This fall, children may find unexpected changes to their day-to-day school activities. Many recent news articles — I’m writing this article in May 2020 — include multiple reports indicating that school districts around the United States are developing plans for the continued crisis. For an example see these reports: here, here, here, here.
As church leaders, this information also calls us to face a hard reality. Business as usual children’s ministry may not return during the 2020/2021 school year.
Let that sink in.
Crisis leadership forces ministers to focus on the present. Confident leadership prepares for the future..
As leaders, we can become stuck in the present and lose sight of the future.
Plan for Multiple Futures and Not One Future
Church leaders will make the decision to reopen their ministries after assessing their circumstances, such as the size of their congregation and the number of children involved in their ministry, government recommendations, caseloads, or socio-economic needs.
Planning for multiple futures is choosing not to put all of your eggs in one basket. Confident Kidmins choose the best possible “plan A” for their ministry while knowing that plan B, D, and D are ready to be implemented at any moment. This is not a lack of faith in God, this is an effective leadership strategy.
Plan with Change Management Strategies in Mind
I teach a course at Lubbock Christian University called Family and Congregational Dynamics. It is one of my favorite courses to teach. I talk about a lot of leadership tools, many that I would like to write about on this blog. Change management is the tool that I talk about the most. Many leadership issues boil down to change managed poorly.
Effective change management empowers church leaders to communicate effectively, plan and implement change with the congregation in mind, and to assess the change for effectiveness.
Planning went out the window when the shut-down came. Ministers had days to plan short-term ministry in an unprecedented time.
In the heat of the moment, ministers skipped all of the change management steps. They had to. But, no worries, there is nothing to stop us from assessing our situation and to begin solid planning for the future.
Plan with Adaptive Change and Not Technical Change
Let’s assume that everything will not go back to normal by the fall. What we do know is that we live in an unprecedented time. For example, your local bookstore does not have a book on the shelf titled Ministry in a Pandemic: What You Need to Know. Like a vaccine, that book and many others will appear in the next 18-24 months. Until then, thank goodness for the age of blogging.
If I were to write the book Ministry in a Pandemic, I can guarantee I’d include a chapter or two on change management strategies and I would discuss in detail two types of change: adaptive and technical change.
Simply, technical change occurs when existing expert knowledge is applied to a new situation. For example, when a minister implements a new children’s ministry curriculum the minister makes a technical change.
Adaptive change, though, is a fundamental change to a ministry direction. Adaptive change explores a situation that seemingly does not have a solution, creates a new path forward and the tools to implement the change. Adaptive change is almost guaranteed to be disruptive and unsettling at first. (One last tidbit, adaptive change may include technical solutions (or tools) to enable the change.)
Pop Quiz: a global pandemic hit the world. You are a children’s minister, and you find out that the new rules to keep everyone safe will close or significantly alter your children’s ministry for at least a year. Does this call for a technical solution or an adaptive change?
Adaptive change is the right answer.
Rember, adaptive change is not a quick-fix, and it requires time, planning, and commitment from the minister.
Adaptive Change Inspires the Imagination
A new reality calls for imagination. As described above, there is not technical change management plan that will lead you to the perfect children’s ministry pandemic curriculum.
It is time for holy imagination. Maybe these questions will help:
- While praying without ceasing, ask the Spirit, what are you leading us to do? Spend time discerning this with leaders, parents, and children.
- Does your answer jive with your vision for ministry? If not, more prayer is needed to discern whether it’s time to change your vision of ministry.
- How would you implement this change? What tools do you need? What will you need to create?
- How and when will you assess this change so that it continues to grow in strength?
These questions will lead you to a basic change management plan. Plan, plan, plan and then implement. Don’t forget, a confident Kidmin while have pursue plan A with plans B, C, and D in their back pocket.
An Example of Adaptive Change
This morning I laid awake asking myself a question after reading the issues with social-distancing in schools. If I was a full-time children’s minister right now, what adaptive change might I embrace to 1) serve children, 2) continue to reach into the community, and 3) use our resources wisely.
My former church had an elementary school in the building for many years. At one point, they left, and then they had to come back. Quickly, I cleaned out rooms that had become children’s ministry classrooms and prepared them for the school to return to close out a semester.
What if, churches approached their local schools and offered their buildings, their classrooms, as overflow space? Perhaps the school could meet in person if additional space was provided.
And while appropriate boundaries need to be respected, there would be plenty of opportunities to get to know kids and parents. Also, it might be possible for the church to offer after school Bible class or tutoring or meet other needs while still maintaining social distancing.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some cities aren’t having this conversation with churches and other large buildings owners right now. This is an example of an adaptive change.
Conclusion
I have so much more to say about change management strategies. I will write on those soon. I do plan to add some links to some books in the article. Perhaps they will help.
