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According to Lewis, "The essence of leadership is the ability to influence others to achieve some common goal."2 Being a leader involves helping people to move from point A to point B. This is what change is all about. If you can't assist with change, you're not a leader! An important question for a leader is "What new situation do we want to bring about?"3

1 G. Douglas Lewis, Meeting the Moment: Leadership and Well-Being in Ministry, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997), 69.

2 Ibid., 56.

An additional irony in leadership is that organizations put individuals in a leadership position and immediately begin the process of undermining and tearing them down. This paradox is present even with very effective leaders. There is no rational explanation for this contradictory behavior.4 Acknowledging this phenomenon readily prepares us for its impending presence. History is happening now. Will we choose to attempt to direct history or be controlled by it?5 According to Engstrom and Dayton, "The role of the change agent is to identify needed directions for the organization or the society, to help those involved identify why such changes will benefit the organization, to strengthen the motivation of those involved to move in appropriate directions, and to enable people to bring about the change."6 Our role is to help others see what needs to be done.

A major component of leading change is realizing that change must begin with us. Our relationships and influence form a group of intersecting concentric circles, and when we change, the ripple effects of our change of attitude or status affects all those with whom we're connected. The same is true for our influence with the church.

According to Lewis, "Driving forces attempting to bring about change will always provoke restraining forces that will attempt to maintain the status quo; thus our role is to strengthen the driving forces while weakening the restraining forces."7

Organizations Are Complacent

Organizations tend to lean toward complacency. They develop systems that work and then resist changing them. In an organization such as a church, the people who helped develop current systems are often still there, may own the status quo, and will often staunchly defend it. As individuals and organizations, we desperately want to make things better; however, we usually resist change. Ironically, we may become content with the system even if we don't like the results.8

3 Ted W. Engstrom and Edward R. Dayton, The Christian Executive, (Waco: Word Books, 1979), 44.

4 G. Douglas Lewis, Meeting the Moment: Leadership and Well-Being in Ministry, 57.

5 Ted W. Engstrom and Edward R. Dayton, The Christian Executive, 45.

6 Ibid., 45.

7 G. Douglas Lewis, Meeting the Moment: Leadership and Well-Being in Ministry, 70.

Churches can easily assume a maintenance mentality and eventually believe that it is their role to care for each other with as little change as possible. Sometimes, they would like for things to be different; however, the pain of change often outweighs the discomfort of complacency. Most people will choose the less painful alternative, and they will only change when they perceive the pain of their present state to be greater than the pain associated with the risk of change. Consequently, those who resist change will always outnumber those who enthusiastically engage it.

Herein lies one of the most difficult points of leadership. Since a church is considered a normative structure, church leaders are neither coercive (leaders using force and punishment to bring about compliance, i.e., prison or military) nor utilitarian (those who gain compliance by giving or withholding pay, as in business or industry). Leadership styles in the coercive structure are authoritarian, and in the utilitarian structure are authoritarian to democratic. In a normative structure people choose to invest themselves because of the missions and the goals of the organization. Leadership styles may range from democratic to authoritarian. Leadership in a normative structure is the most difficult because you must wait on others to act. The demands of people to make changes while they simultaneously resist change often seem unbearable.9

Discerning a Direction

"If you don't care where you're going, any road will take you there." This statement often describes the church's attempt to engage in change, for often we make the mistake of believing that movement in any direction is good, and we're not often patient in discerning where God truly desires us to go. Once we perceive an appropriate direction, our goal is to begin to remove obstacles that stand in the way. "The change that we want to bring about is to strengthen the positive and reduce the negative forces."10

One way to discern direction is to discover discontentment. Sometimes those who are discontented are able to imagine a better future. One strategy is to listen carefully to pockets of discontentment and to find ways to strengthen the discontented message.

However, this strategy is not without significant risks. These risks must be carefully weighed.

Discover the Leadership Structure

In order for change to happen, you must build support from all leaders. For instance, you cannot listen to the voice of people who see alternatives (see above) while ignoring the existing power structure of your church and expect for anything to happen other than losing your job!

The first step is to discover the strongly opinionated people in a congregation. These people will always express their opinions and will often determine the direction of the congregation. In organizations with long-term members, opinionated persons will always have more initial influence than you presently have! Failure to recognize this basic fact is a sure recipe for disaster.

Within every church is a formal and an informal leadership structure. The formal structure includes those who are currently appointed or elected to leadership positions. It is important to remember, however, that every organization has an informal leadership structure as well. This structure includes people who have had strong leadership positions in the past; people with family connections, money, and community clout; and people with strong personalities. I distinctly remember a time in my first church when a controversial topic was being presented in a business meeting. A number of people showed up whom I considered fringe members of the congregation (they held no elected positions and were minimally involved). When they expressed their feelings, people in the congregation listened to them, and they determined the outcome of the vote. I was astonished that people had listened to them when their example of commitment and service was so minimal. I had failed to realize the significance of the past leadership positions some of these people had held and the family and community connections they represented. While people are free to make choices according to the authority of their own consciences, sometimes they do not use their freedom. When pushed into a corner, many people will respond by acting upon old patterns and authority structures.

Practical Steps for Bringing About Change11

Develop Trust – Change will only occur when leaders have earned the trust of those they lead. When a leader is trusted, he/she can bring about processes that can promote the free exchange of ideas. People will not share openly or consider moving into new territory with a leader they do not trust!

11 This outline of steps is taken from Engstrom and Dayton, The Christian Executive, 47-9.

Go Public – Early on in the process, you must go public with your vision of change. When you publicly announce your desire for change, you are taking a bold step toward your personal commitment; furthermore, you are beginning the process of building support for your ideas.

Take Your Time – Most of us tend to move too quickly in bringing about change. We are afraid that if we don't make big changes quickly, we'll lose sight of the vision or others will perceive we're not capable of leadership. Being slow and methodical is usually preferred.

Find an Entry Point – Search until you find a place to begin change. If you are seeking to broaden the congregational repertoire, a good step might be to bring in a special group to lead a special worship event. Afterward, at the encouragement of some of the congregation, begin to utilize an occasional song from the group's repertoire.

Involve Many People – No significant change will ever happen in a church without involving many people. Sometimes change seems to occur but then you discover that when the leader leaves, the ministry reverts to where it was. Although there may have been a façade of change, it did not involve enough people to sustain the change. According to G. Douglas Lewis, "People are more likely to make changes in themselves and their settings if they are personally involved in the change process."12 Additionally, people will react more positively to the truth about the church when they have discovered it for themselves. When they feel that change is being pressed on them, they nearly always resist.

Be Open to New Ideas – Have ideas of where you think the music ministry should go; however, be open to input from others. Many times you'll find that the ideas discovered through others are better than yours. According to G. Douglas Lewis, "We are as afraid of feedback as we are of change."13 We must create safe places for others and ourselves so that we can be honest and open in offering and receiving ideas.

Break the Process into Steps – This is helpful for two reasons: (1) It shows that the process is attainable, and (2) it keeps us focused when we feel that we're moving so slowly that nothing is happening. We are able to see that we are indeed making progress.

Build in Success – Find opportunities to celebrate. At every possible juncture, declare a success and celebrate it. Affirm every sign of progress.

Provide Resources – Sometimes change doesn't succeed because appropriate resources are not in place. When resources are not in place, negative people will use this to assure that change does not happen.

Be a Revolutionary, Reformer, or Innovator – Leaders are usually seen as revolutionaries, reformers, or innovators. The first pattern implies that the past must be discarded, and we must start over. The second pattern implies that the old structure had inherent flaws and needs to be reformed. The third implies that there are more creative ways yet to be discovered. It does not judge the past but affirms it in building toward the future. Obviously, the third pattern is preferred when working with a church. It is important that you take the appropriate steps to see that your attempts at bringing about change are not perceived as revolutionary or reforming. As an innovator, you will clearly communicate that the future will be different, better in fact!

Evaluate – Is this really where we want to be? The evaluation process usually results in an ongoing cycle of change, which involves either beginning the process again or continuing to take the process toward new goals. Since change is ongoing, it should be cyclical. To cease to embrace change is to cease growing, and ultimately, living.

Managing Worship Conflicts

Conflicts over worship will occur in every church. Although worship conflicts are more prevalent now than in any other time in history, conflict is not new. Throughout the history of the Christian church, there have been conflicts about the liturgy of the church, and many of them have involved music. Worship conflict within some churches has become so dramatic that some writers have used the term "worship war" to describe it.

Donald Hustad once remarked that he has been an active church musician for the better part of the twentieth century, and every single year during his ministry could have been described as "an era of crisis in church music."1 Change and controversy are not new.

The causes of worship conflicts are a subject for another book; however, because of the continued introduction of new styles of Christian music; greater dissemination of Christian music through recordings, television, and the Internet; and increased musical listening sophistication by congregants, the diversity is likely to continue, if not increase. Churches will likely become more diverse in their worship practices, and individual members will become more aware of their choices. Music ministers will have to become more adept at dealing with these conflicts appropriately.

Once faced with controversy, most churches adopt one of two models: either they have multiple services with different styles, or they have a service that seeks to utilize music from two or more styles, i.e., blended. However, even with different services or with blended worship, conflicts over worship are not over. When different services exist with clear mandates toward certain musical styles, there can still be conflicts over particular selections or other worship-related issues, and people who are accustomed to attending worship at a particular time may not like the style assigned to their service. When the style is blended, conflicts are often more intense than ever. People will always have preferences regarding their worship (especially music), and they will seldom refrain from expressing them!