Intentional

Much has been written about why people stray from church. For those who return, what is it that gets them to come back? Steve Parr and Tom Crites are conducting a nationwide study to discover what tangible factors can make the biggest difference. The study targets 25-55 year olds who grew up in church, left for at least two years, but then returned. The participants of this confidential short survey will offer valuable information that will help as we seek to assist church leaders in reconnecting those who have left church. This is based on the most common question they receive when doing seminars based on their book Why The Stay.  Survey participants will  be entered in a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card. In addition, those that refer participants will be entered for a $100 gift card as well. Please refer people you know by tweeting, posting and emailing the link to the survey.  Your participation is greatly appreciated! One last thing…this is multi-denominational so send it far and wide.

 

 Click Here to take the survey

Have you ever had opportunity to get on a stationary bike for exercise? The actions taken by your legs replicate what you would do if riding a bicycle outdoors and the exertion is certainly a good way to improve your physical condition. However, the stationary bike cannot help you get anywhere. While the motion made by your legs is similar you will find yourself in the same place once your workout is complete. It is a good illustration of the difference between motion and progress.

I once heard a leadership talk that contrasted these two actions. I want to borrow that concept and make a few observations and comments that can strengthen your leadership. Have you ever thought about the difference between these two forms of movement? Both motion and progress require movement but motion will not necessarily get you to your preferred destination. Yogi Berra once commented upon getting lost on the way to an engagement that “we were lost but we were making good time.” The key need of any organization is ultimately progress. However, employees can sometimes substitute motion for progress and fool themselves and others into thinking that they are being effective when they are not. As a church leader I often see this in congregations. Many churches have a lot going on with activities but are in decline and are not making disciples. I have observed employees who always appear busy but never seem to produce substantial results. How about you and the organization that you serve, the place you work, or the church you attend? Are you in motion or are you making progress? How about you personally?

Progress requires objectives, goals, or outcomes that you are seeking to move toward. These would equate to a destination if you were taking a trip on a bicycle. The stationary bike can replicate the motion of riding a bike but will not get you to the destination. The bicycle has the capacity to get you to the destination but will not do so if you do not pedal, steer, and just as importantly, move in the appropriate direction. Be sure to identify objectives before determining activities (how you will spend your time and energy). Otherwise you will be in motion and may confuse the activity (motion) with progress. Once you determine your objective(s) make plans that move you in that direction and consistently evaluate your progress. Take a few moments to think about your job, your leadership role, or the organization you serve. Which best characterizes your leadership? A person in motion or a leader making progress?

The key to getting guests to visit your church or group is not a secret. An overwhelming majority of those who visit the first time are there because they were invited by a friend or a relative. The last stat I saw on this was around 87% with the second most common reason for a visit applying to only 6% of your guests. If you are not having guests, the reason is clear; your members are not inviting people. What is the issue here? Leadership? Your church cultures? Anemic ministry or services? Lack of challenge? If you are having not guests, you certainly need to analyze. Here are a few short terms and long term solutions.

Short Term:

1. Look in the mirror.  This one is tough. You must evaluate your leadership and role in this problem. Don’t give up. Grow and develop your skills.
2. See the fields. Have you ever seen any demographic information on your city or county. It is eye-opening when you see the number of un-churched around you. You will find that anywhere from 70-90% (in North America) are not in church in your community on a given Sunday. Many, if not most, of those have no relationship with Jesus. Get this information and share it with your members.
3. Apply the Law of Large Numbers. It is a simple principle. If you invite two people, one of them might respond. If you invite 100 people, you will have guests. Find a way to challenge your members and measure how many guests are being invited.
4. Open the side doors. Some members of your community who will not attend worship will attend a fellowship. Your ministry should offer several throughout the year to introduce community members to your congregation. They are more inclined to attend when relationships are initiated and established with your members.

Long Term:

1. Train members in evangelism. That is what the most effective churches and groups do. They do not train 52 weeks out of the year but they do not let 52 weeks go by without providing training. Train everyone through your teaching, preaching, and leadership. If not, you will continue to struggle getting your members to invite guests. The training begins with equipping members to be good inviters to not only your worship, but to fellowship opportunities.
2. Work on the total environment. Lead some of your members on a “Nehemiah Walk.” Examine your facilities, meeting space, signage, greeting procedures, follow up plan. Are your facilities inviting? You know it can be improved. Get to it!

This is a blog, not a book so these solutions are not exhaustive but hopefully something will click that will help you provide leadership that results in more guests because after all, the ultimate goal is that guests would ultimately become disciples or grow as disciples and in turn help us in making more disciples in the future.

Are you facing any problems in your leadership? In your organization? On your team? Of course, you are. If there were no problems, there would be no need for leadership. Problems are perpetual, typical, aggravating, but not always normal and not all are unavoidable. Leaders are problem solvers. If you dig deep you will discover that the most effective leaders are those who have greater problem-solving skills. Let me share some principles that when embraced can help you to be a better problem-solver.

1. The Principle of the Triage: You cannot solve a problem that you do not know how to diagnose. Triage is ordinarily used as a medical term. It is the process of sorting injured people into groups based on the severity of their injuries to prioritize which patients are in most immediate need of care. Failure to diagnose properly can result in death or greater injury to the patients. As a leader, you want to take caution against over-reacting to small problems on one side and failing to address other problems that can grow causing even greater damage on the other. Effective problem-solving begins with a good diagnosis. What can you do to be better at diagnosing? Read books about leadership. Read books, blogs, and other sources about the systems that you lead. Ask others (internally and externally) to give their perspective on the problems you are facing. Pause before acting if it is possible. Get all the facts from all angles before reacting if possible. You may suppose that this will slow down your decision making. However, as you are better equipped you will find that the combination of instinct, knowledge, and experience will enable you to move quicker as time goes by.
2. The Principle of the Emergency Room: Though the wait is long, and the bill is high, the trip usually beats the alternative. The emergency room is one of the last places in the world that I want to visit. No one goes there for leisure, entertainment, or time for relaxation. The experience is often unpleasant for the patient as well as for family members and friends. However, there is another way to look at the emergency room. It is the place where healing begins. Be cautious not to ignore problems simply because dealing with them will be unpleasant. Do not let a minor ailment become a serious infection or perhaps a disease that can cause great harm to your organization, relationships, or ministry. The sting of alcohol is preferable to an amputation resulting from an infection that grew out of neglect. Though the emergency room experience is not something to which you aspire, do not let fear or neglect cause a problem to worsen. Tackle the problem and do it now.

Watch for more next week and we will continue to discover principles that maximize your leadership!

2018 has been some kind of year. I write each week to encourage you and to help you grow as a leader. I live what I write about and the past twelve months have tested me, grown me, humbled me, and challenged me as a leader about as much as any year I can ever remember. I served as the interim Lead Pastor in my home church while simultaneously helping the staff of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board navigate the transition of a beloved twenty-five year plus leader transition out and a new Executive Director transition in. In all these circumstances, my leadership has been tested as I have dealt with change, staff anxiety, staff problems, decisions that have a great impact, and the juggling of multiple responsibilities. This is not a complaint. I have been blessed and I am honored to have these opportunities.

 

Writing about leadership has helped me so much through the circumstances that I have experienced. I have often leaned on the lessons that I have learned and taught through these articles. I believe that my next year will be equally as challenging if not more so. One thing that I will have to evaluate as my organization goes through a change and my responsibilities evolve will be how I spend my time. Do I continue to write each week? Bi-Weekly? Monthly? Not at all? You can help me with this decision. As I wrap this year up, take a break from writing for the last few weeks of the year, and enjoy the holidays, I would love to hear from you. Do you have any thoughts on the frequency of these articles? Do you have a testimony to share? Please email me your comments at sparr@gabaptist.org. In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Does the name Babe Ruth ring a bell? The avid sports fan certainly knows who that is. Even the less acquainted are likely aware that he held the Major League Baseball record for home runs for almost forty years before being surpassed by Hank Aaron. During the three years prior to Ruth’s dramatic hitting career, a young pitcher on the same team recorded a 2.28 earned run average as a starter and had a winning percentage of .671. Do you happen to know who that was?  Yes, you sports geeks know exactly who I am talking about. The young pitcher was none other than Babe Ruth. Ruth was on his way to perhaps becoming a Hall of Fame pitcher with stats like those.

However, he did not continue to serve the team as a starting pitcher. The coach determined that he would be more valuable playing every day, going to the plate four to six times per game, to drive in runs and give the offense a punch. He did not know that he would set the record for home runs when the change was made. What if he had balked at the decision? (I could not resist the pun.) You may have never heard of him. Who knows how the rest of his career may have gone as a pitcher. He may have excelled or he may have flopped. We will never know. What if he said, “I don’t want to play every day. I like pitching every fourth game.” What if he liked the spotlight of being before the crowd for every pitch instead of only five or six plate appearances?

What about you and your role? Do you like your position in the organization? You should at least have some affection for it and there is no harm in aspiring to greater things. However, a leader should never have the attitude of “I don’t know what I would do if I could not do this job (hold this position).” A growing leader is capable of holding several different positions with a degree of effectiveness and will excel where he or she is placed in the existing organization or in another organization for that matter. For one to possess the attitude that they cannot thrive in any other position or any other place than where they are is not flattering. Hyper-specialization should not be confused with limited skill sets and lack of personal development. You serve your organization to help accomplish the mission. The mission must be superior in priority to your position. Otherwise, unhealthy internal competition, diminishing competence, and the undermining of your own credibility will result. You will best help those you serve now and in the future by placing more emphasis on the mission and less emphasis on your position. It is commitment to the mission that will get your organization to where it needs to be no matter what your position may be. The mission must take precedence over your position!

Outstanding organizations are known for being fast. That does not mean they are “sloppy” with their work or that they are not deliberate in decision making. But people are drawn to them because they get good service and get it in a timely manner. When I am in a restaurant, I love my meal to be freshly prepared. But, I don’t want to wait three hours in order for that to happen. Being fast is not easily definable but you know when an organization is slow or unresponsive. We are admittedly the victims of a culture that is technologically advanced and has an expectation of quick quality service. Microwave ovens, cell phones, Google, and express lanes are just a few examples of modern technological factors.  Cultural advances have raised expectations and that expectation is growing rather than diminishing. That begs the question: What does it mean to “be fast” in your area of service or ministry?

 

1. It means those who contact you by any means can expect a prompt and timely response. You may not be able to bring their question, concern, or need to a quick resolution, but you can get started on the resolution quickly. In the worst-case scenario, you should respond the next business day. You should strive to make an initial response on the same day you receive contact. The ideal is to get back with them very quick. “But my workload is so great!” you might say. That does not change the expectation of those making contact. Those who contact you for ministry and service are “your work.” You must work with your team to find a way. Remember that a quick acknowledgement of their need and a commitment to follow through will suffice if you are in a crunch. But you must follow up soon.
2. It means that you meet deadlines and that you communicate on those occasions when it is not possible to meet the deadline. I work from a task list and I rarely schedule something to be done the day of or the day before it is due. If something is due on Friday, I put it on my task list for Wednesday (or even earlier if it is a larger project). I am typing this post on Wednesday to go out next week. That builds in a buffer for me in the event of unforeseen demands on my schedule. Meeting deadlines is directly related to your time management skills and that is an area you must always seek to develop given the demanding culture in which we serve.
3. It means that you seek to provide an environment where quick decisions can be made. That is a tall task in a larger organization. Develop relationships and systems that allow for quick decisions to be made so that your team and your constituents can get a timely response to their ministry needs.

That went by fast! Until next time….

 

I once read an interesting metaphor describing church strategies. It noted that Dakota tribal wisdom says:

“When you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” 

However, churches often find themselves trying other strategies.  Consider the following ten ways that churches and organizations deal with the problem of riding dead horses:

10 – Provide additional funding to increase the horse’s performance.

9 –   Provide training to teach people how to ride dead horses.

8 –   Appoint a committee to revive the dead horse.

7 –   Change the person riding the horse.

6 –   Say things like: “This is the way we always have ridden this horse.”

5 –   Appoint a committee to study the horse.

4 –   Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.

3 –   Pass a resolution declaring: “The horse is not dead.”

2 –   Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.

1 –  Buy a stronger whip.

Churches and organizations are really good at starting programs but have much difficulty stopping them. One of the keys to your progress may be to put a ministry or program to rest.  Is it really making a difference for the Kingdom? Questions you should ask about each program or ministry:

1. Does this fit within the framework of our purpose? If not, it should be put to rest. You cannot pour energy into everything and surely should not waste time on those things that do not fit what you are called to do.

1. Do we have enough leaders to do it well? In some cases ministry or programs may need to be suspended if adequate leadership is not in place. A ministry done poorly can sometimes do more harm than if the ministry is not even functioning at all.

1. Do we have enough resources to do it well? Not everything requires money. But, some things do. The comments above apply here once again.

1. Do we have a passionate person providing leadership? When something is everyone’s responsibility, it tends to be no one’s responsibility. Someone must take the lead and must do so with passion.

1. Is it essential, important, or good? If it is good, stop doing it and focus on those things that are essential and important.

Many churches and ministries struggle because they try to do too many things, and/or they do too many things poorly. What is the last ministry you stopped doing? It may be time but it sure will not be easy. Check in next week to learn more about stopping ministry. It is a skill that is lacking in many churches and organizations.