How to Transition Your Church’s Worship Without Dividing the Church, Part 5
I’ve been talking about healthy worship transitions for the last four weeks. Today. I move to the next important piece:
The fourth step is to CAST VISION.
We need to educate, inform, and do it constantly. A big reason people are not able to go through change peacefully is because they do not understand (or forgot) the reasons for change. The reasons may be extremely obvious to leadership, but if we fail to communicate them with the congregation and fail to continue to lift them up, discord can occur.
Change is much more palatable when the people living through the change have a feeling of understanding, ownership, and passion for what is being done because they believe in the cause (the reasons for change). For instance, if a congregation sees that their church is dying a slow death and that course corrections need to be made to insure the future of the church as a lighthouse to the community, then undergoing changes outside of an individual’s comfort zones are considered to be reasonable and needed. The congregation believes so strongly in the WHY that they are willing to endure some discomfort in the HOW.
Worship Change: Believe so strongly in the WHY, that we are willing to make sacrifices for the HOW Click To TweetWhat I have seen is that when we can help the church to fully understand these things:
- the biblical, cultural, and missional understanding of worship
- the difference in essentials and non-essentials of worship
- a concept of unity in worship
Then we help the church come to grips with the reality of their corporate worship. What often results is the Holy Spirit works in lives to convict people of how the church is falling short and creates a desire within the individuals to align with the biblical/missional understanding of worship. This may require personal sacrifice of their preferences, but the passion for the mission makes it possible.
As church leaders, we need to help the congregation to understand the WHYs. Then we need to remind them from the pulpit, bulletin, newsletters, conversations, media, etc. continually. Keep the WHY in front of the people as you make transitions. Educate. Inform. Do it constantly.
How to transition your worship without dividing the church Click To Tweet
Kenny, I am enjoying these articles so much! We are going through some of these changes in my church and all of these articles are so relevant to us. Keep up the good work!