This is the final article in a series of posts with my sponsorship partner, The Change Group. I’ve really appreciated the insights that they’ve had to share as it’s related to finances and ministry. It’s obviously something that many ministries are wrestling with in our current economic conditions.

Given those constraints, I asked Casey to shoot me his thoughts on outsourcing. Here’s why–typically it’s a great way to accomplish more by spending less. I always encourage churches to think volunteers before staff. When it’s more than volunteers can handle on their own, outsourcing is another great way to grow your impact while stewarding your resources.

Here’s just a sample of the areas I’ve seen churches embrace to accomplish more ministry through outsourcing:

• humans resources
• payroll
• employee recruitment
• bookkeeping & financial reporting
• housekeeping
• grounds-keeping
• facility maintenance
• architecture
• construction
• IT
• marketing
• graphic design
• counseling
• web design & development

Depending on your creativity and your ability to find the right relationship, outsourcing, in my experience, is an excellent way to grow your ministry impact. With that said, here are Casey’s thoughts on outsourcing bookkeeping:

Top 10 Reasons To Outsource Your Bookkeeping in 2010

1. You’ll have a team that wakes up thinking about what you lie awake worrying about.
2. You’ll have access to executive-level staff working for part-time pay.
3. There’s no turnover and no training needed.
4. You’ll have monthly “just press print” financial dashboard reports. (And, we’ll help you figure out the numbers!)
5. You’ll save time and money.
6. It helps you maintain your church’s financial integrity.
7. You’ll get unlimited access to a CFO that specializes in increasing operational revenue in your church.
8. All transactions are process within 24 hours – there’s no lagtime.
9. You’ll have a ministry-minded team that knows church finance inside and out.
10. You focus on your church; we focus on your finances.

Casey and the team at The Change Group are good folks. They’re working with a number of the same churches I interact with on a regular basis. It certainly wouldn’t hurt you to contact them and just research the options for outsourcing your bookkeeping in 2010. Their client base extends from pre-launch churches to churches with $4 million in revenue. Who knows–they may be able to improve how you handle your money and save you money at the same time.

It’s been a couple of months since I acknowledged the team of sponsors that is helping make the website possible…and literally helping to keep the Morgan family solvent. (I love having a mortgage payment and a rent payment!) Really, these are some great organizations with a number of fantastic opportunities for you. Click on a few links and check out what they have to offer.

Here are the folks that are making things happen in this month:

Letters to God – the main sponsor of TonyMorganLive.com offering an opportunity for pastors and church leaders to get a VIP screening of the film Letters to God

The Change Group – offers a web-based system that allows churches to outsource all aspects of day-to-day financial management

Church Volunteer Central — provides church leaders the tools and resources to invite, train, motivate, and retain great volunteers

Clover – provides websites for growing churches and ministries

Collision Media – a creative design studio that provides web design and other media related services for churches and businesses

FaithSearch Partners — an executive search firm focused on faith-based hospitals, healthcare systems and ministries

Paul Baloche – check out his new album from Integrity Music called “Glorious”

Pura Vida Missions — transforming lives by providing Christ-centered, life-changing mission adventures.

Rockbridge Seminary – 100% online program for earning your seminary degree without leaving your current ministry assignment

If you’re interested, we still have advertising spots available for your organization. Email me for more details. I’d love to have you join our team!

When I was taking piano lessons early on in life, I had a bad habit of pounding on the keys. In music terms, I loved fortissimo. “Very loud” came very easy to me. Then my piano teacher taught me the value of dynamics. She explained how beautiful music isn’t just achieved by hitting the right notes–it’s also a reflection of the dynamics. The power of fortissimo doesn’t grab our attention in music unless we also embrace the pianissimo, the very soft movements.

Have you ever been in public when a parent blows a gasket and starts yelling at their child but gets no response? Here’s my bet. The very first time the parent reacted like that, their child responded. The reason why kids choose to ignore a yelling parent is because it’s a learned response. Kids are smart. It doesn’t take them long to learn that if a parent constantly yells but never follows through with any real punishment, then they can ignore the screams.

Loud is only effective when it’s louder than normal. If it’s always loud, then loud becomes the new normal. In other words, loud is not loud anymore.

The same principle holds when we’re trying to promote something in ministry. Here’s how it works. You commit to a promotions campaign to get people to a new series or a big event. You decide to go loud. You buy the billboards, print the fliers, hang the banners, create the viral videos and announce to the world, “This is going to be the best deal ever!” That’s great. The first time it may work. And, chances are it could work, again, sometime in the future as long as you have some long pianissimo movements in between.

But, if you choose to go loud with every series and every event, people will get smart. They’ll soon learn that “loud” really means “normal.” When that happens, you’ll be spending a lot more time, energy and money, but people will learn to ignore your yelling. Loud will not be loud anymore.

Before you “pull out all the stops,” make sure you’re really going to deliver what you promise. It better really be the best deal ever. If not, all that yelling will eventually lead to you losing your voice–your message will lose credibility. People will stop believing you, and they’ll stop responding to your message.

If everything is loud, nothing is loud.

Pride makes you do stupid things. One of the consequences is falling into the “I can do it better” trap. It’s what happens when you look at a situation and or a decision and say to yourself, “I can’t let anyone else have this one, because it’ll just be easier (and better) if I do it myself.”

Here are some thoughts for those of us who wrestle with this:

• If you are a perfectionist, people won’t like to be around you. It’s one thing to give our best effort. It’s another thing to think it always has to be perfect. Perfectionism isn’t attractive.
• Needing to be in control will kill you. It leads to anxiety and fear. It’s an indication that God’s not in control. It will paralyze you.
• If you always do it, no one else will learn to do it and you will always be stuck thinking you have to do it. It’s a vicious cycle.
• If you always do it, you’re denying other people the opportunity to live out God’s purpose for their life. That’s kind of like telling people you know better than God what’s best for their life.
• What if Jesus said, “I can do this better.” Because, if you think about it, he could do it better…but he still elected to give ministry away to others.
• When we don’t let others do it, we limit our influence and impact. Small organizations (and churches) have leaders who think they need to do it all.
• When we choose to do it ourselves, we’re taking the easy way out. It’s harder to find someone else, train them, coach them and check up on them. In other words, we’re basically admitting we’d rather not do the hard work that could ultimately lead to better results.

Just so you know, I’m a recovering perfectionist. This is something God is continuing to work out in me. The crazy thing about this mindset is that it directly conflicts with my ministry calling. Here’s what I believe my primary calling is in my life:

“[My] responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13, NLT).

For me to fulfill that calling, there’s really no room for “I can do it better.” In order for me to do what God is calling me to do, I have to equip God’s people to do his work. Which, not to state the obvious, must suggest that God thinks …

They can do it better.

Casey Graham from my sponsorship partner The Change Group, recently shared some thoughts concerning fast-growing churches. As you’re planning for the new ministry year, you very well may want to consider teaming up with Casey and his team as well. They help churches with their finances, so you can focus on ministry. If you’d like to learn more about what they do, you may contact him directly. In the mean time, here are Casey’s thoughts on financial dangers for fast-growing churches:

First of all, you need to know I love fast-growing, healthy churches. I am pro-church-growth; however, as we have traveled the country meeting with fast growing churches, we have discovered a few financial consequences that can come along with that fast growth.

Danger 1: “We will always grow fast.”

The reality is the growth rate for most churches will slow down, stop or even go backwards at some point. This is dangerous because leaders become intoxicated with growth and start to hire and acquire like the growth will never stop. I see a lot of leaders bet the farm on that new facility that will “pay for itself” or load the staff with high-salary superstars. Another common mistake we see leaders make is the lack of accountability for staff budgets and spending. We also see a lot of churches that have millions of dollars coming in annually but they can’t make payroll if the church doesn’t meet this weekend.

To avoid these dangers, churches need written and agreed upon financial goals.  As the growth is occurring, the accountability comes through developing healthy spending, saving and giving habits. As an example, this might include a goal to only spend 75% of your income, save 10% and give away 15%. Simple decisions like this will save you when the growth slows down.

Danger 2:  “Because we have plenty, we must have a generous church.”

The reality is that fast growth can cover up hidden problems. When growing fast, churches see giving units start to go up quickly. Just because there are a lot of giving people doesn’t mean they are developing consistent biblical generosity. This usually doesn’t show up until the growth slows down. When the growth starts to wane, we are tempted to try to microwave folks into generous people.

Instead, churches need to create a systematic plan from early on that helps people have a growth track for their finances and generosity. Let me give you an example of a simple system to accomplish this:

1. Provide on-going personal financial education and counseling for church attendees. (We suggest Joe Sangl.)
2. Meet with your top 25 donors/families each year in a relational environment.
3. Consistently help people move their gifts to online giving to develop consistency.
4. Teach one four-week message series a year on the heart of God and generosity.
5. Model generosity as a church.

Again, that is just a few simple items but they will help as you grow.

These are some great thoughts for fast-growing ministries. Again, feel free to connect with Casey to learn how he can help you discover financial health for your ministry.

You may have caught this article earlier this week on my twitter feed. Apparently it resonated with a bunch of you, because more than 1,000 people clicked the link to read it.

Jennifer Kahnweiler wrote about how many successful business executives describe themselves as being introverts. She reported the number may be as high as 40% including guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. In church world, I’ve heard rumors “team introvert” may include a pastor like Andy Stanley.

Kahnweiler then went on to give these reasons why introverts make good leaders:

1. They think first, talk later.
2. They focus on depth.
3. They exude calm.
4. They let their fingers do the talking.
5. They embrace solitude.

It probably doesn’t surprise you to know that I’m an introvert. I don’t know whether or not those five attributes necessarily make good leaders, but I can certainly relate with each one of them. I’m guessing a few of you connect with those attributes as well.

So, what do you think? Do introverts make good leaders? And, more specifically, can introverts make good leaders in the church? After all, we’re in the people business. Can people who prefer solitude lead organizations that are all about people?

I’d encourage you to check out the full article. And, if you’re like me, you may also want to pick up Jennifer’s book on this same topic. Here’s my Amazon link to The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength.

more staff = fewer volunteers

lack of planning = financial challenges

more meetings = less ministry

unclear vision = packed ministry calendar

packed ministry calendar = volunteer burnout

more announcements = less ministry engagement

more ministries = more announcements

fewer people inviting friends = smaller crowds

lack of added value = fewer people inviting friends

fewer constraints = less creativity

same methods = same results