Breaking Through Your Capacity Lid

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

If you lead long enough eventually every leader and every organization will hit a leadership lid. You are going to outgrow your leadership skills and your organizational structures at some point. But what do you do when the lid at your church is a capacity lid? Capacity lids show up all over the place.

Facilities: If you build it they won’t always come.

Too many churches acquiesce to the pressure to build too soon and as a result they don’t maximize their current space. Instead of building try running multiple weekend services, try multiple venues on the same campus, park off campus, or move to a multisite strategy.

Volunteers: Volunteers are more important than the ministries.

Most churches run short on volunteers because they use volunteers to do the ministry instead of realizing that the volunteers are the ministry. Volunteering is discipleship. Take care of, invest in, and lead your volunteers and they’ll take care of the ministry.

Finances: Financial shortfalls can limit opportunities.

The two sides to finances in a church setting are building a culture of generosity in your church and then managing those finances so you position yourself to say yes to Jesus when He provides clear vision and opportunity. Immature organizations over extend themselves financially and self impose artificial lids as a result.

Staffing: The team outperforms the individual every time.

Scouting, attracting, developing and keeping talented team members are essentials to a growing church. But before you think paid staff think volunteer leaders. Paying people to do ministry should be the last resort.

Leadership: Leadership is a spiritual gift, but you can develop your leadership skills.

Leading a church of 100, 500, 1,000 and 10,000 are not the same thing. The higher you go you move from the science side of leadership to the art side of managing the momentum and emotion of the room. Get outside your tribe and start listening to and learning from successful people and organizations in other industries.

Character: Your talent can take you further than you character can sustain.

Character is the lowest leadership lid. No level of competency will ever make up for a fatal flaw in character because ministry and leadership run on trust. Character flaws erode trust every time.

Posted in Leadership

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5 Articles that will Help You Make Vision Real

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Thank you for making March an incredible month here at Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s great staying connected with you through social media and hear about how helpful these articles have 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 When to Add Another Worship Service at Your Church

Many churches are stuck in attendance simply because they haven’t maximized their current facilities and campus. Thinking about adding another worship service at your church? Here are five strategic concepts to consider before you do. Not sure if multiple worship services are right for your church? Check out this blog on Overcoming the Fear of Moving to Multiple Worship Services.

#2 4 Reasons Why People Don’t Change

People always want to change their circumstances, but they never want to change their lives. But everything gets better when we get better. Families get better when fathers and mothers get better. Students get better when educators get better. Organizations get better when leaders get better. And churches get better when church leaders get better. But change is painful. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. It’s always easier and more comfortable to stay where you are than to change and move forward. But if you want to grow at some point you’ve got to stop doing what’s easy and start doing what’s right. Here are 4 traps that people fall into that prevent them from changing.

#3 Multisite Campus Constants

At Sun Valley we are one church family that meets in many different locations. As any church or organization grows there comes a point in time where oral tradition only goes so far. At some point, you’ve got to write things down. This helps provide clarity to everyone as to how to make decisions and what direction to go. After all lack of clarity is the greatest barrier to growth and speed in any organization. To that end we’ve adopted the following “Campus Constants” that every existing and future Sun Valley Campus will adopt. If you’re in a multisite church or thinking about going multisite I hope this serves as a resource to you and your church!

#4 5 Characteristics of Generous Churches

Generosity stands in direct opposition to our sin nature. After all most of us don’t wake up thinking about someone else’s day. But what we have to get done today sure has a tendency to consume our thoughts. Fortunately for us we have a generous God. After all “For God so loved the world that he GAVE His only Son,” Jesus gave His life, as a ransom for many, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives spiritual gifts. And God expects his church to reflect his personality and characteristics through becoming generous. To that end, here are 5 characteristics that all generous churches have in common:

#5 Breaking Through Your Leadership Lid

If you lead long enough, eventually you’re going to hit a leadership lid. It happens when you reach your capacity in a particular area, and the good news is there may be a solution. But what you do next has the potential to make or break your leadership future. Ignore it, deny it, make excuses about it, or refuse to acknowledge and deal with it and you’ll undermine your impact. Face reality and you’ll create a window of opportunity to grow.

Posted in Leadership

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Breaking Through Your Leadership Lid

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

If you lead long enough, eventually you’re going to hit a leadership lid. It happens when you reach your capacity in a particular area, and the good news is there may be a solution. But what you do next has the potential to make or break your leadership future. Ignore it, deny it, make excuses about it, or refuse to acknowledge and deal with it and you’ll undermine your impact. Face reality and you’ll create a window of opportunity to grow.

You know you’ve hit a leadership lid when…

The ministry you’re leading has stagnated or is declining.
The other ministries in the church are growing at a faster pace than the area you are responsible for.
You’re experiencing a marked increase in conflict.
Protecting the past trumps creating the future
There is a revolving door of participants or volunteers in your ministry
You’re experiencing long-term personal spiritual stagnation
You’re experiencing mission creep and redefining success as you go

This week at our monthly staff leadership gathering at Sun Valley Scott Ridout, one of the Lead Pastors at Sun Valley, walked the staff from all three of our campuses through 9 Common Leadership Lids that Ministry Leaders face. Here are some of my notes from that conversation:

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5 Articles to Help You Make Vision Real

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Thank you for helping make December 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 “5 Self-Inflicted Wounds That Keep Churches Stuck”

Churches get stuck for all kinds of reasons. And while no church I’ve ever worked with has ever set out with the goal of being stuck, most eventually become stuck at some point along the way. Unfortunately the majority of churches that are stuck get that way not because of some insurmountable obstacle that is put in place by the enemy, but rather they become stuck due to self-inflicted wounds. Bad decisions that seem right in the moment, but lead to the church being stuck. Here are a few common self-inflicted wounds I’ve seen happen to churches:

#2 “Multisite Church Fast Facts”

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:

#3 “Top Posts of 2013: #1 10 Insider Focused Ministry Names”

This post generated the most traffic on Helping Churches Make Vision Real this year. Mainly because church-people did a Google search for ministry names and stumbled across this post. I sure bet they were surprised. The language we choose to use is important because it both reflects and builds culture at the same time. And one of the most obvious ways to tell if a church is insider focused or outsider focused is the language that they choose to use. It either says that the church is “inclusive” or “exclusive.” In helping churches get unstuck and make vision real I’ve run across a number of insider focused ministry names. In fact here’s a link to a post with a free tool that you can use as you begin to evaluate your own ministry names and language you’re using in your church. Remember it’s always more important to be clear than clever. Here’s a quick list of 10 insider focused ministry names to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

#4 “7 Traits of Churches That Experience Repeat Success”

It’s one thing to experience success; it’s another thing altogether to repeat success over, and over, and over again. Many churches experience moments of success, but few experience repeat success. Fewer still, understand why they were successful in the first place and intentionally create behaviors in the organization of the church to make success become the norm. Below are 7 traits of churches that experience repeat success:

#5 “How to Keep Your Team When the Game is Changing”

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:

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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