In my last blog, I encouraged churches to form non-representative leadership teams for three reasons. Often in constituency representative teams “the priority of the ‘good’ of the constituency displaces the overall good of the organization [church].”[1] “the leadership team may or may not be composed of people who actually have gifts related to leadership.”[2] “inevitably one constituency is deemed more …
When forming a leadership team in your church, choose non-representative governance! WHAT??!! This statement may seem scandalous for those who live in a representative democracy, and certainly, most leadership teams combine members representing either departments (adults, children, worship, outreach, etc.) or segments of the congregation. Yet, in my book, Made to Flourish: Beyond Quick Fixes to a Thriving Organization, I …
Two to four years into a church plant? How do you know the church is making a difference? Courageous enough to seriously ask? How do we know our ministries—whether preaching, outreach, serving the poor, children’s programs, or life groups—make a difference? Measuring impact tends to be elusive and often downright avoided, especially in Christian circles. In this blog, however, I …
So, in my last blog I shared my difficulty in accepting this current season in my life, and how it’s pushed me to re-embrace a theology of suffering. Our culture, like most cultures, rejects suffering, because of our propensity to be in control, reject trust and dependence on God and interdependence with each other. Like Peter, we take our suffering …
Returning from Mission It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. “The Real Work” …
In my two previous posts, Creating Culture: When Values and Life Don’t Match and 4 Ways Jesus Established Culture, we determined that leaders build the foundation for a church’s culture by what they do, especially in the beginning. We saw that it’s not about just starting programs, having gatherings, or copying the ‘successful’ church in your city, but discovering, identifying, and articulating your church’s DNA, …
In my previous blog post, I shared how leaders establish culture through what they teach and model, as well as by what they pay attention to, reward and sanction. I want to continue the topic of creating culture by looking at Christ. A Thought Experiment Imagine Jesus is the leader of your church—Hopefully he is!—in a sense similar to when …
Organizational culture powerfully determines the success or failure of a vision, the flourishing or demise of the human spirit. [1] As part of a coaching process with a pastor of a large church in the southern United States, I asked Charlie to keep track of how she spent all of her waking hours. I encouraged her to write down how she spent every 30 …
“The Winning Combination for a Missional Vision” is the final installment of a three-part series created to help you set a vision for your church or organization and strategize for it. If you missed part one, “A Practical Guide to Having Missional Vision,” or part two, “How to Create Strategies for a Missional Vision,” you are encouraged to check them out, as they include both foundational material and practical exercises …
“How to Create Strategies for a Missional Vision” is the second of a three-part series created to help you set a vision for your church or organization and strategize for it. If you haven’t read part one, “A Practical Guide to Having Missional Vision,” you may want to do so, as there are practical exercises I suggest there for determining your organization’s vision. Back From the Future Now that …