Leading Major Change in Your Ministry

by Jeff Iorg

Collegial decision-making contributes to good decisions about major change in several ways. First, a leadership group creates more ideas and options about a major change than any one person can produce. Second, a group can also edit out bad ideas, eliminating them before they do any damage by public disclosure. Third, good ideas can be turned into great ideas as the leadership group sharpens them. Fourth, objections from group members to a major change are usually the same as will be faced when the issue becomes public. Solving these problems in private may eliminate the issue as a concern, give leaders time to think through appropriate responses prior to going public, and allow leaders to practice dialoging about troublesome issues. Finally, a group decision—particularly when one or more people are reluctant to go forward—can be the means God uses to keep a major change on his timetable.