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Archive for Growing Strategies

#2 in 09: The New Traditional Church

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Let me preface this by saying I’m not sure what I think about what I’m about ready to share. I’m still processing. I’m still waiting to hear more from God on this. I haven’t landed.

As best as I can tell as I study churches across the country, here’s how the typical contemporary church asks people to invest their time today:

  • Participate in Sunday worship services.
  • Read their Bible.
  • Become a member of the church.
  • Attend classes to learn more about the Bible and their spiritual walk.
  • Participate in a small group with other believers.
  • Serve in a ministry.
  • Participate in events and programs that connect believers with others in a similar life stage. (i.e. men, women, married couples, moms, singles, college students, etc.)
  • Participate in missions efforts either locally or globally.
  • Invest in people’s lives and invite them to church.

I think that’s a fairly comprehensive list, but you could probably modify that for your specific church and add or delete from the list.

Now, as a result of all this, we see that about 20 to 25% of people end up doing most of the serving at a church. Contemporary churches struggle to get more than 30% of their people engaged in small groups. A very small percentage of people are in the Bible daily. People end up spending a lot of time at the church rather than connecting with people outside the church. We reinforce a consumption mentality that says if you’re going to grow in your faith that the church needs to spoon feed you. People become reliant on the church rather than Jesus for their spiritual maturity.

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#5 in 09: What if Target Operated Like a Church?

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‘Tis the season to shop for Christmas gifts, so I recently made a trip to Target. I love Target because I don’t have to spend a lot of money, and I avoid going to Wal-Mart.

After spending a little bit of time in the store, it struck me how different Target is from most churches I’ve visited in the past. That led me to wondering how Target would be different if it operated like the typical church. So, with that in mind, here’s my initial list:

What if Target Operated Like a Church?

  • Instead of having men’s and women’s clothing departments, they would be called clever names like Impact and Embrace that are completely meaningless to new shoppers.
  • Each department in the store would have its own logo to go with their clever name. And, of course, all those logos would be different than the logo on the front of the store.
  • The workers in each department would all have their own t-shirts and flyers to promote what’s available in their departments. The youth clothing department would, of course, have the best flyers.

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Unpacking the Starbucks Experience

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I recently had the distinct privilege of interviewing Joseph Michelli, the author The Starbucks Experience. Last month, I finished Joseph’s book and posted highlights from my reading. As a result of that post, I had the opportunity to connect with Joseph and talk about some of the specifics of his book. Here’s the audio recording of our conversation:

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If you haven’t already, you may want to order a copy of The Starbucks Experience using my Amazon link.

Interestingly enough, I found out in our conversation that Joseph’s wife is in ministry. It was fun to hear his take on how some of the principles in The Starbucks Experience applied to churches.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree that churches have a thing or two to learn from Starbucks?

What if Target Operated Like a Church?

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target‘Tis the season to shop for Christmas gifts, so I recently made a trip to Target. I love Target because I don’t have to spend a lot of money, and I avoid going to Wal-Mart.

After spending a little bit of time in the store, it struck me how different Target is from most churches I’ve visited in the past. That led me to wondering how Target would be different if it operated like the typical church. So, with that in mind, here’s my initial list:

What if Target Operated Like a Church?

  • Instead of having men’s and women’s clothing departments, they would be called clever names like Impact and Embrace that are completely meaningless to new shoppers.
  • Each department in the store would have its own logo to go with their clever name. And, of course, all those logos would be different than the logo on the front of the store.
  • The workers in each department would all have their own t-shirts and flyers to promote what’s available in their departments. The youth clothing department would, of course, have the best flyers.
  • The store manager and his wife would be pictured on the front page of the website.
  • You wouldn’t actually be able to buy anything from the website, but each department would have its own page explaining why they are such a great department and the the information would be several months out-of-date.
  • If you are in the shoe department and have a question about flashlights, the shoe department employee has no idea how to help you because it doesn’t have anything to do with shoes.
  • Shoppers would be able to start their own departments so that they can buy the items that they want to buy. Don’t worry…that means there will certainly be a clothing department for singles.
  • Shoppers would also be able to appoint their own store manager and then serve on committees and boards to tell the store manager what to do.
  • The store would only be open one day a week between 9:00 a.m. and noon and on the first Wednesday evening of every month.

Hope this makes you laugh. (Emily and I did.) And, maybe it also challenges some preconceived notions. After all, churches are sort of notorious for worshiping methods and traditions whether or not they actually produce results.

What would you add to the list?

Stop Doing Ministry

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I’m guessing you’re familiar with the story from Acts 6 where the widows in the church were not getting fed. That’s a bad situation. I know how grumpy I get when I’m hungry. I can’t imagine how grumpy a group of hungry, older women can be. That can’t be good.

The grumpy, old women weren’t getting fed because the apostles weren’t getting the job done. These leaders were supposed to be focusing on prayer and teaching God’s Word (see Acts 6:4), but instead they were stuck trying to pull off a not very effective food distribution effort.

So who’s at fault? It could be the people in the church who are just showing up for services on Sunday morning but not engaging in ministry. Maybe they haven’t studied the Bible enough to learn that it’s not biblical to pay pastors to do all the ministry of the church.

It could be the fault of the leaders. Maybe they’ve fallen into the “I can do it better” trap. Maybe they aren’t really leaders, so they aren’t spiritually gifted to empower other people in ministry.

Either way, here’s what strikes me about this passage in Acts. The apostles were engaged in ministry. In that day, food distribution was just as much a part of the ministry of the church as praying and teaching. They were doing ministry; they just weren’t doing the right ministry. In other words…

It’s possible to do the work of God without doing the work God has called you to do.

That should be alarming for us. Because as the church grows, it requires us to prayerfully consider questions like this:

  • Am I encouraging people to serve in ministry?
  • Am I helping people determine their gifts?
  • Am I empowering new leaders?
  • Am I a leader, or am I just in a leadership position?
  • Am I doing what God designed me to do?

Fortunately, the apostles decided to empower seven other leaders to take responsibility for the food distribution. That allowed the apostles to get back to focusing on prayer and the teaching of God’s Word. I guess you could say they stopped doing ministry, and encouraged others to do it instead. As a result of that, “God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too,” (Act 6:7).

People pay me to figure this out for them, but let me share this advice for free. If you’re doing all the ministry, you’re probably going to lead a small, ineffective ministry that’s not consistent with God’s plan for your life. So what are you going to do? Are you going to continue to do the work of God, or…

Are you going to do the work God called you to do?

Do you outsource at your church?

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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.

Financial Dangers for Fast-growing Churches

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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.

Church Math

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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

The Starbucks Experience

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I recently revisited The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli. Here are some key thoughts that jumped out to me this time through. Needless to say, I think several of these merit consideration in our ministry leadership roles.

  • “People want to do the right thing, they want to create and offer quality things, they want to do good in the world, and if you give them the opportunity and the resources to do so, they will shine.”
  • “Starbucks consistently spends more on training than it does on advertising.”
  • “I have worked in horrible places, and it’s hard to do a good job when you hate the company.”
  • “What are you doing to encourage the discovery of the unique needs of those whom you and your colleagues serve?”
  • “Rather than waiting for cues from the home office, everyone at Starbucks is charged with searching for new and better ideas for meeting and exceeding customer needs.”
  • “Leadership has created the expectation that partners are to be involved in improving Starbucks and has gone the extra step of creating a culture in which partners expect to be heard when they offer ideas.”
  • “While great leaders spend most of their time looking at big-picture, strategic opportunities, they cannot overlook the systems and training necessary to ensure the quality of every aspect of the company’s products, services, and processes.”
  • “When the economy turns bad or business hits a rough patch, training and education budgets suffer. This short-term financial fix often compromises the long-term health of the company.”
  • “Starbucks leadership understands that playful and positive work environments produce vital and engaged staff members.”
  • “Every company’s brand, is nothing more than the sum total of the individual actions its people take.”
  • “Consumers want the predictable and consistent, with an occasional positive twist or added value thrown in.”
  • “Many companies focus too much on the basic ingredients and not enough on adding that extra something that differentiates them from their competition and builds brand loyalty.”
  • “With consistency comes customer trust. Consumers gain stability when they know that they can depend on having a reliable experience.”
  • “If, at the end of each day, you and your colleagues have invested the extra energy to delight others rather than simply satisfy them, you will ultimately be rewarded with extraordinary results.”
  • “Because of the amazing diversity found within this country, some communities may have unique requirements that are quite different from those of neighborhoods only a few miles away.”
  • “We are often too close to our own ideas to objectively evaluate their viability.”

If you’re interested in picking up the book so you can read more insights from Starbucks, here’s my Amazon link for The Starbucks Experience.

Your turn. What of these ideas is the biggest challenge facing the Church?

Momentum at West Ridge Church

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Most people I have run into in recent weeks have been asking me how things are going at West Ridge Church. Though it’s not a full-time job for me, that’s where I’m spending the majority of my time these days. The bottom line is that I’m convinced God has great things in store for our church.

We’re blessed by the fact that momentum is working in our favor right now. God is moving in a big way. Here’s a taste of what’s happening:

  • Attendance is up. We’re coming off of one of our largest non-holiday weekends ever.
  • Brian announced plans this week to launch our first multi-site campus in 2010. (We’re hoping to launch five campuses in the next five years.)
  • Brian and I are taking steps to establish a new church planting network to equip leaders and launch churches across the country. (You want to join us?)
  • Over 50% of our adults and students are engaged in small groups. We have plans in January to engage the other 50%.
  • We are trying things we’ve never tried before. (And this weekend’s services are no exception.)
  • We’re partnering with John’s company to retool our web strategy.
  • Our team is planning and executing a strategy to double our attendance Christmas week. (Got some fun stuff planned!)
  • Through our Engage Atlanta initiative, we’re partnering with a number of local churches to serve and reshape our community.
  • In January, we’re putting a family on the ground in Burkina Faso, Africa as the next step in our effort to reach a country for Jesus.
  • We’re planning a new series in January that has the potential to transform our church.

In the mean time, I’m working with my teammates to bring a laser-sharp focus to our strategies for discipleship, volunteers, groups, care, children’s and student ministries. We’ve had some fun conversations in recent weeks about how we can help lead people on a life-changing journey to follow Jesus Christ.

I’m truly honored to have the opportunity to serve with my friends at West Ridge. I can’t believe I get to do what I get to do. And, if you can’t tell, I’m really excited about what’s coming next.

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