing" and invent only as a last result. Adapt what another organization is already doing. It doesn't have to be an organization in your field. "Appoint a Chief Memory Officer" means that we try not to repeat the same mistakes. I hear what you are thinking. "My church already has enough of these." Yes but sometimes they are not as involved in the change process. These persons can help church leaders from repeating past mistakes. "Hire Generalists" that have skills to tinker and kludge. Specialists always see the answer as their specialty. I know that churches can have some specialized roles to lead specialized programs. Abrahamson would suggest seeking leaders that have broad experiences so they can see wholes instead of parts. OK, you can find the article at the link below, but there is a charge for it. I think it is well worth your time. http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/ Just do a search by the author's name. That will get you to it. This is not to say that there are times in a church's life when truly wholesale changes are needed. Some need to die and be reborn. But I find those cases rarer than others. OUR PRIVACY POLICY There has been a lot of web talk in the past few months about how email is processed and handled. As I have told our readers before, this is essentially an anonymous list. Unless you reveal yourself to me with another email with your name, address, etc. I don't really know who you are. This list is also kept separate from any other Leadership Network list. You may have sent your email to our Leadership Network office because you registered for one of our events or receive some of our other publications, but you subscribed to this Update separately. Leadership Network does not sell its lists to anyone. This Church Champions Update list is only used for the Church Champions Update. If you are a member of our Church Champions Network or one of our other Networks such as the Large Church Network, the Leadership Training Network or the Young Leader Network, you may occasionally get another email from them about happenings in their networks. If you ever want off our lists, just hit "reply" with a message, and we will take you off. It's that simple. As I like to say around our shop, Leadership Network does not have customers, we have friends. We don't want to bug our friends but we do want to pass along good things as we find them. THE LAST TO COMMENT My boss, Brad Smith, a kind and benevolent soul of late who has been forbearing of my travels and shortcomings, (this is called buttering up the boss during budget season) shared with our staff the article from the current Atlantic Monthly by Alan Wolfe entitled: "The Opening of the Evangelical Mind." In the tradition of long, Atlantic Monthly cover articles it is an interesting tour of evangelical thought and academics in the year 2000. I didn't see a whole lot new here, but then academia is not my field. I did find useful a few of the paragraphs about postmodernism and see that as a good basis for discussion of postmodernism's impact on North American churches. I would love for some of you to read the article and send back your feedback. Some of you may even want to discuss it at our Church Champions Live Forums coming up in a few weeks. If you haven't signed up, see the note below. Here's where you can get the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/10/wolfe.htm While I'm at it, let me commend the Atlantic web site for putting related religion oriented articles in a side frame making them easily accessible. Plus they have an interesting forum discussion around these and other articles. Interesting reading. We all need a stretch now and then. BEFORE WE SIGN OFF FOR THE WEEK We will be announcing the new Church Champions and Leadership Network Calendar for 2001 very soon. I have included a few really big events below in our Update. In addition, there is still some space for our Large Church Forums to be held next month. These are concurrent with our Church Champions Forum. If you are eligible for the Large Church Forums, (Weekend attendance of 1000 or more), and desire an invitation, please inquire by calling our customer care team at 800.765.5323. Like Update? Feel free to forward it to a friend today. CHURCH CHAMPIONS FORUMS WEEK IS NOVEMBER 1-3 Location: Simpsonwood Conference Center near Atlanta, GA More details are on the Church Champions Web site at www.churchchamp.org , check under events. Applications are now being received for invitation for the following groups:
To inquire about an invitation, just hit the reply button or call 800.765.5323. YOUNG LEADER NETWORKS UPDATE CHICAGO FORUM -Sponsored by the Young Leader Networks and Christ's Church of Wrigleyville The purpose of this forum is to gather emerging leaders in the Chicago region (and beyond) in order to model and facilitate skills for effective ministry and to provide access to resources that help these leaders navigate the emerging culture with the gospel. We hope to inspire hope and action through the holistic experience of worship, conversation, teaching, art, and prayer. We want each person to discover friends for mutual encouragement and ongoing learning. Saturday, October 28th Christ's Church of Wrigleyville 1242 West Addison Chicago, IL Begins 8:30 A.M. - 6:30 P.M. Cost: $45 - includes lunch The Terra Nova Project - an initiative of the Young Leader Networks September 5-7, 2001 Hold the date. NEW CENTURY, NEW CHURCH 2 "Advancing the Equipping Church" From Leadership Training Network Join us in San Diego September 23-26, 2001 Alan Webber, Founding Editor, Fast Company Wayne Cordeiro, New Hope Christian Fellowship Kirbyjon Caldwell, Windsor Village United Methodist Church Bill Easum, Easum, Bandy and Associates Ken Blanchard, The Ken Blanchard Companies Erwin McManus, Mosaic Bruce Bugbee, Network Ministries Greg Ogden, Fuller Theological Seminary Alan Nelson, Scottsdale Family Church; SW Leadership Foundation Sue Mallory, Leadership Training Network Your voice matters! Please take 5 minutes to complete this easy on-line evaluation so we can create the best experience for you at NCNC2: www.zoomerang.com/recipient/surveyintro.zgi?ID=QQ7TE4TRK78X&PIN=HN10M4J2NH58 Contact Information: Email: dave.travis@leadnet.org Voice: 800.765.5323 www.churchchamp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe to this update send email with instructions to Championsupdate@leadnet.org Church Champions: Serving Consultants/Catalysts to Congregations A service of Leadership Network Copyright 2000
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