During a recent webinar, my colleague Mark Tidsworth observed, “Every congregation is in redevelopment or transition.” I agree, but my question is, “Do they realize it yet?”
In his classic work The Frog in the Kettle published in 1990, George Barna shared the metaphor of the frog residing a kettle where the temperature was steadily rising. Barna suggested that the frog would not be aware of the rising heat until it was be too late to escape the boiling water. His take-away was that churches were in a similar situation. Things were slowly changing, churches were ignoring those changes, and they needed to respond before it was too late.
Societal and cultural changes in recent days have turned the heat up drastically and the change would be hard to ignore. Even so, some of us are doing our best to try to get back to a “normal” that no longer exists. The pandemic has accelerated cultural and societal changes that were already present, and we were doing our best to ignore.
Many clergy leaders are more sensitive to these changes than their congregants are and they are doing their best to address them, but they are finding it difficult to lead those who refuse to realize that it is time to redevelopment and transition or die.
Leaders who are attempting to define reality for their congregations need all the support they can get. Many will find it with peers, some with denominational networks, others with leadership coaches, and some from organizations such as Pinnacle Leadership Associates. Others will come to the point that they wil have exhausted all their personal resources, will re-envision their calling, and will move on to other ministries or secular work.
Max De Pree said that the first role of a leader is to define reality, but he did not promise that people would like it.
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