Should Church Leaders Model Effective Learning?
Wendy Wickham observes:
Why would we expect students to learn or want to learn anything if we, as staff and faculty, don't model that ourselves? So what would that entail? What observable behaviors would there need to be?
How often are they collaborating? Are people actually talking to each other?
Within the department?
Outside the department and within the University?
Outside the University walls?
How often are people reaching for help?
Are they leveraging self-serve resources?
How much time are they spending looking for said resources?
What triggers people to look for resources?
How much of this stuff is "mandatory" or "assigned"
How much is related to their job or a performance evaluation
More interesting to me - how much of this is self-motivated?
Chris Eller's insight:
The concept of a church as a learning organization has been focus of many discussions for the last 20-plus years. I first read Peter Senge's foundational work, The Fifth Discipline (1990) in the early 90s.
Briefly, Senge defines a learning organization as,
…organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.
The challenge for Christian educators and pastors is to harvest the knowledge from a theory like Senge's learning organization and apply to to the biblical mandate to make disciples within the local church.
Back to Wickham's question paraphrased, why would we expect our church members to learn--or want to learn--anything if they do not see this modeled in a church's leaders?
Apply Wickham's questions to the church:
How often are leaders collaborating and discussing the vision and strategic objectives of the church? Are leaders focused on their own area of ministry and refuse to acknowledge the contributions or work in coordination with other areas of ministry?
How often are leaders reaching for help? When a church leader hits a brick wall, does he pretend it doesn't exist or acknowledge the barrier and begin looking for ways up, over, or through the barrier? Does he seek help?
What triggers a leader to look for resources? Is it self-motivated or is it something they must do because it is part of their job or their manager insists they look for additional resources?
Within a church, we expect our church members to be self-motivated learners who must balance the extremes of life along with the requirements of a growing relationship with God.
As leaders, much of this falls inside of our daily job description, but how do we model for our church members a lifestyle of discipleship that is built upon a desire to master the Scriptures, apply these to a life of discipleship, and engage others in doing likewise?
Change is Easy; It's the Transition That Will Kill You!
I am attending the Equipping Institute at Group Publishing this week in Loveland, CO. Change was the topic of one of the sessons today. Needless to say, most churches can be labeled “change resistent,” and many church leaders struggle to successfully lead their congregations through meaningful change.
The cause of resistance to change within a church can be one or more of several things:
Tradition
Culture
Bottom Line (out of touch with true mission, e.g. bingo vs. discipleship)
Layperson Influence (many voices speaking into the decision-making process)
Comfort
Mastering Transitions
One of the Aha moments for me today was this statement by William Bridges: “It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions. Transitions get messy. The perception or reality is that people must give up something to move on to the next new thing.”
In his book, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, Bridges highlights three stages of transitions. Understanding these stages will help you successfully navigate change within your organization.
Letting Go — the beginning of the realization that there will be a loss. This is when change is communicated early and people begin to think and talk about how an upcoming change will impact them.
Some tips to help people let go:
Communicate. Talk openly, early, and frequently about the change.
Acknowledge feelings. These could range from anger, joy, sadness to even a sense of loss or grief.
Honor and value the past. The new does not need to be at the expense of the past. You may have people in your church who invested a lot of time and money in something that you are now proposing be done away with. A quote from Andy Stanley is very appropriate: “Remember, whatever you are trying to change was at one point someone’s good idea.”
The Neutral Zone—the “nowhere between two somewheres.” In the midst of transition, there are many challenges, some expected, some unexpected. It is common at this stage for people to long for the past when everything was safe, known, and worked. This can also be a time of high creativity and productivity.
Some tips to help people navigate The Neutral Zone:
Communicate. Explain and help people understand where you are heading.
Don’t rush the process. People navigate change at different speeds and comfort levels.
Celebrate and share God sightings.
New Beginnings—the new normal. This stage has nothing to do with a start date, and you really can’t place an end date on it. It is at this stage in the transition when people accept and embrace the change. For example, you can live in a house for several months before it feels like home.
Tips to help manage the new normal:
Communicate.
Be consistent.
Celebrate and share God sightings.
Symbolize the new beginning. (This is essentially creating memorial markers. We do this by intentionally leading our congregation in activities that will help them to begin creating new memories now that change has happened. For example, when I was with Grace Church, we brought our church family into our new worship center while it was under construction. We gave everyone a Sharpie market and had them write a Bible verse on the concrete floor of the worship center. While this was happening, we took pictures. Today, 12-years later, if you tore up the carpet, you would find several hundred Bible verses scribbled on the floor and the names of people who were with us in 2001.)
How do you help people master the transitions of change?