In the case of a local church, resistance comes because the church’s values were not changed before the influencers or leaders introduced or implemented change. If all these things have been addressed or even carefully attended to, it could come down to the basic fact that some will dig into their trenches and make a stand against change because of sinfully negative attitudes

A number of years ago, while serving in a different church, I initiated some changes. However, I made sure that the first year would see no changes within the church; at least none that would cause upheaval. The first year was a time to get to know the people, to develop trust, and to plant the seeds for a possible, positive future and to cast the vision.

The first upheaval came in my second week as pastor, when I moved the old, little table in the foyer out and moved a more accommodating desk in. That way the literature could be neatly spread about rather than placed in heaps where no one took notice. That next Sunday a woman dressed me down like some drill sergeant for “changing everything” in the whole church! What was an insignificant, meaningless “change” was an incredibly large challenge to life as it had always been (at least so she thought).

A week later this same person found me painting my new office. It hadn’t been painted in fifteen or so years. The carpet was even older and impossible to clean, the venetian blinds were tattered, and the desk had been used by my many predecessors over forty-five years. In fact, I amusingly found notes in that desk dating back to the original pastor, and a few from other previous pastors!

When this woman saw that I was repainting the room she got angry. “What are you doing!?” she demanded to know.

Not wanting to give in to her rhetorical scolding I answered with the obvious, “I’m painting the office.”

“Well, I can see that! Why are you painting the pastor’s office?”

“It needs refreshing, and I am the pastor, you know?”

She ignored my rebuff. “Who gave you permission to paint the pastor’s office?” she grumped with her fists dug into her sides.

“I didn’t know I needed permission to paint my office.”

“This is the pastor’s office! You need permission!” she barked with an even more elevated voice.

I kept rolling the paint on the wall while she stood firmly planted in the doorway. It was then that I understood her anger. This was her church. The pastor’s office belonged to her as well as everyone else who had been there for years. Even though I was the pastor, I was the new guy making abrupt changes to her little world. She had not been consulted about those changes. Of course she had no official role other than the one she appointed herself to as the guardian of all things “the way we’ve always had it.” Her foot was now tapping the carpeted floor.

Turning my back to her while rolling paint up and down, back and forth on the wall, I loudly declared, “The elders know what I am doing and gave consent.”

At that she did an about-face and proclaimed, “Well, we’ll just see about this!” and stomped away.

The next day I accidentally knocked a can of paint all over the old carpet. I really did not intentionally do that, even though I was suspected of plotting my next change in the pastor’s office.

Whether intentional or not, making even the slightest deviation to normalcy was a declaration of war. And no matter what approach I took (ignoring, détente, dialog, or confrontation) that war lasted the entire time we were at the church.

Change is hard. But change always happens. We can’t stop it from happening. However, some people, for whatever of the myriad of reasons, are terribly affected by change. To them, change is a four-letter word, a crisis (though way out of proportion to reality); something to fight or grumble about.

It was almost two years later when another woman, sweet as can be, approached me after a sermon that apparently moved her deeply. It was about how grace overcomes law, and how the grace of Christ is what really causes us to change (oops, there I said it again). But this kind of change is into Christ-likeness. She approached me and said, “My family and I have been in this church for almost twenty years. I’ve never heard this kind of preaching before. I’m leaving the church!”

“But why?” I asked. Her explanation is that what I was doing was causing all sorts of change, nearly all of which she thought positive. This made no sense to me; but her rationale was that the elders who were in charge had been in charge for too many years and had permitted a lack of grace to exist in the congregation all this time.
“Aren’t the changes being made good?”

“Yes, but they should have been made years ago. And they are changes, which is causing problems. And now they are just too much for me.”

“Have you considered that if you leave to go to another church how much of a big change that will be?”

She just looked at me with tears creeping down her cheeks. She said nothing, but turned around and left. She and her family began searching for another church, and because of her kin relationships they would periodically come to worship and an occasional fellowship meal. For her, even good change was hard to take.

The phenomena of change and resistance to it has been observed, studied, written and lectured upon for decades. These students of people and their responses to or engagement with change have informed us that there are many reasons why people resist change, even good change.

The first reason is fear. Fear of the unknown. The assumption here is that if change happens, then something bad will happen. Then there is the fear of failure. If I or we change what we are doing, maybe we will fail and things will only get worse? Other fears include the fear of personal loss or the fear of the loss of my power or influence. Or it could be the fear of the loss of the status or position I have now.

A second reason, which I have observed all too frequently over the years, is rejecting change because of insecurity. The more insecure the individual or group is the more they will stand against change. Along with insecurity, it is possible they feel overloaded and overstressed in their own lives already, so they cannot add anything they consider additionally stressful.

Thirdly, sometimes the reason people oppose change is because of pride. This is fairly common with people in power positions, managerial positions or in leadership roles. Their pride has a very difficult time accepting change because the change wasn’t initiated by them. Rightly so, change could mean or would mean that somebody is going to lose influence, power or control.

On the flip side it might be that those who refuse to go along with change do so because they simply do not respect or trust the leader(s). John Maxwell speaks to this in his seminars and in his book, Developing the Leader Within You (p. 65).

Any alteration to the status quo disturbs the comfort zone. This is often due to the fact that people are quite satisfied with the way things are.

If the environment isn’t disturbed then perhaps they resist because the routine is disrupted. I recall one time in another church when the elders decided to move the worship service ahead by fifteen minutes. One would have thought they had violated the 11th commandment and set the new time to Thursday mornings at five o’clock!

Maybe it’s a case that people refuse to accept change is because they don’t understand the purpose of it. A well thought out and clearly communicated vision and mission with purposes and goals may help to alleviate the angst or opposition.

However, even if you present good, clear and cogent arguments some will dig in their heels because they do not see the value of change. People will accept and then buy in to something new or different when the value of the new and different is greater than the value they place on the old and familiar. In other words, people will not change until they believe that the rewards of change outweigh the cost for change.

Conversely, there are the “traditionalists” (for lack of a better, more descriptive term) who resist change because they have invested time, talents, energy, money, resources into the established institution. For them change would mean loss. It would mean devaluing their life or work’s investment prior to the proposes changes.

In the case of a local church, resistance comes because the church’s values were not changed before the influencers or leaders introduced or implemented change.

If all these things have been addressed or even carefully attended to, it could come down to the basic fact that some will dig into their trenches and make a stand against change because of sinfully negative attitudes. This goes along with the matter of selfish pride.

Where there is stubborn pride there is a refusal to learn and grow. As the book of Proverbs implies, without humility there is no possibility of teaching and learning. I believe Socrates also made that observation.

Finally, within churches, especially in established churches, members may not have made a clear distinction between form (unchanging, eternal principles) and function (things that can change). Too often biblical indicatives become equated with methodology. The functions and methods are all too frequently seen as coequal to God’s law and Word, rather than rightly understanding God’s Word must inform the principles by which things are done. God leaves open the vast amount of possibilities for implementing those things which are biblically unchangeable. It’s a freedom to be enjoyed even within the difficulty of change.

There are many more reasons why change is such a repugnant thing for some people; why it is a four-letter expletive. Nevertheless, these are the most obvious reasons. And I’m sure, given time, this list will change too.

Don Owsley is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and currently serves as pastor of Cornerstone Church (PCA) in Ft. Collins, CO. He is a graduate of WTS California and previously served as a minister in the OPC. He is adjunct faculty member at New Geneva Seminary and blogs from time to time at Imperfect Pastor where this article first appeared. It is used with his permission.