Best Practices for 10/26/07

I keep hearing stories of pastors who, over the course of a month or two, switch over to a Saddleback style, or a Willow Creek style, and lose half of their church members. It concerns me that there seems to be so little awareness of how to effect change without taking significant losses. Gordon Anic appears to have achieved changing the church culture without destroying the existing congregation. LGS

I started pastoring Arvada in 1997. It was a conservative church composed of older people. Six months prior, the church split over music in worship. One hundred or so of the younger, more contemporary people left, and took their children and teens with them. Seventy or so of the older, more influential members remained. They won the battle over the music but lost the younger members of the church.

Church grounds and buildings were in the state of disrepair. The sanctuary was so dark you couldn't read your Bible. Weeds grew tall all over the property. Paint was coming off of the buildings.

Fast forward ten years. Our grounds are covered with green grass. The parking lot is clean and free of weeds. Buildings are painted. Bathrooms are fresh. All the rooms are painted and carpeted. The sanctuary is bright and beautiful.

Instead of seventy, three hundred worship with us on Sabbath. The rooms ring out with the laughter of children and teenagers.

How did this congregation change?

I believe that the key to changing the culture of a congregation is to change its lay leadership. We wanted to retain our congregation through the changes that were about to take place. Right people in church leadership made that possible.

In my view, the effective lay leader is someone who cannot be labeled as conservative or liberal, but is seen as reasonable, visionary and open-minded. We looked for smart, middle-of-the-road people, who were not fanatical about any idea or approach.

When we started out the leadership was dominated by a conservative group, who wanted to do church the way it was done back in the fifties. We wanted to do church based on the community's expectations of what the church should be and what it should offer.

The process of replacing one set of leaders with another took between seven and eight years. There was no rush to kick anyone out. Some moved away, others resigned and some died. There were very few forced replacements and those were done with humility and prayer.

Funny thing: as the new leaders began to lead, new attitudes surfaced. It turns out that most of the congregation was always middle-of-the-road, but had stayed out of the politics and allowed a small vocal minority to be in charge. New leadership has brought our church back into balance, with a minimum of conflict and anxiety.

Contact Gordon at mypeace2000@yahoo.com. Arvada also has a website, and an attractively designed online sermon broadcast.

Are you or a colleague doing something especially interesting and innovative in ministry? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.