Change and the Church – An IT Perspective
Change is inevitable, progress is not
Bertrand Russell
Progress is a nice word
Progress starts with change
Change has its enemies
Robert F. Kennedy (paraphrased)
“What is the most challenging part of your job?” a friend asked me as we were catching up the other day. After thinking for a minute, I realized that the answer had nothing to do with technology. Rather, the most significant factor I face in successfully implementing Fellowship One in churches all over the country is resistance to change.
Most churches don’t like to change. At first, this seemed like the normal byproduct of the fact that churches are comprised of people – and most people don’t like to change. Then my friend made a startling observation. “Isn’t it strange that the church should have such a hard time with change when its mission and directive is to implement the most radical and extreme change imaginable – taking people from darkness and death into light and life through the transforming work of Jesus Christ?” After that conversation I realized that if I could learn some skills to help people manage the change to Fellowship One, I could significantly impact my company’s ability to successfully implement the system, but more importantly I could better serve my churches and minister to those who struggle with the change.
Of course, prudence, responsibility and due diligence are important when churches investigate the purchase of new software, services or other items. This paper discusses the challenges of implementing change once the church leaders make the decision to move to Fellowship One. It doesn’t address the buying decision process.
“Change” is an emotionally packed word. For some it is invigorating and exciting. For others it is terrifying and threatening. Most people’s lives are based on routines – doing the same things the same way, day after day. Their unspoken, and often unconscious, expectation is that everything will stay the same. As soon as you interrupt their routine, they resist. An individual’s reaction to change is complex, but certainly involves personality, temperament, giftedness and life experiences. Yet somehow, the strength of a church’s resistance to change seems more than the sum of each individual’s resistance; something in the structure of most churches seems designed against change.
But in order to take advantage of a powerful new technology like Fellowship One a church must change certain systems, processes, methods and maybe even roles. To successfully implement Fellowship 1, the implementation team, led by Fellowship Technologies’ Delivery Manager and the church’s Project Manager, must be sensitive to the church’s change barometer.
I’ve used the word “CHANGE” to form an acrostic that emphasizes six key factors in successful Fellowship One implementations relative to the change phenomenon:
Communication
Heart
Adapt
Narrow
Grace
Example
Now that the stage is set we will walk through each of the letters that comprise this easy to remember acronym in the following weeks. Look for Communication next time.