It's scary to spend money in ministry. The fear is that if we spend what little we might have, there won't be enough for later. But this is the wrong way to think of spending money. As a church, ultimately, everything we spend money on is to make disciples. And in this sense, whatever we're spending money on isn't an expense, rather an investment in people's eternity. And here's how it works: The return on investment is always greater than the initial investment. A church is about destinies, … [Read more...]
RWMC
RWMC stands for Right, Wrong, Missing Confusing. Every Sunday I have a "note" on my iPhone that has these four words listed. My phone is always in my back pocket and as I notice things, I write them down. Right: worship team killed it, new video went over really well, we had 5 salvations, we had 3 new volunteers sign up for setup Wrong: the mic wasn't on when I started talking, the service went past 65 minutes, I asked a man if the woman with him was his mom and it turned out she was his … [Read more...]
Need or Opportunity?
When recruiting volunteers I feel its very important to present opportunities vs needs. Here's why: When you present a need you come across as a losing team (i.e. We aren't winning and people don't want to be a part of what we're doing. Can you please bail us out?). When you present a need you are asking for something for you, not for them. When you present an opportunity, it's all about them, not you (i.e. This is a next step you can take to grow closer to Jesus and follow in his … [Read more...]
An Old Fielder
I'm reading a book right now called John Adams by David McCullough. After John Adams became the second president of the United States many news articles were written about him. One writer praised Adams for his many admirable qualities, going on and on about what a great man he was, giving special attention to his uncompromising integrity. Another writer simply referred to Adam's as "an old fielder." An old fielder was a very dependable horse who produced a ton of work, was very low maintenance … [Read more...]
Tension to Manage or Problem to Solve
I was recently asked by a church planter "How do you prevent volunteers from being unfaithful - not showing up when they should, not doing what they said, etc?" I replied that this is a tension to manage, not a problem to solve. While you can't eliminate volunteers canceling (or canceling without notice) there are things you can do to minimize these occurrences: Clearly communicate expectations on the front end. Have in writing what you expect (i.e. that they are faithful in their commitment … [Read more...]
Work In It And On It
A church leader must balance two things: 1) working IN the church and 2) working ON the church. Working IN the church refers to doing the tasks that keep things going. If the teaching pastor doesn't work IN the church on a given week, there will be no message for Sunday. If the director of finance doesn't work IN the church the offering doesn't get deposited. Working ON the church refers to doing the tasks that keep things growing. If you don't work ON your department, you'll never come up … [Read more...]
How to Prevent Staff Burnout in Ministry
A couple years back I was on a tele-coaching call with Nelson Searcy and I asked him what he does to prevent his staff from burning out. With our volunteers we rotate people one month on then one month off. That's our strategy to not burnout our volunteers but currently we don't have any strategy to not burnout our paid staff. And since I love my staff and don't want them to get burned out I asked Nelson how I go about doing that. I was suprised at his answer. Here's what he said: It is not … [Read more...]
The Benefit of Teamwork
The purpose of teamwork is synergy. Synergy is the state in which the output is greater than the sum of the inputs. One plus one equals three, four, even five! Let me explain... In the 1885 world series of mule team competition, held in Chicago, the winning team pulled 9,000 pounds, the second place team a little less. Someone suggested that they see what the two teams could do together. The result was 30,000 pounds, much more than the sum of their separate loads. Or take geese for … [Read more...]
How to Stay Fresh in Ministry
I received church planting and senior pastor coaching from Kerrick Thomas and Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church for five years. Here's one of the best things I learned from them. Nelson used to say that the way to stay fresh in ministry is to: Divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandon annually. If you're going to stay fresh you have to take breaks, you have to rest, you have to do something other than work. And you have to do this daily, weekly and annually. Here's how this fleshes out in … [Read more...]
Quarterly Reporting to Your Board of Directors
At New Day, each board of director is a pastor that does not attend New Day. Since they serve from a distance I work hard to keep them informed of what's happening at our church. If they don't have the right information, they can't properly help us succeed in our mission. One of the ways I keep them informed is by sending them a report at the end of each quarter that summarizes some of our key metrics. Here's the last one I sent for January through March of 2015. Sean, Bill & … [Read more...]
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