We’re talking about change this week on the blog.  Yesterday we talked about the need to transfer the tension you feel to others if you hope to bring about change.  And one of the best ways to bring about change is to raise people’s discontent with the status quo.

But how do you do that?  How do you transfer the tension?  How do you raise the level of discontent in others with the status quo.

A natural way to do that is to make statements.

Things need to change.

No one should accept things the way they are.

This is unacceptable.

We should really be open to X.

Statements have a role to play, and they work if there’s a crisis everyone can see.  The problem is as a leader that often you’re one of the few that perceives a crisis.  Many others don’t.  And when they don’t statements can backfire.

No one like to be told what to do.  We resist being told how to think.

So if you want to raise the level of discontent with the status quo, how do you do it in a way that facilitates buy-in, not push-back?

Ask more questions, and make fewer statements.

Instead of telling people what you think in every conversation or telling them what they should think, try asking questions.

What do you think the opportunities are to reach people in our community?

If we kept going this way, what do you think might happen in five years?

What do you think might happen to our kids if we’re not open to change?

What can we learn from other churches that are making an impact in their community?

What would happen if we started rethinking some of our assumptions?

When you start asking more questions, a few things happen:

1. People buy in faster.
2. They become more engaged in the conversation.
3. They ‘own’ the answer.
4. They might even come to think that the change was their idea.

And suddenly, something that was your idea becomes shared. A tension you felt over your discontent with the status quo becomes shared by others.  And you are a few steps further down the road toward change.

What have you learned about asking questions?

If you’re a leader, you feel tension.

Part of the tension you feel is your dissatisfaction with the status quo; you’re not fully satisfied with the way things are. After reading a book, coming back from a conference, meeting with other leaders or simply landing on a new idea, you want to change things.

I’ve been there many times as a leader. In fact, sometimes I think I live there. That tension fuels the drive to create, the drive to dream, and the drive to change. I am relentlessly dissatisfied with the status quo. I want to trade in what is for what could be pretty much every day.

I realize some of that may be unhealthy, but ultimately that tension is what actually drives all change.

The problem is, most people don’t feel your tension. They are mostly satisfied with the way things are. Part of what attracted them to whatever you are leading are the changes you made yesterday, not the changes you want to make today. They cannot see what you see until you make them discontent enough to see it.

If you work at it, they can start to feel the tension you feel. In fact, if you are ever going to be successful at driving effective change, you need to become successful at transfering tension.

If you can solve that, you can solve so much more.

What if you made it this week to transfer some tension?

What if this week you shared your vision of what could be with someone who can help you change your world?

If that tension ultimately gets shared by dozens, hundreds, or thousands or people, you might have a revolution on your hands.

And that may be exactly what everyone needs.

Now that you’re home and back into settling back into a routine after the Orange Conference, it’s tempting to rush into implementing the ideas you garnered.  We’ll have more on engineering the change you want to see next week. But before we get to that, a question.

What did God do in you at Orange (or Exponential…or any other conference you recently attended) that you haven’t felt in a long time?

Usually at a conference God does something in you.  Maybe:

You worshipped like you haven’t worshipped in a long time.

You dreamed again.

Scripture seemed alive.

You felt God’s presence.

You realized you were more tired than you thought you were and sensed God telling you to rest.

You felt things you haven’t felt in a long time.

A simple piece of advice:  pursue that.

Spend some time over the next seven days talking to God about what He did in you or what you felt that you’d missed for a long time.

If you can somehow make that part of your every day reality, you will have recaptured something that is so easily lost in ministry.

If you felt your heart beat again, get all over that.  If you can make moments like that part of your rhythm, it will once again be part of your reality.