0

Work Hard Give Your Best & Put Family First

How do I balance family and ministry? It’s a conversation I’ve had over and over again as a church staff member. I’ve heard church staff express deep frustration and anxiety over this question. They want to give their best to their ministry calling and yet sometimes feel like they’re sacrificing their family to follow Jesus. But then again doesn’t following Jesus mean you take care of and lead your family well? When you’re on staff at a church it means working weekends and often times being gone multiple nights of the week at meetings when church members are available. Further, many church staff members feel like they’re on call 24/7 to meet the needs of church attenders. You can see how ministry staff members can quickly feel tension over the whole balancing work and family, especially young church staff members who are just starting out and trying to figure it out.

At Sun Valley Community Church (the church I have the privilege of serving at) we’ve defined our leadership culture with 7 clear distinctives. If you’re interested in learning more about them you can follow this link. One of them states:

Effort: We work hard; give our best and put family first.

Recently I used Periscope (I’m learning to use this new social networking tool) to share a leadership tool we use to train this concept and explained it a little more. In fact you can follow this link on your mobile device to watch it. Or you can check out a few of the highlights below:

  1. God is not opposed to effort, but He is opposed to earning. God is into results and effort…it’s all throughout the bible. He’s just not into earning.
  2. You don’t have to die for the Church; Jesus already did that. The Church doesn’t need another Savior we already have one. He’s doing just fine by the way.
  3. All Work and no Rest Leads to Burnout You’ve got to figure out a way to refuel daily, weekly, monthly and annually.
  4. Productivity = Working Hard + Resting Well It’s not work vs home. It’s not either or. You can’t have great results at work and poor results at home or visa versa for very long. Home affects work and work affects home.
  5. Rest FOR Work not Rest FROM Work. In John 15 Jesus talks about abiding in Him…resting in Him so that we will produce fruit.
  6. Laziness is Dangerous! When you retreat from meaningful work and meaningful relationships it will lead you to a dangerous place.
  7. Take Personal Responsibility! No one is responsible for your schedule but you. Don’t play the role of a victim when it comes to your schedule.

Photo Credit: navonod via Compfight cc


Posted in Family, Leadership, Staffing

0

3 Organizational Changes that Multi-Site Churches Experience

Multisite changes everything. If you’re leading in a multisite church you know this first hand. The way decisions are made, how the Staff are structured, how resource are utilized, how budgets are created and managed, and more all change along the way. It all changes. But knowing how things change can help you prepare for the next step. Here are three phases of change I’ve seen in multisite churches around the country.

1-3 Sites

Typically at this stage the original campus or “broadcast campus” is still the largest campus and attendance at the other 2 campuses is less than 50% of the overall attendance of the church. Not too much changes in the leadership structure at this point. Typically the staff at the original campus drives things.

3+ Sites

When campus number four launches everything changes. Staff Teams are restructured and a Central Service Team is typically built to support the campuses and allow things to begin to scale. I’ve previously written about Central Service Teams here. At this stage attendance shifts and more than 50% of the overall attendance of the church is no longer at the original campus. Someone is paid to be on Staff to wake up everyday thinking and leading the multisite initiative.

8+ Sites

Things move to district and regional oversight, often times crossing State lines. The organization of the church continues to scale and things shift towards becoming a movement of multisite churches instead of a multisite church. Multisite campuses are launching other multisite campuses by now.


Posted in Leadership

1

The Difference between a Church Planter & a Campus Pastor

I’ve written previously about the newest Staff role in church-world, the Campus Pastor. Ever since the multisite movement has begun to gain momentum, churches across the nation have been searching high and low to find their next Campus Pastor. I’ve heard some church leaders even blame the multisite movement for an apparent increased difficulty in finding Church Planters. Essentially stating that instead of Church Planting, up and coming church leaders are opting to become a Campus Pastor instead of planting a church.

I’m not really buying it though. When it comes to recruiting a Church Planter or a Campus Pastor you’re looking for two very different people with two different sets of gifts.

Campus Pastor:

1. Developer: They’re great at developing people. They know how to identify potential in people and enjoy spending their time investing in others. People respond to their coaching and their performance improves because of it.

2. Leader: They know how to lead from here to there. They can position the staff to succeed, meet goals, and integrate calendars, budgets, and the ministries on their Campus in a manner that moves the Campus towards the vision.

3. Implementer: Great Campus Pastors makes things happen. They may not come up with the idea, but they can execute the idea. They know how to see ideas through from concept to completion.

Church Planter:

1. Calling: Great Church Planters possess a distinct calling from God to go and start something new. It’s not merely a career opportunity but deep sense of spiritual direction from God that they tenaciously grab hold of.

2. Visionary: They’re not simply a dreamer. Yes, they can see a preferred future, but at the same time they are wise enough to leverage the current moment to move people towards that future.

3. Entrepreneur: They are wired up to start new things. They are opportunity oriented, embrace risk, and are comfortable with the amount of ambiguity that comes with starting something new.

What other unique differences have you observed when it comes to Campus Pastors and Church Planters?

Photo Credit: kevin dooley via Compfight cc


Posted in Leadership

0

Why Volunteering is the Biggest Issue Facing the Church

I’ve never coached a church leader or consulted with a church that said they had enough volunteers. In fact, most church leaders I speak with identify a shortage of volunteers and volunteer leaders as one of the top 5 issues holding their church back from reaching the vision that Jesus has given them. But contrary to the popular belief among many church staff, the issue isn’t a poor talent pool. Your church is full of talented volunteers. In fact the people who attend your church are so talented that companies actually hire them to do jobs everyday and they actually get paid for it (sarcasm indented). The real issue is that the church needs to change the scorecard. We need to shift the focus of paid-staff from ministry production and execution to volunteer and leadership development. The churches that do this understand the following 5 principles and the incredible results that accompany applying them.

1. Volunteering makes your Church “Sticky”

Want to figure out how to close the proverbial backdoor of your church and keep people from “leaving?” Then get people volunteering. People come to church for all kinds of reasons. But the top two reasons people stay at a church are “relationships” and “responsibility.” Volunteering checks both of those boxes!

2. Volunteering is a Pathway to Small Groups

Most churches used to buy into linear thinking that says people come to church, then get into a small group and then start volunteering. That’s actually backwards. It’s way less threatening to volunteer and serve than it is to jump into a small group bible study at some strangers’ house with a bunch of other strangers. And guess what happens as people volunteer? They begin to develop friendships with other people they’re volunteering with and then get into small group bible studies with friends instead of strangers.

3. Volunteers are more Generous

It’s negligent of me not to point this simple fact out. That is, people who volunteer are more likely to be generous financially towards your church. The fact that they are volunteering means they’re with you and on some level buy into the vision of where you’re going as a church because they’re wiling to put their time towards it. Jesus said it this way, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

4. Volunteering is Discipleship

I’ve written previously that many churches still view volunteering as roles that need to be filled instead of people that need to be developed. Most churches are missing the boat on this simple fact: that people grow spiritually through volunteering and tangibly learning to live an others oriented life. The first Sunday School Class I taught, the first Mission Trip I went on…etc. I grew and gained far more than I ever gave.

5. Volunteering is the Biblical Mandate for the Church

“Volunteer Development” can be described as the two-word long job description of every staff person who receives a paycheck at a church. The Apostle Paul put it this way…”And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”

 


Posted in Volunteers

1

The 5 Most Important Indicators of a Healthy Church

Numbers can be overwhelming. I’ve seen churches keep numbers and measure all kinds of things. First time guests, returning guests, empty parking stalls during services, kids attendance, student attendance, short-term mission trip participation, first time givers, on and on the list goes…literally. None of these (or other categories not listed) are necessarily bad things to measure. In fact in totality they can help you gain understanding as to which direction things are moving at your church. The thing is, there are a lot of things you could measure, a lot of things you could pay attention to. But what are the most important things to pay attention to? I know some people will disagree with me, but based on my experience working with churches around the country, and being a guy that’s in the trenches day to day at a local church, the 5 most important numbers to keep a pulse on are the following.

1. Baptisms

You can measure first time guests and the number of people who say yes to following Jesus (and you should); but the most important number to measure in all of that is baptisms, because the other two numbers are wrapped up in the number of people being baptized at your church. And after all, this is the whole point of the church to help people follow Jesus, and a public declaration of that intent is a huge part of that process.

2. Volunteers

The number of unique volunteers you have serving at your church tells you two really important things. First it tells you who is with you. Who is bought into the vision of where you believe Jesus is uniquely leading your church. After all in today’s’ world it’s a lot easier to give some money than it is to give time. These are all-in people. It also helps you identify and develop potential leaders in your church, because volunteering is discipleship. You can’t follow Jesus without learning to live an others oriented life!

3. Groups

Simply put life-change happens best in groups…in the context of friendships, because after all what we are being discipled to when we follow Jesus, is friendship with Jesus. This is where people “work out” their belief system and begin to change their thinking. This number gives you an indicator of the number of people who are being discipled and moving towards what Jesus wants them to become.

4. Giving

You cannot follow Jesus without giving and serving. Giving is an indicator of the level of buy-in people have in the direction you’re moving as a church. Healthy churches have a strategy to help their people become more generous. Not because they want something from them, but because they want something for them. They want them to look and live like Jesus. They aren’t simply teaching or telling their people to give, there is a holistic strategy to help them move towards becoming generous like Jesus.

5. Attendance

You knew this one was coming didn’t you? It may be simple but attendance numbers matter. Numbers count because people count. Every number has a name and every name has a story. The goal of the Gospel movement, called the Church, that Jesus started was not that it would get smaller and less influential, but rather that it would become a movement that would go to the ends of the Earth!

Interested in discovering how healthy your church is? Take the step to engage the Unstuck Group in a comprehensive Ministry Health Assessment of your church!

Photo Credit: griseldangelo1 via Compfight cc


Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Volunteers