I've never been one to take the obvious path. When I was a teenager, my father
gave me the simple job of stacking some firewood as he left for work one day.
There was a part of me that resisted facing such a labor-intensive job, but even
stronger was the part of me that resisted doing it in an ordinary way.
So as I started moving the wood around, I was gradually overcome by a desire
to create something that had never been done before. What should have been a
mundane chore soon became a quest. For hours I stacked and restacked,
cultivating the vision in my mind. By the time my father returned home, he was
greeted by a masterpiece that surprised (and probably baffled) him.
Leading through and to change may be one of the most important and difficult
things leaders do. They must discern the areas most in need of change—and how
much—while balancing the capacity to assimilate and gravitate toward that
change.
We’ve all seen leaders who did too much changing too quickly, blowing up
their organizations with their lack of finesse and inability to pace well. Other
leaders never did more than make slight variations, and then stood by helplessly
while the organization lost its effectiveness and ultimately imploded. A healthy
median keeps the following in mind:
After more than 15 years of working with youth groups, sifting through what
works and what doesn't, I have identified 20 tips to help churches effectively
reach teens:
1. Be creative. The No. 1 reason teens stay away from youth groups is
because meetings are boring. Never let your group know what's coming next. If
group programming is predictable, change it.
2. Change the setting. If your group is not coming to you, go where
they are.
When Bob Whitesel isn't teaching classes at Indiana Wesleyan University or
writing books, he's advising churches on how to successfully implement changes
in their congregations. In his latest book, Preparing for Change Reaction, he
outlines the strategic steps to prepare for what he calls "change reaction"—the
inevitable response from a congregation whenever a time of transition occurs.
MINISTRY TODAY: Expand on what you mean by change reaction. BOB
WHITESEL: People want to bring about change, but they often have trouble
doing this in their churches. The problem is that people have a certain reaction
to change and we don't have good ways of answering those reactions. My book
identifies 10 of the most common change reactions that most pastors will hear,
and how they can address those. No church will hear all 10.
The world of athletics understands how Jesus approached ministry, yet, by and
large, the church does not have a clue. Why? Because we often fail to follow
Christ's example regarding one of the most vital tasks of any leader: coaching.
Take, for example, Tony Dungy, coach of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis
Colts. Coach Dungy does just that—he coaches. In every team sport, coaches
divide their teams according to the number of assistant coaches they have. Each
assistant takes responsibility for a small group of players at certain skill
positions. He or she has only one responsibility: to give that group the time
and focused attention needed to maximize their ability, execute as a team and
win the game.
