Are you leading a church plant that is 0 – 5 years old? Then this post is for you.

The leaders of the 2011 Exponential Conference are looking to identify the biggest concerns and challenges facing young church plants. In order to do so, they’ve created a live survey. Just hit the link and select a few of the burning questions that are facing you and your ministry. It will only take you a few minutes.

The Exponential Conference takes place April 26-29 in Orlando, Florida. This conference will challenge and encourage your vision for ministry at every level. Take the survey, then head to Exponential’s site to register and learn more about the 2011 conference.

I’m so excited to share this opportunity with you! On November 11, I’ll be speaking at the Milton Keynes Christian Centre in London, England. I cannot wait to encourage church leaders and pastors on a different continent. The conference will be focused on leading through your church’s mission, purpose, and values, rather than leading in reaction to problems and difficulties that arise in ministry.

Aside from two speaking sessions, I’ll be conducting a Q & A time with the attendees. While I’m at the conference, I’ve also set aside time to connect with church leaders in order to deepen my understanding of the unique challenges faced by the church in the UK.

I hope you’ll get more information and register early! Until October 1, the price for the conference is £10.00. (I’m not sure, but I think that translates to a pretty good deal.)

I’m looking forward to meeting with leaders “across the pond.” Hope to see you there.

Michael Franzese grew up as the son of the notorious Underboss of New York’s violent and feared Colombo crime family.  It was a life filled with power, luxury,and violence until he decided to walk away. Now, the former “Prince of the Mafia” is a man changed by the saving power of Christ. Michael’s compelling testimony comes from a deep passion to inspire others to make positive changes in their lives against intimidating odds.

I’ll admit, I was a little nervous interviewing former mobster, and I had a few mob questions I wanted answered. Michael is truly an amazing man and a living example that no one is “too bad” to be forgiven.

TONY: Do still you consider yourself to be in danger?

MICHAEL: Imminent danger? NO! Most everyone I ran with during my years in the life are either dead or in prison. I don’t believe anyone is “actively” hunting me down. But I would not consider moving back to Brooklyn. I never sell my former associates short. I am cautious, but not fearful. I believe God has my back.

TONY: What is the hardest thing to let go of since leaving the mob?

MICHAEL: My allegiance to the oath I took in becoming a “made” man and the relationship I shared with my father, who was also a “made” man. For a time, letting go of both tore me up inside.

TONY: Do you think that mob movies such as “The Godfather”, “Goodfellas”, and many others have helped to expose the evils of the mob or glorified the mafia?

MICHAEL:  ”The Godfather” glorified mob life, in my opinion, and to a lesser extent, so did “Goodfellas.” Mob life is bad because it sanctions and promotes illicit and sinful behavior. It is also devastating to the families of its members. I just signed on to have a movie produced on my life story as it is told in my autobiography, Blood Covenant. I can assure you, that movie will accurately portray the “life.”  Stay tuned!

TONY: Are you truly at peace with your past?

MICHAEL: I am. I certainly do have regrets, but I’m at peace because I believe in the cross. Took me a while to get there, but God has shown me in these past years that He does forgive those whose hearts are sincere. He has given me a new path and purpose in my life, and all I can do is hope to do better with the opportunity I have been blessed with.

TONY: If you bumped into a past associate, what would you say?

MICHAEL: I have bumped into men from my past. God has blessed every encounter. Almost every broken relationship I have had as a result of my defection from my past life has been repaired. Only God could have done that!

TONY: Who has had the greatest influence on you?

MICHAEL: Jesus, my hero! The only true “man’s man!” Also, my wife, Camille.  She is a true blue and hung in there with me through all the turbulent times. My late mother-in-law, Irma. Her rock solid faith in God was and is a tremendous inspiration for me. Lastly, the apostle Paul, my motivator. If his heart could be transformed, there is hope for all of us.

Michael, a speaker and author of several books, is available for speaking engagements through Outreach Events.

__________

This is a sponsored post from Outreach Events, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com. And, since I’m Italian, this proves that I still have “connections”…if you know what I mean.

I recently finished reading Making Ideas Happen, the new book from Scott Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance. Here are the highlights from my reading:

• “It turns out that ‘having the idea’ is just a small part of the process, perhaps only 1 percent of the journey.”
• “Most ideas are born and lost in isolation.”
• “Organization is the guiding force of productivity; if you want to make an idea happen, you need to have a process for doing so.”
• “Without some structure, you can become an addict of the brain-spinning indulgence of idea generation.”
• “The process of excessive note taking actually interferes with the bias toward action that is necessary for a productive creative environment.”
• “You must be willing to kill ideas liberally–for the sake of fully pursuing others.”
• “Leaving a meeting without anything actionable signifies that the meeting was just an information exchange and should have taken place over e-mail.”
• “It turns out that constraints–whether they are deadlines, budgets, or highly specific creative briefs–help us manage our energy and execute ideas… our productivity desperately requires restrictions.”
• “While we all have different insecurities, most of us share a common approach to dealing with them: we seek information to make our anxiety go away.”
• “Any project that’s run by a single person is basically destined to fail. It’s going to fail because it doesn’t scale. If one of my projects can’t attract a team, I pretty much figure that there’s something wrong with it.” –Chris Anderson, Wired magazine’s editor in chief
• “You need to work with people who ask the difficult, practical questions that are frustrating but important when pushing ideas forward.”
• “We fall short of fully empowering others because we don’t want to compromise the quality (or control) of our ideas.”
• “You are the steward of the chemistry in every project you lead, starting with who and how you hire.”
• “Cynics cling to their doubts and are often unwilling to move away from their convictions. By contrast, skeptics are willing to embrace something new–they are just wary and critical at first. Thought they are often undervalued, skeptics are an essential component of a healthy team, and leaders should cultivate their respect and influence.”
• “The leaders of great creative teams value the friction that results when opinions vary among a passionate group of creative minds.”
• “Teams should not strive for complete consensus at the outset of a project. After all, consensus-driven teams run the risk of settling on what offends no one and satisfies no one.”
• “Leadership is not about making people do things. Leadership is about instilling a genuine desire in the hearts and minds of others to take ownership of their work on a project.”
• “As long as the desired outcome is achieved, controlling how it is achieved shouldn’t be that important to you.”
• “We should be wary that ‘best practices’–the tried and true ways of doing thing–often become conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is often wrong.”
• “Most entrepreneurs will admit that the value of having a masterful business plan is overrated. What matters most is your ability to keep moving and pushing your ideas forward, yard by yard.”
• “The uncharted path is the only road to something new.”

I think you’ll be challenged by Scott’s writing. Here’s my Amazon link if you’d like to pick up your own copy of Making Ideas Happen.

“If you think people in your organization are predisposed to rip you off, maybe the solution isn’t to build a tighter, more punitive set of rules. Maybe the answer is to hire new people.”

Dan Pink, author of Drive, as quoted on Telegraph.co.uk (August 14, 2010)

My friend, Kary Oberbrunner, published his most recent book this month. It’s called Your Secret Name. Kary examines why each one of us is looking for the answer to the question “Who am I?”  He concludes that society offers two answers: our birth name, usually chosen for the way it sounds, or in relation to a physical or emotional characteristic and our given name, the labels, titles and identities given to us by others. However, only God can reveal our true identity by telling us our Secret Name (but, I also discovered a quick Secret Name Test that will get you going in the right direction).

Kary threads his spiritual journey with that of Jacob. The result is a book that is chock-full of scriptural truth and the evidence of a life changed by a new name. It’s an excellent read for personal growth or for use as a group study.  Here are a few of my favorite thoughts from Your Secret Name:

• Names cut deep and stick with us our whole life… Much of what we do is a reaction to these labels.
• For many of us, the most important features of a person are external–not about who they are but rather what they have or how they look.
• As long as we’re content pretending to be someone we’re not, we’ll never discover our Secret Name.
• Looking in only one direction–upward–will reveal our Secret Name.
• God’s whisper alone satisfies our soul ache because God alone knows us better than we know ourselves.
• Sometimes it isn’t the earth-shattering events that undo us, but rather a series of “random” incidents that chip away at us, piece by painful piece.
• God presents our Secret Name in snippets for fear of information overload; the more we envision our new name, the more we want it.
• God initiates a divine wound in order to help us shed our old skin and step fully into our new identity.
• Before we can discover our Secret Name, we must first confess our Given Name–a pattern found throughout the Bible.

Your Secret Name includes group discussion questions and a teaching guide. Here’s my Amazon link to order a copy.

What’s your secret name?

I’ve got a great job opportunity for you today. Grace Family Church in Tampa, FL is looking for a Student and Teaching Pastor.

Grace Family is a non-denominational congregation with a strong vision and track record for reaching the unchurched.  In its 25+ year history,  Grace Family has become known for its innovations and willingness to try nearly anything to reach those far from God.

The average attendance exceeds 5,000, with the majority of all attendees having encountered faith and been baptized at Grace Family.  The church has posted an annual positive growth rate almost every year of its existence.

If you believe you are up for the job, you will not only lead the Student ministries at Grace Family, but will also teach at the larger weekend services on a regular basis. It’s an exciting opportunity for a high-capacity leader who is passionate about reaching students and adults.  The church boasts outstanding facilities, a great reputation and a student ministry with the full support of the founding and Senior Pastor, Craig Altman, who started his days in ministry working with students. To begin the process, send your resume here.

By the way, I partner with The Vanderbloemen Search Group, a retained executive search firm, to help churches find their key staff. I’m frequently helping large, fast-growing churches with a focus on reaching the unchurched. If your church needs assistance in this sort of search, feel free to contact me.

UPDATE: This position has been filled. Please feel free to submit your resume for other positions that may be a fit for you.

You won’t want to miss the Catalyst Conference this year. It all starts on October 6 in Atlanta. (btw… It’s kind of Catalyst to throw a big party on my birthday right here in my home city.) As usual, there’s a great lineup of speakers including folks like Andy Stanley, Seth Godin, TD Jakes, Craig Groeschel and Francis Chan.

The best Rates on Catalyst tickets end today (Thursday, August 26), so register now. Call 888.334.6569 to speak to a Catalyst Concierge, or register online. You can use rate code FOB for an additional 10% discount off your ticket price. Catalyst will sell out, so make sure you register early!

Hope to see you there. And, please, no gifts.

This is a picture of how most every next step looks like in a typical church these days. Whether it’s discipleship or leadership development or community connections or volunteer engagement, we follow this formula.

So, if we we want to give people more Bible training, we promote the class at the Sunday service. A small percentage of people sign up to participate. Of those who sign up, a percentage of those folks don’t show up. Then, of the people who actually attend the class, a percentage of those folks end up actually applying their new knowledge.

Or, if we want to prepare people for a volunteer opportunity, we promote the chance to serve at a Sunday service. A small percentage of people sign up to attend an orientation. Of those who sign up, a percentage of those folks don’t show up. Then, of the people who actually attend the orientation, a percentage of those folks end up actually serving.

Again, this is a typical pattern that I see in practically every church I walk into. Every step along the way, as you might expect, fewer and fewer people engage.

Here’s why:

• The process is complex. Every link along the way creates another barrier to entry.
• The process is location specific. In an online world, the church typically still forces people to go to a building to engage.
• The process is time specific. We live in a DVR-world where we’re accustomed to interacting with content on our schedule, but churches typically require people to obtain knowledge on their schedule.
• The process is church-centric. We’re trying to give people the information we think we need rather than offering a solution that addresses someone’s unique needs. We’re attempting to offer a one-size-fits-all solution.
• The process is dependent on one person to deliver content. Whether it’s Bible knowledge or volunteer training or leadership wisdom, the “show up to an event”-solution means the knowledge-bearer becomes the bottleneck.

When I go into churches to help them streamline their systems to engage more people into ministry, here are some of the questions I process with them to change their thinking?

• What would have to happen for people to “do it” without having to attend another event first? That question forces teams to brainstorm solutions that remove steps in the process.
• What would it take to move content online so people would engage it on their time from anywhere? There are lots of free online apps that make this easier and easier every day.
• Is there an existing resource that you could recommend to people when they need it? This eliminates the need to teach all the content and it provides a more customized plan for growth.
• If everyone needs the training, can it happen when everyone is already gathered? This eliminates the need for additional commitments to calendars that are already over-booked.
• If you’re giving information, do you really have to gather people to do it? Wouldn’t it be easier to share the information through an email message?

Unfortunately, we are such an event-driven, program-driven institution that we measure success based on the number of people who show up rather than the number of people who are being transformed.

Instead of relying on events to grow people up, we need to encourage people who are already connected in serving, leading, Bible study, community or whatever the case may be to take responsibility for discipling people in their lives. That begins with people building relationships with other people. Then, they begin to invite their friends to take next steps based on the specific needs of the invidiual. Rather than building discipleship based on events, it’s based on relationships. In other words, the “do it” comes first.

Maybe it’s time we flip the funnel.

A few weeks ago I interviewed William Vanderbloemen about succession planning. He mentioned the book Transition Plan by Bob Russell and Brian Buchner as a great resource. I thought it would be beneficial to check out this book for myself. In addition, I connected with Bob Russell for an interview about his ministry and the book. Here’s my interview with Bob.

TONY: How did you end up being the senior minister at Southeast Christian?

BOB: I graduated from Cincinnati Bible College in 1965. In 1966, a new church plant in Louisville, Kentucky called Southeast Christian was meeting in the basement of a house. They had been searching for a minister for over a year. They knew the church had good potential and concluded, “Perhaps God is leading us to a younger man who will grow with us.” They were given my name, and invited me to be their pastor shortly after. I was 22 and there were 125 people attending Southeast Christian at the time.

TONY: What is the main thought from Transition Plan?

BOB: Church leaders are wise to develop a succession plan for their minister well in advance of the minister’s retirement. The same principles apply to the business world.

TONY: Why did you write Transition Plan?

BOB: Primarily to motivate preachers and church leaders to acknowledge the temporary nature of their leadership and to be willing to humbly lay the groundwork for their successor so that the Kingdom of God can continue to advance. Southeast Christian grew to an average worship attendance of 18,000 while I was the pastor, and I rejoice now that it continues to be blessed now that I’ve been gone for four years. God wants his church to be a powerful influence, transforming lives and culture regardless of who is leading it.

TONY: What practical applications do you hope leaders will take away from the book?

BOB: I hope leaders will genuinely put the welfare of the church (or their organization) above their own interests. That requires a realistic acknowledgment not only of our mortality but of the declining effectiveness that inevitably comes with age.  It also calls for ongoing humility – being willing to share the spotlight and slowly stepping away from it even when the ego urges otherwise.

Usually the departing leader should be available for private counsel when asked but needs to remove himself/herself from the organization so the new leader can be free of interference.  It is wise to regard retirement not as a time of self-indulgence but of Godly service. That means planning activity in the final chapter of life that excites and invigorates us.

I encourage pastors, elders, and church leaders to read Bob’s honest account of transitioning out of leadership and passing the baton to a successor. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

• “The truth is, retirement is mentioned in the Bible. The Levites were required to quit at age 50 (Number 8:25)!”
• “Humor and humility were two essential virtues in making the transition successful.”
• “A wise person faces his mortality and a loving person considers the next generation. To fail to do both is folly and selfish.”
• “Just as locks keep honest people honest, a good transition plan with clear lines of authority and a definite time frame help avoid conflict and uncertainty.”
• If the successor is given ample time in front of the congregation and staff, the church will become familiar with his leadership style, gain respect, and gradually make the transition in their minds…”
• “Look for every opportunity to not only build up your successor, but also pave his way.”

Want to read more? Here is my Amazon link to Bob’s book which released today.