How can we initiate change that lasts? Larry Osborne says the first step to lasting change is to develop an exit strategy.
“Pretty much every Christian knows Genesis 3. In the first chapter of our Bible it’s life as God intended it to be, and then by chapter three we see why everything’s all messed up.”
We know about the fall, but we don’t completely understand what the fall did to our experience of this life.
“So we preach Genesis 3, but we don’t really believe it. We constantly are assuming if we do everything right, if we listen to the Lord enough, if we pray enough, if we have enough faith then everything will work out, but the truth of the matter is, in this world everything is broken.”
Even when we think we’ve got our lives figured out there are problems bubbling under the surface.
“Even when I’m in my most godly spiritual state, there’s static on the line. I’ve got a sin nature and I don’t always hear perfectly from the Lord.”
Trouble and failure is a part of the DNA of our existence. It’s foolish to think we can manufacture a life void of it.
“The truth of the matter is most changes and most innovations fail. They always have, and they always will. Wise people don’t bet the farm; what they do is they give it all they’ve got, but they’ve got an exit strategy just in case what they were so sure of doesn’t work in the real world like it did in their head or in theirs planning sheets of paper.”
Experiment vs change
“Often when it’s time to change, we usually lobby too hard for it. We try to convince everybody why this is the best thing ever, and at the end of the day we’ve set ourselves up so that if we’re wrong, we’re dead.”
It’s okay to not make definitive statements. Sometimes it’s better to say you are going to try or do an experiment.
“When you have a new initiative and it fails, you’re a failed leader. When you have an experiment and it fails you’re a brilliant scientist because you’re eliminating the options. There is so much power in just stepping back and saying, How’s this going to be heard. Am I overselling this thing?
Larry Osborne has served as a Senior Pastor at North Coast Church in Vista, California since 1980. The church has grown from 128 to over 11,000 in weekend attendance, and has been honored as one of the ten most influential churches in America for its pioneering efforts in the multi-site movement, sermon-based small groups, and its creative approach to shared leadership.
Key Scripture: Colossians 1:28-29
Featured Songs: Everything is Mine in You – Christy Nockels; Captain – Hillsong United; Lion and the Lamb – Leeland
Sticky Leaders
