The Change Your Church May Be Avoiding

Many churches know something needs to change. They can feel it. Attendance patterns have shifted. Volunteers are harder to find. Outreach feels more difficult. Younger generations seem less connected. The surrounding culture has changed. The old approaches do not seem to work the way they once did.

• So, churches try to fix things. They improve communication. They update programs. They adjust worship times. They create new events. They tweak structures. Sometimes those changes help, but sometimes the deeper problem remains untouched.

In Canoeing the Mountains, Tod Bolsinger describes the difference between technical change and adaptive change. Technical change asks, “What can we fix?” Adaptive change asks, “How do we need to change?” That distinction matters for church renewal. Many congregations are willing to change things. Fewer are willing to let God change them.

• Here are a few questions renewal leaders can help churches ask.

Seven Questions to ask about change

1. Are we trying to change stuff or change us?

• It is easier to change a program than to change a culture. It is easier to adjust a schedule than to confront fear. It is easier to create a new ministry than to ask whether the church has lost sight of its mission. Technical changes may be necessary, but they cannot substitute for deeper transformation.

2. What assumptions are shaping our decisions?

• Every church has mental models. These are the hidden beliefs that shape what feels normal, wise, safe, or possible. A church may say it wants mission, but assume members should always come first. A church may say it wants young people, but resist the changes needed to welcome them. Renewal requires bringing these assumptions into the light.

3. Where does our imagination stop?

• Many churches believe they are imaginative, but their imagination operates inside familiar boundaries. They can imagine improving what already exists, but struggle to imagine something deeply different. Holy imagination asks not only, “How can we do this better?” but also, “What might God be inviting us to become?”

4. Are we avoiding areas that make us uncomfortable?

• Some churches avoid outreach. Some avoid justice. Some avoid evangelism. Some avoid leadership development. Some avoid conversations about race, poverty, culture, or suffering. But the areas a church avoids may be the very places where God wants to bring renewal.

5. Are we seeking individual renewal without corporate renewal?

• Many churches focus on helping individuals grow in faith. That is good and necessary. But the church is more than a collection of individual Christians. God forms a people. Renewal must ask what it means for the whole congregation to become a sign and foretaste of the kingdom.

6. Do our structures serve the mission?

• Institutions matter. A church’s governance, finances, building, leadership culture, partnerships, and ministry systems either support the mission or slow it down. Healthy churches do not preserve structures for their own sake. They shape structures so the church can faithfully join God on mission.

7. are we willing to be led by the spirit, not merely by preference?

• Renewal is not simply helping churches do what they already want to do. Sometimes it means helping a congregation discern a path it would not have chosen on its own. That work requires patience, courage, prayer, and deep trust in the Spirit.

The church matters — not just as a place where individuals receive spiritual encouragement, but as a people formed by the death and resurrection of Jesus. The church is called to embody this good news of Jesus Christ, seek the good of its neighbors, and point toward the restoration of all things in Christ.

• That kind of renewal will require more than better programs. It will require surrendered people. It will require courageous leaders. And it will require churches willing to ask not only, “What should we change?” But, “Lord, how are you changing us?”