Three Reasons Generosity Matters

by: Philip Nation

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In 1993, my 9th grade algebra teacher said something like: You’ll use algebra constantly for the rest of your life. I’d like to say that I recently completed an unbroken streak of 35 years of having never used algebra… except for this illustration. 

Now, I know that math gets used constantly and I’ve likely used algebra on some level of reasoning without knowing it. Why? Because numbers are everywhere. They are concrete facts and reveal the truth. The “numbers” that gain the most attention for us have to do with money. How we use money is a signal about what we value. On a spiritual level, how we use money is a signal about our faith and a tool for to increase our faithfulness.

In 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, the apostle Paul wrote to the church about why generosity matters so much. There is much for us to learn along side of the Corinthians. Here are three ideas and three applications.

1. My difficulties remind me to contribute to God’s work. Paul highlighted the life and generosity of the church in Macedonia. Specifically, he reminded the Corinthians that the persecution, poverty, and pain that the Macedonians endured resulted in overwhelming generosity for the needs of others. We should learn to use our pain or our pain will use us. By focusing on Jesus’ work in the world, we will push past the detrimental narcissism that pain wants to birth within our souls. Our temporary problems should point us toward the eternal needs that drive the mission of the church.

2. My abundance is the supply for the church’s mission. If you think you do not have abundance, you are wrong. Anyone reading this has access to the Internet and you likely have clean water and a place to live. It puts you miles ahead of many in the world that have none of these. In 2 Corinthians 8:6, Paul encouraged the church to complete their “act of grace;” meaning their generous gift. Later in the passage, Paul urged the believers to make the supply for the church’s mission so that everyone could benefit. We should use what we have to help others.

But I want you to see that he is not just referring to the abundance of an individual. He is speaking to the church. They, as a community of Christians, had abundance. A church budget is a declaration of priorities. What does your church budget say about what your church values? Care is costly. Mission work requires resources. Ministry is non-stop in its neediness. But it’s worthwhile because it involves the redemption of people.

3. Our Lord called us to radical generosity. Nowhere in the Bible will you find Jesus declare, “Thou shalt be generous with thy bank account.” It is not stated that way. But look at the life of Jesus and you’ll never deny that generosity is the standard. The Incarnation was God’s radical plan for our radical need. In 2 Corinthians 9:15, Paul ended his teaching to the church about generosity with a literary shout of gratitude not to them but to God.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Christ’s poverty is not an abstract idea. It was the antidote to sin’s venomous sting. The revolutionary life of Jesus is not to be sterilized to a manageable version for us to emulate. If you want to live like Jesus then you have to give your life away. Giving will focus your life on God’s redemptive mission. This is where the spiritual algebra comes back into play.

Jesus + anything = nothing

Jesus + nothing = everything*

So what should we do with a passage that teaches revolutionary generosity?

• As a church… move from being a catering organization to being an equipping force for God’s mission.
• As a believer… give yourself first to Christ and your money will follow thereafter.
• As a giving believer… focus on Gospel causes and your comfort will no longer matter.

Our lives should never be the dead-end of the God’s mission. We follow a radical Messiah who has a revolutionary message for an unredeemed world. Let’s give ourselves fully into His hands.

> Read more from Philip.

* The phrasing of “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” was popularized by Tullian Tchividjian in his book from Crossway Publishers using the phrase as the title

Tags: Generosity, Giving, Philip Nation, giving to your church

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Reframing Disciplemaking: Moving from a Program to the Mission

by: David Putman

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I want to respond to a frequent question, “What is a good disciple-making mission”? While I appreciate and even understand the question, a better question is “What is our disciple-making mission”?  The best disciple-making mission is always going to be your unique disciple-making mission.

​Every church is unique!  At the same time, it is true that our bias is that the big “C” Church has one and only one mission, and it is always a disciple-making mission.  A good mission is our always our great permission with the Great Commission.  Here at Auxano, we believe that “God is up to something cosmically significant and locally specific” in our church.  I will say when taken out of your unique context most mission statements come up lacking.

In developing a mission statement, we begin by taking a deep dive into process work around a specific church’s identity.  We want to look at the unique people, unique place, and the unique passion of the church and specifically where all three of these intersect.  It’s after we do this in-depth process dive into your identity that you are prepared to begin discovering that unique mission and its articulation.

The challenge so often is we fail to have the capacity for this kind of deep processing work.  There are many reasons for this, but three common “thinkholes” that keep us from it includes what we call the ministry treadmill (too busy), competency trap (to smart), and the denominational rut (too stuck).

Also, any articulation of mission or vision language should always pass the “5 C’s Test”.  You can use this test to go ahead and evaluate your current mission.  The Five C’s are: is it clear, compelling, concise, contextual, and catalytic.

Take a moment and evaluate your mission statement on a scale of 1-5 using the C’s.  How did you do?  It’s vital that you did well. Your mission is what we call the answer to question zero.  Question zero is “What are we doing?”  If you get this question, wrong everything is going to be wrong.

I’ve got so much I want you to know, but limited time and space to communicate it.  However, there is one final thing I will add; a mission is always going to be spread by people, not paper.  Therefore it is critical that you build a team and go on a profound collaborative journey that at the end of the day taps into the collaborative genius of your leaders.

> Read more from David.

Tags: David Putman, Disciplemaking, Disciplemaking process

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Is Leadership a Question of Growth or Control?

by: Rick Warren

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The church has been on the front lines of some of the greatest humanitarian crises of the past few decades. The church has 2.3 billion people worldwide and is the biggest institution on the planet.

You might look at those numbers and ask yourself, “Why isn’t the church making a bigger impact in the world?”

I believe one reason is because the most creative people in our congregations must go outside of the church to start new ministries.

Why are they doing this?
Because the church wants to control them.

Instead of working within a church, many of these leaders form a 501(c)(3) to tackle the pressing issues of their communities. Today, there are tens of thousands of nonprofits in America doing what the church did for generations. We’ve structured these ministries right out of the church.

To broaden the ministry impact of your church, you will need to make the difficult choice to give up control.

You can choose control, or you can choose growth. But you can’t choose both.

Choosing growth over control means looking for ways to say yes when someone wants to start a new ministry. I believe most churches need to make it easier for people to start and serve in ministries, but this doesn’t mean I don’t believe there should be standards. I simply believe we shouldn’t bury new ministries with procedures and policies, or committees.

At Saddleback, anyone can start a ministry as long as:

1. They don’t expect the staff to run it. I call this the “You’re it” principle. When someone suggests we start a new ministry at Saddleback, I tell them, “Great. You’re it!”

You’re looking for people to own the ministries they’re suggesting; you’re not looking for people who expect someone else to do it. If a person has an idea for a ministry but doesn’t want to lead it, ask them to pray for God to inspire someone else to lead it. You won’t have a ministry without a minister.

2. It fits our church’s goals, strategy, and culture. Some ministries just won’t fit. If someone wanted to start a political ministry at Saddleback, it wouldn’t fit our culture or strategy. It’s not that we don’t believe elections are important. It’s just that a political ministry doesn’t fit our culture. You can give your people freedom without giving them a free pass.

3. It doesn’t harm the witness of the church. Failure happens in ministry. I don’t want to say no to a ministry just because it might fail. That’s choosing control over growth. In fact, a church without failure probably has too much control.

But failure that damages your church’s witness is a problem. It would confuse the people we’re trying to reach about what we believe and who we are. We can’t let that happen.

4. They don’t do any fund-raising for the ministry. We don’t allow any independent fund-raising for ministries at Saddleback. You simply don’t want every ministry in your church sending out appeal letters to your members. It’s chaos, and it’ll wear out your congregation.

You can’t have a unified church without a unified budget. You’ll have the best-marketed ministries getting the most funding, rather than the worthiest ones.

A huge reason why Saddleback has grown through the years is that we allow people to be as creative as they want to be when starting new ministries.

I could tell you story after story about the ministries started at Saddleback. Most of our 800 ministries weren’t started by staff members. They were started by people who saw a need and had a creative idea to meet it.

Celebrate Recovery® is probably our best and most well-known example. No one on staff started it. Instead, we received a 13-page letter by John Baker, a layman in our church. He told us about his own journey with alcoholism and his vision to start a Christ-centered recovery ministry.

Today that ministry reaches far beyond Saddleback. There are more than 35,000 churches around the world with Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery step studies have helped more than 5 million people worldwide.

All of that has happened because God inspired a layman to start a ministry in a church where we choose growth over control.

What could happen if your church did the same?

Questions for Self-Evaluation

• Do you have more volunteers now than you did a year ago? Why or why not?
• How many volunteer-led ministries does your church have?
• Do your volunteer leaders have the freedom to fail? When was the last time that happened?
• If a volunteer wanted to start a ministry, how long would it take? Have you defined a simple process?
• Specifically, how is your church caring for—not just equipping—your leaders?

> Read more from Rick.

Tags: Control, Growth, Leadership, New ministries, Rick Warren, starting new ministries

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The ABCs of Avoiding Ineffective Meetings: Build Buffers That Increase Production

by: VRcurator

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Meetings are a powerful tool for organizations. Secretly, though, you enjoy those Dilbert comics that feature the pain and frustration of poorly run meetings. It seems as if Scott Adams, the brilliant author of Dilbert, was a part of your last meeting!

Let’s face it; meetings can be a real drag. We all hate doing them, but we also feel they are a necessary evil to ensure people work well together. For such a straightforward concept – essentially a group of people gathered to discuss an idea – we really do make a mess out of it sometimes.

While statistics vary widely on the amount of time spent in meetings, successful organizations know their teams spend so much time in meetings that turning meeting time into sustained results is a priority. Actions that make meetings successful require direction by the meeting leader before, during, and after the meeting.

Whether you are organizing meetings or simply attending them, you owe it to yourself to become more effective at this skill – especially if you are the team leader!

SOLUTION #2: Build buffers that increase production

THE QUICK SUMMARY

Doing the work and leading the work are very different things. When you make the transition from maker to manager, you give ownership of projects to your team even though you could do them yourself better and faster. You’re juggling expectations from your manager, who wants consistent, predictable output from an inherently unpredictable creative process. And you’re managing the pushback from your team of brilliant, headstrong, and possibly overqualified creatives.

Leading talented, creative people requires a different skill set than the one many management books offer. As a consultant to creative companies, Todd Henry knows firsthand what prevents creative leaders from guiding their teams to success, and in Herding Tigers he provides a bold new blueprint to help you be the leader your team needs. Learn to lead by influence instead of control. Discover how to create a stable culture that empowers your team to take bold creative risks. And learn how to fight to protect the time, energy, and resources they need to do their best work.

Full of stories and practical advice, Herding Tigers will give you the confidence and the skills to foster an environment where clients, management, and employees have a product they can be proud of and a process that works.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Do you feel like your meeting schedule is overwhelming, often containing back-to-back meetings? Even with those, do you often feel like you can’t get everything done? Here’s a simple but effective technique: block out time in your schedule without specifying what it’s for, so you have time to work on unexpected issues.

Avoid waiting until the last-minute to schedule a time buffer. The more time you wait, the less available time and/or wiggle room you’ll have to actually drop in that time into your calendar.

Get into the habit of adding a time buffer both to the beginning and end of meetings and appointments as soon as you schedule them. Physically schedule or write-in the buffer into your calendar so you can see it.

As leader, you are uniquely positioned to help the team avoid “meeting pinball,” just bouncing between meetings all day in reactive mode.

One strategy is to establish buffers between tasks or events that allow you ream to reset, consider what’s next, and catch its breath between commitments.

Rather than stacking commitments back to back, you are giving each commitment that you schedule the amount of time it needs and no more, and you’re ensuring that every commitment has a little breathing room blocked off around it so that there is margin for participants.

If you truly want the people on your team to bring their best thinking to a meeting, don’t chain meetings back to back, especially if they are about different projects. Give them five or ten minutes to recollect themselves between meetings, to check in with their other commitments if necessary, and to refocus on the next topic.

Who decided that meetings should be an hour by default? Consider changing the default meeting expectation for your team by making each meeting precisely as long as it needs to be to finish the conversation. Then, take a break for the appropriate amount of time needed to regroup and refocus before the next meeting.

Also consider building buffers at the beginning and end of the day. While there are some situations that require such meetings, limit them as much as you can. By doing so, you’ll allow your team members to settle in, prepare, and bring their full attention and energy to the matters at hand. Also, you’ll allow them to wrap up any important matters at the end of the day before going home so that they can be refreshed and ready to go the following morning.

Todd Henry, Herding Tigers

A NEXT STEP

Time buffers are not just “fluff,” they are extremely valuable units of time! They are what keep meetings from running into one another.

You could think of time buffers just like the spaces between words in a sentence. It’s the difference between reading: “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow,” versus “Maryhadalittlelambitsfleecewaswhiteassnow.” The spaces help keep things properly separated.

Think about what value your time buffers could bring you and your team when it comes to meetings. Could your buffer bring you: peace of mind, a little less stress, or time for you to grab a snack and a drink of water?

Evaluate your current slate of recurring meetings and consider eliminating or adapting them to better your team’s time.

How can you better structure your current meeting schedule so that there is less wasted time and energy and more white space for your team to recollect and refocus on the work?

Are there any commitments or expectations that bookend your team’s day that need to be adjusted so that they have more margin around the edges of their schedule?

Once you have created buffer space around your meetings, have conversations with your team to help them take full advantage of it.

Excerpt taken from Remix 90-2.

Tags: Ineffective meetings, Meetings, Successful Meetings, Todd Henry

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Five Things That Kill Successful Recruiting

by: Dan Reiland

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Jesus knew how to recruit.

When He said to Peter and Andrew; “Come, follow me,” He wanted, even anticipated a yes. (Matthew 4:18-19) Jesus had a purpose, showed passion, and focused on the person.

We all desire a yes, but how you go about it makes all the difference. The process of recruiting can either give something to the person or take something from them. It’s not always that black and white, but here’s what I mean.

When recruiting gives something to the person, you’re inviting them to be part of something bigger than they could achieve on their own. Something that God Himself ordained and has eternal value.

When recruiting takes something from the person, you are asking them to solve a problem you have by helping you get something done at the church.

See how different they are? You’d never describe recruiting like that or as taking something, and it’s never intentional, but it’s a common experience especially when you are under pressure.

Recruiting in a volunteer faith-based organization is not for the faint of heart. Not because it’s difficult, but because it never ends. You have to love what you do! If you get the basics right, recruiting becomes second nature and you gain a momentum that helps you keep going.

Leaders who are great recruiters:

1. Love people
2. Are passionate about the vision
3. Possess a servant’s heart
4. Are positive by nature
5. Are more secure than insecure
6. Cast vision and encourage well
7. Have a strategic mind and a shepherd’s heart

However, no matter how good you may be at recruiting volunteers, there are some things that if they’re true about your church, will make recruiting significantly (and unnecessarily) more difficult.

3 hinderances that make recruiting unnecessarily difficult:

1) Too many ministries

This may seem obvious, but when a church has too many ministries, it’s impossible to keep up with recruiting demands. You risk wearing people out by asking them to serve in several ministries. No one church can do every ministry possible, so be strategic, pray much and select the few ministries your church can do best.

2) Ministries that aren’t effective

This one is relatively easy to fix. If the ministry is not working and lives are not being changed, there’s more effort than results and little passion, and it’s not a core or non-negotiable ministry, then shut it down. I say “relatively” easy because there is usually someone still passionate about it, but it’s necessary to make difficult decisions for your core and priority ministries to thrive.

3) Ministries that don’t capture the heart

Sometimes this is about poorly cast vision, and I’ll cover some thoughts about that under point 5 coming up. But any ministry that does not capture people’s hearts is going to be difficult to lead forward.

5 Recruiting Mistakes To Avoid:

1) Allowing desperation to influence the selection

What’s the better choice? A ministry position left unfilled or a ministry position filled with the wrong person? Seems easy, right? It’s better to leave the position unfilled. Always. But in the moment, when the pressure is on, it’s easy to cave and choose someone not right for that particular ministry.

Desperate is never the right disposition when recruiting a volunteer leader or team member. It’s always much more difficult to undo a hasty decision than to wait for the right person. The “right” person doesn’t mean the perfect person, but someone who can do the job with proper training, who has a passion for it and is not serving in two-three other ministries.

2) Missing the critical 90-day window

The first three months are vital to welcoming a new volunteer and establishing expectations.

Both sides of the relationship are important.

As the leader, make sure you provide great training, communicate regularly and clearly, and encourage often. For the volunteer, don’t be shy to communicate expectations of the ministry, even things like showing up on time and being spiritually prepared. They want to know these things! Volunteers want to serve well, therefore letting them know what’s expected is helpful.

3) Practicing “catch and abandon”

Volunteers who quit nearly always express some version of,

“Once I was recruited and got started, that was the last I heard from anyone unless they wanted something else from me.”

That comment may sound harsh, but keep in mind, if that’s how some volunteers feel, we need to understand why. It doesn’t matter if it may be exaggerated; it’s up to us as the leaders to lead well.

Of course, you’re not “catching” anyone. When you recruit someone, you’re inviting and including them onto your ministry team. They become part of your serving community and very often become new friends. Ongoing communication, encouragement, resourcing, training as needed, and lots of appreciation are part of a great serving team and meaningful relationships.

4) Valuing skill over character

Overall capability is important, and for some ministries, specific skills are necessary to build a great volunteer team for effective ministry. But competence over character never ends well in the long-run. It’s much easier to train for competence than to solve problems from character issues.

Start with discerning of character and spiritual maturity. Here are five good questions to consider that will help you discern.

• Will they follow their leader? This reveals how they view those in authority.
• Will they be a team player? This helps you know their heart to serve.
• Will they learn and improve? This helps you know their desire to grow.
• Will they sacrifice? This gives some insight into their perspective in life.
• Will they be honest and authentic? This helps you know their level of maturity and security.

5) Under-emphasizing the “heart and why” of vision

When you’re recruiting, don’t rush to the tasks of a ministry too quickly. It’s good that you want to be clear and I hope you have it in written form, but always start with vision.

The heart behind your vision is compelling and why you do it is inspiring. Candidly, it’s about 90% of why people volunteer and 98% of why they continue to serve.

Each ministry is specific, but overall, heart says that you care and the why is to see lives changed.

So, for example, if you are recruiting for student ministry, tell why you care about teens and describe how you show it. Also, tell stories about changed lives among the students you serve. The heart behind it and why you do it is where effective recruiting starts.

Tags: Dan Reiland, Team enlistment, volunteer recruiting

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Two Critical Strategic Mistakes Most Churches Make

by: James Emery White

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One of the most important responsibilities of leadership is navigating the dynamics between strategy and tactics.

Strategy, if illustrated militarily, is the science of directing large scale military operations, such as maneuvering forces into the most advantageous position prior to actual engagement with the enemy. It’s a skill rooted in planning and managing.

Tactics are literally “matters of arrangement.” Again, in a military context, it is the science of arranging and maneuvering forces in view of short-range objectives. Tactics are methods used to achieve a predetermined end.

So strategy lies behind when and where (and even if) to use armed conflict in view of a wider objective; tactics dictate the battlefield maneuvers.

Obviously, both are important and inextricably intertwined. But that is where countless mistakes have been made—their intertwining. Here are two critical mistakes that many organizations, and most of all churches, often make:

1.   Confusing tactics with strategy.

There are many things that are mere tactics that are distinct from strategy but are often treated as if they are strategy. For example, take small groups. It should not be any church’s strategy to have small groups. That is a tactic. The strategy is to be a biblically functioning community where the practice of the “one-anothers” is manifest. Small groups are simply a means to that end, and perhaps not even the best.

Or consider a multi-site approach to church growth. Though it’s often called a strategy, it’s not. It’s a tactic. A strategy is to grow your church through the unchurched in your community. Having additional campuses is simply one way of pursuing that strategy. But the goal is not to be a multi-site church, as that is a tactic that should be embraced or released as deemed important to the strategy.

When you confuse a tactic with strategy, the tactic becomes enshrined as if it is sacrosanct. Soon, the goal is to preserve the tactic, rather than pursue the strategy. Yet tactics, by their very definition, only exist to serve the strategy. They should be ruthlessly evaluated in light of whether they continue to serve the strategy as well as other options, or if they even continue to serve the strategy at all.

2.   Pursing tactics without a strategy.

A second mistake that is all too common is to pursue a collection of tactics without an overarching strategy. This is when you have a number of activities, but no coherent plan as to what they are all trying to collectively achieve, much less how they work together synergistically to achieve it. A great amount of energy is being spent and activity abounds, but that is all it is—a collection of energized activities.

There are many dire consequences that flow from this mistake, but two stand out. First, nothing is aligned in a way for impact. Think of how light works—light that is diffused doesn’t make much of a difference, but take that light and focus it through a magnifying glass and you can set something on fire. Focus it even more, and it can become a laser that cuts through sheet metal. Tactics without a strategy is like light that is diffused; tactics with a strategy become a laser beam.

A second consequence is that without an overarching strategy, you have no way of evaluating what you should be doing and, sometimes more importantly, what you should not be doing.

Here are two examples of strategy providing telling insight into tactics. For years, Meck offered a Fall Festival for the community on our 80-acre North Charlotte Campus. It grew in size until it became one of the largest-attended Fall Festivals in Charlotte and, I might add, took enormous resources for us to offer. I remember gathering a team of leaders and asking, “Can any of you name a single unchurched family that has come to Meck through our Fall Festival?” Silence. I then tasked them to dig deeper into whether this event was strategic for us. We were not, after all, in the Fall Festival business. It was a tactic. We were in the unchurched business. As it turned out, there was very little fruit despite very large crowds.

That was the last year we had a Fall Festival.

Another example took place during a construction phase when we had limited use of our auditorium at our largest-attended campus. We rented the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (now the PNC Music Pavilion), which has a capacity of more than 18,000 people for our Easter service. Thousands came. We did it again the next year. Even more attended. We added egg rolls, bounce houses; we even had bands such as NEEDTOBREATHE perform mini-sets. By the fourth consecutive year, it was easily the largest attended single Easter service in Charlotte, perhaps the largest in the entire southeast United States. Again, a huge event, at the expense of vast resources.

But was it translating into growth from the unchurched?

No. It had simply become the go-to event for Christians who wanted an Easter mega-event. But we were not in the “Easter for happily churched Christians” business, much less in the “let’s grow from other churches” business.

That was the last year we hosted “Easter at Verizon.”

One of my mantras is that the mission, vision, values and message of the church are timeless and unchanging; the methods, however, must be continuously evaluated in light of their ongoing effectiveness.

So whether it’s confusing tactics with strategy, or employing tactics independent of a strategy, the lesson is the same:

Get strategic.

> Read more from James Emery White.

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The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do

by: Brandon Cox

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Hard work is virtuous. And when it comes to hard work, we seem to go to two extremes in our culture…

• We look for a way out of it – Like, how do I get rich, quickly, with very little training, no learning curve, and in as few hours as possible?
• We let it become an idol – It becomes our source if identity and significance. We get addicted. We become workaholics.

The fact is, hard work can be very rewarding, but it can also seem like it’s all for nothing. Even the wise King Solomon reflected this sentiment:

But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless–like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

~ Ecclesiastes 2:11 NLT

Solomon later made sense of it all, at the end of his book. Many people misread him because they don’t read all the way to the end where he concludes, basically, that life makes sense when you realize it’s not all about you. It’s about your Creator and his purpose for your life.

So you can work hard for stability, for security, for significance, for the money, for the fame, for the fortune… and you might never, ever find your pursuit truly rewarding.

But there is a kind of hard work that is always rewarding. Always.

The kind of hard work I’m talking about is the heart work of growing, developing, and disciplining yourself to become all that you are supposed to be.

Heart work – the work of developing yourself – is actually the hardest work you’ll ever do. And it’s also the most rewarding.

Why is growth so hard? Because…

• You have to face your past.
• You have to be honest about your imperfections and inadequacies.
• You have to understand why you do the things you do.
• You have to change your patterns, rituals, and habits.
• You have to get over a lot of fear.
• You have to stop making excuses and take responsibility.
• You have to be consistent over a long period of time.
• You have to learn to love.
• You have to love people who are hard to love.
• You have to learn your true value to God and others.
• You have to become solution-focused rather than problem-focused.
• You have to develop selflessness.

Feel overwhelmed yet?

We often avoid hard work because it feels like too much. Where do I even begin? And that’s why so many people quit, out of a sense of discouragement, and settle for mediocrity.

But here’s the beautiful truth. You have a lifetime to get this done. And you get to take your life a day at a time. And you get to grow an inch at a time.

You’re going to need people to help you – friends, family, mentors, coaches, counselors, and pastors.

You’re going to need good examples and models to follow.

You’re going to need some routines and some disciplines that, practiced consistently over time, will build the very core of who you are.

If you’re in school, work hard at being a great student. If you’re employed by someone, work hard to honor them and earn your paycheck. If you work for yourself or do the hard work of managing your home, go at it with all your heart.

But never forget that the hardest and most rewarding work you’ll ever do is the heart work required to become the person you’re supposed to be. 

One more thing… as a Christian, I believe that my personal growth and development isn’t so much about becoming something I’m not. Rather, it’s about growing in grace and becoming who God actually created me to become to begin with.

Christianity isn’t about trying harder. It’s about redemption, restoration, and healing from the inside out. We have mercy, grace, and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to move us toward maturity.

> Read more from Brandon Cox

Tags: Brandon Cox, Hard Work

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The Shape of Your Influence – Part 2

by: Eric Geiger

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The great (and true) quote that “we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us” is credited to Winston Churchill. Other less insightful quotes are credited to him on the Internet as well, but this quote is really good because it is so true. As I shared in this post, leaders form their organizations by forming the values, mission, strategy, measures and leadership development approaches of those organizations. Today I want to offer five more things leaders can shape that in turn shape the organizations they lead. Here is part two of ten things leaders shape that in turn shape the organizations they lead.

1. Values
2. Mission
3. Strategy
4. Measures
5. Leadership development

6. Buildings

Kenton Beshore, my predecessor and genius friend, walked me to the center of Mariners church campus one day, a spot right outside our worship center. He said, “Tell me what you see and don’t see.” After I stood there unsure of what to say for a few seconds, he said, “you can see every entrance to every building but you cannot see a car in the parking lot. The facility was designed to keep you here. When you leave a worship service you do not see your car or a parking lot. We wanted that so that it would help you stay and connect with others.” The facility choices at Mariners have formed the culture I enjoy, as people really do stay and connect with one another.

7. Moments

There are moments in a ministry or organization that form the culture. Moments where there is clarity of belief or direction. Moments where memories are made. Moments where people are invited to internalize and commit to what is most important. Moments of honest dialogue with leaders. Wise leaders steward these moments well and don’t rush through them.

8. Structures

How an organization or ministry is structured is no small matter. The structure declares who will collaborate together and who will just politely nod at one another in the hallway. The structure impacts who is ultimately accountable, how communication occurs, and what priorities receive the most attention. Leaders shape the organizational structure and the organizational structure shapes them.

9. Systems

Andy Stanley once said, “Systems create culture.” A system has a powerful impact on shaping the culture because it operationalizes an important value. For example, if there is an effective system for recruiting and training leaders, the system helps create a culture of leadership development. We cultivate the cultures of our organization by the systems we create and communicate.

10. Policies

Because policies impact behavior, they impact how people in an organization relate to one another. By policies I do not mean the “rules’ in writing that no one takes seriously or have not been updated in years, but the standards that really matter (by the way, these should be the actual policies too). Leaders have the ability to set and shape these standards as they definitely shape the culture. Sometimes the policies conflict with the vision of the team, and when this occurs the policy must be changed as quickly as possible. A common example I noticed when I consulted churches was a church leader who would articulate a desire to develop future staff and hire from within the church, yet a policy that stated all staff must have a specific degree. The vision and the policy were at odds and the policy actually impacted the behavior, in most cases, more than the vision did.

We shape our buildings, moments, structures, systems, and policies, and they in turn shape us. So shape wisely, leaders, shape wisely.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Building, Eric Geiger, Structure, Systems, Things that shape us, policies

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Generosity Killers Part One: Materialism

by: VRcurator

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Many of us want to do more and be more. We want to make a difference in the world. We want our lives to count for something significant.

But our finances are wrecked, sometimes caused by our own doing and sometimes caused by things completely beyond our control. We need to clean up our financial mess, but we don’t want to do it just so we can be rich.

We’ve all seen people that seem to have everything, but in reality they have nothing. They are miserable.

Being “rich” isn’t the answer. Financial health is not even the final answer. What are the Generosity Killers in your life that need to be discovered, owned, and eliminated?

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Enough: Finding More by Living with Less by Will Davis, Jr.

The American way of life pushes people to constantly strive for more–more money, more stuff, and more clout. But how much is enough? And how do we know when we have too much of a good thing?

In this provocative, paradigm-shifting book, Will Davis Jr. challenges readers to discover the peace that comes through contentment with what we have and compassion for those in need. Through surprising statistics, scriptural insight, and real-life stories, Davis gently leads readers to consider living with less in order to do more for the kingdom. Thought-provoking discussion questions and short chapters make this a perfect study for small groups.

No one will come away from this powerful book unchanged.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

You know the Joneses, don’t you? As in, “keeping up with the Joneses”?

You may not know a literal Jones family, but you have friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers around you – and you try to maintain their lifestyle. Their lifestyle pushes your lifestyle in a way that you try to imitate.

But in the end, you’re never happy or satisfied with more.

Their perceived contentment pushes your discontent.

Your pursuit of the latest and best will cause you to make bad financial decisions, and worse, reduce or eliminate your ability to live a generous life.

But there is a way out – you can have more by living with less.

The principle of having more by living with less means if you grasp and grab and hoard, then you’ll only have what you can hold, and eventually you’ll probably lose that. But if you release it, if you seek to honor others, if you serve others before you serve yourself, if you’re a funnel for what God pours into you, then you will have more blessing, favor, influence, joy, and opportunities than you can ever achieve on your own.

How do I know when I have enough? Can enough even be quantified? In Proverbs 30:7-9, Agur offers the first biblical definition of “enough.” What does Agur pray for? In a word, “enough.” In a phrase, “just enough to satisfy my needs.” And that begs the first million-dollar question: What do I need?

Let’s think about some of the advantages with living with enough. How can mere daily provisions really be better than surplus? Why shouldn’t we want a little more of what we have?

If you choose to pursue the elusive concept of enough, if you limit how you live and what you spend, what’s in it for you? Why should you and I embrace the radical lifestyle of living with less? Here are ten great reasons to live with enough:

You’ll have more time. The irony of having more is that when you finally get what you think you want, you still won’t be satisfied. And your “stuff” will cause you to spend more of what you can’t get back – time.

You’ll have more peace. Having more than enough often increases your stress and distracts you from pursuing God and loving the people he has placed in your life.

You’ll help your relationships. Living with enough will give you more time and emotional energy to invest in your loved ones and even in those friends, neighbors, and co-workers whom God might be calling you to serve.

You’ll be more content. When you declare you have enough, suddenly contentment will become much more second nature to you.

You’ll have less or no debt. If you stop spending money on stuff, you’ll have less debt and eventually will be debt free.

You’ll be prepared for tough times. If you’re living with enough, you’re much more likely to have the financial means to navigate difficult times.

You’ll be better equipped to respond to need. When you have enough, not only will you have what you need, but you’ll be in a position to help others as well.

Your life will be simpler. The more complex your lifestyle becomes – specifically, the more material and financial overhead you have – the less simplicity you’ll enjoy.

You’ll have better intimacy with God. Simplicity creates an environment in which your relationship with God can thrive.

You’ll have more joy. Joy can’t be bought, but it can be stuffed out. Joy thrives best in an environment of less, not more.

Will Davis, Jr., Enough: Finding More by Living with Less

A NEXT STEP

You can continue to push ahead, trying to achieve the elusive twins of security and satisfaction. Or, you can move toward enough. You can take your more than enough and give part of it away, helping someone with less than enough move toward enough. You can strive or you can depend. You can achieve or you can receive. You can hoard or you can share. You can hold onto what you have, settle for the best you can do, and bless no one in the process. Or, you can release what you have, bless countless others, and receive more than you could ever imagine.

Enough author Will Davis has these following reflection questions for you to consider in defeating the Generosity Killer of materialism:

Read Matthew 6:11 seven times. Each time you read it, emphasize and reflect on the significance of one word (GIVE us this day; Give US this day; Give us THIS day; etc.).

Read Philippians 4:11-12 and think about how much Paul’s statement does or does not reflect how you feel.

Considering where you are in your life right now (marriage and/or family, career, housing, retirement plans, etc.), how close are you to being able to declare that you have enough?

What is one action to take this week and move toward a life of enough?

Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 91-1, released April 2018.

This is part of a weekly series posting excerpts from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix book excerpts for church leaders.

Each issue SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; each solution is taken from a different book. Additionally, a practical action step is included with each solution.

As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS Remix provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> > Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Enough, Generosity Killers, Jr., Materialism, SUMS Remix, Will Davis

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Building a Better Easter Welcome

by: Rick Warren

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Easter services are among the most important events at your church each year. You not only celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but you also have one of the best opportunities all year to reach new people.

In chapter 14 of The Purpose Driven Church, I shared some ideas on how you can improve the guest experience at your church. With Easter coming up, I’ve put together this checklist to help you prepare for the big day.

Now is the time to get started!

• Include a map of your church on all advertising. A small map can provide clarity, especially if mapping apps can’t locate your church accurately.
• Create a system to give guests the best parking spots. At Saddleback, we have a sign at our property entrance encouraging guests to turn on their headlights if they want a reserved parking spot. Then our parking team directs them to spots near the worship center.
• Make sure you have clear signage. Show people how to find the most important places on your campus, including restrooms, information tables, coffee/snacks, kids ministry, and student ministry.
• Prepare greeters to welcome your guests. The first people your guests see on your campus ought to smile and welcome them warmly. If you already have an established greeter ministry, remind your greeters of the importance of their role on Easter.
• Offer children’s programming simultaneously with each service. Guests generally don’t want to deal with wiggly kids (either theirs or anyone else’s) during the service.
• Ensure your building is sufficiently bright. Most church buildings are too dark. Brighten up your environment and watch your service come to life.
• Set up an info table. Give name badges to these volunteers so your guests know where to go with their questions. Try to anticipate the most common questions guests might have. (Where are the restrooms? Where do I take my child? How do I get into a small group?) It’s also helpful to have basic information available in printed form for guests to take with them to review later. If you already have an info table, make sure it is well stocked and ready to go.
• Allow guests to remain anonymous. Avoid doing anything that makes them stand out.
• Pass out welcome cards or bulletins to everyone. When everyone gets a card, guests aren’t singled out.
• Provide some refreshments. Food relaxes people. Almost everyone loves a donut, but also offer some healthy (or semi-healthy) options. If you can’t get food, at least try to provide coffee.
• Have recorded music playing when people get inside the building. Music puts people at ease. We’ve noticed that the louder the background music is, the more animated people are when they talk.
• Begin and/or end your service by asking attendees to greet one another. It’s a great way to help guests feel like they belong.
• Print out a simple order of service. When possible, use straightforward, non-religious terms that people understand even if they’ve never been to church.
• Look for ways to save time during the service. Most of your guests have short attention spans. Have the components of your Easter service written down for your team, with an expected time for each element. Trim that time as much as you can.
• Keep your public prayers short. Unchurched people can’t handle long prayers. Their minds wander.
• Structure your music for IMPACT. We try to follow this flow for our worship music.
  • Inspire Movement: An upbeat song that makes you want to clap or stomp your feet.
  • Praise: Joyful songs about God.
  • Adoration: More meditative, intimate songs sung to God.
  • Commitment: A song that gives people an opportunity to affirm or reaffirm a commitment to God (usually in the first person).
  • Tie it all together: Another short, upbeat song to end the service.

MAKING IT PERSONAL

Print this checklist out and talk about it with your team. What’s missing?

Call three to five guests to your church from the last six months, and ask about their impressions—both positive and negative. If you leave a message, follow up with an email to ask for their feedback. Take what you’ve learned and let that influence your plans for Easter.

There’s a lot on this list, which will be even longer if you and your team include additional items! You may not be able to address all of these issues. Which issues are critical for your church? In what ways is God calling you to prepare?

> Read more from Rick Warren.

Tags: Easter, Getting Ready for Easter, Rick Warren

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