Church Planting Challange
About 8 months ago one of our pastors decided that it was time to go plant a new church. At the exact same time as this decision, we had been laying the groundwork for our first multi-site effort. We (the Lead Pastor, he and I) spent a great deal of time praying and talking about whether it would be a church plant of our church, a satellite campus, video venue or just have no affiliation with our church at all. Ultimately, our friend made the decision for us. He wanted to structure this new church in a way that would not fit any of the concepts that we were working on. It had to be it’s own entity with no connection to us.
That was hard. It was like finding out that you were indeed going to the prom, but not with the person you wanted to go with… and now, by the way, it would be a blind date.
We looked for a win-win solution for both our friend and our church. He had been a key leader for several years, and a gifted communicator. Our church was better with him, and our church was good for him. We decided that we would try to keep him on staff for close to a year, while slowly decreasing his responsibilities and allowing him to ramp up the new church. Planting a church is challenging, and this would give him financial stability and continiuty as he began. It would also allow us to keep him in the teaching rotation, and benefit from his gifts.
There were leaders in our church that challenged me on the wisdom of this arrangement. In business, (and in many churches) once you announce your are leaving - you’re out. But we were convinced that we could make this work. The three us have met together most every week for a time of prayer and accountability. We have committed to communicate and be honest with one another throughout the process. There are times that is easy, and others…well “not so much”.
There have been a couple of significant bumps along the way, especially when it came to the “who” of this transition. You see, his church plant is in the same town with us. Many of the people that have grown close to our friend at our church are now faced with the question of whether or not to go with him to his new church. Slowly that list is growing and includes some staff and key leaders from our church.
For each loss we feel, he feels a gain. He celebrates, we suffer. Just last night we learned of another staff member and key church leader that are leaving to be a part of his church - and it felt like a punch to the gut.
Ultimately, I hope that we are able to find a way to navigate all of this without the conflict that usually arises in this type of situation. We have a relationship with a good friend at stake, as well as the responsibility to take care of the church God has called us to pastor and lead. And there are times that what is “right” just isn’t very clear. Ultimately, our desire is to please God with our actions, and to advance His kingdom, though all means possible. More churches reaching more people is a good thing.
We are still moving forward with our first multi-site launch early next year. God has blessed us and encouraged us in more ways that we ever imagined. Our church has grown in every way possible during this same time frame. But for some reason, it just doesn’t take the sting out of those losses.
Church Leadership is Boring (sometimes).
I recently sent out a tweet that said “Sometimes, Church leadership is boring”. It got a lot of reactions!
Here’s the deal. Every job is boring on occasion. There are no exceptions. Even when you are serving the most Holy and Awesome God.
When you think about it, you know that it is true. “Bored” is literally a state of mental being. I have been in incredible places with my boys, where opportunity and adventures abound - and I still hear the phrase ” I’m bored.”
I have met with some incredible, cutting edge, type “A” leaders in both the church and business worlds and heard the phrase “I’m bored.”
Tough Leadership Decisions
There is a great story (probably true) about a leadership decision that Mike Slaughter of Ginghamsburg Church made several years ago. The church had been meeting for worship in a gymnatorium kind of space and as the church grew, so did the quality of the worship service. That quality was one of the big draws for people who attended.
As many churches do, Ginghamsburg decided that it was time to build a large “state-of-the-art” worship center. When they were in the meeting to finalize the blueprints, as the story goes, Mike Slaughter took a step back and made a tough call. “We have always said that we will focus on youth and children. This expensive building does nothing for them. We need to abandon this project and put up a youth center instead.” And that is exactly what happened.
Tim Brown from IDEO
IDEO has long been considered the “founder” of the Design Thinking movement. Tim Brown is one of the thought leaders on this topic. In this interview with Business Week, he speaks to several questions about how design thinking can help businesses. The first question “What are the steps” is a very basic steps in the Design Thinking process. Tim explains these in detail.
1. Approach problems as if they were projects
2. Look outside your organization for possible solutions
3. Create “tangible” solutions early
4. Wrap a story around your solutions
Change in the Church
I spend the majority of my time working with leaders of local churches. Talk about a group that struggles with change!! One of the most significant ongoing “challenges” that these leaders face is that they have experienced success with something in the past, and are having trouble adjusting to the currently reality.
Churches have a great deal of trouble distinguishing between their “methods” and their “work”. No product or service delivery “method” is effective forever, but the “work” of the church never changes. When it is being effective, suffering is being relieved, people are finding hope, and lives are being changed for the better. It is vital that the church finds ways to be effective.
21 Rules of Innovation… numbers 15-21
15. A good team is always an active learning team.
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16. Be aware of the balance and flow of polarities that exist for your team. Remember that too much team can be just as bad as not enough. Allow for individual self-expression within the team. Teams are not problems to solve, they are a mass of polarities to manage (see Bruce Johnson’s “Polarity Management”)
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17. Your team is a strong as its weakest link. A good team makes efforts to cover, improve, or strengthen its deficiencies. Read “The Goal” by Eli Goldratt to understand more about the “theory of constraints.”
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18. Effective teams engage in constructive disagreement around content with a ‘yes and not a ‘yes but’ attitude.
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19. Listening is key.
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20. Know thyself – what you can contribute to the team and what others can contribute that doesn’t come naturally to you.
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21. In teams, seek to ‘pull in’ the outliers, the mavericks, those who we tend to exclude. Everyone has something important to offer the team – find it.
21 Rules of Innovation…numbers 8-14
8. Trust is not blind. The more you seek to understand the motives of your team members, the better.
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9. All teams go through rough patches. As Dean Kamen says, if you don’t encounter big problems or surprises, you’re not innovating. When it “hits the fan”, be an example in keeping the faith and remaining positive.
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10. Vince Lombardi won a lot of championships by focusing on, and repeating endlessly, the most basic plays and fundamentals. Basic fitness and clarity of jobs and roles were the rock he built his teams on. So, when in doubt, return to the basics.
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11. Sometimes a person simply shouldn’t be on a team. Be very careful in making this judgment, because sometimes the mavericks are exactly who you need. Still, sometimes people can’t be brought into the fold and focused on the goal at hand. If you are dead sure, cut out the “cancer”. It’s a very tough call, but when you make it you are often thanked for doing it by other team members.
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12. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. Celebrate victories, even the small ones, and celebrate learning even in failures or setbacks. Edison was of the philosophy there is no failure; be like Edison.
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13.Kick-off’s are important. Do them with energy and style.
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14.Communicate unselfishly, share your knowledge, and share honestly in a way that the person can hear.
21 Rules for Innovation..1-7
Greg Fraley wrote this list, with the assistance of Kim Greene, for the 2009 CPSI Team Building participants. They had made the request for a bit of “real world” content (imagine!).
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1. A strong bold initiative and vision inspires teams. It has the right people wanting to be involved.
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2. If you are the organizer/leader know that Who is on the team may have more impact then any other choice you make. As they say in golf, all bets are made on the first tee.
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3. If you can’t choose who is on your team, clarity of roles and task fit, are very important choices.
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4. When a team member leaves or a new member comes on board, don’t forget you have work to do in reforming the team. Really, it’s a whole new team.
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5. Don’t forget the fun element… “if it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right” (JFK). Try to integrate an element of fun in all the team does.
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6. Regardless of who is on your team, overt appreciation of strengths and diversity is a good place to start. Starting with positives is always a good idea.
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7. Build trust all the time. Make deposits to the “savings account” you have with each team member. You can, and will need to, “withdraw” from that account in difficult times (thanks Stephen Covey). A key to building trust is rigorous integrity around your word. Do what you say you will do. If you don’t, or have a problem, come clean on it ASAP.
Design Thinking in the Church
If you are a student of “innovation” you’re probably familiar with the term Design Thinking. If you’re not familiar with the term here’s a link that can give you broad overview.
The actual process of design thinking is often attributed to IDEO, a product design company located in California. To make the story short, IDEO was doing a lot of business in designing products they were getting a lot of attention (the mouse for the first Mac computer among others). Nightline the news program did a very cool story on them and the unique process by which they designed their products. Many people we interested, and looked for ways to adapt IDEO’s product design process to tackling other non-design problems.
Over time, Tom Kelley and IDEO began to refer to it as Design Thinking instead of simply “design”. They realized that it has more to do with the way that you think about the problem and its solution than about the actual product. They also began to consult with many different companies on how to integrate this thought process into the common challenge of being innovative.
There are several books worth reading on the topic including The Art of Innovation, Ten Faces of Innovation, The Rise of the Creative Class, and A Whole New Mind.
In general the concept is that our society has moved to very left brain thinking. Left brain thinking is characterized by analysis, logical, and linear thought processes. Right brain thinking is more creative, adaptable, and innovative. The goal is to use both the right and left brain thinking abilities.
For the church, this makes great sense. For hundreds of years the message of the gospel and the story of Christianity was represented through art, creativity and the narrative. It is a recent trend that we have focused so much on the logical and scientific aspects of the faith. In denying our creativity we have denied a large part of who God created us to be. At the same time - simply being creative, without understanding the rational and logical truths of the faith- is also denying a large part of who we are. It is when those two parts are brought together that we can most resemble the functioning body of Christ.
Over the next few posts I’ll be going into more detail about Design Thinking as a process and how it can benefit the church. It is one of the core processes that we use at 218Consulting when we help churches overcome the obstacles they face.
Changing the Church
I will never understand why people don’t understand why it’s hard to change a church. Think about it. The church has been in in existence for 1500 years. During that time it has changed very little. In some cases the changes are so minor that they shouldn’t really count as change. They would more appropriately be called a “tweak”.
Our current society values rapid change. Look how quickly your iPod becomes out of date. While the church is made up of visible people, it is driven by principles and dynamics that are invisible. The truth is that most people who are in leadership positions in the church choose that role because it fulfills their personal issues. Psychological studies of those who answered a call to Ministry show that many of those men and women come from a place of brokenness and/or insecurity. Within the walls of the church they find a place where they are loved and accepted and secure. Asking these men and women to risk all of that to bring change to their local church is more than many of them are able to do…
The irony is that the same deep-seated issues are often what drives them to be successful leaders and pastors in our churches. If you’ve ever spent time working in the church you have seen what I’m talking about. On the other hand, if you’ve ever spent time working in a church - you may be one of the broken ones and not be aware of the same deep issues within you.
There are somethings in the church that should never change such as the basic teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, the methods in which we teach that message need to constantly change. I imagine everyone would agree that we do a better job teaching in our education system now than we did 50 years ago. It is foolish to think that the methods of teaching should always stay the same.
The church itself expects people’s actions to change quickly once they embrace the teachings of the church. But at the same time the church itself refuses to change its actions. Either you believe in change or you don’t.
Change can come to the church. The challenge is finding healthy leaders who are willing to take a stand, and make the needed changes (and get good counseling!)
