Skip to content
GOVERNANCE & MINISTRY
by Dan Hotchkiss
Contact Dan
Buy Governance & Ministry
Why Congregations Sometimes Change
Open external resource
← Previous
Next →
Excerpt
photo by Dan Hotchkiss Organizations are famous for resisting change. Despite the best efforts of their leaders, who often want change more than anybody else, organizations, including congregations, reproduce this week what they did last week, this month what they did last month, and this year what they did the year before. That’s the rule. However, once in a great while an organization decides to do something truly different—and then actually does so. Which raises two important questions: Why do organizations—or more generally, systems—resist change so strongly? And why do they sometimes change anyway? When I ask about this in a workshop or a congregation, most of the answers point at the people rather than the system: “Our members are conservative.” “The old guard have all the power.” “Doesn’t everybody hate change?” In our secular time, some people blame religion itself: “Of course organized religion resists change. That’s what religion’s
Validate Email
Search for: