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Ten Insights from the ARC All Access Conference

By Stephen Blandino on March 30, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

This week our staff attend the ARC All Access Conference at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. It was a great event and very encouraging and challenging for our team. Here are a few thoughts from some of the conference speakers.

1. “You cannot stand before people for God unless you first stand before God for the people.” Robert Morris shared this thought in his challenge to pastors to pray. He said that every pastor at Gateway is required to have a team of intercessors who pray for them. He also encouraged pastors to start every elders meeting with 30-60 minutes of prayer. It builds unity and reduces conflict.

2. “You must lead the shepherds and feed the sheep.” Robert Morris shared this in his challenge to be committed to studying God’s Word. His message came from the story of Moses and Jethro in Exodus 18.

3. ARC Values - Greg Surratt, the new president of ARC, shared three essential values of ARC: We Plant Life; We Love Each Other Deeply; We Will Never Forget the Little Guy. These values contribute to the ARC’s success rate: 93% of churches started by the ARC are still in existence 5 years after their launch.

4. “Your response to offense will determine your future…Travel light because resentment is a dream killer.” Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands was very transparent about challenges he has experienced in his life, leadership, and ministry. He encouraged leaders to refocus on what’s happening in them not to them.

5. “Draft impact players…don’t hire projects.” Ed Young fired off 20 different leadership thoughts…this being one of them. He encouraged pastors to keep T.H.E.Y. in mind when hiring. Hire people who are Tough, Honest, Encouraging, and Yes men & women (They say yes to God and yes to the vision).

6. “Give people what they want, not what they think they want.” Greg Surratt challenged leaders to consider that most people really don’t know what they want. When asked, their only point of reference is that which has already been done. Leaders must invent the future. Only then can they truly give people what they want.

7. “Honor empowers and dishonor disables.” Dino Rizzo from Healing Place Church encouraged leaders to realize that their best days are ahead of them. He reminded leaders to guard their hearts (Proverbs 4:20-24). And he encouraged leaders to create a culture of honor.

8. “Today’s relevance becomes tomorrow’s religion.” Preaching from Exodus 37, Stovall Weems reminded us that something might look dead, but if it’s not buried it can live again. We need the right form (function)…which has been a major emphasis of the church in the last 15 years. We want to be relevant. But the end game is the transformation of lives. Otherwise our relevance becomes tomorrow’s religion. Relevance is not the goal, transformation is.

9. “Four Phases of Uncommon Clarity.”  Speaking from Acts 20:22-24, Craig Groeschel from LifeChurch challenged leaders to consider four phases of uncommon clarity. Clarity begins with the Spirit’s prompting, and then leads to certain uncertainty. God only gives you steps one, two, and three and then expects you to take a step of faith before he’ll show you steps five, six, and seven. If you’re not afraid, you’re not leading in faith. Then predictable resistance follows. Groeschel observed, “If you’re not ready to face opposition for your obedience to God, you’re not ready to be used by God…Don’t worry when you face resistance, worry when you don’t.” The outcome of this process is uncommon clarity.

10. “Three Levels of Impact.” Craig Groeschel concluded his message with three levels of impact: Make a name for yourself (which focuses on how good I am and everyone else is the enemy); Make a Difference (which focuses on how good we are and everyone else is the enemy); Make History (which focuses on how good God is and Satan is the enemy). Our focus should be making history.

There were many other great thoughts from the conference. These are just a few. If you attended All Access, what would you add to the list?

 

Is Your Leadership a Carbon-Copy?

By Stephen Blandino on March 21, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 2 Comments

Leaders lead–nothing new about that statement. But there’s an element of leadership that implies leading into new, uncharted territory. That uncharted territory is where we see the greatest breakthroughs as well as some of the biggest failures. Everybody wants the glorious victory…it’s the possibility of failure that keeps us in our safe zone.

Several years ago I read Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner’s book, 7 Practices of Effective Ministry.  I recently picked it  up again and was reminded of a powerful statement that drives the idea of entrepreneurial leadership. The authors write, “Most churches now being built are patterned after churches that already exist.” That statement is unsettling. Think about it for moment. Do you understand its implications?

If leaders are doing nothing more than leading people toward already proven models, then where’s the creativity, the innovation, the entrepreneurial faith, and the risk-taking necessary to reach people that otherwise won’t be reached. It’s not that we shouldn’t look to other effective models for inspiration and ideas. I’ve researched plenty and there truly are some great approaches to local church ministry that are making a significant impact for the Kingdom. We should do everything we can to learn from these models. But if we’re not careful, we’ll become so focused on carbon-copy ministry, that we’ll lose the courage to step into the unknown.

What about you? Are you leading your ministry or organization toward proven patterns or are you pioneering new territory? New territory is always accompanied by fear. It isn’t always safe. I’m not suggesting you make unwise decisions or walk blindly into the future. Jim Collins urges leaders to fire bullets then cannonballs as a proven and practical way to innovate.

Question: Is it always bad for your leadership to be a carbon-copy? What can leaders do to innovate for the future without always being a copy of somebody else’s leadership? 

 

People Development Over Program Development

By Stephen Blandino on March 13, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

The church today has evolved into a complex system of programs designed to meet needs and help people. Many of these programs were started with a clear vision, and many of them remain true to their original purpose. However, like so many organizations, churches often protect what is at the expense of what could be. Unfortunately, protecting programs replaces  fulfilling mission.

How did we get to this place? In his book, Missional Renaissance, Reggie McNeal makes a poignant observation about the church and it’s program-driven modality. McNeal writes:

I maintain that the rise of the program-driven church correlates directly with the rise of the service economy in post-World War II America. The manufacturing engine powering the economy yielded to the service sector as Americans could afford to pay other people to do things they no longer wanted to do themselves or couldn’t do themselves. People began to outsource food preparation, lawn maintenance, laundry, oil changes, and child care. And Americans outsourced spiritual formation to the church. It was during this period that the concept of church as a vendor of religious goods and services became entrenched in the ethos of the North American church culture. (p. 92)

McNeal asserts that the church made an assumption that all of these programs were actually helping people grow. Perhaps some–maybe even many–of them do. But our assumptions are usually based on attendance rather than outcomes. We assume that if people are showing up, they must be growing. Our growth equation is often nothing more than Activity + Attendance = Personal Growth. As a result, people fail to “own” their growth.

I’m not suggesting that programs are bad. Rather, I’m challenging leaders to keep people development in focus. If programs can be leveraged to truly develop people, then those program should be resourced and maximized. But like so many things, the purpose of programs often evolves into nothing more than self-preservation. They shift from mission to maintenance.

So what might a new model for people development look like? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but when I observe healthy growth in people, I often see three important elements:

1. Customization - There is no one-size-fits-all personal growth system that everybody fits into neatly. Truthfully, most growth that seems to gain traction in our lives is customized to who we are and sensitive to our unique learning styles. Cramming square pegs into round holes only creates tension in the growth process. More times than not, people quit programs or drop out midstream because it doesn’t match their growth objectives or learning style. As a result, they fail to close their personal growth gaps. Question: What would happen if we helped people develop a customized growth plan to accelerate their growth?

2. Coaching - The coaching industry is accelerating like never before. And because true coaching is client-driven, people being coached tend to own their growth and are more deeply committed to seeing change in their lives. Good coaching doesn’t come with a pre-assigned solution to your problems. Rather, good coaching takes AIM at your potential. Question: How could we create a scaleable coaching strategy in the church in which people access the coaching they need to fulfill their God-given purpose?

3. Community - People need the ongoing support, encouragement, accountability, and growth-focused conversations of people who believe in them. When they experience true community, they often find themselves motivated toward growth. When you talk about community in the church, the focus is almost always on small groups. I believe in small groups, but I don’t believe small groups are the only way to experience deep relationships. Outside of my family, the most impacting relational connections in my life have occurred through one-on-one supportive accountability relationships with mature leaders.

Question: What other suggestions can you offer for creating a people-development culture over a program-development culture in the local church?

 

Making 21st Century gods Irrelevant

By Stephen Blandino on March 5, 2012 in Church, Culture, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

Most people in society would quickly deny that they worship a false god. While we may not worship statues, many other possessions and practices have captured our hearts in a posture of worship. It doesn’t take long for money, jobs, hobbies, fame, reputation, and stuff to sit on the throne of our hearts.

So what would happen if we made these “gods” irrelevant? I’m not saying that we don’t need money, or that we should quit our jobs, or that it’s a sin to have a hobby. And I’m not suggesting that your reputation is pointless or that it’s wrong to have material possessions. I’m simply asking, “What would happen if our love and commitment to Christ dethroned our 21st century gods and transformed how people view the Christ we serve?” Regi Campbell, author of Mentor Like Jesus, captured this really well when he wrote:

About 350 years after Christ, the Roman emperor Julian (AD 332-363) wanted to reinstitute faithfulness to the pagan religions of Rome but struggled because Christians were doing such good things for people, even strangers, that they rendered the Roman gods irrelevant.

Wouldn’t it be cool to render the pagan gods of the twenty-first century irrelevant by having millions of Christ followers become so genuine in their faith that they changed the world with their kindness, mercy, and generosity?

What in your life has become a god? What is preventing your faith in Christ from transforming all of who you are and mobilizing you to make a difference in the world? As Rick Warren observed, “The church has amputated its hands and its feet, and all that’s left is its mouth.” It’s time that the beauty of the risen Christ make our 21st century gods irrelevant.

 

3 Strategies to Develop & Equip Your Small Group Leaders

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

Every pastor with a vision for small groups knows that they must do more than recruit small group leaders, but they must develop and equip their leaders too. 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)?

Continue Reading…

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.

Continue Reading…

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?

 

Replenish: Leading from a Healthy Soul

By Stephen Blandino on January 23, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

Every leader’s soul shapes how he or she leads. The question is, “Is your soul healthy?” I recently read Lance Witt’s new book, Replenish: Leading from a Healthy Soul.

Witt addresses a host of topics from detoxing your soul, to sustaining a lifetime of health, to building healthy teams. He helps leaders to put life and ministry in perspective. He tackles the distractions that so often derail leaders and offers practical insight to cultivate a healthy interior life.

There are so many great takeaways from this book. I highly recommend you read it. Rather than doing a full review, I thought I would simply highlight some of my favorite quotes. Enjoy!

“A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what’s going on inside of himself or herself…lest the act of leaderhsip create more harm than good.” Quaker Author Parker Palmer

“When leaders neglect their interior life, they run the risk of prostituting the sacred gift of leadership.”

“Never lose sight of the fact that the box (your ministry) is not as valuable as the gift (Jesus). And the only reason the box exists is to deliver the gift. You have dedicated your life to the gift, not to the box.”

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

“Looking back I realize there’s a correlation between my communion with God and my courage for God. The deeper my intimacy the greater my tenacity to stand courageously.”

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Am I raelly trying to discern God’s will, or determine whether I want to do it?’” Erwin McManus

“In some ways, courage is a matter of trust. Do I trust that if I do what’s right, he will have my back?”

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.” Mother Teresa

These are just a handful of great thoughts…there are so many more. If you find yourself feeling burned out, frazzled by ministry, or simply needing to refresh your soul, read this book. You won’t be disappointed.

 

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