Finding the right team of people to help you lead change at your church might not be as hard as you think. Our friends at Lifeway Leadership have some great points to consider when leading change.
When leading change in your church, you must establish the right team to see the change process through to completion. You need people with formal authority but also need people with influence in your church or organization. Their influence may or may not have anything to do with their hierarchy on the org chart. You also need people with the right skill sets to employ at different phases of the change implementation process. These individuals should be completely convinced that the change is necessary. After all, it is difficult to lead someone in a direction that you are not going yourself.
I have created this 9-box to help you assess where a person is and how to bring them into your coalition for change.
Think about the people in your church. For each person that comes to mind, first rate that person’s influence in your church as low, medium, or high. Next, rate if that person is invested in the change as low, medium, or high. Mark where the two intersect on the 9-box grid. I suggest that you only focus on people who fall in the upper right squares of the 9-box, as they’re the most invested and influential. Here’s how to build up each type in your coalition for change.
For the high influence and highly invested people, use them as spokespersons for your church. They already have influence and are already bought into your church’s mission. Put these people out front, give them a microphone, and make sure they use their influence and buy-in to move forward.
- Who are three of these people in your church?
- How can you equip them to be carriers of the vision?
For the high influence and somewhat invested people, you want to tie them strongly back into your church’s mission and leverage their influence as well.
- Who are three of these people in your church?
- Examine central stories from the history of the church. What emotional wells lie in deep reservoirs below the surface that might be tapped and retold for your change initiative?
Similarly, for the medium influence and medium invested people, cast vision to earn their buy-in. It’s easier to increase their investment than their influence.
- Who are these people in your church?
- Do they exist in pockets, groups, or ministries?
- How do you utilize the groups above to reach them?
- What content or tools can you give them to help them in this task?
For the highly invested but medium influence people, you want their faces and their stories up front and center. This move may seem unexpected because they’re not the most influential. Bring their stories to the attention of others to build credibility and social proof. This is the everyday man getting behind the change versus the people that we all assumed would be onboard anyway.
- These may be people you do not yet know. How will you identify them as you begin this process?
- What live venues do you have to bring their stories front and center?
- How do you capture and capitalize on these moments?
- What are other channels and ways you can spread their stories?
Regardless of where people fall in the framework above, we also must
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Find the original article "How to Create a Coalition for Change in Your Church" by Todd Adkins.
