The Church Answers Podcast
#151 How to Get Stuck Church Members to Be Willing to Change
Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here's the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. For the uninitiated, we have three podcasts a week. They're short, usually around 10 minutes, sometimes 8, sometimes 10, sometimes 11. They're around 10 minutes, and we release three at one time, one day, so that you can have these three, sometimes they're series, and sometimes they're just totally different topics. What we ended last week's series of podcasts on the issue of change, and we talked about in that particular podcast how, no, not the how, why some people resist change. I'm not going to review it. You can go back and listen to it. Or you can watch it, it's episode number 150. But now, in this episode number 151, we wanted to talk about how instead of the why and the what. So now, we're going to talk about how to get stuck church members to be willing to change. Stay tuned for this because this is pretty fascinating information. I share a lot of this in my book, "Who Moved My Pulpit," we'll put a link for that if you want to get more information on change, how to get stuck members, stuck church members to be willing to change. Just a reminder, you are listening or watching the church answers podcast, a reminder, we are sponsored by Chaney and Associates. They are the accounting firm for the church. They've helped over 1100 churches with accounting and payroll services have been around for 21 years. They know the church. They're a national firm, I recommend that you use them because you're going to be pleased with the type of service that you get. Thank you Chaney and Associates for being our sponsor. Let's get back to this topic. How can you help stuck church members be willing to change? Okay, one of the first questions that you need to ask, if you're leading change, what is it that you're willing not to change? What is it that you're willing not to change? One of the things that will help people be more receptive to change, if you can affirm so many things that the church is doing and say, "Hey, we don't want to change these at all." And if you can focus upon those things, there can be a symbolic sigh of relief among the church members, many of whom would have resisted the change because they think you're going to come in and change everything. So one of the first things you need to ask yourself, what is it that you can affirm that it's going well in the church that you're not going to change? And you explain why you're not going to change it and you talk about the reasons for keeping it the way it is. Again, that will send a message that you're not just changing everything, you are changing some things. And it will allow the people to know that you're going to change, you're going to lead change where maybe the change needs to take place because you've affirmed the other. What is it that you can affirm that is not going to change? That's point number one. Point number two, what is the low hanging fruit that you can bring change? Okay, I'm going to give you an absurd example. But it's true. It is a true example. My first church in Southern Indiana, you've heard my story about it. You had seven members, I got voted in, six to one, seven people there could not get a unanimous vote. Church has been around since the late 1700s. I think some of the members had to, that's not nice. But the church have been around a long time. And they had just a series of pastors, most of them in seminary, and they were used to the routine. Someone comes in, change. Someone comes in, change. And they kind of smile and say, okay, that pastor will be gone soon. And sure enough, that pastor was gone soon. Well I knew the church needed to change, pastors previous to me, knew the church needed to change, but I did something. I went and asked the entire Deacon body. His name was Merle, I asked the entire Deacon body, one person, what's one thing the church would get behind? And he looked at me and he said, "Restroom." I said, "Say it again, Merle, "Restroom." He said, "You know, we don't have a restroom in this church." They didn't. There was a house next door that was sometimes available and nobody was there and you could go use a restroom there, but the church had no restroom. They had an outhouse, but because of an outbreak of snakes in the outhouse, nobody went there anymore. I understand that. I never went to the outhouse either. So what was the first change I initiated there? I initiated a building program for a restroom. You talk about a church growth expert coming in. We had a restroom building program and we got local help. We had, to my knowledge, not any type of zoning restrictions, back then we were out in the middle of nowhere. I think there was a zoning board that even you were there and a lot of local help and materials donated and when it was all said and done, we had a restroom. People were so excited. I mean, they were lining up to go, no pun intended, but the change was low hanging fruit. There's some things you can do in your church that can get people excited and once they're excited about some level of change, they're ready to move to the next level of change. So your firm, what you're not changing, two, what's the low hanging fruit? What can we do? It's amazing when low hanging fruit is a restroom, but it was. Thirdly, you can get your members involved in planning the change. You can get your members involved in planning the change. Instead of announcing the change, get by in for the change. Kevin Ezel, President of North American Mission Board, says more good things have happened at Cracker Barrel than any other place in the church. What it means by that is when he was a pastor, he would meet some key leaders that have breakfast at Cracker Barrel and they'd get to know each other and they'd talk about things and they'd talk about, hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And he'd listen. He'd pivot when it's necessary, but he got panned, you're getting members involved. And as a result, some of the most influential members in the church, when the change came about, the people could look at them. You know how people look into certain others when something is announced, we want to see their reaction, well, they would look at them and they would see that person nodding and smiling and affirming, yeah, we're going to move forward. Here's the thing about it, get your, get some key members, some influential members involved in the change. Now for those of you who are in places other than the South where Cracker Barrel may be located or in other countries, I know you all are there, Cracker Barrel is an informal restaurant and it's, it's just has a lot of informal food and it's just a place where you can sit down and talk and eat and enjoy the informality. So that's the, that's the allusion to Cracker Barrel. So one, you affirm what you're not going to change to. You look for low hanging fruit, three, you get members involved, four, and this, I'm going to say finally, because it's the final for my list, finally, you explain the why. Not just the what. Many times, change leaders say this is what we're going to do without saying this is why we're going to do it. The more that you can explain, especially from a biblical perspective, the why, the more you will have by in. Now you can do all four of these things, firm, what you're not going to change, low hanging fruit, get members involved and explain the why. And you will still have some level of opposition. There's some people that are just always against it. And they just want to be the negative voice, no matter what. But if you follow just these four principles of change leadership, you will see that it will be much more acceptable to the church. And even though you may have a few bumps along the way, it can be something that will make a difference in your own leadership to lead change. Once again, if you want to read my book on this topic, who moved my pulpit in that fun title kind of a take off on who moved my cheese for those of you who are who are from you with that, I kind of copied that, but became a book about change. And the book starts off with the pastor moving the pulpit that had been there for many years. I'm not going to tell you anymore, but you can read that when you want to change how to get church members to be willing to change. We've had two of these episodes on change. And as a result, I hope that this has been good for you. All right, we're going to conclude this one now. And we're going to thank Chaney and Associates for being our sponsor. They are the accounting firm for the church and their place you need to connect with for your bookkeeping and for your payroll and other things. Great folks. Steve Chaney. Thank you. Thank you for being here and viewer for being a part of the church answers podcast. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the church answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)