Four C’s of Growth: Part 2

In Part 1, I gave examples of the Four C’s:

• Change
• Cost
• Control
• Commitment

Since we understand that change is hard, how we go about making changes requires another toolset I touched on briefly. In evaluating what we must change, it’s helpful to ask the question:

What ministries, groups or events does your church need to rethink, reorganize or remove?

It’s one thing to talk about change; it’s quite another to actually make the hard choices and provide leadership during these transitions.

RETHINK

Often, a ministry, group or event will simply become less effective over time. As these things go, they have a tendency to become traditions, making it hard to simply remove them without creating some negative reactions. If one of these traditions still holds value and fits within the vision of the church leadership, it’s possible to rethink how to make it relevant and effective today.

One of my favorite examples is Vacation Bible School. This tradition of reaching elementary-aged children in local communities actually has it’s roots in the late 19th century, but was first made into a program back in 1922 by Dr. Robert Boville (see credits).

VBS is nearly 100 years old! That’s a time-honored tradition with great stories of success across many generations. But I wonder – and this is simply an exercise in “what if?”, so please don’t flame me – if the phrase “Vacation Bible School” carries the same positive connotation to our society today as it used to? Certainly the methods employed to create VBS have changed, adopted and updated throughout the years. Lifeway.com has an incredible set of VBS resources, from entirely themed curriculum’s to ready-made craft projects to training videos to free articles and how-to demonstrations. Yet, even with all of the four-color printed materials and web-ready artwork, it’s still called Vacation Bible School.

Perhaps in your community, VBS is synonymous with excellence, fun and relevance for kids. But I wonder how many communities might have negative perceptions of VBS? Perhaps some parents had not-so-great experiences when they were kids at VBS. Maybe the idea of more school in the summer isn’t that appealing anymore. Whatever the reason, the rethink part of the strategy for VBS should be on the table.

REORGANIZE

As your church grows, new people will come into your community that offer fresh perspectives, new experiences and passions that may very well trump what’s currently being done. By adding these new faces into your culture, reorganizing teams, lay leaders and adding new opportunities will bring about healthy, vibrant change. Of course, your leadership needs to be helpful in grafting these new people into the fold, as new people are typically not immediately accepted into a new leadership role.

By honoring those who have been leading for a while, these new leaders and helpers will both learn from the original teams and earn their respect over time.

“Reorganization requires more than a nod to the past; it means a change over time that blends the old with the new.”

REMOVE (or REPLACE)

“What was once a good idea is now verging on obsolescence.”

Honest evaluation will probably point the spotlight on ministries, groups and/or events that simply don’t fit into the context, vision or culture of your church today.  There will always be a churn of change that simply replaces what was with what is; and the current what is will one day be replaced with what will be.

Leading people through a replacing old with new is a matter of relational caring, firm but gentle leadership and a constant re-casting of the vision for why we do what we do. As leaders, it’s important for us to help our people understand that they should be tied to the vision, not the event.

Perhaps nothing illustrates this greater than this famous set of verses from Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What do you need to re-think, reorganize or remove? How will you do it?

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