Tag Archive - 2015

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Top Posts of 2015 #8: “6 Symptoms your Church has Ministry Silos”

Monday, December 28, 2015

Another popular topic on my blog this year was ministry silos. This post came in at #8 this year.

Ministry Silos are one of the most common symptoms I find in churches that are stuck. Most churches don’t want to admit that they have silos. But admit it or not, the majority of churches have silos. It’s actually a natural easy drift that most churches make towards ministry silos. I wrote about this in a post: “What if Home Depot Functioned like a Church?”

Ministry Silos = multiple independent ministries operating under one roof

But how do you know if you have ministry silos at your church? You probably have ministry silos at your church if…

1. Each Ministry has their own Vision & Values Statements

If each ministry is chasing it’s own vision and developing it’s own organizational values; then you’ve got ministry silos.

2. You Frequently hear the word “My Ministry” in Meetings

If you hear the words, “my ministry, my budget, my volunteers, my rooms,” etc.; then you’ve got ministry silos.

3. There is no Coordinated Calendaring Process

If every ministry has their own independent calendar and there are consistent conflicts when it comes to using facility space, announcements, and other church resources; then you’ve got ministry silos.

4. No one is Sharing Best Practices

If each ministry is building their guest experience, discipleship process, missions experiences, and volunteer process (among other things) uniquely and independently from one another; you’ve got ministry silos.

5. There is no Coordinated Budgeting Process

If each ministry is coming up with their own budget independently of each other instead of working together and sacrificing for what is best for the vision of the church; then you’ve got ministry silos.

6. Each Ministry has their own Brand

If each ministry has it’s own cool name, logo, t-shirts, websites, and promotional material that look like their from different organizations instead of from the same church; then you’ve got ministry silos.

What else would you add to the list?

Your team can use this list at your next team meeting to begin evaluating where your church is at when it comes to ministry silos. Then use this post: “Tearing Down Ministry Silos” to help you begin taking your next steps.

Want help addressing the dysfunction of ministry silos at your church? At the Unstuck Group we’ve helped some of the fastest growing and most innovative churches in the country get unstuck. We can help you too.

Photo Credit: dawn_perry via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership

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Top Posts of 2015 #9: “How Many People Should be Volunteering at your Church?”

Monday, December 28, 2015

This post came in at #9 this year. Volunteering was a huge topic of conversation on my blog this year. You’ll see it show up again on the Top 10 List.

Did you know that there is a direct connection between the amount of money a church invests in staffing and the number of people who volunteer? What we’ve discovered in our research at the Unstuck Group is that the as a church increases its spending on staffing the number of people volunteering decreases.

Translation: if you want more people to volunteer at your church you may need to spend less on staffing.

What we’ve learned through our experience and research is that the average church in America is mobilizing 43% of their adult and student population in volunteer opportunities. The reason it is so critical for churches to address this and take steps to move their culture in the right direction is because volunteering is discipleship. It’s not about filling roles and getting ministry done through people. It’s not about what we want from people, but rather what we want for people. Mobilizing people into volunteer roles is the ministry of pastors and church leaders. It is discipleship. Because volunteering and living an others first life is the very essence of what it means to live like Jesus.

Interested in learning more? Download the ebook “Vital Signs: Meaningful Metrics That Keep a Pulse on Your Church’s Health” or consider engaging the Unstuck Group to do a Ministry Health Assessment with your church to discover the health levels at your church and develop a plan to move things forward.

In the meantime below is a free exercise you can do with your team to begin addressing the volunteer culture at your church:

Step #1: Build a complete list of volunteers that are currently serving in the ministry you are responsible for:

  • What is their first and last name?
  • What is their role?
  • How many hours per week do they volunteer?
  • Once you build a master list of volunteers for your church take a moment and identify any volunteer redundancy and then count individual volunteer roles. For example if someone volunteers in 3 different ministries, or in 1 ministry but volunteers in 3 unique roles that is one volunteer fulfilling 3 roles. Come up with a separate list of volunteer roles and a list of volunteers. Are a few people doing the majority of the volunteering?
  • How long have they been volunteering in your ministry?

Step #2: Build a picture of what your ministry would look like if it were staffed properly with volunteers:

  • How many volunteers would it take?
  • What ideal roles would they be serving in and what would the structure look like?
  • How many volunteer hours would it take?
  • How many new volunteers would you have to recruit and place?
  • How many current volunteers would you have to adjust their role and/or hours they volunteer?
  • Create an actual written organizational chart of your ministry to reflect this.

Step #3: Are there any gaps between the current reality of the ministry and this picture of a preferred future that you have built?                       

  • What’s working, not working, confusing, or missing?
  • What are you currently doing to recruit volunteers? Is it working?
  • How do you place your volunteers? Do they love their role?
  • How do you currently train volunteers? Is it helpful?
  • What do you do to communicate with your volunteers? Is it effective?
  • How do you schedule your volunteers? Is it efficient?
  • What is the span of care for volunteers? Are volunteers who are in leadership roles responsible for 20 volunteers or 5-8 volunteers? Is it reasonable?
  • What do you do to support and care for your volunteers? Do they feel supported?
  • How do you measure if your volunteers are doing what needs to be done for the ministry to win? Are you winning?
Posted in Leadership, Volunteers

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Leadership Summit 2015: Craig Groeschel

Thursday, August 13, 2015

If you missed the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year, no worries I’ve got you covered. I’ll be posting my notes and thoughts from each presenter over the next couple of days.

Craig Groeschel is the founder and Senior Pastor of LifeChurch.tv, known for using innovative technology to spread the Gospel to multiple locations around the U.S. and globally via Church Online. Craig closed out summit with an incredible talk about expanding your leadership capacity.

Expanding your Leadership Capacity

  • Ephesians 3:20-21
  • Your brain does not understand what you are capable of – you don’t know what you’re capable of
  • There is way more inside of you than you could even imagine
  • Capacity = what you can handle / what you can produce
  • As your organization grows your mindset needs to change
  • If you don’t change the way you think you become the lid on the organization
  • Any time my organization needs to change I assume I have to change the way I think

#1 Build your Confidence

  • Your words give you away
  • Language of the lid: not enough hours in the day, not enough of me to go around, etc.
  • Change your self-talk
  • Take 1 step forward out of your self-talk and into the calling of God
  • The pathway to your greatest potential is through your greatest fear

#2 Expand your Connections

  • Show me who you listen to and I will show you who you are becoming
  • You may be one relationship away from changing the course of your history
  • Don’t copy what they do, learn how they think
  • When you think…”That’s not true in my context,” that’s probably the area you need to listen and grow in the most

#3 Improve your Competence

  • You may not know what it is, but everyone else around you knows what it is.
  • Delegation = building followers
  • Empowerment = building leaders

#4 Strengthen your Character

  • Talent will get you to the top but character will keep you there
  • If your character is not strengthening your future is weakening
  • You and I need to check our lives for leaks
  • Eliminate future temptation today
  • Why would I resist a temptation tomorrow when I can eliminate it today?
  • That’s not weak, it’s wise
  • Your are only as strong as you are honest

#5 Increase your Commitment

  • Stop kinda trying to do something
  • We will not stop until our marriage honors Jesus and blesses future generations
  • To reach people no one is reaching we will do things no one else is doing
  • How bad you want something determines what you will do to get it
Posted in Leadership

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Leadership Summit 2015: Liz Wiseman

Thursday, August 13, 2015

If you missed the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year, no worries I’ve got you covered. I’ll be posting my notes and thoughts from each presenter over the next couple of days.

Liz Wiseman, the President of the Wiseman Group and best-selling author gave a talk based on her new book: Rookie Smarts – Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work.

Using Rookie Smarts

  • It’s not what you know, it’s how fast you can learn.
  • Is it possible that we are at our best when we are new, naive and are rookies?
  • Why do a job you’re qualified to do – there would be nothing new to learn.
  • Knowledge leads to assumptions
  • Sometimes we see what we expect to see
  • Inexperience leads to rookie mistakes
  • Rookies don’t know that something is hard so they just try
  • Rookies don’t bring new ideas, they bring questions…they ask “Why?”
  • Rookies take baby steps looking for affirmation along the way
  • Rookies operate fast because they’re desperate
  • When you lack resources you tend to get resourceful
  • When challenge goes up satisfaction goes up / when challenge is low satisfaction is low

Warning Signs of a Comfortable Team (on the verge of a organizational plateau) & what to do about it

  1. Things are running smoothly: throw away your notes
  2. You have the answers: ask the questions
  3. You get positive feedback: admit what you don’t know
  4. You’ve become the mentor: let someone else lead
  5. Your busy but bored: disqualify yourself
  • When you linger too long on a plateau you begin to die
  • If you want your team to move forward then lead them into the unknown
Posted in Leadership

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Leadership Summit 2015: Sam Adeyemi

Thursday, August 13, 2015

If you missed the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year, no worries I’ve got you covered. I’ll be posting my notes and thoughts from each presenter over the next couple of days.

Sam Adeyemi the founder and Senior Pastor of Daystar Christian Center in Nigeria gave a fantastic talk on “Crushing the Power Gap”

Crushing the Power Gap

  • Power & responsibility are not shared equally in an organization
    • The downside to power distance is that it can leave followers with a low self esteem and lack of empowerment to provide honest feedback
    • They have to wait for approval to do anything
    • It becomes a permission seeking culture
  • Following you should hold the promise of life-change for those who follow you
  • If you want to experience success, then help other experience success
  • The object of most leaders is their own success
  • Do you want your church to grow so you will be more comfortable?
  • When God asks you a question it’s not because He doesn’t know the answer, it’s usually to show us our foolishness
  • Jesus crushed the power gap
    • Men – Women
    • Adults – Kids
    • Man – God
    • Religious – Irreligious
  • Jesus calls leaders to create new power structures
  • One of the most amazing things about the power of Jesus is that He gave power away
  • There is something about leaders and talented people that makes them think that others can’t do what they do
  • Shepherds feed sheep…sheep make other sheep
  • If you are in an under-resourced area you need to view it as an opportunity to develop leaders and innovate
  • It is not the absence of money that makes some poor but the absence of ideas
Posted in Leadership
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