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Archive for Growing Strategies

“And” Instead of “Or”

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Why does it have to be attractional or missional? I’ve seen lives impacted by both approaches. Why can’t it be attractional and missional?

Why does it have to be evangelism or discipleship? Christ-followers need to be engaged in both. Why can’t it be evangelism and discipleship?

Why does it have to be teaching from the platform or teaching in the living room? I’ve been stretched by God’s Word in both settings. Why can’t it be teaching from the platform and the living room?

Why does it have to be worship with an amazing production or simple, stripped-down worship? I’ve experienced powerful worship in both environments. Why can’t we do both?

Why does it have to be corporate gatherings or one-on-one relationships? I need both to be encouraged and stretched in my faith and my leadership. Why can’t we embrace both ways of connecting with others.

One of the things that most frustrates me about church blogs is the “or” approach to writing. I don’t get it. Honestly, it’s probably one of the reasons why in most cases I’d prefer to read marketplace blogs. In marketplace writing, if someone thinks they have the “right way” of doing something, they just go do it. Then they write about how it worked or didn’t work. In church writing, if someone thinks they have the “right way” of doing something, they write about how the other church is wrong.

What if we took the “and” approach? What if we were open to the possibility that more people might be reached if we stopped doing either/or and started embracing both/and? What if God really designed some churches to be one way for one community or culture and other churches to be another way for another community or culture? My guess, as an example, is it’s going to take a completely different type of church to reach the inner-city than it’s going to take to reach the neighborhoods of Paulding County, Georgia.

We spend a lot of time and energy fighting for the “or.” Wonder what would happen if we just embraced the “and” needed to reach our communities?

The problem, of course, is that we like to worship our methods. Our preferences are the priority. In fact, we shape religion around our preferences even if it means sacrificing the broader impact of our ministry. Why help other people when it might make us uncomfortable?

I just wanted you to know I’m more of an “and”-type of guy. I know that frustrates you. It would be a lot easier to dislike me if I didn’t agree with you. The problem is that in many circumstances, I think you’re right. The only difference is that I don’t think you’re always right.

And neither am I.

Does the Church Need a Building?

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I recently spent some time in the bush of West Africa. Our team drove down dirt roads from village to village. Okay, the word “roads” is a bit of an exaggeration. In many spots it was just a dirt path.

I’m pretty sure where I was qualified as “the ends of the earth.” People were living in mud houses and grass huts. A well with relatively clean water was a luxury. We saw children surviving on a couple good meals every week. If you are reading this post, you and I are very rich.

It was in the midst of this environment that I may have experienced my biggest frustration on the trip. In these villages in remote West Africa, people are hearing the Gospel for the very first time. When that happens, they want to gather in community with other believers for teaching and worship.

What was frustrating to me is the investment churches are making in buildings. In just about every village we went into, the church building, if there was one, was the biggest and nicest building in the village. It was truly aggravating. Don’t these people realize church isn’t about buildings?

In one village we visited, the indigenous pastor showed us the tree the church first met under. Then he pointed out the first building made out of mud. Then he showed us their spacious, modern, new worship facility.

Get this, some of these churches are filling up their big buildings and they’re building even bigger buildings. Don’t they know that’s not how the early church did it?

The way it’s supposed to work is that you’re supposed to meet in homes. When one home fills up, you start another church in a second home. Or, you rent a building that already exists in the village. Why, though, would a church invest in a building when people desperately need food and water?

Then that’s when the pastors from the villages taught me a lesson about ministry. In these villages, it’s not uncommon for there to be a mosque. Islam is the predominant religion, so they have a significant physical presence. In fact, they are very intentional of building mosques in every village and they try to establish facilities as close to the center of commerce as possible. In a culture that associates “faith” with a place of worship, it’s impossible for the Christian church to grow and for the Gospel to spread if it doesn’t also have a place of worship.

In other words, these indigenous pastors knew their culture better than I knew their culture. Though I had a strategy for growing the church that I thought was more like the early church found in Acts, my approach would have prevented the Gospel from spreading in these villages.

And all of this was a good reminder to me that knowing the Gospel message is obviously very important, but so is knowing the culture that you’re trying to reach. It gave me new understanding for Paul’s words:

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23, NIV)

It was also a good reminder that what happens to work here in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia may not necessarily be the best approach to spreading the Gospel in Portland, Oregon or New York City…and vice versa. In fact, last I looked around Atlanta, a lot happens in buildings–some very big buildings.

So, what do you think? Does the church need a building? Or, do the pastors in Africa just need to learn how to properly grow a church?

Change

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It’s a lot easier to embrace change when you’re the one initiating it.

When we decide change is needed, it’s a lot easier for us to receive it.

Change without vision is chaos.

Change to fulfill vision is a lot easier to understand when it’s shared through stories.

Many times the most successful or positive changes also produce the most criticism.

Change doesn’t happen unless someone is responsible to deliver it.

It’s easier to embrace change when we see it rather than when we hear about it.

Change, even the best kind of change, will always generate some measure of fear and anger and sadness.

In other words, someone will always despise the change and let you know about it.

It’s almost impossible to change a change that previously worked.

Test-driving a change is a lot easier than fully committing to the unknown.

Change is more likely to take hold when it’s followed by an immediate win.

When you think you’ve communicated enough about the change, you need to communicate more.

Organizations that don’t change die.

When change happens, it always gets personalized–it always ends up being about “me.”

Slow change is rarely positive change.

Change without metrics is foolishness.

If the change is easy, you’re probably not changing enough.

Resistance addressed appropriately makes change better.

If everyone already recognizes the need for change, you’re obviously not the leader.

My Next Stops

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I’ve been working on my calendar today. Here’s where I’m going to be heading over the next several months:

I may be able to squeeze in one or two more stops between now and the end of May. The summer schedule is starting to fill up as well, so now is the time to connect if I can serve you and your church. Let me know if you’d like to talk.

Is someone stealing from your church?

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Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many instances when churches are making the news because of moral failures. Many times that involves inappropriate relationships. Other times it involves the mishandling of money. One of the reasons I love working with Casey Graham and the team at The Change Group is that they work with a number of churches of all shapes and sizes, and they have appropriate safeguards to protect churches. Here’s a recent interview with Casey on this topic:

TONY: Casey, tell me about some of the changes churches should make to protect their finances?

CASEY: It is absolutely essential that non-profits, specifically churches, maintain financial integrity. If you are a church leader, your financial well-being is built on the trust that your donors have in you and your financial processes. In my experience working with churches, I have seen some with over $1 million budgets and they had only one person looking at their books. You can’t even really count their financial team or board because they look at reports generated by that one person. Two of the churches had great Christian people as their bookkeepers, and in both cases money was being stolen.  One lady was the last person I would have ever imagined to steal. That’s why at The Change Group we utilize a team approach for bookkeeping so there is never any question.

TONY: Some churches are required to have annual audits by their lenders. Is that necessary for all churches because that can get pretty expensive?

CASEY: Every church should have an “annual financial review” done by an outside, third-party CPA. Someone offering to do this for free in your congregation is not a good option. You need an objective accountant that looks at the facts. You don’t need an audit each year unless your lender requires it, but you do need a review. The difference in the audit and review is the audit is more detailed. We suggest a full audit every five years. 
We are now offering this service to churches and want to make it available now for your 2009 annual review.  If you do not use us, at least use someone!

TONY: Tell us more about the annual review you have available.

CASEY: We are offering this at a church rate that is inexpensive compared to other firms. 
If you use our team to conduct your annual review, The Change Group will also do a full “Generosity Systems Check” for your church for free (normally a $3,000 fee). The Generosity Systems Check will consist of a deep dive into your financial cycles and systems, and then we’ll recommend ways to take advantage of unique opportunities in 2010 to increase operational revenue. The Generosity Systems Check alone will pay for your annual review.

If you want to learn more about the annual review and the free Generosity Systems Check or would like more information about outsourcing your bookkeeping and financial management, contact The Change Group.  They are only offering the free Generosity Systems Check through April 15, 2010.

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fyi… The Change Group is an advertising partner of my site. I’m glad to have them on my sponsorship team

Killing Cockroaches Houston Notes

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Here are the notes from the two sessions I taught at the Killing Cockroaches tour stop in Houston.

The Houston crowd rocked! Thanks for being there and engaging the conversation.

It’s about the life change, stupid!

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Back in the 1992 elections, Bill Clinton’s political machine used the phrase, “It’s about the economy, stupid!” to remind themselves of their priority. If they were going to run a successful campaign, they had to keep the message focused on the economy.

In church world in the 90s, you may have heard leaders use the phrase, “It’s all about the weekend, stupid!” The philosophy was if the weekend services aren’t great, it impacts the growth of every area of the ministry.

Since we do ministry in America in the middle of a very consumer-driven culture, I still believe our weekend services are critical to sharing the Gospel. People who don’t know Christ are consumers before they are convicted and committed Christ-followers. If the weekend service experience isn’t intentional, people who are still consumers will not stay engaged. We can present the Gospel, but they won’t be there to hear it. We can challenge people to become fully-devoted followers of Christ, but they won’t be there to hear that challenge.

That said, there’s a danger if we assume the weekend service is the only component of a discipleship strategy. Primarily, that’s an issue because it’s not God’s design for spiritual growth. Corporate worship and teaching is one component, but it’s not the only component.

At West Ridge, our focus is instead on leading people on a journey of life change. In other words, it’s not about the weekend–it’s about the life change. With that in mind, we’re both intentional about what happens on Sunday, but we’re also very intentional and focused in how we offer next steps.

This current series is the perfect example. The services in “The Naked Truth” series have been very compelling. We’ve given great amounts of prayer and attention to every detail of the teaching, worship, graphics, media, stories, etc. But, we’ve also been very intentional about the next steps we are offering people to embrace the journey of life change.

For example, here are some of the specific next steps we’ve encouraged people to take:

  • Online Assessments – We’re offering check-up assessments for couples who are dating, engaged or married. This assessment ultimately offers recommendations for further conversation and action steps. It may encourage couples to pursue counseling as needed. We’re also offering a separate assessment for single adults.
  • Daily Devotionals – We’re writing and delivering daily devotionals through email to encourage couples to talk, pray and study the Bible together.
  • Group Connections – We’ve challenged everyone to connect in a short-term group based on their life stage and location. These groups are engaging in further conversation and Bible study based on the topics of each week’s message.
  • Life Care Support – Where folks need additional support beyond the assessments, devotionals and groups, we also have support groups and counseling available. We have over 100 volunteers helping people in support groups that provide care for folks wrestling with divorce, substance abuse, sexual addiction, financial challenges and more. We also work with local, professional counselors to refer people to counseling when it’s helpful.

To our knowledge, we’ve seen a couple thousand “next steps” in recent weeks including almost 100 people who have accepted Christ and begun their life change journey. That’s what our ministry is all about. We celebrate the people who show up for services on Sunday because we know it leads to thousands of people taking next steps and experiencing life change.

It’s about the life change, stupid!

Upcoming Conferences

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Several of my friends in ministry are offering some great church conference opportunities in the next couple of months. These experiences may not be on your radar, so check these out:

  • Radicalis – Rick Warren and his team are offering a new experience at Saddleback Church on February 9-12. This event features messages from Rick, Mark Driscoll, Andy Stanley and several others. And, it’s a nice excuse to visit SoCal.
  • Velocity 2010 – The folks at ChurchPlanters.com are hosting an event with Ed Young, Rick Warren, Steven Furtick and others on February 22-23 at Mountain Lake Church near Atlanta, GA. I’ll be there too talking about “The Giant Inflatable Blue Monkey.”
  • Unleash 2010 – Perry Noble’s conference is on March 4 at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. The conference features sessions with Perry, worship and breakouts. Unleash sold out last year, so you should act quickly if you’d like to attend.
  • Thrive 2010 – This conference is out at Bayside Church near Sacramento, CA on April 29 – May 1. This event includes messages from John Ortberg and John Maxwell, and the worship will be led by one of my favorites, Lincoln Brewster.
  • The Uprising – This one-day conference is on April 15 at Quest Community Church in Lexington, KY. Pete Hise is the lead pastor. Quest has seen over 10,000 people come to Christ in the last 10 years. The early bird deadline is January 15.

Just out of curiosity, what conferences, if any, are you planning to attend in 2010?

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Update: I knew I’d leave out some of my friends. I’ve added a couple of others. And, to state the obvious, I’ve been offered free registrations to several of these events and I’m obviously getting paid to speak at others. You and I are both going to get tired of these disclosure statements to make the FTC happy. Everything’s better when the government gets involved!

Lean Staffing

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I’ve had some interesting dialogue with Warren Bird, research director for the Leadership Network, in recent months. He shares my passion to pursue new models of ministry that raise the level of lay leadership and volunteer empowerment in ministry with the hopes of, among other things, reducing staffing expenses.

Warren has designed an online “lean staffing survey” to learn about healthy ways churches are keeping staff costs down. We’d like for you to participate. Here’s how:

  • Take the “lean staffing survey” online.
  • Only take the survey once.
  • Complete it before midnight on January 25.

If you complete the survey, you’ll also get a free copy of the results. Contact Warren directly if you have questions.

In the mean time, will you commit to the “Ephesians 4:12 Challenge” and use your leadership influence to empower more volunteers in ministry? Personally, I think it’s a simply strategic idea.

Is Dull Worship the Goal?

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You know you’ve arrived when other people start attacking your philosophies and strategies in their books. Skye Jethani, the managing editor of the Leadership Journal, did just that in his recent book, The Divine Commodity. In the book, Skye goes on the attack about some things Tim and I wrote in our book, Simply Strategic Growth. Skye has never communicated with me either face-to-face or in writing, so we’ve never had the opportunity to discuss our obvious differences.

Unlike Skye, I’m still of the opinion that healthy churches are growing churches. I also believe that if we embrace some intentionality in our ministries including our worship services, we’re more likely to connect with today’s culture. At the end of the day, I believe churches should be both attractional and missional. Skye believes otherwise. Here’s what he wrote:

These pastors, representative of so many contemporary Christians, believe that God changes lives through the commodification and consumption of experiences. If our worship gatherings are energetic, stimulating, and exciting enough then people will attend, receive what’s being communicated, and be spiritually transformed. The justification for this approach is simple: people won’t come to a church that’s boring. And what qualifies as boring is defined by our consumer/experience economy. But the moment we believe transformation occurs via external experiences, the emphasis of ministry must adjust accordingly. Manufacturing experiences and meticulously controlling staged environments become the means for advancing Christ’s mission. And the role of the pastor, once imagined as a shepherd tending a flock, now conjures images of a circus ringmaster shouting, “Come one, come all, to the greatest show on earth!” In Consumer Christianity, the shepherd becomes a showman. (p.75)

I’m intrigued by this position. Let’s assume for a moment that we agree with what Skye offers. How should we respond? Should we intentionally offer worship gatherings that are dull and boring so no one wants to participate? Should we just show up for worship without preparation? Do we start offering teaching and music and other elements of worship that reflect less than our best effort so that people aren’t attracted to the experience? Does this suggest that if someone is a gifted communicator or vocalist that we shouldn’t allow them to share their gifts in worship because people may want to invite their friends to come experience the gathering? If our worship starts to attract people, should we make it less engaging so people will stop inviting their friends and family and our worship gatherings will stay smaller? Does God want fewer people in worship?

I also think it’s a bit of a stretch to judge the methods of other churches based solely on their worship gatherings. I don’t know of a single church that relies solely on worship gatherings for spiritual transformation. Typically spiritual transformation is encouraged through several next steps including relational connections, Bible studies, serving opportunities, missions, spiritual disciplines, personal evangelism, etc. I’m intrigued with this notion that worship gatherings are the end-all-be-all to spiritual transformation. If, indeed, there are such churches, I might agree with Skye’s thesis.

My guess is there may be some misunderstanding of my interpretation of Skye’s thinking. And, of course, that happens when you begin to pull elements of someone’s writing out of context and arrive at conclusions without engaging a dialogue.

Skye, maybe we should do that.

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fyi… The publisher sent me a free copy of Skye’s book to review several months ago. You can send me free stuff, but I’m always going to shoot straight with my readers.

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