Why Churches Don’t Grow: #3 No Spiritual Maturity Pathway

Tag Archive - lead

Why Churches Don’t Grow: #3 No Spiritual Maturity Pathway

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Today we’re continuing this series of blog posts about the 5 key contributors that lead to 80% of churches in America being stuck or in decline. These key contributors have been observed repeatedly in our work with churches at the Unstuck Group. While churches get stuck and decline for all kinds of reasons, these 5 key contributors are the consistent culprits.

Many churches are stuck or declining not because they have a difficult time attracting or introducing new people to Jesus but because they have no plan in place to move people towards spiritual maturity or the plan they’re working is broken. Here are a couple of indicators that there is a breakdown somewhere in your spiritual maturity pathway:

1. Content is Mistaken for the Solution

Neither Jesus nor the Apostle Paul defined spiritual maturity as knowledge. Content is not the solution. It’s not what you know; it’s what you do with what you know. It’s an issue of obedience and application. Is your church actually helping people apply the Bible to their everyday life or are you just teaching bible classes?

2. There are Too Many Steps

If the road map to spiritual maturity has been defined at your church and it’s too long or has too many steps it simply won’t work. People will quit on you. Then you will have the tendency to think the few people you end up with at the end of the arduous process you’ve build are the spiritual elite. Meanwhile many people who could have been brought along with you have been left by the wayside to figure it out on their own. Jesus only spent 3 years with His disciples and then turned them loose to change the world. Most churches today would never let the disciples serve in a leadership role, much less lead the church because they hadn’t “walked with Jesus long enough.” We’re not building Fords, we’re building disciples. Disciplemaking is not an assembly line.

3. There is No Clear Next Step

When someone says yes to following Jesus have you defined the next step for them to take? Then what happens next? Is the process working? Each step in the process needs to be clear, natural and intuitive. Has your church taken the time to map out and answer the question of “What’s my next step?” Then ask that question over and over again until you’ve arrived at some point of “spiritual maturity.”

4. People aren’t Giving or Serving

You’re never more like Jesus than when you give or when you serve; because giving and serving are the very essence of what it means to live like Jesus. Does your church treat volunteering as discipleship? Does your church not only provide opportunities for people to give and serve but train them how to do both well?

Photo Credit: boegh via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

6 Keys to Sustaining Growth

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Most churches experience growth at some point, but few churches sustain growth over the long haul. There are all kinds of reasons that churches get stuck, but few understand how to sustain growth. Fortunately there are some great resources and leaders out there that we can learn from.

In the book “On Leading Change” by the Drucker Institute William Steere, the former CEO of Pfizer, mentions these Six Keys to Sustaining Growth.

These 6 principles would be a great starting point for the leadership team at your church to have a conversation about change and sustaining growth!

1. Focus on What You Do Best

“To identify opportunities, you must identify your primary strength. Put energy into what is already bringing great results and shed the rest.”

2. Cast a Wide Net

“Seek out growth opportunities both inside and outside the organization. Promoting internal innovation is necessary but insufficient; external partners also are essential to bring better products to market, faster.”

3. Create Transparent Objectives

“Everyone needs clear performance targets, and those should be shared at the appropriate level. Senior executives should review their colleagues’ annual goals (and performance) twice a year.”

4. Listen to Divergent Points of View

“While believing strongly in their view of the business, leaders must encourage other perspectives and invite rigorous debate on key issues.”

5. Create a Culture of Trust

“To excel, people must have autonomy. Let others make their own decisions, unless they prove to be untrustworthy – in which case they must go.”

6. Go With Your Instincts

“Effective leaders have the confidence to challenge conventional wisdom. You must be willing to withstand criticism in order to move the organization forward.”

Photo Credit: ecstaticist via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership

The Dark Side of Vision

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Many tout the most important aspect of a leader is the ability to paint a clear vision of the future. If you’ve been around church-world for any length of time you’ve probably even heard a sermon or two about it, after all “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18) right? What many leaders often fail to realize is that there is another side to vision, a downside, that if not understood and artfully led through can derail the vision before it begins.

The Clearer the Vision the Louder the Critics

Many leaders often naively think that everyone is going to automatically love the vision as much as they do. They strongly and clearly cast the vision, and much to their surprise, they are often met with resistance and criticism. The truth is the clearer you articulate the vision the more criticism you will receive. There are always naysayers both inside and outside the organization. Jesus was criticized to the point it ended up costing His life. If you’re the leader and you’re not prepared for criticism, then be careful how clearly you articulate the vision.

The Clearer the Vision the More People Will Leave You

Vision is not only a rallying cry but also a jumping off point. The clearer the vision is articulated not only will people join you, but people will leave you as well. This happened to Jesus Himself when in John chapter 6 He literally goes from 1,000’s of people following him to by the end of the chapter it’s just the twelve. If you’re the leader and you’re not okay with people leaving you, be careful how clearly you articulate the vision.

I’ll be the first guy in line to say that clear vision is needed in any effective organization or church. But clear vision by itself simply isn’t enough.

Posted in Leadership

4 Things to Remember when Leading from “Here” to “There”

Monday, April 29, 2013

Simply put the purpose of leadership is movement. To move a people or organization from “here” to “there.” This past week Lisa and I moved into our new home. Better put, we moved everything into our new home…now comes the fun part of unpacking and settling in. During the move I was reminded of four leadership principles about moving people from “here” to “there.”

Preparation can Make or Break You

Once you get into the fray of executing a plan you only have what you brought with you to work with. Once the bell sounds it’s too late to practice harder or prepare better. The preparation of the move isn’t very exciting. Taking apart furniture, boxing up our stuff, patching holes where pictures used to hang and cleaning aren’t necessarily my idea of fun. Neither is acquiring boxes, tape and the like. I actually ended up spending money on the move before we actually did any real moving!

You can’t get from “Here” to “There” without a great Team

If you can lead from “here” to “there” by yourself then you’re not leading far enough or taking enough people with you. Simply put, you’re risking too little if you can do it by yourself. Fortunately I had some great guys help me in this move. It really is true…”many hands make light work.” There is no way this move would have happened as fast as it did without the help of some good friends.

Don’t Forget to Pace Yourself

When you’re moving from “here” to “there” you’ve got to understand that there are times to let off the gas and other times to step on it. There were a few moments we pushed through some really heavy lifting and got into a good rhythm loading up the truck. At other moments we sat and had a sandwich, took a break, and looked at the furniture as if it were somehow going to move itself.

Delayed Gratification Leads to Discouragement

In other words you’ve got to get there. People have to experience wins and progress or they eventually give up. The Scriptures put it this way,

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Proverbs 13:12

A buddy of mine was gracious enough to let me borrow his truck for the week of the move. Each day I would come home from work and move more boxes and furniture over to the new house. It felt like the move would never end and that we would never get “there.” When the day came for the “big move,” renting the U-Haul & my friends helping me move the big stuff I couldn’t move in the pick up, I was already exhausted.

What other leadership principles have you run into when leading people from “here” to “there?” Leave a comment!

Posted in Family, Leadership

Managing the Tension between Leadership and Vision

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Believe it or not there is a tension between leadership and vision. Your ability to gain the hearts of people and get them to follow you to a desired future.

Here’s a tool that will help you begin to understand where your team members are at and at the same time help you identify your next steps in leading each of them.

It starts with asking 2 simple questions. But they’re two questions that a majority of leaders are too afraid to face an honest answer to.

#1 Has your team bought into you?
#2 Does your team believe in where you’re going?

Crew Leaders:

Crew Leaders are all in. They’ve bought into you, and they’ve bought into where you’re going. Not only will they go with you if you lead them, they have the potential to join you in leading others to go along with you.

Crew Members:

Crew Members are loyal. They believe in you, they’re just not sure about the direction the ship is sailing. Good leaders know how to leverage the trust that they’ve built over time with their crew and recast the vision.

Stowaways:

Stowaways want to go where you’re going, that is to say they believe in the vision. They’re just not sure you’re the one they want to follow there. The most important thing you can do with Stowaways is take the time to relate to them. As a leader you have to build trust with the people you’re leading because trust is the foundation of leadership. But be ware these are the most dangerous members on your team, because if they don’t buy into you as the leader you aren’t going anywhere.

Pirates:

Pirates don’t believe in where you’re going and they don’t want to go there with you. The best thing you can do with Pirates is counsel them out of your church. Or in Pirate lingo…have them walk the plank!

So do you have the courage to work through this exercise? Where do your team members plot out on this chart? More importantly, are you leading each team member they way they need you to?

Posted in Leadership

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