i m m e d i a t e l y a f t e r t h e o l d p u l p i t leadership, I guess I thought I didn’t
returned. His response was quiet but need God this time.”
honest: “I sulked and pouted.”
We could tell there was still pain and
regrets though two years had passed.
“I thought I had earned a right to do
something as small as moving a pulpit,”
he lamented. Derek took a deep breath
and continued, “It wasn’t as small as I
thought it was.”
First Failure: Not Praying
Derek was more than willing to conduct
a diagnosis on this crisis. The pastor
was an ongoing learner. Now that
Redeemer Church had begun to regain
momentum, he was glad to assess what
went wrong.
“I can tell you easily what my first mess-
up was,” he began. “Every other time I
have led change in this church, I have
initiated it with prayer.” We asked him
to elaborate. “In all the other changes,”
he told us, “I spent about two weeks
praying about it before I even mentioned
it to someone else. This time I acted
without prayer.”
Derek was not done explaining. “I then
asked a few of the true prayer warriors
in the church to put it to prayer,” he
continued. “There are about eight of
these men and women who have a heart
and passion for intercessory prayer. I
skipped over them this time.”
He paused. It was as if Derek caught
the severity of the mistake he had
made. “I began in my own power,” he
said nearly in a whisper. “I had become
so confident and cocky about my own
40 • Solutions
S e c o n d Fa i l u r e : N o t A s s e s s i n g
Unintended Consequences
Derek admitted he knew the old pulpit
was an emotional issue for many church
members. “What I can’t believe,” he
said, “is that I never asked myself how
people would respond to this change. I
should have known better.”
One of the principles of leadership in
any organization, particularly a local
church, is the law of unintended
consequences. It points out that any
significant change in an organization
will have reactions that extend well
beyond the change itself.
The pastor had failed to consider the
consequences of moving the pulpit.
Even though he knew there were deep
and longstanding emotional ties to
the pulpit, he did not consider how the
reactions might impact the church.
Derek thought he could win the day
with the power of his personality.
Third Failure: Not Communicating
A pastor once asked me how much
he should communicate an important
issue in the church. My response was
“a lot more than you’re communicating
now.” To be clear, I did not know how
much he was actually communicating
to the congregation. I simply know that
if something is important to the church,
it really cannot be over-communicated.
Derek never communicated about this
issue to the church. He never explained