The facilitation by church leaders in overcoming resistance to change.

• Main Author: Rao, Bobby
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: christian leadership; change; passive resistance
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/218

Little has been done to address the issue of how to overcome resistance to change in a change effort in the church world. “How to overcome resistance to change?” is a question that requires serious consideration among church leaders. Church leaders continue to act in ways that produce resistance to change and ultimately failed change efforts. These actions on the part of church leaders often strengthen and reinforce the sources of resistance to change, making it very difficult for change to be accepted by church members. A literature study design was used to conduct this research. The purpose of this research was to: • Understand the phenomenon of resistance to change • To determine the actions of leaders that generate resistance to change • To determine how church leaders can overcome resistance to change The research indicates that church leaders make too many errors in a change process that generates resistance to change. The research has found eight actions of leaders that generates resistance to change by followers. Apart from the eight actions of leaders that produce resistance to change, many change agents continue to function as managers and not leaders in a change process. This results in further resistance to change. The research clearly shows that for church leaders to effectively overcome resistance to change, they need to follow a multi-stage change process, which is comprehensive, sequential and one that develops naturally and addresses all the sources of resistance to change. The research shows that church leaders should not skip or race through the steps or fail to reinforce earlier steps in the process of overcoming resistance to change. The researcher recommends nine steps that can be used by church leaders to overcome resistance to change and thus facilitate change successfully. === Dr. B.J. Geyser