REFORM – Building New Rhythms of Faithfulness

The Six of Seven

"You can win the war but lose the peace."

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr offered this warning to the Allied Forces after World War II. He knew that if the victors didn’t plan for a just and stable post-war world, conflict would inevitably return. His warning was a reminder of the failures of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919; the Allies technically "won" World War I, but they created conditions that led directly to the rise of Hitler and the devastation of WWII.

The lesson is simple but critical: After a purge, there is a vacuum. If you only tear down, the old weeds will eventually grow back.

This brings us to the final step in our cycle: Reform.

Filling the Vacuum

King Josiah understood this strategic shift. He knew he had to pivot from cleaning out and tearing down to adding in and building up. He realized that if he cleansed the land but left it empty, the idolatry would return.

So, Josiah filled the void with a new-old, God-honoring structure. He commanded the entire nation to celebrate the Passover. But this was no ordinary celebration. The Bible notes:

"The Passover had not been kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept" (2 Chronicles 35:18).

This was a massive logistical undertaking that reordered the entire nation around a central act of worship and remembrance. It involved priests, Levites, and citizens from every corner of the land. Renewal was no longer just a private feeling in Josiah’s heart; it became an embodied, corporate, and durable shared practice.

He reformed the nation's habits and its calendar around remembering God’s deliverance.

The Aggregation of Marginal Gains

We see this same principle at work in modern high-performance organizations. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, tells the story of the British Cycling team, whose reforms transformed them from mediocrity to dynasty.

For one hundred years, British cycling was stagnant. Since 1908, British riders had won just a single gold medal at the Olympic Games. Their reputation was so poor that one top European bike manufacturer refused to sell bikes to the team, fearing it would hurt their brand image. They had the intention to win—every athlete wants to win—but they lacked the system to support it.

That changed in 2003 when the organization hired a new performance director, Dave Brailsford. Brailsford didn't start with a rousing speech or a demand for more "willpower." Instead, he introduced a boring-sounding philosophy: "The aggregation of marginal gains."

His idea was simple: if you break down everything that goes into riding a bike and improve it by just 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put it all together.

So, the Reform began.

Brailsford and his coaches started with the obvious mechanical tweaks, redesigning bike seats and improving tire grip. But then, they went deeper into the "rhythms" of the athletes' lives—the invisible structures no one else was watching:

• They tested massage gels to see which led to the fastest muscle recovery.

• They hired a surgeon to teach riders the best way to wash their hands to avoid illness.

• They determined the specific pillow and mattress that provided the best sleep for each rider.

• They even painted the inside of the team truck white to spot dust that could degrade the performance of their tuned bikes.

They didn't just "try harder." They reformed the environment. They built new habits into the very structure of the team’s existence.

The result? Just five years later, the British Cycling team dominated the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning 60 percent of the available gold medals. Four years later in London, they raised the bar again, setting nine Olympic records and seven world records.

Systems Over Intentions

Perhaps, like the British team before 2003, many of us—and many of our churches—have good intentions but failing systems. We occasionally purge the idols, but we leave a vacuum, and the old weeds grow back.

Josiah knew what Dave Brailsford learned: You cannot just decide to be better; you must build new systems, processes, and habits.

If we want to see a new rhythm of faithfulness in our lives or our churches, we can't just wish for it. We have to build the structure that makes it inevitable. As my friend and recovery expert Dr. Mark Denison says:

"You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems."

This is why so many New Year’s resolutions fail. A person has a renewed intention to get fit, but they don't reform their schedule to make time for the gym, reform their shopping habits to buy healthy food, or reform their social life to include active friends. The old systems eventually overwhelm the new intention.

Repentance that doesn’t lead to new habits is just regret.

Your Call to Reform

We must build new, holy rhythms into the very structure of our lives.

Personally:

• If you have repented of prayerlessness, you must reform your morning schedule to include a set time for prayer.

• If you have repented of greed, you must reform your budget to practice systematic, generous giving.

Corporately: A church’s true values are revealed not by its mission statement, but by its budget and its calendar. We must reform our structures to align with our refocused priorities.

• This means we fund disciple-making over mere entertainment.

• It means we schedule prayer gatherings as non-negotiable appointments.

• It means we create clear, intentional pathways for people to move from being a guest to becoming a fully engaged member of the family—pathways for membership, leadership development, and service that embody our commitment to the Gospel.

Do you know what reforms you need to make in your life? Do you know what reforms the church God has entrusted to you needs to make?

As with the previous posts, I have included a simple worksheet to help start a discussion and provide action items so that you won’t just win the people, but lose the disciple-making.

REFORM Worksheet