Bob Whitesel, Staying Power: Why People Leave the Church Over Change (And What You Can Do About It!). Abingdon Press, 2003.
Sequel: Whitesel, Preparing For Change Reaction
Referenced in: Overcoming Change Resistance, Creating Change Receptiveness
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is a very useful application of the work of management scholars Bruno Dyck and Frederick Starke on why change proponents leave organizations. As dedicated believers, Dyck and Starke studied churches in Canada and discovered a six-stage polarization process that causes change proponents to leave and the five triggers that push a church out of one stage and into another. Churches that addressed two of the five triggers kept more of their change proponents while also maintaining harmony with those who preferred the status quo. In this book, Whitesel shows how congregations can discover which stage they are in and reframe negative triggers into positive experiences that satisfy the legitimate interests of change proponents without polarizing or alienating a congregation’s tradition-bearers. This may be a good companion to Oswald and Johnson’s Managing Polarities in Congregations.
From the Publisher
A guide to working for change in the congregation without losing members .
Change is essential to every Christian congregation’s ongoing health and vitality. Yet change is also inherently threatening, and often produces conflict between those who advocate radical and bold change in the church and those who prefer a more careful, incremental approach. Change—or rather conflict about change—is one of the reasons most frequently cited when people leave the church. Sadly, it is often the advocates of change, those who have become excited about a new vision for where the church is going and have worked hard to implement that vision, who choose to leave when conflict erupts.
This pattern of change, conflict, and exodus need not be inevitable. Building on the work of those who have studied organizational change and transition, Bob Whitesel points to 6 distinct moments in the congregation’s life when conflict over change (and the departure of members as a result) can either occur or be avoided. In this book he offers specific, helpful ideas for how church leaders can nurture the agents of change in their congregations while also fostering the good will of those who see it as their job to maintain stability and continuity with the church’s past.
Filled with numerous examples of actual congregations that have either succumbed to conflict over change or worked through it, Staying Power will be helpful to all congregational leaders who wish to introduce substantive new directions into the life of the church without alienating a significant portion of its membership.
About the Author
Dr. Bob Whitesel is associate professor of graduate studies in ministry in the College of Graduate Studies at Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana, and president of C3 International (Creative Church Consulting, Intl.). He is a sought-after writer, speaker, consultant, and lecturer on the organic emerging church, church management, and church growth.
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