With Skillful Hands – Page 16 – A Leadership Resource

How & Why We Use Constant Contact

July 15, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

Constant Contact is an online email marketing company. Once our mailing list got bigger than my personal email could handle, I got a subscription to Constant Contact. At New Day we like to build on proven foundations, and after doing some research I discovered Constant Contact was a staple email marketing company, used by many of the churches I was trying to learn from at the time. Here's what we use Constant Contact for at New Day: To send a weekly email to our church. Included in the email … [Read more...]

How we use YouVersion

July 10, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

YouVersion is a free and easy way to read your Bible online or on your smartphone in a number of different translations. Here's a couple reasons why I like using and promoting YouVersion to others: The Bible is often viewed as an ancient book, out of touch with the times. Allowing people to access it digitally, in my opinion, helps correct that misconception. I love being able to say on Sunday "If you have your Bibles or YouVersion on your smartphone, please turn with me to..." It's cool … [Read more...]

Church Metrics

July 8, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

Church Metrics is undoubtedly one of my favorite resources. It's a free tool, compliments of LifeChurch.tv that helps you easily track your church's key metrics such as salvations, baptisms, first time guests, attendance, giving, etc. You can track anything you like and then easily create helpful reports or charts. Here's an example of one report I receive each week. I set it up so each Tuesday I get a snap shot of the last six weeks (click the picture to enlarge). Here's an example of … [Read more...]

Riverbanks

July 3, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

Good employers will give their employees riverbanks to operate within. A riverbank is a metaphor for boundaries. A river has a riverbank on each side keeping the water where it needs to be. Without riverbanks, the water would just go everwhere, which would be good for no one. Giving employees riverbanks does two very beneficial things: It keeps them moving in the right direction, giving them focus. It allows them to use their unique personality and God-given talents to get the job done, … [Read more...]

Delegation vs Abdication

July 1, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

I like Bruce Tulgan's take on delegation in his book It's Okay to be the Boss: "Some managers make the mistake of thinking that delegation is about letting go. Sadly, delegation is not at all about letting go of work. Delegation is all about getting work done through others - and that is an intense, hands-on endeavor." Leadership by abdication is telling an employee or volunteer what to do, but then disappearing into the sunset, never to be seen again. This is not responsible … [Read more...]

When a Volunteer Needs to be Fired

June 26, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

In Peter Drucker's book The Effective Executive you'll read the following story: General Marshall during World War II insisted that a general officer be immediately relieved if found less than outstanding. Marshall flatly refused to listen to the argument: "But we have no replacement." "All that matters," he pointed out, "is that you know that this man is not equal to the task. Where his replacement comes from is the next question." Sometimes we are scared to do the right thing because of … [Read more...]

Why You Don’t Have More Volunteers

June 24, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

When you have a volunteer shortage (church wide or in a specific department) I think there are at least three questions you should ask: 1. Are you asking God for volunteers? If you need more volunteers, the answer begins with prayer. James 4:2 says "You don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it." And Matthew 9:38 says "So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields." Step one is to pray for more volunteers. 2. Are you … [Read more...]

Why Percentage Based Budgeting is So Helpful

June 19, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

In my post How to Spend the Money I laid out four categories of spending as well as recommended percentages for each category. Now I want to talk about why these categories and recommended percentages have been so helpful to me. It helps your board of directors determine an appropriate pay package for you. Your board will decide your base salary, benefits (i.e. health insurance, retirement) and bonuses (i.e. like an end of year performance based bonus where you can earn up to 5% of your base … [Read more...]

How to Spend the Money

June 17, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

When we first started New Day, among other things, I was contemplating this question "How will we spend the money that God entrusts us with?" In the realm of personal finance I knew of recommended percentages for the various categories within your budget, but I knew of no such resource for church finance until I came across a book called Money Matters in Church: A Practical Guide for Leaders by Aubrey Malphurs and Steve Stroope. In this book the authors give you four main categories of spending … [Read more...]

Making Good Decisions

June 12, 2014 By Mike Sorcinelli

In Dave Ramsey's book EntreLeadership he says that one component of good decision making is having good information. He said "Ninety percent of making the right decision is the gathering of information. The bigger the decision, the more time you take, the more options you gather, and the more informed you should become." And then this was my favorite part: "The more information you have, the more obvious the correct decision is, and therefore it is an easier decision to make." I've seen this … [Read more...]