Top Posts of 2014 #7: “4 Reasons Why Churches become Insider Focused”

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Top Posts of 2014 #7: “4 Reasons Why Churches become Insider Focused”

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Another late addition to the top 10 posts of 2014 comes in at number 7. I wrote this at the beginning of December but it quickly became one of the most shared and most popular posts of the year!

It’s rare that I ever come across a church that started off as an insider focused church. Most churches start with a desire to reach new people with the Gospel. In those early stages of a church plant they have to reach new people or they die due to a lack of viability. So how does a church that’s eager to help people outside of the faith follow Jesus drift towards becoming insider focused and spending all of it’s energy taking care of people who are already convinced? Here are the four most common reasons why churches become insider focused:

1. Stop Taking Risks

By its very nature everything about a church plant is risky. It’s a brand new start up. Everything is new and everywhere you turn there is a new risk to take. Somewhere along the way when some measure of viability is reached churches begin to mitigate risk by taking care of key stakeholders (insiders). It’s a lot easier (and less risky) to keep church people happy than it is to continue to reach out to people who are outside of the church. When is the last time your church risked something big for God? If you have outgrown your original risk taking ethos then your church is probably moving towards becoming insider focused.

2. Stay Married to Old Methods

If you don’t have a well of new ideas that you can go to and possibly implement at any given time then you’re probably spending a lot of energy propping up old methods and programs. And those old methods and programs bring a certain comfort with them, because they keep people who are already in the church happy. Every idea has a shelf life. If your church isn’t constantly evaluating and strategically stopping old things and starting new things then you’re probably moving towards becoming insider focused.

3. Planning overtakes Chaos

One of the most common misunderstandings of strategic planning is that the goal is not order; the goal is to accomplish the vision. In a growing church you want planning and management to lag slightly behind the chaos of change and movement. It’s possible to manage and plan your way into losing momentum. When planning and order become higher priorities than chaos and movement your church is teetering on becoming insider focused.

4. Lack of Vision

Clear vision is the greatest catalyst for movement and action in the church. When vision is fuzzy things slow down and naturally drift towards becoming insider focused. We all wake up every day thinking about ourselves, it’s what comes natural to us. That’s why both Jesus and the Apostle Paul paint a clear vision of spiritual maturity as living an others focused life. If your church is not sure where it’s going, chances are your moving towards becoming insider focused.

Interested in reading up some more on Insider Focused Churches? Check out the posts below:

Photo Credit: BrianTuchalskiPhotography via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership

Top Posts of 2014 #10: “What if Home Depot Functioned like a Church?”

Sunday, December 21, 2014

For the next couple of days I’m going to be counting down the top 10 posts from 2014 here on Helping Churches Make Vision Real. These are the posts that generated the most traffic, comments, and were the most shared on social media. The most popular topics this year had to do with strategic planning, insider focused churches, leadership, church growth, teams, and even pastors wives. We start off with a post that I wrote just a week ago but has quickly gained traction and shot into the top 10 posts of the year (that was fast…if only all of my posts were that good).

For the last month we’ve been getting ready for Christmas at my house and that means multiple trips to Home Depot. The first trip to pick up the Christmas tree and then back again to get more lights because the ones from last year don’t work this year. Then yet another trip for a new Christmas tree stand because the stand from last year doesn’t work. Oh, and I need a new pack of staples for the staple gun to put up the Christmas lights. And so on. You get the idea.

After spending half of the holiday season in the local Home Depot, I started thinking about how different Home Depot is from the majority of churches I’ve visited over the years, and what it would look like if Home Depot functioned like most churches in America.

Instead of everyone in the store wearing an orange Home Depot apron, each department would have it’s own uniquely colored apron.
Instead of having a hardware department and an appliance department, they would have really cool names like Ignite, Epic, and J.A.M. that are completely confusing to new customers.
Of course each department would have it’s own logo instead of using the one that’s already on the outside of the store.
Instead of having clear way finding and signage that easily directs you to what you’re looking for you’d have to aimlessly wander around hoping to find the power tools or stop a complete stranger and ask for directions.
Instead of picking up one flyer at the entrance of the store that has all the sale adds in it, you’d have to pick up printed material at each unique department and of course they would all have their own logos on them and look like they came from different stores.
The store would only be open on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights.
Customers would be able to vote on who the store manager was going to be and then appoint a board made up of the best customers who then get to tell the store manager what to do.
This special board made up of the best customers would also get to decide what products the store sold and what kinds of other customers were allowed to shop at the store.
If you were in the electric department and had a question about plumbing, the electric department employee would have no idea how to help you because electricity and plumbing have nothing to do with each other.

While we all know that the Church is not a business, I hope this post challenges some of your thinking about the Church. And I hope you got a good laugh at this tongue in cheek approach to the conversation.

What else would you add to the list?

Photo Credit: JeepersMedia via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership

How Much Should Your Church Pay Your Pastor?

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

A couple of years ago I wrote a post called, “How Much Should We Pay Our Pastor,” that went on to become a pretty popular post, primarily because most churches have no idea what a fair compensation package is for their pastor or any member of their church staff. Fortunately for Churches seeking to answer this question some new data has just been released this week!

The 2014 Large Church Salary Report conducted by Leadership Network in partnership with the Vanderbloemen Executive Search Firm has just been released to the public. The largest survey of its kind ever conducted, 727 churches of over 1,000 people in attendance from 42 states and Canada participated to provide more information and more specific information than ever before available. Follow this link to get your hands on a copy of the survey results! Here are a couple of facts that caught my eye along with the top 10 findings info-graphic below.

The larger the church the younger it is. In other words, churches in the 1,000-person range have on average been around for about 40 years. Churches in the 10,000-person range on average have been around about 25 years.
The younger the church, the more likely it is to be multisite.
74% of large churches are growing.
One of the things I really liked about the way Leadership Network chose to show the information was that they showed the 25%, 50% (or median), and 75% instead of simply showing the average. These numbers offer better benchmarks because they minimize the influence of extremely high or low salaries.

Related Resources:

Interested in a Custom Compensation Analysis by Vanderbloemen Search Firm
Interested in a Compensation Study done for churches under 1,000?

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

Leadercast 2014 Recap

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

If you missed the 2014 Leadercast, then you missed some great content, great speakers, and incredible ideas that have the potential to shift your thinking when it comes to leadership. But no worries! Now you’ve got all the notes to every session right here at your fingertips for free! Hope you enjoy!

1. Becoming a Beyond You Leader

Andy Stanley, author and Lead Pastor at North Point Community Church walked through 3 ways to become a leader that makes an impact and leaves a legacy that goes beyond you.

2. The Wake of a Leader

Best selling author and leadership psychologist, Dr. Henry Cloud, talked about the wake that leaders leave behind them as they travel towards the future.

3. 4 Characteristics of a Good Leader

ArchBishop Desmond Tutu challenged leaders to imagine a world where leaders didn’t make decisions based only on strategy or economics, but what was best for everyone involved.

4. Nothing Prepares Your for Leadership as much as Experience

First Lady Laura Busch was interviewed about her experience in the White House and having a first hand seat to watching world changing decisions happen every single day.

5. Legitimate Leadership

Best selling author and speaker Malcolm Gladwell discussed 3 characteristics that legitimize any given leader as someone worth following.

6. The Dream of a Leader

Bill McDermott, Co-CEO and Executive Board Member of SAP challenged leaders to find, keep, and chase their dream.

7. Leadership is a Practice not an Event

Leadercast concluded with leadership expert and best selling author Simon Sinek who challenged leaders to lead with courage.

Posted in Leadership

Take the 2014 Church Budgeting Survey

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

At the end of April I announced a new project I’m beginning to work on, a Church Budgeting Survey. While I’ll admit that at first pass a church budgeting survey may not seem very sexy, the results will be very helpful. At the end of the day my hope is to help churches make vision real, and if churches can begin to allocate their financial resources in a way manner that helps them move towards their vision, then the Kingdom wins!

I’m excited to let you know that since the release of the survey, responses have been coming in from churches of all kinds of sizes and denominational affiliations. Church plants, multisite churches and megachurches of more that 15,000 in attendance have all participated!

In a couple of weeks the research gathering phase of this project will be complete and I don’t want you or your church to miss out on the opportunity to participate.

The responses from this survey will allow churches to gain valuable information such as:

What percentage of our budget should go towards Staffing, Operations, Ministry, and Missions?
What is “normal” weekly giving at a church our size?
How much debt do churches of similar size carry?
Do these percentages change as the size of our church changes over time?
How do different churches go about building their annual budget?

The more churches who participate, the more specific comparisons can be provided.

Click Here To Take The Survey

Benefits of participating: For those who participate, you’ll receive the full results in an executive summary before findings of the survey are made public! And, you’ll be provided with a copy of the data. No worries, the data will be sanitized to remove possible church-identifiers for anonymity. All for free. Thanks ahead of time for participating in the survey and for helping churches make vision real!

Posted in Leadership

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