Change Rage

You want to make someone mad?  Change something they are used to.  Want to make them really mad?Change something they use all the time.  If you have been living under a social media rock you need to know that Facebook changed and there is a new kid on the block called google+.  It seems that Facebook changed to try and compete better with google, but what happened is they drove angry users to Google+. I will be totally honest I am confused by Google+, but Im confused by Facebook now.  So what is everyone going to do?  Use Facebook or in a disgruntled huff move to Google+?

This has huge ministry implications.  Huge!  How many of us are trying to change an event, ministry, or church?  How many times have we had a backlash for what we thought no reason?

Facebook is free they should be able to do whatever they want whenever they want. It is not in the Constitution that we should have Facebook.  The 10th commandment is not thou shalt have Facebook.  But what they did not do is adequately communicate the change.  Im on Facebook all the time and had now idea they were changing.  Now I could have gone looking for the information, I'm sure it was on forum and such but the information did not meet me.  Selfish I know, but how many times do we say I didn't know to have three emails sitting in our inbox telling us exactly what we didn't know.

The take away.  When we change something even for the better it will meet resistance.  If we change it without communicating, the resistance can have big consequences.  This goes for worship styles to how small groups are run.  To how the church kitchen operates to the way the bulletin looks.  We can't just communicate it from the stage or blog.  We have to meet the people where they live.  Do we communicate it through texting, Facebook, twitter, carrier pigeon, smoke signals?  Do it all!
Communicate it so much that when the change happens people have come to expect it and the change isn't a shock.  Its so much more fun to act like your in the know than on the outside.  Why do you think Google+  had the invite only period?  To make people feel on the inside when logically you new the exclusivity of it all was just a smoke screen.  How do you make people feel exclusive?

Take away number 2.  Who is leaving your church simply because you didn't communicate change well?