Do You Hear what I Hear? Coordinating Meaning and Action During Discontinuous Change in the Local Congregation

This study set out to assess a planned change process (the Missional Change Model) in a local church. The goal was to determine the effects of change on language and communication among the members five years into the change intervention. The hypothesis states that in order to change action, organizations have to change the meaning of key language used (Wittgenstein 1969). This is framed by a Pragmatic approach to language, a development from Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language. Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and Appreciative Inquiry were used to understand themes and language games in the congregation. A systemic inquiry model was developed for this study to interact with specific language games used by the congregation. The Inquiry itself disrupted certain patterns of talk and meaning during the research for this study. The findings suggest that a Systemic Inquiry presents a meaningful opportunity to disrupt existing patterns of talk in order to support a congregational change process.