Change in Organizations - Part 1 - Some Groundwork

I'm pretty excited about this series. It might be a bit hard to wade thru in the beginning, but bare with me... I think it will be helpful.

While some churches aren't committed to change, there is a growing number of churches who are. Some folks have called these churches "traditional" churches. These are churches who, by and large, are committed to do things how they have always been done.

The past 40 years have seen churches who pride themselves on not saying, "I've always done it this way." These churches were more often than not, church plants, but we have all heard stories of "transitioned" churches. These churches are more self aware than their unchanging counterparts. There are two kinds of churches who fit this catagory and I'll delineate them first by their commitment and level of permission.

Since I'm sorta making this up as I go I don't have cool names for these two kinds of churches. At this point I'll use Chris Argyris's terminology, of "Single Loop" and "Double Loop."

Single Loop churches are committed to change and connecting to their culture, but there is a refusal to to permit those within the organization to question or change the terms on which they will do it.

Double Loop churches are committed to change and connecting to their culture, and they give permission to question the terms they hold to and even change them.