Tag Archive - pastor

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Why Crisis is a Leaders Best Friend

Sunday, June 5, 2016

If you lead in a church long enough eventually you’re going to face a crisis. It may be a staff crisis, a financial crisis, a moral crisis, a personal crisis or even a crisis of faith. One of the differences between good church leaders and great church leaders is that while good church leaders manage through crisis a great church leader never lets a serious crisis go to waste.

1. Crisis is an Opportunity for Change

Crisis is neither good or bad, it’s simply an opportunity to change things. In fact the best leaders know how to create healthy crisis in order to build a sense of urgency within people and the organization that can lead to change and forward movement.

2. Crisis Defines Reality

Crisis is a barometer. It helps you understand where you are, what your strengths and weaknesses are as a church, a staff team, and a leader. But you have to be willing to see it. You have to be willing to avoid deflecting blame, criticism, and begin to listen and take personal responsibility. Crisis will show you what you’re really made of, and it will show you what your team and the organization you lead is made of as well.

3. Crisis puts a Spotlight on Leadership

When crisis hits, all eyes are on the leader. Crisis is an incredible opportunity for leaders to build trust by delivering results and following through.

4. Crisis is a Catalyst for Innovation

Crisis creates opportunity for innovation. New ideas thrive in crisis. Problem solvers come alive when pressure is applied and they’re faced with daunting circumstances.

5. Crisis Infuses Courage

Comfort is the enemy of courage. When things are going smoothly and everything is routine it takes very little courage (faith) to lead a church. Crisis jump starts the kind of courage it takes to lead a church.

Change doesn’t happen in a church that’s stuck simply because the leader says things must change. A crisis, or a perceived crisis, has to be great enough to provide enough pressure that will help everyone be ready for change.

Posted in Leadership

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Why Good Leaders Shoot Down New Ideas

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Ever had an idea that your boss shot down? Sure you have, I have too.

Remember when you were a young leader full of fresh new ideas and you were pretty sure that your idea was the best idea in the room? Remember how frustrated you were with your boss when they shot down that great idea? You were so sure that they just didn’t get it and they were passing on the next big thing.

There are countless examples of organizations and churches that fall in love with past success, become risk adverse over time, and refuse to change. But did you know that the most successful organizations and churches on the planet are just as adept at shooting down new ideas? Here’s why…

1. You Innovate for Impact

Many young leaders get enamored with new ideas. They want to challenge the status quo and do new things for the sake of doing new things; often times without fully understanding why current things are being done the way they are. What many young leaders miss out on is the goal of innovation. The goal of innovation is impact.

2. Is the Innovation a Significant Upgrade?

It’s not enough for the innovation to simply be better. The idea must lead to a significant upgrade, not just a tweak or subtle improvement. If a church or organization is going to invest the leadership capital, human capital, emotional energy, time, money, and so on it needs to be worth it. The return must significantly outweigh the investment.

3. Standardization is Innovations Best Friend

It may sound counter-intuitive but without standardization you can’t have impact. One little innovation in isolation can’t have much impact. But when there are standardized systems and process in place to preserve the culture, one innovation has the potential to be delivered throughout the entire organization or church and carry with it significant impact.

Posted in Leadership

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How to Leave your Church

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

No matter what style or size of church you serve in, no matter what title you have behind your name, there is one thing that every person in ministry has in common. At some point in the near or distant future, you will leave your current ministry position.

Unfortunately these leadership transitions often result in unnecessary damage to both the ministry staff person and the church because there was no plan in place when it came time for the leader to leave. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember any class in Bible College or the latest ministry conference I attended that helped prepare ministry leaders to leave well.

I think we would all quickly agree that leaving well saves a lot of heartache for all involved. What we might not consider is that the way we leave affects the place we are going just as much as the place we are leaving. If you supervise staff, the same principle applies. How ministry staff exit your team affects the ministry they are going to just as much as it effects your ministry.

I recently had coffee with a long time leader in college ministry named Mike who shared about his upcoming retirement and his organization’s plan for helping him leave his position well. At its heart, the strategy is about leverage leaving for a greater future impact. There are four steps.

1. Release

The first step is to prepare to release responsibility and relationships in your current position. The ministry leaders I know, give 110% and devote themselves to the people they serve. This makes releasing especially difficult when it comes time to transition. Before exiting the position, prepare yourself or your staff member to let go and not be surprised at the very normal loss that comes with the change in roles. There is also a normal desire to want to protect that ministry, which may cause a leader to hold on too tightly or stay involved too long. If you are leaving a position but not leaving the church, releasing will mean being strategically uninvolved in that particular ministry area until new leadership is established. Fully letting go of the responsibilities and authority of that position will also help you have both hands free to grab hold of what God wants next for you.

2. Rest

The second step is to rest. When moving from one position to the next, sometimes we don’t leave any cushion between past and future. Typically, we have some room to negotiate when it comes to start dates as we move into a new position. Strategically schedule time to rest and refresh during the transition. You need it. When you schedule time to rest, really rest. We’re only fooling ourselves if we take a week off, but use that time to read the latest book on church growth while sketching out a strategic plan for the next 90 days of ministry. Those are actually good things, but not rest. Do things that fill your tank and give you energy. If you are in a supervisory role and you can do it, give your staff member that is exiting financial support as they take time to rest.

3. Refocus

The third step is to refocus. It’s important to ask good questions during the transition. What are my areas of strength and God given talent? What do I love doing? What changes have occurred in me during the last stretch of ministry that have taught me about my unique call to ministry? If you are married, ask your spouse, “What do you think I am best suited for in ministry?” Schedule time to pray, journal and get counsel from those you trust. I believe God wants to give us the gift of insight when we leave a ministry position. This is true whether you are leaving because of your decision or the church’s decision. Take advantage of it. Also, if it has been a painful leave, there are many retreat centers across the nation to help ministry leaders gain clarity and healing as they begin the next chapter. Practically speaking, this could also be a time to invest in some personality or leadership style assessments, get needed training and put more tools in your ministry tool belt.

4. Reengage

Finally, move forward and reengage. This starts by reengaging with the people in your new area of ministry. If you had great friends in your previous setting it can be hard to do the work of establishing new relationships. The reason you had close relationships in the previous church is probably not because they were more loving and nicer people. It’s probably because you did the hard work to connect, get to know them and have shared experiences. Take the bull by the horns on this one and start building new relationships. This is key to leading well. You cannot lead well if you don’t love well. You also have to reengage when it comes to the culture and systems of your new environment. You can’t just bring everything you did in the previous church and apply it to this new setting. A good leader learns the culture and contextualizes leadership in that culture. Here is a quick tip. Principles transfer much more effectively than programs. Principles about people and leadership are typically universal.

If you are transitioning into a new position, leverage leaving for greater future impact. Release. Rest. Refocus. Reengage. Everyone involved will be healthier for it.

This is a guest post by Brian LaMew who serves as the Pastor of Campus Development at Sun Valley Community Church where he provides leadership to Sun Valley’s Campus Pastors. You can keep up with Brian on Twitter or Facebook.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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How to Clear Up the Vision at your Church

Sunday, May 8, 2016

In my experience working with churches “vision” seems to be one of the most talked about and least understood concepts in church leadership. Most church leaders have a tendency to over-complicate or over-spiritualize vision. It doesn’t have to be that difficult. I like this definition of vision that I frequently hear a good friend of mine use, “Vision is simply understanding the times and knowing what to do.”

In church-world people are tagged a “visionary” if they are a compelling communicator or seem to generate a lot of ideas. Just because you’re good at sales and can get people to buy into your ideas doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a visionary.

On the other hand many in the church oversimplify vision when asked. I can’t tell you how many church leaders I’ve seen puff out their chest in pride and say that the vision of their church is the same as Jesus’s vision for the church, “to make disciples.”

While that sounds spiritual it’s still a bit off the mark.

Mission

Answers the Question: Why do we exist?
This is the timeless answer to why your business, organization or church is on the planet in the first place. For those of us in church-world we don’t get to pick our mission, Jesus did that for us. That’s the whole, “go and make disciples,” part.

Vision

Answers the Question: Where are we going?
This is the next hill that needs to be taken. Organizational vision typically changes every 3-5 years. Vision changes because once you get there and have taken the hill, there’s always the next hill to take.

Goal

Answers the Question: How do we get there?
Goals are just vision with a timeline. They are the actionable and attainable steps or objectives to be met that move the organization in the direction of the vision. You know you’re winning and moving in the direction of accomplishing the vision when you are meeting your goals!

Need help understanding what’s next at your church? I’d encourage you to check out how the Unstuck Group helps churches gain perspective, plan and prioritize, staff to the vision, and execute strategically!

Posted in Leadership

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10 Articles that will Help Your Church Make Vision Real

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Thank you for making April another great month here at Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s great staying connected with you through social media and hearing that these articles have been helpful. So, thank you for connecting with me through the content on this blog! You made these the top posts from this last month. If you missed out on any of them, here they are all in one place for your convenience!

10 Insider Focused Ministry Names

Still my all-time most popular post in 5+ years of blogging: 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.”

A Large Multisite Church in Phoenix is Hiring a Small Group Pastor

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. Sun Valley Community Church, the church I have the honor of serving at, is beginning a national search for a Small Group Pastor to serve on our Tempe Campus. Sun Valley began as a church plant in 1990 in Chandler, Arizona. Over the years Sun Valley has grown into a large mult-site church in the Phoenix area. Currently there are four campuses located in Casa Grande, East Mesa, Gilbert, and Tempe and with a fifth campus opening in the fall of 2016 in Queen Creek. Together nearly 7,000 people attend a Sun Valley Campus each weekend.

Where there’s a Huddle there’s a Team

How do you know if the volunteer teams at your church are really working? I don’t mean are they getting stuff done and meeting objectives, I mean are they developing people. After all the point of building volunteer teams at your church isn’t just to use people to accomplish objectives but rather to create opportunities and relationships to develop people.

Why Some Churches Win But Most Lose

Not every church is winning. In fact Thom Rainer, President and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources has stated in his research that: “Eight out of ten of the approximately 400,000 churches in the United States are declining or have plateaued.” There are a lot of reasons why 80% of churches in America aren’t winning and there’s no “silver bullet” fix. But there are a couple of things that winning churches consistently do that losing churches don’t.

3 Expectations that Young Leaders Need to Change Today

A lot has been written in recent years about the Millennial Generation and young leaders; most of it negative. At the risk of sounding like the old guy in the room, I’ll admit, it does seem like the expectations of young leaders are a little off the mark. In fact, here are three expectations in particular that I think young leaders need to change today if they want to be successful in the future.

How Many People Should Your Church Have on Staff?

Before you buy into the idea that you need another staff person at your church, think again. That just may be the worst decision you make at your church this year.

Making the Assimilation Process Work at your Church

While there are a lot of reasons that churches get stuck and plateau or begin to decline the biggest culprit is that somewhere along the way new people stop getting connected or assimilated into the life of the church. It doesn’t have to be that way. Try giving the list below to the Sr. Leadership Team at your church to read and then come back and have an honest conversation about each point and identify opportunities to improve and islands of strength to build on.

8 Reasons Why People don’t Volunteer at your Church

I’ve never worked with a church that has said they don’t need more volunteers. But I’ve worked with a bunch of churches that have trouble getting people to volunteer and stay engaged volunteering. This is a critical issue for churches to figure out. The reason why this has to be a front-burner issue is because at the heart of it, volunteering is an essential component of the discipleship process in someone’s life. Plainly put, volunteering is discipleship. Understanding that, here are 8 reasons people aren’t volunteering in your church…and subsequently aren’t growing in their relationship with God.

4 Common Church Merger Mistakes

There are a lot of good reasons that two churches might choose to merge together. After being a part of two separate church mergers and both coaching other churches through the process and observing other mergers happen around the country I thought I’d take the time to share four common church merger mistakes that I see happening.

The 3 Most Important Responsibilities of a Leader and Why you Can’t Meet Them All

Should a leader be out in front charting the way forward? Should they be magnetic personalities who immediately change the temperature of the room they walk into? Should they be a great developer of others? Or do leaders simply get paid to make decisions? The truth is, there are three key responsibilities of leaders and unfortunately leaders are usually good at one of these…NOT all of them.

Photo Credit: justin fain via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership
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