When we embark on a journey to see disciple making and church planting multiplication gain momentum, we will frequently be faced with two different dynamics:

1. Trying to bring about change to what already exists, and 
2. Starting something new.

Generally it’s not one or the other that we must work at, but both.

Many church leaders have become frustrated at trying to bring about change when it seems there are too many barriers to change happening. And so change happens slowly. 

NCLS Research in information gleaned from their 2021 Attender Survey had some findings about receptiveness to change that may surprise many church leaders. The research showed that 89% of Pentecostal attenders when asked “Do you agree or disagree? I would support the development of new initiatives in ministry and mission in this local church” responded that they either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. Around 80% of other Protestant attendees also agreed.

With such strong sentiment being shown to new initiatives why is it that change often seems so slow and hard? Two reasons that this may be the case are:

1. Sometimes just one voice or a small number of people resistant to new initiatives can hold up change, and
2. Most people don’t mind change as long as it doesn’t affect them!

Changing what already exists should not be the only strategy that we have. Starting something new should be considered. This could be a new church plant or a new ministry that does not effect the entire church.

The NCLS 2021 Attender Survey found that when attenders were given the following proposition, “The local church should support a new church with financial/people resources”, 79% of Pentecostal and around 50% of other Protestant attenders either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.

A newly planted daughter church can have a culture and DNA that is far more innovative than a mother church that is transitioning slowly. In addition, the planting team can be trained in ways of making disciples that are foreign to the mother church and have a sharp focus on outreach with the mother church may find impossible to have.

My encouragement to leaders who want to bring about change to increase their effectiveness in making disciples and to plant new churches is simply to not get stuck in changing what is slow to change. Start something new whilst you work on bringing about change to the old. And remember the words of Jesus when He said:

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine must be poured into new wineskins. No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ʻThe old is good enough.ʼ” (Luke 5:37-39 NET)

Tim O’Neill

Executive Director, Exponential Australia