Changing Organizational Culture

the point is still well made. Steve Gains, recently appointed president of the SBC, seems to be in agreement as he is quoted from his 2017 Sothern Baptist Convention address: “I want to encourage you to be a soul-winner. I want to encourage you to be evangelistic, said Gains who plans to appoint a task force for more effective personal evangelism.”

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Church leaders need to ensure that their people are equipped and encouraged to be speak the gospel. That said, what are the difficulties in changing a culture where an emphasis on evangelism has been dormant for years? Is there any wisdom to offer for those attempting to lead colossal change in the DNA of a church’s foundational culture?

For answers to these questions, it is necessary to consider organizational change.

may be assumed by most, it is vital for the pastor or church leader seeking to lead revitalization in their churches to heed their admonition.

While the above scholars within the church give wise counsel when it comes to organizational change, secular theorists must be observed here as well. Edgar Schein, author of Organization Culture and Leadership, argues that to change culture one must identify and influence the artifacts, values, and assumptions of an organization. Schein defines artifacts: “All the phenomena that you would see, hear, and feel when you encounter an unfamiliar culture.”

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In churches experiencing plateau or decline, many of which have been in existence for many years, there is certainly much to see, hear, and feel within the existing culture. In the context of church revitalization, a leader must understand existing values and assumptions that may have contributed to the church’s decline or plateau before they will ever be able to change them. Kevin Peck, whose case studies of church culture change, is helpful in modifying Schein’s definition of culture in an effort to define the ultimate goal of leading a church through organizational change.

He writes the following definition of church culture:

A set of tacit assumptions (both biblical and unbiblical) shared by local congregations as it attempts to flourish according to God’s will, addressing both external interaction and internal cooperation, that is considered to be true, and therefore is taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, feel in relation to God’s design and purpose to the individual, the local church, and the world.

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In the later stages of Schein’s process, a change agent is then able to impact what Schein calls the embedded mechanisms, “mechanisms that a leader has available to them to reinforce the adoption of their own beliefs, values, and assumptions as the group gradually evolves into an organization.”

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In this stage, the vision casting for healthy church revitalization becomes a priority. The consistent theme of a “healthy, disciple

72 Edgar H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 4th ed. (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 2010), 23.

73 Kevin Jamie Peck, “Examining a Church Culture of Multiplication: A Multiple Case Study”

(D.Min. project, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014), 1.

74 Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 235.

making church” cannot be over communicated in this stage of the church revitalization process. Patrick Lencioni, while not an organizational change expert, yet highly regarded for his writing on healthy teams, affirms the need for repetitious communication: “Many leaders fail to over communicate because they get bored saying the same things over and over again. But that does not matter. The point of leadership is not to keep the leader entertained, but to mobilize people around what is most important.”

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In church revitalization, what could be more important than communicating again and again the clear priority for the gospel to continue to be proclaimed?

Leading change in the church is not for the faint of heart, but when one’s motive is the glory of God, it is a worthy ambition and fulfilling achievement. In The First Hundred Days, Daniels argues, “Leading the body of Christ in extending the mission of the kingdom of Christ in the world is the most significant work a person can take on.”

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Warner Burke, another practitioner in changing organizational culture offers wisdom to leaders experiencing change as well. Although his audience is generally more secular in nature, pastors and church leaders seeking to revitalize have much to learn from him. Burke argues the necessity of incorporating stories in the process of culture change.

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Salvation testimonies of new converts and simple, honest accounts of gospel conversations are a sure way to make evangelistic emphasis a part of the culture of any church organization. In The Heart of Change: Real Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations, John Kotter contends that the first step in his eight-step change process is creating urgency.

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75 Patrick M. Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012), 143.

76 T. Scott Daniels, First 100 Days, The: A Pastor’s Guide (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 2011), 17.

77 W. Warner Burke, Organization Change: Theory and Practice, 5th ed. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2017), 341.

78 John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen, The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), 15.

What could be more urgent than seeing the Great Commission fulfilled? Jesus has already

clearly communicated in the gospels that “the harvest is plentiful” (Luke 10:2), thus the