“Cultivating a Culture of Change”
Acts 2:41,47, 4:4, 5:14, 6:1
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
5:14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)
6:1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied,
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How many of you like change? We are really creatures of habit aren’t we? If you don’t believe that just look around this sanctuary and see how many of us sit in the same places almost every time that we come to church. Some of you have so many blankets and pillows that it looks like you are planning on spending the night. But as you read through these Scriptures you can’t help but notice that there is a theme running throughout. The church was growing rapidly and change was the rule of the day and as it grew it created some issues that needed to be addressed by the church in order to enhance and continue that growth. The church responded to these issues through change. Change is fundamental to life. Someone said one time that the only people not changing are in the graveyard but even that is not quite true. Biologists tell us that our bodies are made up of millions of cells and these cells are dying and new ones are growing. Biological change is normal and healthy.
I. Why should we change
A. Ministry stagnation
Dr. Paul Chappell
When diagnosing the health of your church, you may notice your church is busy but not spiritually growing. You and the church are doing everything you have done before, but new Christians are not being saved, baptized, and discipled. Let us examine two obstacles which you may need to overcome.
The first obstacle is stagnation. This means “to cease to flow or move” and relates to the flow of ministry, especially as it pertains to winning and discipling new Christians into the body of Christ—helping them to assimilate into a class, connect with people, and begin growing in their faith.
Stagnation may be a problem of capacity. Your church may have reached its present seating capacity, and you may need to begin a new service. You may need to change your service schedule to allow for more Sunday school classes.
I am not for creating change just for the sake of change, but sometimes fresh vision brings change that “increases the circulation of the body.” It gets something that was stagnant moving once again. Just as exercise causes your body to increase circulation, grow in health, and be safe from sickness, so the exercise of faith and forward motion causes a church family to break through the barrier of stagnation.
Have you ever heard of orbital decay? It is the process of prolonged reduction in the altitude of a satellite's orbit. It happens when there is nothing, no force or power exerted upon the satellite too keep it in orbit. Earth’s gravitational pull will eventually “pull” the satellite into earth’s atmosphere where it will burn up. Churches do this too! Churches have orbital decay when they don’t change!
Something must change if that is the case!
B. Ministry sterilization
What is ministry sterilization? I’m using this phrase to describe what can happen when a church fails to conceive, when there are no babies in the “oven” and no sound of crying from the church nursery. Churches should intergenerational to be healthy and any church that has too much gray hair in its congregation is not a healthy church. Any church that leans disproportionally towards AARP is in trouble. When the median age of your church is Social Security age you are in trouble. Something must change if that is the case.
C. Ministry Strangulation
How many of you know what a “bottleneck” is? I very seldom use an object lesson but let me demonstrate what I mean. See the shape of this Coke bottle and this Coke glass? They are quite a bit different aren’t they? One is narrow at the top where the liquid comes out and the other is wide at the top. I’m going to ask a simple question. If we put the same amount of liquid in each container and I turned them up which one would empty faster? Obviously it would be the glass because there is no constriction where the water comes out. Sometimes, and there are several reasons for this, a church or a ministry within a church becomes constricted resulting in slow or no growth and until a change is made to remove the constriction it will not grow.
II. When should we change
Deu 2:1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.
2 And the LORD spake unto me, saying,
3 Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
A. When You Desire a Different Outcome
“Someone has said that doing something the same way over and over again and expecting a different outcome is a form of insanity.”
The title of George Hunter’s latest book suggests the answer to its question. Should We Change Our Game Plan?
Yes, Hunter answers, and it is past time to do so. Hunter, a Distinguished Professor, Emeritus of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary, compares the current relationship between church and culture to the changes in basketball over the past half century. The church, he says, is akin to a basketball coach who still teaches two-handed set shots and underhanded free throws.
B. When You Detect an Obstacle
Let me give you a perfect example of a barrier (obstacle) to growth. It’s called the 80% rule. This rule simply means that when anything reaches this plateau consistently it is full! Someone might ask you, “how many will our sanctuary seat and you would say 300 with every seat full but the truth is our sanctuary is really “full” at 240 or 80%.”
III. What we should change
A. Sometimes we must shift the paradigm
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the basic meaning of the term paradigm as "a pattern or model, an exemplar".
We are never to change the message but sometimes it becomes necessary to change the methodology! Many of you are familiar with Rick Warren of Saddleback Church of “Purpose Driven” fame. You won’t hear me quote him very often because I don’t agree with some of the things that he advocates but he does have some good things to offer about removing barriers to growth. I started in a small church of around 30 members with almost no organization and no annual budget. We voted on about everything. When it came time to have VBS we had to have a church meeting to approve the purchase of materials. Eventually as the church grew the church leadership recognized how burdensome this was for the church and we produced an written budget that provided the framework for the support of our ministry.
B. Sometimes we must change the structure
Not always but sometimes the structure of an organization inhibits growth and in order to produce growth you must change the organization structurally.
What works for a congregation of 50 will not work for a congregation of 500 hundred and vice versa. There is no way that a paid staff can meet the needs of a growing church. There must be an emphasis on lay ministry. Fortunately we have a perfect example of this in the Book of Acts.
Look with me again to Acts 6:1-7 and notice how the ministry structure of the church changed and the addition of a lay ministry enhanced the churches ability to grow. Finally,
C. Sometimes we must change our stance
In the final analysis the most important change we can make is in our attitudes about change. Growing churches do this. That’s why they continue to grow and move forward into the future. There are certain attitudes that hinder and halt growth. For instance, I have never believed that it was necessary or even healthy to “take ownership” of a ministry in order to achieve excellence in ministry. This is a term borrowed from a Madison Avenue and Corporate approach to ministry that has been adopted by the American Church. It is contrary to everything in Scripture about service and sacrifice. We do not have to control a ministry in order to make a significant contribution to that ministry.
In conclusion, let me repeat, that we should not change for changes sake but we need to cultivate a culture of change where change comes normally and naturally and those who are part of the church see change as a necessary part of the church growth dynamic.
