Built to Change can give you the tools to implement and sustain change within any organization.

In their book Built to Change, Lawler and Worley provide practical steps to help lead any organization to change. While their focus is on secular business practices, one can find this resource as a valuable tool to help implement and sustain change in any church organization. Some of the more relevant points that can be applied are; seeking out leaders within the (church) organization who actually seek out change and are constantly willing to learn new skills; this keeps them engaged and hungry for new growth. Another aspect of the book that can be helpful is recognizing the advantages of developing empowered servant leaders or shared leadership. This helps to provide a broader foundation when stabilization is needed as the organization faces change. Let’s face it, as we are called to ministry, we are going to be assigned to organizations that are in desperate need of change. If they weren’t in need of change then the “old pastor” would still be there conducting business as usual. While this book gives real world examples of companies such as Proctor & Gamble and Toyota, I believe if one reads this attentively, one can take these same principles and apply them to any church organization. This book gives the reader an effective set of tools to utilize in order to initiate and sustain change in any organization. If an effective strategy is shared and embraced, change should not create fear, but if there is no plan then fear will rule the day. ©2006 Built to Change by Edward E. Lawler III and Christopher G. Worley from Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint.