10 Articles that will Help Your Church Make Vision Real

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10 Articles that will Help Your Church Make Vision Real

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Thank you for making August 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

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.”

Why People Volunteer at Some Churches But Not at Others

Ever notice that a lot of churches feel like a spectator sport? You know, the kind of place where people sit around watching the paid staff do everything. The average church in America engages around 45% of their average adult and student attendance in some kind of volunteer role (check out the Unstuck Group Health Assessment for more info like this). But there are those churches that are above average. The top 10% of churches somehow seem to break all the normal statistics and engage more than 70% of their average adult and student attendance in some kind of volunteer role. Here are a couple of things they do different.

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.

Leadership Summit 2016: Bill Hybels

If you missed the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year, no worries I’ve got you covered. I’ll be posting my notes and thoughts from each presenter over the next couple of days. Willow Creek Community Church Founder and Senior Pastor Bill Hybels opened the Summit addressing The 4 Lenses of Leadership. The following are leadership quotes and lessons from this incredible session.

My Top-10 Church Leadership Posts of All-Time

I’m about to drop a secret on you about my blog. What keeps me going week in and week out is my personal discipline to continue to grow as a leader. This site acts as an accountability tool to keep me consistently thinking about, writing about, and testing my leadership thoughts and ideas. I don’t keep doing this for a platform, I keep doing this because I want to keep growing, so in essence you, the reader, get to have a sneak peak each week into my online, public, leadership journal. Over the years some posts have been more useful than others to readers. So I thought I’d share some of the most helpful articles over the last 6+ years with you. Happy reading!

The Art of Execution

Highlights from a leadership talk by Chad Moore, who serves as the Lead Pastor at Sun Valley, about bridging the gap between vision and reality. The art of execution. Here are some of the best highlights.

8 Reasons Why People Don’t Volunteer at your Church

’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.

How to Change the Results at your Church Before they Happen

Churches measure what happened all the time. We measure what the attendance at last week’s worship services was, we measure what the offering was, we measure how many people were in groups last week, how many people served last week, and so on the list goes. The tough thing is you can’t change what just happened at your church last week. Most of the key metrics we look at are all about what has already happened. But what if there were things that we could measure that were indicators of future performance?

10 Signs your Church is Headed for Decline

What if there were early warning signs (flashing lights on the dashboard) that helped indicate that trouble was ahead? In my experience Coaching Church Leaders and Consulting with Churches across the country I’ve seen the following 10 indicators of an impending decline over and over again.

4 Bad Habits that Young Church Leaders Need to Break

Before you read this, please understand that I love and am for young leaders. After all, I was one once. But there are some really bad habits that young church leaders are exhibiting that need to be broken if they have any hope or chance of having the deep and broad Kingdom impact that they’re dreaming of.

Photo Credit: justin fain via Compfight cc

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

Vision is a Destination not a Statement

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Vision is a destination, not a statement. Many churches spend an incredible amount of time wordsmithing pithy vision statements instead of providing a clear picture of where they’re going. What a majority of churches view as their vision statement is usually a mission statement.

Mission Answers the Question: Why do we exist?

This is the timeless answer to why your church is on the planet in the first place. We don’t get to pick our mission Jesus did that for us. That’s the whole, “go and make disciples,” part. But we do get to pick language that contextualizes it for our culture.

Vision Answers the Question: Where are we going?

This is the next hill that needs to be taken. Vision typically changes every 3-5 years. Vision changes because once you get there and have taken then hill, there’s always the next hill to take.

Most church staff can’t articulate the next hill their church is taking. They don’t’ know the target on the wall they’re shooting for. One way to begin to bring clarity to the vision at your church is to simply ask the question,

“Where would we be in 3-5 years if our church faithfully lived out the mission Jesus has given us in the context of our community, unique culture of our church, gifting and passions of our Sr. Leadership, and resources that God has given us?”

Doing the serious work to answer this question will help you put a target on the wall to hit. Getting crystal clear on this will have a “trickle down” effect on every decision made in your church over the next 3-5 years. It will allow you to:

Set goals and measure results.
Determine how to allocate resources and budget.
Help you understand how you need to structure your staffing model.
Bring alignment to ministries.

Posted in Leadership

When is the Right Time to Restructure your Church Staff?

Sunday, June 12, 2016

One of the most common lids to growth in a church is structure. It can free you up to move toward the vision that God has given your church or it can chain you to the past. Either way, it’s your choice. But how do you know if a restructure is in your future? These helpful tips below will help you get going in the right direction.

1. You’re Perfectly Structured to get the Results your Getting

So here’s the good news. You’re perfectly structured to get the results you’re getting today. Don’t like the results you’re getting? It might be time to change your structure.

2. Ride what you’ve got as Long as you can

Before you get too antsy to change your structure (structure changes don’t solve everything) ride the structure you have as far as you can.

3. Structure can be a Lid or a Pathway to Growth

Structure can keep your church stuck. So a proactive structure change can help you plan and prepare for growth. If you’re not ready for growth, you’re not going to get it.

4. Span of Care

Typically C-level staff can manage 5-10 direct reports. When your span of care goes beyond that, it’s time to change things. Want to read more? Check out this article by Harvard Business Review “How Many Direct Reports?”

5. Lines of Communication

When internal communication begins to slow down and information doesn’t flow quickly between departments or layers of the organization it may be time to restructure.

6. Streamlined Decision Making

Often structure can be a significant lid to decision-making and the growth of a church. When you have to check with multiple committees, teams, stakeholders, and then recheck again before taking a vote it might be time to restructure.

Need help figuring out how to restructure your church staff? Check out the Staffing and Structure Review that the Unstuck Group helps churches work through. We love helping a church position its staff team to best fit both the ministry and the individuals involved. Our Staffing & Structure Review does just that. From org charts, to job descriptions, to governance and leadership development, this process will help your church staff to its vision.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

the 5 dysfunctions of a team

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Of all organizations on the planet why does it seem that Churches, more often than not, tend to get lumped in with the most dysfunctional? Could it be that it’s due to the fact that dysfunctional teams typically lead Churches? I’m not saying that Churches aren’t led by well-meaning, well-intentioned, high integrity, even godly people. But they just seem to be led by people who are trained to know more about the Scriptures than they are trained to lead people well. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not synonymous. The book, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, is a great resource that Church Leaders would do well to pick up and wrestle through. The author, Patrick Lencioni, tells a leadership fable that will surprise you with some incredibly transferable principles and tangible steps that will help bring alignment and an opportunity for legitimate forward progress. In it you’ll learn about the following dysfunctions and how to combat them: