Helping Churches Make Vision Real

4 Ways Leaders Build Culture

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Culture is the squishy stuff in an organization that leaders talk about but usually have a hard time articulating. Even more difficult is identifying clear actionable steps to build and reinforce a desired culture. Here are four steps you can begin to implement this week to start building the desired culture in your church or organization.

Step #1 Motivate

Telling stories and tying them to wins and desired behaviors give people a picture of how to behave and what to chase after.

Step #2 Train

Help your people by giving them the abilities they need to make decisions that will reflect and advance the culture you’re trying to create.

Step #3 Model

Leaders by their very nature go first. Moral authority is a part of trusted leadership. The leader needs to be able to say “join me” not just “you should.”

Step #4 Celebrate

What gets celebrated gets repeated. Churches are notorious for talking about needs and motivating people to a cause or action but never talking about the results.

What else would you add to the list? What steps have you taken to intentionally create a desired culture in your church? Leave a comment.

Posted in Leadership

3 Reasons People don’t Give to your Church

Sunday, March 17, 2013

A few months back I did a series of posts on 6 big ideas about “Engaging the Givers in your Church.” And just like there are real actionable steps that churches can take to engage givers, there are also things that churches do to repel givers. More often than not they’re doing these things and they don’t even know it. So below are three guaranteed generosity killers that are running rampant in churches today.

1. Ingratitude

You’d be surprised how infrequently churches take the time to say thank you to people who financially support the ministry. And you’d probably also be as equally surprised how far a simple thank you will go. Here are a few suggestions you can put into action this week to change that: 1) Make sure every time a person gives for the first time to the ministry of your church that they get a letter to acknowledge their gift and say thank you. 2) Each week send a handwritten personal note to each person who gives a generous gift to the ministry. 3) Say thank you from the stage and celebrate the generosity of your church when they’re generous. When you don’t say thank you what you’re saying is you don’t care.

2. Waste, or the Perception of Waste

When people feel that their financial gift and sacrifice is being used in a wasteful manner they will pull their funding in a heartbeat. What I’m not saying is that everything should be value engineered, that isn’t the highest goal. But when funds aren’t used in a strategic manner that clearly advances the mission, that’s wasteful. No doubt having the right tool for the job is important. But don’t confuse the fact that extravagance is not the same thing as excellence.

3. Duplicity

When you say you are going to use a particular offering for one need and then turn around and use it for something else you break trust. And trust is the foundation for leadership. Simply put, people don’t give to ministries that don’t have a high level of trust in.

What else have you seen churches do that discourage giving? What would you add to the list? Leave a comment!

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

4 Leadership Lessons I was Reminded of by the Birth of my 4th Child

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A week ago we welcomed Wyatt Grant into the Alexander family! And I’m not biased or anything, but he’s absolutely incredible! While we’ve gone through this a time or three before I’m still surprised by the depth of amazement, excitement, awe, fear, and loss of control that all collide in my heart at the birth of each of my children. And while we’re playing zone defense and filling up the minivan there are four distinct leadership lessons that this experience has reminded me of…

1. Great Leaders grow accustomed to Loss

At the birth of each of my children I’ve been abruptly reminded about how selfish I really am. When a little one crashes the party you quickly realize how much you still have to grow as you’re confronted with completely rearranging your life and putting the needs of that child above your own. Similarly the best leaders I know love the mission of the church more than themselves. So much so that they’re willing to let go of the past or even the present in order to move towards a preferred future. And letting go always means you’re losing something, that’s why you have to let go of it. There is always loss involved in growth and forward movement, and it usually involves a loss of comfort.

2. The Secret to Success is found in doing the little things daily

It’s amazing how quickly my other kids got so big, literally overnight. I went to the hospital with 3 small children one day and came home with a baby and the other three all of the sudden became giants overnight! While I’ve had some great moments as a parent, my parenting is more characterized by the daily grind of trying to point my children in the right direction. The same is true in leadership. It’s more about having the discipline and courage to do the right thing daily than waiting around for a big moment to shine. Do the little things daily and it will surprise you how it eventually compounds and shows up.

3. Control is an Illusion

Simply put, the delivery room scares me to death. Mostly because I’m completely out of control and I’m trusting the woman I love most and my nearly born child into the hands of people that I’m hoping and praying do a good job. The truth is control is a dangerous illusion that church leaders and pastors slowly creep towards through believing their press clippings and overconfidence. We would do well to remember that at the end of the day this is God’s church not ours. We are simply under-shepherd and stewards. He is building His Church and we are simply honored to be joining Him in the process.

4. Even great Leaders can’t accomplish the Vision Alone

Over the past week I’ve been floored by the generosity of the people around me. Meals have been provided, my other three children were farmed out while we were at the hospital, the dog was taken care of, and there was even a late night run by a friend to bring the boppy up to the hospital (if you don’t know what a boppy is then ask your wife). Leaders, even great leaders, if they’re chasing after a God-sized vision can’t do it alone. It takes a team of multifaceted and talented people. After all if you can do it by yourself…it’s probably not big enough.

Posted in Family, Leadership

Creating an Outsider Focused Culture in your Church

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Becoming Insider Focused is Natural: It’s natural to be insider focused, because what comes natural to us is us. It is not natural to let other people go before us, think about what others prefer before our own preferences, or meet the needs of others before meeting our own needs first. We are naturally self oriented as people so it’s no surprise that businesses, organizations, or even churches tend to be so as well. That’s why in their teaching Jesus and the Apostle Paul directly connect spiritual maturity to becoming others oriented.

This past week I taught a breakout session at Converge Ignite 2013 a conference designed for churches that are committed to advancing the Gospel through various Church Planting and Multsite models. If you were at the breakout and want to share the notes or would simply like to see some of what you missed just click the link below to download the notes FOR FREE! By the way there’s a great tool in there that you can use to work through as a team to evaluate the focus of your church!

Session Notes: Creating an Outsider Focused Culture in your Church

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

My Interview with 2 Women about their Choice to have an Abortion

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

I don’t typically post talks that I give, but every once in a while there’s one worth sharing. This weekend I had the incredible opportunity to interview two very courageous women about their choice to have an abortion, their experience with “church people,” their journey towards healing, and the grace and forgiveness they’ve experienced in Jesus. It will definitely go down as a high water mark in my ministry experience. If we’re honest about it, the Church hasn’t always handled this dialogue very well. We’ve historically postured ourselves in such a manner that we come off as not only anti-abortion, but anti-people who have an abortion. The in-congruency shows up when we take a look at the Scriptures and realize that Jesus isn’t anti-anybody. So here’s hoping that this talk inspires you, challenges you, crushes your heart for what crushes God’s, and perhaps challenges your thinking a bit on this emotionally and politically charged topic of abortion. If nothing else fast forward to the 12:21 minute mark to check out the interview segment.