ixthusAgitator

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about changing organizational culture these days. Is it possible? How do you know? When do you decide it’s just you and you need to change or leave rather than forcing the majority to change? I’m in the midst of two attempts to change organizational culture—one at work and one at church.

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that it is not necessarily for me to judge whether the members of a particular church are “doing it right.” There are many different churches for many different kinds of people and it’s not up to me to tell my grandparents, for instance, that they have been wrong for the past 80 years. Another example: I don’t get anything out of listening to Twila Paris, but she ministers greatly to a large number of people.

If I disagree on “non-essential” doctrine or theology or way of life or leading a family or church, even if i’m very passionate about it, it helps no one to cram what seems right to me down their throat. It’s the old “is it sin to eat meat or not” question, and according to Paul, the onus is mine to not cause the other to stumble. If the elders of a church are convinced that having women present at the table of leadership is a “sin,” then the best I can do is lovingly present a counter-argument and let the Spirit work as it will. If my family operates best non-institutionally, it would be “sin” for me to try to shame, cajole, or force an entire body of people to change their institutional ways.

Paul’s letters regarding church operation were largely about unity, peace, order, and right-teaching (regarding theological “essentials”). Who am I to fly in the face of these simply because I don’t “fit in” or I disagree about certain leadership decisions. It is me who needs to change or find a better-fitting culture.

There is a time to agitate and there is a time to capitulate. How to decide which time is which…well, there’s the rub.