Changing Church Culture Presented by Rev. Dr. Christine Chakoian First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest Sept. 25, 2014

From Columbus to Lake Forest

Churches are like Marriages… They can get stuck in RUTS. But they don’t have to STAY there.

Changing Church Culture Knowledge Know your current problem Know your embedded patterns Know your embedded strengths Know your faithful goal Engagement Engage Christ’s message Engage leadership Engage conflict Engage sorting Calibration Calibrate your pace Calibrate your people Calibrate your personal growth

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your current problem RevealWorks survey Diagnostic Tools Consultants/consulting programs “Word on the street” “Kitchen cabinet”

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your embedded patterns crypto = hidden or secret + mnesia = memory Congregations have all kinds of hidden memories and buried patterns.

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your embedded patterns Historic difficulties at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest Financial control Turf Wars

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your embedded patterns The “Red Carpet Moment” Exercise: What are the patterns of discord in your congregation? Can you name your “red carpet” patterns?

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your embedded patterns Siloing

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your embedded strengths Superficial and embedded strengths Exercise What are the patterns of health and strength in your congregation? What blessings have endured?

Changing Church Culture: Knowledge Know your faithful goal Pastor as orchestra conductor

Changing Church Culture: Engagement Engage the “score” – Christ’s Message Knowing and Teaching the “score”

Changing Church Culture: Engagement Engage leadership

Changing Church Culture: Engagement Engage tension Tension is crucial for growth. Exercise What are the healthiest Christian practices to engage tension in your church?

Changing Church Culture: Engagement Engage sorting Discerning how to let the Gospel reach different people Exercise What helped you feel God’s presence early in your life? What do you see helping the next generation connect with God’s presence?

Changing Church Culture: Calibration Calibrate your pace Change doesn’t happen overnight! Going too fast, too slow or just right can make a BIG difference.

Changing Church Culture: Calibration Calibrate your people People resist change when: They feel it is imposed upon them. (They become frightened.) They sense too much anxiety or fear. (They become paralyzed.) They experience no sense of urgency. (They become complacent.)

Changing Church Culture The power behind the “ship” of Christ was always the wind—the wind of the Holy Spirit. If we think we’re in charge, we’ll sink this ship.

Wesley’s Covenant Prayer I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

With the wind of the Spirit, push me, pull me, rock me, stop me: but let it be your will that guides our ship, now and forever.