{"id":9,"date":"2016-09-03T02:15:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T02:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thenonanxiousleader.com\/?p=9"},"modified":"2023-10-07T17:52:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T17:52:15","slug":"christian-leaders-embrace-the-adaptive-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonanxiousleader.com\/christian-leaders-embrace-the-adaptive-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Leaders Embrace the Adaptive Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The biggest challenge for the church today may be figuring out how to adapt to a changing society. Some will say, \u201cThe gospel is the same now and as it always was.\u201d Yes\u2026but Paul also said, \u201cI will be all things to all people so that I can save some.\u201d (1 Cor <span>[9:22]<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adapting to changing circumstances is not giving up your principles.<\/strong> It\u2019s not selling out. It\u2019s acknowledging that the situation has changed and so must our approach.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Practice-Adaptive-Leadership-Changing-Organization\/dp\/1422105768\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ronald Heifitz<\/a> defined the difference between an adaptive challenge and a technical problem nearly 20 year ago in his book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Leadership-Without-Answers-Ronald-Heifetz\/dp\/0674518586\/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=V8DJE2KK6XC9Z27FW2C3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leadership without Easy Answers<\/a>. A technical problem can be solved with expertise and good management. It\u2019s mostly about execution. An adaptive challenge means that something has changed, so we need to change, as well. It requires innovation and learning.<\/p>\n<p>An individual example of an adaptive challenge would be to find out you had Type II diabetes or high cholesterol. Ideally, you\u2019d change diet and exercise habits.<\/p>\n<p>One long time challenge in the church is how to make a women\u2019s group relevant now that many, if not most, have day jobs that prevent them from attending the longstanding weekday luncheon meeting. Most churches have punted on this.<\/p>\n<p>A more current example is how to create a worship experience that engages people without creating a performance mentality.<\/p>\n<p><em>36 He also told them a parable: \u201cNo one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, \u2018The old is better.\u2019\u201d \u00a0(Luke <span>[5:36]<\/span>-39 NRSV)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When Jesus talked about new wineskins he was pointing out the obvious. Everyone knew a wineskin couldn\u2019t be re-used or it would burst. Leather only stretches once. Use a wineskin a second time and the fermentation will create enough pressure to blow it apart. Nothing worse than seeing your new wine all over the floor.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s most surprising to me is that Jesus says at the end of the passage that everyone likes old wine better. You might think that he\u2019s saying that people just don\u2019t want to change, which is true. But old wine IS better. Wine that is aged properly tastes better than new wine. That\u2019s a fact.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is, if you keep old wine around too long, it goes bad. That\u2019s the adaptive challenge for the church. Some of the things we do have been around for a LONG time.<\/p>\n<p>There are two things we can take from this passage, as Christian\u00a0leaders.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>First, if you want to have old wine (think properly aged), you have to make new wine.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re looking to meet TODAY\u2019s challenge, you better be willing to try something new. It\u2019s going to take some time to figure out, to get it right, to age properly. It doesn\u2019t happen overnight, so you have to start crushing grapes now.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Second, to have good wine, you need to make lots of wine.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.6471;\">Winemakers know this. They experiment with different blends, batches of grapes, barrels, aging periods, etc., to come up with a combination that works. Not every one will and that\u2019s OK. Jim Walker, pastor of Hot Metal Bridge in Pittsburgh calls this rapid prototyping. Try something new. If it works, build on it. If it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s not a failure, it\u2019s a learning experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The lesson I take from Jesus\u2019 new wineskins is that we don\u2019t have to have all the answers to the adaptive challenge for the church. We just need to try something.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So what do you think God can use better, us doing nothing or us trying something?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Questions:<br \/>\nWhat are your adaptive challenges?<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s something you could try that might help your church respond to changing times?<\/p>\n<p>What are you waiting for?<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2016 thenonanxiousleader.com, All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The biggest challenge for the church today may be figuring out how to adapt to a changing society. Some will say, \u201cThe gospel is the same now and as it always was.\u201d Yes\u2026but Paul also said, \u201cI will be all things to all people so that I can save some.\u201d (1 Cor [9:22]) Adapting to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[4,5],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-uncategorized","tag-adaptive-leadership","tag-church-leadership"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian Leaders Embrace the Adaptive Challenge - The Non-Anxious Leader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thenonanxiousleader.com\/christian-leaders-embrace-the-adaptive-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Leaders Embrace the Adaptive Challenge - The Non-Anxious Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The biggest challenge for the church today may be figuring out how to adapt to a changing society. 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