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New eBook: Vital Signs – Meaningful Metrics That Keep a Pulse on Your Church’s Health

Monday, March 3, 2014

I’m excited to announce a new eBook to help churches get unstuck. It’s from the gang over at The Unstuck Group, the consulting group that I work with. The book is called Vital Signs – Meaningful Metrics That Keep a Pulse on Your Church’s Health.

Churches can become so consumed with all the things they have going on that they assume they are healthy as a by-product of activity. But, how do you actually know if your church is healthy in every facet? This eBook by Tony Morgan and Ryan Stigile shares proven tools that have worked for more than 50 churches across the U.S.

You will find this is a practical guide for determining the true health of your church so you can focus your energy on the areas that need it the most.

Vital Signs provides step-by-step insight into:

How to gain an understanding of your church’s strengths and weaknesses.
How to set better goals and know if you’re reaching them.
How to identify early warning signs that your church is unhealthy.
How to chart a clear path forward for good health in the long run.

Some people fear using numbers and statistics in the Church, feeling that we shouldn’t approach something so organic like a business. But metrics don’t turn a church into a business any more than a check-up turns a body into a machine. They give you the raw data you need on a macro level to make the adjustments you need on a relational level. Remember: Every number has name, and every name has a story. Learn how to read them.

Vital Signs is available today from Amazon and Barnes & Noble Nook.

This is a guest post by Tiffany Deluccia. Tiffany serves as the Social Media Strategist at The Unstuck Group. Tiffany graduated from Clemson University and has spent the last four years working in public relations with major national retail brands, nonprofits and churches on content creation, strategic planning, communication consulting, social media and media relations. She also founded and writes for WastingPerfume.com, a devotional blog for young women and teen girls.

Posted in Leadership

6 Steps to Creating a Church that High Performers Love to Work At

Sunday, July 21, 2013

In Church-World you may not have the ability to purely attract and keep high performers based on pay. While you should do your best to pay high performers what they’re worth, they aren’t just in it for the pay. Check out this link for more on how much you should be paying your staff. After spending the last 12 years on the Sr. Leadership Teams of some of the nations leading churches here are 6 observations I’ve consistently seen regarding creating a church where high performers love to work.

#1 A Healthy Organization

High performers don’t have time for politics, posturing, and organizational dysfunction. They’re looking for a strong culture that goes beyond mission, vision, values, etc. that are written on a piece of paper but rather lived out in the hallways of the organization. For more on building a healthy organization follow this link.

#2 High Challenge

It’s fun to be a part of a church that’s winning and taking ground! A place where people are meeting Jesus, lives are being changed, and there are real challenges to lead through associated with growth. If you’re not taking big enough risks, and making a real Kingdom impact it’s going to be tough to keep high performers. High performers desire big challenges and big opportunities to lead through.

#3 Incredible People

High performers want to be around other high performers. Great people naturally gravitate towards great people…you attract who you are. High performers are looking for people who have the skills to get the job done but also an environment where there is real openness and trust between team members.

#4 Buy In

One of the statements I’ve consistently heard through the years from high performers who love their churches is, “I would go to church here if I wasn’t on staff here.”

#5 God is Moving

High performers want to be where God is moving and if He’s not moving they’ll jump ship in a minute. Having a front row seat to real life change is the fuel that keeps high performers going. It’s the fruit of meaningful work.

#6 Responsibility and Authority

High performers aren’t just looking for a lot of responsibility, but authority that goes along with the responsibility. Nothing is worse than being responsible for something that you don’t have the authority to change, influence, and lead. High performers are looking for real influence and the ability to make real decisions that carry real weight. They want the ability to shape their future.

Posted in Leadership

Bringing Clarity to Organizational Culture

Sunday, June 30, 2013

In at interview with Tony Morgan last week I was asked how I would define organizational culture for his readers. It’s a tough question. Even the most experienced leaders I’ve been around have trouble offering a clear explanation about what organizational culture is…much less, how to go about intentionally building a desired culture in the organization they’re leading. It’s tough because culture is the “squishy” stuff or “soft” stuff in an organization that’s hard to measure on a chart, map, or graph.

The hard truth, like it or not, is that every organization has a culture. And the leaders of the organization are the cultural architects. And by intention or neglect every organization will eventually take on the cultural characteristics of its leaders.

The culture of an organization is the context in which everything else happens. If the culture isn’t healthy it doesn’t matter how sophisticated your strategy is or how talented your team is. You’re on a road to organizational mediocrity, or worse failure. Patrick Lencioni puts it this way in his book The Advantage:

“The health of an organization provides the context for strategy, finances, marketing, technology, and everything else that happens in it, which is why it is the single greatest factor determining an organizations success. More than talent. More than knowledge. More than innovation.” Patrick Lencioni

Here are four ways you can begin intentionally building the culture in the organization you’re leading.

1. Attitudes that are Adopted

What attitude or posture do you want the people in your organization to adopt? If this became reality what would change in the way you go about your work? Are you demonstrating this attitude as the leader?

2. Values that are Championed

What organizational or team values are already being championed? What needs to shift and begin being put center stage? What would happen if these values weren’t just on some piece of paper tucked away in some desk drawer or simply printed in the boardroom, but actually lived out in the way your organization went about its work?

3. Beliefs that are Instilled

What do you fundamentally believe about the work you’re doing? Is this belief held throughout the entire organization? Is the work you’re doing worth doing?

4. Behaviors that are Reproduced

What behaviors do you celebrate and reward in your organization? If everyone in your organization behaved this way would it be a better place? Would the organization naturally take ground?

Posted in Leadership

Stuck in a Funk

Sunday, April 7, 2013

I recently caught up with Tony Morgan to talk about his new book, “Stuck in a Funk?: How to Get Your Church Moving Forward.” It just released on Amazon! Click here to get your hands on a copy and check out the interview with Tony below.

Paul: Your writing, speaking, coaching and consulting consistently focuse on this idea of churches getting “unstuck.” Where does this passion for helping churches get “unstuck” come from?

Tony: Well, not to over-spiritualize it, but I really do believe God called me to this. I accepted Christ when I was in high school, and from the very beginning of my walk with Christ, I was captivated by the story of the early church…particularly in the Book of Acts. God put something in me to help the local church fulfill its mission. I want the Church to have impact in people’s lives. People need Jesus, and that’s what drives me to help churches get unstuck.

Paul: You’ve worked with all kinds of different churches through coaching and consulting relationships. Denominational and non-denominational. Traditional and contemporary. Small, medium, and megachurches. Church plants and churches that have existed for years. Through your experience have have you observed any common reasons that churches get stuck regardless of these differences?

Tony: Every church is unique and because of that, the combination of contributing factors that lead to a church getting stuck are going to look different from church to church. That said, one common challenge is being inward-focused. Another is holding onto leadership approaches or structures that may have worked in the past, but don’t now. Another common issue is gaining a clear vision, but, more important, being intentional about the strategies and systems to see that vision become reality. To get to where you want to go tomorrow, you have to know what’s important right now.

Paul: You mention in the book that many pastors default to thinking they can “teach their way out” of being stuck. What are some other common mistakes that church leaders have a tendency to make as they attempt to address their “stuckness?”

Posted in Leadership

Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I recently finished reading The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Leniconi. I can already tell you that this is going to be on my top 5 reads from 2013. I deeply resonated with the concepts in this book. You see in many ways this book describes why I do what I do. I love to see all the facets of the Church work together to build an aligned and integrated culture that actually makes vision real!

There is no way for me to share everything I underlined, highlighted and the personal notes I wrote in the margins. So I shared with you my top 20 favorite quotes and ideas from the book that stuck with me.

1. The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to anyone who wants it.

2. An organization has integrity – is healthy – when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when it’s management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense.

3. If an organization is led by a team that is not behaviorally unified, there is no chance that it will become healthy.

4. Contrary to popular wisdom and behavior, conflict is not a bad thing for a team. In fact, the fear of conflict is almost always a sign of problems.

5. When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer.

6. Nowhere does this tendency towards artificial harmony show itself more than in mission-driven nonprofit organizations, most notably churches. People who work in those organizations tend to have a misguided idea that they cannot be frustrated or disagreeable with one another.

Posted in Leadership