The September/October issue of Outreach Magazine has an interesting article by Thom Rainer on whether or not churches should continue to pursue building programs. Rainer acknowledges the debate that the American Church continues to spend billions of dollars on new construction, yet there continues to be very few healthy churches. The conclusion, without research, would obviously suggest churches are wasting their money on new facilities when they could be using those dollars for other ministry efforts.

Rather than just relying on gut instinct, Rainer set out to research churches across the country. His team spoke to nearly 1,000 church leaders in 321 churches. 58 of the 321 interviews included on-site visits. Among his many findings: “We learned that 8 out of 10 churches experienced growth after a building program.” Rainer’s conclusion was this:

“While a building program cannot make an unhealthy church healthy, it can equip and inspire healthy churches to become healthier. Our research concluded that church building programs tend to help, not hurt churches.”

That has been the experience at Granger as well. We’ve been through five separate building phases. We’ve experienced growth after each phase, and the church has been in a stronger position each time to help people take their next step toward Christ.

Building programs aren’t right for every church. But for the community we’re trying to reach around Granger, Indiana, the facility matters. These five building phases have caused our church to become healthier by helping us to unify behind a strategic vision that we believe God has called us to in our community. Obviously, it’s also given us additional space to accommodate more people, particularly children, so that they can hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Josh Sargent, over at The Leadership Blog, has been interviewing church leaders throughout the country. There are now a series of about a dozen interviews on his site. You may want to check them out. Feel free to ignore his most recent interview. That guy certainly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Mac Lake is attending the Drive Conference at North Point Community Church. He posted some challenging thoughts from a session taught by Reggie Joiner from North Point’s staff. “What radical change do you need to make? What is keeping you from making that radical change?”

Didn’t get a chance to check out my CCN broadcast yesterday? If so, here’s the completed outline. The chapter references are for the book Simply Strategic Volunteers that was the basis for our teaching.

Have you received your September/October issue of Rev Magazine yet? The issue features a cover story from Tim and me on attracting a crowd to your church. Not sure if you should read this article? Maybe you should consider, first, whether or not you’ve ever experienced this…

Be honest. Have you ever been in a church service where you had to try as hard as you could to stay awake? You know what I’m talking about. You begin to gaze out the window as the message drones on. Your eyelids grow heavier. Your head begins to nod. Drool starts to drip down the side of your chin. Soon there are visions of sugarplums dancing in your head. The sugarplums start out waltzing. Then they form a kick line. Then the sugarplums start a line dance, and you begin humming a bad country tune. As you try to regain consciousness, you start to ponder the question, “Is there such a thing as a good country tune?” It doesn’t matter, of course, since you have Jesus in your achy breaky heart.

Something tells me I’m going to see a sharp decrease in Nashville subscribers with this post. Makes you wonder what new country songs people will write about my blog, though, doesn’t it?

Creating Passionate Users has another great post on The Physics of Passion (some of the language is a little raw…you’ve been warned). The reality of life is that this same principle carries over to churches as well. Granger is a growing church. There are obviously a lot of people that love what we do. Given the results of this past weekend, it seems the ministry is also having an incredible impact on people’s lives.

Of course, success, whether it be in the marketplace or in ministry, also seems to foster contempt. We’re not “deep” enough. We don’t offer this program or that program. We don’t invest ministry dollars here or there. We’re not Methodist enough. We don’t use the right music. Our message is married too much to the culture. It’s amazing the grief you get when your sole purpose is just to point people to Jesus.

There are certainly some people who don’t like they way we do ministry. Some are more vocal than others. It would be dishonest to say those comments don’t hurt or at times cause anger. They do. But we learned long ago that to try to make everyone happy, you have to be comfortable with this “zone of mediocrity.” It’s a place where there are few critics but it’s also a place where few people become really passionate about ministry and their relationships with Christ.

Interestingly enough, I don’t think God likes mediocrity either (see Revelation 3:15-16). I kind of like that about him. I think he prefers passionate people and churches with convictions and vision and purpose. I don’t think he’s looking for perfect. If so, I don’t think he’d like me. But I do think he’s looking for passion. And, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by that every day.

The August issue of the Christian Management Report focuses on the volunteer revolution with a lead article by Bill Hybels. If you scan through the articles, you’ll find a couple of items that I had the chance to contribute. Here’s:

• Simple Strategies–some quick hits from Simply Strategic Volunteers,
• It Takes Real Leaders to Lead Volunteers–a PDF version of the actual magazine article, and
• The full article online.

Just so you know, the women always love it when I tell the story from the “full article” about Jacob learning how to ride his bicycle. You’ll have to read the article to see what I mean. I know what they think when they hear me tell the story. They’re thinking:

“That young pastor boy just told a wonderful story about his precious son. The story made my heart melt. In fact, that could very well be a tear forming in the corner of my eye. I wonder if I have a Kleenex in my purse? That new Ultra Soft Kleenex I bought last week is much more comforting than the box I had previously. I may have to try the moist cloth variety next time. I hear that’s even better. Besides, it comes in seven different colors of boxes to match just about any decor. I really like that young pastor boy, but I think I’d like him a lot better if he’d gain a little weight.”

OK, they’re probably not really thinking that…well…except for the weight part.

Whether you think the story is sappy or not, we still need to “take delight in honoring each other.” That’s a good thing.

Fast Company has a fascinating article in the August issue about why we hate human resources (HR) departments. I’ve neglected a conversation with Lisa Haneberg who was intrigued by the fact that we don’t do formal performance evaluations at Granger. I wonder what Lisa will say when she finds out that we don’t even have an HR department.

In fact, I’d be curious to know if we’re the largest organization you know of that doesn’t have an HR department. We have over 70 full- and part-time employees on staff. Can anyone top that? It seems like HR either gets in the way of leadership making positive changes or HR gets in the way of employees getting appropriate support? For now, our solution to the dilemma is this: Don’t have an HR department.

Does your organization have a culture where positive change and creativity is both expected and embraced? If so, your organization probably:

• Values mission over methods.
• Values people over programs.
• Values innovative breakthroughs over incremental improvements.
• Values risk over safety.
• Values superteams or superstars.
• Values empowerment over control.
• Values action over analysis.

Here’s my most recent article from The Church Report that some of you helped write.

I didn’t have a chance before vacation to post our notes from the Simply Strategic Growth workshop we hosted here at Granger a couple of weeks ago. Here’s the handout we distributed with all the answers. There are a couple of schedules included in the handout that may be beneficial to your teams that are responsible for planning weekend services.