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My Next Steps Update

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It’s been a while since I last updated you on what’s happening in my life. Though my family and I are still at NewSpring Church, I left the staff team about 10 weeks ago. Since then, Emily and I have been praying and talking a lot about our next steps. Here’s where we think we’re heading in this next season:

Connected to a Local Church – I can’t imagine not being connected to a local church. We need a place for our family to call home. I’m considering opportunities where I can serve on a ministry team in a part-time leadership capacity. At this point in my life, it would be difficult to write, teach and coach about leadership and ministry strategy in the Church without actually being engaged in ministry.

Coaching & Consulting – At the same time, I have a calling to encourage, equip and challenge church leaders. With that, I’ve taken steps in recent months to get more focused about coaching and consulting opportunities. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve had a chance to connect with churches of all shapes and sizes throughout the country. Let me know if you’re interested in future coaching networks or consulting engagements.

Strategic Partnerships – As I’m connecting with growing churches, I’m also noticing some opportunities where I can help identify strategic next steps but I either don’t have the expertise or the time to fulfill specific needs. Because of that, I’ve developed partnerships with some great organizations to assist churches with areas like creative design, brand strategy, technology, executive recruiting, stewardship and facility design and construction.

Specifically, one of the areas that I frequently get requests for assistance is with recruiting and selecting staff leaders. I love helping churches define strategy and structure for health and growth, but I don’t have the time and expertise to handle all aspects of executive recruiting. That’s why I’ve developed a strategic partnership with William Vanderbloemen and the team at FaithSearch Partners. They’ve worked with churches from a variety of denominations and many sizes of congregations, ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 in attendance.

I love helping churches define their strategy and structure and then make sure they have the right people on the right seat on the bus. If that’s your church, I’d welcome the opportunity to talk more. Feel free to email me and let’s talk about how we can bring a team together to help you take your next steps.

Leaders Need to Drive

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Today we headed down the road toward the other Dallas – not Dallas, GA but Dallas, TX. We stopped in Jackson, MS for the night. Highlights from the day included seeing the Talladega Speedway, watching Jacob almost make himself sick by eating a footlong Philly steak sandwich, eating a great meal at Sweet Peppers Deli and cruising the Capitol area in Jackson.

All the driving reminded me of this post about leaders. At some point, leaders need to…

Drive the Car

Recently, I gathered with a group of guys for breakfast and to talk about leadership. One of the guys was talking about the challenges he and his wife have faced in recent months with their marriage. We all face those challenges. No marriage is immune. He’s married to a very wise woman, though. His wife suggested that she was getting really tired of talking about all the things that they needed to fix in their marriage. She was tired of all the discussion.

She went on to liken their marriage to owning a car that’s always in the garage. You get in the car. Sometimes you even start the engine. Most times, though, the car is up on the lift so that you can tinker with it. You own the car, but you’re always under the hood trying to analyze what’s wrong with it and what needs to be fixed. One day she said, I’m tired of trying to figure out how we need to fix the car–I just want to drive it.

That’s powerful. And, the thought occurred to me: this is a leadership lesson. If God has gifted you as a leader then you need to lead. You can read about leadership. You can talk about leadership. You can go to leadership conferences and hear men and women share their greatest leadership lessons. You can analyze your leadership ability, and you can have others help you tweak your leadership skills. All of that is worthless, though, unless you eventually get behind the wheel and drive the car. Leaders will never become leaders unless they lead. [continue reading>>]

Cockroach Tour Buzz: Have you ever experienced those times as a leader where you really wanted to drive the car? What are you doing to help other leaders, particularly young leaders, have the opportunity to drive the car?

“TONY” Discount for Catalyst Atlanta

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Catalyst ConferenceEarlier today, I caught up with Brad Lomenick. I like to call him Mr. Catalyst. I think his official title is something rather tame like “Executive Director.” Brad is really sharp, and he’s orchestrating a movement that’s committed to equipping the next generation of leaders.

TONY: It’s been almost a year since we last talked on my blog, what’s new at Catalyst?

BRAD: Lots of new things on the Catalyst front. This has been a very busy and intense year with moving Catalyst from one event to multiple events and locations. This year we added two new events, with our West Coast event in April and the One Day events with Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel. We have also launched a publishing imprint with Zondervan focused on resources for leaders in the Church, and will be celebrating our 10th anniversary of the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta in October.

TONY: No, I mean what’s really new. Give me some dirt that the tabloids don’t even know about.

BRAD: Launching the West Coast event was a ton of fun. We are really excited about building the Catalyst community and network on the West Coast. And we actually now have a West coast office with LV Hanson leading the charge out of Orange County- our “satellite office.” We are actually concepting some potential online events for 2010, a new international focus, several major partnerships, and a potential BIG global event in 2010 in conjunction with several organizations. That’s all I can say…..

TONY: I’m looking forward to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta coming in October. Tell us about the speaker line up.

BRAD: It’s the best lineup ever in my opinion, including all of our main session speakers as well as lab session speakers. And a wide range of voices, which is always a Catalyst trademark. We love hearing from all angles around the topic of leadership. Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Dave Ramsey, Rob Bell, Malcolm Gladwell, Tony Dungy, Chuck Swindoll, Matt Chandler, Shane Hipps, Priscilla Shirer, Josh Hamilton, Margaret Feinberg, Perry Noble, Reggie Joiner, Nancy Ortberg, Mark Batterson, Dave Gibbons, Ed Stetzer, and many others.

TONY: Any surprises that will make this year’s conference more “Catalysty” than it’s ever been before.

BRAD: Yes, but I can’t really share them. Let me just say that because it is the 10th year anniversary, we are working hard to make it extra special, and extra “Catalysty” as you put it!

TONY: By the way, I heard a rumor that Andy is really jealous of Malcolm Gladwell’s hair. Is that true?

BRAD: Not sure if Andy is, but I know I am. I definitely have “hair envy” of Malcolm’s hair. But since I have no hair, I am pretty much jealous of any hair.

So, here’s the deal. Not only is Brad a relatively decent interview, he’s also a generous guy. I twisted his arm and he agreed to offer a one-of-kind discount for TonyMorganLive.com readers. Get your pen and paper ready. This could get pretty complicated. You need to register with the priority code “TONY” to get the $40 discount on individual registrations. And you need to do that by the end of the day on Thursday (June 25). If you don’t, the discount goes away.

Now, remember, the priority code is “TONY.” Don’t try to use “ANDY,” because that won’t work. Don’t try to use “LOUIE,” because that won’t work either. And, whatever you do, don’t use “ED.” Everyone knows friends of Ed Stetzer always pay full price.

Killing Cockroaches Tour Launches Monday

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All the fun begins on Monday! We’re hitting the road for 6 events in 6 cities. I’ll be offering 1/2-day workshops in all these locations:

The events are designed for both staff and volunteer leaders. I’ll specifically be addressing these two topics:

  • Building Teams and Empowering Leaders (Volunteer/Staffing Strategy)
  • Finding Your Focus (Outreach/Discipleship/Communications Strategy)

The early bird rates for the Chicago stop end tomorrow. Registration for all the stops will remain open through the day of the event.

Hope to see you somewhere along the way!

Leading vs. Managing

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I read Anne Jackson’s new book, Mad Church Disease, a few months ago. This quote from Wayne Cordeiro, the senior pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Oahu, Hawaii keeps reverberating through my brain. In describing some practices he changed as a result of dealing with ministry burnout, he offered this:

“I’ve learned that God has made me to be a leader, not a ‘manager.’ I was pulled in to ‘managing’ for a few years as my main course. That diminished my leadership immune system, and I became susceptible to contagious maladies such as discouragement, exasperation, and being demotivated by others.”

There is a distinction between leading and managing. They are two entirely different roles. Both are valuable to an organization, but rarely is a person gifted to both lead and manage. They are typically wired up to do one or the other.

In their book First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman defined both roles like this:

Managers – “Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs, and motivation of each person. These differences are small, subtle, but great managers need to pay attention to them. These subtle differences guide them toward the right way to release each person’s unique talents into performance.”

Leaders – “Great leaders look outward. They look out at the competition, out at the future, out at alternative routes forward. They focus on broad patterns, finding connections, cracks, and then press home their advantage where the resistance is weakest. They must be visionaries, strategic thinkers, activators. When played well, this is, without doubt, a critical role. But it doesn’t have much to do with the challenge of turning one individual’s talents into performance.”

That’s how Buckingham and Coffman described the two roles in marketplace organizations, but the Bible also distinguishes these two rules. The spiritual gift of leadership found in Romans 12:8 is very different from the spiritual gift of management (or administration) found in I Corinthians 12:28. Few people have both of these gifts, but both are needed within a healthy church body.

The point here isn’t to value one of these gifts over the other. (That would be a fruitless exercise because both are needed for a church or any organization to function properly.) However, I think it’s essential to identify how we are gifted and to also consider those we are responsible for in our ministry roles. If we are trying to be a manager when we’re actually a leader, we will be unfulfilled and face ministry burnout like Wayne described. Likewise, if we’re forced into a leadership role when we’re actually a manager, we will face the same challenges.

So, here are some questions to consider, pray about and discuss with your team:

  • Are you a leader or manager? (How do you know?)
  • Are you in a role that allows you to lead or manage according to your gifts?
  • Do you know whether or not the people working for you are leaders or managers?
  • Are they serving in roles that fit their giftedness?
  • Have you defined what roles in your organization need leaders and which ones need managers?
  • When one of those roles are open, are you trying to find the person who is best gifted to lead or manage?

I consider this a big topic that churches, generally, have failed to address. I challenge you to prayerfully consider this in the coming days for yourselves and your teammates. The health of your ministry, both personal and corporate, is at stake. And, while you’re at it, invite your ministry team to press into this conversation as well. Take a staff meeting to discuss the differences and challenge your team to make sure they are in a position that best reflects the way God created them…whether they are leaders, managers or neither. God wants you serving where he designed you to be serving; to do otherwise is to disobey God.

Are you staring ministry burnout in the face? Is it because you’re not doing what God created you to do?

4 Stages of Leadership

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Yesterday while I was at Christ Fellowship in Miami, I did a leadership talk for their staff team. At the end of my talk, we took some time for Q&A. One of the questions that was asked was about leadership growth. Having worked in churches of various sizes between 1,400 and over 10,000, they wanted to know how leaders change to grow with organizations. Here’s what I summarized with a little bit more detail. Some of this reflects my own experiences in the churches I’ve served. Some of it reflects the conversations with leaders in other churches.

Lead by example. This is the type of leadership that is required when a new ministry launches. During this season, the leader has to do most of the work themselves. That happens out of necessity because no one else is around. It also happens to establish a foundation for the future. “Leading by doing” gives the leader the opportunity to shape the mission, vision, values and strategy of the church. These folks may not necessarily be gifted as leaders but they are in a positional leadership role. They are the “leaders of tens.” Ministries with this style of leadership can grow to about 100 people.

Lead other people. During this season, the leader recruits other people to join the ministry team. Rather than doing all the work on their own, the leader begins to delegate tasks and responsibilities to other people. The leader still owns the responsibility for making things happen, they’re just including other people in the effort. These are the “leaders of fifties.” Ministries can grow to several hundred people with this style of leadership.

Lead other leaders. This is when a transition happens where leaders begin to empower other leaders. Instead of a hands-on role where they’re on top of all the tasks, they shift to a role where they’re really more concerned about leading, caring for and raising up other leaders. They don’t give up responsibility for the outcome, but they begin to release team building and decisions of execution to other people. These are the “leaders of hundreds.” Ministries can grow to several thousand people with this style of leadership.

Lead by vision. At some point, there are leaders who may continue to embrace functional leadership of specific areas of ministry, but their focus is really on the overall health of the church. Rather than a ministry-specific focus, they have a global perspective that encompasses every aspect of the organization. These folks are leading other leaders, but they also have influence that reaches beyond their direct reports. They are coming alongside the senior leader to champion the vision that God has given the church. These are the “leaders of thousands.” Ministries can grow to tens of thousands of people with this style of leadership.

First of all, do you agree with my summary of these different stages of leadership growth? What would you add or delete from my descriptions?

Secondly, where are you? Would would you need to do today to prepare for a step into a new leadership role tomorrow?

Killing Cockroaches Tour Update

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In case you haven’t heard, my family is hitting the road for three weeks for the Killing Cockroaches Summery Tour 2009. I’m going to be offering half-day seminars in six cities across the South and Midwest. The event will feature stories and learnings from my recent book, Killing Cockroaches: and Other Scattered Musings on Leadership.

This event is designed and priced for both staff and volunteer church leaders. Early bird pricing ends two weeks prior to each event date and then increases to $39 per person. That means there’s only one week left to register for the cheap rate if you plan to attend in Atlanta.

By the way, Atlanta is winning the registration race so far. Dallas and Chicago are running neck-and-neck for #2. St. Louis is in the basement (kind of like the St. Louis Rams).

Hope to see you at one of the six stops!

Schedule

9:00 am     Check-in

9:30 am     Session 1: Building Teams and Empowering Leaders (Volunteer/Staffing Strategy)

10:15 am   Q&A

10:45 am   Break

11:15 am   Session 2: Finding Your Focus (Outreach/Discipleship/Communications Strategy)

12:00 pm   Q&A

12:30 pm   Event Concludes

Host Churches

Atlanta – June 29 at West Ridge Church in Dallas, Georgia

Dallas – July 2 at Springcreek Church in Garland, Texas

St. Louis – July 6 at Harvester Christian Church in St. Charles, Missouri

Chicago – July 8 at The Orchard in Aurora, Illinois

Columbus – July 14 at Grace Church in Powell, Ohio

Nashville – July 17 at Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee

My Theology of Leadership (part 3)

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Leaders empower the people around them.

  • It’s less about the leader. It’s more about the God-ordained vision.
  • It’s less about the leader. It’s more about those being led.
  • It’s less about the leader. It’s more about synergy of the body.

I’m still a big proponent of clear vision in churches. Clear vision leads to unified effort which results in ministry impact. A clear vision also provides a lot of freedom for people to be empowered to be who God created them to be. I’ve heard it described as freedom within a framework. That’s essentially a picture of the Christian faith. There’s actually more freedom for us if we stay within God’s designed framework.

Paul described the responsibility of leaders in the church this way:

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

That’s what I mean about it being less about the leader and more about those being led. Our role as leaders is to “equip God’s people to do his work.” The leader doesn’t do the work – God’s people do his work. God’s people don’t do the leader’s work – they do God’s work.

We see this reflected in Paul’s writings on spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12 as well. Each believer is given one or more gifts. Paul uses the human body as a metaphor to express how the various parts of the body of Christ are indispensable. In other words, we have failed as leaders in the church if we do not embrace the unique gift-mix that God designed. And, we won’t fully know the power and impact of the local church until people are empowered to be who God wired them up to be.

We aren’t telling them what to do to accomplish the vision. We are helping them discover their gifts and freeing them to use them to fulfill the vision. It’s not delegation. With delegation, I’m still responsible. It’s empowerment. Someone else is responsible, but, as a leader, I still hold them accountable.

In the Old Testament, we see this play out when Jethro tells his son-in-law, Moses, to:

“Select from all the people some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as leaders over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten” (Exodus 18:21).

In the New Testament, we see this demonstrated when Paul instructs Timothy:

“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

We see this model of leadership throughout the Bible where people are entrusting responsibilities with other people to carry on the ministry. Leadership isn’t leadership if it isn’t released to others.

With that, here are some questions we may want to consider about our leadership:

  • Is there a clear vision that offers freedom within a framework?
  • Is my leadership more about getting people to do what I want them to do, or helping people be who God designed them to be?
  • Am I entrusting leadership to other capable people, or am I just delegating tasks?
  • If I wasn’t here, would the ministry continue to grow without me?

It’s so contradictory isn’t it? We’ve been so conditioned to equate leadership with a person. Yet, that’s not how God created it. In God’s design, the sum is greater than its parts. Leadership doesn’t rest with one individual, it’s entrusted to capable men and women.

Does your leadership empower people?

__________________

Other Posts in This Series:

Narcissistic Leaders

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narcissistic leadersI took the test. Then Emily took the test for me. We both arrived at the same results. I’m a narcissistic leader.

The test was included in the book Narcissistic Leaders by Michael Maccoby. It’s an older book. It was originally published in 2003, but it may be one of the most helpful leadership books I’ve read.

In the book, Maccoby highlights four patterns of personality:

  • Erotic – They are driven by loving and being loved.
  • Obsessive – They live by the rules, and the rules are set by some higher authority (i.e. father figure, strict conscience, tradition, etc.)
  • Marketing – They sense what the market wants and needs and then conform to it.
  • Narcissist – They impress us as a personality, who disrupts the status quo and brings about change.

Each of these personality patterns can either be productive or disruptive. And, there are combination of types (I’m narcissistic-marketing), but one usually is dominant over the other. Maccoby suggests that Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Henry Ford and Abraham Lincoln are/were productive narcissists.

I’ll let you pick up the book to get the rest of the story. But, here are a handful of highlights from my reading:

  • “Narcissists do no react to the external world so much as they try to create it… [Their] vision always starts with a rejection of the status quo.”
  • “A true narcissist is the kind of person who (1) doesn’t listen to anyone else when he believes in doing something and (2) has a precise vision of how things should be.”
  • Narcissism “is not an illness or a description of bad behavior, but a personality type, and like any personality, it can be productive or unproductive, creative or destructive, healthy or sick, generous or selfish.”
  • Obsessives “become mired in details and rules…; they are more concerned with doing things in the right way than doing the right things; they turn into control freaks.”
  • “Without enthusiasm and passion, even the most skillful, focused, reasoned, and talented person can just go through the motions of work, passively accepting tasks as if they were assignments.”
  • “The ones who do actually change our world, provide meaning not only for themselves but also for the people who work for them, who believe in them, who follow them.”
  • “Narcissists can’t stand situations that contain them and their ideas, and have the guts to go out on their own, risking security and failure in favor of their vision.”
  • “Because of their paranoid tendencies, narcissists may try to maintain total control over an organization, making it impossible for their best people to make any kind of contribution or further the narcissist’s vision.”
  • Regarding working for a narcissist: “If you have a great idea and can’t get his ear, you have to frame it in a way that shows him how he will benefit personally. Also, if you are trying to stop him from an action that could damage the company, you have to show how it will damage him personally.”

Now, let’s be honest. I’m guessing I’m not the only leader in the church today who has these tendencies. Either you do as well, or you probably know someone who does. If that’s true, this book may be for you. I’ve only scratched the surface of the contents of this book.

In the mean time, I need to figure out how to disrupt the status quo a little bit more.

Killing Cockroaches Summer Tour 2009

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It’s official! The Killing Cockroaches Summer Tour 2009 is going to happen. The Morgan family is super excited about jumping in the family truckster and traveling throughout the country. It’ll be a combination family vacation and training workshop tour. Here are the details:

  • Stops in 6 cities: Atlanta, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Columbus and Nashville
  • 1/2 day workshops hosted by 6 great churches
  • Events scheduled over 3 weeks beginning June 29 in Atlanta and concluding July 17 in Nashville
  • Teaching on 2 topics: “Building Teams & Empowering Leaders” and “Finding Your Focus”
  • Plenty of time for Q&A to dig deeper on these topics and more
  • Priced (only $29) so you can bring both staff and volunteers

You can find more details on the schedule, the topics and the host churches on the registration page. Seating will be limited at all locations, so be sure to register today. If it’s anything like my past experiences with similar events, some of these locations will sell out.

I’m looking forward to having you meet my family and getting the chance to hang out with you. This is going to be fun. I hope you’ll join us.

UPDATE: The early bird rate of $29 will end two weeks prior to the event. Register early to save money.

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