Performance Reviews

I used a very helpful tool that I picked up from the Catalyst conference and read about in the book Growing an Engaged Church by Albert Winseman.

When I reviewed my leadership team, I asked them to respond to these 12 questions to get at core leadership issues for 2009:

1. I know what's expected of me.

2. My spiritual needs are met.

3. I regularly have the opportunity to do what I do best.

4. In the last month, I have received recognition or praise.

5. The leaders in the congregation seem to care about me as a person.

6. There is someone in my congregation who encourages my spiritual development.

7. My opinions seem to count.

8. The mission/vision of my church makes me feel important.

9. The other members of my team are committed to spiritual growth.

10. I have a best friend at church.

11. In the last 6 months, someone has talked to me about the progress of my spiritual growth.

12. I have opportunities to learn and grow.

This produced very fruitful conversation and gave me the insights I needed to help move my team forward.  The areas that are lacking for us are: having a best friend at church and someone checking in on spiritual growth.  This means that I need to be more intentional about developing relationships among our team and in a broad way, helping our church develop relationships with other people.

If you lead a team of people, I hope that these questions might help you.  Of course, you can adjust these to fit any context besides the church-world.

Great Systems connected with Visual Thinking = Effective Worship (aka. sanity)

It's been a year since we started a contemporary service.  Some of the benefits we've experienced:

1) New Faces: this service has attracted some of our innactive members of the church as well as lots of guests from the community.  This was the main reason we started this service and it is growing!

2) A Growing Band: we continue to add new musicians.  As a result, we are experiencing some growing pains because not everyone can play every week.  We're shifting to a team-model where we mix up vocals and musicians and have different people play.

There are lots of pieces and parts to the service and there are some people on our team that would like to play different instruments.  I've made a card for each musician and vocalist and drew the instrument they would like to play (there's one guy who can play guitar, bass and drums so I rotate him through the instruments each week).

To help organize all this, I created a cork board (pictured above):

From top-down:

White = Date and Theme of the Sunday worship

Pink = musician/vocalist that is on for that Sunday

Blue = elements of the worship (readings, confession, forgiveness, etc.)

Bright green = songs

So far, the system is working great and I can instantly see what songs we're doing and who is on for each Sunday.  This also helps me be intentional about creating smooth transitions.

Whatever project you face, hopefully this helps you to literally 'see' the pieces and parts.  It doesn't have to be fancy: a corkboard and some colored index cards will do the trick!

What's on my mp3 player?

I've had an mp3 player for about a year and I'm lovin it!  It really helps recapture those "dead" moments in pastoral ministry: driving in the car, waiting at a restaurant for a meeting, etc.  You would be surprised how much you can listen to just driving for 15 minutes to and from work!

So without any further ado, here's what on my mp3 player:

*** FOR LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS, I LISTEN TO:

ANDY STANLEY - LEADERSHIP, BEST OF AND WEEKLY PODCASTS: I'm really glad Andy Stanley put his thoughts on leadership in a podcast.  It's an easy way to share his insights with my staff.  And of course, listening to his sermons are great too!

CATALYST PODCAST: Each month, these guys interview leaders and gurus in different fields of culture change.  Awesome insights here!

CHURCH LEADER INSIGHTS: Nelson Searcy, pastor in New York City, offers his insights on connecting the dots between the unchurched and the church world.

WORSHIP LEADER INSIGHTS: Jason Hatley is the worship leader at The Journey Church of the City in New York.  Working with Nelson Searcy, Jason offers practical insights on leading worship.

FERMI PROJECT: offers insights from a broad collection of innovators, artists, social entrepreneurs and other leaders who experiment with ways to advance the good in culture.  This jump started with the book they did called "UnChristian".  A powerful read that should open any Christian leader's eyes.

*** FOR CREATIVE INSIGHTS, I LISTEN TO:

CREATIVEPASTORS BLOG AND PODCAST: Ed Young Jr. is a master at creativity and connecting the dots from the Bible to the people in a creative way.  In a recent series, he brought in a full toilet to illustrate the difference between lust and desire.  In one of my sermons, I brought on a seat from a toilet and it didn't go over well.  I'm definately no Ed Young Jr, but I think the way he does!

*** FOR SERMON IDEAS AND STORIES, I LISTEN TO:

NAPKIN SCRIBBLES: These are short daily life insights from author and futurist Leonard Sweet.  I eat up (not literally) all of his books.  Great author and Tweeter.

KERRYING ON: Kerry Patterson offers illustrations from moments in his life that apply to the leadership world. Author of a simple but powerful book called Influencer.

FOREFRONT CHURCH: Vince Antonucci is the pastor but is transitioning to launch a church on the Las Vegas strip.  Hilariously funny with a Junior High school boyish humor, Vince captures people's hearts in a style that I aspire to.

LIFECHURCH.TV WITH CRAIG GROESCHEL: This guy wears me out!  Full of energy and passion, Craig Groeschel delivers and keeps my attention.

MARS HILL: Mark Driscoll is the pastor in Seattle who is a passionate Bible teacher.  He just finished a series on Doctrine which I plan to adapt and walk my congregation through.

MAURY HILLS: It's always good to explore the culture you are in.  This podcast is from a colleague in ministry, Russ Adcox.  He is leading his church here in Columbia to do some awesome things!

*** TO INSPIRE MY LIFE, I LISTEN TO:

CORNERSTONE SIMI: Francis Chan, pastor at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California brings a thoughtful message that captures my heart.  

THE VILLAGE CHURCH: What can I say but 'wow'!  This young pastor, Matt Chandler, walks through a book of the Bible verse-by-verse from start to finish.  Impressive, knowledgeable and fast-paced, Matt offers a relevant message to my generation.

What if the Church was like Starbucks?

The church is so out of touch that outsiders looking in view the church as weird, unfriendly and irrelevant.  For that reason, I try to think of ways to tap into the culture around us and use culture as a bridge into the church world.

This is a hilarious parable that shows how out of touch the church can be.

Check it out:

What if the Church marketed like Starbucks?