9 Big Decisions that will Change your Church

Tag Archive - culture

9 Big Decisions that will Change your Church

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to sit down with a group of Executive Pastors who are serving in churches of 5,000+ and during the conversation I heard them talk about some of the best decisions they’ve made over the recent history of their churches that have made the greatest impact. I thought I’d share some of those thoughts here with you and give you the opportunity to learn from some incredible leaders that are in the trenches! Could it be that one of these decisions is the one that will make all the difference this year at your church?

1. Define our Staff Culture

Many churches have cultural values but haven’t taken the time to define what they’re looking for in a leadership or staff culture. While you can spend a lot of time and energy on this, a simple place to start is to simply make a list of your top 10 employees (regardless of role or seniority) and why they’re your top-10. That’s the culture you’re looking for. This is a great exercise to do as a Senior Leadership Team.

2. Bust up Ministry Silos

Many churches are more like a collection of different ministries operating under one roof competing for building space, staffing, volunteers, and budget resources than they are a singularly focused team aligned to take on a God-sized vision. Trying to cut through the ministry silos at your church? This blog series from my friend and teammate at the Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan, will help.

3. Participate in the “Best Christian Workplace” Survey

The Best Christian Workplaces Institute started with a question: “What makes an exceptional place to work?” Mentioned by Bill Hybles at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, this survey will help you diagnose and improve the organizational health of your church.

4. Hire someone to Focus on Stewardship

Hire someone to put full-time attention on finances. Not a CFO but rather someone to develop revenue. Put them in charge of developing and implementing a holistic generosity strategy at your church. Chances are they’ll pay for themselves in the first 6 months – or less.

5. Move to a Teaching Team Model

Instead of relying on just one communicator develop a teaching team. This doesn’t mean using the weekend service to develop a young communicator or experiment on your people. There are plenty of other venues in the church to do that. When done well this allows your church to hear multiple voices, personalities, and approaches to the scriptures. When working together properly they strengthen the weekly message and one guy doesn’t have to shoulder the grind of hitting a home run every week!

6. Lean into the Lead Pastor

The Lead Pastor sets the culture, plain and simple. So as a Sr. Leadership Team take the time to figure out what makes the Lead Pastor tick. What’s most important to them, what’s least important to them? What’s their approach and style? Lean into that and build on it organizationally.

7. Expand the Sr. Leadership Team

Centralizing everything through one person slows things down. While someone has to lead the Sr. Leadership Team, a team needs to be built because you can’t know everything or make every decision – or you become the lid. But then again staffing models are only as good as the people that are on the team, the personalities that are at the top, and the culture of the church. Healthy churches hold onto their organizational structure loosely – because they’re growing and they know it’s going to require flexibility.

8. Develop a Residency Program

Great churches develop leaders. Intentionally charting out a clear path to develop future leaders including a volunteer leadership pipeline, an internship program, or residency. One church built a 2 year residency for degreed pastors in training to get the practical experience they need to lead a church. Not only do they send out equipped pastors but they get the opportunity to hire people who understand their culture because they’ve been in it for 2 years!

9. Hire a Consulting Firm

Having the fresh perspective of outside professionals who know what it means to lead in the trenches of the local church and bring years of experience of working with forward moving churches to the table is one of the best decisions a Sr. Leadership Team can make. I’m not biased or anything but I know a great Consulting Group that I’d recommend. Check out the Unstuck Group!

What’s the best decision you’ve made at your church this last year that’s made the greatest impact? What decision do you need to make this year that will make the greatest impact in the future? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment!

Photo Credit: Rusty Clark via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership

My Interview with 5 Sr. Pastors Leading Multisite Churches of 5,000+ Pt-4

Thursday, April 24, 2014

I recently sat down with 5 Sr. Pastors who are all leading Multisite Churches ranging from 5,000 to more than 15,000. Here’s some of what they had to say regarding church leadership. If you missed the first three parts of this series you can check them out here:

Part-1 “How do young leaders earn the right to be heard and succeed on your team?”

Part-2 “What are some indicators that momentum is moving the wrong direction and how do you turn the tide?”

Part-3 “What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in going multisite and what are some of the most significant things you’ve learned as a result?”

This is the last of the posts in this series and is and a collection of some final thoughts and take aways from my interview.

Tyler Johnson: I think it’s fundamental to being made in the Image of God and that the Holy Spirit resides in people is that there’s untapped potential like crazy in Christians. And when you restrict them from the ability to exercise their full shape, if you want to use that terminology, I just think you miss a lot. Now it’s far more challenging than that. It’s far more simple or cleaner to say there’s a top chain of command and we’re going to make decisions trickle down. I don’t think you get near the results or keep the leaders if you do that. But if you push decisions down…I think it’s a belief one for us theologically that these people are made in the Image of God and leaders develop…when I say leaders just think discipleship…discipleship happens at its best when people are given the most amount of freedom and they’re resourced to do it, with coaching. So we’ll talk a lot about in leadership development about leading with a retractable roof, like Chase Field. I mean there are times when you’re leading somebody that the roof needs to be closed. I mean its like put your head down and go. But then there are a lot of times that the roof needs to be open and you can say the sky is the limit. And we try to create environments where they get to make decisions and because of that there really is no ceiling for us. If you don’t give them the room to make decisions I don’t think in the end your going to disciple, lead them well, and or keep them.

Scott Ridout: One of the things we’re trying to communicate to our staff is the larger we get the more specialized our staff have to be and that’s a de-satisfier. Especially when you’ve been a generalist in ministry and you’ve had a lot of authority. I think it is Larry Osborne who says any time you take away preference, prestige or power there’s disappointment. So we’re teaching our staff the hedgehog concept that Jim Collins talks about. There are three circles 1) what you’re passionate about 2) what you can be best in the world at 3) this is what we’ll pay you to do. In other words you could be the best on the entire staff at something, but this is the job that we’ll pay you to do. You’re doing what’s best for the team. We need you to play this role…and it can be a de-satisfier, unless your vision and passion is for the mission more than your personal gratification.

Cal Jernigan: I think one of the things that was a huge revelation for me in the move I made from doing Youth Ministry to leading a large church was this issue of courage. I don’t think we have a clue about this whole courage issue. Nobody told me that being the Sr. Pastor of a church was going to be more about courage than anything else. But what I’ve discovered is between these guys up here who are leading successful churches and so many guys out there leading churches is this courage factor. This ability to do what you don’t want to do but you know you need to do. And as I travel around and I talk to other churches it’s not uncommon for me to be in a conversation where I find myself saying, “You know exactly what you need to do, why don’t you do it?” And the reality of it is, the price to pay to do that is a price we’re not willing to pay because it’s going to relationally damage somebody. And you think about how many of us went into the ministry because we had a pastoral heart and we wanted to love on people. And you get into leadership, and the higher level of leadership you get into the more you find yourself saying, “This is going to hurt, but this is the right thing to do.” I think to rise in leadership you have to embrace a heart full of courage.

Don Wilson: There are two sides to this…I know it’s my sickness…and that’s the fact that driven leaders are addicted to growth. Whether we admit it or not, we probably are. And so the struggle at times, is you want your ministry to grow, but you’ve got to be careful that you don’t pray that other ministries don’t grow. Because if we’re not careful, and I’ve been guilty, that we want the Kingdom to grow as long as it’s not too close to our kingdom. And working with the mega-church pastors in the state the last couple of years…if you’re going to be a leading church, you’re going to take a lot of hits. And the problem, if we’re going to reach this city for Jesus Christ, my big term is, “We’re the visiting team, we’re no longer the home team.” 90% don’t go to church anywhere. And we better figure out, all of us, how to work together more or we’re all going to lose.

Scott Ridout: I think the one thing that we’ve done in the last 18 months that has really helped us out…is that we’ve always said we’ve got a culture worth reproducing. We like our staff culture we like our staff culture, we have a culture worth reproducing. But I don’t know that we’d ever defined it…what made our culture what it is. So we took some time last year as an Executive Team and we asked, “In the last 3 months what were the conversations with Staff and leaders that made you say – yes they get it?” Another question we asked was, “What are the conversations and moments with Staff and leaders that made you cringe?” And we took those answers and asked, “What are the underlying values?” And we tried to define what made us…us. Because there’s Christian culture, and that’s what Scripture says about all Christians. But not every Christian goes to your church. And then there’s church culture. And people can be in your church and that’s based on your vision, and values, and maturity pathway and stuff like that. But not everyone in your church can be a leader. And so what is the leadership culture of your church? And so what we came up with is seven statements that define the leadership culture at our church. How we handle ourselves, how we handle each other, how we handle volunteers, how we handle our guests. For example when it comes to challenge and confrontations, “We love first, lead second, but we always do both.”

Posted in Leadership

Why the Church Wins When the Church Staff are in a Small Group

Sunday, February 2, 2014

I talk to church leaders all the time who bring up how lonely they feel in leadership. My response? You’re as lonely as you want to be. Yes, relationships are risky. Any time you entrust your heart with others there’s a chance that it won’t be handled well. And I understand that church leaders often feel pressure to perform and live up to unrealistic expectations of perfection. But if the church staff chooses to shrink back from vulnerability and authenticity in relationship with others then you’ll build a culture of superficial pretending in your church. That’s why when the church staff takes the risk and jumps into a small group bible study the whole church wins!

Moral Authority

It’s hard to say, “Do as I say, and not as I do.” It doesn’t work in parenting and it doesn’t work in leadership. In fact it erodes trust, and trust is the fuel that leadership runs on. Being in a group provides church leadership the moral standing to make the ask for everyone else to do the same.

Culture

The church always takes on the culture of the staff. If you want to build a culture of groups in your church it starts with the staff.

Personal Growth

Just because your church staff are professional Christians doesn’t mean they’re done growing (at least I hope not). Spiritual growth always happens best in circles not rows and in the context of meaningful relationships.

Accountability

The bottom line is bad things happen when we live in isolation from others. All of us need the natural built in accountability that comes through the relationships that are found in small groups.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

Top Posts of 2013 #9: “Defining the Leadership Culture at Your Church”

Sunday, December 22, 2013

A lot of man hours, conversations and work went into building this post before it ever hit the internet. One of the reasons this post was so popular is because it provided a great example for churches. Building a leadership culture is something that is talked about a lot, but rarely clearly defined in churches. My hope in sharing this was not for it to be copied, but for it to provide an example of what could be. Hope it’s helpful!

Organizational Culture is the squishy stuff that is often difficult for even the most experienced leaders to clearly articulate. But just because it’s difficult and forces you to have uncomfortable conversations, face the brutal facts, and do the hard work of mining out the best ideas doesn’t mean it should be avoided. In fact the best leaders have a crystal clear picture of the behavioral norms that both reflect and build the desired culture in an organization. If you plan on perpetuating your culture you’d better be able to clearly articulate it and get others to see it…after all as Peter Drucker famously said…

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – Peter Drucker

Every organization has a culture – attitudes they want adopted, values they want championed, beliefs they want instilled and behaviors they want reproduced. Leaders are the cultural architects of any organization. Eventually every organization takes on the character and priorities of its leaders. As a result, leaders need to become intentional in creating culture.

At Sun Valley Community Church, there are a few things that make our staff culture unique. There is a way of operating and a way of treating others that we expect from those who are in leadership. We have been working diligently to try to capture them in a few memorable, clear statements. We’ve gotten it down to 7 clear and concise statements (with further explanation that’s been added in) that we believe capture the essence of our culture. Don’t be confused, these are not the same thing as organizational values. These are staff norms, distinctives, and behaviors that both reflect and build a desired culture. I’m not posting these here to copy or to mimic. You have to discover and be true to your unique identity as a leader and organization. However I am posting these here as an example and to hopefully encourage others to do the hard work of clearly defining and articulating your own culture.

#1 Leadership – We choose to love first and lead second, but always do both.

The Bible describes Jesus as “full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). He knew when to be compassionate and when to be bold and he used the perfect mixture of both for any/every situation. Jesus was the perfect man and the perfect leader.

We are not so fortunate. Most of us lean to one side or the other. Some are primarily grace givers, while others are truth tellers. Grace givers believe the best about everyone. They take people at their word and believe in a God of “second chances.” However their weakness is that their trust is sometimes unfounded and at other times they don’t delve into problems and get to the root issue. As a result, people may feel accepted but because of an unwillingness to confront obstacles to growth, they never become the leader God meant them to be.

Truth tellers have a different perspective. They believe that “the truth will set you free” and so they willingly and consistently point out opportunities for improvement and change. You never have to worry about knowing what is on the mind of a truth teller. They are forthright and honest in conversation, whether confrontational or friendly. However, very often truth tellers miss the relational side of ministry and as a result are seen as insensitive, abrupt and harsh.

At Sun Valley we expect our leaders to learn how to lead others with both grace and truth. We believe that truth is best received when there is a strong foundational context that “we want something for you, not from you.” We train leaders how to say the hard things in caring ways. Relationship is a key to receptivity. High trust paves the way for high challenge.

In our culture, the order of grace and truth matters. Truth is spoken in the context of relationship. When people know they are loved, accepted and respected, they will be more receptive to much needed change. We also choose never to stop with only love. It is never loving to leave out the truth. Love does what is best for the other person no matter what they get in return. We love first, lead second, but always do both.

#2 Risk – We have a big God, so we take big risks and trust Him for big results.

Nothing is impossible for God. He has commissioned His church to reach the world with the Gospel. Therefore, God designed the church to be on the offensive in its dealings with the world. In Mt. 16:18 Jesus states, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The only thing that can stop the church is the church.

And yet many churches take very few risks to reach those who are far from God. Instead they house themselves in comfortable buildings and focus their resources on making the already convinced more comfortable.

This is not God’s plan for the church. At Sun Valley, we encourage our staff to try big things to reach more people. The world is rapidly changing which means methods need to change. Leaders in the Sun Valley culture will experiment. We are not afraid to try things and make mistakes. We also understand that “new” is not necessarily better, “effective” is better. We have high trust in our leaders. This high trust leads to high expectations. So we expect our leaders to key in on results.

Therefore when resources are limited and results are expected, evaluation becomes vital. We evaluate everything, consistently trying to improve “what is,” to make it what “it could be” and “should be.” We hire leaders who are willing to try new things and expect them to become “masters of midcourse correction.” We have a big God, so we take big risks and trust Him for big results.

Yes…I know this is a long post…skim the highlights if you’d like. But I’ve put it all on here to help provide some kind of model for those interested in intentionally building a culture at their church. Keep reading if you want to learn more.

#3 Effort – We work hard, give our best and put family first.

Christians should work harder than anyone else on the planet. The Bible teaches that the ability to work is a gift from God and that ministry is a privilege. Therefore work ethic should never be an issue for the believer. At Sun Valley, we expect our staff to work hard.

We also give our best. The ability to be “all here” at work is vital. Focus, attentiveness and professionalism are expected attributes of all or leaders. Prompt communication, collaboration and continual growth and improvement of ministry are norms for our culture. We hire staff to get a job done. We expect them to set goals, devise strategies, implement tactics, raise up volunteers and reproduce leaders so that greater impact can result.

We hire self-starters who are willing to report progress in a timely manner and are willing to receive coaching. We look for self-motivated people who feel responsible for their ministry portion as well as their own personal growth (the person primarily responsible for your professional growth is you) but can work very well within the context of a team. We look for leaders who not only work harder but smarter and who lead with moral authority – your effort should be an example to the person who works full-time and then gives significant effort to ministry. The speed of the leader determines the speed of the team. We expect your best.

At the same time, we also know that our greatest ministry is to our family. Family is your greatest responsibility. An unwillingness to focus on family has led many to ministry disqualification. We want you to have an intimate relationship with your spouse and a healthy relationship with your kids.

As such, staff families need to understand that ministry is very often seasonal in nature. There are times when ministry will be very intense and you will be working at an unsustainable pace. There are also down times when ministry is not as intense and much more freedom is provided. We hire staff that understand that this balance between ministry and family is not a problem to be solved, but a tension to be managed. And we expect our staff to become experts in managing this tension. We work hard, give our best and put family first.

#4 Team – We want to take the hill, and we want to take it together.

The whole reason we are in ministry is to reach the world. We have a job to be done, a goal to be accomplished and a dream that one day every person has had an opportunity to say “yes” to Jesus. This is why we exist. So we set goals, make plans and move forward. This is the hill we want to take.

In the midst of trying to take the hill, we have realized that we are better together than we could ever be apart. Sun Valley functions best as a team effort. There is a power to collaboration. There is a synergy that happens when each one of us takes our skills and abilities and combines them with those of the other members of the team.

We ask everyone to organize ministry in teams. We push each other, sharpen each other, challenge each other and make each other better. There are no silos at Sun Valley – no one is expected to work alone or go it alone. Everyone is expected to function with a team of peers on staff and develop a team of leaders in ministry. No one person has the best ideas all the time. Instead we learn to leverage each other’s strengths. And together, we become a high performing team.

The pace of our ministry can become intense at times. If someone falls behind, we will do whatever we can to bring him or her up to speed and keep them moving forward with the team. However, if we determine that this person is unable to keep pace with the rest of the team, we will first try to reposition that person to a position with a more moderate pace. If that does not work, our last resort is to replace them on the team, so that we can continue to move forward. We want to take the hill, and we want to take it together.

#5 Attitude – We live on the solution side of every issue.

We expect the ministry to grow at Sun Valley. Growth necessitates change and change always comes with its set of challenges and problems. It’s easy to see the problems. Anyone can do that. The challenge is not seeing the problem but forming the solution.

We expect Sun Valley staff to be proactive when it comes to problem solving, whether you are anticipating problems before they occur or solving them as they happen. We expect them to engage in interaction with other leaders to solve the issue. We expect them to behave as if they are owners of every portion of the ministry of Sun Valley.

We expect staff to have a “Can do” mentality. No matter how difficult the task, we expect staff to try and to have a positive outlook, a cooperative spirit and a willingness to “get dirty” in order to move forward. When the issue is a performance issue, we ask that staff assume ignorance rather than obstinance. When training has failed and it is proven to be an attitudinal issue we will address it as a character problem. We train ignorance and challenge obstinance.

Complaining is contagious. We expect staff to understand the “bucket principle.” Any time a problem arises, it is like a fire. When staff becomes aware of an issue they must recognize that they have two buckets – a bucket of water or a bucket of gas. Getting on the solution side of the issue is like pouring water on the fire while joining in on the complaint side is like pouring gas on it. We live on the solution side of every issue.

#6 Sober-minded – We know who we are and who we’re not and we do what is best for the whole.

We expect leaders to know what they are great at and what they stink at.

Nothing is more damaging to ministry progress than a leader who is not self-aware. A lack of self-awareness creates an uncomfortable cringe factor for everyone else on the team.

There is great power to knowing your strengths and weaknesses. As a result better teams are formed, better decisions are made and better implementation results in bigger results. Therefore Sun Valley staff seek others input about personal strengths and weaknesses and defer to the team wisdom over personal ambition.

Sober-minded leaders surround themselves with leaders that are better than they are. They defer decisions to those who will make the best ones. They choose to lead in areas of strength. Sun Valley staff thrives on humility and teachability – they are able to take on the posture of a servant and a learner. They are able to celebrate others strengths and laugh about their own personal weaknesses.

At Sun Valley we expect our leaders to trust in the intentions of the rest of the team when difficult conversations about strengths and weaknesses occur. We expect them to defer to the team. Every decision that is made must go through the filter of “What is best for Sun Valley?” not “What do I want to do?”

#7 Outsiders – We exist for those who are not here yet.

Everything we do at Sun Valley is to help fulfill the Great Commission – making disciples out of “them.” This is the “hill” we are taking. Our greatest focus is to make more of “them” a part of “us” so that they can join us in reaching more of “them.”

To emphasize this priority, we give special attention to tracking new attendees, “Yes” decisions and baptisms. These metrics are signs of health and mission focus. We expect all ministry leaders to become keenly aware of these stats in their areas of oversight.

Being outsider focused greatly impacts how we do ministry for “insiders.” The intentional focus on reaching people is a part of true maturity in Christ – who came to “seek and save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10). All our ministries that impact insiders are for the express purpose of training them to reach outsiders. As we are “helping each other move toward authentic Christian living” (our mission statement), the greatest sign of success is that they live out “Authenticity, Community, and Generosity,” (our values) and move through “Come-Grow-Serve-Go” (our pathway).

We expect staff to support unapologetically the design of our weekend services to be guest-friendly. We expect our leaders to have a plan on how guests will be effectively welcomed in their ministry environments (whether large, medium or small group settings). We expect ministry trainings to focus on making outsiders insiders and to help insiders make relational room for outsiders in their personal lives. We expect our leaders to model outreach to neighbors, friends, relatives and co-workers in their personal lives. Because, we exist for those who are not here yet.

Posted in Leadership

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