Leading Major Change in Your Ministry

by Jeff Iorg

Many ministries must undergo major change in order to fulfill their mission, and more importantly, to fulfill God’s mission, in today’s world. This book tells the story of the relocation of Gateway Seminary—as well as other stories of major change. In doing so, it lays out the principles and processes necessary to get the job done. The first section of Leading Major Change in Your Ministry outlines foundational concepts to leading major change. The second section explains a six-fold model for leading major change in churches and ministry organizations. The book includes illustrations throughout, not from hypothetical situations, but from real-life ministry challenges in both local churches and large organizations. While theories about leading major change are interesting, practical insight about how to do it—written by someone who has led multiple organizations through major change—is far more helpful. The stakes are high. Leadership decisions in ministries have eternal consequences. Almost every church or organization needs—or soon will need—to be led through major change. Leading Major Change in Your Ministry is your guide to successfully getting it done.

Genres: Leadership, Christian, Church

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2018

About the author

Dr. Iorg teaches leadership, preaching, and church ministry courses at Gateway Seminary. He speaks frequently on these subjects in conferences and other venues, including college campuses and leadership seminars. His publications include six books: The Painful Side of Leadership, The Character of Leadership, Is God Calling Me?, The Case for Antioch, Seasons of a Leader’s Life, Unscripted and his latest, Ministry in the New Marriage Culture. Iorg has also written dozens of articles and curriculum materials.

Iorg is a graduate of Hardin Simmons University (B.A.), Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (D.Min.). He is married to Ann, has three adult children, and three grandchildren. His hobbies include reading fiction, cheering on the Oregon Ducks, and searching for the world’s best barbeque restaurant.

Reviews

[Natalie Herr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a narrow audience, but it’s an excellent resource! Purposeful and practical. If you’re a leader in your church or ministry (or even in the business world) and you want to glorify God through organizational change- you want to pick up this book.

[Matt Maples · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book and Dr. Iorg has accomplished some significant leadership accomplishments. Leading a move to a different campus for a church, as well as, a seminary is an amazing accomplishment. My hat goes off to Jeff. These are impressive accomplishments. My biggest challenge with this book is that is didn’t have a logical progression in my experience. It felt random and sporadic where a leadership principle would be shared accompanied by a story from experience. But when these leadership principles were given, I often felt like they were glossed over when I wished that they would have been explored deeply. Here is an example of what I mean:

“We eventually achieved clarity by continually focusing on God’s mission and evaluating our options in light of his eternal purpose.
This book would be a lot better if instead of just stating something like this and moving onto another example he sat here and expanded on this idea. I would like to hear specifics on how they achieved clarity. He’s gone on about how they could have remained in the original campus or they could move. It seems to me that both could be options used by God. So when you have choice where God can use either option how do you decide? That’s what I’m trying to learn.”

This book would be a lot better if instead of just stating something like this and moving onto another example he sat here and expanded on this idea. I would like to hear specifics on how they achieved clarity. He’s gone on about how they could have remained in the original campus or they could move. It seems to me that both could be options used by God. So when you have choice where God can use either option how do you decide? That’s what I’m trying to learn.

So this is a good book, and it’s not a difficult read so I would recommend it. But I do wish that several big ideas would have been identified and then deeply explored. I just didn’t feel like that was accomplished in this text.

[Karl Dumas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently serving as a Transitional Pastor, which basically means that some sort of change is happening. The previous pastor has retired, and it’s my task to get the local church to the next stage of its life cycle. Something is going to change, and that involves the process of deciding in which direction things will be moving. Obviously when I had the opportunity to review this book I jumped at the chance.
Jeff Iorg has written several books on leadership, and this latest, Leading Major Change in Your Ministry, B&H Books, 2018) details the experience of leading a major SBC Seminary through a major change: selling property, buying property, constructing the campus, and moving to a different part of the state.
This is not a typical real estate deal, and Iorg talks about all the other things that needed to be considered: the faculty, staff, and students, along with their families, who would be impacted. Available housing for traditional students, plus those coming in for seminars or visits. And how about housing for the faculty and staff? What about parking, capability to expand, and the need to change from 20th century learning styles to 21st century technological advances?
Iorg points out a myriad of things that impact the process, but what impressed me the most was the several times that it was so obvious that God was showing up and showing off. Things didn’t always happen overnight, but when they finally did happen, there was no way to ignore the fact that God's hand was involved.
So often it’s easy to get discouraged when things don’t seem to be happening quickly enough, so the frequent reminders that change is a process, a journey, with bumps in the road along the way, will be helpful for anyone considering or already involved in leading change.
I received a copy of this book as part of the B&H bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.
4/5

[Jeff Noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Undoubtedly one of the best books on the actual implementation of vision that I've ever read. It was helpful and humbling. It inspired me, moved me, and made me think more deeply about "leading major change" in a Christ-centered way. Iorg is a fantastic communicator.

I loved how the book was framed around the relocation of Golden Gate Seminary. As most know, Southern Baptists have a lot of sacred cows. Our seminaries are some of them. Physically relocating the historic campus of GGS from the Bay Area of CA was not a task for the faint-hearted.

[Jonathan Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot about church leadership, so this book was right in my wheelhouse. Also, as an SBC nerd, I was aware of the relocation of Gateway Seminary. This book details many of the moves and changes that Dr. Iorg has led throughout his career. While the book has a lot of practical advice, there are some sections that read like an extended foreword, with all of the thank you’s to people he worked with.

I received a preview copy from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Leading Major Change in Your Ministry by Jeff Iorg. It was very easy to follow and he wrote at a level that anyone could understand. I didn’t have to be a ministry expert in order to make sense of what he was explaining

[Chad Wilham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains great guardrails and paths to follow while leading a ministry through major changes.

[Obadiah Dalrymple · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid and simple read with good principles to not only prepare the leader for change, but to also ensure the leader considers the individuals who will go through change with them.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

For it's target audience, this book is full of great insight. I read it as an elder who is helping to lead our church through major issues (and potential building relocation, like Iorg). Very helpful for it's niche.
Could have been a bit shorter though.

[Conrade Yap · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only constant is change. Just like the popular phrase, "survival of the fittest," only those who change survive. For the fittest are the ones who are most adaptable to change. People who are able to lead change are leaders. They are the ones who must be on a constant lookout for dangers that threaten surviving and opportunities toward thriving. Just this week, the largest theological school in North America, Fuller Theological Seminary announced a major change in their history: Leaving Pasadena by 2021. After 70 years of ministry, this marks a dramatic shift in adapting to fast changing ministry and financial contexts. Even before Fuller announced their decision, other seminaries had already made plans of their own. Back in 2004, the author's school, Golden Gate Seminary also had to make a tough decision to sell all seminary-owned property and to move to a new location over 400 miles away. That is not all. They remodeled, retooled, and refreshed their strategies, even changing their name to Gateway Seminary. It was the success of such a major change that deepened the author's conviction that whether it is relocating, reorganizing, or rebranding, skills in leading are critically important. The good news is, they could be passed down to others and success could be replicated. Iorg frames this book in two parts. The first part sets out the foundations for leading major change. Iorg acknowledges the proliferation of books about leadership best practices and all kinds of great resources. He notices that many of these books do not deal with fundamentals sufficiently. Moreover, there is a lack of Christian perspective. Fundamentals such as the necessity to be influencers for Christ in the midst of leading change. He links back basic teachings about servant leadership. The three foundation stones are:

Defining change and understanding what it means to lead major change
Knowing the necessity of major change and spiritual insights to lead, initiate, and implement
Distinguishing between changes and transitions
Iorg describes leadership as follows: "Leadership is about change. It is about shifting paradigms, creating new approaches, and doing things that have never been done—at least not in the current setting." He spends time unpacking these three foundation stones so that we understand what and when to make major changes and to know that major changes are not incremental but earthshaking and groundbreaking initiatives. A key leadership trait is not to ask people to discuss whether the change not, but to put them into a change preparation mode by saying: "Not changing is not an option." That requires bold and clear leadership. It does has to be long statements. For Iorg, the seminary move is a mere one to two pages of goals. It is far easier to write long statements than short ones. That is why the above three foundation stones are critical.

Part Two deals with the six axioms of leadership:
Major change begins with direction from God.
Major change requires initiative from a leader.
Major change is accomplished by followers.
Major change depends on God’s intervention.
Major change is messy and difficult.
Major change brings glory to God.
Three Thoughts
First, this book may seem like a straightforward read but it is not. This is not because of the book per se but the cultural climate we live in. As the author has rightly pointed out, there are plenty of materials that talk about leadership already and this book could be seen as an additional book on that already tall pile. That said, underlying the word "leadership" is about what it entails. The three major foundations laid contrast with conventional thinking about leadership. Reading it the first time might lead one to think that leadership is about what everybody else had been talking about. Yet, there is a sense of experience and deepened awareness about the complexities behind leadership. Many ideas confuse management with leadership and Iorg sharpens the focus by saying leadership is essentially a narrow field to do something never done before. Maintenance, management, and mass-duplication are not leadership goals. One way to understand the differences is to use comparison and illustrations like what Iorg has used in the book. It helps us refocus and relearn what real leadership is. Not just changes but real changes. Not just some but major change. Even the reading of this book requires a paradigm shift from conventional thinking toward transformational intent.

Second, this book is about leadership based on biblical principles. Like the way God used Moses to lead Israel out of familiar Egypt into an unfamiliar promised land, major change involves leading people toward an unknown territory, with unknown challenges, with unknown number of factors. Thus, each step forward into the unknown is very much a step of faith. His six point model of major change are all geared toward practicing biblical principles in the midst of such changes. This is not an easy feat, considering how much influence the world has on many Christian institutions nowadays. Through this experience, Gateway has also led the way to show the rest of the Christian world that it could be done. Given the state of many churches, seminaries, Christian parachurches that had been tempted to adopt secular values and to introduce business ideas that are non-biblical, this book is a breath of biblical freshness that gives us hope and needed direction. It falls upon the need to have godly leadership to listens not only to feedback but directly from God. This calls for spiritual discernment. This requires initiative from leaders who had first received initiative from God. Leader comes before strategy. When followers come on board, discipleship is practiced in some way. The future may be unknown and uncertain but we hope in God who is known and who is certain. Most important of it all, the purpose of all change is to glorify God. This is not something secular techniques or management strategies could operate directly, given the state of secularism in society these days.

Third, this book is about leadership based on a unique experience that is probably one of the hardest to implement. Iorg brings to this book one such experience, that is, his dealings with the major changes pertaining to a relocation and remodeling of Golden Gate Seminary. That's a major change. There is no unique challenges like a non-profit, tradition minding, historical steep Christian organization trying to change paths and shifts strategy. For one, it is a non-profit that does not see financial concerns as the main thing. If so, they would not have started the seminary at all. It exists for the sake of a greater purpose: Kingdom of God. For-profit enterprises typically have this main goal: Make profits. For a seminary, not only is profit not a key goal, the name "non-profit" is also a misnomer. What then does a seminary do? It is a place for equipping the saints. It is a place to manage operations to keep staff morale high, retain good faculty, attract good students, manage facilities, walk the fineline between balancing the budget and the exercise of faith, and many other "non-profit" activities. All of these are important which makes the whole matter very challenging.

Kudos to Iorg for sharing his insights and learning experiences for Christian organizations to learn from.

Jeff Iorg is President of Gateway Seminary and teaches many courses that include leadership, pastoral calling, church ministry, preaching, and many other subjects. After becoming president of Golden Gate Seminary in 2004, he led the major change of relocating the seminary from Mill Valley to Ontario, California while remaining debt-free and entirely operational throughout.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of B&H Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.