I met Andy Needham ten years ago while he was leading worship at youth ministry retreat in New Hampshire.  Andy has a heart for worship, and is a talented worship leader (a rare gift)… his new project, The Andy Needham Band, is doing some amazing things all up and down the east coast… you really need to check them out and follow what he is up to.  Check out some of Andy’s thoughts:

Our new Lead Pastor and a complete stranger both shared the same observation.. and it wasn’t good.

Our church growth brought with it an explosion in programming. New and established ministries were increasingly competing for the coveted marketing tool of the Sunday morning platform. Weeding and managing the requests became an ever expanding block of my work week.

It wasn’t working.

Two voices helped me fully understand the problem. One was invited, the other was given:

• The New Pastor: In my first extended connection with our Lead Pastor, two weeks into his new role, I interviewed him about our Sunday experience.  His feedback: too many interruptions, too much business, not enough time to just worship.
• The Visitor: The other voice was more telling. A visitor stood awkwardly outside the door of our worship center as the announcements rolled on inside. I walked over and introduced myself. He didn’t bother to share his name and instead asked, “Is it all just commercials?”

No, it is never “all commercials”, but too much of Sunday had become about trying to motivate people to attend events rather than allowing the Spirit of God to transform us in undistracted worship through song and Word.  Since these conversations our staff has become more intentional about vetting what we share.  Because of this we are forcing ourselves to be more creative in how we communicate outside of Sundays.  Here is what we are doing:

• Leverage the Website.  We ensure the website is updated constantly: nothing discourages use of the website more than expired information.
• Leverage the Bulletin and Email:  We looked at other churches bulletins and stole good ideas. One simple one was using ministry headings such as “Student Ministry” to break up the monotony. In our weekly emails we reduced the amount of text and added links that drive traffic to our website.
• Leverage the Vision.  We have started to intentionally share vision with our key leaders.   This began with everyone involved in making Sunday morning happen.   Our message: Fewer announcements, more actionable application points.
• Leverage No.  Say “No”.  It may be hard to believe, but we turned down some good ideas because they just didn’t fit our vision. We did this gracefully and encouraged people to communicate in other ways, resourcing them so that they could succeed. We added administrators to our website, and created new spaces for booths in our foyer.
• Leverage the End of the Service. We were in a rut of when we shared things. It was always after a few songs and before the offering. Since making our changes we will share one or two actionable application points at the end of the service.
• Leverage the Lead Pastor.  We learned that it is easy to lose sight of the purpose of Sunday morning in the process of doing church.  Our goals are that the Word and Spirit of God would move people to action, and that worship will extendss beyond the final song.  When we are at our best is when we offer an application of our worship and Word.  Working with our new Lead Pastor to make application points tie into our programming options has helped us accomplish these goals.

How do YOU decide what to promote from the platform on Sunday mornings?

This is the fifth installment in a series based on my adventures in planting a church.  For more information on the series, or to see what else we have walked through, check out the original post.  My hope is to use this series to develop a resource for planters as they are thinking about diving in, or need to process their current situation… this resource is incomplete without your contribution (that is a subtle way of saying leave a comment).

On Thursday I started what I intended to be a two part post on the people that you meet in church planting.  I started out with the people that you meet that are not connected with your church.  Today, and this coming Thursday, I want to focus on the people that you meet within the context of the church you are planting.

Now, because I spent a lot of time and money on an expensive Bible College degree, you will have to bear with my alliteration throughout the course of the next two posts.  Today, I am going to focus solely on the Christians that you will come across while church planting.  These are people who already know Jesus at the time you meet them.  While I have heard some people say that they don’t want any Christians joining the church they are planting, and while I understand the thought behind the statement,  I also know that I can not operate that way.  If it were not for some of the highly committed followers of Christ that came along on our journey with us, I would be permanently camped out in a loony bin.  So, who are some of these Christians you will meet:

• Barkers:  Back in the day, a barker was someone whose job it was to get people’s attention.  They would stand in front of a booth at the carnival and call out to people, enticing them to play a game, buy a hot dog, or check out the bearded woman.  The tradition of the barker lives on within the church world with what Ed Stetzer calls the “Issue Christian”, someone who goes from church to church looking for someone to jump on board with their pet issue (prophecy, Calvinism, Arminianism, politics, etc. etc.).  While I admire the passion of the barkers, I also love Stetzer’s advice in encouraging Issue Christians to find a “better fitting” church (unless you ARE a great fit for them) as you will be required to spend a great deal of time explaining why you are not as committed to their cause as they are.
• Bouncers:  Don’t get the wrong idea, these aren’t the people standing at the door to the church deciding who gets in or not.  Bouncers are the chronic church shoppers… looking for the perfect church.  While a bouncer will seem highly interested in what is going on in the church you are planting at first, their interest may quickly fade as they are called to a higher level of commitment.  While we want to continue to help them engage with Christ, we also want to ensure that we are investing most intentionally in those who are deeply committed to what we are called to do (check out Bob Logan’s thoughts on this).
• Burnt:  We all know people who have been burnt by the church, and I generally love being with these people.  Those who have been burnt by the church, and still cling to Jesus tend to be some of the most graceful people I have met.  These can also be great people to build a church!  You will, however, need to be helping them process their previous hurts, clear on where you are going and what the church will become, and they are willing to forgive those who hurt them in the past.
• Borderline:  There will be people who have a hard time understanding exactly who you are, why you are doing what you are doing, and won’t be completely sure if you are going to make it… but they keep showing up.  They might attend your service, may be part of a small group, and will show up to an event every now and again, but you won’t be entirely sure why.  I call these the borderline crowd because you are never sure where they stand, until one day they surprise you by buying into the vision of the church and committing to be a part of where you are headed.
• Bored:  This is a cool group of people.  The bored are those who have been attending church for years, and have come to a point where they feel like they need “something more” in their spiritual lives (it kind of sounds like a spiritual mid-life crisis, no?).  This may stem from a sense of holy discontent, a yearning to make a significant step of faith, or just a dissatisfaction with the status quo.  Whatever the case, what I love about this crowd is their willingness to explore what it is that God is calling them to… whether that is within the context of the church you are planting or not.
• Bought In:  This is the foundation of any church.  The very core of your plant needs to be made up of people who are bought into what you are doing, and why you are doing it.  These are the people that are willing to make crazy sacrifices on behalf of the church, because they see that God is in it, and they sense the press of the Holy Spirit to be a part of what he is doing.  These are the people that will remind you that you are not insane, and these are the people that will constantly surprise you, and humble you, when you see how God has allowed you to minister to them.  Cherish this crowd.

Have YOU experienced any of these groups?  Who have I missed?

Here is the list that I developed:

• Team-based, collaborative leadership.  I have no desire to be a dictator, and when I am that is not a good thing.  I need people coming alongside me and helping fill in the gaps in my skill set.  I also do not want to work with, or for, a dictator.  That does not end well for anybody, but let me come alongside you and fill out the gaps in your skill set… now we’ve got something!
• Communication.  I have decided that my new job title is that of Professional Elephant Killer… I kill the elephant in the room (you know, the things that everyone knows but is afraid to talk about).  I value honest, open, unpretentious communication.  Sometimes this can be contentious, other times it can be direct, but if it is intended to further the expansion of the Kingdom, bring it!
• Vision.  I am going to die far too soon to be involved in a church that does not have a compelling vision.  Inspire me, get me excited about where we are going, tell me how we are getting there… or,  let me do it.  Either way… this is a pretty big deal for me.
• Critical Thinking.  I am not a methodology snob.  I do not believe that there is one right way of doing ministry (whether church planting, multi-site, missional communities, or whatever).  I think that there are at least four hundred right ways of doing church.  Having said that, you better be able to tell me why you are doing the things that you do, and whether they are working or not (and why you think that).
• Movement.  I have at times been called impatient, and told that “you can’t turn the titantic on a dime” (how’d that work out for them?) and numerous other pithy statements throughout the course of my life.  In all honesty, I think that I have been misunderstood.  I am not looking for the switch to be thrown and everything to change, but I AM looking for movement: constant improvement, steady growth, a plan of action, a strategy… something!  Lack of movement is bad for bowels and churches.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this: what am I missing, what would you add?

What do YOU value when it comes to a church’s leadership culture?

So, while you were celebrating the week of love, roses, chocolates, and hallmark’s stock going through the roof here is what was happening at Church Thought and the #3at3:

• The Power of Clarity in Your Church’s Vision.  An incredible vision to do amazing things to expand God’s Kingdom is useless without clarity.  The importance of developing a clearly defined vision, and how to make it happen.
• Church Planting: Before You Start (part two).  Knowing how to answer your “why” (why are you doing what you are doing), and putting in the time required to plan out the work you are going to be engaging in is huge!  The discipline alone is well worth the effort.
• Leadership Reading List: The Three Commitments of Leadership.  Three things that every organizational culture needs to thrive… and keep from burning your teams out. The Three Commitments of Leadership is a great book to help leaders think through what they need to be building into their organizational culture, and how to do it.  Put simply, if you are burning people out or frustrating your team… you need to read this.
• Church Planting: The People You Will Meet (part one).  Continuing on in my adventures in church planting, a quick run through of the people I met from outside our church while we were getting up and running… Have you met any of these people? Are you one of these people (I hope it isn’t Amway guy… don’t be that guy)?
• Finance Friday: Saying Thank You.  A simple, handwritten, thank you note is a powerful tool… it reinforces behaviors, shows appreciation, and models generosity and thankfulness for those who receive them. Whether it is for a member of your congregation that has led well through the years, needs encouragement, or for a first time tither… a simple thank you can be more powerful than a sermon.

Best of the #3at3:

• Taking Vision Public in 2012: Six Steps to Vision-Soaked Church Communication, from Will Mancini.  This is the introduction to a phenomenal series on developing a clear, compelling vision for your church.
• The Evangelical Industrial Complex & the Rise of Celebrity Pastors, from Skye Jethani.  This really needs to be read by every pastor, or anyone considering going into ministry.
• You Are One Shrewd Investor, from Brad Leeper.  What does YOUR year  end giving letter say?  What does it say about your church, and how you view what you are doing?  A great example of a church who is doing this well.

I never really put much thought into the significance of these notes until one of my middle schooler’s mother told me about how her son kept his Christmas card in a special place so that he could look at it from time to time… that conversation took place in September.

Since having that conversation the first purchase I make when starting a new job is a stack of note cards that I can use to write thank you notes:

When a new person visited our church, I sent them a thank you.
When someone did a great job leading an event, I sent them a thank you.
When someone gave to the church for the first time, I sent them a thank you.

I am convinced that we, as pastors and church leaders, are called to model generosity for our congregations.  While this takes many different forms, I think that one of the greatest tools we have in accomplishing this is a simple, genuine, thank you.  The ten minutes invested in creating a short note reinforces the behavior, strengthens the relational connection, and models a spirit of generosity and thankfulness.

My friend Brad Leeper has two great posts on why you should be thanking first time givers, and how to thank them, I would highly suggest checking them out.

How intentional are YOU about saying thank you?

This is the fourth installment in a series based on my adventures in planting a church.  For more information on the series, or to see what else we have walked through, check out the original post.  My hope is to use this series to develop a resource for planters as they are thinking about diving in, or need to process their current situation… this resource is incomplete without your contribution (that is a subtle way of saying leave a comment).

One of the coolest parts of planting a church is how many people you get to meet and connect with.  One of the most challenging parts of planting a church are the people you meet and connect with.  I realize that these statements are true of any ministry opportunity, yet something about church planting seems to crank up the intensity of these statements a notch.

I would like to take some time over the course of two posts to walk through the different kinds of people that you meet when planting a church.  This post will focus on the people outside of your church, and Tuesday’s follow up will be aimed at the people within your church.

With the recent rise in popularity of the church planting movement, with help of conferences like Velocity, Exponential, and organizations like the North American Mission Board throwing their considerable clout behind church planting efforts, there seems to be no lack of people who are wanting to connect with church planters as they pursue their calling.  At times this is a good thing, other times it can be sideways energy that keeps you from being able to pursue what you are called to.  With this in mind I have developed five broad categories of the people I met outside of our church while planting, and people that I am still meeting today as I partner with church planters:

• Sending Agencies: If you are being financially supported by a denomination, network, or other ministry, the relationship with your sending agency will be a major time investment over the next few years.  Knowing how to balance the expectations placed on you by them, and the needs of your church will be a never ending struggle.
• Colleagues: You need to be involved in relationships with people in ministry… especially someone who knows what it means to plant a church.  The ability to truly share what is going on in a safe context, free of comparing and judgement, will be what keeps you sane during the dark patches of ministry.  Your friendship to others is what will keep them sane.
• Supporters:  The people that help you fund your church plant.  Supporters believe in you, or the work that you are doing, and while they are unable to be with you physically, they are regularly praying for you and have committed financially towards you as well.  This is a fun group of people to connect with, yet many times we run out of time to truly maintain our relationships with them.  Church planters would be well served to place a high priority on these relationships.
• Cheerleaders:  This is a group of people who are excited by what you are doing, let you know that you are doing great work, and love to spend time with you in order to hear stories of your latest successes.  While this group tends to be generally encouraging to be around, they are typically unwilling to commit to supporting the plant, and when asked will tell you how this is “not a good time”, or something similar.  An occasional cup of coffee with cheerleaders can be a good thing, but it can be easy to invest too much time in these relationships, to the detriment of your other responsibilities.
• Advocates:  These are some of my favorite people.  Advocates share wisdom, resources, connections, and influence with you and your church as you negotiate the planting journey.  These were the people that I would seek out when trying to better understand our cultural context (Doug K.), maneuver through bureaucracy, better understand business matters, and make sure that I wasn’t about to do something that would result in a trip to jail.  Church planters need to develop a network of advocates as they go about their work.
• Amway: Every six months or so a friend of mine calls me with his newest multi-level marketing pitch.  In the same way, planters get inundated by people who desire an agenda driven relationship.  Whether they want you to support a community project, a missions organization, or buy a product, they want something from you, and aren’t willing to accept no for an answer. A savvy planter minimizes the amount of time invested in these relationships, and is able to clearly articulate why “we just don’t share the same calling as you…” in a way that gracefully makes your point clear.

Relationships are a tough balance when it seems that people are pulling at you from every direction.  Learning how to negotiate them, and being prepared for them will be key to maintaining sanity while starting a church.

What types of people have YOU met while church planting?

As I think back on the teams that I have been a part of and the teams that I have consulted with, I can not help but see the truth of this book’s premise.  A recent conversation with a church planter who was struggling to understand why people were having a hard time following him came down to these three commitments, and his historical lack of developing them in his organization.

When practiced, the three commitments will give your team the ability to limit the distractions that keep them from what they are called to do.  They will minimize the relational junk that happens when leading a team (notice I said minimize, NOT eliminate), and they will allow your organization to feel as though it is “flowing”.  I have seen an understanding of the commitments change relationships and teams ridiculously quick as leaders suddenly understand that the problem is not a person… it is their inability to lead people the way in which they need to be led.

Let’s look at the basics of the commitments:

• Clarity: As defined by the authors, clarity is total awareness about the core knowledge of what we do, in ourselves and in every member of our team.  In other words a team that has clarity knows where it is going, what it will take to get there, and why it matters.  Without this commitment being developed your team will be frustrated, confused, and disinterested.
• Stability:  The promise to do everything we can so that everyone on our team or in our organization has what they need.  This seems simple enough, this commitment is more than resources.  This commitment is about knowing your team well enough to know what makes them tick, and what they need below the surface.  In StrengthsFinder 2.0 this is the strength of individuation, knowing how to resource, care for, and provide an environment that enables your team to thrive.  It is only when you have committed to stability that you can begin to develop a culture of trust.
• Rhythm:  The pattern that leaders foster to produce more of the results we want.  This commitment is all about pace, developing a natural flow for your team that allows them to do their best work, and brings them closer together as a team.  This commitment requires a deft touch, and a deep connection to your team that allows you to know how they are doing, and what their capacity is.

As a leader, the onus is on you to ensure that you have developed an environment that values these three commitments.  Teams that are unwilling to commit to providing clarity, stability, and rhythm are marked by collective disengagement, a lack of excellence, and an disunity.

How are YOU instilling the three commitments in YOUR organizational culture?

Last Tuesday I started a series sharing some of what I learned while planting a church.  My top secret plan in all this is to turn the comments section of these posts into a powerful resource for planters, and potential planters… so please, share your wisdom, insight, and experiences and let’s walk through this together.

Thursday I shared the first of three thoughts I had for those who are thinking about church planting: Limit Your Exposure.  Today, I want to finish that thought with the other two thoughts: Answer the Why and Planning Is Indispensable.  I’d love to hear your thoughts, push back, or anything that you might add to the conversation.

Answer the Why.

I am going to tell you a secret, please don’t share this with anyone (especially our early funding organizations).  When we moved into Baltimore we had no clue what we were going to do.  We knew we were planting a church and sure, we had plans.  We had big dreams, and bigger visions.  We were able to talk about who we would be ministering to, what our “target demographic” looked like, and how to address their needs… but we were wrong.  It took us at least six months of being on the ground before we really realized what we had gotten ourselves into, and how we were going to approach ministry.

What stayed the same that entire time was our desire to reconcile the City of Baltimore with the Kingdom of God.  We were there to be agents of reconciliation, and to introduce people to Jesus.  We knew our why so that when our how and what (programs, events, and methods) needed to change, we were able to stay on target.  Which leads into my next point…

Planning is Indispensable.

My favorite quote of all time is from Dwight Eisenhower:

In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.

While we may not have known what we were in for in Baltimore, the fact that we had invested countless hours thinking through why we were church planting, what we were planting, how we intended to do it, and what it would look like gave us a head start on creating our plan b (through h).  I am commonly asked “if everything is going to change when we get on the ground, why are we bothering to invest all this time and effort in planning?”  The discipline and strategic thinking that you gain from your times of planning will allow you to be flexible when the time comes to rethink your strategy.  Dream big, plan for success, but be ready when the time comes to change your plan.

What advice do YOU have for those who are preparing to plant?

“I can see it so clearly… I just haven’t had the ability to put it into words… which makes people think I don’t know where we are going.”

Clarity is powerful.

One of my most favorite things to do through my work with Church Simple is to help church leaders clearly communicate what it is that they are called to… and then helping them do it.  In this case, the process was incredibly moving.

I am becoming convinced that the church in this country is not lacking of vision… it is the rare church leader that does not have a vision for where God is taking them.  What I think is missing in many churches is a sense of clarity when it comes to that vision: a way to express it clearly, concisely, and with authority.

Vision statements can be incredibly powerful tools to rally your congregation around your calling… or they can be incredibly obtuse statements that make people yawn in powerful new ways.  The difference is how you approach crafting your vision statement, and whether you are making a statement, or calling to action.  I fully believe that we have been called to action by the great commission and great commandment… and should be calling our people to action as well.  With this in mind, here are four qualities of a great vision statement:

• Vivid.  Paint a picture.  Be clear about where you are going and what it will look like.  If your people do not fully understand what your vision statement is calling them to, you will never achieve it.
• Inspiring.  I am sick of boring vision statements.  If you want me to fully invest myself in the vision and mission of your church you need to call me to something bigger than myself, something worthy of the time, talents, and treasure that I will be sacrificing in order to make it happen.  Don’t tell me what we are, tell me where we are going… and make it a big deal.
• Memorable.  The school that I worked with in Baltimore had a vision statement that took up a full sheet of paper (actually they had two, posted on opposite walls… but that is a bigger problem for another time).  If you were to ask teachers, administrators, or anyone involved in the school to recite, or paraphrase, either of those statements you would have gotten a blank stare.  Your vision statement needs to be clear and concise in order for it to be memorable.  Vision statements that aren’t memorable are worse than having no vision statement at all.
• Preachable.  If you can not point back to your church’s vision statement during your sermon on a regular basis it is useless.  The power of a vision statement is its ability to clearly define who you are as a church and where you are going.  If you are not referring back to it regularly, it may be time to ask yourself whether you, and your vision, are headed in the same direction.

If you are working to create a vision statement for your church, I would love to assist you if I can.  If you are looking for more thoughts on church vision, you need to check out what Will Mancini is up to, or buy his book.  Either way, this is too important to not do well.

The last seven days have found me in such exotic climes as Wilmington, Baltimore, and Columbia, Maryland (I know you are jealous).  Here is some of what has gone on here on Church Thought, and the #3at3.

The week that was:

• Goal Setting and Accountability.  An update on my 2012 goals and a little conversation about what makes goals realistic.
• What Planting a Church Taught me.  I have been putting off launching into this story for about a year now.  I am excited to finally begin the process of sharing what I learned in the process of planting a church.
• Panic!  At The Pharmacy.  A recent visit to my local pharmacy has left me asking questions about how I, and church leaders all over, handle the times when things just don’t work as planned.  Do you point fingers, distance yourself, or take ownership of your teams failures and work towards improving?
• Church Planting: Before You Start (part one). I tried to make this one post… but you would have been reading it until next Thursday.  So, because I care, I broke it into two parts.  In part one I talk about Limiting Your Exposure to the things that can take down a church planter.
• Finance Fridays: How Many Cattle?  If we are honest with ourselves, how many times do we use a lack of resources as a convenient way to cover our lack of faith in God’s provision, or our lack of certainty to what we are called to do?  We worship a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills… what would it mean to really believe that?

Best of the #3at3:

• A Hundred Little Things, from Seth Godin.  What are the things about your church that make you who you are… but can’t be quantified?
• Ten Ground Rules for Staff Meetings, from Paul Clark.  Simple, straight forward, and clear.  How do you lead staff meetings in your church?
• The Worst Advice in Fundraising, from Jeff Brooks.  Reading this only from a fundraising mindset would be a disservice to your church.  Effective leaders know that they are leading people different from themselves.

What has been the most important thing YOU have learned this week?