Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

March 6, 2012

Why stay the same?

Nota - Este artículo esta disponible en español aquí.

Like many congregations, the Episcopal Church Foundation is currently in the midst of many changes. My friend and colleague Anne Ditzler is heading for greener pastures after 14 years of being with ECF (she is literally leaving us for a beautiful organic farm in Western Massachusetts), and I am in the midst of transitioning into a new role.

Change is on our minds and so it’s no surprise that our most recent writing focuses on this important topic. Last week, Anne wrote about Appropriate Pace of Change.

This week, however, I’ve decided to write about resistance to change and I’ve decided to do so by highlighting the voices of vestry members who are dealing with this sort of resistance. The following comments are derived from six surveys that ECF Vital Practices conducted in 2011 and 2012. While these comments specifically address why nothing has changed since they started reading ECF Vital Practices, their comments touch on aspects of change including group dynamics, control issues, overall busyness, etc.

Control Issues

My priest has complete control over what happens in my church!
The wardens are set in the way things should be done.

Plain Old Dislike of Change

I’m working on my fellow vestry members!
People don’t want to change.

Group Dynamics

Insufficient buy in.
It takes more than one member of vestry to make things happen.

Too Busy

Articles were interesting but not specific enough to engage "very busy" people.
I would like to, but it never seems like there is enough time to start another project.

Change is Gonna Come

Not yet, but will.
Still percolating…
Waiting for the right issue/opportunity.

The good news is that these surveys also tell us that ECF Vital Practices is resulting in real changes at the congregational level; an average of 45% of readers say that some issue, idea, or topic they’ve encountered has resulted in a concrete shift. This is a great start but we certainly want to make an even deeper impact, and so this requires paying attention to all the reasons why change doesn’t take place. What would you add to this list?