5 Articles That Will Help You Make Vision Real

Tag Archive - coaching

5 Articles That Will Help You Make Vision Real

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Thank you for making January a great month here at Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s fun to be a part of the interaction on social media and hear about how helpful the content has been. So, thank you for connecting with me through the content on this blog! You made these the top 5 Posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one place for your convenience!

#1 The Four Stages of a Church Staff Team

If you’ve ever been a part of a growing church you know that growth changes everything. Especially the relational, organizational and working dynamics of the staff team. Larry Osborne, Lead Pastor at North Coast Church writes the following in his book Sticky Teams:

“Never forget growth changes everything. A storefront church, a midsized church, a large church, and a mega-church aren’t simply bigger versions of the same thing. They are completely different animals. They have little in common, especially relationally, organizationally, and structurally.”

Fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with Larry and hear him expound on this idea and talk about what he describes as, “The Four Stages of a Team.”

#2 Who is Responsible for the Spiritual Maturity of the Church?

Every heard someone complain that your church isn’t “deep” enough? This will help!

#3 How to Develop Young Leaders

Volumes have been written about investing in and developing young leaders. While there are a lot of great resources out there I think often times we over-complicate what it means to develop young leaders. In fact here are four simple steps that Sr. Level Leaders can take to invest in the next generation of leaders.

#4 Join a Leadership Coaching Network

My current Leadership Coaching Network is coming to a close and I’m getting ready to launch a new network this spring for up to 12 church leaders! We’ll be meeting six days over six months beginning in April. This is a coaching experience built around practical systems and tools that will help you take your next steps as a leader. Together we’ll take a look at best practices of growing, healthy churches, and press into tough conversations that will help you get unstuck in your leadership and take steps to see the vision that God has given your church become real.

#5 2013 in the Rear-view Mirror

When you’re in the middle of the daily grind it can be difficult to see what kind of progress you’re making. That’s why it’s helpful from time to time to take a step back, review the ground you’ve taken, and celebrate the wins! After all what gets celebrated, gets repeated! So below are some of the life and ministry highlights that I experienced in 2013!

Posted in Leadership

New Leadership Coaching Network Starting Soon!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, we opened applications for the new leadership coaching networks that will begin this Spring with The UnStuck Group. The deadline for applications is February 28, but applications have already been coming in and these new coaching networks will probably fill up before then.

Still on the fence about whether or not to participate? Here’s what others have said:

“Paul Alexander is a natural leader and a great coach. He’s strategic, constantly learning, and has been very helpful to me in my ministry leadership and management.”
– Mike Work, Vice President of Operations at Youth Specialties

“When I have a leadership question Paul is always one of my first calls. He is a gifted leader and strategist. Paul knows how to ask the right questions to properly diagnosis current systems, and the unique capacity to help teams formulate a plan that is both practical and attainable. Working with Paul has been an encouragement and has stirred in me the desire to be a better leader.”
– Aaron McRae, Senior Pastor of Hillside Community Church in Alta Loma, CA

“Paul Alexander is simply brilliant when it comes to helping pastors and churches get laser-focused on their purpose, process and values. I believe he is one of the top strategic thinkers in the church today. After connecting with him, you will be encouraged, inspired and equipped.”
– Kyle Wall, Senior Pastor of Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, VA

“Paul is a very talented leader who knows how to form and implement strategic plans, while encouraging and building leaders in the process. He is methodical in planning his approach, and builds his processes to include appropriate goals, steps, budgets, and measurement for completion. During my time working with Paul, he demonstrated how to focus on projects and refocus when scope changed or obstacles rose up. While learning from Paul, he made things “reproducible” which has allowed me to keep my teams on task and lead them to do the same.”
– Kerry Dodd, CFO of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA

You can get more details about the next Coaching Network on my website.

What’s next?

Complete the Coaching Network Application. The Phoenix Leadership Coaching Network that I’m leading will be limited to no more than 12 leaders and begins in April 2014. I’d like you to consider joining us. The deadline for applications is February 28, 2014.

Questions? Contact me

Posted in Leadership

Join a Leadership Coaching Network

Sunday, January 19, 2014

This is a coaching experience built around practical systems and tools that will help you take your next steps as a leader. Together we’ll take a look at best practices of growing, healthy churches, and press into tough conversations that will help you get unstuck in your leadership and take steps to see the vision that God has given your church become real.

At The UnStuck Group you’ve probably heard us say before that, “Your message has the potential to shift thinking. Your systems have the potential to shift behaviors.” This coaching network is focused on helping you discover the shifts that need to happen in your leadership and your ministry strategies and systems. You can’t continue to use the same systems and strategies and hope to experience different results. The only way to get different results is to engage different systems. This coaching network will challenge you to take those next steps.

Here are some things to keep in mind…

This is not an opportunity for someone who is looking for inspiration. My coaching networks involve work. You can’t just show up. You will have to commit to six months of reading and engaging leadership exercises with the ministry team at your church. This is designed to help you discover new systems and strategies.

This experience isn’t for people looking for leadership theory. Yes, you’ll learn some leadership skills, but this experience is designed for you to put those skills into action. Every month you will leave with new tools to implement in your ministry environment. I want to help you shift your thinking and shift your behaviors.

This is not a conference experience. In a conference, you can sit and soak in the teaching without engaging anyone else. In this coaching experience, you will be encouraged and challenged by other leaders who will be counting on you to participate fully.

Interested in Joining us?
Click here to get all the details you need to know about the leadership coaching network in Phoenix. My teammate at The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan, is facilitating a similar network in Atlanta.

Complete the coaching network application and pay your initial deposit to hold your space. The deposit will be your first month’s fees. The next Atlanta and Phoenix networks will start in April 2014. The deadline to get your application in for the Phoenix network is February 28, 2014. Don’t delay, get your application in as soon as possible as spots are already filling up!

Posted in Leadership

Multisite Church Fast Facts

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

This past week Jim Tomberlin the founder of MultiSite Solutions stopped by my current Coaching Network to spend some time talking all things Multisite and Mergers. He shared about how the multisite movement that originally began as a “band-aid” solution for megachurches that were out of space has quickly turned into a growth strategy for all kinds and sizes of churches. Below are 15 incredible facts that Jim in partnership with Leadership Network have discovered about the multisite church movement:

There are 5,000 multisite churches vs 1,650 megachurches. In other words, “multi” doesn’t mean “mega.”
6+ million people attend a multisite church in North America (That means 1 in 10 people who attended a protestant church this past weekend attended a multisite church campus)
75 of the largest 100 churches in North America have multiple campuses.
2/3 of multisite churches are denominational churches.
The average size that a church goes multisite is 850.
The average size of a multisite campus is 361.
The average total attendance of a multisite church is 1,300.
One in three multisite churches added a campus through a merger.
One in four multisite churches have a campus in another language.
One in five multisite churches have birthed a “grandchild” campus. In other words a campus that the original campus started, started a campus. Make sense?
One in 10 multisite churches have an online internet campus.
Only half of all multisite churches utilize video to deliver the weekend teaching/preaching.
Only 15% of all multisite churches have 4 or more geographic locations.
The majority of multiste church campuses are within a 30 minute drive of the original campus.
Multisite campuses have a 90 percent survival/success rate.

Interested in being a part of my next Leadership Coaching Network and getting access to great leaders like Jim? Get all the information you need by following this link!

Posted in Leadership

How to Keep Your Team When the Game is Changing

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

In any growing church or organization there are going to be moments where the team that got you where you are, will not have the ability to get you where you need to go. This usually becomes an incredibly painful and difficult moment. In fact many churches get stuck here because they refuse to address the issue in an appropriate manner. What do you do when staff members begin to hit a leadership lid? Do you have any other course of action to take besides replacing them? How do you navigate these moments? The options below should help:

1. Clarify Expectations

I’ve never met a church staff member who wants to do a bad job at work, but I’ve met plenty who don’t know what’s expected of them at work. Have you taken the time to set clear performance expectations and measure results over determined periods of time and evaluate the results together? Sometimes as the church grows and changes expectations change.

2. Recast Vision

As the church goes through different phases of growth there are natural seasons where team members may simply need to “re-up” for the next season of ministry. Have you recast vision to team members and given them the opportunity to “re-up” for this next season?

3. Provide Training

If the team member understands and reflects the culture that you’re trying to build and they relationally fit the team, then they’re probably worth investing in. Have you determined if there are new skills that the team member needs that you can provide through training?

4. Deal with the Facts

People don’t always believe the truth about themselves (newsflash). Some of your team members don’t know what they’re brilliant at and what they should be avoiding. Part of your job as the team leader is to help your team take a soberminded approach to their role in the church. Here’s a tip: when you have these conversations focus on facts, not feelings.

5. Right People in the Right Seats

As the church is growing and team members hit lids one of the first issues to consider is do you have the right people in the right seats on the bus? Instead of removing the team member could you move them to another role or hire someone over them?

6. Honest Conversations

In the process of these conversations I cannot overvalue the need to have consistent, honest, real-time conversations with your team. If you want to coach your team members through seasons of change and leadership lids it’s going to take candid conversations.

If your church is stuck and needs help moving into the future consider partnering with The Unstuck Group to help guide you through a staffing and structure review. We’d be happy to help you develop a plan that will move you forward!

Posted in Staffing