I get questions daily from folks who are part of my network. Primarily, they come through this site and Twitter. Here’s a question that I received that ended up generating the #6 most popular article in 2011.

11 Questions Church Leaders Should be Asking

A friend in ministry recently asked me what questions church leaders should be asking. I thought about the types of questions I try to help answer when I’m working with them in the church consulting or coaching relationships. Here are the first questions and some bonus thoughts that came to mind:

1. When was the last time I heard from God? Am I doing what he called me to do? This is the “Acts 6″ question. Acts 6 is a great reminder that it’s possible to be doing the ministry of God without doing the ministry God has called us to do.
2. What should our church be known for in this community? For a moment, ignore anyone who attends your church. What does the rest of the community know about your church?  That’s a better reflection of whether or not you’re really accomplishing your vision.
3. Are we really focusing our time, money, leadership, prayer behind the things that will produce life change and community impact? If not, there’s a good chance that “fairness” is driving these decisions. Fairness never produces revolution.
4. Is our church growing both spiritually and in numbers? Churches that are stuck and not bearing fruit hate this question. As I’ve shared before, I don’t believe healthy churches are necessarily big churches, but healthy churches aregrowing churches.
5. Is there a clear path to help people take steps in their faith with the ultimate goal of them becoming fully-devoted followers of Christ? Having a vibrant Sunday worship experience is only one component of that. I’m amazed at how many churches haven’t really established a discipleship strategy beyond Sunday morning.

In 2011, I took a non-traditional approach to publishing. Through my partnership with Church Community Builder and Engage Burkina, I launched “The Leisure Suit Series” with a focus on helping churches get unstuck. Apparently that was a strong felt need for church leaders, because this post introducing the second eBook in the series was the #7 most popular article in 2011:

New FREE eBook Available Today: How to Get Unstuck

Big news today! We’re launching the second eBook in the Leisure Suit series. This one is called Hanging Up the Leisure Suit: How to Get Unstuck. Among other things, this resource includes strategies and practical steps for:

• making the necessary changes to get different results
• bridging the gap between vision and execution
• following God’s blueprint for fulfilling his purposes
• avoiding over-reliance on teaching to produce change, and
• creating healthy systems in your church

Like my previous eBooks, this one is FREE. (You can share it with your teammates.) It’s short. (You won’t have to invest much time reading it.) It includes exercises and discussion questions. (My goal is for you to have healthy conversations that lead to positive change.) And, you’ll get to start those conversations immediately–no need to visit the bookstore or wait for the Amazon box to show up on your doorstep. (Do people still read hardback books?)

[Read the entire article.]

It’s hard to believe my journey as the Interim Pastor at our West Ridge Cartersville location is coming to an end. As you know, James Griffin was recently appointed to take over the role permanently. He started moving into his office in Cartersville yesterday and will officially start on January 1. James is going to do a super job!

In the mean time, let me share some highlights and news for the next couple of weeks:

• Momentum - We continue to see more and more new faces on Sundays. And, because of that, attendance has been up significantly in recent weeks. Last Sunday, as an example, we were up close to 20% from the same Sunday last year. Don’t worry…we’ve added seating for our Christmas Eve Eve services.
• Christmas Eve Eve - It’s “sold out.” If you didn’t get your tickets for one of these services, please consider joining us on Christmas Eve instead for our 4:30 pm service. There are a handful of free tickets left for that service.
• New Year’s Day - Brian Bloye, our senior pastor, will be teaching live at all three campuses. Brian has a lot to share about what’s planned for West Ridge in 2012.
• January 8 - James will be teaching and talking specifically about his vision for West Ridge in Cartersville. It’ll be his first opportunity to address the congregation as our new lead pastor.

I released several eBooks in 2011. This has by far been the most popular. It’s been downloaded or read online by over 22,000 people. Here’s the post that started it all. The #8 most popular article on my website in 2011 was all about helping people consider their theology of leadership.

Have you developed a theology of leadership?

Today is the official launch of my new eBook, Developing a Theology of Leadership. Amazingly, the stats indicate over 1,300 people have already read it since I leaked out the link before the weekend. I’m hoping you’ll find this resource helpful as you begin to consider who you are as a leader.

This eBook is based on a series of articles I wrote about two years ago. Thanks to the help of Ben Stroup, we’ve refreshed the content and added some new features to help you take your next steps in your leadership.

What I love about this and the next few resources I’m about ready to release is that you can’t just read them and put them on a shelf. (They’re eBooks. That would literally be impossible.) Aside from that, each eBook includes a discussion guide for you to begin a conversation with your ministry team. I’ve also included some recommended steps to take the content and “put it into action.” I’m challenging you to do that. Remember, teaching (or reading) shifts thinking, but systems shift behaviors.

[Read the entire article.]

Though my audience is primarily church leaders who are interested in ministry strategy, sometimes a post that really has nothing to do with churches or ministry strategy strikes a chord. Here’s one of those posts. It was the ninth most popular article on my site in 2011.

Unconventional Wisdom

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to share a short message with the volunteers at the Oak Leaf campus (now the West Ridge Cartersville location). Among other things, I talked about how God’s wisdom is different from conventional wisdom. I’ve always found this verse to be both challenging and encouraging in my spiritual journey:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

It’s with that foundation that I have practiced what, to the rest of the world, must seem like a backwards approach to life in many ways. For example…

• I’ve made it a practice to not work one day out of every week. My “business” continues to grow even though I’m not doing anything work-related one day each week. (Exodus 20:11)
• Emily and I routinely leave our kids at home to go spend time by ourselves. We love our kids, but they aren’t the priority–our marriage is. By making the kids take a back seat to our marriage, our marriage is healthier…and so are our kids. (Ephesians 5:25)
• Last year, Emily and I gave away more than one dollar of every five dollars we received before taxes. I can’t explain it, but the more generous we try to be with our church, other ministries and people in need, the more “rich” we feel. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

“People pleasing is generally less about pleasing and more about fending off the rejection and disappointment of others.” –Nellie Akalp is CEO of CorpNet.com

I think we are susceptible to two extremes. In the first extreme, we can be so focused on the tasks in ministry that we really don’t care what people think about our actions. For those of us in that camp, our focus is the cause. We’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission…even if it’s offensive to people around us.

In the second extreme, we can be so focused on the people that pleasing those around us becomes our mission. For those of us in that camp, our focus is the people. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep people happy…even if it jeopardizes our mission.

Obviously, both extremes are unhealthy. There’s a tension in the middle that we need to embrace. Ms. Akalp offers some specific recommendations for helping people pleasers find a healthier perspective. She challenges us to:

• Recognize the difference between being generous and wanting to avoid conflict and disappointing others.
• Actively manage people’s expectations.
• Be brief and meaningful when communicating (especially when delegating or responding to a request).

It’s a tradition around here to recap the top posts of the year as we approach the new year. Not only does that give me a bit of a writing break to prioritize time with family, it’s fun to go back and see what created buzz in the last year. Over the next several days, I’ll count down the posts that generated the most traffic. Feel free to continue the conversation associated with each post.

Let’s start with #10…

10 Ways to Improve Series Planning

To wrap up this mini-series on series planning, I went back in to the archives and dug up this list. It contains some simple strategies to help you improve how you plan for teaching series.

1. Leverage the seasons when folks are most likely to attend church. I like to launch new series that have a more outreach focus when people are more likely to attend services and invite their friends. Those seasons are cyclical. They depend on where you are located. Obviously, Christmas and Easter are two common times when people are likely to attend church.
2. Find the right balance between “reach people” series and “grow people” series. There will always be tension here, but the objective is to try to balance out using services to attract a crowd and help people take their next steps in their spiritual journey. At West Ridge, we’ve actually color-coded our teaching calendar to make sure we maintain a healthy balance.
3. Use a variety of approaches to begin your series development. Teach on a topic one series. Teach through a book of the Bible in another series. Teach a series of messages on a specific biblical character. Use a series to teach through a specific doctrine. Mix up your approach.
4. Address questions that people are asking. Our tendency is to only deliver the information we want people to hear. People will not engage our teaching unless we are addressing the issues they are facing in their daily life. A friend of mine routinely reviews the headlines of women’s magazines to get a sense of the topics that people are discussing in today’s culture.

1. Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli
2. Quitter by Jon Acuff
3. Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud
4. Today We Are Rich by Tim Sanders
5. Poke the Box by Seth Godin

My friends at Gateway Church near Dallas, Texas have produced a very creative video to express the reason Jesus was born. Their team spent 80 hours in production and animation on this project. For this purpose, they’ve stripped any branding for the church to make it available for others to use. Here’s the five-minute video:

Here’s the great news, Gateway is making the video available for free so other churches can use it. The HD download is available from their site in three formats: 1920×1080, 1280×720 and 854×480.  All three are in h.264 format. (I’m sure that means something to someone in the crowd.)

Consider this an early Christmas gift. Let me know if you decide to use it in your services.

I partner with a group of organizations that help resource leaders like you. Here are the folks that are making things happen at TonyMorganLive.com in December:

igniteCRM – web-based church relationship management software created to empower ministry leaders for accelerated church growth

Church Community Builder – web-based church software that actively serves over 1,600 churches in 15 different countries from church plants to multi-site, mega-churches

only144.com – like Groupon for churches with up to 90% off of ministry resources

Outreach Events – specializes in dynamic, outreach-oriented events with speakers and Christian comedians that create opportunities for sharing faith

SiteOrganic – website solutions that deliver design, content management tools and personal service.

Standard Theme – the best-coded WordPress theme ever (My site is built on this theme.)

StreamingChurch.tv – provides everything you need to broadcast your services live

Vanderbloemen Search Group – email me if you need help filling your staff leadership position

I have one “featured site sponsor” open currently. If you are interested, email me for more details. I’d love to have you join our team!