Helping Churches Make Vision Real

Top 5 Posts from February

Sunday, March 3, 2013

February was a big month on Helping Churches Make Vision Real! Thank you for making these the top 5 Posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one nice tidy little spot!

#1 Why Nice People Kill Churches

This post may quickly become one of the most popular articles I’ve ever written. For the last 12 years I’ve had the incredible opportunity to serve on the Sr. Leadership Teams of some of the nations fastest growing and leading churches. Over that time I’ve observed time and time again one of the most destructive inclinations to church growth and the advancement of the Gospel is the simple fact that people on staff at most churches are simply too nice to each other. In this post I share 5 ways I’ve seen nice people hurt this mission of the church. Continue Reading…

#2 A Large Multisite Church in Phoenix is Hiring a High School Pastor

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. Sun Valley Community Church, the church I have the honor of serving at, is beginning a national search for a High School Pastor to serve on our Gilbert Campus. Sun Valley began as a church plant in 1990 in Chandler, Arizona. Over the years Sun Valley has grown into a large mult-site church in the Phoenix metro area. Currently there are three campuses located in Gilbert, Tempe and Casa Grande with a total weekend attendance of over 5,000 people. Sun Valley was recently named by Outreach Magazine as one of the top 10 fastest growing churches in America. Continue Reading…

#3 Does Your Team Need to Change?

Churches get stuck for all kinds of reasons. But a common reason Churches get stuck is that the Sr. Leadership Team gets stuck. Last week I had the opportunity to sit in the room with Sr. Leaders from some of the nations leading mega-churches and talk through this issue. Here are a couple of the thoughts I captured about Sr. Leadership Teams from that conversation. Continue Reading…

#4 Stop Paying People to do Ministry

As they grow, many churches eagerly anticipate the moment when they’re finally big enough that they can afford to hire more staff and offer more ministry options for people. For example I’ve heard churches say they can’t wait to hire a Men’s Ministry Pastor. Nothing against Men’s Ministry per se, but that’s an expensive model. If you run it out to its logical end you’re going to have a lot of people on your payroll. Paying people to “do” ministry instead of “lead” ministry is an expensive mistake that many churches fall into. Here are 3 principles that will help you focus the Staffing & Volunteer philosophy at your church. Continue Reading…

#5 Overcoming the Fear of a Personality Driven Ministry

In church-world I frequently hear conversations surrounding the idea of “personality driven churches.” That is to say churches that are built around a dynamic communicator and leader. At best I’ll usually hear a criticism of its ineffectiveness and at worst statements about how shallow, wrong, and harmful it is to the church and the advancement of the Gospel. In this post I unpack 4 big questions you should be asking about personality driven ministries. Continue Reading…

Posted in Leadership

2

Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I recently finished reading The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Leniconi. I can already tell you that this is going to be on my top 5 reads from 2013. I deeply resonated with the concepts in this book. You see in many ways this book describes why I do what I do. I love to see all the facets of the Church work together to build an aligned and integrated culture that actually makes vision real!

There is no way for me to share everything I underlined, highlighted and the personal notes I wrote in the margins. So I shared with you my top 20 favorite quotes and ideas from the book that stuck with me.

1. The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to anyone who wants it.

2. An organization has integrity – is healthy – when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when it’s management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense.

3. If an organization is led by a team that is not behaviorally unified, there is no chance that it will become healthy.

4. Contrary to popular wisdom and behavior, conflict is not a bad thing for a team. In fact, the fear of conflict is almost always a sign of problems.

5. When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer.

6. Nowhere does this tendency towards artificial harmony show itself more than in mission-driven nonprofit organizations, most notably churches. People who work in those organizations tend to have a misguided idea that they cannot be frustrated or disagreeable with one another.

Posted in Leadership

6

Stop Paying People to Do Ministry

Sunday, February 24, 2013

As they grow, many churches eagerly anticipate the moment when they’re finally big enough that they can afford to hire more staff and offer more ministry options for people. For example I’ve heard churches say they can’t wait to hire a Men’s Ministry Pastor. Nothing against Men’s Ministry per se, but that’s an expensive model. If you run it out to its logical end you’re going to have a lot of people on your payroll. Paying people to “do” ministry instead of “lead” ministry is an expensive mistake that many churches fall into. Here are 3 principles that will help you focus the Staffing & Volunteer philosophy at your church.

The Professionalism of Ministry has allowed the Church to Abdicate Responsibility

Just about every Pastor I’ve ever met generally agrees that their role is to, “equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.” After all it’s pretty tough to disagree with the Scriptures. But unless you’re hiring through this filter of “preparing God’s people for works of service,” (Ephesians 4:11-13) every time you make a hire you’re robbing the church of the opportunity to be the church, as well as the church staff member of their God ordained role. As a Church Staff Member no job should be beneath you, but at the same time a Church Staff Member shouldn’t do every job either. Just see the conversation Jethro had with his son-in-law Moses (Exodus 18:13-26).

Remember that Volunteering is Discipleship

I’ve discovered that many churches still view volunteering as roles that need to be filled instead of people that need to be developed. I think we forget how much spiritual growth takes place in someone’s life as a result of volunteering. Instead of viewing volunteering as filling roles to run a church, volunteering should be viewed as a part of the spiritual pathway of our churches. It’s a subtle yet significant shift that needs to be made in our thinking for the sake of the spiritual formation of the people that have been entrusted to us.

Pay People to be Volunteer Specialists

If you’re going to use volunteers heavily in your church this doesn’t mean you’re not going to pay some staff. But when you do, make sure you pay for administration, mobilization, and highly skilled specialized roles. I say administration because volunteers would rather give their time to ministry that touches people’s lives than pushing paper. Those who are great at mobilization will utilize volunteers well because they know how to drive the project management of a team and think people first and roles second. Finally there are just going to be some highly skilled roles you’re going to need to pay for like the primary communicator/teacher, I.T., and so on.

Posted in Volunteers

0

A Large Multisite Church in Phoenix is Hiring a High School Pastor

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. Sun Valley Community Church, the church I have the honor of serving at, is beginning a national search for a High School Pastor to serve on our Gilbert Campus. Sun Valley began as a church plant in 1990 in Chandler, Arizona. Over the years Sun Valley has grown into a large mult-site church in the Phoenix metro area. Currently there are three campuses located in Gilbert, Tempe and Casa Grande with a total weekend attendance of over 5,000 people. Sun Valley was recently named by Outreach Magazine as one of the top 10 fastest growing churches in America. The Gilbert Campus is the original and largest campus with well over 3,500 in weekly average attendance. Sun Valley was recently featured in a new book by Leadership Network about church mergers: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. To learn more about that story click here Part-1 and Part-2.

Interested in learning more? Continue reading below:

Posted in Staffing

9

Why Nice People Kill Churches

Sunday, February 17, 2013

For the last 12 years I’ve had the incredible opportunity to serve on the Sr. Leadership Teams of some of the nations fastest growing and leading churches. Over that time I’ve observed time and time again one of the most destructive inclinations to church growth and the advancement of the Gospel is the simple fact that people on staff at most churches are simply too nice to each other.

5 Ways Nice People Hurt the Mission of the Church

1. Nice people have a tendency to hire people that they like rather than people who are going to advance the mission of the church. In other words it’s okay to lose as long as you’re losing with friends.

2. Nice people avoid conflict and by so doing don’t mine the best ideas out of their teams.

3. Nice people keep people on their teams well after the work has surpassed their capacity. This not only slows the mission but it exposes the weaknesses of and hurts the very person they’re trying to protect.

4. Nice people don’t confront the brutal facts and as a result “hallway conversations” take place and a lack of unity begins to undermine the mission.

5. Nice people sacrifice the flock for the sake of one sheep. This happens every time you let that one person sing who has no business singing (if you’ve been around church-world for any length of time you know exactly what I’m talking about).

Let me be clear, what I’m not saying is that the staff at your church shouldn’t be nice to each other. But when being nice begins to trump being honest because you don’t want to experience the discomfort of a difficult conversation, that’s not nice…that’s selfish. And when that begins to happen everybody loses.

In his new book “The Advantage” Patrick Lencioni says it this way, “Firing someone is not necessarily a sign of accountability, but is often the last act of cowardice for a leader who doesn’t know how or isn’t willing to hold people accountable.”

There’s a strong principle and clear message in there that many church leaders need to take some time and wrestle to the ground.

Posted in Leadership