Propagating Change

I made a comment a while ago about the fact the cell group that I used to lead never grew. We had a few new people join us over the two and a half years that I ran it but most of these new people would eventually leave for various reasons. Beyond that, I was aiming to have each member of my group form their own group, expanding the discipleship process as they did so. This kind of multiplication did not happen either.

It seems to be very hard to propagate change. It's hard enough to get people to buy into something new, but the hardest part is to create something new that can sustain itself and continue to grow even after we're gone.

For example, my dad introduced the "Curse to Blessing" or "Family Foundations" ministry here in London. It's a ministry that, through teaching and then prayer in small groups, helped people deal with generational problems in their family or curses that were in their lives. It proved to have an incredible impact, for new Christians and mature Christians alike.

To make this seminar work, my dad had to get training about what to do and then he had to help numerous other people get the same training. A single seminar might require something like 10 trained "counselors," plus other people for prayer support. The way it worked out, my dad did not have to remain involved for the ministry to continue. Other people could take the main leadership task over for a given weekend (or entirely) and the counselors could train still more counselors. Eventually this seminar was being used all over London, though I often talk to people that have no idea that it came out of that initial ministry at LGT with my dad. That's great to hear because it means that the ministry sustained itself and grew without my father helping it along every step of the way.

I think that the keys in this case were:

• Other people were gradually and throughly trained to fill all of the leadership roles.
• These other leaders shared my dad's vision and valued the ministry just as highly.

I led a youth worship team at FCCC (my old church) for two years or so. My last six months as the leader were my favourite because I had effectively worked myself out of a job. I could sit down through an entire practice session without saying anything at all and I could remain in the congregation on a Sunday while they ministered. The youth worship team could not have continued forever (if only because everyone got older) but the various members were able to easily join the adult worship team or continue to lead by themselves on Sunday without my intervention.

And yet, I have the cautionary example of my old cell group since it did not turn out the same way. It's the same deal with the first cell group that I was involved with, the one that my dad led and that no longer exists. I could also offer various examples from the business world in which desired changes did not take root and grow. So propagating change is possible and the two points that I made above may be key but I'm still fairly hit-or-miss with the whole thing. Hopefully I'm getting better at this as I go along.