{"id":1167,"date":"2008-10-29T00:05:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T04:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2008-10-29T10:16:46","modified_gmt":"2008-10-29T14:16:46","slug":"%e2%80%9deverything-takes-five-years%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/1167","title":{"rendered":"\u201dEverything takes five years\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks I\u2019ve had ocassion to be reminded of what my friend Margaret<\/a> says about bringing about change in congregations, which is, \u201dEverything takes five years.\u201d While that\u2019s a bit tounge-in-cheek, it\u2019s not far from the truth. Over the past four weeks I\u2019ve had casual conversations with as many church leaders related to how long it takes to get things done in congregations. Each highlighted a different aspect of the dynamic.<\/p>\n

Gaining trust takes time.<\/em><\/strong>
\nA conversation with a local priest highlighted how long it takes for folks to learn to trust a new leader. Trust is not something that is given totally by virtue of position or office. And if we\u2019ve followed a leader who has not left well, then gaining trust can be even more difficult. Gaining people\u2019s trust takes about five years. <\/p>\n

Flushing the system takes time.<\/em><\/strong>
\nOne recent seminary graduate, only two years out of seminary, is leaving her first church position. She\u2019s feeling frustrated that people on her primary minstry committees don\u2019t seem to listen to her ideas, don\u2019t seem to take her seriously and don\u2019t follow her leadership. I shared with her my own perspective that in order to begin to get things done you have to \u201dflush the system\u201d first. That is, you have to transition out the people on committees that you inherited and start putting in the people you want. Getting the people you want in the right places takes about five years. <\/p>\n

Learning the culture takes time.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMy conversation with a pastor revealed his surprise at how long it took for him to understand some of his church\u2019s behaviors and practices. He is in his sixth year of ministy in the congregation and only now is becoming aware of some of the history behind issues, practices, and habits. For one thing, he\u2019s noticing that church members are starting to share a different kind of information, one that includes history, stories, and \u201dinsider\u201d knowledge that folks hadn\u2019t shared before. It takes about five years to begin to understand the culture.<\/p>\n

Getting settled takes time.<\/em><\/strong>
\nI recently met with a church leadership group for a consultation. When I began soliciting basic information about their church I asked how long their pastor had been there. When they said, \u201dSix years,\u201d I said, \u201dO.k., so he\u2019s been here long enough to have survived a couple of crises and for you to suspect he\u2019s going to stay.\u201d That got a huge laugh from the group; they recognized the truth in the statement. Later I stressed that at six years, the pastor was in the position \u201dto begin to start\u201d making plans and dreaming about what the church and its ministry can be. Getting settled takes about five years. <\/p>\n

Successful congregational ministry is a matter of cultivation and development. Everything takes five years. Sadly, I suspect that too many impatient pastors and ministry staff don\u2019t take the long view and end their ministries before they can even begin to start to make a difference. Too often the first crisis (right around the third year) is seen as a personal attack or a personal failure, rather than something that is a matter of course. The key is to get through it and beyond it. The tenacity that can help the leader come out on the other side of the first crisis is what often facilitates the capacity to bring about change. <\/p>\n

galindoconsultants.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks I\u2019ve had ocassion to be reminded of what my friend Margaret says about bringing about change in congregations, which is, \u201dEverything takes five years.\u201d While that\u2019s a bit tounge-in-cheek, it\u2019s not far from the truth. Over … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,22,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congregational-life","category-leadership","category-second-chair"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions\/1172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}