Great Reads

If you are on a team, the following posts might help you address some key issues:

It is tough to keep aligned around the vision of an organization. Here are some tips on how to stay aligned with your team so you're all going in the same direction.

Got apathy? Do something about it here.

Love this post by Mark Driscoll on how to be missional. It's not about a program - it's about our relationship with Jesus and how we live that relationship out.

Anyone face criticism? Here are some encouraging words for you.

"More programs." "More events." "More more more!!!" ... it doesn't equal better. Will Mancini describes why doing a few things well helps us bring our best to God.

How To Start a Movement

In order to effect change, it is not entirely on the shoulders of the leader - it's the first follower who is crucial.

This and many other leadership lessons can be learned by watching the short 3 minute video below.

Presented by David Siers:

Personal Mission Statement

Recently, I went through some life coaching to revisit my life and ministry and how to live out of my strengths.

Below is my Personal Mission Statement. This is a statement that holds me in check every day to make sure that every word, action and initiative aligns with what God has led me to be:

I live my life out of God's vision to:

love my God and my family more than myself

love the Lost more than the church

love the real church more than the ideal church

by being relational, creative and leaving no gaps between my words and my actions.

Do you have a personal mission statement? What is it? What do you think of mine?

If you don't have one and would like to develop one, contact me @ revmiller38401@yahoo.com

Simple Relationship or Programmed Religion?

When we consider our relationship with God, reflect on the Tozer quote below:

"The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us---

in its place are

programs,

methods,

organizations,

and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention

but can never satisfy the longing of the heart."

We're Not Taking Up an Offering at Church

Can you imagine going to church and hearing: "We're not collecting an offering today!"

That would be a shock!

Yet, that's what happened in Exodus 36.3-7.

Moses hears a complaint from the workers that they can't keep up with all the money, gold, jewelry, grain that the people are brining. THE WORKERS ASK MOSES TO STOP THE PEOPLE FROM GIVING!

I would love to stand in front of a worship assembly and say "You're bringing too much. Let's not take an offering."

A twist on this idea is to collect the Sunday morning offerings but give all of it away outside of the church. That might be a first step to an Exodus 36 Sunday.

But first, leaders would need to wrestle with this question:

What are the marks of a church bringing too much in offerings?

-and-

How do we help our church grow towards an Exodus 36 moment?

Are You Giving Away Tasks or Giving Away Authority?

Be careful about what you give away...

It's not enough to teach, train and discipline people to exhibit the right behaviors and follow thru on completing tasks.

You also have to empower them to make decisions based on the situation around them.

Better yet, you have to give them authority to make decisions on their own.

It's the difference between delegating tasks and delegating authority. (Great insight from Craig Groeschel!)

If you delegate tasks, you'll get mindless followers who constantly look to you to make decisions.

If you delegate authority, you'll get leaders who look to you for VISION.

This is what it looks like if you only give away tasks instead of authority:

Permission to Speak Freely

This website

http://www.permissiontospeakfreely.com/

asks a great question:

"What is the one thing you feel you can't say in church?"

Even though this is geared for laypeople, I believe this is also a great question for Pastors because I believe there are some things I can't say in church either.

I wonder what it would look like to have total openness and authenticity in church. Kinda scary but so freeing too!

Leadership Team

My Leadership Team just finished talking about the book "Trust and Teams" by Jane Fryar. As one team member put it, "it ate our lunch". This is a great book which has great questions to help build teams in a religious environment.

Our next book we're discussing is: The No Complaining Rule. That should generate a lot of discussion as well as changing our whole climate of conversation.

Boy, do I complain too much...

The Spirit and the System of Worship

I am big into creating a system that helps to organize worship Sunday in and Sunday out.

But, I shouldn't forget about creating the spirit of worship.

I too easily overlook the envornment I'm creating for worship.

The system that is used to organize worship should create an environment, or spirit, for worship.

One question that a great friend of mine asked that helps me tackle the spirit of worship:

"What lie do we give up at worship?"

Last week in worship, we gave up the lie: we have to earn salvation. This week, the lie we'll give up is: tapping into God as a last resort.

What would the elements of worship look like if we organized them around the "spirit" or environment of worship?

and

What lie did you give up at worship recently?

What Would You Be Known For?

Over the past week or so, I've been asking myself a few soul-searching questions. There have been a lot of events that woke me up and made me ask: "Why do I do what I do?" and "What legacy am I leaving behind?"

In the midst of this glorious and joyous season of Easter, reminders are all over the place of why Jesus came in the first place:

In my church, one of our church families experienced the loss of his dad. His dad left him with a great appreciation for music. My favorite quote from him is: "Music is the language understood by all cultures."

In my community, one of our favorite news anchors, Dan Miller died suddenly while in his hometown of Augusta, GA. Caught everyone by surprise. The one thing everyone says is that the Dan on the screen was the Dan in the office and on the street. Dan was authentic and real.

In my town, William Malone is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. He is a local dentist and gave back to his community in so many ways. And, Suzan Kinzer, age 38 was taken off life support. She would host garage sales to give to people in need. Both William and Suzan leave behind a legacy of giving.

I certainly don't want to take anything away from the families as they mourn and process what life will look like for them. They are continually in my prayers and I am looking for tangible ways to express my care and love for them.

But these events cause me to not only pray for these families but also take stock of my own life.

So, a couple of questions for you:

What would you be known for when all is said and done?

And, does that change the way you think and act today?

Long and Short Meetings

What was the longest meeting you've ever attended?

(mine: 5 hours @ a church council mtg once a month...thankfully, not at the current church I serve!)

What was the most effective meeting you've ever attended?

(mine: 45 min @ a youth mtg to chart out service ideas and actions)

When you compare the two, did you notice how preparation, focus and input ahead of time affected the length of the meeting?  How?

Death by Meeting!  That's what Patrick Lencioni's fable concludes: that we're killing ourselves by meetings all day long.  My experience of meetings is that they turn out to be all talk and no action.  This is very frustrating to try to get things done.

I came across a post by Seth Godin re: meetings and how to make them more effective and productive.

Some takeaways from Seth's post:

1. Schedule meeting in incriments of 5 minutes: this would be interesting to try out.  It would force us to keep the meeting moving, not get bogged down on one item, and cover items succinctly.  It would also force people to be prepared.  If you find it hard to share everything in 5 minutes, check out the book Say It In Six!

(Well, of course the book shows you how to share your thoughts within 6 minutes and with a 5 minute timeframe, you'll have to really hone your skills!  But you get the idea...)

2. Remove all chairs: I've heard of this and have tried it a couple of times with great success!

3. Short Email summary: I take this to the next level and use Google docs with my teams.  Every member of the team can interact and add their progress and thoughts on a project.  The doc can be easily accessed by anyone else on the team.  Then, when it comes time for the meeting, all the thoughts and ideas have been posted and the meeting can go beyond the initial "idea-share" and getting to the action of "how are we going to proceed?" During the meeting, the doc is updated in real time based on our conversation.  Ideally, though, I'd love to jump on Comapping so that it gives my team an accurate picture of how our brains process information.

Are you Communicating to share Information or Inspiration?

When you have the opportunity (or curse) to stand in front of people and talk, do you revert to sharing information or inspiring the group to greatness?  Which one would you rather do?

For 49 weeks in the past 5 years (I get 3 Sundays off), I have had the opportunity to communicate in front of people.  You think it would be an awesome opportunity (which it is) but sometimes it is tough to be inspiring and heart-provoking week-in and week-out.  It's much easier to share an information dump than it is to inspire and paint a picture of a better future.

Andy Stanley's book "Communicating for a Change" outlined a great system for communicating and recently put his thoughts in a Leadership Podcast:

"Effective Communication"  .mp3

A few things strike me:

-Plan out my messages in advance: I've started to do this by planning out worship themes for the whole year.  This has helped chart what sermons looks like from week to week.  It certainly has helped me remember the message since I'm marinating on it for longer than 3 days.  But I still need to work on getting the details of my sermon movement worked out ahead of time (this will certainly give my .ppt person smiles!)

-Tangible item: For every sermon, I think of questions and thoughts for the people to take home with them so the sermon lasts longer than 30 minutes.  I encourage people to talk about these questions over their lunch or later on in the week.  Now my challenge is to give them something tangible to take with them as a visual.

What about you?  What changes do Andy's insights cause you to make when you're faced with a public speaking setting?

What Do You Make Time For?

In an exercise from Pencil Dancing, there were 2 questions that rocked my world.

Question 1: What things do you make time for?

My Answer: My family, connecting with people who don't know Christ, Trinity, Columbia Counseling Ministries, Toastmasters, and Reading

Question 2: What things do you need to make time for that would increase your creativity?

My answer: running/walking, rock climbing, taking an art class, visiting a museum.

Now the task is figuring out how to carve time out to add in my answers from question 2.

What about you?

If you had to narrow down the items you invest your time in, what would that currently look like?

If you wanted to increase your creativity or productivity, what would you need to make time for?

Do We Do Too Much?

"We are not called to do everything

We are called to do the right things"

-Randy Miller on 2/23/09 while reading Acts 

(but I'm sure someone else said it earlier and better than I did)

Trust and Teams

My leadership team (preschool director, treasurer, office manager, buildings and grounds, children's minister, and I) and I are reading  Trust and Teams by Jane Fryar (a quick read, very concise and packs a punch!).  

As a part of drilling home chapter one, I came up with this exercise that bonded us tighter as a team:

1. Does ___(fill in team member name)____ have:

-my best interests at heart?

no way! 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 yuppers! 100%

-my church's best interest at heart?

no way! 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 yuppers! 100%

After each team member filled this out for each person on the the team, the next question was asked:

2. What is (1) action/behavior that ____(fill in team member name)_____ might be able to do to build your trust in them?

Each team member shared their perspective on what the other person might be able to do to build trust with them.  As the team member spoke, the other person couldn't react or say anything in defense, right or wrong.  This was an opportunity to hear each other give constructive criticism and be able to hear and feel how fellow team members view each other.

So what did my team members say that I could do to build their trust in me?  Read on...

> "continue to help me (team-member) prepare presentations so I (team-member) look good when making them"

> "continue to care, listen and allow me to make mistakes"

> "communicate more clearly the picture of where we're going: share your vision and plans (I feel like we're on a boat adrift in the sea)"

> "let me know what your schedule looks like so I can 'cover' for you"

2009 GOALS: What Am I Going to STOP Doing

Goals are great.  I make lots of them.  But what often happens is that I make a huge list of goals only to find that by mid-year, there's no possible way I can achieve them because I lack 

TIME (clock capacity) or 

PASSION (emotional capacity) or 

RESOURCES (people, talent, $$$ capacity)

I love the Subway commercials where buttons are popping off people and pants are spliting.  It illustrates that our bodies only hold a certain capacity of food.  When we stretch that capacity, we become unhealthy.

It's like my life is a plate of 1/2 dessert and 1/2 pasta.  I know I need to eat more veggies (aka my 2009 goals) but there's no room on my plate.  So, I'll just plop the veggies on top and try to eat the whole plate.  Unfortunately, one of two things happen:

1) Something unintentionally falls off the plate: when I pile things on my plate, something inevitably falls off.  It would be better to strategically figure out how something is going to fall off rather than to "just let it slide".  If I'm strategic and intentional, I can be in control of achieving my goals.

2) I try to do it all only to realize I'm giving myself an ulcer.  I need to stop listening to the lie that says "I can do it all" because I can't possibly do it all.

Whether it's setting goals as a team or setting your own personal goals, we need to make a list of what we are NOT going to do.

Here's mine:

1. I'm not going to check my email and google reader 3x per day.  Usually, I jump online first thing in the morning, during lunch and before I go home.  This is a time killer.  I'm going to set aside 1 hour per day to check emails, google reader and reply to emails.

2. I'm not going to be on the phone all day.  I will set aside a part of my day to make, receive and return phone calls.

3. I'm not going to take my member's ideas and run with them.  Recently, a couple of church members had the idea of doing a progressive dinner.  Great idea!  But guess who took the idea, ran with it and implemented the whole thing: you guessed it!  The idiot whose blog you're reading.  I take peoples' ideas because I worry that it won't accomplish the vision of our church.  So I vow to listen to someone's ideas and coach them on how to best implement it so that it will accomplish the vision of our church.

4. I'm not going to read books.  Ok, well you know me too well.  I'm always reading at least 4 books at one time.  But I also have this goal to read the whole Bible this year.  So, I'm going to read less of my other books and read more of the Bible.  It'll disappoint Amazon.com but I think it'll be worth it.

5. I'm not going to do ministry by myself.  I am going to delegate and empower more peole this year so they are more of a part of ministry.  

What's your 2009 STOP doing list?

GHAG

It's a new year and I've thought through my "Ginormous Hairy Audacious Goals" for 2009 (borrowed and adapted from Jim Collin's phrase "Big Hairy Audacious Goals").

Some things you'll notice:

*  I gotta set goals: The old saying is true: "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time."  I don't know if I'm an effective leader if I don't know where I'm headed.

* I set way too many goals: I'd rather have too many goals than to have only 3, achieve them and be bored the rest of the year.  Lots of goals always gives me something to shoot for. 

* Goals always meet reality: When I set goals, it also means that I have to give up something.  I have limited time, and my life is full of tasks and things to do.  When I set up new goals, I also need to give up doing something in order to make room emotionally, spiritually and logistically in order to to accomplish them.  You'll see that list next week.

Here are mine for 2009 (hey, that rhymes!)

-baptize 15 people

-launch 6 new small groups

-mentor each small group leader by meeting with them one-on-one at least once this year

-lead our church in a community-wide "serve Columbia" campaign

-use videos during worship services

-project all of our worship services

-new church website

-podcast sermons

-develop sermon groups where people help me write and be creative about sermon topics

-develop questions based on the sermon for people to take home with them and talk about during the week

-invite my church to literally "open up their Bibles" during every message

-connect with parents at our preschool/childcare ministry by opening the front door 2x a month

-bring 8 new members to church

-develop a venue for our Junior and Senior High Youth to connect once a month using a youth-led band

-read the Bible from timelines all the way through to the maps

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.

Finding my Strengths

I took this assesment by www.strengthfinders.com to find my strengths.  The idea is that once we know our strengths, we should live our lives out of our strengths instead of strengthening our weaknesses.  It's a concept I totally agree with.  I would much rather spend time living out of my strengths instead of being constantly frustrated by my weaknesses.

Here are my strengths in order of importance:

FUTURISTIC: I think about future possibilities and ask "What if..." a lot.

INPUT: I collect ideas and information.  I am very inquisitive.

LEARNER: I like learning new ideas and subjects.  I enjoy the journey from ignorance to expert.

FOCUS: I always have a goal ahead of me.  I filter every decision and action on the basis of whether it will help me achieve my goals.  When there's tangents, I want to get back on course.

RELATOR: I seek to develop deeper relationships with people I meet.  I'm not satisfied with a "surface level" relationships.  I want to know how the other person is wired; what their likes and dislikes are; their personal history.

Any comments?  Is it right on or totally off-base?

Words that Work

"It's not what you say, it's what people hear."

This book by Frank Luntz is profound and practical for anyone wanting to communicate a message to people.  Dr. Luntz has the reputation of the "hottest pollster in America" and performs numerous focus groups and polling in order to discover the most effective language for leaders to use if they want to connect their ideas to their audience. Luntz's assumption is that words are not the end; people are the end and the words we use are the tools to reach people. If you want to connect with people, you need to speak their language. It sounds like a "no-brainer" but how many times have you tried to impose and force your thoughts and opinions down someone else's throat without considering how they are hearing your words?

Luntz outlines 10 rules that aid in successful communication that are based on Orson Wells' essay "Politics and the English Language":

1. Use small words

2. Use small sentences

3. You need Credibility

4. You need Consistency

5. Offer something new (which includes offering a new twist on an old idea)

6. Sound and Texture matter

7. Inspire!

8. Visualize

9. Ask a question

10. Provide context

Put another way, speak with simplicity, brevity, credibility, consistency, novelty, alliteration, aspiration, visualization, questioning, and context.

Dr. Luntz provides many examples and case studies to prove out his point. He cites day-to-day examples of how to communicate with the hostess at a packed restaurant to high-profile examples of recalling a California governor in 2003 and impeaching Bill Clinton.

One of the limitations of the book is that it doesn't dive into visual images that work (or don't work) in communication. We live in an age of visual images all around us and it would be helpful to see which images work to communicate a point.

This is a great book for leaders of any kind (including Pastors) who craft language and speak to people day in and day out.  Even though this book focuses on the political and social realm, you can make applications to the religious realm quite easily. If you pastor a rural America church and you use the big, theological, higher education words like "the non-reciprocity of the two natures of Christ" to describe Christ, you won't communicate the idea very well.  But it would be different if you said, "Christ is 100% man and 100% God."  Which sounds easier to hear?

Some quotes that are really good:

"the act of speaking is not a conquest, it's a surrender."

"numbers with the smallest denominators and applied per individual are therefore almost always the most effective."

"Lose imagination and you lose an essential component of words that work."