The Most Important Job in the World

Posted on August 12, 2014 Written by

Working for God is it. Whether you’re paid or not paid, working for God is a job like no other. And like other jobs, it has its own standards by which the workers are measured: what are your motives (it should be based on love) and what quality of work will you do (the answer is excellence). All too often we let paid workers off the hook and don’t expect high quality work from them, and that is wrong.

The Old and New Testaments have strong words for prophets and priests who are self-serving and who ultimately take their followers down the wrong path. There is a high standard for paid church workers and to fall short is to undermine God. God demands excellence – not perfection.

I’ve seen too many churches who hire people because they need work and they can’t get work anywhere else. The church is compassionate and wants to help. And that is good. But a church should never hire a ministry (to quote Andy Stanley). Always make the distinction between someone who needs help (financial, food, transportation, etc.) versus the needs of the church to get work done.

Church leaders (paid and lay) must always expect the best from every staff person. If someone can’t get a job anywhere, there must be a reason no one else is hiring them. The church can pay for training for him (but not on the job training), give him food and clothes or pay for rent. But do not give the person a church job. That will ultimately hurt the church and the current good employees who will think they can lower their own standards.

Churches as employers must expect great work. To be satisfied with anything less creates an unhealthy work environment and perhaps even a poor worship place. Church staff must do great work for a great God. Church employees must have a standard so high because of their ultimate boss that even corporate America is jealous. Church workers must do such amazing work that there is no question they are pursuing excellence. To do anything less is to short-sell God.

 

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: church staff, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , ,

Intentional

Posted on June 17, 2014 Written by

Stop doing things “because we’ve always done it that way.” Instead, be intentional – about everything. Have a good, solid reason as to why a church does everything. I’ve worked with too many churches who are just repeating what they’ve done in previous years and are getting the same results but they are fearful of changing the status quo lest they upset members. Frankly, staff members aren’t worried about upsetting a member, they’re worried about losing their jobs.

Even Jesus had serious problems with what had become tradition instead of faith and he got in trouble when he questioned why the Jewish leaders kept up practices that were outdated. Their answer was the same that churches use today, “because we’ve always done it that way.”

Ask questions of people—lots of questions—about why things are done. I’ve gotten dirty looks from people when I dared question why a church would spend over $100,000 on a library without ever asking if this library was in the church’s strategic plan. I didn’t get fired. “Attack the problem, not the person” is one of my favorite sayings.

Be intentional with the right motives: to make the church the most effective it can be. Analyze everything a church does. Ask about mission trips and their results. Determine if committees need to be dissolved or reconstituted. Don’t try to tweak and re-tweak programs – shut them down, assess their goals, and start new – that will get better results than continuing the same thing. Don’t be hamstrung by policies and bylaws which were created by previous generations but which aren’t relevant today. Ask why some positions and people rotate leadership roles and why new blood isn’t brought in. Ask why we use the same vendor instead of putting it out to bid. Ask what the financial numbers mean without any financial obfuscation.

The only thing sacred in a church is the text we all use – all the trappings of churches today are human creations and can thus be changed. That includes how we worship, study the Bible, establish church governance, etc. Don’t just let things happen – be intentional about everything in the church. Change may involve killing some of these sacred cows and that must be done carefully and intentionally. But ultimately the church will know there is a very good reason behind everything it does – to be the church God wants it to be.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: budget, strategy, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , , ,

More Advice for Young Leaders

Posted on November 19, 2013 Written by
  • Deal with things once
    • Paperwork, personnel issues, complaints, and so many other things are easy to put off. Instead of delaying, deal with them once and for all. Just do it. Touch a piece of paper one time – answer it, throw it away, or file it. Take care of a personnel situation as soon as you can (unless you need some time to think about the matter or consult with someone), and don’t let it fester. Honest-to-goodness complaints (not the whiny kind) should be handled one time. And then, move on. Don’t stand there staring at the past; turn around and look ahead to the next challenge.
  • Appreciate the past; invest in the future
    • Young leaders need to acknowledge and even honor the past, especially those who sacrificed and led others. After all, young leaders got where they are now because they stood on the shoulders of previous leaders, so these past leaders are owed some gratitude. However, you cannot dwell on the past – you must focus on the future. Look to what may come as a reason for your leadership, not where the organization has been. Honor the past; anticipate the future.
  • Meet with your direct reports monthly
    • I cannot stress this enough: meet with all your direct reports at least monthly in one-on-one sessions. Staff meetings are fine, but you won’t get details and information you need to do your job unless there are individual meetings. You need to hear the truth from your direct reports without it going through the self-filter inherent in a group meeting. AND, one-on-one times provide you the opportunity to tell that person, in private, how he or she is doing. Each month, each direct report needs to know what the boss thinks of his or her performance. Do not wait for the annual evaluation; do the evaluation monthly.
  • Find a mentor and a coach
    • Mentors and coaches are excellent. They can help you see things in a different light; they provide insight that you’d not thought of before; they can help you be creative in finding solutions; etc. However, they cannot make you want to change – only you can do that. And implicit in having a coach or mentor is the desire to get better, and that usually requires change. So find a good person to lead you, but make sure you’re willing to adapt to the new things you’ll learn along the way.
  • Prioritize important things, not urgent things
    • When a crisis or problem arises, ask yourself if this situation is “urgent,” “important,” “urgent and important,” or “neither.” If it is neither, then ignore it. First tackle things that are urgent and important, and then the rest (although you may not have the luxury of deciding what you take on first or second). I’ve learned that asking myself if this is urgent, important, or both really helps cut through all the fluff so that I know if I’m using my time wisely or if I’m just using up my time.
  • Empower subordinates to make decisions that affect them directly
    • You don’t have to decide everything for your organization. Determine early on what merits your attention and what really could be handled by others. Let others do things that don’t need your input or which need only a modest amount of your oversight.
    • Letting others make decisions gives them ownership of the ultimate decision, gives them a challenge to work on, makes them feel part of the team, and saves you a lot of time. It also helps them understand the daily decision-making process that you go through (with both good and bad results). Invite your subordinates into part of your management world and see how they can help you.
    • My best example is when I asked the administrative assistants to choose the office copier. They self-organized, visited the sales floors, tested the products based on what they knew they would need it to do, gathered information on pricing and service, and then presented me with their recommendations. My only job was to make sure their request fit within the budget (which it did). These ladies felt very good about the entire process until the machine broke down (on the 3rd day we had it!) and then they only had themselves to point fingers at. I then helped them understand that breakdowns are just a matter of time with copiers. When the copier contract came up for renewal, those ladies were much better at making a decision and that provided me even more time to focus on more important (and urgent) things.
  • Learn to make decisions quickly, decisively, and effectively, but not permanently
    • Decision-making is one of the key elements of leadership. It involves amassing information and opinions, sorting through the data, and making a determination (and occasionally leading a group to make a decision).
    • Do not get swallowed by “analysis paralysis” – you can always get more information, but will that additional information be sufficient to change the decision? Decide ahead of time how much is enough to proceed.
    • Follow up by communicating that decision up, down, and around to everyone – be as transparent as you can possibly can so that all know what is going on. Keeping everyone informed is vital to effective decision making.
    • Lastly, change your mind when necessary. If new information is received that is sufficient to warrant changing the decision, then do it. Life is dynamic; decisions should be, too. Do not be set in stone in your decisions; change them as needed but only when there is sufficient, relevant information to make a change for the better (never change for change’s sake).
  • Flow
    • Flow. I can’t emphasize this enough. Just “flow.” Many times you don’t need to fight against the situation; you need to flow. Trying to be heard on every subject is pointless, so just flow. Know what is worth your time and energy and what things are not – then flow with those that are not worth your resources. Flow – keep calm, be relaxed in tense situations that are not really that important, and ensure you have a level head. Flow.

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: leadership, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , ,

Advice for Experienced Leaders

Posted on November 12, 2013 Written by
  • Value Training, Be a Mentor  New and young leaders need someone to teach them how to be a wise and good leader. Experienced leaders must share their knowledge, experience, and expertise with the next generation. And the best way to do this is one on one (same gender to same gender, too, lest there be any mixed signals). Be intentional about finding, mentoring, and developing future leaders. Your investment of time and skill will return benefits for decades, perhaps forever, as your mentee becomes a mentor later. And, when you’re almost finished with one young leader, find another one and keep it going.
  • Employee Evaluation  Employee evaluations should be done every time an employee meets with his or her supervisors, as every employee should know every day what their employment status is. The annual evaluation time is merely to fill out paperwork, not to go into in-depth evaluations. Employees who do not know what their status is may feel a Damocles Sword hanging over their heads and thus might not be as productive as they could be because they’re wondering when or if they’ll be terminated. Keep your staff informed, and let them know each month when you meet with them how they are doing.
  • Set the Stage for the Next Generation  Over the years your organization has taken on your personality traits; that is a truism in business. However, these ruts and routines created by you will probably not be helpful to your successor who, frankly, needs to create his or her own. As you end your career, you need to be intentional about who is on key committees, what processes are being done “because the boss wants it” (and not because it helps the company per se), what “minefields” need to be cleared out so your successor doesn’t wander into them, and what personnel need to be moved on so they are not a headache to the next leader. Set up your successor for success; clear the launch platform of unnecessary things so the next leader can shoot for the stars.
  • Make Stakeholders Uncomfortable  For the most part, stakeholders in organizations want things to continue in the same ways so that their personal investment is not threatened but is instead honored. Stakeholders may be current or former employees, board members, longtime customers or vendors, major and minor donors, etc. Organizations cannot live in the status quo, and going forward often involves risks. It is up to the leader (hence the term “leader”) to nudge or even shove the organization and its stakeholders forward. Experienced leaders know the key stakeholders and will work with them to move everyone forward so that the organization doesn’t die from valuing the status quo over progress.
  • Foment Wealth-Sharing  You have tremendous experience and knowledge. Do not hoard that; share it with your community by serving on non-profit boards, volunteering in community-based organizations, and helping your church. You are responsible for leaving your neighborhood, church, and city better off than you found it. You stood on other people’s shoulders in order to achieve your status as a leader – you need to pay it forward by helping your community and its leaders be even better than where they are now. AND, you must challenge, prod, and encourage other leaders to do the same. You are rich in life – share the wealth!
  • Teach Wise Risk-Taking  Risk-taking is part of business, but it is not intuitive because everyone wants their “risks” to be certain successes. Experienced leaders know that failure is part of risk, but failures can minimized by taking “wise risks.” That involves asking lots of questions, doing an incredible amount of due diligence, and training people well. Risks are a necessary part of leadership – not taking risks means the person in charge is managing, not leading. Risks should be done strategically so that the “win” is clearly defined. AND, when the risk turns to failure, wise leaders know when to stop the venture cut the losses. Experienced leaders must teach the next generation how to take wise risks.

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church staff, future, leadership, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , , , , ,

David & Solomon: Setting Up Your Successor For Success

Posted on October 22, 2013 Written by

David ruled Israel from 1000-960 BC and his son, Solomon, ruled from 960-920 BC. David was Israel’s greatest king: he unified the country, defeated the Philistine threat, built major civic projects and palaces, and prepared the way (and supplies) for Solomon to build the first permanent temple in Judaism. That temple lasted about 350 years and was the focal point of Judaism. Its restoration became a rallying cry of Jewish nationalism.

1st Kings in the Bible describes the materials, construction, foremen, and laborers needed to build the temple using a LOT of detail. The person most responsible for prepping for the temple was King David, but he never saw it. His job was to gather all the things needed to build the temple so that his son, Solomon, could do the actual building. David’s job was to create a platform so that his successor could be a success.

Pastors who are within five years of retirement have one primary job – to take care of things in the church (some of which have been lingering for years) so that his or her successor is set up for success. This involves making some hard decisions about personnel and/or volunteers, reallocation of budget figures, changing some of the expectations of the church about its leaders, and in general ensuring that all the minefields within the church have been cleared. A longtime and soon retiring pastor should have enough clout to do all these things and still retire gracefully. His financial future will not be dependent on the church when he retires, and that knowledge should free him up to make long-delayed decisions which can help the next generation.

David ruled and finished well as king. He made mistakes and he was vain, but for the most part his motives were pure. Yes, David was used by some of the people around him, including the conspiracy regarding his successor. But David knew that all that he did over the course of his 40-year reign could fall apart if he didn’t gather the materials and wise counsel his son and successor would need. In turn, Solomon was able to stand taller on his dad’s shoulders than he could have on his own. Solomon completed some of his dad’s unfinished stuff (the temple) but did a lot on his own (foreign relations). Solomon’s time was good for the country and good for him (albeit he made some unwise choices in his wives and advisors). Solomon’s success is directly related to David’s setting him for success.

Are you a David who will retire in a few years? If so, what are you doing to intentionally set up the next generation for success? Are you finishing well or just barely crossing the finish line? Be like David and help your successor be a success.

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church staff, future, leadership, strategy, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , , , , ,

Left-Shoulder Giving

Posted on May 28, 2013 Written by

The blog post “Bell Curves and Giving” discusses the average age of your givers and shows that donors in their 50s are the single largest contributors to churches and non-profits. That is the age range on which churches most rely to support their current and future programs. If you visit a church where the average age is older than 60, then that church is likely in decline (unless there is a major endowment supporting the church).

The top of this bell curve are the 50-somethings. The 60-somethings and older form the right shoulder and it is shoulder with a steep downward trend. The overall amount of gifts from 60-, 70-, and 80-somethings declines very quickly for several reasons

  • they are not earning as much as they used to and therefore can’t give as much
  • they are trying to not outlive their money so they restrict what they give to their church and instead will give it as a bequest (if the church cultivates that gift)

The left shoulder is formed by 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings.

  • They are just getting started in their marriages, careers, and families
  • They often make poor financial decisions about cars, houses, and furnishings they purchase.
  • Many end up paying off credit card balances for years or decades.
  • Others are paying down college debt or establishing college funds for their own children.
  • Some are doing all of the above!

Left-shoulder donors have less disposable income than they want to have. They really, really want to give to their church, they just can’t. Churches should and must help them – almost no one else is doing something to address this need. When a church helps a left-shoulder giver get out of or decrease his debt, many pay it forward through their church. This seems self-serving but there is a biblical viewpoint to this – helping people, especially young adults, to understand that our society makes an idol out of money and that distracts them from worshipping God.

Every church with young people (hopefully that means every church) should have classes on Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University or Crown Ministries. Everyone in the church should read Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle and/or Andy Stanley’s Fields of Gold. These classes and books provide resources that help people approach money from a rational and biblical point of view, not just an emotional one.

This is an important and urgent matter. If you don’t think it is, try this: take the current giving levels on your bell curve and fast forward 10 or 20 years to see how much money your church will have (realizing that many right shoulder donors will die). That should be a wakeup call to see how significant it is to develop left shoulder donors as fast as possible. Then, when these left shoulder givers are in their 50s or even before, they can be generous givers to their church and the causes that appeal to them.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: church finances, generosity, leadership, wisdom, young adults Tagged: , , ,

The Church Lobby

Posted on December 4, 2012 Written by

Your church lobby tells new people in about 3 seconds the kind of people that your church wants to have. Okay, maybe just 2 seconds. It is really, really, really fast and most churches do not even know what they’re doing.

I walked into one church and this is what I saw:

  • Faded, worn out mauve carpet that “died” several years ago
  • Furniture that I last saw in my 80 year old aunt’s house – and she died 25 years ago
  • Bare walls on one side and pictures of old stuff on the wall
  • A chandelier

I looked around to see if it was a church or funeral home – everything told me I was in a funeral parlor or at least a place that my great Aunt Clara (born circa 1900) would enjoy. It was like a museum – okay, you get the picture. It was not a drawing card for 20- and 30-somethings. It was not even attractive to anyone under 60 – but most people had seen it for so long that they felt it was just part of the church. But anyone who was new to the church and walked in there was immediately turned off by what they saw.

Tomorrow morning – walk into your church lobby and look at it as you never have before. Look at the lighting, the walls and what is hanging on the walls. Talk with people about the furniture and ask them if that is something they would see in a home of a young family (presuming that family had some money to buy furniture they like).

Then, ask yourself if the kind of lobby that you have is representative of the age bracket of the people you want to attend. Or was the furniture put in there by an older generation because that is what they’re comfortable with? Be intentional about your lobby – it is one of the first impressions people will have about you. Make it a good one, a positive one that will make you look good. Spend some money; recruit some young women or men to be the interior decorators for that area (and then tell them to take on your bride’s room if you have one and update it!); AND then, in about 10 years, do it all again with yet new furniture.

Every time you update your look, you directly affect the age of people that come (and come back) to your church.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: buildings, facilities, young adults Tagged: , ,

Choices

Posted on September 10, 2012 Written by

Have you noticed? Young people today just don’t have the same level of commitment to church as their parents and grandparents! They have no loyalty. They have no deep roots. They don’t believe and support the one thing that their ancestors did – that bedrock commitment to their church. They really don’t value investing themselves in a church, planting seeds into that faith community, and paying it forward to the next generation.

(Okay, this is where I insert a disclaimer to say this is not true but a massive generalization – please read on)

Of course they don’t.

They don’t because their parents and grandparents – the same ones who voice many, if not most, of those complaints above – taught them they don’t have to have commitment to anything. I’m not blaming anyone, I’m just pointing out how this past two generations have been brought up by their parents.

Choices.

That is one of the hallmarks of capitalism and one of the benchmarks on which this nation is built financially. You, the consumer, get to pick and choose.

So, flashback to your childhood and remember when you sat in the grocery cart as your mom turned the corner and enter Wonderland – the cereal aisle. Mom slowly pushed the cart and you began saying (or if you couldn’t speak, you’d scream) what cereals you wanted. Mom ended up buying 2, 3, or even 4 different kinds of cereal because she knew you would switch every few days. And Mom didn’t stick just to Kellogg’s  brands, she’d even get General Mills or even the occasional off brand (which Dad usually ended up eating or maybe you gave it to the dog!).

Sure enough, over the next couple of weeks you’d have Cheerios for a few days, then switch to Fruit Loops, and then jump over to Sugar Smacks, circle back to Cheerios and finally you’d say you were tired of all those but you’d seen a new cereal on TV and you wanted to try that one so Mom might as well throw away all of the others and just go get the new one.

Kids learned that they can switch cereals on a whim. But also soft drinks, clothes brands, fast food chains, and any other consumer product out there. As an adult, we switch loyalties with car manufacturers (even though grandfather was a Ford or Chrysler or Chevy buyer) and even neighborhoods – I know of people who will move every few years when they grow tired of their home. Young people do the same with jobs. 20-somethings today will switch careers 7-10 times in their work life – that means that they will change job every 3-7 years.

Anyone who has been a child in the past 65 years (since WWII) has been raised in a culture of choices where they are in charge of making those choices.

So why do long-timers in the church get all upset when their kids and grandkids jump from one church to a different church to no-church and over to a church of a different denomination or no denomination. After all, it’s what we taught them: “you don’t have to accept what is in front of you,” and “you have the power to change your circumstances and surroundings so do it.”

Church-hopping today doesn’t happen for only the same reasons as before. I think that our grandparents jumped to another church because of something that happened and caused them to leave. They take that frame of reference and apply to their kids or grandkids.

I think there are a multitude of reasons why people today leave church.

  • They don’t like the programming or staffing
  • A friend invited them to go to another church
  • They want to experience and experiment with a different church
  • They’re looking for a church with values that they have (at the present time)
  • They want a church that will be good for their kids even if there is nothing for the adults
  • They’re seeking a church that is strong in one area of ministry or cause which they identify with
  • They’ve had a conflict with a lay member or staff leader
  • Or any of hundred other reasons

So what is a church to do. How do you address the issue of church hopping in your church? The number of responses is equal to the number of problems but here are a few prime answers

  • Do nothing – just accept that people will come and go through your church. Don’t change anything and realize that the back door is just as wide as the front door and that many people will use both and a few core people will stay and help run things.
  • Focus on a few core principles that guide your church and which in turn limit the number of ministries you do and then do those few ministries extremely well. That means the people who do come will be inculcated into your few ministries.
  • Provide a variety of ministries so that you’re trying to do lots of different things. This is what many churches do – focus on nothing and aim at everything. It works for a while but frankly it dilutes the power and ministry and energy of a church to focus on nothing and try to do everything.
  • Have a few compelling environments which attract people and make them stick to your church. These compelling environments will attract like-minded people so long as it remains a high-level of quality. This is simliar to #2 but that is focused on ministries and this point is on people-groups.
  •  Have several different worship styles within the same facility. That means building several worship centers or doing quick-changes; it also means a bigger staff. But the hope is that you can be a church where people can flit between worship and education venues all the while hearing the same message in a variety of methods.

OR, change the point of view of the people coming to church. That is MUCH harder to do. You see, everything I wrote above sees people coming to church as consumers. They aren’t. And church leaders should stop treating members as consumer. Church attendees are to be givers – of their time, their talents, and their financial treasure. They are to be GENEROUS!

When you attend a wedding, you are not a consumer. You are there at the invitation of the bride or groom; you didn’t just crash it. And the wedding is NOT about you – it’s about the bride (sorry, grooms!). You are a participant – there to enjoy the party and to help celebrate a special day.

Worship is NEVER about the people inside the church. People are there at God’s invitation (and we have no right to turn anyone – anyone! – away). Everyone must be there with the right motivation – not “to get something out of it” but to celebrate God and the life we’ve been given and in turn give away anything and everything we can to help others.

Yeah, changing members in a consumer-oriented culture into reverse-consumer (generous givers!) is not easy. But God doesn’t do easy (or else he’d wipe us off the map – LOL) and God certainly isn’t a consumer-God.

God does love and giving and celebrating and joy. We should and can and must, also.

Lead On!
Steve

Filed Under: future, generosity, strategy, young adults Tagged: , , ,
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