Don’t try to control change Instead, cultivate flexibility, rapid response, and excellence, and the future will take care of itself.

Leaders don’t have a monopoly on good ideas. People are your greatest source of solutions. It’s amazing what people will do if you treat them as adults.

Cycles of Change

Organizational life cycles lead ultimately to death, if you don’t tamper with their DNA. They go from: From inspiration to institution. From passion to policy. From movement to machinery. From bravado to bureaucracy.

The longer you have been in ministry, the greater the probability that you don’t understand what’s going on in the minds of your congregation and community.

If you remove the pressure, people revert back to their old behavior. Change is so elusive. Even the people who say they’re committed to it wander back into the comfort of their past.

You cannot change your church culture until you understand what it is. Culture is the way you behave based on the values and traditions you hold. Culture is the shared values that hold us together.

Whatever the “old system” may be, it always follows the people trying to pull them back into the “old ways.” There will always be a desire to return to the past. You have to be committed to keep pushing for change.

Don’t dishonor the past. The past is what brought you here. The past is like your mother, you respect her, but you don’t worship her. Honor her for who she is, but understand you will never return to her womb.

Deliberately remove those structures, or policies, or people that are pulling you back to the former way of doing things.