{"id":4376,"date":"2026-03-02T13:39:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/?p=4376"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:38:43","slug":"a-posture-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/?p=4376","title":{"rendered":"A posture for change"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Church talks a great deal about change. We have strategies for it, consultations about it, anxiety around it, and occasionally conferences dedicated to it. And tbh I\u2019m a great fan of developing a theory of change for organisations. What we rarely develop, however, is a <\/span>posture<\/span> for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Posture matters in leadership and culture change science, there is a growing recognition that organisations do not primarily change because they adopt new ideas. They change when their underlying habits, reflexes, and shared assumptions shift. It isn\u2019t the new programme that makes the difference; it\u2019s the new way of seeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Theologically, that shouldn\u2019t surprise us. Jesus did not begin with a strategy but with a call. When God speaks to Abram in Book of Genesis 12, there is no five-year plan. There is only movement: \u201cGo.\u201d The people of God are formed not as managers of stability but as those attentive enough to move when called and learn on The Way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question for the contemporary Church is not simply, <\/span>What should we do next?<\/span>
\nIt is, <\/span>Who are we becoming so we are ready when we see the missio die and we can join in, either because of opportunities or because of a sense seeing? <\/span><\/p>\n

In my experience, opportunities for renewal seldom arrive neatly labelled and in most cases they are rarley polite. <\/span><\/p>\n

They appear as disruption. As complaint, a funding crisis, a new housing development on the edge of town, a lay leader with an inconvenient idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

From a culture change perspective, these moments function as what systems thinkers call \u201cadaptive challenges.\u201d They cannot be solved by technical adjustment alone. They require new learning a level of power relinquishment and often a shift in identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that is precisely where the Church often hesitates. We are guardians of memory we do do hold story, sacrament, and tradition. But when memory becomes preservation it becomes rooted I\u00a0 <\/span>fear.<\/span><\/p>\n

The early church, as described in Acts of the Apostles, was not preserved by its structures rather fuelled by attentiveness. The Spirit disrupts them more often than comforts them. Philip finds himself on a desert road, the whole Peter\u2019s theological framework and worldview is dismantled on a rooftop. Paul\u2019s missionary journeys are redirected mid-course several times <\/span><\/p>\n

So maybe Change is not primarily structural but spiritual.<\/span> In organisational language, we speak about \u201creadiness for change.\u201d This is not about capacity alone. It is about trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do people trust one another enough to experiment?
\nDo they trust leadership enough to risk?
\nDo they trust God enough to release control?<\/span><\/p>\n

With trust, even loss can become generative because people don\u2019t fear change they fear loss \u00a0The risen Christ still bears scars. Change, in the Christian imagination, is rarely clean. It is redemptive precisely because it carries continuity within transformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we want to be ready for the opportunities that will arise then we must cultivate certain postures long before the moment arrives.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Curiosity over defensiveness<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultures that thrive in change ask better questions. Instead of \u201cHow do we stop this?\u201d they ask, \u201cWhat might God be doing here?\u201d Curiosity disarms anxiety. It slows reactivity. It allows discernment.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Distributed ownership<\/span><\/p>\n

Change science consistently demonstrates that transformation sticks when ownership is shared. If readiness depends on a single heroic leader, it is fragile. <\/span>If it is embedded in the culture of who we are as church and people it is resilient.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Experimentation without panic<\/span><\/p>\n

Healthy systems run small experiments. They prototype. They learn. They iterate. <\/span>The Church, at her best, has always done this. Monastic movements, Methodist class meetings, fresh expressions of worship, none began as dominant models. They began as responses. But experimentation requires permission to fail. And failure requires a theology spacious enough to absorb it.<\/p>\n

4. Interior grounding<\/span><\/p>\n

No amount of strategic clarity compensates for unexamined fear and even though people have named that much of the current strategy is rooted in institutional anxiety I\u2019m sill not sure the impact has been fully examined. <\/span><\/p>\n

If leaders are internally anxious, the system absorbs it. If leaders are grounded, in prayer, in community, in a secure sense of belovedness, the system can use uncertainty well even as an asset. Perhaps solitude and attentiveness need to become not luxuries but infrastructure. The leader who knows they are held does not grasp for control.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite my activist nature we do not need to chase every opportunit<\/span>y, readiness is not restlessness. To develop a posture for change is not to become reactive or trend-driven rather it is to become attentive. So when the Spirit disturbs our settled patterns our posture sees the opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even before opportunity arises formation will shapes the future<\/span> and the future of the Church is being formed long before it is revealed. <\/span>In quiet PCC meetings we build trust, we form leaders who choose prayer over panic and congregations who practise curiosity rather than complaint. <\/span>Let\u2019s grow communities willing to bless what is emerging without clinging to what is fading. Change readiness is not achieved through urgency but cultivated through formation. The question, then, is not whether change will come but whether we will have become the kind of people who can recognise it as gift rather than threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Church talks a great deal about change. We have strategies for it, consultations about it, anxiety around it, and occasionally conferences dedicated to it. And tbh I\u2019m a great fan of developing a theory of change for organisations. What … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,122,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-fresh-expressions","category-mixed-ecology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4381,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376\/revisions\/4381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}