I know that trying to do some progressive things in an “inter-generational” Southern Baptist church is difficult.  Like the old Baptist jokes go, we have to send all decisions to a committee to be researched, then recommended to the deacons or the pastor, then to the church for a vote, then back to committee, on over and over and over.  Depending on what you are trying to change (gasp!!) you may hear, “that’s not how we have done it before.”  I feel like they are being so stubborn.  But are they?

Currently, we are working toward a video projection system for our sanctuary.  I know, I know.  Welcome to the 20th century.  Most likely, this will be out of date by the time we have it installed.  Well, we’re not really on the bleeding edge of technology and we are way behind many other churches in our area technologically speaking, but we are getting there. Which is a whole other issue – do we have to keep up with the Jones’?

One constant challenge for any agent of change is to get people on board and to get people to fully buy-in.  There was a great post on Seth Godin’s blog yesterday about this very topic and one I plan on giving a lot of thought to as we continue to sell the idea of using technology in church to a generation who thinks VCR’s are still the state of the art.  Check out Seth’s post, Probably Not Stupid.

While I get frustrated, Seth’s post made me see that if I used the same frame of reference, I would probably make the same decision.  So now the work begins to try and either change that frame of reference (i.e. change the minds of “stubborn” people) or change my message so it makes more sense within their frame of reference?  Is this true leadership?