Ep.13 | Leading Change Without Losing People

In this episode of the Revitalize My Church podcast, hosts Bart Blair and Nathan Bryant discuss the importance of cascading communication and maintaining unity when leading a church through revitalization. They emphasize that getting agreement and buy-in from core leaders, mid-level leaders, and key influencers before announcing major changes to the entire congregation is critical for success.

Nathan advises meeting with each leadership group multiple times to allow people with different personalities and decision-making styles time to process proposed changes. He also recommends engaging potential holdouts individually to understand their concerns. Both hosts stress the need to cast a compelling vision of a preferred future to get people excited about changes, rather than just announcing what will be different.

Bart believes that Jesus is honored most when pastors recognize their dual calling to reach the lost and shepherd the saved. He encourages pastors, especially those with an evangelistic bent, to invest time and care into the existing congregation during a revitalization. Nathan advises having a thorough communication plan and taking a slower approach than most pastors would prefer in order to bring as many people along as possible.

The episode concludes with an appeal from 1 Corinthians 1:10, where Paul urges the church to "agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought." The hosts encourage listeners that their church can be unified in following God's leading to have a greater Kingdom impact in their community.