Designing a #ReimagineCHURCH Journey
Every congregation/ministry/group must "be transformed by the renewing of their (corporate mind-set) ...
So that they begin to pray with and make-disciples who live according to the good, totally-fulfilling, perfectly-suited will of God."
Romans 12:2
Components applicable to congregations/ministries experiencing:
- Plateaued or declining attendance
- Apathetic leadership
- Mission drift (confusion, disinterest)
- Changing neighborhood demographics
- An interim season between full-time pastors
- Beginning as a new church plant
- The need for revising as a step toward reviving
The components of a congregational/corporate reimagine-journey:
- A Strategy of Prayer:
- For our church to seek the discernment and direction of the Holy Spirit
- For our leaders to collectively yield to the mind of Christ
- For our membership/participants to receive a daily filling of the Spirit
- For our people to respond to neighbors with the heart of Father God
- A SWOT Assessment
- Strengths: Our calling in Christ; Spiritual Gifting, Resources-Facility-Location
- Weaknesses: Blindspots, Fears, Resources-Facility-Location
- Opportunities: Neighborhood diversification, Community needs-issues
- Threats: Our decline-apathy-enemies
- All-The-Church Gatherings
- A Conversation with Our Leader (an evening of prayer - Worship)
- A Conversation with Our Leadership (questions, comments, prayer)
- A Conversation with One Another ("Who are you?" - Fellowship)
- ...consider beginning with a meal
- Special Sunday Service Focus (a week-by-week, monthly rhythm)
- The Word - devoted to teaching a story or text from Scripture
- The Table - devoted to celebrating our salvation from Jesus
- The Truth - devoted to applying a promise from Scripture to our life
- Body Life - devoted to worship: psalms, hymns, scriptures, sharing
- Sermon Series
- #ReimaginePRAYER... from the prayers to the Ephesian church
- #ReimagineDISCIPLESHIP...from the teachings of Jesus
- #ReimagineCHURCH... from the "one another" commands in scripture
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Which of these hinder your journey?
Avoiding risks?
Resisting change?
Surrounded by negativity?
Problem focused?
Fearing criticism?
https://hackspirit.com/10-habits-of-unsuccessful-people-who-never-m...
Which of these hinder your journey?
Avoiding risks?
Resisting change?
Surrounded by negativity?
Problem focused?
Fearing criticism?
✔️here
“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”
Jim Rohn, (1930– 2009)
with thanks to RIck Skiba
#Rethink How To Think
CHURCH. Think. Different!
REINVENT CONTINUOUSLY: IDEAS FOR ACTION
MARCH 11TH, 2024 | LEADERSHIP
Excerpted with permission from the 3rd Chapter of “Uncommon Greatness: Five Fundamentals to Transform Your Lead... by Mark Miller
Note from Bob: My friend, Mark Miller, has done it again! Mark has written another “Must Read” book for every leader who is committed to continuously to increase their Leadership Effectiveness! And if I might be so bold, if a leader is not committed to increasing their Leadership Effectiveness they shouldn’t be leading! As you will see below, today’s post will be the first of 3 Parts!
If vision is the fire motivating a leader and an organization to move into an unknown future with confidence, the wood for the fire is found in this third Fundamental: Reinvent Continuously. For the best leaders, Reinvent Continuously is a practice, a mindset, and a personal discipline.
Following are three strategies for you to consider to help you increase your proficiency on this fun and high-impact Fundamental:
THINK DIFFERENT
What’s your favorite ad campaign? You may have to think about that for a minute. For me, the answer is the Think Different campaign launched by Apple in 1997. Here are a few lines from the iconic television ad:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes. The ones who see things differently . . . While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
How do you think differently, particularly if this is not your natural bent or bias? I have some ideas for your consideration.
Invest the Time
Where do ideas come from? For me, this question is impossible to answer. Their source is not the product of a replicable process. The great ideas can come in a eureka moment or as the result of years of inquiry, experimentation, and setbacks. However, there are inputs that can facilitate breakthrough ideas. Of all the elements I am aware of, the most precious and most often overlooked is time. I just admitted that sometimes a great idea is revealed in a moment of inspiration. However, this is both rare and often misinterpreted. In many of the flashes of inspiration, the problem had been simmering for weeks, months, or even years. Here’s the truth about mining for great ideas—it typically takes time.
One egregious infraction I have seen repeated over and over throughout my career is the failure to invest adequate time when brainstorming.
In his book What a Great Idea, Chic Thompson cites research that reveals two levels of brainstorming. In Level One, the participants basically capture what is already known or has been tried previously. Depending on who is in the room, this phase typically requires forty-five minutes to complete. Only then can you move into Level Two. This is the domain of the new, novel, and unexpected.
How many times in your life have you participated in a “failed” brainstorming session that was less than forty-five minutes?
If you are not willing to invest the time, you’ll never find the gold. If you choose to use a technique like brainstorming with your team, increase the amount of time you are willing to invest; I suggest a minimum of ninety minutes. There’s much more to say about this subject. If you want my Ten Tips for Brilliant Brainstorming, go to LeadEveryDay.com/uncommon
Consider the Opposite
Several years ago, I was trying to help a nonprofit organization increase participation in their events. The team was bright, engaged, and eager to improve. At least they were fully engaged until I told them what we were going to do. Here’s a condensed version of the conversation as I set up the day.
“Today, I know you want to think creatively about how to increase attendance at your events. I agree that would be a wonderful outcome. However, I want to ask a different question: What would you need to do to depress attendance?” They looked at me as if I had lost my mind. Remember, I was a guest facilitator. I’m assuming several members of the team thought to themselves, Who invited this wacko?
I could sense the tension in the room, but I pushed on. “I know this feels strange—let’s just try this. I think it could be fun.” Slowly and reluctantly, they began to share ideas ranging from the bizarre to the pedestrian.
“We could physically change the location of the event every week and make folks find us. We could make it impossible to park. What if we were not friendly when people arrived? What if we took down all the wayfinding signage? We could constantly change the published event time—then, totally disregard it. Some weeks we could start late and other weeks we could blow past our stated end time.”
I was capturing them all on flip chart pages and putting them on the wall. At several points the energy dropped and the ideas slowed to a crawl, but we persisted. We probably did this for two hours. At that point we had maybe 150 ideas.
I stopped the ideation and said, “Take a look at the list; do you see anything we should talk about?” The room sat in silence—it felt like an eternity while everyone read the list. Finally, one person raised their hand as if they needed my permission to share their observation.
“Uh . . . we do a lot of those things,” he said sheepishly. I read the room and several were nodding in agreement. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s identify all the things on this list you currently do; we’ll rank them based on their potential impact, and then we can start with the biggest opportunity and begin creating our action plan. You need to eradicate those behaviors and, in theory, your actions should increase participation.”
There were obviously a number of paths we could have taken to identify ideas to improve event attendance—in this case, by choosing to consider the opposite, the team’s next steps were obvious.
Ask More Questions
Questions are one of the most powerful tools at a leader’s disposal. They are free, available in ample supply, can be used in most any situation, and, wielded wisely, can unlock a world of previously unknown options and opportunities. There is so much to say here. I devoted an entire chapter in Smart Leadership, titled “Ask Don’t Tell,” to this topic. (If you want a free copy of that chapter, go to LeadEveryDay.com/uncommon.) For our purposes here, I want to challenge and encourage you: ask more and better questions.
When you ask a question, there are several potential benefits: You may learn something. You demonstrate your humility and vulnerability. You can also accelerate your learning when you ask a question that requires a synthesis or summary of a larger body of information.
One word about better questions. They come in all shapes and sizes. Here’s one tip. Ask more open-ended questions. These are questions that require more than a one-word response. Did you enjoy the show? Closed-ended. The better question would be open-ended: What did you enjoy most about the show?
You may also want to monitor the number of questions you ask in a typical day. I’m not suggesting you actually count them; that could be weird. However, work to increase your awareness and identify your tendencies. With your newfound awareness, experiment with asking more questions. See what happens.
Note from Bob: You can order Mark Miller’s incredible book, “Uncommon Greatness: Five Fundamentals to Transform Your Lead... today by clicking HERE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Miller is a Wall Street Journal and international best-selling author, communicator, and the former Vice President of High Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A. Mark’s leadership journey at Chick-fil-A spanned 45 years, and today, he serves as the Co-Founder of LeadEveryDay.com Mark began writing almost twenty years ago, and with over one million books in print in more than twenty-five languages, his global impact continues to grow.
#Review & #Renew Your Self...
Restructuring your mindset is important because “the strong influence your thoughts have on your emotions is because you believe the thoughts, not because they are necessarily true,” said Dr. Daniel R. Strunk, a professor of psychology at the Ohio State University, via email.
“If we allow ourselves to believe upsetting things that aren’t fully true, that makes our emotional life more difficult,” he added.
Practicing the [asking though-provoking] questions can help you become more mindful overall if you keep at it consistently.
“I’d encourage people trying to learn to re-evaluate their thoughts to experiment with different questions,” Strunk said. “You may find that some (are) particularly effective for you.”
By Kristen Rogers, CNN
THE GO CENTER
10 Decisions That Determine The Fate Of The Church
Establish a healthy church DNA by correctly making these decisions and following through.
Being wise and discerning when you make key decisions about the direction of the church is critical to your church vitality.
This course will introduce you to the decisions that will lay to ground work to become healthier. Make the correct decisions over and over and your church will be in great position to become healthy. Make the wrong decisions over and over in these key areas and your church will plateau, decline, then die.
Key decision-making areas include:
Sign up Today
Enroll in the FREE 12 day course below. You will receive one daily email until you complete the course.
START HERE
a Guide to
REVIEW then REVISE to REVIVE
Your Ministry Mindset
#1 √Pray ~ for Spirit-led, Scripture-fed discernment and direction as you
Ask - Seek - Knock
#2 √unLearn ~ detach your Cultural Preferences from Biblical Imperatives
#3 √#ReimagineFutureChurch ~ with Life-Changing, Paradigm-Shifting, Ministry-Transforming ideas
#4 √Become a Reimagineer ~ explore and execute Thought-Provoking content
#5 √Pursue Your Path ~ as you design your journey with these assessment tools
#6 √Coaching Sessions ~ ponder Thought-Leaders' Unconventional Responses to our Uncommon Questions interviews
#7 Ongoing ReSEARCH ~
For One Week:
Read 1 selection sequentially each day for a week,
then...
For One Month:
Two-three times a week
select 1 entry from any section that relates to your ministry focus.
As you research:
Postpone practical or programatic changes until you have taken sufficient time to yield to the Spirit's work of “changing the way you think." (Romans 12:2)
Resist conformity.
Breath new life into traditions or rituals that cannot be set aside
Do not fear taking counter intuitive steps that prompt you to reconsider presuppositions or reevaluate to:
√Reformat? or Reboot? or Reset?
Ten Strategies for Handling Transition Well
Changes have big impact on people. How many times have you tried to implement a good and needed change only to be met with serious resistance? You may be trying to change service times, introducing a new small group curriculum, upgrading your children’s ministry procedures, or hiring new leadership. No matter the size of the change, helping people transition well is the key to success.
Walking people through transitions
Handling transitions well is a key competency for ministry leaders. People need to adjust and adapt to any changes that come their way and part of the role of a leader is to shepherd them through that process.
As you think through the strategies below, note that they apply to both welcome and unwelcome transitions, those changes you have invited and those that have been thrust upon you. The strategies can also be applied equally well to shepherding those you are leading in your ministry through a corporate transition—or how to approach an individual or family transition in your personal life. I recommend applying them across the board.
Ten Strategies for Handling Transition Well
1. Recognize that transition is a natural part of life.
It’s part of the lifecycle–how God created us. We aren’t going to be able to avoid transitions. They are necessary and inevitable. The question is not whether we handle transitions, but how we handle them.
2. Validate that transition is difficult.
Most of us naturally dislike change–it’s uncomfortable. All feelings are valid. It’s natural for people to feel happy, sad, anxious, fearful, defensive, etc. Give people permission to feel whatever they feel.
3. Mourn what needs to be mourned.
Even if the transition you are facing is a good or welcome one, it still brings with it a sense of loss. There are things people will miss. Be intentional about mourning them. It’s okay to be sad.
4. Celebrate what needs to be celebrated.
Always take time to celebrate the past and the accomplishments that have been made– even if it wasn’t perfect or all you hoped it would be. Be intentional about celebrating what you can and honoring what you can.
5. Accept that every change is a mix of celebration and mourning.
There is a tension inherent in all change. Even something good like having a baby is a mix. You’re excited about the baby. But you’re mourning your younger days when you were free to go out whenever you wanted with far less responsibility. The challenge is to celebrate and honor the old at the same time as you make way for and get excited about the new.
6. Avail yourself of help as you are in transition.
When you are lost, ask directions. Find people who can serve as resources for you. Find people who can support you. Who has already gone through a similar transition? What can you learn from them? Depending on the transition, consider enlisting a coach, a therapist, a spiritual director, etc.
7. Adjust your time in response to the new reality.
Most transitions will have some impact on how you spend your time. What new responsibilities or tasks will you have? Which will you be letting go? What new relationships will you need to invest in? Which will you be letting go? What new skills might you need to develop? Consider the impacts this transition will likely have on your time and adjust how you spend your days and your weeks accordingly.
8. Adjust your finances in response to the new reality.
Many transitions also bring financial changes along with them. What impact will this transition have on your finances or those of your organization? For instance, having a new baby will certainly bring new expenses, but you might also not have as many expenses in some areas, such as restaurants or travel. If you receive a raise, what is the most strategic use of the new income? If you now have additional expenses, how will you account for those? Think ahead and plan accordingly.
9. Create structures to help you in the new reality.
We all need prompts. What structures can you put into your daily life to make these new changes easier to manage? For example, if you have had a health problem and now need to take a medication twice daily, maybe you decide to take it after breakfast and after dinner as a way to remember. Maybe you have a pill box so you can keep track of your doses. Lists are often helpful for keeping us on track during times of uncertainty. Consider what kinds of guardrails might help you stay on track.
10. Embrace the opportunities you find.
Most transitions lead to unexpected opportunities–a move that brings you some great new neighbors, a new school that offers an extracurricular activity you’ve always wanted to try, the gift of more free time. Consider how to make the most of those unexpected opportunities.
Resources
Managing Transitions by William Bridges*- One of the best books I’ve read on transition!. Although the points above are not taken directly from that book, much of my thinking on the whole topic of transitions has been shaped by the model Bridges sets forth in his book.
Change Management Effectiveness Profile– If you want to manage change better, the first step is to identify your strengths and weaknesses on the topic. This simple assessment will show you the skills you need to develop in order to manage change well.
Change Management Skill Builder Booklet– Once you know have targeted the areas where you need to grow, this simple booklet is powerful in the hands of a self learner!
Photo by Warren on Unsplash
* Amazon Affiliate link
The post Ten Strategies for Handling Transition Well appeared first on Logan Leadership.
#transitions transitions
This "Reimagine" Story Will Help You Re/Start Your Journey
From Selfish Intent to Selfless Service
Nothing in my childhood foreshadowed the calling awaiting me. An ominous beginning beset with divorces, alcoholism, neglect, and a speech impediment portended a perilous future. I grew up in several households, combinations of mom, dad, stepmom, and stepdad, with only hints of spirituality and cultural Christianity. It wasn’t until 8th grade that I met my heavenly Father, ending my search for a loving parent. The boy who had acted out his insecurities by vandalizing, starting fights, breaking into buildings, running away from home, skipping school, and nearly failing out – was transformed by finding someone, a Savior, who cared about him.
Finding Christ…
The Lord introduced Himself to me the same way He orchestrated the other significant events that led me where I am today – by turning selfish intent into selfless service to achieve His purposes. In this instance, as a blended family in Atlanta with seven kids in the late 70s, private high school was unaffordable and public school inadvisable. The only option was a small, inexpensive Christian academy a couple miles down the road. Faithless necessity led me to faith in Jesus. With a newfound sense of worth and value, I discovered God-given gifts for academics, athletics, writing, and even public speaking.
However, those successes didn’t eliminate the insecurities of a loveless youth. I became a classic overachiever overcompensating to earn what my family hadn’t given. High school valedictorian opened doors to renowned Washington & Lee University, where I started Bible studies as a Freshman but by Senior year regressed to social chairman of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Upon graduation, I was offered a coveted position on Wall Street in investment banking with Merrill Lynch and then a legislative aid role with a U.S. Congressman on the House Banking Committee. The nation’s top graduate school for business, the University of Chicago, liked that story of viewing financial services from both sides – Wall Street and Capitol Hill. With that MBA, I worked for the next seven years in management consulting with Ernst & Young and PwC, specializing in Customer Relationship Management in the banking industry.
Finding a Ministry…
My self-centered ambitions led me to the top, but also to my knees, realizing I had done little to serve the Lord or His children who were enduring an upbringing like mine. Disillusioned, I began praying for a greater purpose than gaining wealth and notoriety. Meanwhile, I was recruited away from the Big-5 to lead the Financial Services practice for a Dot-com consulting firm. It was there, developing strategies for eBusiness CEOs, that my prayers were answered. I had been attending a large church in Atlanta and asked them what I could do on the weekends more impactful than playing golf with friends. I shared about my interests and skills, hoping they’d be involved in local poverty alleviation efforts that could leverage my background. However, they had no answers or opportunities, instead referring me to the Atlanta Union Mission to inquire about serving the homeless.
As a student of scripture, I knew my church’s disconnect from the community and poor wasn’t biblical. As a consultant, I researched and discovered churches began abdicating their historical role as America’s food bank and homeless shelter in the early 1900s (after the New Deal and failed Social Gospel movement). As an eCommerce strategist, I realized the same web-based solutions our firm was building for business partners could reconnect and mobilize a fragmented body of Christ. That revelation occurred during a drive from Jacksonville back to Atlanta in 1999. I pulled off the next exit and spent the next few hours handwriting the business plan for Meet The Need.
Once again, selfish intent had led to selfless service. The Lord knew all the capabilities I’d acquired throughout my career would be needed to launch a ministry with such audacious goals. Rather than volunteering at a shelter, God wanted me to help millions of Christians find opportunities to live out His plans for them to impact others.
Finding a Mission…
Little did I know at the time, but there was much more to the story of how God had perfectly arranged my life to address a larger, critical need – church reform. Pastors had told us, “Build it and we will come”, claiming that connection was the only impediment to year-round, relational compassion. So in the early 2000s Meet The Need built the first collaborative Volunteer Management, Event Management, and Case Management tools. We removed all impediments to church adoption – no fees, white labeled to integrate seamlessly, and controllable to only show designated needs. Yet when they implemented Meet The Need, most circumvented our intent and objectives, using the platforms seasonally and not in unity with other churches.
After watching activity levels in our apps skyrocket each Thanksgiving and Christmas, we began investigating the root causes behind the precipitous drop off after the holidays. Our work with thousands of churches across the country for over a decade provided a statistically significant sample to evaluate trends and tendencies. When we completed that analysis, it became clear why the Lord had led me to Customer Relationship Management consulting years earlier. For me, the decision to transition from Business Intelligence to CRM consulting had been opportunistic. Yet God once again turned selfish intent into selfless service when our research found that it was a CRM problem keeping churches from uniting in continual community transformation. They were violating the most fundamental CRM principles – and Biblical mandates:
Any organization focused on the wrong customers and neglecting its target customers will decline in growth, impact, influence, and reputation. Discipleship, evangelism, and compassion have been diminishing in American churches for decades. Resources were reallocated from equipping and deploying disciples to attracting and retaining churchgoers. Pastors are no longer in a position to ask more of their members than a car manufacturer can ask of its customers. Toyota can’t demand buyers read the owner’s manual, recommend its cars, or service its vehicles as conditions of purchase. Nor do churches feel at liberty to hold members accountable for studying scripture, sharing the Gospel, or serving the poor. Instead, they exchange those biblical imperatives for easier, institution-building requests like Invite (friends), Involve (in church activities), and Invest (in giving). If invited guests show up next Sunday, pastors assume responsibility for leading them to Christ. Rather than disciple multiplication, the Lord’s math, churches practice member addition. As a result, the pews of holy worship services across the U.S. are filled with many who don’t worship Jesus.
Jesus knew that His church had crossed the line. I believe He sent me into CRM consulting because only someone with substantial CRM and biblical depth would have the insight and qualifications to determine who churches were treating as their “customer” and identify who the “customer” should be. Ten years ago when this blog began, I was a “voice crying out in the wilderness” but now many others understand that hesitancy to challenge and eagerness to cater defines who a church considers its “customer”. Meet The Need’s mission became church reform at a critical inflection point in the history of the Church in America. Until we realign our definition of “church” and its “customer” with God’s Word, the Church’s decline will continue.
Finding a Career…
How part-time ministry became a career is another remarkable story of God turning selfish intent into selfless service. After seven years working on Meet The Need while still in consulting, I felt the Lord calling me to go full-time with the ministry. However, it was 2008 – Meet The Need had no funds, the Great Recession raged, we were heavily invested in real estate, and had a one year old child. Leaving a secure, lucrative job at that time seemed irrational, if not certifiable. Yet given all the miracles Jesus had performed to lead me from hopeless child to useful servant, walking away from security and wealth felt like the safest, wisest path.
Only the Lord knew what would happen next. Six months later a builder broke its promise not to lower prices on its twelve unsold units until our investment group had unloaded ours. That promise had been a condition for our decision to close on the nearly million dollar condo rather than forfeit our preconstruction investment. Now we were holding a unit worth hundreds of thousands less than we’d paid. On top of that, my investment partners experienced a health crisis, a job loss, and mounting debt – leaving me to cover the deficit and massive mortgage. If I still had my high consulting income when the builder slashed its prices, the bank never would have accepted a buyer’s lower offer to purchase our condo. I avoided possible bankruptcy only because I made the illogical decision to take that leap of faith. When I chose selflessness, the Lord transformed my self-centered plans into a powerful demonstration of His glory.
It’s Your Turn…
How has our Father taken what you meant for your own good and used it to bless others and advance His Kingdom?
The post From Selfish Intent to Selfless Service appeared first on Meet the Need Blog.
#compassion, #reimagine compassion,
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