Change or Die
This was the cover story for the magazine, Fast Company, in May of 2005. The central thesis for the article was, “If given a choice between life and death, most people and leaders choose death if life requires substantive changes.”
600,000 people undergo heart bypass surgery each year, and a vast number of them can enjoy a lengthened life with lifestyle changes in their eating and exercise habits. Research reveals 90% of those people do not make the changes. They instead choose to die.
These “change or die” choices are not limited to personal health issues. Leaders of organizations often know what changes need to be made, yet they don’t implement them. They choose to die. I know turning a declining and plateaued church around is challenging. A family left our church when I put a drum set on the platform. No one played the drums for a year—I just set them up. Ironically, their dislike of change led them to change the church anyways.
One author says that 3 out of 4 churches today are “change or die” churches. Leaders of the C&MA have stated that 70% of our churches in the US are plateaued or declining. Even within our denomination we have been in conversations about substantive changes, yet change is resisted. Are we choosing to die?
It may go without saying that there are foundational truths. Some things should not change. The problem is our inability to discern the difference between orthodoxy and tradition. Jesus became significantly agitated when the religious leaders of his day foolishly chose to value tradition over valuing people.
Churches that “choose to die” are led by leaders who choose tradition over change, comfort over change, preferences over change, and ultimately death over change. Churches that “choose to live” require courageous leaders. Former first lady, Rosalynn Carter, once said, “Good leaders lead people where they want to go, but great leaders lead people where they don’t want to go, but need to go.”
Which leader will you be?
Author: Steve Fowler - January 2023