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Set People Up to Succeed

The other day I was reading in the book of 1 Chronicles in the Bible, and came across this verse:

"Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it." 1 Chronicles 15:22

It made me think about how often in the Church we don't put people in a position to succeed because they serve where they aren't skilled.  Here are some scenarios that come up:

• People don't know where they are skilled - In this case it's best to let them serve wherever they would like to at first, or even where you need them, but it's important to evaluate how that role fits them and try to help them learn what their gifts and abilities really are.
   
• People want to do something they aren't skilled at - This is one of the most difficult because it means having a hard conversation to let them know they should probably serve in a different capacity that utilizes their true gifts.  Interestingly enough, like the verse in Chronicles, music is where we find this happen a lot.  
   
• People don't realize how skilled they are - Some people are more skilled than they realize, especially when it comes to leadership.  We have to recognize that and encourage them to reach their full potential by giving them opportunities.

The team, the mission, and the Church has to come before any individual and if everyone has that attitude, and we work hard to set people up to succeed, great things can happen.

Catalyst One Day Coming to Baltimore

Catalyst One Day is coming to Baltimore, MD (Fulton, specifically) on Monday, November 16.  A bunch of people from CCC will be going, including staff and volunteers.  I'm thrilled about an event like this coming to MD (or anywhere in the northeast) and I'm excited that some of our volunteers will be attending.  

If you lead anything, you'll want to attend this event.  It is specifically geared towards church leaders but the principles would apply to any leadership context.  The theme is momentum.  

Grace Community Church is hosting the event.  Check out the website to sign up.  

Church Surveys - Extremely Helpful

Our church was started to reach people who are not a part of any church.  We are constantly trying to evaluate how well we are doing in light of that vision.  Last month we had a church-wide survey that had a ton of questions that helped us evaluate how well we are doing in a number of different areas.  Here are some of the interesting things we found:

• Our attenders are 60% married & 40% single (that's adults & students responding) 
• Our most common age brackets are 28-35 & 23-27  
• Since we launched, 55% of new attenders have been from another church and 45% have come from an "unchurched" background.  That is much better than the national average for churches and we have actually gotten better recently (it's 50/50 in the last year specifically)
• 71% of people came to CCC because they were invited  
• Our Starting Point environment is extremely helpful for getting people connected in small groups (twice as likely to connect) and contributing on ministry teams (three times as likely to serve)  

We also learned there are some things we can improve on:

• Communicating what Starting Point is and why it's valuable to newcomers and long-time attenders. 
• We can communicate about membership more clearly and regularly
• We can improve on how well we track assimilation on an individual, and church-wide level

The survey was a bear to analyze but it provided a lot of great information, only a portion of which I mentioned here.  It will probably be a yearly thing for us and should go a long way towards helping us constantly get better at everything we do.

Does your church do surveys?  If so, could you send me a copy?  If not, why not?

North Point Online Debuts on My Birthday

North Point is following the likes of LifeChurch.tv and NewSpring as they launch an online environment on Sunday, August 16.  They'll broadcast the 6pm service at Buckhead Church every week online while creating some opportunities for online attenders to connect surrounding the service.  Here's a video they released this week to promote it.  Check out the new website here:  www.northpointonline.tv

Training Volunteers Using the Web

I recently had an idea about how I could possibly leverage the internet to help train and develop CCC Kids volunteers.  The web technology I plan to use is primarily WordPress Multiuser.  

Basically I want to create a website for volunteers that will be the central place for communication and training.  The communication would replace a big part of our current system of communicating (email) with blog posts.  But, the key would be subscribing all volunteers to the email service of the blog so nothing really changes for them.  The benefit though, is that the blog post will stay up so it can be seen after it's read in the email if needed, and volunteers can comment on it.  Hopefully it will be a great way to have discussions and clarify things when needed.

The other huge part is the training.  This falls in two realms:  orientations and ongoing training.  The website could be used to help new volunteers learn everything about CCC (vision/strategy), CCC Kid's strategy, environments, volunteer roles, and the Orange Strategy we use.  With it being online, they can learn it at their own pace (within a specified time frame) and interact with different elements along the way, including articles, podcasts and other downloadable elements.  

The ongoing training would essentially be in the form of articles and podcasts that would be available on the site to volunteers (who have a login).  Discussion would be facilitated through the comments to allow people to process what they're learning.  

The biggest challenges are:

• I don't know much about in-depth WordPress coding
• Making time to work on it  
• Doing it in such a way that I could reproduce it for other churches quickly and in a way that would allow them to get full use of the system without needing to know WordPress coding.  

I really want to make this reproducible for other churches because I think most churches would benefit from something like this.  If you would like to check it out when it's done, leave a comment and I'll be sure to contact you about it.  

NFL & The Church Part 6 of 6

The Church (capital C) is my number one passion after God & family and the NFL is my number one hobby.  Throughout my history with each of them I've noticed some common things between the two of them, but in some cases it SHOULD be common but it usually isn't.  I'll post them all in no particular order.

Excellence

The NFL bleeds excellence.  The casual observer may not notice, but from the TV production all the way to the details in practice, excellence is prevalent.  The parity in the NFL is so great that the worst team one year can make the playoffs the next year.  One reason for that is because the level of excellence across most of the teams is very close which leaves little room for error.  It's the reason a winless team could beat an undefeated team 5 weeks into the season. 

Churches are rarely seen as excellent.  Plus, excellence is a word/label that can be abused or sought after at the expense of more important things (like people).  For the purpose of this post, I'll borrow a definition of excellence that says it is "doing the best you can with what you have, in a sustainable fashion."  (Thanks Troy Fountain via Rich Barrett).  Churches definitely have a great disadvantage when talking about excellence in comparison to the NFL, or any business, because the vast majority of their "staff" is volunteers.  But, they should do the best they can with what they have, and not settle for mediocre. 

A big reason why the NFL is so excellent is because of focus.  All throughout the NFL they apply great focus which allows them to pour the necessary resources and time into the most important things.  Churches typically dilute focus by doing too much.  NFL teams take this to an extreme, constantly preaching one game at a time.  John Harbaugh brought an acronym to the Ravens that drives what they do every week, and it's What's Important Now? 

If the churches would choose to focus on a handful of things, and trim out everything else, we would see a dramatic difference in the level of excellence in the things they continue doing.  Unfortunately the pain from a lack of excellence doesn't feel worse than the perceived pain of cutting programs or events. 

NFL & The Church Part 5 of 6

The Church (capital C) is my number one passion after God & family and the NFL is my number one hobby.  Throughout my history with each of them I've noticed some common things between the two of them, but in some cases it SHOULD be common but it usually isn't.  I'll post them all in no particular order.

Momentum

The NFL has become a master of creating and sustaining momentum.  If you know me, you know I can't stand baseball.  I played for 8 years as a kid, but eventually it just became too boring, especially to watch.  One game is boring by itself, but then add on to that the fact that they play over 160 of them!  It has to be next to impossible to sustain momentum for that many games. 

The NFL has 4 preseason games and 16 regular season games, along with 4 weeks of postseason play.  Take into account the 2 extra weeks and you have basically half a year of pro football.  But, ask any real fan and they'll tell you it feels like it goes by so quick.  Fans are dying for the next season to begin.  Part of that is because the parity in the NFL allows most fans to have hope, which prompts them to look forward to the next season.  But, the NFL has leveraged other aspects of NFL life to sustain the momentum during the offseason, including free agency, the draft, mini-camps, and training camp.  You know you're doing well when your DRAFT draws tons of viewers. 

Churches rarely think about momentum.  I think most people don't realize that momentum can be created and controlled to an extent, and isn't something that just happens.  Some ways the church can create momentum is by:

• Calendaring events in such a way that momentum is sustained throughout the year
  
• Designing as much as possible around each message series, so that it changes regularly.  That design can include the stage, the hallways, the website, the program, the pre-service music, the video backgrounds, the lighting and much more.  (momentum has a lot to do with "new")
  
• Carefully planned promotion.  You can promote too early, and lose momentum by the time you actually have whatever you're promoting, or you could promote too late or not at all and lose your opportunity to build momentum beforehand.  Well planned promotion will get people anxious and ready at just the right time. 
  
• Re-designing.  You can re-design sets, rooms, decor, print materials, websites, service orders and other things in order to create the feeling that something has improved.
  
• Stopping something.  That's right, you can actually stop something and gain momentum.  That's the hardest way to gain momentum, but if everybody knows that something isn't working, and you cut it, everybody is happy (well, not everybody). 
  
• Start Something.  Never start something simply to gain momentum, but starting something that's in line with your vision and strategy is a great way to build momentum.

Those are just a handful of ideas.  Churches have a long way to go to come close to the momentum that the NFL has been able to create year in and year out. 

Update:  I just watched an ad on the NFL Network where they were promoting the NFL Combine/Draft and the new group of players that will be coming in.  The regular season just ended yesterday (12/28) but they know there are fans already looking forward to next season.  They're keeping momentum going by getting them to look at what's next and providing hope. 

NFL & The Church Part 4 of 6

The Church (capital C) is my number one passion after God & family and the NFL is my number one hobby.  Throughout my history with each of them I've noticed some common things between the two of them, but in some cases it SHOULD be common but it usually isn't.  I'll post them all in no particular order.

Great Systems

The NFL has amazing systems.  Systems for how the linebackers will practice on the 8th day of training camp and systems for how expansion teams are added to the league.  Systems for massive things and systems for small things.  Each week during the season NFL teams execute their system for game planning, practicing, conditioning, coaching, critiquing, evaluating, scouting, etc.  I don't think I need to make a strong case for the quality of the NFL's systems.  But, there is a great example.

John Harbaugh showed up to his interview for the Baltimore Raven's head coach position with way more than just experience, a great resume, great references and the pedigree.  He brought a system.  Andy Reid's influence led to Harbaugh coming in with a huge book, that was essentially a detailed plan for how to lead an NFL team from day 1.  John has executed that play book since he arrived and the results have been great so far, especially for a team with a rookie QB and 16 guys on injured reserve.  That book is really just documented systems, and the processes that make up those systems.

The Church neglects systems for many reasons.  Unhealthy schedules, little margin, lack of systems thinking leaders and a general bias against systems are all examples of reasons why most churches have bad systems.  Andy Stanley says that "systems create behaviors" (I think that was borrowed from a book called the Fifth Discipline).  Most churches have serious behavior problems.

Just imagine if every church had a "book" like the one Harbaugh has.  A detailed plan for how everything in the church takes place.  Sure, the plan will change constantly, but documenting it forces leadership to think through the current systems and identify opportunities for improvement.  With detailed systems it's easier to recruit volunteers and develop leaders.....because the play book is already made. 

If you want to have great systems at your church, Nelson Searcy at Church Leader Insights is the first place to look for help.

A Coffee Shop Acting Like a Church

The video below is a comical depiction of what a coffee shop would look like if it was modeled after most churches.  Okay, not most churches, but there are a ton of things in that video that most churches do and the video highlights the strange nature of some of those things.  (Thanks to Rich Barrett for putting that video on my radar)

NFL & The Church Part 3 of 6

The Church (capital C) is my number one passion after God & family and the NFL is my number one hobby.  Throughout my history with each of them I've noticed some common things between the two of them, but in some cases it SHOULD be common but it usually isn't.  I'll post them all in no particular order.

Outsider-focus

The NFL is a public relations machine.  They understand their customer (the outsider) and make sure they don't only listen to the insiders (owners, coaches, players, etc).  Major League Baseball became too insider focused about 14 years ago and the result has been America's Past Time losing a ton of ground in viewers and completely getting destroyed by the NFL. 

In general, the NFL has done a great job listening to the fans and designing their product around what they hear.  They've gone to bat against one of the biggest media outlets there is (Comcast) to fight for the fan's ability to watch the NFL Network without having to pay even more. 

Most teams provide camps, clinics, information sessions, parties, and other events to give the fans what they want.  Many teams have PR departments that intentionally have the players and coaches on radio shows and in public appearances to reach out to the fans.  Does all of this benefit the NFL, you bet. 

The Church could take a page out of this book by seeking out the opinions of those who are not a part of any church and developing their strategy around what they hear.  The problem is, many churches can pay the bills with the insiders they do have, which means they don't have to listen to outsiders.  The NFL, and most businesses, must listen to outsiders if they want to survive.  Listening to outsiders benefits the outsiders and the Church........that is, unless a church is directly opposed to reaching out to people who don't know Jesus. 

Side note, the NFL has a big contract renewal discussion coming up with the players association where both sides will be looking out for themselves, and if neither gives in, the result will be an insider focus that will undoubtedly affect their reputation with the fans.