Quick Question: Theme Settings

This should be pretty easy to answer. When I make alterations to the general settings for my site, they won’t update until I deactivate then reactivate my theme. For instance, I can’t change the tagline (appears directly under site title) without reactivating. Could this be a glitch with my particular theme? Or maybe I’m just not waiting long enough for the changes to take effect without forcing them. I did try emptying my cache each time before checking if the settings had taken effect.