Quick Fix

The 9/5/06 issue of the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article entitled, "A Popular Strategy For Church Growth Splits Congregants." The by-line read, "Across U.S., Members Divide On making Sermons, Music More 'Purpose-Driven'." The article enumerated instances of churches whose pastors or lay leaders were persuaded by Rick Warren's model of church growth and then tried to implement them in their own churches. The results were far from favorable in the churches that the article covered. Members were either voted out of the congregation and/or the congregation split.

Frankly, I suspect that the problem was not specifically Rick Warren's model, but the way in which the clergy and the lay leaders went about implementing change. The real issue is how do leaders go about introducing significant changes in a church in such a way that the church can absorb, adjust, and ultimately thrive? I that the churches discussed in the article might have split if another model were introduced to the congregation and handled in a similar manner. Changing the direction of a church includes a number of variables such as its history, tradition, polity, etc., but in many ways it is like trying to change the direction of an ocean liner. It takes time for the whole process to occur. It is important to understand the "rate" at which change can occur and finding the rate is not always easy. In any case, I think the leaders pushed too hard, too fast, and didn't give the congregations time to discuss and wrestle with the changes that they wanted to make. They were looking for a quick fix.