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From Back To Front

November 9, 2011 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

Of the four major sports in the US, (I’m being really generous to hockey. It’s probably time for that to go away.) David Stern is the only commissioner to make the statement, “The name on the back is more important than the name on the front.” In other words names like Bryant, James, and Anthony, are more important than Laker, Heat, or Knick. Roger Goodell has pundits from every angle criticize the way the NFL protects its brand even down to off the field, off-season player behavior. I think the difference in philosophy and culture speaks for itself.
David Stern will get Christmas cards from all his favorite players, but he is probably not going to get to watch any basketball on Christmas Day, 2011. He will get to watch some NFL Football along with the rest of the US. Players from the NBA can scatter all over the world and still grow the brand on the back of the jersey, make a ton of money, and have no regard for the name on the front.
The same kind of culture can kill a church. If a single staff member’s name and influence, including the Senior Pastor, are highlighted more than the mission and vision of the church, when that person goes away so does all of their followers. The work of leaders focused on their own names have no staying power.
I once heard John Maxwell say (and he has probably written it down somewhere) that the measure of a leader is what happens when that leader leaves. In a leader’s absence, if things fall apart, chaos ensues, if followers migrate on, it’s quite probable that leader made too many decisions flow through and about themselves. If the mission and vision carries on in the hands of someone else who has been prepared to take the baton forward the mission will not only sustain, it will thrive and grow.
The mission and vision that God has given you is bigger than you. God forgive us when we make it about us.
Everyone Belongs,
Paul

Innovation: The Sequel

August 8, 2011 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

I love going to the movies. I love watching a good movie at home with my wife and boys. We watched Soul Surfer at my house the other night. It has some great themes, but for my 8 year old and 5 year old boys all they wanted to see was a shark and some blood.

I love a unique story line that is not predictable. But my favorite movies are ones where the story is being built on and more of the story will be revealed later. I love when there is a larger story taking place that gives you something to look forward to, like Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter.

What gets annoying are sequels. A sequel typically comes along after a movie has made a lot of money and now a duplicate can be made to capitalize on the success. Sequels are typically not very creative. Normally there will be a repeat of several jokes, or action scenes, or relational tension. The formula for success has supposedly already been determined because of how much money was made the last time, so why mess with it?

One of the most creative, visionary minds to walk the planet was Walt Disney. Disney didn’t believe in making sequels. He said he didn’t want to waste creative talent and money on old ideas. Yet for many people the goal is to find something that they feel secure in, and repeat it.

For many organizations, (I operate in the world of a local church) if there is a successful event (most often judged by attendance #’s) a common practice is to do that event over and over again. You only try to refine the formula ever so slightly because of the belief that you have already found what works, why change it?

Often the same people work on the event over and over. They have truly married themselves to it, and if the church or organization threatens to stop doing the event they threaten to leave…

…money and creative talent on old ideas.

From a spiritual perspective I don’t find God making sequels. In the scriptures, God loves to make things new and unique. Anyone or anything created in His image should be able to do the same.

As I work on my own ability to innovate and create new things I’ve jotted down several steps to making that happen, and some things I should stop doing because they are preventing me from doing anything new.

I’ll share them in the days to come.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

 

Transfer or Transform

August 4, 2011 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

I know I am being way too simplistic, but lately it seems as though I am encountering two different types of people in the church. I’ve also come to believe that leaders typically come to a crossroads as to which one of these groups they are going to try to reach. Let me try to describe the first group. They are the Transfers.

They say things like:

  •      We want pure worship
  •      Deeper teaching
  •      They have brought their preferences with them, and occasionally, their agenda.
  •      They don’t trust leadership
  •      They always find something to criticize
  •      They have a lot of pride about their own opinion
  •      They get real excited when someone they encountered in their previous transfer comes to the place they have currently transferred to.
  •      They transferred to your church, and eventually they will transfer away and be replaced by other transfers.

Unless at some point they become a part of this group. I should really put more time into this, but for now I will just call them Transformers.

  •      They love the worship. They sing loud, and to be honest not very well.
  •      They are hungry and are applying God’s word to their lives as best they can. No matter how many times they hear the same passage, they seem to get something new out of it.
  •      They trust God’s leadership in the church (that’s why it’s important not to violate that trust)
  •      They are honest and forgiving, and willing to deal with their own sin.
  •      They get real excited when they see someone they know being transformed.
  •      They will multiply themselves in the form of other transformers.
  •      They are humble, and look for ways to serve and add to the transformation.
  •      They are in an ongoing state of transformation

You can have the largest church in town with just transfers. In fact, transfers normally line up on the first Sunday of a Church Plant. They love to sample different coffee.

The churches that make the biggest difference in the community are the ones made up of transformers.

It doesn’t take a very strong leader to lead transfers. Don’t worry. They will tell you what to do.

You can be in church your whole life and remain in a state of transfer. You can’t have an authentic walk with Jesus very long before you start in transform.

You can choose which you would like to be. You can choose which you want to lead.

 

7 Leadership Principles

August 18, 2010 in Leadership with 0 Comments

At today’s Staff Meeting for West Ridge Church, Tony Morgan interviewed Mac Lake on leadership. Mac is the new Chief Launch Officer for Launch Network. Launch is dedicated to training and starting new churches that will change their community for Christ. He is passionate about developing leaders and helping churches develop a leadership culture. He believes one of the greatest things a new church can do is work to create this culture from the beginning of the planting phase.

Mac came up with 7 principles for how Jesus raised up the leaders around him after reading straight through the gospels looking through a lens of leadership development.

1) Confidence – Jesus saw people for what they could be, not just who they were at the time.
2) Connection – Jesus had a strong relational connection with the people he invested in.

Mac refers to the two things above as the central ingredients of leadership development.

3) Content – He gave them parables and stories to go talk about. They had things to learn and grow with during their time away from Him. Their leadership development was not totally dependent on their time with him.

4) Coaching – When Peter sank in the water Jesus asked him, “Why did you doubt?” while he was still in the water. He didn’t wait to ask him when he got back in the boat. He coached him in the middle of his experience.

5) Challenges – Jesus put the disciples into situations where they had to practice their leadership apart from him.
6) Cluster – Jesus created an environment where the disciples could connect with one another peer to peer.
7) Conference (Large group learning) – Throughout the year Jesus had gatherings where thousands would show up. The gatherings were so compelling that people would not even leave to go eat.

Mac shared that leadership is a messy process that requires discipline. I couldn’t agree more.

For more on Mac’s thoughts on Leadership visit http://maclakeonline.com

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

A Structure That Reproduces

August 9, 2010 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta, Leadership with 0 Comments

Coming out of Community Makeover I get several common questions about how to pull together 80 churches, 700 projects, and 7,000 volunteers. The most common question is “How does all that happen?” In other words what is the leadership trick to pulling off a begin event. I’m not sure there is any one trick, and I don’t view myself as having any secret, magical leadership skills beyond anyone else.

Here are a couple of quick thoughts that can replicate any ministry or department, and not just a big event.

1) It’s not about a single personality. A fast growing ministry cannot be dependent on the person at the top. This is not just a Senior Pastor issue (although that happens), it’s about whomever the top leader is in the ministry/department.

The person who is ultimately responsible has got to communicate clear vision and values and give them away. When a church comes to me about participating in Community Makeover (CMO) here’s the first question, Do you have a leader strong enough to recruit and care for other leaders and to put a simple structure in place? The first thing you need is a leader of leaders who’s not afraid to replicate themselves at the risk of sharing glory, credit, etc. They need to know their strengths and have people around them to compensate for their weaknesses. Every leader will learn and share the same values and vision, and be able to speak about them in a way that it is clear they own the vision.

Too many churches/organizations stay small because everything has to run through a certain person. Sometimes we pretend their are checks and balances to prevent this by putting whole committees in place. In reality everyone is waiting for approval of the Head Deacon or whomever. This type of control freak leader stifles the growth of their area and a whole organization. The trap for this kind of leader is the happy knowledge that the organization has not grown past their leadership…and it never will.

2) The structure can’t be complicated. There cannot be layers of structure that create barriers to communication and creativity. If you care for people well you don’t have to use terms like “Chain of Command”. If you take the time to invest just a little bit relationally with people you will create an environment of mutual trust. This type of environment allows people to be creative, and allows the leader to be able to come back and tweak the creativity if needed.

Every volunteer should be able to get answers to their questions no matter who they ask, and every leader must be approachable.

CMO is not complicated. The entire structure of this enormous event can be boiled down into four parts moving together like Bono and the boys to help a church of 50 or 5,000 ‘rattle and hum’ along with excellence. It can be applied to any church environment whose desire is to allow leaders to lead.

When it comes to CMO having the right leader and a simple structure allows churches to own the event themselves. This is crucial. The goal of the makeover is not to connect people in different counties back to our non profit, Engage Atlanta. Engage does not want to plan the Outreach of any given church. The desire of Engage is to create an environment that allows churches to connect to each other and reach out to their own community the way they are being led to. Maybe the churches can even work together in the future. We create a catalyst opportunity for churches to engage their community with the love of Jesus Christ. The church is still in the community after CMO is over, and the church ‘makes disciples’ not the non-profit.

The desire is that getting people involved and recruiting new leaders through this event helps set up ministries to have greater success in reaching their community in the months that follow.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

One Color Shirt For All

August 5, 2009 in Community Makeover, Community Outreach, Engage Atlanta, Leadership with 0 Comments

One color for allOne of the best decisions leaders made about this Community Makeover was to put everyone in one color shirt. This year everyone was in RED. I picked the color, so I apologize if it didn’t fit your skin tone.

One of the purposes of this Community Makeover is to change some of the impressions people have about church. Most people who do not attend church have some serious questions about why there are so many different brands. Methodists, Baptists, Assembly of God, Seventh Day Adventist, the church for the white people, and the church for the African-American.  Often churches are set apart by dress code, hair length, music-style, music volume, and more. Our preferences give the people watching Christ-followers the perception that we aren’t working for the same goal, and we can’t get along. Perception is reality. All of the preferences that we put into place to help draw people to Jesus can actually become the very things that keep people away.

So what kind of perception do we give when we all wear the same color shirt, and get our hands dirty? What kind of perception do we give when we all sing in the same color shirt?

I believe that this Community Makeover pulls people toward finding out more about the Jesus that the people in the red shirts are singing about. When we set aside all the things we use to distinguish ourselves, He becomes the thing that sets us apart.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

People matter

January 13, 2009 in Leadership, Personal thoughts, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

At West Ridge Church we share a value with thousands of other churches. I think Willow Creek must have put this down on paper somewhere first, but here it is. “People matter to God, and, therefore, ought to matter to the church.” It’s amazing that we even have to put this one down, but we do. Being a part of a church from the beginning allows you to see a ton of miracles and blessings. Perhaps I was ignorant, but I never would have guessed that the more people we have the more intentional you have to be to minister to them. The more we grow the more we have to remind ourselves, “people matter.”

I haven’t gotten my blog on in the new year, but I have a little bit of inspiration from some people that I have been allowed to invest in this week. So over the next couple of days, I’m going to share some current stories that have served as a reminder to me. It will be an exercise for me, and hopefully will benefit others as well.

Everyone Belongs, 

Paul

People matter

January 13, 2009 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

At West Ridge Church we share a value with thousands of other churches. I think Willow Creek must have put this down on paper somewhere first, but here it is. “People matter to God, and, therefore, ought to matter to the church.” It’s amazing that we even have to put this one down, but we do. Being a part of a church from the beginning allows you to see a ton of miracles and blessings. Perhaps I was ignorant, but I never would have guessed that the more people we have the more intentional you have to be to minister to them. The more we grow the more we have to remind ourselves, “people matter.”

I haven’t gotten my blog on in the new year, but I have a little bit of inspiration from some people that I have been allowed to invest in this week. So over the next couple of days, I’m going to share some current stories that have served as a reminder to me. It will be an exercise for me, and hopefully will benefit others as well.

Everyone Belongs, 

Paul

This is Christmas!

December 20, 2008 in Community Outreach, Leadership, Partnership, Prayer, West Ridge Church with 0 Comments

So here it is, the day before a big day. 4 months ago the idea of a couple people to throw a Christmas party to families in need has turned into a God-given opportunity to touch 1500 families with the “kindness of God  that leads to repentance” (Rom. 2). The ‘party’ happens tomorrow.

A couple things: This would not be possible if we made this all about us. After years of investment in the same community (by our church) the power of partnership is ‘expanding our territory’ more than anything else. We have partnered with multiple community groups and key non-profits to be able to reach out. Because of the generosity of our church, our community ,and the 4 other churches who have partnered with West Ridge Church (Pumpkinvine Baptist, Hope Methodist, Church at the Ridge, Cedarcrest Church) we will have enough food and gifts for every family.

Even if a family does not come to the party, food boxes are being delivered Monday. 1500 families will get some kind of Christmas assistance.

So one last challenge: For whomever reads this today and tomorrow, please pray for what is going to happen on this campus. We are praying with great expectations. God has shown us this was His idea. And He has stepped in to make sure it happens the right way.

Along with prayer here is some encouragement. My wife and I have cut back on Christmas this year. There are lots of reasons for it, and none of them have to do with personal hardship. It is very simple. We are extraordinarily blessed.  Over the years we have become more aware of the needs in our own community, and with my travels to Burkina Faso, the lens with which we see the world has changed. I’m not trying to be pious. My boys are getting some good gifts! We are just not going overboard. The main reason for cutting back was to be sure we engaged with A Fresh Hope and CAYA and the West Ridge Gift Offering, even if in just a small way, without letting the season pass us by.

Don’t let the season pass you by. We can still use canned goods and gifts tomorrow. And if you go to West Ridge (or another church that is doing something similar), the easiest thing you can do to engage this community and the world at Christmas is to give a larger gift to Christ than any other single gift you are giving this year. Participate in the Gift Offering this year as a way of thanking God for all the good gifts He sends our way.

I’ll post an update on this event tomorrow night or Monday.

Everyone Belongs, 

Paul