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TRANSITIONING Leading Your Church Through Change Dan Southerland Zondervan, 1999, 240 pp.
ISBN 0-310-23344-5 |
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In
1990 Dan Southerland, pastor of Flamingo Road Church in Fort Lauderdale,
began changing their church to focus on the unchurched. The church was so successful it now hosts
conferences on how to change to a Saddleback-type church. It is all cast in terms of vision. The key question: “How do we transition
the church back to a purpose driven model?” (15) This book is very simple, clear, and easy to follow. Here
are Dan’s steps: (17-19) 1.
Prepare for the vision (spiritually) 2.
Define the vision – What is our purpose? Target? Strategy? 3.
Plant the vision in the hearts of church leaders 4.
Share the vision with the congregation 5.
Implement the vision – the change process 6.
Deal with opposition 7.
Make course corrections 8.
Evaluate the results Preparing for the Vision Spend
time in major preparation. See what
God is doing and join him. (Blackaby)
“Vision is a picture of what God wants to do.” (22) See the wave of what God is doing. Catch the wave… Ride the wave… (Rick Warren’s surfing analogy) (24) You
must understand the people you are trying to reach. Collect information on 1) the unchurched people in your
community and 2) churches that are reaching unchurched people. (26-28)
“Vision
is usually birthed out of heartache and burden. It must come from the heart.” (29) “God gives us His vision when we are desperate.” (30) “Vision is usually birthed out of a
serious search for God’s direction.” (32)
“You find God’s vision when you search for God. Fasting is a serious part of that
search.” It requires a major
commitment to prayer. (33) “First, I
must be still enough to hear God.” (34)
“Vision is usually given to those who pray until they get it.”
(36) “Waiting is a big part of
preparing for vision.” (38) “Rushed
preparation results in sloppy vision.” (39) Defining the Vision Defining
the vision requires some serious question asking. (43) Three steps: 1.
Discover your purpose. 2. Define your target. 3.
Decide your strategy. (45)
“The major question that must be answered here is what does God
want us to do.” (46) “Your
purpose will frame the rest of the vision.” (47) “If
you cannot state the purpose of your church in a single sentence statement,
you have not yet discovered your purpose.” (48) “The
most controversial and misunderstood part of vision is defining the
target.” “The question in business
jargon would be ‘Who is our primary customer?’” (49) The
right questions: (50-51) ·
Who is our immediate community? ·
Who is our primary target? ·
Who has God put in this community that we are best equipped to reach? Other
churches are not your competitors. 14
of the 16 missions and grand missions [I believe these are Baptist terms for
church plants. dlm] we have helped start are in this county. (55) Four
specific ways to define your target: (57-60) ·
Geographically – within 5 to 10 miles from your church (farther for
rural churches) ·
Demographically – age, marital status, education level, occupation,
income, ethnic background ·
Culturally – “You must do church differently for different cultures.”
(59) ·
Spiritually – e.g. unchurched lost, unchurched Christians, new
Christians, mature Christians Decide
your strategy. “We evaluate every
program and ministry annually according to whether they are accomplishing our
purpose.” (61) The
first mistake is to define strategy before defining purpose, usually because
there is a prior commitment to a set of programs. The second mistake is to be event driven instead of process
driven, being run by the church calendar instead of vice versa. (61) To
align strategy with purpose and target, ask ·
“What process will accomplish our purpose and reach our target?” ·
“How do we move from where we are to where we want to go?” ·
“What must change?” ·
“What must not change?” ·
“What is the best order of change?” (62) “The
more specific the vision, the more dynamic the results.” (63) Planting the Vision “You
must plant the vision with the key leaders in your church, so that your
vision can become their vision.” (67) Secure
the approval of the power brokers, the people everyone listens to, opinion
makers, people with formal (position) or informal influence. Share the plan, the timing, the details,
and the resources. If you get their
support they will back you but if you don’t, they will tend to fight you. (69-71)
Get
the assistance of those you need to help you such as leaders whose territory
will be affected and those who will provide the resources. (71-73) Seek
the advice of your vision team, the small handful of leaders who can help you
dream the dream. (75) These should be
mature believers who are dreamers (not detail people) and who can keep their
mouths shut until it’s time. Consider
your staff first. Keep the team small
and work quietly behind the scenes.
Share your heart with this team – at staff meetings, eating together,
informally in homes, in touch electronically when away – enough time to work
as a team. (79-81) Expose
your key leaders to model churches.
(81-2) Sharing the Vision “Before
vision is shared with the church from the pulpit, it must be shared with the
entire leadership team. Nothing
devalues and alienates a leader as quickly as not knowing what is coming next
before the rank and file know.” (85)
“Leaders who hear about changes in direction and focus from the pulpit
are not likely to support those changes.” (86) Take
a Friday night and Saturday retreat and take them through the vision process
and bring them up to speed. (87) “The
success of any vision comes down to one issue: will the majority of the
people of the church get behind it?” (88) Share
it in as many ways as possible. Do a
sermon series, perhaps using the book of Acts, where each sermon shares one
piece of the vision. (See his sermon
series on p. 89). Do small group
vision studies, widely use your purpose statement, use vision phrases and
slogans as reminders, use a handful of verses that support your vision, use
faith stories during worship times, take leaders to conference, disperse
tapes and books, share your heart one-on-one, be a living example. (88-96) Implementing the Vision “Most
churches spend far too little time in preparation and move far too quickly
into making changes.” (98) Implement
changes ·
One at a time ·
In a strategic order – you have to figure out what the unique order
is for your church ·
Put key leaders in visible places ·
Put people to work where they are vested, areas that match their
interests and passions (99-104) “Build
on your strengths, not your weaknesses.” (105) The
speed of implementation depends on how far you must go (the farther the
slower), the size of the ship, the age of the ship, and the toughness of
leaders. (106-108) “Go slow.” (108) The
four-year change at Flamingo Road Year
one – prepared for and defined the vision Year
two – planted the vision with the leaders and shared it with the church Year
three – began to implement smaller changes Year
four – began to implement major changes
(109) Dealing with Opposition How
people deal with change: ·
“People can only handle so much change.” ·
“People feel awkward when asked to do something new.” ·
“People think first about what they must give up.” ·
“People feel alone when they are asked to change.” ·
“People are at different levels of readiness for change.” ·
“People tend to revert back to their old behavior the minute the
reason to change is removed.” (111) Expect
apathy, anger, criticism, and fights.
There will be a showdown somewhere along the way. But don’t take it personally. (111-117) Keep
on track. Keep on working. Keep on encouraging. Don’t be afraid: God is with you. Remember your purpose. Keep on leading. Don’t let the whiners set the agenda. And don’t give the complainers the time you need to give to
workers. One of the hardest parts is
that you have to be willing to let people leave the church. (118-127) Making Course Corrections “Every
step requires course corrections along the way.” (130) Complainers will say
it’s too hard, too costly, or unfair.
Dismiss the troublemakers and divisive people. Address legitimate complaints. Some may be expressions of deeper
wounds. Some may not be visionaries
and will never be able to see the vision.
Care for them anyway.
Demonstrate your care by providing for their needs. (130-138) Negotiate
peace between the pros and cons, the involved and the left out, and the old
guard leaders resisting and the new guard leaders on board. (139-140) Stay
among the people. Don’t separate
yourself by titles, dressing above, churchly language and doing all the
talking. “Continually
remind people why you are changing.
Drift is always downward in the vision process. People need to hear vision again and again
until it becomes a part of their soul.” (147) “Continually
affirm and appreciate people for the changes they are making.” (148) Evaluating the Results How
you know the vision has caught on: 1.
The vision is completed [He doesn’t say how you know it is completed.] 2.
Demonstration of God’s work - generally observed by growth and giving 3.
Continued opposition and criticism 4.
Emergence of new leaders 5.
Major contributions by the people 6.
Renewed commitment to worship and obedience 7.
New people joining in. 8.
Openness to further change
(149-164) “Cutting
edge churches are always in change mode.” (164) The
last 65 pages constitute a workbook, a self-study tool, to work through the
steps of discovering and implementing a purpose-driven vision. Further
Reading: The Purpose-Driven Church,
Rick Warren |
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