Learnings @ Leadership Network

Greatest Opportunity of the Decade

I received a few emails this past week from very good, solid church-serving organizations that provide leadership programs for leaders. The emails were advertising specific programs for "dealing with the economic crisis." The messaging speaks of cutting back costs, laying off staff, and bemoaning the hard times. To their credit, these organizations are trying to help church leaders productively deal with these very hard challenges.

I know these are important issues and must be addressed. And I have advised many clients in these matters as well.

But from the ads they appear to approach the issue through the lens of struggle. They approach this economic season as a key obstacle and challenge to the church's mission.

I choose to believe that this is the greatest opportunity for ministry since 2001. The lens of opportunity says that we have a positive message of hope that is the right message for the times.

It is time to seize the day for church leaders.

 

We want to be proactive in dealing with attender's challenges and concerns.

And we view this season as one where our messaging should be encouraging not discouraging.

I am not proposing a "prosperity theology" or "positive thinking" but rather see proactive leaders being intentional at finding very creative ways to advance the gospel, the outreach of their church, and the increase of their ministry internationally.

My challenge to readers today is to examine the language used in all communications be they written, oral, web based and the like.

Are you unintentionally communicating a message of doom and gloom or a message of hope and redemption.

My sense from talking to lots of leaders this past quarter is that those who are communicating "I know times are hard" are not seeing as much fruit as those who are saying "what a powerful time it is for our church to show its love for this community."

I am not saying those are totally disconnected messages but those that focus on the former see this as the greatest crisis of the decade. Those that focus on the latter see it as the greatest opportunity.

So which are you?

Feel free to push back on me in the comments.

Dave Travis is the Managing Director of Leadership  Network.

He tweets at www.twitter.com/davetravis

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Churches Lead the Way in Generosity

I love when the media catches the church doing something good.  Don't you?

This week ABC News, CNN, Fox News, USA Today, even the Huffington Post to name just a few ran a fantastic story about Cross Timbers Community Church, a multi-site church in north Texas.  Cross Timbers is a member of Leadership Network's Generous Churches Leadership Community and recently Pastor Toby Slough and Executive Pastor Jim Kuykendall decided to get very serious about generosity.  So serious that they have led their congregation to give away over $500,000 in just a couple of months.  It's been stunning. 

During a Fox and Friends interview this week Toby (pictured left) said that the reverse collection plate offering concept they have used is not a new idea.  "I have friends who are pastors around the country who have done that from time to time."  Of course, he's right.  Generosity to those in need from the church is as old as the church itself.  But, it still feels good to see it, right?

I saw some more generosity from believers and the church this week from another powerful media source, the Oprah show.  My wife, the fabulous Susan, likes to DVR Oprah.  Sometimes she wants me to listen to Dr. Oz talk about cholesterol.  Some of you husbands know what I mean. Anyway, on Wednesday, Oprah's show was about Heroes in Hard Times and many of the stories were about Christ followers doing the Lord's work.  Go God! Go church!  

What's your church doing to demonstrate generosity to those in need?  Even if the media never notices, and they probably won't, it's the right thing to do.  Go for it!

Posted by Christopher Willard, director of Leadership Network's Generous Churches Leadership Community.   

Innovation Exchange Launches in Southern California

 

Innovation Exchange successfully launched in Southern California earlier this month. Three identical collaborative gatherings were held at North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, and New Song Community Church in Irvine. These events gave church leaders and their teams the opportunity to share with others their challenges, strengths, and opportunities. We began each day with an exercise that allows each church to let the others know what's working, what's stuck, what's new, what is happening with regard to their financial challenges, and what are their hopes and dreams.

This first exercise let's everybody know who they are in the room with, and we just cut people loose to drill down deeper and more personally with each other based on what others shared. All of a sudden the room was buzzing as leaders spontaneously began to teach each other and to learn from each other. Here is the report given from one of the leaders at Mosaic Los Angeles.

 Click for the Audio Report from Mosaic

 

Innovation Exchange may be coming to a city near you!

Click here for more information on upcoming Innovation Exchanges

Large Church Senior Pastor Survey Closes Next Wednesday

The Large Church Senior Pastor Survey is now closed. Stay tuned for a report in July!  

Why do the survey?

1. These are questions large-church pastors told us they want to know about each other. It's a "win" for you!

2. We'll send all participants an illustrated report. You'll receive it before the results go public.

3. You might be wondering, "Will churches that are MY size be participating?" The answer is yes. Among the responses already received:
      12 with attendances over 10,000
       27 with attendances 6,000 to 9,999
       32 with attendances 4,000 to 5,999
       35 with attendances 3,000 to 3,999
       93 with attendances 2,000 to 2,999
       95 with attendances 1,000 to 1,999
       many with attendances 500 to 999
 
Earlier I posted some of the preliminary findings. Here are more:
- You are more educated than media stereotypes, with 44% having a master's degree and 30% a doctorate
- Only 44% of you pray "often" for your church board! (You pray more about other people and groups)
- 38% of you are in multi-site churches
- 75% of you receive an annual performance evaluation by lay leaders in your church
- 25% of you have a spouse that works full-time or part-time at the church
- A surprising number of you follow a "lead pastor team" approach at some level
 
One of the best questions is what keeps you awake at night. Another asks about your greatest ministry strengths. I can't wait to do comparisons by church size, pastor age, and other factors. This way you'll be able to find a close match to yourself!
 

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.

Learning About Missional Small Groups with Matt Carter

In case you missed THE SHOW yesterday, we had a great time with Pastor Matt Carter from The Austin Stone Community Church. He spoke on what they have learned about how to form authentic, Biblical, missional small groups. Watch this 15 minute video of THE SHOW; then you can listen to Matt answering some great questions from callers about what they're learning...

THE SHOW from Leadership Network for May 19, 2009.

TOPIC: Missional Small Groups with Special Guest Pastor Matt Carter from The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, TX

You can watch a brand new edition of THE SHOW every Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. EDT at http://theshow.leadnet.org.

 

Live call in segment... Matt Carter takes your questions!

Innovation Goldmine--TED Conference

My good friend Don Simmons just sent me a link to a talk on innovation from the 2007 TED Conference. TED has graciously put all of their 18 minute talks on line. Great field to play in. In this video the presenter talks about great user-generated content. To watch the last five minutes just move the sliding marker to 4/5 of the bar.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/charles_leadbeater_on_innovation.html

Selecting Locations for Your Additional Campuses

On a typical Sunday, some 5 million people—almost 10 percent of Protestant worshipers—attend a multi-site church in the United States of Canada. As the multi-site revolution continues to expand, the leaders of these visionary churches have developed innovative strategies for selecting additional campuses to increase the gospel’s reach into different parts of their cities.

For example, five years ago, metro Chicago's Willow Creek Community Church conducted a survey that indicated that their church had the most impact in the lives of people who lived within a twenty-mile radius of the original South Barrington campus. As a result, Willow Creek launched a series of new regional campuses with good results. Church members who had been driving to the original campus and shifted to one of the other sites reported that they volunteered more, gave more and were more involved in sharing the gospel with their neighbors. Today Willow Creek has a total of six campuses.

If you are considering a campus addition but don’t know what questions you should be asking, consider this free, informative download: Selecting Locations for Additional Campuses…Whether it’s Your Second or Fifteenth Site, by Pat Springle. The paper takes a close look at the campus selection processes that many successful multi-site churches have gone through (representing many sizes of multi-sites), evaluating which strategies have worked and which strategies have not. Read it here.

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.

How the economy is impacting churches

Leadership Network recently released this report, How the Economic Slump Is (or Isn't) Hitting Churches. In an effort to get an accurate picture of the church’s current economic outlook, Leadership Network asked identical questions about the economy’s impact in surveys conducted in both 2008 and 2009. These two quotes provide a snapshot of how churches are doing:

“Overall, churches are doing better than the national economy. If the economy has pneumonia, most churches either have only a cold or are adding precautions in anticipation of a possible illness.”

“In response to the economic downturn, churches are almost universally budgeting with greater caution and increased transparency. They want their people to know they are exercising great care in financial stewardship.”

The report includes summaries of the analysis by Dr. Warren Bird, as well as references to other recent research on church economics. Click here to download the free report. By the way, he report was mentioned in The Christian Post article, "Megachurches Faring Slightly Better in Recession".

For other anecdotes, read this excerpt from a New Voice Media article by Greg Warner, “Budget cutting at church: Prudent planning or excessive anxiety?” ::

As the nation’s economic crisis seeps further into congregations, budget cuts are the order of the day. But are churches reacting more to fear than facts?

The financial pain for churches is real. But evidence is mixed about how much member giving is suffering right now and how widespread -- or necessary -- budget cutting has become.

If you listen to the conversation between pastors, however, it’s clearly the topic on top of their minds.

… The majority of churches contacted for this article -- such as Emerywood Baptist in High Point, N.C., and River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond -- have made significant budget cuts already this year, typically between 5 percent and 10 percent.

Others have cut staff and/or salaries deeply, like Wieuca Road Baptist in the upscale Buckhead area of Atlanta, which made deep 25 percent cuts in ministries and programs in 2008. After giving dropped even further, the budget axe fell on the staff. Three ministers were reduced to part-time, three more had salaries reduced …

Read the entire article at Religious Herald or Associated Baptist Press.

// DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network

Has Your Church Relocated?

During my teenage years, my family worshipped in a large-city downtown church that had almost no impact on its surrounding community. Rather, it was largely a commuter church as most people, my family included, drove into town from the suburbs. And just as quickly drove back home. Eventually the church relocated to the suburbs as well. I regret being part of the "flee the city" migration.

Sometimes, however, there are healthy reasons to relocate from city to suburb. A pastor friend wrote me asking advice, which I'm passing to you:

Their downtown church facility burned down, and the insurance money is now in hand. What should they do?

1. They could stay downtown, but they have NO parking. Even street side parking is minimal.
2. The church is 145 years old, perhaps the oldest in its city, but it's gone through hard times in recent decades, declining in attendance.
3. He's newly arrived as their pastor, with expectation that he'll lead the church into a new era.
4. The members SAY they're open to relocating to the suburbs, and agree there is more growth potential there, using the insurance money to get a fresh start.
5. Other effective churches are in the portion of the city they'd be leaving.

What's your advice?

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.