Leadership is a Lot Like a Train, and All Leaders Are Conductors

by: VRcurator

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Have you ever thought that leadership is a lot like a train? Here’s how leadership and growth expert Kirk Dando thinks of it:

The cars sitting on the tracks are loaded with different but valuable cargo (like team members: They’re all different but collectively valuable); they have a destination (the vision, measurable goals and expected time frames for arrival at the goals); and they have a route to follow (the mission and strategic plan). But they do not have a way of getting anywhere on their own. They have to hook up to the engine (the leader).

Have you ever watched how a bunch of railcars (the team) form a working train? It all begins with the engine (leader). The engine switches itself to the same track as the car (team member) it’s going to pick up; then it backs up to the car, makes contact and connects. Then it repeats the process until it has all the cars and starts heading toward its destination, sometimes picking up more cars along the way.

Likewise, all leaders are conductors, steering their organizational “trains” onward, upward and ever forward with knowledge, experience, confidence and enthusiasm—and, above all else, passion and a sure and steady hand.

It may be your first day on the job at your first organization, or your thousand and first day on the job and your tenth organization, but the warning signs—and potential train wrecks—are all the same.

 Your job as “conductor” is to steer your organization in the right direction. No organization is immune to failure, just as no train is wreck-proof. Some pitfalls can be avoided because of your organization’s lack of size. Others you encounter because of your organization’s size—as your organization grows, unfamiliar circumstances breed new challenges. Regardless of how experienced you are as a leader or how big or small your organization, every one of these warning signs is indicative of something we normally celebrate: success!

Why are these the 12 Warning Signs of Success? The answer is simple: If you don’t heed them, the very things that cause your success can also cause your demise. They can appear at any and all stages of leadership development and organizational growth.

Dando groups the signs under the three key challenges of any growth-oriented organization, namely:

• Leadership
• Culture
• Performance

All 3 are central to your organization’s success. Do you see any of these warning signs in your organization?

>> Download Kirk Dando’s 12 Warning Signs of Success here

Tags: 12 Warning Signs of Success, Kirk Dando, Leadership Engine, conductors

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Breaking Thru to High Capacity Leaders

by: Todd McMichen

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The question of key donors always comes up wherever I speak, teach, or coach on stewardship. It typically revolves around a few topics like these: what should and shouldn’t a pastor know about donations and issues of favoritism. It is definitely a touchy subject and one we need to shine a powerful light on. I strongly believe that senior leaders need to bear the responsibility of discipleship of key leaders and donors. Here are some thoughts to help you get in the game if you are having trouble.

1. Think in terms of key leaders and influencers, not strictly donors.

You should also think beyond current practice to historical and potential influence. Resources come in all sizes and shapes. Not everyone knows how to use or release them. Broaden the conversation beyond money.

2. People who are high impact often times can live isolated either due to their busy travel schedules or need for privacy.

However, they do desire a few solid relationships with other strong leaders. Pastors uniquely fit this role and have more influence than they may realize. Proceed with confidence.

3. Every believer needs to be discipled, and every believer needs to be serving in line with his or her gift and passion.

Somehow we get this when it comes to hospitality, encouragement, or teaching, but struggle when it comes to generosity. Doesn’t every gift need support?

4. Build the relationship first and let it be of mutual benefit.

Pastors are high capacity leaders themselves who are often isolated and without a mentor. Be friends, listen, and care. Let it become second nature to you.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask.

High capacity leaders need to be asked in a clear and specific way. They are not interested in wasting their time or resources. They respond to high challenge and a successful plan. Don’t let their busy schedules or aloof persona be intimidating.

It may be scary or seem unspiritual to you, but press through. Just as the poor need to be served so do the well resourced. I promise they have less together than you might perceive.

>> Read more from Todd here

Tags: Generosity, High Capacity Leaders, Todd McMichen

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Show Them How to Live: Training Disciples in the Way Jesus Lived

by: Timmy Brister

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I grew up in a churched culture. From the time I left the hospital until I graduated high school, I was put through every program, participated in every activity, and was faithful to every event our local church had to offer. Children’s church, R.A.’s (Royal Ambassadors), Bible Drill, Children’s & Youth Choir, Puppet Ministry, Youth Group/Ministry, Sunday School, Discipleship Training, Christmas/Easter Dramas…you name it, I was in it.

I was converted at the early age of 8, right in the middle of all the busy life a committed church-goer. Looking back, however, one of the most glaring (and I would add scandalous) omissions is that my church never taught me how to live. I knew how to do a ton of religious things, not the least of which was checking off the boxes on my tithe envelope, but when it came to living out my faith as a disciple of Jesus, I really had no clue. I just knew how to get in the system and let the system do its thing.

> The System and Spirit Within Christendom

What this system has produced, rather unintentionally I might add, is a spirit of consumerism through the culture of Christendom. In this system, who you are (identity) is defined by what you do (performance). I am a Christian because I go to church, and the fruit of my faith is manifested in my participation and religious performances. This system works within Christendom because Christianity and culture has been syncretized so that being religious or good is tantamount to being a disciple of Jesus.

The metrics for this appraisal of religious devotion are the church’s programs, activities, and events (think gatherings and special services). Instead of teaching disciples of Jesus how to live in the world, we take them out of the world and teach them how to be busy in the church building/campus. The centralizing effect made the church like the indoor shopping mall, servicing the needs, wants, and preferences of all within Christendom. The consumer was in control, and the church was there to make sure their product was good enough to have them buy into their church.

But just like the indoor mall has seen its day, so has Christendom. There has been a great divorce between Christianity and culture in recent years, and fewer and fewer people are attracted to this religious marketplace mentality. Ironically, many proponents in this system are lamenting the lack of enduring fruit from this well-oiled, efficient system.

• Why is it that around 1% of Christians ever share their faith? Could it be that they do not know any unbelievers? Could it be that they have never been taught how to love their neighbor? Could it be that their understanding of evangelism is exceptionally gifted leaders using an extraordinary platform rather than ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality?
• Why is it that there is little qualitative distinctiveness between disciples of Jesus and those in the world around them? Could it be that we have assumed the gospel and replaced it with behavioral modification? Could it be we have substituted repentance and faith with try harder and do better? Could it be that we have trained people to value programs and activities in place of authentic community and missional living?

Could it be that we have measured religious activity and assumed that is the same thing as pursuing holiness?

Read Part 2.

Tags: Disciples, Discipleship, Timmy Brister

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What Makes Your Church Different from 10,000 Other Churches?

by: Jody Forehand

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God has given your church a specific place and people to minister to. There is no other church in the world exactly like yours, equipped to serve God and your community exactly the way He intends for you to do it. To borrow a phrase from my friend, David Putman, you’ve got to break the missional code of your community. David co-authored the book “Breaking the Missional Code” with Ed Stetzer. In a nutshell this says that you need to find out specifically what it is that your community needs and be that for your community in order for them to be receptive to the gospel.

Our partner Auxano states it in a question: What makes your church different from 10,000 other churches?

Find out what this is for your community and then go be it. Rick Warren was successful with his church model in his specific community in Southern California, but that doesn’t mean you will be successful with his church model in your community in rural Tennessee. Understanding this should give you a sense of relief and freedom, and it should transform your church programmatically and physically. Understanding this will help you see how you can employ intentional and strategic design to best utilize your site and facilities to become the heart of your community.

If your architect or design-builder brings you a set of “stock” plans to pick from (or a set of plans that might as well be, because it looks just like every other church you’ve ever seen), just remember, you get what you pay for, and what you get may have worked for the first church is was designed for, but you aren’t that church, and it may not work for you or your community. Now what I’m NOT saying is that every project has to be designed from scratch. Each project doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. In fact, to paraphrase a quote often attributed to various artists of different mediums, good architects borrow half of what they design, and great architects steal it all.

What this means is there are so many good design elements in existence in both the church and “secular” world and so many well established design “rules-of-thumb” for various ministry programs such that a great architect can draw from a wealth of resources and knowledge of built environments to pull together (“steal”) all the design elements into a cohesive, but still unique, plan that is right for your ministry and your community.

Don’t let any architect or design-builder presume to tell you who you are as a church. The great ones will find out what your DNA is and design a solution to meet your specific functional needs as a church…and your missional needs for your community. A great architect will design with the regional context in mind, taking the time to understand what makes a site in Atlanta different from a site in Louisville, or Los Angeles, or anywhere in between. A great architect will investigate and understand the specific opportunities and constraints of your site, and won’t suggest a “stock” plan to plop down on any site and “make it work”. Your church is not McDonalds, so don’t let your building look just like another McChurch down the road.

The key thing to look for when seeking out an architect to partner with your ministry is how well they listen to you about who you are and who you are trying to reach, so that with intentionality they can create a design to tell your unique story in the built environment. Partnering with a good architect may get you into a functional building, but partnering with a great architect will help your church “do your own thing” better than you could ever imagine.

>> Read more from Jody here.

Tags: Jody Forehand, Kingdom Concept, Local Predicament, local context

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The Positive Benefits of Ministry Calendaring with a Systems Approach

by: David Putman

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“Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most out of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

It’s that time of year again.  Nothing prepares us for a new year like good planning.  If you lead or help lead a church, a systems approach to calendaring brings with it a number of positive benefits.  It allows you to…

• Avoid the attendance roller coaster – This may be one of the biggest advantages to understanding your calendar.  Imagine getting off the attendance roller coaster.  Understanding the growth rhythm of church attendance makes this possible.
• Maximize growth – There are a limited number of days each year that you grow in weekend attendance.  Understanding this allows you to maximize growth.
• Create margin – We all could use some margin in our lives.  Good planning promotes margin.
• Steward God’s vision – Good planning allows us to steward God’s vision well for our church and life.
• Lead with clarity – When we lead others, clarity matters.  There are two ends when it comes to leadership.  There is vision and execution.  Leaders lead with a clear vision, and at the same time they get things done.  A systems approach to our ministry calendar allows us to schedule the implementation of a clear vision.  A must in leadership.

 Understanding Your Growth Rhythm

 Understanding your growth rhythm as a church is a must when it comes to calendaring.  A common misconception is that healthy churches experience consistent growth.  In reality we only grow a few weekends each year.   Here are the days a church typically grows with weekend services.

• Weekend after New Years
• Easter
• Mother’s Day
• Weekend after Labor Day
• Christmas

On the other hand, here are some days a church doesn’t typically grow.

• New Years
• Memorial Day
• Father’s Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Weekend after Thanksgiving

In addition, the school calendar greatly impacts your growth rhythm.

In reality a healthy growth rhythm looks more like a healthy bull market on the stock exchange.  It’s goes up and down based on the time of year, holiday, school schedule, etc.  Knowing this can allow you to maximize growth.

A healthy exercise is to plot out your actual growth over a period of several years.  When you build a graph by layering each year you will begin to see the actual pattern of how the church grows.

A good calendar builds on the foundation of your growth rhythm.  Let me suggest that your overall church calendar is actually a collection of key calendars. A systems approach to calendaring should include the following, in this order:

• Preaching Calendar
• Personal Vitality Calendar
• Giving Calendar
• Ministry Calendar
• Leadership Calendar

Here’s a brief description of each of these calendars for your consideration.

> Preaching Calendar

I recommend you start with your preaching calendar.  As noted you only have six to eight big days per year when your church is likely to experience a huge spike in weekend attendance, if utilized.  Here’s a list of things to consider when planning your preaching calendar.

• Pre-plan your preaching calendar.
• Plan the entire year.
• Plan it around 10 to 12 series a year (4 to 6 weeks long).
• Plan it around your growth rhythm.
• Start new series on high days.
• Develop new preachers on low days.

> Personal Vitality Calendar

Now that you’ve identified those high growth ties, move on to your personal vitality calendar.  Utilize the natural low days to take breaks for developing new communicators.  Early on in ministry I failed to plan well when it came to taking time off.  For some of you this may be a no brainer; for others, like me, we have to be proactive.

• Schedule holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and special days.
• Schedule your family vacation(s).
• Schedule your day off.
• Schedule your evenings.
• Pay attention to your annual, quarterly, weekly, and daily rhythms.

> Giving Calendar

When it comes to calendaring we often over look our giving calendar.  Financing the mission isn’t automatic.  Giving is a discipleship issue and needs to be schedule around the five seasons of giving.  These seasons include:

• New Year – can be an onramp to financial stewardship.
• Pre-Summer – an onramp to automated giving.
• Summer – a time to invest in your leaders and key givers.
• Fall – a time for sacrifice or giving with vision.
• End-of-Year – a time for that end-of-year gift.

> Ministry Calendar

Ministry calendar is another way of calendaring around your disciple-making assimilation.  To do this you need to map out your assimilation process.  This usually involves the following:

• Newcomers events – depends of your need.
• Groups – start up, breaks, training, launching of new groups, etc.
• Volunteers – orientation, training, appreciation, etc.
• Missions & Service opportunities – includes local and global opportunities to engage in planting the gospel.

> Leadership Calendar

A healthy church needs to calendar a number of leadership events.  They may include:

• Ministry Team Meetings – good meetings are the playing field of great teams.  There are a number of team meetings you need to schedule.  Don’t leave your team guessing.
• Vision Nights – excellent times for communicating vision and direction to your church body.  Plan four or five nights a year for rallying the body.
• Training Events – Volunteers and group leaders need a heavy investment.
• Staff Retreats – Plan several times a year to work “on it” with you team.  Let’s face it we need a break from working “in it”.

>>Tips for a Good Calendar Meeting

Taking time to plan your annual calendar can yield incredible results.  They also can be overwhelming. Here are some tips for a good calendar meeting.

• Set aside a long day (noon-to-noon make for a good overnighter).
• Involve your team.
• Make sure they are well prepared.
• Offsite locations are best.
• Make sure you have access to all the information (Wi-Fi is a must).
• Use large visible calendar (Taped together desk calendars work best).
• Use different color sticky notes for maximum flexibility and creativity.
• Assign someone to take notes, photograph, and create a public calendar.

Celebrate and enjoy the fruits of a well-planned year!

Read more from David here.

Tags: David Putman, Ministry Calendaring, systems approach

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Is Your Organization Optimized for Efficiency or Strategic Agility?

by: VRcurator

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Organizations everywhere are struggling to keep up with the accelerating pace of change—let alone get ahead of it.

Most people don’t feel the full rush going on around them, which is a part of the problem. But on almost every important index, the world is racing ahead. The stakes – the financial, social, environmental, and political consequences – are rising in a similar, exponential way. What we need today is a powerful new element to address the challenges posed by mounting complexity and rapid change.

The solution, which internationally known business thinker John Kotter has seen to work astonishingly well, is a second system that is organized as a network – more like a start-up’s solar system than a mature organization’s Giza pyramid – that can create agility and speed. It powerfully complements rather than overburdens a more mature organization’s hierarchy, freeing the latter to do what it’s optimized to do. It makes an enterprise easier to run while accelerating strategic change.

This is not a question of “either/or.” It’s “both/and,” two systems that operate in concert.

A dual operating system.

We still have much to learn. Nevertheless, the organizations that get there first, because they are willing to pioneer action now, will see immediate and long-term success—for stakeholders, customers, employees, and themselves. I am convinced that those who lag will suffer greatly – if they survive at all.

>> Learn more about the dual operating system in this download from John Kotter.

Tags: Accelerate, John Kotter, Strategic Agility, ministry innovation

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Is Your Children’s Ministry More Than Fun?

by: Ed Stetzer

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One of the hidden treasures that the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon, left the church was a little book titled Come Ye Children. In it, Spurgeon contended earnestly that one of the most important tasks given to a parent, teacher, or minister is teaching kids the gospel. Spurgeon writes:

There must be doctrine, solid, sound, gospel doctrine to constitute real feeding. When you have a joint on the table, then ring the dinner-bell; but the bell feeds nobody if no provender is served up. Getting children to meet in the morning and the afternoon is a waste of their steps and yours if you do not set before them soul-saving, soul sustaining truth. Feed the lambs; you need not pipe to them, nor put garlands round their necks; but do feed them.

As a parent, teacher, or minister, teaching your kids the gospel is the most important task you have. So, what is your plan? Just like kids grow physically in proportion to the food they eat and emotional support they receive, they grow spiritually in a similar manner. Are you intentionally feeding your kids the gospel? It is estimated that pastors have 104 hours a year with kids in their ministry, while parents have 8,736 hours a year.

By the end of 2014, will your kids know the gospel?

Help The Kids Understand The Gospel!

According to our kid’s team at LifeWay there are several foundational truths that should be established as the support structure of a child’s faith development—including God, Jesus, Bible, Creation, Family, Self, Church, Community and World, The Holy Spirit, and Salvation (These are charted out in Learning as They Grow). In other words, understanding these biblical concepts is vital to the spiritual development of the next generation. How are we doing with our children? Can our children answer questions such as:

• What is sin?
• Who is Jesus?
• What did Jesus do?
• Why do you and I need Jesus to save us?
• How do we receive the salvation that Jesus offers?

It is important that we be careful with our precious children. We do not want to walk them into making a decision to follow Christ without an intentional plan for walking with them down the road of discipleship. Our ministry to children will be measured by disciples, not decisions. In the video below, Trevin Wax offers some practical suggestions on teaching your children the gospel.

1. Repetition is essential.
2. Choose your language carefully.
3. Don’t underestimate your kids’ understanding.

So, what are we teaching our children? Are we teaching morals, or the gospel? In that same little book, Spurgeon writes, “…the gospel produces the best morality in all the world.” As we teach our children the gospel, we teach them how to live as disciples.

Point The Kids To Jesus!

Trevin and I both serve as editors for The Gospel Project, a Christ-centered Bible study resource that presents the gospel story of redemption through every major Bible event. Our desire is that kids not only know all the Bible stories, but know the Bible story. We pray that kids would not see Jesus as part of the Bible story, but as the point of the Bible story. Not long ago we heard this story from a pastor in Oklahoma:

One night we were going over the story of Passover. It was such a natural transition to a gospel presentation that I was vibrating with excitement—they were going to hear a clear presentation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ! That night three kids gave their life to Jesus. The next week two more gave their lives to Jesus. The week after, those kids were bringing others to hear the gospel, and those kids were turning over their lives too.

No matter how you do it, or what material you use (unashamedly, I want you to use The Gospel Project) make sure you clearly and consistently communicate the good news of Jesus through your children’s ministry. Make sure you have an intentional plan to disciple your little ones. This is your most important task if you are a parent, teacher, or minister.

Read more from Ed here.

Tags: Children's Ministry, Ed Stetzer, Gospel, Scripture, The Gospel Project, Trevin Wax

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10 Factors That Determine the Size of Your Vision

by: Will Mancini

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I often see leaders with radically different size visions, despite having a lot in common. Pastors may have the same gifting, the same budget and the same amount of people attending worship services and yet still be on entirely different vision wavelengths.

Where does this come from? Why does this happen?

Here are my initial thoughts. Keep in mind that I believe providence and local ministry context are the primary factors in determining the scope of a ministry’s vision. This list focuses on developmental aspects of leadership.

#1 The size of your God This isn’t a spiritual throw-in to get the list rolling. This is a very discernible feature in a leader’s life. Some leaders have a more cultivated inner life and deeper awareness of God’s Word. Their ability to dream big comes from the big God that they walk with and serve each day.

#2  Exposure to others who “think big” Did you ever notice why many prominent leaders have children who are prominent leaders? I think of Andy Stanley or Franklin Graham, for example. When you are around others with a larger perspective, it rubs off. I am surprised sometimes how leaders tend to stay in a very confined space—geographically and relationally—for their entire lives.

#3 An active imagination Some people have a tenacious impulse to learn, ask questions and grow how they think. That kind of curious drive pays off. The imagination is your most powerful human ability. Do you exercise it much? Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge.

#4  Sequences of risk taking I’m not talking about a bias for risk in general, but the ability to “stack risk-taking” and feel the momentum of one “leap of faith” after another. Many leaders take a risk or two and settle for the really good outcomes rather than continuing to find even more extraordinary results.

#5 Ability to focus gifting Most leaders know themselves but don’t have a fine-tuned understanding of precisely why God put them on earth. When you do, and when you focus that gifting, big things will result. The scope of your vision grows as your focus narrows.  Are you trying to do five things with your life or one thing?  (If you want more info on my first personal vision  cohort—starting in August— let me know.)

#6 Team and network building ability We all know wild dreamers who didn’t have a team. Your team building ability will dramatically enable of disable the size of your vision. In addition, I am amazed by the increase of wisdom, access, ideas, and opportunities that come through active network cultivation.  Wouldn’t you expect the vision of a pastor who networks to be bigger than one who doesn’t bother?

#7  A goal oriented outlook daily Every person who achieves a big vision has a basic recipe for attacking the 24-hour unit of time we all possess. What is yours? I have a three kinds of days in my life (focused, buffer and free). On buffer days I determine the 2 most important things to accomplish by 11:00am.

#8  Margin to write down your dreams At first I wanted to say “disciple to write down your dreams.” But discipline is over-rated in this way. The bigger challenge is margin. People enjoy dreaming and writing down their “wish list” when given the time. That doesn’t take discipline— its one of the most exciting things you can do! Over and over again, you will see the common thread of big visionaries: Put it on paper

#9  Recovery from big failures Don’t underestimate the power of a good failure. Failures remind you that life is short. Failures expand your pain threshold. Failures purify and humble and bring powerful perspective. Sometimes a failure in one area or with one dream can increase the size of another.

#10 Graciousness and kindness to others I suspect there are people who excel at the first nine factors but in the end, they just aren’t that nice.  They don’t care about others. They don’t stay connected to their teams and their friends. They are so driven, they loose the human element in everything they do. So you might not think something this simple would make the “big vision” list. But I can’t shake it.

>> Read more from Will here

Tags: Size of Your Vision, Will Mancini

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Seth Godin with an Anatomy Lesson for Your Church

by: VRcurator

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Seth Godin delivers a simple, but profound anatomy lesson for your church:

Most organizations are built around three anatomical concepts: Bone, muscle and soft tissue.

The bones are the conceptual skeleton, the people who stand for something, who have been around, have a mission and don’t bend easily, even if there’s an apparently justifiable no-one-is-watching shortcut at hand. “We don’t do things that way around here.”

The muscles are able to do the heavy lifting. They are the top salespeople, the designers with useful and significant output, the performers who can be counted on to do more than their share.

And the soft tissue brings bulk, it protects the muscles and the bones. The soft tissue can fill a room, handle details, add heft in many ways. It can bring protection and cohesion, and sometimes turn into muscle.

When a bone breaks, we notice it. When those that make up the organization’s skeleton leave, or lose their nerve or their verve, the entire organizations gasps, and often rushes to fix the problem.

Muscles are easily measured, and we’ve built countless organizational tools to find and reward our best producers.

But soft tissue… soft tissue is easy to add to the team, but time-consuming to remove. Soft tissue bogs down the rest of the organization, what with all those meetings, the slowdown of time to market, the difficulty in turning on a dime.

An organization that lets itself be overwhelmed by the small but insistent demands of too much soft tissue gets happy, then it gets fat, then it dies.

Have you had an “organizational checkup” lately? How is your “anatomy”?

Read more from Seth here.

Tags: Organizational Structure, Seth Godin, Structure

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A Strategy that Directly Fuels Your Mission and Vision Produces Passionate People

by: Carey Nieuwhof

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One of the dreams of almost every leader is to see every person within an organization motivated by the same mission and vision.

The reality is very few organizations—and very few churches—function that way.

Most leaders have had an unsettling feeling that they might be the most passionate person about their mission, and wonder how on earth to get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of others on board instead of wandering off on their own course.

Well, you can change that. And it’s simpler (and more challenging at the same time) than you think.

Why Strategy Trumps Mission and Vision

If you really want people on board with a vision, your strategy is critical.

In fact, strategy trumps mission and vision. A great mission and vision with a bad strategy will fail.

Stripping everything back to basics will reveal why. (And I’ll use the mission, vision and strategy of Connexus Church where I serve to illustrate it.)

Mission = what we’re called to do. (To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ)

Vision = why we’re called to do it. (To create a church unchurched people love to attend—this is why we started it!)

Strategy = how we’ll accomplish it. (The steps we’ve chosen to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus)

If you don’t clearly know how you’ll accomplish your mission, well…that’s the problem isn’t it?

Why Anything Goes…Doesn’t

Most leaders have people pleasing tendencies (I blogged about the problems with that here).

That means most of us have a hard time saying no when people ask to start a ministry or program.

The challenge with that of course, is that they often want to do things that they’re passionate about, not the things your organization or church was created to do.

So most church leaders end up with dozens or even hundreds of programs that run off in just as many directions and are sometimes only remotely related to the core purpose of the organization. Are programs like “Pets are People Too” or “Men Who Bike in Spandex Recovery Group” really central to the mission of the Church?

I’m not saying God doesn’t use them, but are those truly the best and most strategic ways to lead people into a growing relationship? They could easily be side projects people at your church engage in, rather than demand a line in the budget and organizational energy.

When you allow programs and ministries to spring up randomly, you get a misaligned organization that’s off mission.

And as anybody who has tried to shut down some of these random ministries knows, sometimes these programs can behave like fortresses. They very passionately defend their right to exist.

Engagement Is Directly Related to Involvement

And that leads us to the main problem.

If you remember only ONE THING about this post, remember this:

What people become involved in becomes their mission.

Did you hear that?

Get someone involved in something and it becomes their mission. It becomes their cause. Their rallying cry. What they wake up thinking about.

People are most engaged with what they’re involved in. 

What people become involved in becomes their mission.

So…Only Do Things That Directly Align With Your Mission and Vision.

So how do you create a great strategy that fully supports your mission and vision?

Only do the things that directly align with your mission and vision. 

If you only offer a handful of things that directly fuel your mission and vision, people will become passionate about your mission and vision.  

So at Connexus, we only do a few things.

• A weekend service that your unchurched friends will want to come back to.
• Great family ministry environments for birth-college built around small group and large group time.
• Starting Point—and environment for adults to begin exploring their role in God’s story.
• Community Groups—strategic mid-week gatherings of 8-12 adults who gather for accountability, belonging and care (okay…and cake).
• Partner with two or three local and global partners around issues of compassion and justice (foodbanks, missions etc).

When people ask what else we do…we tell them that’s it.

When they ask how they can be involved we tell them serve, give, invite a friend and be part a community group.

That’s it. That’s our strategy.

And Guess What?

That doesn’t have to be your strategy, but here’s the transferrable principle:

When you have a simple strategy that supports your mission and vision, people get passionate about your mission and vision.

They have no choice but to be. Because it’s all you do, and when they get involved, they become engaged.

It’s easy to understand, but it does take guts to implement.

Read more from Carey here.

Tags: Mission, Strategy, Vision

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