What is your Theology of Change? Part Two
Article by Justin Nash
One of a leader’s key responsibilities in a church will be to lead change initiatives. This is part two of a two-part blogpost on leading change. If you missed the first three principles, you can see them in Part One. Here are the last four biblical principles of a good theology of change drawn from the book of Nehemiah.
Change leaders must communicate a clear and compelling vision to their people
People must first see the why of change. This comes when the leader creates a sense of urgency. People must also understand what is going to happen and the expected benefits of the effort. As Chip and Dan Heath note “What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. Change accelerates when people understand — in specific, behavioral terms — how to reach their goals.”[1] Nehemiah believed his vision was given to him by God (Nehemiah 2:12) and he encouraged the people by offering a testimony of how God had already blessed this endeavor. He then presents a clear and compelling vision captured in the pithy phrase “Let us rise up and build.” The end result was, “So they strengthened their hands for the good work” (Nehemiah 2:18). Like Nehemiah, change leaders must consistently communicate a clear and compelling vision to their people.
A change leader should anticipate opposition
Opposition may come from outside the church, inside the church or both. Regardless of where it comes from, it can be very discouraging to those who are leading and implementing change. This was the case with Nehemiah. He received resistance from outside the people of God (Nehemiah 2:19) and from within the people of God (Nehemiah 3:5). The result of the opposition from Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites was that the people rebuilding the wall were discouraged and frightened (Nehemiah 4:10-12). But Nehemiah was prepared for this opposition and he reminded the discouraged and frightened workers, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes” (Nehemiah 4:14). Any change leader must be prepared for opposition, and when the opposition comes, the leader must turn to the Lord and his strength. If the vision is from the Lord and for his glory, he will protect, provide for and empower the workers and the work.
Successful change requires more than a single leader to work
As John Kotter writes, “A strong guiding coalition is always needed – one with the right composition, level of trust, and shared objectives. Building such a team is always an essential part of the early stages of any effort to restructure, reengineer, or retool a set of strategies.”[2] Nehemiah entered into the work with a coalition of officers from King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:9). He then gained the support of other leaders (Nehemiah 2:18), most notably, the high priest (Nehemiah 3:1). This kind of coalition is important for at least two reasons. First, it helps to ensure stability and longevity for the change effort. If the effort is dependent on a single person, the effort lives and dies with that person. Second, broad support from respected leaders give the change effort more credibility and greater authority than if it was coming from a single leader who might seem to be imposing his on personal will or preference. It takes a team to lead successful change.
Change is an ongoing process, not a one-time event
As Thom Rainer notes, “True biblical success is ongoing faithfulness. The most frequent responses to successful change is complacency.”[3] John Kotter calls this “anchoring new approaches in the culture.” Good change must be constantly reinforced even after “successful implementation” because it is not yet part of the culture of the church. Until the change is ingrained in the shared values and automatic practice of the church, it must be constantly re-anchored lest the gravitational pull of the old culture and practice pull the church back into old ways of thinking and doing. Kotter comments, “Anchoring a new set of practices in a culture is difficult enough when those approaches are consistent with the core of the culture. When they aren’t, the challenge can be much greater.”[4] This was true in Nehemiah’s change leadership. Even after the wall was completed (Nehemiah 6:15) he had to work to reform the hearts and behaviors of the citizens of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 8-9, 13) for fear that their sinfulness would lead to God’s discipline to tear down the walls again. Change leaders must recognize that any change efforts must be consistently reinforced in the life of the church over an extended period of time.
[1] Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard (New York: Broadway Books, 2010), 53.
[2] John P. Kotter, Leading Change (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), 53.
[3] Thom S. Rainer, Who Moved My Pulpit?: Leading Change in the Church (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2016), 119.
[4] John P. Kotter, Leading Change (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), 162.
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