innovating at your own pace

Found a good article in Church Solutions magazine, "Tradition Vs. Change – Innovate at Your Own Pace: Churches must review, reflect before implementing big change", in which Ken Godevenos identified 12 principles on how to handle or avoid change:

1. The history of the church matters.
   
2. The pastor’s personal comfort zone matters.
   
3. Realize you cannot keep everybody happy.
   
4. Your options are limited.
5. If you bring about change, you can lead, lag or lead/lag the community.
   
6. If you stay traditional, you risk losing the youth of your church ...
7. If you try to be both by having two different services each week, you risk informally splitting your church ...
8. Quality and excellence matter, regardless of approach.
   
9. Don’t forget the men.
   
10. Rethink the purpose of worship.
11. Do whatever you have to in order to teach your congregants to pray.
    
12. Finally, remember what the church is all about.

Read the full article for a more detailed description of these principles and conclusions.

-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network