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| The Responsibility of a Change Agent |
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by Fred Peatross
One of my favorite quotes concerning the hazards of overlooking new paradigms comes from Andy Grove of Intel:
"There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level. Miss that moment and you start to decline."
Spiritually speaking, our responsibility is to claim the moment we're living in for Christ. The Amish decided not to live their moment in history and they're not taking any cues from current culture. Their culture is frozen in the 1830s. They talk like it, travel like it, and dress like it.
How do you convince the history-rich restoration heritage that change is worth the risk? First, you create a compelling picture of the risks associated with not changing. It's a sad truth but churches that aren't willing to fluidly navigate cultural trends may find themselves sitting on a street corner competing with Amish quilts and cheese.
Change Agents are Ambassadors
This new era demands that our theology becomes a creative pursuit with passionate inquiry, like the best art and the best science. Psychology, sociology, the new physics, history, comparative religion, and spirituality, not to mention postmodernism in general, all are calling for some creative Christian leaders to unfold some new paradigms for us to use in our explorations. Am I calling for new wineskins? Yes, but new wine will be required if we're going to navigate the dynamics of a new time.
It's time for Christian leaders to encourage first and second generation Christians to become creative thinkers, pursuers of truth, explorers, and learners, rather than old world memorizers, repeaters, and defenders of old formulations. What a challenge we encounter when we open ourselves to discover how Jesus Christ wants to theologically incarnate himself for the postmodern world, just as he did for the post-Enlightenment world of the old church.
Preparing our people for change hasn't always been high on our agenda. Maintenance takes time and patience, yet change without caring, knowing, and understanding the people we're serving will only lead to massive chaos. We have to live with the sheep and smell like the sheep. We have to know and understand their concerns and worries?
After showing our love and gaining their trust we clearly communicate the reasons for change? Change agents patiently help their people understand that "postmodern" people experience God in different ways than "modern" people. In the modern world everything in worship is reduced mainly to the visual sense, but post-moderns need more than the visual. They need to hear God, smell God, taste God, and touch God. The Pentecostals and the Eastern Orthodox are doing this best, with Pentecostals using their bodies in worship and Eastern Orthodox having "the smells and the bells." Communication in a post-modern culture needs to be experiential, participatory, image-based, and connective. This "karaoke culture" isn't looking for rationalism. It wants participation, not the performance-based "sit-and-soak" worship of the modern era. It's a generation that thinks in images, not in words.
Expect Resistance
The flip side of change is resistance. So expect it! Human beings inevitably exaggerate the joys of the past, the pain of the present, and the risks of the future. It's perfectly natural. So don't take it personally. I made that mistake. People would push back and I'd want to scream, "Why can't you see it?"
I've discovered that resistance comes in code. Few people ever say, "I don't want to change because I'm scared." It's almost covert. You need to crack the code.
I've made a list of the codes I hear again and again: "What will the East Side Church of Christ think?" "We're not in the entertainment business." "Things are just fine the way they are -- we don't need to turn the place upside down."
Whenever I hear those statements, I know what's going on. I've cracked the code.
Manage Resistance
It's the change agent's responsibility to take the fear out of change. Maybe you've heard the phrase, "Carry the wounded but shoot the stragglers"? Take the time to carry the straggler. Attempt to do everything in your power to bring people along.
I remember back in my high school baseball days when we would go outside for our pre-season one-mile run. The coach would start us off together, but eventually a group would start to straggle. So the coach would take those of us in the lead and run us back around the stragglers, and recreate the group. After a while another group would straggle, and we'd circle back again. The coach moved forward in a series of concentric circles that helped everyone get to the final destination.
Change agents are coaches who see the future and pull the church along attempting not to lose any, but there comes a point when you have to be very clear about where you're going. And remember, no matter what you do, some will refuse to come along. Some people are just not going to agree with forward thinking. That is the time when you let them know that the boat is leaving the dock. Remind them that there are plenty of seats for everyone, but they have to choose whether they're going to get on board.
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