(Mis)Alignment and (Mis)Direction

I just have to go on record saying that I have been incredibly encouraged by E. Stanley Jones and his 1954 devotional, Growing Spiritually. I have been reading it for 10 days now and each morning has been a feast of meat to chew on for the rest of the day. Thanks to ChrisY for putting Jones on my radar!

As Jones writes about guidance for a nation (or individual or church) he is trying to explain the importance of mission. A mission is vitally important to the ongoing movement of an organization, nation or individual - without it a vacuum is created and anything can rush in to fill the void.

Jones says, "Individuals and nations [and churches] must not only move; they must move in the right direction under God's guidance" (275). Essentially, alignment must be combined with motion. When an organization has misalignment there are forces pulling the organization in conflicting directions.

Misalignment does more damage and creates more wear and tear on an organization than does misdirection. Misaligned people are only a few degrees off-kilter, but they pull the organization in ways that cause the leadership to be constantly making mid-course corrections in order to maintain the proper direction for the organization.

Misdirected people pull their weight in the exact opposite direction from the organization - they tend to slow down progress, but they do not cause wear and tear on the systems of the organization, just energy drain on the leadership.

What can cure misalignment AND misdirection? A clear, compelling mission. When an organization has a clear, compelling mission, those who are out of alignment see where they need to come back to in order to move the organization in the right direction with less friction, wear and tear. Those who are misdirected see where the organization is headed and can decide whether they want to get on board or get off in favor of one more in line with their priorities. Either way, the organization benefits from having a clear, compelling mission.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

Quick Book Review

Last week I read a book entitled Doing Ministry in Hard Times by Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittain. Rarely do I read a book in a single sitting, but this book is an exception to that rule. I couldn't stop reading it and I wanted to finish it before going to sleep. I also wanted to get it into the hands of some key people in the life of University so that they could read it and lose some sleep over it as I have.

I wanted to share a few key insights from the book that may change how I approach leading this congregation through the next 18-24 months:

• there are two wildcards at play in the world today that make it difficult for churches to be successful while maintaining a status quo operational strategy: the cultural wildcard and the financial wildcard
• strategic dreaming trumps strategic planning during hard times
• there are ministries that should be cut during tough times (office personnel, missions, youth, non-essential ministries, money in the bank)
  
• there are ministries that should be allocated more financial resources during tough times (worship, children, evangelism, marketing, continuing ed, volunteer ministries, small groups, spiritual formation)
  
• hard times are the times to return to the basics - "sheep have a habit of getting so involved in feeding themselves that they munch along for hours without ever looking up to see where they are....Many Christians do the same. We munch our way so far from our roots that we don't realize how far we have removed ourselves from what we once were and what once made us great. Our greatness is only a memory." (pg 18)
• "Without Jesus Christ, our congregations are nothing more than clubs on the lookout for just enough new dues-paying members to support their programs and keep their buildings open....Sadly, far too many churches actually organize themselves around this loss of passion for Jesus. Instead of organizing to spread the Gospel, they organize to run the institution." (pg 21)
  
• cancel all the committee meetings you can for the next six months and see what happens
• "If you have any money saved up for a raining day, let us remind you lest you hadn't noticed. It's raining." (pg 29)
• in hard times, churches need to be led with quick and decisive action, flexibility, intuition, and self-regulation
• all of this (reading the book, making strategic budget cuts, etc.) is worthless if there is unresolved conflict within the church

Which of these points strikes you the most (either positively or negatively)? Why?

I have already given copies of this book to our Finance Chair, our Business Administrator, and our Director of Discipleship. If you would like a copy of this book, email me and I'll get it to you.

Random One-Liners, Part 2

Here's the other one-liner from yesterday's conversations:

Sometimes we think that the color of the carpet is more important than the people who walk on it.

This came out of my mouth within a conversation about the prevalence of "politicking" within the church. One of my buddies is in the throws of a serious round of "he-said/he-said" in his congregation and is fed up with getting placed in the middle of all the mud-slinging.

As we were talking about how to deal with antagonists in the church, we landed on the idea that when these political games are playing themselves out, the innocent bystanders are the ones who get lost in the shuffle or pushed aside.

How many times have you seen well-meaning Christians duke it out over the color of the carpet in the Narthex, rather than battle against the forces of evil for the good of the Kingdom of God? In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter if the carpet is red, green, blue, rainbow, or plaid when there are people in our community that will never set foot inside the church to hear the gospel because the church won't spend a dime proclaiming the message of grace through Jesus Christ out in the community?

As I look out on the possible landscape of my second year of ministry at University, I want to make sure that I care far more about the people who walk on the carpet than I do about the color of it. The former will advance the Kingdom of God. The latter will only advance the Kingdom of University UMC.

I don't know about you, but I want to advance God's Kingdom, not my kingdom.

Thoughts?

Random One-Liners, Part 1

I spent several hours in ministry-related conversations yesterday (one with a staff member and one with some clergy buddies) and came away from each convo with a one-liner that I thought you might be interested in hearing and/or commenting on. I'll share one now and one later this afternoon.

Church ministry is not "Calvin-ball"!

Those of you who have worked in a church or been in leadership within the church know that one of the things that frustrates people to no end is rules that change in the middle of the game. If you are fan of Calvin & Hobbes (and who isn't?!) then you already get what I am about to say. (For those of you who've never heard of C&H - shame on you!)

When playing a rousing game of Calvin-ball with Hobbes, Calvin was (in)famous for changing the rules in the middle of the game to suit his own desires, his own needs, or his own current predicament - often without warning and without notifying the other player (Hobbes). This frustrated Hobbes to no end each time they played the game and often resulted in a knock-down, drag-out fight between the two of them.

The same principle applies for ministry within the church.

When pastors, staff, or other leaders within the church change the rules of the game without warning, then a fight is inevitable.

• A fight from those directly affected by the changes,
  
• a fight from those who don't agree with the changes, AND
  
• a fight from those who made the changes.

It really becomes a no-win situation very quickly.

Now, I am not saying that I am faultless in this category, because I most certainly am guilty of changing the rules mid-game before. However, I try my best to notify as many people as possible of the rule changes ahead of time. Do I always do that perfectly? Absolutely not! Does it still make me mad when it happens? Absolutely!

I believe the real learning takes place when church leaders take a step back and see where they have made a "Calvin-ball style" mistake and take necessary steps to recover from that mistake. I also believe that permanent damage can be inflicted upon a congregation when leaders fail to learn from their mistakes.

What "Calvin-ball style" mistakes have you witnessed/made? What did you do about them?

Thoughts on the Worship Surveys

It's official! I completed my analysis of the Sound Vows Surveys this afternoon.

I must say that I was surprised by a few things:

1. the relatively low view (3.51/5) of an increased amount of time for people to talk to each other before worship
   
2. the number of married people (9/44, or 20.5%) who indicated a series on marriage had little to no application (N/A, 1, or 2) to their life
3. the number of people in worship (13/63, or 20.6%) who wanted to take less time to prepare our hearts for prayer during worship

Now, I know I asked for the feedback, so I shouldn't be upset when someone launches a missive at me or the way we plan worship at University, but my pride took a hit reading the responses. I also discovered that I did not communicate well about the reasons behind the choices made for worship during the series. I apologize for that - that is poor leadership on my part.

Overall, the results were positive. I will need to do some more reflection, prayer, and discernment about how we can incorporate this feedback into future message series here at University.

More later!

Phone Call from a Celebrity

Yesterday morning I spoke with this wonderful person on the phone! I am so excited about her coming to University next month that I can't hardly stand it! She'll be here on April 19th, let me know if you want to be here when she is.

The Largest Gathering

Continuing from yesterday...

Sunday morning worship is the largest gathering of our church week - numerically. And since we only have one worship service here at University, we are all in the same space at the same time hearing the same music and message. This provides quite a powerful experience that can catapult us into our week or plunge us into despair over the "state of the church".

When we gather together each weekend we invite members of our community to participate with us in worshiping God. We invite those who are not currently connected to us to see what it is we do together in order for them to determine if they would like to remain a part of who we are.

The fact that guests can come and blend in with 150 or so other people during worship gives them an opportunity to check us out from a distance while still gaining enough proximity to form an opinion about us that will stick with them. This blending in provides guests a chance to see how we respond to new people in our midst - to see whether this is a place that welcomes new folks or values only those who are already connected.

Weekend worship is the best place for us to make a great first impression with the community at large. As the adage goes, "we only get one chance to make a first impression." And our chances come along mostly on Sunday mornings. Guests begin to form their impressions from the moment they drive onto our campus - and a general rule is that we have about 10 minutes to "wow" them and gain the best possibility of a repeat visit.

Therefore, their impression of the church may be formed long before I get up to preach or even before the first note of music is played. Further, it is incumbent upon the members of the congregation to extend radical hospitality every weekend. We need to impress upon our guests that we are expecting them and that we are prepared for them. This expectation and readiness shows up in things like signage, greeters/ushers, nursery workers, cleanliness, and a myriad of other ways - most of them small.

Thoughts? Comments?

For more info on making great first impressions, check out this book or this blog!

The Widest Funnel

On Sunday morning I talked about the first two areas of focus for our church: weekend worship experience and ministry with students.

(If you want to hear the sermon, click here.)

I want to expand some on my beliefs about weekend worship experience and why I placed it at the top of the list.

The reasons I gave on Sunday morning included:

1. Worship is the largest entry point for new people into the church
2. Worship is the largest gathering of the church body during the week
3. Worship is a critical time for us to make a great first impression

I want to spend a little time expanding on the first point.

When a person from our community (Wichita Falls) who has no previous connection with our church decides to find out what we are about, they will likely do two things: first, they will check out our website or phone book ad to find out what time worship begins; and second, they will come to worship at the time stated either on the website or the phone book ad.

Worship is a large funnel for new people into our congregation because there is a certain level of anonymity that comes along with joining with a large group of people. Most people looking to connect with God within a local church will begin with a weekend worship experience before trying any gathering smaller than that.

Granted, some people come into the life of the church through an outside group that meets in our building (i.e. Scouts, Bridge Club, etc.) OR through a Sunday School class OR through our Wednesday night Cornerstone Cafe, but those are only a very small percentage of new entrants. The largest percentage still comes through worship on Sunday morning.

Therefore, our weekend worship experience must continually be passionate, innovative, and relevant in order to give new guests the best opportunity to see who we are and what we, as a community of faith, are all about. We also need to make sure that we have good systems in place to follow-up with guests that come to worship and leave us contact information. This lets them know that we care that they worshiped with us and that we want them to continue explore a life of faith here with us.

P.S.
If you are interested in reading more about the future of the musical aspects of our worship service, read this article and let me know what you think.

Making Good on a Promise

My newsletter article for this week stated that I would begin conversing about the Five Areas of Focus for University UMC. Therefore, I wanted to get that conversation going.

If you are a new reader here at CTM, then you might want to read this post and this post before diving full force into the discussion that starts today.

If you are a veteran reader, then keep reading.

Sunday morning I will begin to cast the vision for ministry here at University over the next 3-5 years. I usually have a hard time deciding what I want for dinner, so a long-range plan like this is new territory for me, but I know that God will be the guide for this journey and all I will need to do is continue to be faithful in my leadership.

When I came to University last summer, I knew that the climb would be uphill for quite a while (and it still is), but that there would come a point where our efforts at changing the direction of the church would begin to build momentum and a full head of steam. I believe that this weekend will be a huge push in that direction and that light bulbs a-plenty will be going off all over the sanctuary.

I want all of you to know that I have not approached this vision casting task lightly, nor do I want to paint any skewed pictures of the future that we could neither attain nor live with for the long term. Bill Hybels says that a vision is, "a preferred picture [of the future] that produces passion." Therefore, I want to paint a clear picture that everyone at University can get excited about and throw their weight behind in order for our church to make kingdom impact here in the Wichita Falls community.

Who's with me!?!?

Looking Forward to "Lasting"

I got my copy of Lasting Impressions yesterday and I can't wait to dive in! Thanks Mark!

When Money Isn't the Most Important Thing

After Charge Conference last night I needed the morning off - so I took it. When I got back to the office and began to sort through a stack of mail and file through a bunch of emails, one email in particular caught my attention.

It was from my Music Director and it was a link to this story about personal accounting and asking the question: "Who's in charge of my future: my God or my money?"

The author, Shannon Vowell, made some very thought-provoking statements and I wanted to share my thoughts on some of them here.

Are we depending on our money to give us our sense of safety or are we keeping our eyes on Christ? In today’s financial climate, do we instinctively hold so tightly to whatever assets we’ve got left that we assure we cannot take hold of the outstretched hands of Jesus?

In light of the conversations around money last night I wonder if this is a question that more people need to wrestle to the ground before speaking about how much they trust God. If we depend on our money to be our security for the future, then I believe we have missed the point of faith altogether. If we fail to trust God with our future in the midst of economic uncertainties, when will we trust God? If we hold tight to that which we can see and bypass that which we cannot, are we not then idolizing money and ignoring God? Indeed, there is no room for Jesus' hands when we are tightly grasping our net worth instead of our Great Provider.

Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler [in Luke 18:22-25] suggest that for Christians, the real issue isn’t money even when it’s money that we’re talking about. The real issue is faith and focus.

When the church budget is tabulated, the members of the Finance Committee are responsible for making sure there is a way to fund that budget - either through tithes and offerings, rentals and fees, or non-donor sources - so the tendency is to begin to think about dollars and cents instead of ministry and mission. When it comes down to the bottom line, there needs to be money to fund ministries in the church, but the money is not really the crucial issue. I believe that when the God-appointed leaders of a church search God's wisdom for the direction of the church and compellingly cast that vision to the whole congregation, then the resources will follow. I believe that when God's people get on board with what God is doing in a local church, the blessings are endless and the money shows up in buckets.

Thoughts?

Delivering on a Promise - Part 2

Continuing from earlier...

Key Learning #2: Sometimes we may need to create additional ministry opportunities when we are running short on volunteers.

• As counter-intuitive as this may sound at first read, think about this. Is the role we are trying to fill too complex or time-intensive? Is the role we are trying to fill able to be taken on by someone with a full-time job, family, and possibly other community involvement? If yes, then try "chunking it" into smaller pieces.
• By breaking up a ministry job description into two or even three smaller pieces, you may find that you have more than enough volunteers to fill those smaller roles when you could not find anyone willing to take on the whole enchilada.
• Therefore, if you currently have 20 volunteer slots to fill and 15 people have already accepted the invitation to serve with you, but you just can't seem to get the last five filled. Perhaps you need to break the last five opportunities into 10 or 12 opportunities in order to make the ministry opportunities more manageable for people who could not commit to your previous job descriptions.
• BTW, a great by-product of this method of "chunking" is more people serving in the church! And isn't that what ministry leaders should be doing anyway?

Ok, those are my top learnings! I know that KarlaR has some thoughts she would like to share, so maybe she will agree to guest blog later this week!

Delivering on a Promise - Part 1

I promised to post about my two key learnings from our Road Trip to Garland to sit at the feet of the Granger crew, so here I go!

Key Learning #1: Deleting certain words from our vocabulary will have profound effects on our ability to bring new people into ministry at University.

• We must stop using the word "recruit" and start using the word "invite" when looking for new volunteers for ministry opportunities. The Armed Forces recruits, the Church invites. We are not looking for a bunch of people to sign up to give their lives away in exchange for a steady job and a paycheck. No, we are looking for a bunch of people to give their lives away in service to the kingdom of God in addition to their steady job and paycheck.
• There are people in our church whom you already know that you could "tap" into service with a simple personal invitation. This practice of "shoulder-tapping" could double our current volunteer base within a year if everyone invited one new person into a ministry opportunity at our church.
• We must stop using the word "help" - as in "We need help in the 3rd grade Sunday School room or there will be 8-year-olds running around the building recklessly!" These kinds of pleas for help result in minimal volunteer turnout, because (let's face it!) no one wants to jump on board a sinking ship. Using "help" to try and bring new people into your ministry often motivates people to serve for the wrong reasons - i.e. guilt, duty, obligation, etc.
• As an alternative to "help," try to paint a picture of the opportunities available for people to serve using their God-given spiritual gifts. Using this approach generally begins to get people to think about what they can offer to the church with what they already possess - be that a love for children, a passion for the arts, or financial savvy.

More later!

Road Trip!

I am taking a team to this event today. I am so excited that there are SIX of us going - 2 staff and 4 church members!!

It should be a great day of learning and fun. We should be full of energy and ideas when we get back this evening.

Watch out University!

Great Resources on the Cheap

I just found out that the book mentioned here is available for $.95 on iTunes - that's 95 cents! I am downloading it right now and I can't wait to listen to it. (Thanks Ben and Chris!)

Also, I just pre-ordered this book from Amazon - can't wait!

That's a Leader of a Different Color!

Craig Groeschel has discovered that there are different kinds of leaders leading organizations. Each of them have skills that make them successful, but each of them have gifts that tend to fall into one of four categories (defined by Craig here).

The first category is relational leaders.
The second category is visionary leaders.
The third category is administrative leaders.
The fourth category is innovative leaders.

Each of these leaders have their strengths and weaknesses (detailed above) that they (and their organizations) must deal with.

What kind of leader is needed in the church?
What kind of leader does University have?
What strengths and weaknesses does that create?

Check These Out

If you're looking for some surf-worthy blogs, check out these posts:

Ben Arment has the right attitude: I want to lead a church not fearing mistakes, but boldly pushing into the future with audacity!

Tim Stevens breaks down Seth Godin's Catalyst talk: I wonder if University is a tribe? I wonder if we are more like a crowd or a tribe?

Mark Batterson adds three more to the list of Bible translations: Which one do you use? How are you going to make that translation a reality?

Catalyst Backstage

I sure wish I could go to Catalyst this year, but I am choosing to be a responsible dad and husband - so I will be here in WF for Caitlyn's 3rd birthday party that weekend.

Since I can't go, I will be following the happenings on Catalyst backstage (see widget in right-hand sidebar) and seeing how my new friend Anne Jackson is getting along during the highly anticipated 3 day event.

If you want to follow the Catalyst adventure, just click the link and join the fun!

Asking the Wrong Question

Over the past few weeks I have really been struggling with being content at the rate of change happening around University. I have beat myself up over the fact that attendance is up, positive energy is up, attitudes are up, but giving is still lagging behind.

Over the course of these past weeks I have had several conversations where I bounced my frustration and/or confusion off of colleagues. Each time a helpful image rose up from that conversation. The first was the image of a crock pot. The second was the image of an aircraft carrier. Those images helped me to see that change - whether cooked food or turning several thousand tons of steel - takes a long time. I think I will reflect more on both of those images in some later posts.

Then today I was reading Brian McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian, and he had this to say in the introduction:

When you're on a really long voyage, you have to get beyond asking, "Are we there yet?" and instead start asking, "Are we making progress?" ... The fact is, whatever a new kind of Christian will be, no one is one yet. At this point, we're more like caterpillars cocooning than butterflies in flight. But every transformation has to start somewhere. The sooner we start, the better. (xviii, emphasis mine)

Needless to say, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that I have been asking the wrong question of my congregation. I have been making them answer, "Are we there yet?" when I should have been helping them answer, "Are we making progress?" I literally sat stunned for a few moments before reading on.

When I came to I realized that in order for me to maintain my sanity in leading this church revitalization effort, I need to start asking the right questions - questions that will help the church move the ball down the field, questions that will keep the congregation motivated when things move slowly, questions that will help us mark the progress we are making instead of wallowing in the fact that we aren't "there" yet.

Are we making progress?

My Ruining

I am ruined for church as usual.

I can not stand Christians who just want to repeat the past instead of creating the future.

I am ruined.

I want no part of comfortable, complacent church.

I want no part of stoic, musty, stale church where comfort is king and eyes are fixed on the past.

I am ruined.

What ruins you?