The Power of Your One Thing

by: Eric Geiger

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Over forty-five years ago, László Polgár was a published author and believer in the theory that genius is made, not born. He was convinced that early and intense specialization in a particular subject produces incredible results. But he wanted to test this theory personally. He wanted a wife with whom he could partner to raise kids radically committed to one thing. He married Klara, and when their firstborn daughter Susan was  four, she discovered a chess set while rummaging through a cabinet. Susan’s interest was piqued, so the family decided to focus on chess.

Chess would become their one thing.

Neither László nor Klara were strong chess players. Klara did not know one chess rule when the board was discovered. But László began to practice chess with great intentionality and intensity with his daughter Susan and the two daughters to follow. László fought for permission from the Hungarian authorities for the right to homeschool his daughters, and hours each day were devoted to chess. Their apartment in Budapest was filled with thousands of books on chess and a file card system that allowed them to evaluate previous matches.

The results of the deliberate practice are incredible. Susan, at the age of 21, became the world’s first female grandmaster in chess. Judit, the youngest daughter, is known as the greatest female chess player in history. And Sophia, the middle daughter, was once ranked the sixth strongest female player in the world.

At least two thoughts emerge from reading their remarkable story:

1)    There is power in focusing on one thing.

When there is one overarching passion that drives a person, an organization, or a ministry, the clarity is liberating. Decisions are made in light of the one thing. Schedules reflect the priority of the one thing. And the energy focused in one direction makes a major impact.

For a local church, the main thing must be the person and work of Jesus. I love what Tim Keller says in Center Church: “Because the gospel is endlessly rich, it can handle the burden of being the one ‘main thing’ of a church.”

2)    He is the only “one thing” that will satisfy.

Many believe that the middle daughter, Sophia, had the ability to be the best, but she did not work as hard at the game as the other two. For a season, however, the game would not leave her alone. She was obsessed with it. Her father once found her in the bathroom in the middle of the night with a chessboard balanced across her knees. “Sophia, leave the pieces alone!” her father said, shaking his head. “Daddy, they won’t leave me alone!” she replied. But in the end, other things captured her heart. She said, “It’s not that chess was too much for me; it was too little.”

Whatever our “one thing” is, it won’t leave us alone. Whatever or whoever is our god ultimately owns us. And if we allow something other than Him to be our one thing, we are attempting to allow a lesser thing to satisfy us. We are wise if we realize that the things of this world are not too much for us but too little. They are not too great. They are not great enough.

Tags: Eric Geiger, One Thing, Vision, Vision Frame

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What is Break-thru Clarity in Ministry?

by: Will Mancini

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Break-thru clarity is a simple thing that makes a huge impact in your life.  It’s a powerful thing that will dramatically change your ministry.

Most of our days are filled with the daily stuff. And the daily stuff is always pushing you here and pulling you there.  Sunday is coming. People are needy. There’s never enough time. Church life goes on.

Amidst this daily rhythm—sometimes flow and sometimes grind—we find the beauty and blessing of break-thru clarity. Maybe it’s easiest to describe what it feels like when you have it.

• It’s the power of seeing the same things in a whole new way.
• It’s the surge of energy that rushes through you and doesn’t seem to stop.
• It’s the freedom of perspective that suddenly makes prioritization easy.
• It’s the satisfaction that comes when the staffing puzzle finally make sense.
• It’s the confidence of a much more vivid 3-year vision.
• It’s the thrill of a team that wins, again and again.

When God brings you break-thru clarity, nothing feels better.

But for most of us, too much time has passed since our last break-thru. The funny thing about break-thru is that we forget what it feels like; we forget how bad we need it.

How does this happen? Once we taste a little bit of success in ministry, which is always nice, there is plenty to work on. Something is going well and that is good enough. We stay busy. We start something new. We grow. We start another thing. We hire another staff person.

Or maybe you inherit a church with a legacy or we attain a position with prior influence. There’s a lot to protect, a budget to steward. There are expectations from the past and assumptions about the future built into every conversation.

The end result is the same. While you read this there are a hundred other things to read and a thousand other things to do. And you aren’t the only one person in the equation. Your church has other leaders, lots of volunteers and other staff.  They too have thousand things to do to.

 This collective activity becomes the enemy of break-thru clarity. Just imagine…

• When a potential member asks a question like “Who are we as a church?” or  “Where is God taking us?” what do you say?
• If someone throws a curveball into the conversation like,  “Are we really making disciples?”  how do you respond?
• When an elder asks, with a hint of sarcasm “What is our priority for this year?” What’s the next word out of your mouth?

Break-thru clarity is about living and leading with answers to questions like these.  Break-thru clarity is both something you experience and something you have as a team.

What is break-thru clarity?

It is a God-given idea, well understood and skillfully articulated, that brings notable and immediate progress toward realizing your vision.

A simple conviction drives us on the Auxano team: Life is short enough and ministry is hard enough not to have break-thru clarity.  We exist because break-thru does not; or at least not often enough.

When’s the last time your team experienced break-thru clarity?  Where in your ministry could you use break-thru today?

To connect with me and the team at Auxano about break-thru clarity, fill out this short form below.

Tags: Break-thru Clarity, Vision Pathway, Will Mancini

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Helpful Tools for Honest Self-Assessment

by: Dan Reiland

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You can’t see what you can’t see. I drive a Toyota Avalon and it’s a nice car. It has lots of “bells and whistles,” plenty of power, and the new body design is sharp. But no matter how nice any car might be, it has a blind spot. The blind spot is that small area down the driver’s side looking back, that you just can’t see anything in it. That blind spot can be ever so costly if you change lanes and don’t see the car next to you!

We all have blind spots about ourselves. That’s one of the things that makes you the most difficult person for you to assess. The saying is true. You just can’t see what you can’t see. It sounds simple, but the complexity comes from the fact that you are truly blind to that “elusive thing,” and unless you have some help, that blind spot can cause you great difficulty as a leader.

When you are driving, the way you mitigate your blind spot is a quick turn of your head to the left and back, plus rightly using your mirrors. That can literally save your life. So how do you find your blind spots as a leader? And what should you look for?

Start here to find your blind spots: 

• Self-awareness

When I was starting out as a pastor I noticed that many of the successful pastors of large churches, who were conference speakers, seemed to be choleric and sanguine in temperament. So I thought, that’s what I want to be! For a long time I tried to be someone other than who I am. “Success” eluded me. When I became more self-aware and discovered that I’m choleric and melancholy, and gave myself permission to be me, God’s favor on me as a leader seemed to become immediately evident. It was then that I began to blossom as a leader!

• Honest Friends

Friends are a powerful force and priceless gift in your life. In fact, your friends shape who you are so choose your friends wisely. The friends who love and care about you the most will tell you the truth, even if it’s tough to hear. When my friends shoot straight with me I’m very grateful. When they help me see my blind spots, the things about me that I can’t see, it helps me become a better person!

• Credible assessment tools 

Self-assessment tools are always fun to take. Everyone likes to “read the press” about themselves. The key is to find good tools. There are several good ones, but a couple of my favorites have been the Myers/Briggs and StrengthsFinder. The John Maxwell Company has produced a new assessment tool. I checked it out and it’s great! It’s based on John’s book, The Five Levels of Leadership. This assessment allows you to invite your boss, your peers, and your direct reports to anonymously assess your leadership. All too often leaders simply evaluate themselves and move on.

However, according to The Five Levels of Leadership “one of us is not as smart as all of us,” and therefore, inviting others to assist you in evaluating your leadership is one of the smartest moves you can make. Check out the assessment HERE.

What to look for:

How can you see what you can’t see? I mentioned three things in general. Again, they are a growing sense of self-awareness, friends who will tell you the truth and good assessment tools. It also helps if you can have an idea of the things (you can’t see) that can hurt you and the things that can help you, so you can begin to look for them.

Things that can hurt you:

1. Habits

I recently coached a young leader about the importance of looking people in the eyes when talking to them. He honestly had no idea that he often looked at the floor and up toward the ceiling. I used to constantly fidget with my glasses while teaching until someone let me know. These are relatively innocent examples, but they matter, and catching the simple things will help you practice watching for more significant habits that can hurt your leadership.

2. Attitudes

There is so much negative in current culture, from crime to politics, and a lot of people consider those two subjects as one topic. Our country has serious problems and we need leaders who can solve the problems, but complaining and being negative won’t change anything. It won’t change anything in your church either. Even if what you are saying is true. Move toward action that brings solutions! Keep your attitude positive.

3. Perceptions

The Bible warns us about false teachers, being swayed by false doctrines and seeing now “but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” As leaders we all struggle to see things clearly. People have passionate opinions and often package them in spiritual wrappers. You and I may be tempted to do the same. It’s important for all of us to discern clearly and seek wisdom so we have the truest and clearest perception of reality possible.

4. Relationships

Relationships can obviously be helpful as well as hurtful. I trust that like me, most of your relationships are positive and healthy. It’s the one you didn’t see coming that can take you out. I’ve heard three stories in the last ninety days about church boards having secret meetings to get rid of the pastor. Not only did the pastors have no idea, but each pastor thought everything was great! I’m not suggesting that you become a paranoid leader, but that you pay attention to your friends and even closer attention to the leaders you aren’t sure about.

Things that can help you:

1. Skills

Your personality, education, and general family background play a big role in who you are as a leader. But at some point, your leadership skills take a front seat as the determiner of how effective your leadership can become. That is good news! By determining what you are good at and where you need to improve, you can radically strengthen your leadership. The key is to be very specific and intentional about what skill you want to develop. A generic approach won’t help you much. What one skill, right now, do you need to work on?

2. New friends

Friendships are complicated for leaders. The tension is that you must always be making new friends and simultaneously caring for the friends you have. Eventually, most leaders feel they have run out of time. Keeping up with all these relationships is a skill. Don’t give up; you can learn to give your full heart in less time. You can care deeply and don’t always need to spend two hours over coffee. You can make a genuine connection in much less time. It goes against the grain, but it is sometimes necessary. Giving up and not establishing new relationships will hurt your leadership. Establishing new relationships will help your leadership!

3. Opportunities

At times this has been a weakness of mine. I’m so focused in what I’m doing that I can miss great opportunities right in front of me, opportunities that are truly helpful to the church and to me personally. I need to regularly “lift my head up” and look around, sniff the wind, know which way it’s blowing and see what God is up to! How about you? Are you catching the great opportunities that are before you?

4. Faith

All good leaders have great faith. You may experience a season where your faith is shaken, that’s normal. But in general, it is important that your faith is strong. This is one of the greatest assets to a spiritual leader. If you believe God for big things, if you pray for big things and even trust God for miracles, you are much more likely to experience what God wants to do for you. God is not a puppet to be manipulated, but He is a good, kind and loving Father. Your church is His church! God cares what happens in your ministry! How’s your faith? What do you believe?

My intent in this article is to be helpful in the process of your self-assessment. The better you do this, the greater your potential for growth

This article is used by permission from Dr. Dan Reiland’s free monthly e-newsletter, “The Pastor’s Coach,” available at www.INJOY.com.

Tags: Dan Reiland, Healthy Staff, Staff Assessment

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The Art of Vision Casting: 7 Critical Keys

by: Rick Warren

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A lot of people have great vision. But you’ll never see your vision become a reality unless you communicate it well to others. Many great God-given dreams die in the vision-casting stage. In fact, there are seven particular things you need to make sure your people understand in the process of sharing your vision with them.

1. Who you are. What’s your church about? Every church should fulfill the five biblical purposes of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. But how you fulfill the purposes depends upon the distinct nature of your church. What makes your church unique? People aren’t the only ones with a particular shape; whole churches have them as well. When you’re communicating vision to your church, you’ve got to help people see how your church is unique.

2. Where you are going. Besides communicating your identity, you need to communicate the church’s direction and goals. Leadership is influence, and the quickest way to tell if you’re a leader is to look over your shoulder. If somebody’s following you, you’re a leader. If nobody’s following you, you’re not the leader. It’s that simple. The moment you have to tell people, “I’m the leader!” you’re not. Leadership is knowing where you’re going and being able to persuade people to come along with you. That’s influence. If you don’t know where you’re going, nobody else will, and nobody’s going to follow you. To communicate vision, you’ve got to communicate where you’re going.

3. Why you are going there. Once we’ve communicated where we’re going, we’ve got to tell our congregations why we’re going there. At Saddleback we do this through Class 101. A membership class is a great place to communicate the why of what you’re doing. People will have a hard time following you to where God wants you to go if they don’t understand the motivation behind it.

4. What it feels like to be going there. People want to be in on fun – and they want to be fulfilled. No one wants to be left out of excitement. To get people behind your vision, you need to communicate to people how fulfilling it will be to join God in what he’s doing through your church. People are looking for significance. You’ve got to let people know they’ll find significance by investing their lives in seeing God’s kingdom expand.

5. What people can do. As a part of vision-casting you need to help individuals in your church see what they can do. Everybody will need to play his or her part in realizing the vision of the church. You’ll need to give your congregation practical and immediate parts they can play in the process. You’ve got to help them see that their individual ministry contributes the progress of the whole. A good leader does that.

6. How you’re going to do it. Share with your congregation how you’re going to move forward. Be specific. As soon as you share your vision for your church, people will want to know how you’re going to do it. Let them in on the strategy. It’s going to help the vision become more reachable in the minds of your congregation.

7. What the rewards will be. Tell your church what the benefits will be for fulfilling the vision that God has for you. Focus on the spiritual and emotional benefits. What will it be like when Jesus tells you, “well done good and faithful servant”? That’s the most important reward we’ll get from doing what God calls us to do.

Vision-casting is an important part of your role as a pastor. God has a vision for your church. Your job is to help your parishioners get behind that vision. You’ll need to communicate these seven things when you do that.

Tags: Recasting Vision, Rick Warren, Vision casting

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Capture Your Audience’s Attention through Brevity – or Lose Them

by: Joe McCormack

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Are you guilty of committing one or more of the following seven capital sins of brevity?

1. Cowardice
2. Confidence
3. Callousness
4. Comfort
5. Confusion
6. Complication
7. Carelessness

The world today is full of information overload and there is not enough time to sift through it. If you cannot capture people’s attention and deliver your message with brevity, you’ll lose them.

For starters, the discipline to capture and manage elusive mindshare now shapes and defines professional success. Shorter e-mails, better organized updates, and tighter and more engaging presentations are immediate indicators that you’ve got what it takes to succeed in an attention economy.

Getting to the point is a non-negotiable standard.

Ten years ago, brevity was a nicety and meant primarily for long-winded types that couldn’t shut up. Today, being clear and concise is an absolute necessity; it’s what successful people expect to see—and get quickly frustrated when it’s missing.

>> Download more about the concept of brevity by author and narrative storyteller Joe McCormack.

Tags: Attention, Awareness, Joe McCormack

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The Vision Statements of 13 Great Leaders in the Bible

by: Will Mancini

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In a previous post, I introduced the powerful concept call the Future Perfect Paradigm. I am continuing this series by looking at the vision statements or the future perfect paradigms of 13 biblical leaders.

What is the future perfect paradigm? The Future Perfect Paradigm is simply looking at everything today through the lens of a powerful future perspective. The more clear and powerful the future perspective, the greater the impact it can have on the way you look at today.  The summary chart below is taken from work by Robert Clinton and only slightly tweaked and expanded.

We will continue to explore how the idea of a future perfect paradigm adds value to the typical notion of a vision statement in the next post.

Read more from Will here.

Tags: Future Perfect Paradigm, Robert Clinton, Will Mancini

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Understanding the Text and the Times Helps Your Church Develop an Assessment Culture

by: Ed Stetzer

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This is part four in a series on the importance and process of creating an assessment culture in your church. Reading parts one, two, and three of this series may help provide some context for this post.

In our book Transformational Church, Thom Rainer and I outline seven measuring sticks that should be a part of the new scorecard of church effectiveness. These were not the seven aspects that we chose personally. They sprang from in-depth, original research of churches that were seeing God bring transformation and growth to their church body and surrounding community.

Today, I want to briefly examine one of those seven measuring sticks, along with a part of an assessment culture that is so foundational we made it a requirement for those churches taking part in our research. These two characteristics are typified by two groups of people presented in Scripture as geographically or tribally praiseworthy: the Bereans and the Issacharites.

Bereans: Understanding the Text

In Acts 17:10-12, Luke contrasts the people of Berea with those at Thessalonica, who had stirred up a riot against Paul, Silas, and their local friends because they preached Christ as the Messiah. In Berea, however, the synagogue welcomed them and examined the Scriptures daily to verify the missionaries’ teaching. The Bible calls the Bereans more open-minded or noble than the Thessalonians. That’s why you never see a Thessalonica Presbyterian Church. No one wants to be like them.

For the Bereans, the Bible was their filter. They tested Paul’s words by God’s Word and found they lined up, so they accepted what Paul said. Before we move to any other aspect of an assessment culture, we need to be Bereans. Our evaluations must start with the Bible.

The Word of God is always the place to begin to talk about church and mission. It always speaks with greater clarity and truth than we ever could. Even though it was written long ago, because the Holy Spirit inspired it, the Bible speaks today with surprising immediacy. While our churches may be constantly trying to find relevance, the Bible is eternally relevant. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.” Along those lines, one of the great promises the Bible makes is that, though the church often looks and feels rough around the edges, God is always at work in His people.

When we started our initial surveying of 7,000 Protestant churches to discover the commonalities of the top 10 percent, we laid out certain presuppositions that must be in place for the church to qualify for the study. Our first-tier criterion included that the Bible is the authoritative guide for faith and life. We wanted to be sure pastors agreed if they were part of the research. Our study was based on churches that would all work out of the framework that Christ is the way to salvation. Scripture was our baseline and our filter.

So, for example, if some research indicated that the key to having a growing church is to stop preaching the Bible, we would say that consideration doesn’t fit through the filter. So, the foundational assessment question for your church should be, “Is God’s Word central in our body?” You need to be a Berean church.

Issacharites: Understanding the Times

Secondly, you should follow the example of the Issacharites in 1 Chronicles 12:32 in understanding the times.

You don’t hear a lot about the tribe of Issachar. They are not the tribe of Judah or Levi. They seem relatively unimportant, but they’re described as ones “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” There is little known about why they understood the times, and we should not read so much into the phrase as if they were a team of missiological analysts or futurists. Some speculate that they were scholars, but it important to note that they did not just understand the Text, but they understood thetimes.

To be like the Issacharites, you have to discern the times, so that you can know what to do.

A lot of the ways churches minister are similar—they share many of same whats. You will find worship, small groups and mission as part of most churches. Even the how stretches across denominational, generational, and geographical lines with aspects like prayer, leadership, and relationships. But the where creates a huge distinction for churches that are seeing transformation take place. They assess their ministry based on the context in which God has placed them. We have to understand the times.

If you are passionate about the people and community where God has sent you, and if you love them as He does, you will be motivated to know and understand the (and their) times. Unfortunately, Christian leaders are often more in love with their methodology than they are with their mission field. Instead, we need to be known as those who understand when and where we are and respond accordingly.

Berea and Issachar

I don’t often quote Karl Barth, but I believe he captures the right sentiment in his frequent reminders that theologians and pastors need both the Bible and a newspaper. He told students training for the ministry “to take your Bible and take your newspaper. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” The Word of God must be foundational for our lives and serve as the grid through which we see everything else, but we still must see other things, including and especially the context in which we minister.

When you create an assessment culture in your church, make sure you are evaluating whether your ministries line up with the Text and your context. Everything should flow from the Bible, but it should flow through the community and culture where God has placed you.

We need to be people of Berea and Issachar.

Read more from Ed here.

Tags: Ed Stetzer, Kingdom Concept, Local Predicament

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Making It Happen: Shifting Your Focus from Something Else to It

by: Jones Loflin

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See if this sounds familiar. You’re trying to focus on a task at work, but It just won’t leave you alone.

It seizes some significant mental real estate and prevents you from being fully present in the moment. You attempt to suppress your thoughts about It with countless less important activities, but It simply won’t leave. You hope to escape being a mental hostage to It when you are spending time with your family or friends, but still It hangs around, diminishing your ability to enjoy these moments, as well.

Its presence, however, can most strongly be felt when you are trying to rest. You want to physically, emotionally, and mentally relax from the break-neck pace of the day, but thoughts of It keep robbing you of these much needed moments of sacred idleness.

“What is this all powerful It,” you ask?

Simply put, It is your most “Important Thing.”

Those tasks, activities, goals, dreams, and plans that are neglected almost daily in the overwhelming world of working on “something else.” You don’t consciously try to avoid It. You really want to work on It, whether it will take five minutes, five months, or five years, but you aren’t for many reasons.

Because a funnel narrows at the bottom, all of these possibilities vie to become It. In other words, you only have so many hours in the day. So, without a structure or process to manage all those possibilities, you struggle to determine what is important, urgent, or unnecessary. “That’s my world,” you might say. “Every day is full of a million things I could do.” And how you determine what actually comes out of that funnel and gets DONE may be one cause of your dilemma.

It’s time to make It happen!

If you are serious about making It happen more often in your work and life, you need to start doing 6 things every day.

>> Download Jones Loflin’s solutions for getting to It here.

Tags: Jones Loflin, Making It Happen, priority

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5 Skills for Discovering Creative Ideas

by: VRcurator

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Consider the talents of the following two groups who were asked these three questions:

• How many of you are good singers?
• How many of you are good dancers?
• How many of you are good artists?

About 2 percent of the first group responded positively to each of these three questions. That’s a typical response of most leadership teams.

But it’s possible to find a second group in almost any community who would give nearly 100 percent positive responses. Surprised?

Ask any group of first graders these three questions, and the children will respond with an enthusiastic “Yes!” to each one.

All children are creative – they’re born that way!

What happened to the creative gene that was so alive in our childhoods?

It would seem that as we leave childhood, we stop believing in the power of dreams. We stop taking risks and pursuing ideas.

It’s time to recover the creativity of a child – but in an adult way.

Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai, writing for HBR.org, suggest five power skills to help you rediscover creativity:

1. Develop Creative Discontent. The best intrapreneurs are never satisfied with the status quo; they ask big questions and challenge themselves and others to find big ideas.
2. Use Convergence Thinking. Convergence is not simply about combining ideas and technology; it is a primary leadership competency that allows organizations to design the right future.
3. Find Pivots. Change creates opportunities for innovation, and if the amount of change is disproportionate in size, there is opportunity for movement in a completely new direction — a pivot.
4. Overturn Orthodoxies. Challenging orthodoxies can provide clarity on existing paradigms worth changing to improve your business model, products, services, processes, customer experience, or brand.
5. Think Frugally. The primary driver of frugal thinking is scarcity of time and resources. Frugal thinking forces individuals to be highly creative just to accomplish routine jobs.

Teach these five power skills to the leaders and top talent in your organization. They can help keep your innovation pipeline full. By practicing these skills, your team will improve critical and creative thinking skills, leading to many game‐changing opportunities for your organization.

Tags: Creative Thinking, Creativity, Innovation

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Is Your Church Concerned About and Measuring the Right Things?

by: Ed Stetzer

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Last year, Caroline Inglis was on the verge of an historic feat. No high school golfer, male or female, had ever captured the Oregon state title four consecutive years. Inglis won the class 5A state tournament her freshman, sophomore, and junior years. There seemed very little doubt that she would win the title again as a senior.

On the course, Caroline dominated the rest of the field­—finishing with a 3-under 69, nine shots better than any other golfer. On the last hole, with victory assured, she scored her first bogey of the day. That would not have been an issue, except for the fact that her playing partner wrote down she had made a par. Caroline signed her scorecard and turned it in, believing she had just accomplished an Oregon first. In reality, she had just disqualified herself.

In golf, turning in an incorrect scorecard results in a disqualification. Because she had signed and submitted the wrong score, Caroline forfeited the win even though her actual score was still much better than anyone else. Having the wrong scorecard can make all the difference in the world.

Not too long ago, Bill Hybels and Willow Creek were honest enough to admit it—they had been using the wrong scorecard. An assessment demonstrated their members were not moving into maturity. “Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much,” Hybels said. “Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.”

While they were roundly criticized for their mistakes and everyone latched on to their remarks as a moment to say, “I told you so,” they are not the only church making similar mistakes. The things that Willow Creek found were problems in their congregation are problems in all kinds of churches. I believe most churches have been operating off the wrong scorecard for years.

Few churches use any system of accountability today. Many often judge their success based on anecdotes of temporary successes, with those frequently having long since lost any relevance to the current ministry taking place. Anecdotes can be great illustrations of statistical truths. They can also be misleading and hide the reality of the situation.

For those who actually use some means to analyze their ministry, most churches use the same three measuring sticks: bodies, budgets, and buildings. The old numbers-driven scorecard focuses exclusively on the number of people attending, the number of dollars being spent, and the number of square feet being used for church purposes. This is based on a brick-and-mortar mentality that reinforces an emphasis on the campus instead of encouraging people to be moved out into the field.

These three have served as the metrics for how the church is progressing. I’m not against those. I just don’t think they are enough. They don’t go far enough and don’t always capture the truth of the situation. Willow Creek was successful based on those standards, but an assessment showed they had missed the mark on discipleship.

Part of creating an assessment culture is being concerned about the right things. Builders don’t measure the nails to see if the lumber will fit them. They measure the lumber. No one measures a light switch and plans the construction around it. You have to measure the right things. In the church, when we spend our time only measuring the outlying issues we will miss the core mission of God.

I believe that measurements matter for the church. I don’t think we should eliminate them, but I do think we need a new scorecard. We need to key on factors that facilitate more people becoming Christ followers, more believers growing in their faith, and more churches making an impact on their communities. Our scorecards must include an emphasis on things like accountability, discipleship, and spiritual maturity.

That’s what Thom Rainer and I outlined in Transformational Church and what is at the center of the Transformational Church Assessment Tool. We need to find the right scorecard and begin evaluating and valuing the right things. Bodies and budgets may (and even should) be included, but they cannot be the only factors discussed. Find a tool, whether it is ours or not, that is valuing the right things and begin to implement a culture of assessment in your church.

In the final post of this series, I want to highlight two of the central issues that should be considered when a church sets about creating an assessment culture.

Part Three of a four-part series; read Part Four here.

Read more from Ed here.

Tags: Assessment, Ed Stetzer, New Scorecard

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