Today in the church growth community there are many voices from a variety of traditions pushing for change in the way Christians ‘do church’. The motivation for these innovations comes from a commendable desire for the church to be more effective in reaching the un-churched.

However, often in the pursuit of innovation leaders make the mistake of selecting strategies that involve radical change for little or no gain. It is easy for leaders to slip into a change for change sake mind set. The view that the bigger and more radical the change the more success will be achieved is often not the reality. The reality is that the more radical the change the more energy is drained from a church and often more resistance built for future change. Big change does not necessarily guarantee big results. Big change may improve things in the short term but often has a negative long term result.

There is a well known saying that there are “many ways to skin a cat”. How true this principle is when it comes to growing churches. There are 1000s of ways to grow a church. But there is only a handful of change principles required when it comes to implementing those ways. One such principle that is often overlooked is ‘leverage’.

It was Peter Senge of 5th Discipline fame, commenting about systems thinking said,

“The bottom line of systems thinking is leverage – seeing where actions and changes in structure can lead to significant, enduring improvements. Often, leverage, follows the principle of economy of means: where the best results come not from large-scale efforts but from small well-focused actions.”1

Leverage can be defined as the ratio of change in input to change in output. A ‘leverage point’ is a place in a system where force can be applied. A low leverage point is a place in a system where a small amount of force causes a small change to system behaviour. A high leverage point is a place in a system where a small amount of force (the effort required to prepare and make a change) causes a large amount of predictable response.2

A brilliant example of a high-leverage point strategy is seen in what one Conference director did to challenge the thinking of Sabbath School classes. He sent to every Sabbath School class in every church in the Conference a budget of $400. This simple action had the effect of challenging Sabbath School classes to see themselves as more than a Sabbath morning Bible study group. Now they had to ask some important questions – “Why do we need a budget? What is the purpose of Sabbath School? What ministry could we do with this money?” Questions that conference department directors have been unable to get on the agenda of churches for years. One small action leveraged a large amount of vision building for churches in that Conference.

The challenge for leaders is learning how to identify leverage points. Typically high-leverage changes are usually highly non -obvious.  They are typically not closely connected to obvious problem symptoms.

Coaching is probably the ultimate process for identifying high-leverage strategies. When a leader spends time on a regular basis with a coach they increase the possibility of finding ‘high-leverage points’. Coaching helps leaders to go on an intentional journey of discovery.

1.      Peter Senge The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organisation, Random House Australia page 114.

2.      Leverage Point www.Thwink.org

How to Identify High-Leverage Points

You know you have a high-leverage point strategy when:

1.      There is little resistance to it.

2.      The strategy has a high probability for success.

3.      Its implementation is low cost.

4.      The strategy is self-sustaining.

5.      It impacts positively in a number of areas.