Interview Highlights

• Find out why Michael started blogging.
• Watch Michael and me discuss who has had the more boring profession.
• Hear what Michael has to say about the role of traditional publishers.
• Learn how to encourage more conversation around your content.

Interview Links

• Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
• Michael Hyatt
• Pete Wilson

Interview Highlights

• I reminded Brian that the Cleveland Indians are ahead of the Detroit Tigers in the baseball standings.
• Find out what the Bloyes identified as the biggest challenge of planting a church.
• Brian: “There are a lot of folks out there who, in my opinion, just shouldn’t be planting churches.”
• Learn why “it’s personal.”

Interview Links

• Brian Bloye
• The Launch Network
• Exponential
• Leadership Network

Interview Highlights

• “We’re actually not a body with a soul, but the reality is we’re a soul with a body.”
• Find out why Craig couldn’t get a date in high school.
• Craig challenges churches that focus on entertainment.

Interview Links

• Soul Detox
• Soul Detox DVD Study
• YouVersion: The Bible App
• Craig Groeschel’s blog
• LifeChurch.tv

Recently, I connected with Warren Bird and Jim Tomberlin to discuss their new book, “Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work.” The book provides a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a “second life.”

Here is my interview with Jim:

TONY: What are the pros and cons of mergers?

JIM: Mergers can be a fast-track way to multisite in a well-matched context. A successful merger results in healthy congregations, increased attendance, volunteers, financial sustainability, multiplied impact and ultimately a multiplied number of churches – more than when the merger first occurred. Mergers can also be a huge diversion of time, money and energy when they are not right for each other.

TONY: What trends are you seeing in church mergers?

JIM: We are seeing a new kind of successful church merger that is more mission-driven and future-focused than the old failed church mergers that were more survival-driven and focused on preserving the past. Even though multisite churches are driving many of today’s current mergers, mergers are by no means confined to the multisite movement. These mission-driven church mergers have tremendous potential to exponentially expand the impact of strong, vibrant churches as well as revitalize plateaued and declining churches. Progressive denominational workers are increasingly seeing these kinds of mergers as a way to add more vibrant congregations.

TONY: Can you share a story of a successful merger?

JIM: We share over 30 examples of successful mergers in our book but the one that stands out is the reconciliation merger in Ruston, Louisiana. After an 18-year split, the two churches had a reconciliation that resulted in a “re-union,” a new name “The Bridge Community Church,” a re-energized base and an overall increase in attendance at the two campuses. They now have a re-organized leadership team and a vision of multi-siting more across their region. This is a merger that began with a reconciliation and it is now bringing community transformation. Gotta love it!

TONY: You say that most successful mergers have a lead church and a joining church rather than viewing each other as equals. What does that mean?

JIM: Very few church mergers are between two equals, most are vastly unequal in size and health. Our sense is that every church merger involves a lead church and a joining church. The merging of churches is a delicate dance in which one leads and the other follows. We see successful mergers when both congregations understand who leads and who follows.

TONY: You say that mergers are on the rise and that the new approach overcomes the failure-prone approach of the past. Can you further explain this concept?

JIM: The successful mergers of today have a kingdom of God mindset that is looking for the win-win relationship. Both churches benefit when mergers are successful. The local community is better served and the Kingdom of God is expanded. What’s not to like about that?

You can follow more of Jim’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

Recently, I connected with Warren Bird and Jim Tomberlin to discuss their new book, “Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work.” The book provides a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a “second life.”

Here is my interview with Warren:

TONY: What prompted you to write “Better Together?”

WARREN: Church leaders from many different contexts (church planters, established churches, very large churches) are asking about mergers with increasing frequency. Many are experimenting with the concept and some have found a healthy and life giving way to merge with other churches. Other leaders are looking for new options beyond the old models that have proved to fail. We wanted to glean best practices and create the leading handbook for how to do mergers well. In fact, right now our book is the only book that addresses this subject matter.

TONY: In your book, you say that 1 in 3 multisite campuses come as a result of a merger. Please explain this statement in more detail.

WARREN: We have found that as churches add new campuses, 1 in 3 come from a merger. This may be the way a church becomes multisite or it may be its third, fourth or fifth campus.

TONY: What are some common ways that church plants become involved in a merger?

WARREN: Church plants often have vitality and momentum but no facility. They often connect with a congregation that has a building but lacks the momentum to move forward. Sometimes the plant merges with the congregation from whom they are renting the facility. Their established trust and partnership emerges into a merger.

TONY: Are all church mergers the same?

WARREN: No. Our book introduces several types of mergers that are based on a family model such as rebirths and adoptions. We share the pros and cons of many models. We recommend considering each model except for an (intensive care unit situation). This is where two dying churches join only to fade away together.

TONY: How can a church know whether or not they are a good merger candidate?

WARREN: That is an excellent question. We devote an entire chapter on how to pray and discern what steps to take and what questions to ask.

You can follow more of Warren’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

Mark Miller

I recently visited the Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters and had the opportunity to connect with Mark Miller. Mark is the Vice President of Training and Development for Chick-fil-A.

TONY: You have been around Chick-fil-A for quite some time. Share a little bit about your leadership journey.

MARK: I joined our corporate staff in 1978. I worked in the warehouse and mailroom and was the sixteenth corporate employee. Since then, I started our Corporate Communication department, the Quality and Customer Satisfaction department and most recently, our Organizational Effectiveness group. It’s been a great journey.

TONY: At Chick-fil-A, corporate values drive the organization’s culture. Can you give our leaders some practical advice on how to do this in their organizations?

MARK: Leaders must first decide if they are going to articulate current values or aspirational values. The real work begins once this decision is made. We encourage our leaders to take three action steps to bring their values to life:

• Know your values – Values must be known and understood before they can be communicated
• Share your values – Don’t make people guess at what’s important, tell them
• Live your values – Leaders are doomed if they say one thing and do another

TONY: How does Chick-fil-A approach leadership development?

MARK: Our leadership point-of-view can be summarized as: “Great Leaders Serve.” We are convinced that Jesus had it right in Matthew 20:26 when He said, “Those who want to become great (leaders) must be willing to become servants.” We built our leadership competency model around the word SERVE. We believe that great leaders…

• See the future
• Engage and develop others
• Reinvent continuously
• Value results and relationships
• Embody the values

TONY: Can you share a story of how Truett or Dan have modeled this?

MARK: Dan and Truett both model servant leadership. Truett taught 12-year old boys in Sunday School for over 50 years. Dan is the champion for second mile service in our organization. Both of them are very gifted at seeing the future and they continuously strive to reinvent the organization.

TONY: If you could only share one bit of advice with the next generation of leaders, what would it be?

MARK: Your capacity to grow determines your capacity to lead. Dan actually taught me this principle over 30 years ago. If young leaders commit to become life-long learners, they will never regret the decision. Ken Blanchard and I just released a new book about this topic called, “Great Leaders Grow.” The book is a helpful resource for anyone who wants to grow their leadership capacity. All of the proceeds from the book are donated to charity.

Mark asked me to serve our readers by giving away 50 free copies of  ”Great Leaders Grow” to the first 50 people who comment on this post. Make sure to include your mailing address in your comment.

UPDATE: Looks like we have 50 people, so thanks for participating. There aren’t any more books available.

Hard to believe it’s been exactly three years since Killing Cockroaches was released. With that in mind, I thought we’d have a little “Fun Friday” contest today to celebrate.

Here are five questions. The answers can be found in the archives of my blog.

1. Who captured the picture of the “shower scene” that caused the panic at the hotel in Anderson, South Carolina?
2. Who helped shape the “Pride of Piqua” and its impact on my systems thinking?
3. What was the name of the Christian rock band I used to be in when I was in school?
4. What color were the flowers on our wedding cake?
5. What caused my mom to skip watching both Oprah and American Idol?

The five people who email me with the correct answers will win an autographed copy of Killing Cockroaches. (By the way, the book does include detailed instructions on how to kill cockroaches.)

Bonus points if you Tweet this contest to your friends. May the best people win!

This is one of those rare instances when the late bird gets the worm. Procrastinators unite! Your day has finally arrived.

For a limited time only, Amazon is offering my eBook Developing a Theology of Leadership for free. That’s right — absolutely no strings attached. The only investment in money will be that few pennies you paid to charge your Kindle this morning.

Also, the investment in time is very small. It’ll take you about 20 minutes to read the entire eBook. My hope, though, is that it will generate new conversations with your ministry team about leadership development.

It’s free. It’s short. It doesn’t matter if you’re a late-adopter today, because the Internets just delivered you a gift.

Since it’s free, please share the news with your friends. And, do me a favor. After you’ve read the eBook, leave a brief comment on Amazon to let future readers know how it shifted your thinking.

Big news!  We recently released the third eBook in the Leisure Suit series.  This book is called Stayin’ Alive: Build a Legacy of Leadership.  Among other things, this resource includes strategies and practical steps for:

• being intentional about leadership development
• developing dynamic leadership teams
• addressing leadership, vision or strategy gaps
• evaluating the health of your organization
• making uncomfortable but necessary changes
• investigating your personal disciplines and priorities

Like our other two previous eBooks, this resource is FREE.  We encourage you to share it with your teammates and friends.  The book doesn’t take much time to read and it includes relevant exercises and discussion questions that can be used the next time you connect with your team.  We want this resource to help you develop healthy conversations that lead to positive change.

We know that all of you are very busy so we wanted to provide you with a resource that can be used right away.  You don’t have to visit a bookstore or wait for the Amazon box to arrive on your doorstep.

Again, I’m grateful for the partnership with Church Community Builder.  Because of their generous contribution to Engage Burkina, this entire series is available to you for free.

Our team’s primary mission is to help leaders and churches have a bigger impact.  We don’t want you to be stuck.  We are praying for this eBook to help you take your next steps in your leadership and ministry.  Help us spread the word!  We want everyone to benefit from the entire Leisure Suit series.

Earlier this month, I wrote about Leaders Book Summaries.  The company summarizes books for busy leaders.  Each month, they review a couple of books and then send subscribers helpful 10-20 page summaries and a detailed 2-page super summary.

This week, I checked out their free sample summary and was really impressed.  The free sample was a summary of the book Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  The actual summary was a PDF document with a very professional layout.

The writing was clear, concise and easy to follow.  I really enjoyed reading the “Pastor’s Perspective.”  This section shared specific ideas for applying the book in a Christian organization.

The company issues thirty (30) summaries of leadership books each year.  The books are written by secular and religious authors.  Recent examples include…

• Integrity by Henry Cloud
• Talent is Never Enough by John Maxwell
• The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni
• On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis

A subscription is only about $6 a month (cheaper if you pay for an entire year in advance). For the price of three hard-back books, you can receive 30 high quality book summaries.

Leaders Book Summaries is currently offering a free one-month trial for our blog readers. Save time and money as you grow your leadership skills!

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This is a sponsored post from Leaders Book Summaries, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com