John Stanko

"So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, 'You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them'" - Acts 11:2-3

Peter was the leader of the apostles and had been directed by the Lord to go to visit a Gentile in Caeserea. When Peter returned home, he was met by a contingent of Jewish believers who were upset with him that he had spent so much time with a Gentile, which was against Jewish custom. Peter was leading the church into change and not everyone was happy about it. Leaders do what Peter did and leaders often get the same response that Peter got: resistance, criticism, and second-guessing. Yet if progress is going to be made, leaders must master the elements that are part of the process of organizational change.

LEADERSHIP STEP: Is there a change (minor or major) in your organization that you want and need to institute? Your Step today is to formulate a plan for seeing that change through from start to finish. Pay particular attention to how you will communicate that change, for as you can see from today's passage, Peter had to spend a some face-to-face time with people explaining his rationale and motive for doing what he did. You will have to do the same and will have to pay attention not just to the change but evaluating the change and how you went about doing it once the change is over.