Tackling Opposition to Change (Part 1 of 2)

Music playing Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg looks at the reasons why people resist change in the church. And then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, wherever you turn, they will attack us. And then in Acts chapter 6, and the familiar passage there of how, as the numbers were increasing, the need for strategic planning became more and more apparent.

In those days when the number of disciples were increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and we will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

This proposal pleased the whole group and they chose these individuals as the folks to fulfill the task. And then in Acts chapter 9 and verse 31, Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

It grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. Father, I pray that once again you will give us clarity of thought and expression. Thank you for our partnership in the gospel and for the sense that we feel of being learners together from the one who knows the answers.

We thank you for Christ, the head of the church, and we pray that you would bless us now in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I want to first of all acknowledge that I address this subject much more out of a desire to try and help myself than out of any great wisdom that I have gleaned over the years so as to be able to help you. I figure if I keep talking about this, I might learn how to do it.

And if I do it publicly, it might save me from convincing myself that I'm actually better at it than I am. But given that we would endeavor at all under God to establish vision and to see it earthed in the practicalities of our day, we recognize that change is a very difficult thing for most people and for some in particular. And therefore, by and large, churches are not good at making changes. And since those who are most opposed to them are often the most vociferous in their responses, many times the leadership settles for a happy life, at least potentially so, and for immediate gratification, rather than for the delayed gratification that comes from tackling the opposition to change and pushing through to the eventuality that we believe is right for us. Coming as I do from the British Isles, we are not known for our ability to move quickly on things, either in the business world or certainly in church life. The church that I served in Scotland, in the evening that I bade farewell to them, made a number of speeches, some of which were encouraging. And in the course of one of them, one of the senior leaders described me in this way. He said, Alastair came to us as a young man in a hurry, and he leaves us as a young man in a hurry. Everybody except me seemed to understand what was meant by that, and I still don't know after all these years whether it was a compliment or an insult.

The way I tend to look at things, I'm assuming it was an insult. But I recognize the truthfulness of it. The future comes in at the rate of 60 seconds a minute.

There are places to go and people to meet. There really is no time for setting up too much in terms of celebrations about the past, because the future beckons us. At least that's the way I tend to operate. And certainly where there is life, there is always change. And part of the challenge has been in ordering that change and in framing the change and in giving rein to where it needs to be given rein to and correction where it needs to be corrected.

And the same is true where there is life in a church. I recognize that in the years that I've been here in the States, we've done a number of things that you're really not supposed to do. We sold the building to which I came three years after we arrived, which didn't go over well with a significant number of the people who had already become wedded to the building.

Silly idea, really, when you think about it, why you would be wedded to a building. And then we moved into a high school, which we thought would last about a year and a half, and it ended up being six and a half years. That didn't go over well with a number of people either. We also changed the name of our church, and that's not something that you're supposed to do either. So basically, I've done a lot of really dumb things over the time, and therefore I need to learn from people how to handle opposition to change, because there's been a fair amount of it. And the unsettling features of it, however, have not outweighed the sense of necessity. We haven't done this in a cavalier fashion, in a haphazard way at all, just for the sake of it.

We've done it strategically and purposefully, and hopefully kindly. But nevertheless, there are people who are dreadfully opposed to change. And so I'd like to think just for a moment about why it is that people resist change, and say a number of things that, again, are not original to me—these are gleaned from here, there, and everywhere, mainly from my youth ministers in the church, who always think more strategically than those of us who were born a little sooner.

And they help me very much in relationship to this. Why do people resist change? Why do we resist change when we are on the receiving end of it? Well, one reason is because we didn't initiate it, and we don't own it. Because we didn't think it up, or because they didn't think it up, they don't like it. It's okay if they think it up, but if they don't think it up, they're not with it. And there are some people who just are put together in that way. If it wasn't their idea, it's a bad idea. And so the skill with those folks is making them feel as though all the good ideas are their ideas. This takes quite some time and skill.

I haven't mastered it, but people tell me that's what you're supposed to do. Secondly, people resist change because, frankly, it is disrupting to their established routine. And we are, tend to be, creatures of habit, and therefore anybody who disrupts the way in which we approach things tends to be a threat, and therefore if we like the routine, and it appeals to us far more than the prospect of the change, then we tend to oppose it. I just, as you know, came back from Ireland, and I was struck again by how far behind the UK is in relationship to so many things. I say that it pains me. I don't mean as sort of an adopted cousin of America that I can allow the luxury of firing salvos at both sides, you know, that I can come over here and chide you, and then while I'm over here, I can chide them.

But the fact is, they are really quite slow off the mark in certain things. And as I was shown around this building with obvious limitations, it was just remarkable the way certain rooms were in certain places. It didn't make any sense whatsoever, you know. There was no reason why this room was upstairs and another room was downstairs. And in my naivety, I said, well, why don't you just flip the rooms, you know? Why don't you do the downstairs function downstairs and the upstairs function upstairs? It would seem, you know, to be fairly straightforward. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We couldn't possibly do that.

Why not? Well, and then it went into the explanations, why not? Because people have got into a routine and although it is eminently ridiculous to do what they're doing, the routine is sacrosanct and therefore they oppose any possibility of moving the chairs.

And those are the chairs. One classic illustration of it I heard of but didn't observe involved an American preaching in Wales. He was in the vestry with the minister and some of the deacons, the Baptist Church in Wales. And as the minister came out of the vestry, he came into a long corridor which was immediately behind the pulpit area. There were two doors into the pulpit area and the minister gestured to open the door that was immediately in front of him. At the door, no more than ten paces away, was the church secretary, a significant figure, a bit like the clerk of session. And he said, excuse me, minister, what are you doing? Well, said the minister, I'm just going into the pulpit area.

I'm taking our guest here, the gentleman from America. Oh, no, said the gentleman ten paces away at the other door. He said, we don't go in that door. Well, the minister said, well, I was just seemed to make sense to go in the door with my guest. Oh, no, said the gentleman, that is the evening door. This is the morning door. And so the minister said, well, we're going to go in this door. And so he bustled down because it was his job to open the door and he felt bad because he was at the wrong door to open it. Instead of getting at the right door and getting with the program, stood over there and make a fuss about it, you know.

And when he finally got down and the people walked past him, the visitor from America said that as he was the last person in of the group, the chap standing at the now what was in his mind, the wrong door, simply looked at the group past and said, most peculiar. Thirdly, we oppose people who resist change because of fear of the unknown, straightforward stuff. Well, what will happen if we move? What will happen if we change this?

So on. In the same way as Nehemiah was introducing these people to things, there were dimensions of it that were unknown to them. They had never faced opposition because they weren't doing anything that would bring about opposition. They were basically doing nothing. As soon as someone with decisive leadership led them to stirring activity, then they would face all kinds of challenges and the fear of the unknown would be a restricting factor. Also, and fourthly, the risk of failure.

We'd rather not try anything than fail. And so because we're so tyrannized by the prospect of failing, we just won't do anything. And that can as much be a paralyzing factor in the experience of the leader as it can be a debilitating factor in those who are responding to leadership. Fifthly, the possibility of the challenges of the Jerusalem project to which Nehemiah gave himself, the possibility for disintegration and disruption and failure were written all over the project.

And he needed to overcome any sense of that that was there in his own life and also then be able to lead the people forward on the basis of what God had put in his heart to do. Fifthly, people resist change because in their minds, the reward that comes from the change is actually inadequate for the effort that's required in making the change. In other words, what they get out of it is not good enough for what they are apparently going to have to put into it. Well, we want to reconfigure the way that we do pastoral care in the church. What will this mean? Well, it will mean that you want to have the same familiar little group of people that you have had pastoral oversight of for the last 12 years, which means you won't be able to hang around with your cronies.

It will also mean that you'll have to meet and engage a whole new group of people to whom you've never really given any attention and that you'll have to get to know. Well, I think I'd rather just leave things the way they are because the prospect of any benefit coming from that is certainly far less than the challenge that is represented in making the change. Sixthly, and this is inherent in all that I'm saying, because people are satisfied with the way things are. Now, we ought not always to create a sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo. Many things should give us a basis for satisfaction.

We should be grateful for a job well done and for things running smoothly. But where there needs to be change, a satisfaction with something that is in need of change and is obviously not too good ought not to inhibit us from leading with vision. Seventhly, because of a lack of respect for leadership.

I get this all the time. People will come to me and say, Well, we don't respect the leaders, and they want to do this or they want to do that. And that, of course, raises other issues. It raises character issues, the way in which we lead and the principles from which we lead.

This is straightforward stuff. And then, eighthly, the glorification of tradition for tradition's sake. And again, I haven't seen too much of this in America, certainly not in the church in which I serve. But I can tell you that when we decided that we weren't going to use the choir on every Sunday, that was a major potential for revolution. Warren Wiersbe said that when the devil fell out of heaven, he landed in the choir loft, and I'm inclined to believe him. And people who are in the choirs always get really tense when I mention this, and I don't mean to get you tense, but I've observed more potential coup d'états coming out of people dressed in robes than I've observed in any other place in pastoral ministry.

And I'm not saying that for a fact, I'm saying that as a fact. And there's something about musicians that is kind of weird. Because musicians are trained to be performers, and performers perform, and performing is not the same as worshipping.

And if you've spent your life believing you're a performer and somebody just closed down the time of your performance, you may find that really offensive. However, if you are a worshiper, you won't mind if you worship from the back or from the side, sitting down, standing up, or flat out, lying on your back. I've seen it, I think, in every church in which I've been. Yes, I have.

I have. A revolution in the choir loft, because tradition is valued for tradition's sake. Now, when a proposal for significant change is introduced, people fall into all kinds of categories, responding in this way. About 2% of the people are innovators. They are entrepreneurs by nature, and they think in visionary terms. They're regularly talking about the church.

They're regularly talking about its future. When you're with them, they are conceiving of ways of doing things. And they think strategically about the possibilities of moving forward. They are daunting people to be around if we tend to be more traditional in our perspective, but yet they are vital people to have.

And sadly, there are all too few of them, at least from my perspective. So about 2% of the people are innovative. And when change is on the go, they're never happier. That's what really fires them up and floats their boat.

About 10% of our people will be the kind of folks that can adopt new things quickly. They get on board very quickly. They know a good idea when they hear it. They know a good strategy when they see it.

And they tend to say, we understand this, and this is a wonderful plan. It has to do with all kinds of givens. For example, and I can only illustrate out of where I've most recently been, but again, it was a very interesting circumstance for me to be in Northern Ireland. And I moved about 50 miles at one point in my journeys. And in one location, I heard the story of a couple in this other location who had started, I was told, a Christian nightclub. And they said that this was a very bad thing, and it just was referred to in a very uncongratulatory fashion.

All right? I asked the individual, have you ever visited this place? Oh no, the person said, no, I never have. Well, I said as graciously as I could, maybe you ought to visit it before you start talking about it. So they didn't really think that was a good idea, but we left it at that.

Okay? So they've got this notion of a Christian nightclub. When I get 50 miles away to the place, I discover that what they've opened is actually a youth center, which has video screens, spiral staircases, old bicycles on the wall, and a counter downstairs, and a counter upstairs with Coca-Cola machines and potato chips and one or two other things. And it is targeted for young people between the ages of 15 and 25, because at that point, in Ireland particularly, there is a tremendous decline in churches' ability to hold teenagers. And the pool of pubs and bars and discos is very, very significant. And the average church offering for the young people is marginal. That was an act of great self-control on my part, and I just wanted to acknowledge it.

I was thinking of saying something much worse. But it is marginal. Okay? So here's a businessman and his wife with a heart for young people who invest significant dollars as a means of reaching a significant part of the community where there are high, high incidences of drug and alcohol abuse. Fifty miles away, without ever seeing it, totally opposed to it, is Mr. X.

Why? Because it challenges, in a dramatic way, what is going on or what isn't going on in their particular location. And such individuals are not early adopters. They're certainly not innovators. They tend to be fence-sitters. And that is, they respond ultimately to the opinions of others. Once the status quo has been established in relationship to change, once we know the way in which the wind is blowing, the way in which the majority seems to be going, then such individuals will tend to cast their lot with that. And the reason I mention this is because all of these people and their personalities differ, and they tend to be represented in the leadership with which most of us are working. And the skill package, it seems, that we need is to be able to harness the innovator, dampen at times the enthusiasm of the early adopter, and try and move along the fence-sitters. Because there's about 60 percent of the people sit on the fence. Two percent innovate, 10 percent adopt early, 60 percent sit on the fence, and then 20 percent, the kind of last group to adopt anything that's moving, the last group to endorse the idea. They always see the pitfalls, they always see the problems, they always tell you why it's never been done, they always say that Mrs. So-and-so, if she'd been here, she would have been really ticked about this, and so on.

And there's all of that kind of stuff that goes on with that. And then there are eight percent who are the laggards, or the mules, if you like, and new ideas are seldom, if ever, adopted by this group. I'm sure there's a group of these donkeys that move from church to church in America. Every time it gets them beyond their comfort level, since they cannot change, they have to go to another place that seems to be shoring up their own particular tradition and status quo. And I'm not talking in doctrinal terms here at all, I think you understand that.

I'm not talking about spiritual declension, I'm not talking about heresy, I'm assuming a level of commitment to the Scriptures and the well-being of the church, and so on. That's Alistair Begg with part one of a message titled, Tackling Opposition to Change. You're listening to Truth for Life. This month we've been listening to messages from a series called, The Pastor's Study.

And one thing has become clear, being a leader is not easy. So, we have a suggestion for you, to help encourage your pastor and for you to express your thanks for his commitment to the Gospel. It's a brand new book by Alistair's friend, Rico Tice. The book is titled, Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most. Rico draws from Scripture and from his personal experience as a pastor, and takes a hard look at what it takes to lead a ministry and to simultaneously live a life that pleases God. He teaches that it's not all about talent and giftedness, it's about faithfulness to the calling. The book, Faithful Leaders, emphasizes that Scripture-based teaching is the anchor point of any effective ministry.

You'll learn how to discern false teaching and why that's so important. Faithful Leaders is a terrific book to read, even if you're not a pastor. In fact, in the foreword, Alistair writes that it's a book that will do you great good, whether you're a pastor, a children's teacher, a Bible study leader, or a seminary student.

For the Church needs you to lead faithfully. And this book will not only show you how to do so, but it will inspire you to do so. Request your copy of Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most when you make a donation today. You can do that by tapping the book image in the app, or you can visit our website, truthforlife.org slash donate. You can also call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening today. Now that we know why people resist change, how do leaders overcome opposition so that change can actually happen? We'll find out tomorrow when you join us for Part 2 of today's message. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.