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	HighPower eNews ~~ Empowering Pastors for Growth & Health ~~ June 2007
HighPower Resources Coaching Sermons Seminars Software Products BLOG Bible Studies Church Growth Factoids Dramas Books	Feel free to forward this to a friend! NEW this month! New Article about Simple Church: Focus New Books Book: Jim & Casper Go to Church -- This is the true experiences of an atheist who was hired to visit various large seeker churches and give his impression. Find it in the Books section, under "Church Growth". New Sermons Sermons: New Series: FaithSteps – Exposition of Romans 8 New Software Newest Version of “FamilyFaces Photo Directory Software” - - 1.1 Menu Driven version BLOG - HIGHPOWER LEARNINGS SIMPLE CHURCH:FOCUS I want to keep sharing with you what I have been learning from the book Simple Church, by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer (which you can now buy from the HPR site here). This is a great book, because it really makes you think about church systems In our final look at the book Simple Church, we look at what is probably the most controversial part of the book; I know it is in our church. The chapter is entitled, “Focus: Saying No to Almost Everything”. And THAT is a hard proposition in most churches. The book flows like this: Clarity ÞMovement Þ Alignment Þ Focus. Focus means eliminating everything that doesn’t fit in with your discipleship plan. Geiger states, “People assume the more that can be squeezed into the menu, the better.” But as they make abundantly clear in the book, that is not always true. They spend some time talking about the “one thing” principle, quoting various Scripture (Psalm 27:4; Phil. 3:13-14 “But one thing I do…”; Heb. 12:2 to “fix our eyes only on Christ”) Focus is defined as “the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.” And that ministry process has already been clearly defined as the church has worked on Clarity – defining what they are trying to achieve; and Movement – making a simple process to move people through the discipleship process; and Alignment – brining everything to work together toward that goal. That just leaves this final step, which is eliminating those which do not apply to the discipleship process. This is backed up by research: “According to our research there is a highly significant relationship between church vitality and the church’s focus on the process” (Simple Church, p. 203). They also quote a doctoral study (Travis Bradshaw, University of Florida) which assumed that the more programs a church had, the healthier it would be. But what the researcher actually found out was that healthier churches had LESS program than non-healthy churches. So how do you achieve focus? 1. Eliminate – “While eliminating programs is difficult, the data indicates that vibrant church leaders have the discipline to do so” (Simple Church, p. 205). You can eliminate programs by emphasizing stewardship. To be a wise steward of your people’s time, money and energy requires that you eliminate programs which consume too much of any or all three of these commodities. Simple Church is your church’s means of safe-guarding your resources for that which is truly important. 2. Limit Adding – as hard as it is to eliminate existing programs, then make sure you do not easily add new programs. 3. Reduce Special Events – These are the events that do not fit in the normal church calendar, nor in the streamlined discipleship plan, but someone is just so excited about them that the church decides to squeeze it into the calendar. But don’t do it! Rather decide how to use the event strategically by maybe combining it with another event or tying it together with the discipleship plan. With a little work this can be done. I’ll close by quoting the German poet Goethe who said, “The key to life is concentration and elimination.” -- German poet Goethe Eliminate the non-essentials, and concentrate on the most important aspects of making disciples, and your church will do OK. Later, Dr. Bill COACHING COACHING VS. MENTORING - is there a difference? While some people have used the two terms interchangeably there is actually a clear difference between the two. Bob Logan in a recent coaching seminar in Hollywood made the distinction between coaching and mentoring. I have highlighted his comments in my blog, “HighPower Learnings” for May 4th. Check out this link at http://www.highpowerresources.com/Blog/index.html and look for the article called “Coaching vs. Mentoring” Basically, a mentor has gone before; has walked the same path; while a coach does not necessarily have to have done that; s/he just helps someone else to walk the path. In Hans Finzels book, The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Makes he explains the awesome role that coaching has played in some leaders lives: Leaders “who made a difference over a lifetime, they found that without exception these leaders had identified three to ten people who had made significant contributions to their development”. He goes on to identify the marks of a good mentor: The ability to see potential in a person Tolerance of mistakes… Flexibility Patience… Perspective: having vision and ability to see down the road, and to suggest next steps the mentoree needs to take Gifts and abilities that build up and encourage others Now in your role as a coach, there may be elements of mentoring involved. Especially if you are coaching a person who is in a role in which you have experience. But you will need to clarify exactly what are the expectations of this relationship: Does the person being coached want more of a mentoring relationship, or are they only looking for coaching? If you find someone who is looking for a mentoring element as well in your relationship, you have the prospects of having a rich time of personal and spiritual and professional growth together. This is the stuff of great ministry pairs like Barnabas and Saul, & Paul and Timothy. God's best to you in your coaching endeavors! SOFTWARE FamilyFaces Photo Directory Software This software is an easy to use software which will allow you to print up a great looking church directory for your congregation. We are using it at our church and it is working great! It’s so easy to use that out 70 year old office volunteer is inputting the information for us, and printing the directory. We have a church of 750 people and have hundreds of families in our directory, and it works fast and well. You can print up 3 types of directories: two with photos, and one simple one w/o photos. New this month, we have expanded all the menu commands to allow for greater functionality. We have also added a "Latest updates" reports, to locate old records which need to be updated. You can try the free Demo, or buy it for the introductory price of $40. If you are not completely satisfied, we will refund you. Sermons, Dramas, Bible Studies ROMANS ch. 8 -- FaithSteps Series This is a really great series which is an exposition of Romans ch. 8, verse-by-verse with very practical application to the Christian life. Check out the free downloadable notes to see for yourself. God bless! Check out this and other quality, Biblical exposition sermons at HighPower Sermons. SPECIAL BOOKS SECTION - Quality books on Coaching, Church Growth & Health NEW BOOK SECTION: We have a new Books section at HighPower Resources. Just click on the “Books” button on the left sidebar in the HighPower site, to find a selected set of Coaching Books, Church Growth Books, Church Health Books.
Empowering for Growth & Health
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~~ Empowering Pastors for Growth & Health ~~

June 2007

HighPower Resources

Feel free to forward this to a friend!

NEW this month!

New Article about Simple Church: Focus

New Books

Book: Jim & Casper Go to Church -- This is the true experiences of an atheist who was hired to visit various large seeker churches and give his impression. Find it in the Books section, under "Church Growth".

New Sermons

Sermons: New Series: FaithSteps – Exposition of Romans 8

New Software

Newest Version of “FamilyFaces Photo Directory Software” - - 1.1 Menu Driven version

BLOG - HIGHPOWER LEARNINGS

SIMPLE CHURCH:FOCUS

I want to keep sharing with you what I have been learning from the book Simple Church, by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer (which you can now buy from the HPR site here). This is a great book, because it really makes you think about church systems

In our final look at the book Simple Church, we look at what is probably the most controversial part of the book; I know it is in our church.

The chapter is entitled, “Focus: Saying No to Almost Everything”. And THAT is a hard proposition in most churches.

The book flows like this: Clarity ÞMovement Þ Alignment Þ Focus.

Focus means eliminating everything that doesn’t fit in with your discipleship plan. Geiger states, “People assume the more that can be squeezed into the menu, the better.” But as they make abundantly clear in the book, that is not always true.

They spend some time talking about the “one thing” principle, quoting various Scripture (Psalm 27:4; Phil. 3:13-14 “But one thing I do…”; Heb. 12:2 to “fix our eyes only on Christ”)

Focus is defined as “the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process.” And that ministry process has already been clearly defined as the church has worked on Clarity – defining what they are trying to achieve; and Movement – making a simple process to move people through the discipleship process; and Alignment – brining everything to work together toward that goal. That just leaves this final step, which is eliminating those which do not apply to the discipleship process.

This is backed up by research: “According to our research there is a highly significant relationship between church vitality and the church’s focus on the process” (Simple Church, p. 203). They also quote a doctoral study (Travis Bradshaw, University of Florida) which assumed that the more programs a church had, the healthier it would be. But what the researcher actually found out was that healthier churches had LESS program than non-healthy churches.

So how do you achieve focus?
1. Eliminate – “While eliminating programs is difficult, the data indicates that vibrant church leaders have the discipline to do so” (Simple Church, p. 205). You can eliminate programs by emphasizing stewardship. To be a wise steward of your people’s time, money and energy requires that you eliminate programs which consume too much of any or all three of these commodities. Simple Church is your church’s means of safe-guarding your resources for that which is truly important.

2. Limit Adding – as hard as it is to eliminate existing programs, then make sure you do not easily add new programs.

3. Reduce Special Events – These are the events that do not fit in the normal church calendar, nor in the streamlined discipleship plan, but someone is just so excited about them that the church decides to squeeze it into the calendar. But don’t do it! Rather decide how to use the event strategically by maybe combining it with another event or tying it together with the discipleship plan. With a little work this can be done.

I’ll close by quoting the German poet Goethe who said, “The key to life is concentration and elimination.” -- German poet Goethe

Eliminate the non-essentials, and concentrate on the most important aspects of making disciples, and your church will do OK.

Later,

Dr. Bill

COACHING

COACHING VS. MENTORING - is there a difference?

While some people have used the two terms interchangeably there is actually a clear difference between the two. Bob Logan in a recent coaching seminar in Hollywood made the distinction between coaching and mentoring. I have highlighted his comments in my blog, “HighPower Learnings” for May 4th. Check out this link at http://www.highpowerresources.com/Blog/index.html and look for the article called “Coaching vs. Mentoring”

Basically, a mentor has gone before; has walked the same path; while a coach does not necessarily have to have done that; s/he just helps someone else to walk the path. In Hans Finzels book, The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Makes he explains the awesome role that coaching has played in some leaders lives:
Leaders “who made a difference over a lifetime, they found that without exception these leaders had identified three to ten people who had made significant contributions to their development”.

He goes on to identify the marks of a good mentor:

The ability to see potential in a person
Tolerance of mistakes…
Flexibility
Patience…
Perspective: having vision and ability to see down the road, and to suggest next steps the mentoree needs to take
Gifts and abilities that build up and encourage others

Now in your role as a coach, there may be elements of mentoring involved. Especially if you are coaching a person who is in a role in which you have experience. But you will need to clarify exactly what are the expectations of this relationship: Does the person being coached want more of a mentoring relationship, or are they only looking for coaching? If you find someone who is looking for a mentoring element as well in your relationship, you have the prospects of having a rich time of personal and spiritual and professional growth together. This is the stuff of great ministry pairs like Barnabas and Saul, & Paul and Timothy.

God's best to you in your coaching endeavors!

SOFTWARE

FamilyFaces Photo Directory Software

This software is an easy to use software which will allow you to print up a great looking church directory for your congregation. We are using it at our church and it is working great! It’s so easy to use that out 70 year old office volunteer is inputting the information for us, and printing the directory. We have a church of 750 people and have hundreds of families in our directory, and it works fast and well. You can print up 3 types of directories: two with photos, and one simple one w/o photos.

New this month, we have expanded all the menu commands to allow for greater functionality.

We have also added a "Latest updates" reports, to locate old records which need to be updated.

You can try the free Demo, or buy it for the introductory price of $40. If you are not completely satisfied, we will refund you.

Sermons, Dramas, Bible Studies

ROMANS ch. 8 -- FaithSteps Series

This is a really great series which is an exposition of Romans ch. 8, verse-by-verse with very practical application to the Christian life. Check out the free downloadable notes to see for yourself. God bless!

Check out this and other quality, Biblical exposition sermons at HighPower Sermons.

SPECIAL BOOKS SECTION - Quality books on Coaching, Church Growth & Health

NEW BOOK SECTION: We have a new Books section at HighPower Resources. Just click on the “Books” button on the left sidebar in the HighPower site, to find a selected set of Coaching Books, Church Growth Books, Church Health Books.

Empowering for Growth & Health