Tag Archive - vision

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How to Lead Through Crisis

Sunday, February 9, 2014

If you lead long enough eventually you’re going to find yourself leading through a crisis, and it’s at this moment that leadership is needed most. Even an average leader looks great when momentum is on their side and things are going well. But a crisis or downturn has a way of revealing the true identity of a leader. Great leaders lean into crisis because they intuitively understand that crisis is an opportunity for change and could be their greatest leadership moment. In the consulting work I do with The UnStuck Group often times it’s the pain of a crisis or downturn that helps churches realize that they’re stuck and motivates them to seek help. Pain often times can be a great motivator for change. While crisis is a window of opportunity for incredible leadership moments, the approach you take to leading through crisis matters.

Lean into Who You Already Are

I can’t stress this enough. The most important question to ask during a crisis is, “Who has God called us to be?” Too often churches search for a silver bullet tactic that will solve their pain. It doesn’t exist. Instead of searching for an easy way out, press into who God has uniquely called your church to be and your core identity. Then begin making every day decisions filtered through that identity and what it will take to be more of who you already are.

Take on a Posture of Humility

You know who listens to a know-it-all? No one. If you want to be heard in a crisis then take on a posture of humility and lead with questions, not answers.

Listen first Speak Second

Many churches begin implementing too quickly in a crisis due to their desire to move past or away from pain as fast as they possibly can. Unfortunately without first having a clear understanding of where you are and an accurate picture of your current reality your next step will most likely be a misstep. Often times it’s impossible to get a clear picture of reality because you’re in it – and you need someone from the outside to help you who has “fresh eyes.”

Outlast your Critics

Perseverance is a highly underrated leadership tactic. It may not be sexy, but it is necessary. Everyone has fans and everyone has critics. You need to learn to listen to the right people. Otherwise you’ll drift towards people pleasing and the church will suffer from mission creep.

Don’t Mistake Kindness for Weakness

Often kindness is confused for weakness in church leaders. In the middle of crisis, kindness is needed but so is clear, strong, consistent leadership. Don’t confuse kindness & weakness.

Posted in Leadership

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7 Traits of Churches that Experience Repeat Success

Sunday, December 1, 2013

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:

1. Finding the Right People

Successful teams don’t just have talented players on the roster, but the right players that fit the scheme and system the team is trying to run. Find the right players and let them run.

2. Longevity

Sometimes you just need to outlast your critics. Trust is the commodity of leadership, and trust is built up close and over time.

3. Work a System

“Ready-fire-aim” leaders rarely experience long-term success because they don’t allow a system time enough to gain traction, momentum, and produce compounding results.

4. Leaders Lead Leaders

It’s not just about leading followers, but attracting, developing and leading other leaders. If the vision is small enough for you to accomplish on your own, it’s too small.

5. Clear Vision

Lack of clarity is the number one reason churches get stuck. If your people don’t know where you’re going you can be sure they won’t be able to organize and align the systems of the church to get you there.

6. Work Ethic

One of the missing elements among many church staff today is simple work ethic. The ability to tenaciously see projects through to completion and do the hard things, without giving up.

7. Teachability

All great teams possess the ability (and humility) to learn from others outside their circle of influence and industry. In fact they seek it out.

Posted in Leadership

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Early Warning Signs Your Church is in Trouble

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Many churches have a tendency to measure attendance and money as their primary indicators for success, and not necessarily always in that order. There are a lot of other indicators that churches can measure to understand if they’re winning or not (baptisms, 1st time guests, and how many people are in bible studies just to name a few). Early indicators that a church is in trouble are often more difficult to detect however. Similar to the way many life threatening diseases behave a church can look healthy on the outside while wasting away on the inside. And like a life threatening disease it can be very difficult to detect. Here are a few early indicators your church should be paying attention to:

Fuzzy about the Future

Perhaps the single most life-threatening indicator that a church is in trouble is a lack of clarity. Clarity provides a church with the power to make decisions efficiently and align the organizational components of the church to move forward. If you don’t know where you’re going, and can’t state it clearly, you’ve got no chance to get there.

High Rate of Turnover

When a church has trouble keeping staff and volunteers, the church is in trouble. Turnover is not only an issue when it comes to the paid staff of the church but also the volunteers. When turnover becomes the norm there is a cultural problem at play.

Playing Defense

When a church becomes risk averse and starts making choices based on who they are going to keep as opposed to who they are going to reach, the church is in trouble. The real danger in playing defense is that it becomes a cultural mindset that actually stands in opposition to the Gospel. You see the Gospel was never meant to be or does it need to be defended it’s intended to be unleashed.

Inward Focus

When a church uses language that you have to be an educated Christian to understand, has a high giving-per-head ratio, is expecting nonbelievers to jump in on and participate in ministry programs that long-time believers participate in, have a poor guest experience and haven’t thought through way-finding…that church is in trouble. For more on being an insider focused church follow this link.

Think your church might be in trouble? The Unstuck Group can help! We help churches grow their impact through church consulting and coaching experiences designed to focus vision, strategy and action. Follow this link to learn more!

Posted in Leadership

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6 Children’s Ministry Trends

Sunday, October 27, 2013

I was recently at a Vision Arizona Network meeting where two very successful Children’s Ministry Directors were interviewed about recent trends in Children’s Ministry. Brett Humprhey from Sun Valley Community Church and Michell Loyd who serves at Harvest Community Church shared some great thoughts that I wanted to pass along to you. And for those of you who were wondering, Vision Arizona is Church Planting Network that I’m a part of. Thinking about planting a church in Arizona? You should check these guys out!

#1 Partnering with Parents: What happens in the home is more important that what happens at church. Children’s Ministries are doing a better job of partnering with parents and providing resources like family dinner time talk sheets, family devotions, and video tips to help parents continue the conversation from the weekend throughout the week.

#2 Department Integration: Churches are beginning to break down department silos and think more holistically about birth through graduation. This includes everything from curriculum, events, the way ministries approach volunteering, and more.

#3 Handoffs: In life transition points have a high potential to be make or break moments. Children’s Ministries are catching onto this and becoming more intentional with settings up children and their families for success as they transition from Children’s to Student Ministries.

#4 Security: Safety is becoming a major issue in Children’s Ministries. Once a rarity things like secure check-in and check-out processes, background checks for volunteers, security teams and secure Children’s facilities are becoming the norm.

#5 Volunteers: There is always a need when you are trying to care for and minister to children. But many Children’s Ministries are beginning to approach volunteering differently. They’re beginning to realize that “join me” is always better than “you should.” They’re building sub lists just like the local school system. They’re realizing that people want to be a part of fun winning teams. They’re spending more time setting volunteers up to succeed. And they know that (just like in the workplace) people are more likely to stay engaged over the long haul if they have a friend they’re volunteering with. Need help with volunteers? Don’t miss this FREE online seminar featuring nationally leading pastors that will help get more volunteers!

#6 Lead Pastor: Winning Children’s Ministries have Lead Pastors who don’t treat the Children’s as a “separate ministry” but rather ensures that the same mission, vision, and values are in place in the Children’s Ministry as they are in the rest of the church. These Pastors provide clarity for direction, honest feedback and coaching, they lean into their Children’s Ministry Staff as a resource and advocate publicly for the ministry.

Posted in Leadership

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5 Articles to Help You Make Vision Real

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Thank you for helping make September a great month here at Helping Churches Make Vision Real! It’s fun to watch all 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. What is a Campus Pastor?

In August, 2012, Leadership Network released a report stating that over 5,000 churches are now multi-site churches (churches that meet in more than one location for worship). It’s a growing trend that first began with mega-churches, but has now expanded to churches of all sizes. With this new trend a new staff role has emerged, that of “Campus Pastor.” While a lot churches are still trying to figure out this new role, here are 6 things that great Campus Pastors do:

2. Leadership Lessons I Wish I Understood as a Young Leader

Lately I’ve been thinking about some leadership lessons. You know…the “I wish I knew then what I know now” kind of stuff. See I’ve had a lot more time to think recently. That is, thanks to my wife for registering me for a triathlon this Fall. She said it was something that “we could do together.” She’s the one who races in the family. I’m the one who visited 5 different Starbucks cheering her on while she ran the Chicago Marathon. But it’s been interesting, as I’ve been training how many of my experiences have paralleled lessons that young leaders need to internalize and learn early, or risk potentially derailing their leadership journey before it really gets going. So in no particular order here are 5 Leadership Lessons for Young Leaders based on my experiences training for a triathlon.

3.  Are You Doing Things or Getting Things Done?

It’s not bad to do things. After all, someone has to. Or else they won’t get done. But effective leaders know their role is to be more concerned about getting things done than doing things. When a leader doesn’t manage this tension well and begins to drift towards doing things, instead of getting things done, bad things begin to happen.

4. Are you a “Big L” Leader?

People don’t just become “Big L Leaders” overnight. It’s not something that can be learned by reading books or by going to conferences. They learn to lead by leading. Want to know if you’re on your way to becoming a “Big L Leader”? The following six characteristics will help you in identifying “Big L Leaders.”

5. Bringing Clarity to the Language of Organizational Leadership

One of the most frequently reoccurring conversations I get into in helping churches focuses around building organizational health and alignment in churches. Often times in those conversations confusion surfaces over language such as Mission, Vision, Goals, Strategy, Structure, Core Values, and Systems. So here’s an attempt to help provide some clarity and a framework to some of the most influential conversations you may have as church or organization.

 

Posted in Leadership
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