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On-Site, On-Demand, & On-Going: 3 Strategies to Develop & Equip Your Small Group Leaders

By Stephen Blandino on February 21, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

Every pastor knows how important it is to develop and equip their small group leaders. Most pastors don’t need convincing, they simply need a systematic process and strategy. So here’s a simple lens to help you see leadership development more clearly:

1. ON-SITE TRAINING: Growth Opportunities that are Event Driven - When most pastors think of leadership development, they often think about an event that happens on-site and challenges and energizes their leaders. While training events cannot fully solve your leadership development needs, they do offer inspiration.

I’ve often said, “Events inspire change. Process creates change. Habits sustain change.” We all want to see people develop the habits to lead effectively, but sometimes they need the inspiration to get started. On-site training events with all of your leaders in one setting can offer motivation, inspiration, and practical tips to get the leadership ball rolling. A couple of on-site training events per year can be a great rallying point for your entire small group leadership team.

2. ON-DEMAND RESOURCES: Growth Opportunities that are Web-Driven - More than ever, technology should be leveraged to provide instant developmental tools and growth opportunities for your small group leaders. Whether it’s podcasts, blogs, free downloads, relevant websites, social media tools, small group software, or any other number of tools, work hard to create online resources that are immediately accessible.

Most leaders don’t know they need training until they’re hit with a problem. That’s when they need to know where to go to get what they need. I put 24 short and practical 2-10 minute training sessions online dealing with everything from childcare to group discussion, prayer to group multiplication, serving to conflict resolution, as a practical way to provide immediate training for our leaders. Most of your leaders won’t remember what you shared in your training events three months ago…but they will remember where to go for help if you’ve created a strong web presence.

3. ON-GOING RELATIONSHIPS: Growth Opportunities that are Relationally Driven - The third strategy to develop and equip your small group leaders is to provide relational support through coaches or community leaders. Mobilizing a team of people to provide follow-up, conduct huddles, and provide supportive coaching will help your leaders continue their journey without feeling overwhelmed, ill-equipped, or wondering where to turn in times of need.

The strategies above leverage training, resources, and relationships to help your leaders continue to grow and develop. Furthermore, it keeps you from forcing your leaders into a one-size-fits-all growth strategy. Some leaders will prefer training, others will appreciate the immediacy of online resources, and others will enjoy the personal nature of relational support. Having an on-site, on-demand, and on-going developmental system will help you meet your leadership development needs.

Question: What other strategies have you found helpful in developing and equipping leaders?

7 Types of Questions to Ask During an Interview

By Stephen Blandino on February 15, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

Every church comes to that important moment in their growth where they begin hiring staff. When a church is small, a bad hire can severely handicap your ministry. But regardless of your church’s size, you never want to make a bad hire, which, honestly, is nearly impossible to completely avoid. No matter how many layers there are in your hiring process, and no matter how many assessments you do, there’s always a gamble when hiring new staff.

In a previous post I shared 8 Ideas for Creating an Effective Hiring Process. Today, I’d like to share seven types of questions to ask when conducting an interview.

1. History Questions - These questions address education, work history and responsibilities, why they are leaving their current place of employment, what they found most fulfilling and demotivating in their work history, and general information about the candidate. It’s like a “get to know you” aspect of interviewing.

2. Spiritual Journey & Personal Growth Questions - These questions explore the candidates spiritual journey, when and how they came to Christ, significant highlights in their spiritual journey, understanding how their beliefs resonate with your church (and denomination), whether or not they’ve ever been involved in a church split, and gauging their commitment to personal and professional growth.

3. Character Questions - Character is obviously a non-negotiable when hiring staff. Character questions address integrity, greatest character strengths and weaknesses, how the candidate has handled past moral or ethical dilemmas, and whether or not the candidate has ever been involved in adultery, theft, child abuse, pornography, etc.

4. Chemistry, Values, and Philosophy Questions - This is one of the most difficult aspects to evaluate in a candidate. Honestly, the more time you can spend interacting with them  the better you’ll be able to assess their fit. Do a personality assessment and an emotional intelligence assessment. Furthermore, there should be opportunity to see them interact with your team face to face. Ask them questions about their core values as well as if there’s a particular model of ministry that they resonate with most (purpose-driven, emergent, seeker-sensitive, multi-site, cell church, traditional, missional, etc.). If your church operates by one model but they are passionate about a different model, they may find themselves frustrated in your system. Furthermore, two good question to ask are:

  • What are two ways I would find challenging in leading you?
  • What would other people who have worked with you say about you (boos, peers, direct reports)?

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Look: How God Calls People

By Stephen Blandino on February 14, 2012 in Church, Culture, Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

When people talk about the “call” of God, sometimes it’s with a bit of mystery. In fact, sometimes it’s outright bizarre. But the idea of “calling” is found throughout Scripture. God calls people to tasks, projects, ministry, countries, roles, fields, and industries. Because calling originates with God, He’s big enough to determine the subject of your calling. The question is: how does God call people?

In Exodus 3, we read about Moses’ burning bush experience. Something grabbed me about the issue of God’s calling when I read this passage:

“God saw that he had stopped to look. God called to him from out of the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’” (Exodus 3:4)

I believe this verse reveals an important aspect of calling. Too often we expect God to knock us off our feet with an undeniable calling. In fact, most of us would admit that if we had a burning bush experience, we’d be able to hear God speak to us just fine. But notice what this verse says: “God saw that he [Moses] had stopped to look.” It was only after Moses stopped to look that God began to speak.

Sometimes I wonder if we miss God’s call because we don’t stop to look first. We’re so hurried with our busy schedules that we don’t stop to see where God is already at work. God might want to call you to serve the underprivileged, but He’s waiting for you to stop and look and those in your community who are struggling in poverty. God might want to call you to serve your local church, but He’s waiting for you to stop and look at the needs in your church. God might want to call you to run for a political office, but He’s waiting for you to stop and look at the needs of those you would serve.

I’ve said this before…Calling and vision is often birthed out of a need. But unless you stop to look at the need, the calling may never come and the vision may never form. If you’re wondering why God’s not speaking to you, perhaps He’s waiting for you to “look.”

 

7 Ways to Keep Bureaucracy Out of Your Organization

By Stephen Blandino on February 8, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 2 Comments

One of the challenges non-profits deal with is the preservation of the institution over the pursuit of their mission. Every program begins as a solution to a problem or an answer to a need. But over time, it’s very easy to focus on preservation and lose sight of the reason for which the program or organization was started in the first place. When this happens, bureaucracy is standing tall and has hijacked the keys to organizational progress and employee engagement.

Peter Drucker made a poignant observation about this deadly temptation, noting that non-profits can easily succumb to bureaucratic red tape and lose its passion for the mission. He writes:

“Non-profits are prone to become inward-looking. People are so convinced that they are doing the right thing, and are so committed to their cause, that they see the institution as an end in itself. But that’s a bureaucracy. Soon people in the organization no longer ask: Does it service our mission? They ask: Does it fit our rules? And that not only inhibits performance, it destroys vision and dedication.”

Every policy, decision, and action needs to be preceded by one question: Does this drive us closer to the fulfillment of our mission? Drucker observes, “It should start with the end results, should focus outside-in rather than inside-out.”

It’s so easy to slip into a mindset of preservation and bureaucracy. After all, they create safety, security, and protect the status quo. But non-profits that truly deliver the greatest impact are those who are willing to change, adjust, reinvent, and freshly innovate in order to see their mission achieved. Don’t organize for yesterday. Don’t think inside-out. Stay true to your mission by innovating solutions that put your mission in reach today. And before you think your new idea is the final solution, remember  this: Your new idea today is tomorrow’s bureaucratic barrier. Everything has a shelf life. Only the mission endures.

So how do you keep bureaucracy and self-preservation from derailing your organization? What does it take to stay true to your mission? Here are seven suggestions to keep bureaucracy from sapping the life (and the future) out of your church or non-profit.

1. Expect, Foster, and Reward a Learning Culture - Learning should not be something delegated to one department in the church or organization. Everyone should be a lifelong learner, and learning should be shared cross departmentally. Without an aggressive organizational learning posture, things will quickly descend into turf wars, silos, and preservation of programs and ideas that have already run their course. So how do you know if you have a learning culture?

  • Everybody at every level is on a self-directed personal growth plan
  • Innovation is rewarded
  • Programming and performance is measured
  • Personnel, programs, and organizational purpose are regularly evaluated
  • Trust is fostered
  • Conflict is not avoided

2.  Keep the Rule Book Slim and Let Trust Win the Day - Some people love policies and rule books. Personally, I hate them. Too often policies are created because one or two people did something they shouldn’t have done and now the rest of us get to pay for their stupidity. Rather than dealing with the person who messed up, we put handcuffs on everybody. This is demoralizing.

I’m not suggesting that we “go light” on integrity or ethics. There must be a high standard for integrity or else the organization will destroy itself. There must be appropriate policies in place to ensure safety and that the law is not being violated. But keep the rule book slim. Don’t create a policy for everything. When you do, you train your team members to look for the loopholes…and every policy has its loophole.

A good principle to remember is that every rule created is one more reason for me to believe that you don’t trust me. That’s a discouraging premise to work under. Keep the rule book slim and let trust win the day. Deal quickly with people who misuse their power, influence, and authority. But don’t operate from a basis of rules…operate from a basis of trust.

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What is the Bottom Line When There is No “Bottom Line”?

By Stephen Blandino on February 7, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

It’s really easy in non-profit work to believe that everybody should be as excited about your cause as you are. Whether it’s a church, cause-driven organization, or international missions effort, leaders of these organizations are usually convinced they’re doing good work and they’re doing God’s work.

So if the work is so noble, why doesn’t the money to support these efforts flow freely? 

While there isn’t a single answer to this question, I do believe legendary management expert Peter Drucker offers some valuable insights for non-profits. He asks the question, “What is the bottom line when there is no ‘bottom line’?”

Non-profits cannot be reckless…making their cause “everything.” Furthermore, non-profits must avoid the temptation to go after easy results and seek easy donations for popular causes that ultimately drive them outside of their mission. Drucker argues that non-profits must “define the performance that makes the mission of their institution operational…Performance means concentrating available resources where the results are. It does not mean making promises you can’t live up to.”

Performance metrics in business are obviously different than those in the non-profit world. Drucker observed, “In a business, performance is what the customer is willing to pay for. The non-profit does not get paid for performance. But it does not get money for good intentions, either.”

Non-profits need to determine what their bottom line is and focus their energy and resources in that direction. Just because they’re doing good work does not mean money will walk itself in the door to fund the cause. Good intentions are not enough. Clearly define the bottom line and focus your performance accordingly.

Question: What’s the bottom line of your non-profit? How do you measure performance?

 

Top 11 Posts in 2011

By Stephen Blandino on December 27, 2011 in Church, Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

As 2011 comes to a close, I thought I would highlight my top 11 posts, with the most traffic, written in 2011.

1.  Four Domains of Leadership Strength

2.  The Law of the Boomerang Effect

3.  Four Strategic Thinking Strategies to Shape Your Church’s Future

4.  Stop Calling Her “The Wife”

5.  The Four Most Desired Characteristics in a Leader

6.  Communication, Creativity, and Constraint

7.  A Leader’s #1 prayer

8.  15 Insights from Catalyst Dallas

9.  Renewing Your Mind: Closing the Gap Between Conformed and Transformed

10.  Granger Community Church’s Audacious Vision

11.  Bad Leadership


 

10 Ways to Adopt Public Schools in Your Community

By Stephen Blandino on December 20, 2011 in Church, Culture with 0 Comments

Three years ago Christ Church made a strategic decision to adopt a public school in Fort Worth, Texas. Since that time, we’ve adopted one high school and one elementary school. When we made this decision, we had no idea the impact God would allow us to have. Today I sat down with one of our pastors who has been instrumental in driving this initiative. Here are ten ways we adopted public schools and specific ideas you can employ to impact a school in your community.

1. Listen, Focus, and Act with the Right Attitude - Churches and leaders must approach their adopt-a-school efforts with one pure-hearted motive: “We’re here to serve…no strings attached.” Any other attitude will backfire. The key is to LISTEN carefully to the primary needs expressed by the administration, teachers, and students. Once you listen, strategically FOCUS your time, volunteers, and resources on the needs you’re best equipped to meet. With clear focus, ACT with excellence. Over the past three years, we’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars to help two campuses. We can’t meet every need, but we’ve built a tremendous amount of goodwill and helped many teachers and students.

2. Bless Teachers and Students - Teachers often have a thankless job and many students today are living in dysfunctional home environments. To brighten everyone’s day, we’ve served countless breakfasts and lunches to teachers and student groups. In addition, we’ve provided teachers and administrators with Christmas gifts as a simple expression of thanks.

3. Open Your Facilities - Each year we host dozens of school events and activities in our facilities free of charge. Whether it’s teacher training, principal training, choir concerts, special programs, ESL classes, Fish Camp, end of year celebrations, AP testing, or specific student groups, we work hard to accommodate many of the school’s activities. With school budget cuts, many of these activities would be limited or non-existent because they do not have a cost effective place to meet. This year alone we’ve had over 3,000 principals, teachers, students, and parents on our campus…some on multiple occasions.

4. Sponsor Opportunities That Broaden Horizons - For the last two years, we’ve helped the high school we’ve adopted by sponsoring a college trip for juniors. The trip includes visits to a couple of college campuses to encourage students to expand their horizons and pursue their college dreams.

5. Fund Dreams and Initiatives - When one of our pastors heard that the school’s basketball scoreboard wasn’t working, he found a coach and told him we would like to pay to have it fixed. The coach was moved to tears and said, “You would do that for us?” We’ve had the opportunity to fund drill team and track team travel expenses, and sponsor a student government trip to their annual convention. And, just last Sunday, we honored an elderly couple in our congregation who have blazed a path of faithful commitment to Christ. This couple loves to read and throughout their lives have blessed many people with books. So, in their honor, we committed $5,000 to fund the completion of book purchases for a library at a local public elementary school. Acts like these make dreams come true for students and teachers and build goodwill with the campus.

6. Mobilize Volunteers - Many times volunteers have helped with landscaping, hanging bulletin boards, washing windows, and cleaning the campus. On one occasion, we mobilized nearly 100 members from small groups to serve the campus as a Saturday morning service project. On another occasion, we labeled all of the textbooks for a new elementary school and help teachers set up their classrooms.

7. Pay Attention to Personal Needs - Sometimes it’s easy to forget that each teacher and student has a personal story. While we cannot change every person’s life, we can do for one what we wish we could do for all. When a teacher from the school was burglarized, we gave them a gift card to help replace items that were stolen from her home. In addition, just last week, a member of our congregation, after learning of the tragic murder of one student’s mother, stepped forward to help that student make her dreams of going to college a reality. Listen to the personal needs of teachers and students and then do for one what you wish you could do for all.

8. Partner with School Programs - The high school we’ve adopted offers a program that helps potential first-generation college students pursue a college education. The program prepares students with note taking and study skills, helps with college applications, and much more. We’ve partnered with this program by providing supplies, hosting meetings, and connecting students with adults who care.

9. Host School Assemblies & Outreach Opportunities - Earlier this year we conducted two daytime school assemblies for 1,400 students. Because of the time and resources invested in the school, these students heard a positive anti-drug message. In addition, that night, 430 students and leaders came to an after school rally on our campus where 111 students made commitments to Christ.

10. Pray for the Campus - We regularly highlight our adopt-a-school efforts and encourage people to pray. Whether it’s personally adopting a student in prayer or focusing on the school during a corporate prayer gathering, we recognize that prayer is essential to impacting our local schools.

The needs on local school campuses are too much for one person, or one church, to solve alone. But what could happen if we all worked together to invest in administrators, teachers, and students? God has given you and your church gifts, abilities, resources, and ideas that can make a difference. The question is, what will you do with them to serve a campus in need?

Question: What other ideas do you have to impact a local school? 

 

7 “Push” & “Pull” Strategies to Promote Your Small Groups

By Stephen Blandino on November 26, 2011 in Church with 0 Comments

Larry Osborne, author and Pastor of North Coast Church, describes “The Power of Subliminal Marketing” with the analogy of the “push” and “pull” approach. Most churches strictly “push” small groups—marketing them to the church and trying to convince people why they should sign-up. Osborne asserts that “push” is necessary but that “pull” is equally important. “Pull” is subliminal marketing that subtly reminds people–using many different approaches–of the importance of participating in small groups. “Pull” often uses word-of-mouth to create a “pull” toward groups. “Push” is about PROMOTION.  “Pull” is about creating HUNGER.

While there are many different “Push” and “Pull” approaches to get people connected into a small group, I want to share seven ideas to help you get started:

1. Sign-Up Systems - Put the systems in place to capture sign-ups when people are ready. If people are “pushed” to sign-up or feel the “pull” to sign-up, but cannot easily do so, they will not. Online sign-up capabilities, bulletin response cards, and sign-up opportunities in the foyer make it easy for people to get connected to a group when they’re ready.

2.  Promotional Resources - These are marketing tools that help you “push” and promote small groups such as a small group brochure, campaign materials, email updates, social media, banners, and invite cards. Exhaust your tools to help you get the word out. About the time you’re sick of talking about groups is when most people will have heard of groups at least once. Remember, many people in church attend services on average once every three weeks. That means you have to talk about groups for three straight weeks just to reach everybody in your church.

3.  Vision Casting - Leverage inspiring vision to not only “push” small groups, but to “pull” the heart of members toward small group opportunities. Vision casting can be used through sermon series, testimonies of life change, and stories captured on video. When vision casting, be sure to include both inspiration (something that grabs the heart) and information (practical next steps to get signed up for a group). Here’s a recent testimony video we used to “pull” people toward our small groups at Christ Church.

4.  Leader Involvement - “Pull” people into small groups with the active involvement of key church leaders. When key influencers are involved in groups, others tend to follow suit. Ask yourself three questions:

  • How many of your key leaders in the church are leading a group?
  • How many of your key leaders in the church are in a group?
  • How can you increase leadership involvement and visibility?

5.  Leader Invitations - “Pull” people into small groups by having small group leaders take the initiative to invite people to join their group. This takes the burden off of the potential group member and removes fear or hesitations they might have about joining a group. Leaders can create a solid invite list by thinking about their circles of life (family, friends, church, neighborhood, hobbies, work) and lists of life (cell phone list, Social Media List, Email List, Christmas Card List). When leaders extend an invitation, people feel “pulled” into a group rather than “pushed” to join a group.

6. Connection Events - “Push” various on-ramp events for people to learn about and sign-up for small groups. North Point’s popular “Group Link” event is a great example. We also conducted an event called “The Living Room Experience” in which we turned our Sunday morning service into a large group/small group experience. Everybody sat at round tables facilitated by small group leaders. Worship and a small group leader testimony/interview took place on the stage (which was decorated like a Living Room) and an icebreaker, prayer, and group sign-ups took place at the tables. It was a unique experience that we conducted in both of our Sunday morning services.

7. Small Group Culture - “Pull” people toward small groups by creating a culture that makes small groups “the place to be.” To develop such a culture, Osborne recommends cutting the competition (so that small groups are not competing with other programs and ministries), providing a preview (a weekly bulletin insert with small group questions so that people can see what happens in small groups), and consistently referencing the small group experience in sermons (testimonies, stories, deeper discussion of the sermon’s topic in groups).

Question: What other “push” and “pull” strategies would you add to the list to get people connected in small groups?

4 Non-Negotiables When Recruiting Small Group Leaders

By Stephen Blandino on November 18, 2011 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

Several variables impact the successful recruitment of small group leaders. The more of these variables that exist, the higher your success rate. When only one or two variables are at work, the process is naturally more difficult. Here are four recruitment non-negotiables that I have found most helpful.

1. Senior Pastor INVOLVEMENT - It’s no secret that the senior pastor carries the greatest influence when casting vision for small group ministry. Regardless of how gifted a small group pastor is, the senior leader typically has greater persuasion in the congregation. However, a senior pastor can also limit his persuasion if he isn’t committed to lead a small group. When people see the senior pastor lead a group and here stories from his own group experience, he multiplies his vision casting credibility and effectiveness. The key question is: Does the senior pastor lead his own small group?

2. Small Group Pastor’s INFLUENCE - People may be inspired by a senior pastor’s vision for small groups, but they also know that at the end of the day they have to report to the small group pastor (or whoever is championing groups in the church). If the person in charge of groups has little influence, it will negatively impact any recruitment efforts (his own efforts as well as those initiated by the senior pastor). Building influence requires character, trustworthiness, credibility, competence, and time. By building influence, small group pastors personally attract more leaders and appropriately steward the influence leveraged on his behalf by his senior leader. The key question is: Does the small group pastor have influence in the congregation?

3. Small Group Core Team’s INITIATIVE - Leaders need a core team who are willing to take the initiative to execute a small group recruitment plan. When pastors work alone to recruit small group leaders, they limit their pool of potential leaders and weigh themselves down with the workload required to launch a successful small group ministry. A good core team who takes initiative with plans and strategies will propel the group’s recruitment efforts forward. The key question is: Is the core team willing to work hard?

4. Small Group Leader Candidate’s INFORMATION - Small group pastors need an adequate system to assess and on-ramp new leaders. A simple application process will help you gather the information you need to on-ramp the right small group leader candidates. The key question is: Have you captured essential information on all small group leader candidates?

Each of these non-negotiables will help you maximize your ability to recruit small group leaders. Which key are you missing?

 

Creating Alignment in Your Small Group Ministry Model

By Stephen Blandino on October 31, 2011 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

The small group movement in local churches continues to grow rapidly in the U.S. and around the world. The number of small group books, curriculums, blogs, and resources seems to be growing just as fast. With the ever increasing focus on small groups, it’s easy to lose sight of your small group model.  And if you’re new to small group ministry, the number of group models is greater than ever.

With so many small group models to choose from, how do you pick what’s right for your church…and, just as important, how do you create alignment with your model to ensure everything is working together to take you to your desired destination. I believe a good model includes three things:

1. Mission - Begin with a clearly defined purpose for your small groups.

2. Methods - Create methods (strategies) that will help you achieve your purpose.

3. Measurements - Develop a dashboard that helps you gauge and measure success.

In another post, I wrote about Developing Your Ministry or Organizational Model where I more thoroughly explained these three ingredients. In this post, I’d like to give you a personal example of their application and help you create alignment with your model.

Our Model: Our small group ministry has a clear MISSION: To foster authentic relationships by connecting people with people, God, and ministry. Our METHODS to accomplish this mission include four practices: Eat together, learn together, pray together, and help together. We pulled these practices from Acts 2:42-47 as we studied the ingredients that contributed to Biblical community in the early church. Finally, our MEASUREMENTS include a series of questions that help us determine if we are accomplishing our mission through our methods.

Alignment: Our model isn’t perfect and we certainly don’t view it as the “right” model. It’s simply the model we’ve chosen based on who we are and what we believe God has called us to do. The key is that our model includes the three ingredients: Mission, Methods, and Measurements and each of these ingredients is carefully aligned. You can view a chart that shows this alignment here: Connection Groups Model.

The questions in our model are not the only things we measure, but they do show the connections in the overall model.

There is no perfect small group model. But I do believe that whatever model you choose needs to clearly define these three elements. When you understand your mission, adopt methods that will help you achieve your mission, and define measurements to help you gauge mission success, everything you do will be in alignment.

Question: What is your small group model?

 

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