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Factoids

While researching the topic of Simple Church: Movement, for my blog this month, I came across this interesting factoid about church health from Leith Anderson, Pastor at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN. 

“How long does it take for someone to make it to a committee, board, or other position of influence in the church.  In healthy churches the answer will typically be one to four years.”

(Anderson, Leith. A Church for the 21st Century. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1992, p. 137)

What is interesting about this factoid is that although written 14 years before the book Simple Church by Geiger & Rainer (which you can buy in our "Books" section), it also emphasizes the Principle of Movement.  This is the second principle of the Simple Church movement, which I am highlighting in this issue of HighPower eNews. 

People need to be going somewhere, spiritually and relationally, when they join your church.  This church health factoid shows that if your church is not constantly developing new leadership, who are moving into positions of influence and power in your congregation, then the process of discipleship movement in your church is suspect. 

Now, problems could occur on either side of this factoid.  If people are too slow to move into leadership, it shows that the church's discipleship movement is stagnant  (see the article about 'movement' later in this months eNews).  But, what if the other occurs?  What if people are moving too quickly into leadership, say in less than a year?  Unless you are a church plant, and even then probably, you may have too much 'churn' to keep the church stable.

In any event, I believe that Anderson's factoid is accurate, and it seems to be related to the princple of "movement" from Simple Church.

This and other Factoids can be found at ChurchGrowth Factoids

Blog:  Simple Church - MOVEMENT

SIMPLE CHURCH: Movement, Part 3

Most churches don’t stall out because of one or two problems that they can easily fix. Most stall out because of church systems! That is, the entire way you have put your church [Christ’s church, but since you have messed it up, its ‘yours’] together is wrong. Simple Church makes you look back at the systems approach to church growth and discipleship. In our continuing series analyzing the impact of the book "Simple Church" by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer, we are looking at the second church health principle of "Movement".

Simple Church helps you ask the question, “What is our system for making disciples here?” You do have a system don’t you? You see, even if you don’t, you still do. As Edward Deming has astutely put it, “You have the perfect system for getting exactly the results you are getting!”

Do you have weak and anemic disciples at your church? Your church system is producing weak and anemic disciples! Or are they strong and vigorous? Again, it is your system.

What is the system in your church? Can you identify it? For example, let’s say that this Sunday someone turns their life over to Christ at your church. Then they stay with you for 3 years, and then are transferred away. What do you want that disciple to look like at the end of 3 years of participating in your church discipleship system?

The focus of what we are talking about here is MOVEMENT! And Movement, is the 2nd key principle of the Simple Church Book. For an intro to Simple Church see my Jan. 16th, 2007 blog, and for the first principle of Clarity see my March 3rd, 2007 blog.

Movement is defined by Geiger & Rainer as "... the sequential steps in the process that causes people to move to greater areas of commitment."

Where do disciples start in your church and where do they go and grow? In most churches I’ve served in, there is no clear system. We just hope that they meet the Lord, start attending services and Bible studies and start growing. Isn’t that good enough? Try asking some of the big guns like Rick Warren at Saddlebback with his 4 bases. Or try asking Bill Hybels at Willowcreek with the 7 steps to maturity system and the 5 G’s. They’ve got systems in place to develop disciples.

Question: Is it enough just to copy the 4 bases of Saddleback and say that you’ve got it done? Not if you don’t understand the concept of church systems yet. Then you are just mimicking what you’ve seen, and as soon as someone tinkers with it, you will have problems.

Here’s what we are doing at our church to really put these principles into practice:

First , we answered the PRODUCT question. That is, if the example cited above of someone coming to church for 3 years and then leaving really occurred, what kind of a disciple would we want to produce? So over the course of several months, with staff, and leadership, we defined 27 character qualities of a mature disciple. These 27 character traits cover 3 broad categories related to Head, Heart, and Hands. Or put another way, we have defined Intellectual goals, and Emotional/
Attitudinal goals, and we have defined Behavioral goals.

Then, having just defined that, we are now working through all of our church programs, and determining exactly what kind of life-change we are trying to accomplish in each ministry. The question is "how does each ministry program in the church contribute to one or more of the 27 traits of spiritual maturity?

Also, we are clearly marking out our discipleship movement path for our church. We have identified a one-year path which we will encourage all new converts, new members, and seekers to pursue. (It is optional, and is also available for current regulars if they wish to join.).

Here is our path in synopsis:
First, Newcomers Dessert social
Second, On-Ramp (new members class), targeting the newcomers at the social
Third, Passport Dinner – to introduce them to the recommended “journey towards growth”
Fourth – one-full year of growth training, broke down into 4 separate discipleship groups:

This includes 4 discipleship groups which are coached, and that is a key part. Our awesome Small Groups director, Jim Troe, (he's reading this, so I had to say that;) put together this one-year plan…
-- Alpha – 10 weeks on the basics of Christianity for Seekers.
-– Connections – 8 weeks on how to develop healthy relationships with seekers.
-– Foundations – 8 weeks on basic discipleship issues like a daily quiet time, and Bible study.
-– SHAPE training – 8 weeks on discovering and using your spiritual gifts.

Fifth, Once they have completed the one-year discipleship training, we place them into long-term growth groups, which are normally “sermon-based” groups, that is, discussion and curriculum is based on the current teaching series.

Please note, these are all optional at every step of the way, although we do recommend a particular course of action.

So that is our current plan for movement. Yes, it may change, but we finally have a "clear path for discipleship", which happens to be what we call it. We know where we are going, and by God's grace and guidance we hope to get there.

NOW, how do we make sure to encourage people to follow this course of action?

That relates to the 3rd Simple Church principle, which is Alignment. I’ll update you on that next month.

Until then,
In Christ,
Dr. Bill

Coaching

This month, I want to provide for you a great article written by Nathan Baxter, Executive Pastor at Liberty Church in Tulsa, OK, and printed in the e-newsletter of XPastor.org, which is coordinated by David Fletcher of Texas.  This article is about securiting "Commitment" from those you coach.  Here it is: 

"One of the greatest privileges of serving as an Executive Pastor is the opportunity we have to come alongside men and women and help them develop in their leadership. The first few months of the year are critical for establishing and communicating a well thought through plan to provide resources and coaching for our leaders.   Do you have your mentoring plan set for 2007?

I have found Dr Kinlaw’s work on leadership development very helpful as I organize my mentoring plans for each person that I serve (see Coaching for Commitment, 2 ed. 1999).  After years of research in a multitude of organizations, he discovered that there were four critical components that needed to be present to help a leader do their very best. To the degree that these components were available to a leader there was a direct correlation to the level of their commitment to do well. In other words, he was able to measure improved performance that he could attribute to the presence of these four components.

As Executive Pastors, we have a responsibility to provide our leaders with the resources and environments where they can continue to grow and excel in their leadership. As their leadership excels, God’s people are the direct beneficiary of their work—and ultimately the Kingdom work we are all committed to advancing.

Most Executive Pastors I coach have a wide selection of books and resources on leadership but struggle with synthesizing the information into a simple and effective mentoring plan for their leaders. Kinlaw’s components are a great starting place for effective mentoring. I have used them over the years as a template to design the leadership development for each individual, as well as for fostering the leadership culture of my church.

Before I share these with you, I want to make a couple of introductory comments that I always share at our XP Mentoring Clinics. First, all people want to do well. It is difficult to look at a low performer or a struggling leader you have on staff and believe this about them, but it is true. Many times we rush to conclusions because we are frustrated. These components also serve as a checklist for the XP’s responsibility to provide this for their leaders. When I am tired of working with a leader because of lack of progress, I prayerfully review each component, asking God to reveal to me if I have adequately provided what the person needs to do well.

Second, a paradigm shift is often in order for Christian leaders in terms of staff development. Because most of us resource secular leadership information, we have a tendency to adopt the underlying philosophy—this being “success at all costs.”  However, we cannot forget that this is a Kingdom endeavor and our “bottom line” is radically different than what the world is pursuing. Thus, all leadership information must be filtered through the Scriptures and reviewed prayerfully. We need to remain committed to our calling of developing people (Eph 4:11ff) to their God-given potential versus simply increasing their performance for the growth of the organization. As pastors, we must remember that our jobs are a partnership with God who called us to equip and serve His people. He is far more interested in our treatment of others than the “success” of the church. He is the builder, not the guy in the microphone nor the high performance team.

Keeping these two thoughts in mind when putting together your leadership development plans for this year will serve you well.

Now let’s take a look at Kinlaw’s critical components which can serve as a mentoring checklist. His research yielded the following:

“People tend to become fully committed to do their best all of the time to the degree that they:

Are clear about core values and performance goals

Have influence over what they do

Have the competencies to perform the jobs that are expected of them

Are appreciated for their performance”

I recommend that XPs take a day away from the office to craft a mentoring or leadership plan for each person on their staff. You begin by writing the person’s name at the top of the page and then using the critical components (above) in the form of a question. For example, let’s assume John Smith is your worship pastor. The type of questions you would ask yourself as an XP would be:

Is John clear about our church’s values and is he clear about his
performance goals/what we are asking him to do? What would John say? When was the last time we discussed our church’s values? Does he have a list of performance goals that he is working from? What can I do as an XP to help in this area?

Does John have enough influence about what he does week to week in his job/ministry? Is he too confined/restricted? Does he have the right amount of freedom to lead and create? How would John answer this question? What can I do as an XP to help in this area?

2 of 3
Does John have the competencies to perform the jobs that we expect of him? What are the key competencies to do well? How does he feel about his competencies? Is there training available to help him improve? What can I do as an XP to help in this area?

Is John appreciated for his performance? When is the last time I have
asked John if he feels appreciated? How does he like to feel appreciated? How do I know what performance to appreciate? What can I do as an XP to help in this area?

A simple checklist like this one can do wonders to help Executive Pastors focus their mentoring ministry to the leaders in their church. You can also take the same list to develop the leadership culture of your organization/church. Once you have gone through this exercise and made your mentoring plans for the year, I recommend that you schedule a monthly block of time to review and refine your plan.

As XP’s we have the responsibility and the position to provide for the leadership development needs of our leaders in our churches. My suspicion is that if we ever shared lunch with Jesus on the bay and were discussing this whole issue of mentoring and taking care of the needs of our leaders, He would challenge us to make it one of our top priorities. Pass the tarter sauce. "

For other great helps for Executive Pastors, see "XPastor.org".

For free Minisry Coaching resources, try here.

Software

<< We've moved from beta to version 1.1 of the PhodoBase Software  You can pick up a copy of this handy software tool at HighPowerResources.com on the Software page. >>

Phodobase™ is an easy to use software that does one thing very well - It helps you to create & maintain a great looking photo church directory.

Are you tired of all the hassle involved in bringing in an outside organization to create a photo directory for your church? How do your people enjoy the high-pressure sales to buy a whole suite of family photos? Probably not too much.

Phodobase™ lets you easily create your own Church Photo Directory!

• Computer-based Family Photo Directory (Mac or PC)
  No expensive printing of paper manuals
  No high-pressures sales people trying to squeeze your families and little-old-ladies for more dollars for photos
  No more outdated directories - updates can be immediately distributed
  
  
• THREE DESIGN OPTIONS:
  1. FULL Directory - Photo + Family Description + Contact Information
  2. PHOTO Directory - Photo + Contact Information
  3. SIMPLE Directory - just Contact Information
     ADMIN & GUEST MODE - You can distribute your Directory in “Guest (locked mode, or you can allow your congregation to change and update contact and other information (“Admin” mode).
     
     
• EASY DISTRIBUTION to your Church -- When you have populated your Phodobase Directory with family photos, descriptions, and contact information (or any combination of those three), then you simply distribute your Phodobase Directory to your church family.  You can email Phodobase™ , or burn it to a CD, or place it on your website.

To get Your copy of Phodobase Church Directory software, you can head to our Software page

SERMONS

SERMONBASE SPECIAL - Receive a Free Sermon with Purchase

From now through the end of April, we are offering a free HighPower Sermon with each purchase of SermonBase Message Planning Software.  Buy SermonBase, and you will receive instructions on downloading your free sermon.  You can choose any sermon from HighPower Sermons as your free gift.  

It's been a joy to make this available to the pastors who bought last month, and it continues through the end of April.

SEMINARS

EXPANDED - NEW SEMINAR:  COACHING FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

We've recently expanded the Coaching for Spiritual Development  DIY Seminar to four parts, covering "Intro", "Spiritual Development", "Getting Started" and now, "Securing Commitment". This last section is particularly helpful.  If you are trying to figure out how coaching relates to your local congregation, then checkout this seminar. 

Free student fill-in-the-blank notes can be downloaded,

Or you can buy and download the complete seminar.

Useful weblinks

If you want some good rates on web-hosting, you can try "545WebHosting.com".