The launch of our Soul Care emphasis and Dive In Groups are an effort to provide that intermediate connection to Cornerstone and give you access to even greater resources on a more personal and customized basis.

In dealing with pastors and ministry staff leaders across the country, it is clear to me that nothing is more foundational to their ability to lead than the care of their soul. That reality is why I am totally excited about Cornerstone’s partnership with Leadership Transformations.  Many years ago, Steve Macchia and I served together on a church staff in the Boston area and I have watched as God has used him in place after place to lead and nurture pastors and leaders. His dream to create an organization to spiritually transform leaders and teams was birthed out of a deep passion for helping others become more aware of God’s presence and direction in their lives.  Steve models what he teaches and the response to LTi’s work over the last ten years makes them the perfect partner for our desire to help pastors learn how to be more intentional in the care of their soul.

In working with our Master’s Groups, I have seen first hand the power of peer learning and the difference it makes in a pastor’s life and leadership.  We’re committed to peer learning because it has so many benefits for those who choose to participate.  We believe it is possible to access many of these benefits through an online experience. That’s why we have created CCN’s new Dive In Groups. These groups will provide a small learning community that can dive deep into important issues facing a local church.  These won’t be seminars but they will be topically driven!  These groups will be designed to help each participant take real action to advance in the leadership skill addressed in each particular DIG.  Over the course of several sessions, you can really dive into the topic. You can have in depth discussions and learn from others in the group who are committed to growing in the same skill set. And each group will be lead by a proven ministry leader who is an expert in the field.  There will be assignments to complete between sessions based on your unique local situation.  Our first Dive in Group will be on the topic of “Creating a Leadership Culture in Your Church” and led by Dan Reiland, one of the most skilled ministry coaches in the country.  We are excited about blazing this new Dive In Group trail and about the significant possibilities of encouragement and development for pastors!

If you have an interest in attending one of our future soul care retreats or being a part of our first Dive In Group, I would love to hear from you.  Send me an email or give me call and we’ll make sure you get an invitation.

Last fall, the Cornerstone team spent a lot of time thinking, discussing and praying about the direction that God would have for us in 2012 and beyond.  We sought increased clarity about our mission, our values and the ways in which we serve pastors and leaders.  Our efforts resulted in a new focus on our mission and expansion of our services to encourage and equip pastors and leaders.  What emerged from our values of authentic relationships, being missional, connecting pastors to resources, spiritual vitality, and doing everything from a Kingdom perspective has further deepened our commitment to serving pastors at a number of levels.

In this special issue of ALL In, I want to tell you about two new Cornerstone initiatives for 2012. The first is directed at offering “soul care” for pastors and the second at providing a way to help pastors go deeper in addressing important issues facing their church in the context of a group of peers led by an outstanding resource leader.

Perhaps the most critical issue for pastors and leaders today is the care of their own soul.  I don’t need to recite the statistics about the pressures and demands of being a pastor today.  You are living it every day. Once we determined that soul care for pastors would be a key priority for us, we sought to partner with the best people we knew who could deliver that resource.  Today, we are announcing a new partnership between Cornerstone and Leadership Transformations, a ministry whose mission is the spiritual transformation of leaders and teams. Led by its founder and president, Steve Macchia, God is using LTi to serve pastors, churches, and leadership teams to focus on spiritual formation, discernment and renewal.  As Steve so often says, “As the leader goes, so goes the organization, as the soul of the leader goes, so goes the leader. The soul is the most necessary and important and yet the most neglected part of a person.”

We are excited about the potential of this partnership and the difference it will make in the lives of pastors.  Later this year Cornerstone will be offering a series of Soul Care Retreats for pastors led by Steve and the LTi team.  Look for locations, dates and specific details in future issues of ALL In and on the Cornerstone website.  Steve will also be contributing feature articles related to soul care for pastors in future issues of All In. At 12:15 (EST) on Thursday, March 15, Steve will be the resource for our March Pastor’s Resource Call that is free to the first 25 people who register. We will also be giving a free copy of Steve’s new book, Crafting a Rule of Life, to the first 25 registrants.

Our second announcement concerns providing a way for pastors to be able to go deeper in getting the help you need to address significant issues related to moving your church forward and making disciples. We know from experience with our Master’s Groups that the combination of peer learning and a skilled facilitator works yet not everyone has access to a local Master’s Group.  So we are launching an online learning experience that we are calling Dive In Groups or DIG that will combine peer learning, technology and the leadership of an outstanding resource person.

Most Dive In Groups will involve one session a month for three months with follow-up assignments between sessions that are directly related to your local church situation. Participation in a Dive In Group is by application and the registration fee of $250 includes all materials, any books or other resources and Internet time.  To allow maximum participation, the size of a Dive In Group will normally be seven pastors.

Our first Dive In Group will launch this spring around the issue of “Developing a Leadership Culture in Your Church” and be led by Dan Reiland, the Pastor’s Coach,” recognized as one of the best leadership coaches for pastors and churches in the country.  The sessions will be May 10, June 6 and July 19. For more information about participating in this first Dive In Group, contact me or Warren Schuh Dan will be joining is on the April 19th Pastor’s Resource Call so you will want to register for that call.

Through our new “Soul Care” and Dive In Groups in addition to our existing Pastor’s Resource Calls, ALL In publication, Master’s Groups and other resources, we are looking forward to serving you and helping you fulfill the dream and vision God has given you for your church. 

Cornerstone’s first Dive In Group will focus on the issue of “Developing a Leadership Culture In Your Church” and be led by Dan Reiland. Dan is best known as a leader with a pastor’s heart and a coach’s instincts. His passion is developing and empowering leaders. Currently Dan serves as the Executive Pastor at 12 Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA. His latest book is Amplified Leadership.

“While most pastors say that leadership development is important, they are not consistent about it…often they don’t really know how to do leadership development or more importantly, how to create a culture of leadership development within their church,” says Reiland.

According to Dan, building a leadership culture is a process that has at least five elements beginning with developing a value for leadership that gets built into the culture. Secondly, there must be teaching about leadership that involves principles. “If churches do anything about leadership, it is usually to teach leadership principles but that alone is not sufficient to build a culture of leadership”, he said. A third element is the actual practice of leadership. The fourth step is leadership coaching to encourage improvement in leaders. This leads to the final element of a leadership culture which is identifying and celebrating actual results.

For participants in this first Dive In Group, the three sessions will be a combination of teaching, interaction and sharing progress with Dan and a small group of six other pastors. There will be practical assignments between sessions designed to be applied to the unique church setting of each participant.

Dates for the “Developing a Leadership Culture in Your Church” Dive In Group are June 14, July 19 and August 16 . Dan will kick off this topic on the April 19 Pastor Resource Call. Participation in a Dive In Group is by application and the registration fee of $250 includes all books, materials, other resources and Internet time.

For an application or more information about being part of Cornerstone’s first Dive In Group, contact Bill Nicoson or Warren Schuh.

Dr. Steve Macchia is the founder and President of Leadership Transformations and has more than three decades of ministry experience working with pastors and churches.   An author, former pastor and leader of a regional church network, Steve is passionate about the spiritual well being of church leaders. The following comments on soul care for leaders are from an earlier CCN Pastor’s Resource Call conversation.

“When I ask leaders about the state of their soul, the one thing I hear most is busyness. They can’t find space for God and can’t get the busyness to stop. The second thing I see and hear is the desire to be in control of our environment and even our relationship with God. We read the scriptures, check it off the list, pray and walk out the door. A third factor is that we exegete the wrong verbs…to do, to want and to have. We totally neglect the ‘to be’ verb because we want to teach well, preach well and minister well. Those verbs are pre-occupying our lives all the time. We are called to be soul care providers. If you are called to take care of the souls of others and you can’t take care of your own, what are you offering to others?”

“The stress and demands on pastors are growing and expanding.  There are economic pressures, relational pressures, conflict and concerns about marriage, family and the people you are serving.  You have stress on a program basis. Globally we have wars and depravity everywhere. As a result of technology, we are on computers and cell phones all the time. When you consider the 24/7 nature of our lives, how do I pray, how do I get in a quiet place with God?”

“The parable of the sower putting seed into the soil is about receptivity and this image has become my favorite parable of the soul. God is scattering his seed into the soil of our souls. There are times when we are hardened and rocky.  There is quick growth but it is not sustained because there is no rootage. The thorny soil brings riches and pleasures. We find ourselves running from place to place, book to book, conference to conference, big idea to big idea. The goal is the good soil – to be in a place where we can be receptive of the seeds thrown into us and what emerges will be thrown everywhere. I want to be good soil to receive the word, the voice, the love, mercy and forgiveness of God.”

“The spiritual life of the leader begins with receptivity. I burned out on spiritual disciplines the reading and doing, praying through scripture, memorizing scripture, praying around the globe and I hit the wall. I could not do all that. This is how we get the wrong idea of soul care – by simply adding more. The number one discipline is finding space to be alone and quiet before God.”

“At LTI, we teach people to learn how to do nothing well. We create spacious places for people to practice that. That’s why I like what Cornerstone Network is doing – trying to help leaders get rooted and go deep.”

For more information about the work and resources of Leadership Transformations, click here.

Young people today are not simply the church of the future. They are a viable part of the church of today. This was just one of several themes running through the almost three hour webcast, GroundSwell, last Thursday as pastors and ministry leaders discussed the future of the church through the perspective of more than 30 teens from a wide variety of churches and every region of the country.  Facilitated by Leadership Network, the webcast originated from The Refuge at Saddleback Church and included taped segments from individual teen agers, youth ministers, panel discussions and live in-studio commentary by Dave Kinnamon, president of The Barna Group and author of UnChristian and the new book, You Lost Me.

Emerging from all of the comments of the young people were five major themes: 1) We are not too young-involve us now; 2) Challenge us;  3) We want a relationship with you and to learn from you; 3) Don’t water down or sugar coat the Gospel; and 5) There is too much competition and a lack of unity among churches.

These are observations from Dave Kinnaman based on listening to the students and current research by The Barna Group.

DK: This generation is more interested in being challenged than we are in challenging them whether it is in being an apprentice, learning Scripture or how we pray. The other way to think about how this generation is expressing their perceptions of the church is not only are they more wiling to be challenged than we are to challenge them but they are more willing to challenge us than we are to be challenged. You hear it in their wanting to have more leadership opportunities, wanting more of a seat at the table.

LN:  Any thoughts on how church leaders can do that?

DK: We need to make an intentional choice as leaders to listen and involve them. They are comfortable with videos, etc.   Some churches have asked teens to create a video history of the congregation and then shared it during a service. Do a video interview with them that allows the voice of this generation to be shared in the church. It seems as though the church has used a market based approach to generations…but a Biblical view of generations is more that that…it is the people alive at one time who are serving God’s purposes…that’s the real body of Christ.

Rick Warren, senior pastor at Saddleback, joined the webcast briefly and was asked “What are you learning from teenagers that you think other church leaders need to learn?”

RW: Teenagers are not the church of tomorrow, they are it. We are trying to integrate them now literally into every area…on the stage, behind the camera, doing offerings.  For too long, Saddleback made the mistake of segregating them by age. We built enormous ministries for junior high, senior high and college.  What we found out is that they would finish and then just leave because they had no connection to the bigger body.  About three or four years ago, we started making some strategic changes.  One of them was me speaking to kids more…junior high, youth. A second one was incorporating them on stage…we want our service to look like heaven…to be age diverse.  We are getting ready to do the next step…we are going to cancel our student programs once a month on Sunday and they come into the service…it is not an option…so that they are totally integrated into our service.  We also send kids on mission trips with peace teams.

DK: I love what you are saying.  One, you are intentionally involving teens in relationships. We found that two of three young people who grow up in a church don’t even have an adult friend at the church.

RW: Studies have shown that the number one factor on whether a young person makes it in life or doesn’t is the presence of one caring adult in their life. It does not have to be a parent but it is a caring adult in their life. It is the relationship, more than the doctrine, the teaching or anything else.

DK: The other thing is really involving young people in relation to their calling and vocation.  We learned that 86% of young Protestants had no idea of how the Bible applied to their field of career or professional interest. What a tragedy for us to not be able to help them connect the dots.

RW: We are working on a thing right now that is a cross between Monster.com and match.com for career identification in the church. Basically, it is to get the older generation to mentor the younger generation.  When I started Saddleback, my daughter Amy was four months old.  She is now married with three kids.  Three years ago, we fired the older generation of leaders, the Caleb generation, and now the second generation of leaders is leading.  We keep growing because we have depth on our “farm league.”  Usually a pastor will reach people within ten years of their age.  Now that I am in my 50‘s I have leaders in their teens, 20′s, 30′s, and 40’s. That’s my “farm league” and you are always moving them up.

LN: What about preaching a gospel that’s not watered down yet still reaches this younger generation?

DK: They want to be challenged, they want to be taught. We assume they would not understand some of the finer points of theology or subject areas but what we are learning is that they are smart…they are intelligent, they have connections and an ability to think about broader issues.

The one caution I would give is that it is easy for us as leaders to say that the deeper gospel for which they are asking is only available here at this church and at the same time to criticize other churches that we think maybe aren’t teaching that deeper gospel.  In interviewing young people who have walked away from the church, it is because they see that as divisive.  We need to be careful in the way we talk about other churches and our brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t do the things the way we do.

LN: What does it mean when they say the church should be more culturally relevant?

DK: A lot of the language we use…missional churches, outward focused churches, gospel centered…we use the terms so much that it’s like we have rubbed the meaning off the coins. Culturally relevant is kind of like that. We must be interested in being culturally aware.  The best Biblical model of being culturally aware is Daniel. He learned the language and literature of one of the most pagan human cultures in history and he thrived in it as a faithful follower of Yahweh.

Culturally aware means that you understand the culture in which God has placed you. You speak the language, understand the science and recognize the industries of technology, politics and media that are shaping our world.

We are not just trying to be cool or hipster about it…we are not trying to out do culture…we will never do that.  For a church that feels it is just trying to keep up with the culture, that is a false goal.

When the students say culturally relevant, they really mean culturally aware. They want to be prepared like Daniel was. They want their faith communities to be aware of the media and conversations and churches have to be willing to go there with them.

It is more about helping students navigate the cultural realities and that means vocation. We listen to a lot of young adults and what they encounter is that if they are a scientist or a journalist, or doctor or law or in some other career, pretty soon the Bible and their experience of church wears thin because we have never helped them connect that cultural awareness to their interests and what they are called to do.  If we don’t connect how the Bible works for the Creation, Fall, and Redemption story to their calling, then we miss the chance of imparting Biblical depth to this generation. That is what they are looking for.

The following are actual quotes from the teen participants in GroundSwell.

WE ARE NOT TOO YOUNG-INVOLVE US NOW!

Build young-we need you.
We are not helpless.  Do not underestimate us.
We can contribute and serve.
The most mis-understood thing about our generation is that we are helpless and don’t know what we are doing.
We may do things a little differently, but we are not helpless.
Include us in the worship service by allowing us to serve. We DO matter. We CAN contribute.

CHALLENGE US

Ask us to step up and we will.
Our generation is about causes, purpose and movements and the most important cause is that of Christ.
Teach us how to live missionally.
Stop just talking about problems and get into action.
Be bold enough to disciple us.
Empower us with the mission of the church and trust us to carry it out.
True discipleship isn’t just attendance and fellowship. True discipleship is building into the lives of others and sharing your faith with them.

WE WANT A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU

People don’t come to the church just to learn how to deal with dicey situations. If that were the case, we’d just Google it.  We want relationship.
Churches are more interested in programming than discipleship.
We need leaders to inspire us to give of ourselves.
Help us learn from you.
We need you to mentor and apprentice us. We need your instruction, guidance, correction and affirmation.
In order to make the transition to the future, we need you to help us learn from your experience.

DON’T WATER DOWN OR SUGAR COAT THE GOSPEL

Be real. We need to show the relevance that the Gospel already has.
Address sexuality and other moral issues in a new way and in depth.

STOP THE COMPETITION IN THE CHURCH AND LACK OF UNITY

There is too much fighting in churches today.
Today’s church is too judgmental about other churches.
The church is pretty self-focused.
Our job as Christians is to love and serve people.  We need to work together rather than competing with each other.

For more information and to create your account, go to https://www.churchmetrics.com/

Can you do the job? Will you love the job? Can we tolerate working with you? All three questions determine an individual’s strengths, motivation and cultural fit.  While they might be phrased a little differently, every interview question is really a subset of one of these three core questions.

Can you do the job? or Strengths

Interviewing for strengths is not a game.  It’s about figuring out if there is a match between the strengths required for success in the role and the candidate’s strengths.  Tell the interviewee what are the strengths of the role.  Then ask the interviewee for examples of behavior that evidences those strengths.

Marcus Buckingham and Don Clifton provide an excellent definition of strengths in Now Discover Your Strengths (New York: Free Press, 2001). Talent is those innate areas of potential strength, probably present at birth. Knowledge is things people are aware of, facts and lessons learned through courses, mentors, reading, etc. Skills are how to’s, or steps of an activity generally acquired through deliberate practice.

It’s not just about a certain skill set, but also about leadership and interpersonal strengths or a person’s EQ in terms of  dealing and interacting with people. It’s hard to tell by looking at a piece of paper about a person’s strengths and weaknesses. Ask for specific examples of not only what’s been successful but what they’ve done that hasn’t gone well or a task they they’ve, quite frankly, failed at and how they learned from that experience and what they’d do different in a new scenario.

Will you love the job? or Motivation

Interviewing for motivation is much less straightforward than interviewing for strengths.  Part of the problem is that it’s hard to put your finger on what really motivates someone.  The other part of the problem is that an interviewee will have a bias to come across as motivated even if they aren’t sure.

On one level, motivation is born of how activities fit with a person’s likes/dislikes/ideal job criteria, and how the job will help them progress towards their long-term goal.  On another level, people strive for happiness.

Two questions to get at motivation are “What gets you out of bed in the morning?”  and “What are the most significant memories you have had throughout your career and what got you through those times, either good or bad?” The first question gets at what is important to people right now and the second question help to get at their historical life patterns and trends.

Can we tolerate working with you? or Cultural Fit

Poor cultural fit is the #1 stated reason for a new leader’s failure. The fundamental questions that get at fit are:  Will our organization be better off with you in it over time? and Will you change us for the better?  Or put another way, Will you be good for us?

One tool for helping to get at the cultural fit piece is the BRAVE framework. The ideal is a match between the individual you are recruiting and the organizational culture.

Behave: The way people act and make decisions

Relate: The way people communicate with each other (including mode, manner and frequency), engage in intellectual debate, manage conflict, etc.

Attitude:  How people feel about the organization’s purpose, mission, vision, and identify with their work group and the organization as a whole, etc.

Values:  People’s underlying beliefs, their approach to learning and risks

Environment:  The way people approach their work environment in terms formality/informality, work style and preference

Congregational Identity and Intentionality

One of the stronger correlates of growth was the extent to which the congregation “has a clear mission and purpose.” For congregations that have such an orientation, growth is quite likely, but for those that do not, very few are growing. Not surprisingly, churches in conservative/evangelical denominations and “other Christian” groups are considerably more likely to “strongly agree” that their congregation has a clear mission and purpose than mainline congregations.

Congregations that say they are willing to change to meet new challenges also tend to be growing congregations.

Congregations that see themselves as “not that different from other congregations in our community” or who are unsure about that difference are more likely to decline than congregations which see themselves as offering something unique or different.

The relationship between wanting to grow and actually experiencing growth is much stronger than it was just five years ago. Apparently, greater intentionality is required than in the past. Growth requires intentionality, but it also requires action and the involvement of leaders, members and active participants. Recruitment success results not just from official programs and events, but also from the behavior of members who promote the congregation and invite others to attend and join.

Congregational Leadership

What leaders do is also related to congregational growth and decline. The three areas of leadership activity most strongly related to growth were: 1) evangelism or recruitment; 2) developing and promoting a vision and purpose for the congregation; and 3) teaching people about the faith and scripture. Also helpful to growth were recruiting and training lay leaders, representing the congregation in the community and engaging youth and young adults.

Growing congregations typically have a clear identity and purpose and the leader plays a central leadership role in focusing the congregation on that purpose through preaching, teaching, administration and more informal activities. Whether that purpose is articulated in a vision statement (that is actually known by members) or simply acknowledged as the “way” of a congregation, growing congregations know what they are about and how they differ from other congregations. The leader is very important in helping a congregation find its purpose and in reinforcing that purpose and the identity out of which it flows.

The smallest correlation between leadership activities and a growing church was with the pastor involved in “planning and leading worship,” followed by “administration, supervision and committee meetings” and “providing pastoral care.”

Congregational Programs and Recruitment

As other studies have shown, the primary way people first connect with a congregation is through someone who is already involved. Where “a lot” of members are involved in recruitment, 63% of congregations are growing. By contrast, where very few if any members are involved in recruitment, hardly any of those congregations are experiencing substantial growth. Growing congregations are more likely to engage in a variety of recruitment-related activities, both formal and informal. Growing churches are good at greeting people, following up when newcomers visit and at incorporating newcomers into existing groups within the congregation.

Another specific action that a congregation can do to encourage growth is by sponsoring a program or event to attract non-members and 44% of congregations that held such events once a month or more grew substantially from 2005 to 2010. Congregations that never held special events were very unlikely to experience growth. The types of special events and programs offered by congregations can be quite varied, but what they have in common is the intent of attracting both members and non-members.  The programs that produced the strongest relationships with growth were: 1) young adult activities; 2) parenting or marriage enrichment activities; and 3) prayer or meditation groups.

Congregational Worship

In general, the more worship services a congregation holds, the more likely it is to have grown.  The character of worship as celebration rather than lament is important to encouraging the growth of a congregation. Whether a congregation has relatively few or more than a few children and youth, involving them in worship is also associated with growth.

The Context of Church Location and Age of Members

Congregations located in the downtown or central city area are more likely to experience growth than congregations in any other type of location. Newer suburbs are next most likely to be home to growing congregations, but only 40% of congregations in newer suburbs experienced substantial growth from 2005 to 2010, as compared to 72% from 2000 to 2005. Congregations are least likely to grow in small towns and rural areas.

More important today than rural, urban, or suburban location is the region in which a congregation is located. The South, from Maryland to Texas, is better for growth than all other regions. Not only is the South growing more in population than most other regions due to “sunbelt migration,” but also it is the most religious part of the nation—a place where religious observance remains more normative. In other regions of the nation growth is much more difficult.

Growth is highly related to the age structure of the congregation, but not all congregations are composed primarily of older adults. Those that have a healthy mix of ages tend to be growing, but most important to growth is the ability of congregations to attract younger adults and families with children. Congregations in which middle age or older adults (age 50 or older) comprise 30% or less of all active participants are most likely to grow.

Conflict in a Church

Congregations with no conflict or only minor conflict during the previous five years are least likely to decline and most likely to grow. What types of conflict are most likely to cause decline? The answer is conflict over the leader’s style of leadership followed by conflict over money. Conflict in these areas tends to be more disruptive than does conflict over worship, program priorities, the behavior of members or the actions of denominational bodies (even for denominations that are highly conflicted).

Click here for a copy of the entire study, FACTS on Growth: 2010.

Most churches do little to prepare people for this important leadership responsibility. There are obvious biblical examples for leadership preparation, including Moses who mentored Joshua, Paul and Timothy and many others.  Jesus spent three years preparing twelve disciples. With these as examples, we need to examine our process for developing future leaders.

Church board leadership is too critical a role to be left to chance or to a ‘popularity contest’. A lack of intentionality in recruiting and preparing new Board members can be harmful to the church as well as the unprepared new board members!

Here are some questions your current board should address to get started down the path of intentional preparation of future board members:

How do we identify potential future board members?

What qualifications do we think are essential?

How can we develop leaders who have potential but lack experience?

Who on the current board should be the point person for the future leader development process?

How often do we pray together as a board for God’s guidance in the choice of new board members?

If it’s time to build or fine-tune your board member development process, consider these steps:

1. Develop a clear job description or set of expectations for board involvement. This should include the qualifications and characteristics that are essential in your church context. Take as much time as you need to study scripture together on this topic so that you can have confidence in this foundational set of expectations.

2. Review your church’s polity and history as it relates to choosing new board members. If, historically,  your process has not been effective, consider changing the way leaders are chosen. Even though some denominational structures recommend certain procedures, there is often more flexibility than you might think and adding meaningful new steps is rarely discouraged. The key is effectiveness rather than “what we’ve always done.”

Create an outline of your prospective board member development process. This should include things like identification, observation and information gathering, initial conversation about involvement in the process, formal and informal training and decision-making procedure. When thinking about an appropriate training process, don’t forget that the biblical examples are heavily weighted on the side of experiencing life with the mentor rather than simple content/knowledge transfer. Remember that the disciples observed Jesus for quite a while before they were actually sent out to spread the good news.

Launch the process and evaluate regularly. If you ask questions at every board meeting about how the prospective board member development process is going, your current board will realize that you’re serious about the long-term health of the church.

RESOURCES

Elders and Leaders: God’s Plan for Leading the Church by Gene Getz (Moody) stimulates Bible study and conversation about the roles and responsibilities of church leaders.

A one day seminar, “Nonprofit Board Governance: Moving Your Board Members From Myth to Mission” is available through John Pearson Associates.com Of particular interest is the session entitled, “The 24-month strategy for turning board prospects into committed board members.”

To download the article, “Six Best Practices for Recruiting Exceptional Board Members,” go to managementbuckets.com/pages/6_BEST_PRACTICES.

Earlier today I was reading in Romans 15 about Paul’s plans and thoughts. Paul was very focused. In v. 20 he says, “My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.” Since the first time I read this verse, I have been intrigued by it.  To me, it seems as though Paul was more comfortable with non-churched people than he was with his own brothers and sisters in Christ. He was laser-focused on his mission or his Kingdom assignment of telling others about Jesus Christ. What is your mission? Do you know where you are going? Or are you sidetracked by too many distractions that, while appearing to be good and important, are not really getting you where you need to go.

Over the holidays I cleaned out my email inbox and unsubscribed from a number of emails by asking one simple question. “Will this help me get to where I need to go as a leader in my quest to serve pastors?”

If I were to ask you today, “What is it that you are doing?” what would be your response? Probing further, I would ask, “Do you know if you are making more disciples?” If you said yes, then I would then ask, “How do you know?” When we cut through the verbiage about this program and that event, the question still remains, “Are we making disciples?”  Pastors who are missionally focused consistently ask themselves “Are we fruitful?”

The power of focus is that it frees you up to consider what the world will look like if you achieve your mission. It also makes it easier to say no to things that will get in the way of your mission.  Clarity is important- people love it- and focus brings clarity.  If you are clear about where you are going, people will notice and get on board. Yesterday I was asked to acknowledge a relationship on LinkedIn. When I looked at the person’s profile, this is what it said, “Group Leader at “X” Community Church, dba as Research Consultant for a Marketing firm.” This person knew their first priority was their faith community and their job was just a “front” for where their heart was. Talk about being focused! When your people start thinking this way, watch out!   Finally, having a clear focus makes the alignment of your ministries and resources to your mission much easier.

Keep asking the questions, “Do I know where I am going?” and “Do I know how to get there?”   Our mission at Cornerstone Church Network is to encourage and equip pastors and leaders.  Let us know how we can serve you in answering these two important questions.