FindingTheMissionalPath.com

The Lead Sheet

2009-12-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

How would you rate your skill at communicating leadership statements? Excellent? Average? You prefer that someone else do the talking? Everybody knows that effective communication is essential to leadership success and to the other person’s leadership challenge. Sometimes all we get from leaders is the “lead” sheet and it is up to us to make something of it.

You say, “What is a lead sheet?” Let me explain.

Last week I listened to a radio interview of singer and composer Richard Carpenter (63), of the famous pop group of the 70’s and 80’s__The Carpenters. He is now promoting a new CD album of their greatest hits called “Carpenters Anthology” celebrating 40 pop hits by this beloved sibling duo on the 40th anniversary when they signed a record label with A & M Records.

Of particular interest to me was not Richard Carpenter’s comments about his late sister Karen, who died tragically from complications due to anorexia in 1983, but how they inherited possession of the famous hit “Close To You.”

“Close To You” was a gift via Burt Bacharach in April 1969. Bacharach gave Carpenter the lead sheet, which musically only contains the basic melody, a few lyrics, and the chord changes.

According to Wikipedia, a lead sheet is a form of music notation that specifies the essential elements of a popular song: the melody, lyrics and harmony. The lead sheet does not describe the chord voicings, voice leading, bass line or other aspects of the accompaniment. These are specified by an arranger or improvised by a performer, and are aspects of the arrangement or performance of a song, rather than a part of the song itself.

Interestingly, Bacharach gave the song to him and asked Carpenter if he could do something with it. As a result, Carpenter put his own introduction to it and his own twists of other musical additions. Everything else is history.

For most of us, communication focuses on improving output. After all, that is what everyone experiences when you speak; your command of language; your accommodation of social mores and boundaries and how nimbly you respond to nonverbal cues. Much of the processing function happens unconsciously.

On a conscious level, processing includes strategies and rules of engagement that require you to put your brain in gear by thinking about where you want the conversation or leadership to go. This is evidenced by which leadership statements are appropriate in a particular context and so on.

Why are leadership statements so powerful?

They have the potential to become the signature strength to someone else.
Powerful leadership statements can be a phrase, a quote, an example or maybe the trip home from a workshop. We don’t always get or give the full game plan. But something clicks with you.

It’s like God does in us something extraordinary and we share that with a compelling lead sheet as a vision___and others follow. “Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”

True leaders can make adjustments on the fly because they have a lot in their toolbox. This is why their preaching calendar expands beyond the common lectionary. By the way, the Lectionary is great for Advent and Lent but not to be treated as an absolute throughout the year. A creative sermon series may be more relevant.

Each week, on my iphone, I email our teen Sunday school class teacher a lead sheet. I call it a youth study guide which includes that Sunday’s scripture, the principle and the practice of the sermon, with three questions; all on one sheet of paper. Much of it contains leadership statements on which the facilitator can enhance and improvise.

In the leadership world, what does it mean to give someone the “lead sheet?” How do you recognize leadership statements when they are communicated?

Here’s a couple of leadership statements that should improve your leadership communication skills.

1.“Here’s an idea, see what you can do with it__then get back with me.”

2.“I want you to give this some thought__we’ll talk later.

Notice how there is a “handing over” to the other person. It is not a collaborative event but accountability is certainly built into the leadership statements.

Leaders be careful. Always be ready when others take the lead sheet from you and run with it. That’s what you want. It’s not a bad thing especially if you’re comfortable (or can become comfortable) with their new ownership. Just be prepared for this to happen.

Resist the urge of telling young leaders to find their own stuff or to wait a few years. They need and deserve opportunities to lead. You will always have young and emerging leaders who will come to you and want to learn.

You can dismiss it or you can bless it. Bless it. Give young leaders your blessing!

Cultivate relationships where others can safely air their honest thoughts and reactions.

Then, be ready for the other person to develop the lead sheet just like Richard Carpenter did with the pop hit “Close To You.”

Finally, always give credit to people who give even the smallest thought or nugget of an idea to you. It is rewarding to give a lead sheet full of leadership statements so others find their signature strength.

Take responsibility for improving your leadership communication skills. Prove that the moment is not too big for you. What do you think? Share your comments with me.

Remember, it’s all in The Lead Sheet.

How To Be A Catalyst For Great Ideas

2009-11-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

Leaders create ideas. The leader doesn’t come up with all the ideas, but the leader is a catalyst for great ideas.

Every leader should have an idea room or place where they just sit, think, and incubate ideas. Some ideas will quickly materialize while other ideas will require a slow cooking or crock-potting.

The first thing you need to understand is that incubating ideas is a team sport. This means a group of idea people will sit in on your pitch. Honestly, most of us generate very few good ideas. However, experienced and secure leaders know how great those ideas become when they are shared. This risk allows for a good idea to be compounded and to become a great idea.

It’s natural to feel panicky about what you imagine as a steady flow of ideas parading before hard-boiled idea “opinion-ators” who call the shots. And yes, if you let them, they will be. But while they need to learn about what you have to offer, you need to learn about them.

The trouble is, each idea person at the table sees it and expresses it differently. But it’s not as tough as you think to discover it. You just have to get them talking. You need to figure out their switch. I’m talking about the universal must-have that flips on the green light (watch for next blog).

Below are 7 tips on how to be a catalyst for great ideas. Take note of these. I have lived by these seven tips for many years and they definitely boost your ideas. But I must warn you. You must be secure and unselfish and be willing to hear someone say you had a bad idea. They will not damage your brand. Only you can do that.

1. Always be thinking about the business.
2. Always be asking questions about the business.
3. Focus your thinking on potential and problems.
4. Know who the idea people are on the team.
5. Whenever an idea comes to your mind, include them.
6. Ask and expect them to make your idea better.
7. When they do—give them the credit.
How do you know if the people you have called to the idea meeting are the right ones? Ask yourself this. When you walk out of a meeting do you walk out “charged up” or “drained”?

If you walk out of the meeting drained, then you need to quarantine the people who are “anchors” on the boat and not “the wind that fills your sails.” I’m serious. Those idea people who are “wind” to you will be a smaller group.

My next blog called “Switching on the Green Light” will offer three tips that will greatly improve your next idea meeting. Stay connected.

New Survey Reveals Creative Leadership

2009-10-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

Just think about it. Most young people today are overbooked. Asking them to come to church is often viewed as just one more thing they have to do. So, the right priority question becomes “How can the church add meaning to their spiritually-interested lives while embracing their creativity?”

There’s a boom in creative expression, especially among young people. Technology facilitates it. Unlike their Boomer forerunners, who sought to overthrow the establishment, they’ll wield power by ignoring it.

The good news is that the Church can assimilate these young participants once we’ve downloaded their creativity, then utilized their creative leadership to get things done. Unfortunately, traditional churches are not easily convinced and stubbornly risk extinction as their only public option.

Traditional leadership is not only unattractive to youth but it is uncomfortable for them. They can’t be squeezed into this mold and breathe. They have a new mold to introduce and worthy of the church’s attention and acceptance.

The Church can learn a lot from these young creative leaders who take the lead. In a recent 2009 American Life and Culture Survey (October 19, 2009) by Patricia Martin (Founder and CEO of LitLamp Communications of Chicago, IL), a leading expert on culture and commerce , says, “they are not living a diminished lifestyle, just carefully selecting experiences that further their personal growth and help them continue to live a meaningful life.” Download her report here.

Millennials create. Boomers consume.Martin reports, “Younger respondents are content creators; one-third actively blog and 82 percent said their peers consider them to be creative. More mature cultural consumers (45-65 year olds) create less, but still spend more than three hours a day online.”

Cultural consumers create echo effect that multiplies a messageMartin suggests,“Cultural consumers are influential when it comes to leisure pursuits. They are active and spend a good deal of time out of the home attending events and circulating in their communities. They organize outings with groups. The younger cohort maintains blogs (30%) and are social networkers.”

I have found creative leadership among these young people to be stunningly appropriate and relevant. Here’s a few characteristics I’ve noticed when I hang out with them.

Creative Leaders are:
Symbols of Inspiration not Authority
Networked not Hierarchical
Taking Risks not Sustaining Order
Concerned with Being Real not with Being Right
Thinks like an Artist or Designer not a General or Conductor
More Carrots not Sticks
Metaphorical in Tone not Literal

Traditional churches can make the paradigm shift from traditional leadership to creative leadership if they are serious about thriving (claiming values but dropping baggage) not surviving (claiming and carrying baggage ). When should this attitude be adopted? Yesterday. Period.

It is not enough to just agree in principle. We must empower youth and their creativity. Martin offers this takeaway. “Creating platforms that allow these creatives to express their spiritual ideals in a non-denominational way will help them anchor in times of change.”
Since these young creatives are carefully selecting the experiences that further their personal growth to help them live a meaningful life, the traditional church must risk and not fear their technology. Especially their creativity.

In my opinion, main-line protestant churches will continue to decline unless they empower those who creatively lead instead of authoritatively leading. Churches must do more than utilize their technological skills and asking youth to “run” the sound system. The church must offer cultural experiences, purposeful art making and adventurous community involvement and community expression as rewards.

Since they value doing original work, let these renaissance creatives be passionate and showcase their abilities. Hear this. Our emerging, creative culture now favors collaboration among people from business, spirituality, arts, and technology.

Barry is Founder and President of Ministry Indicators, a consulting group for churches 1,000 and under who are ready for renaissance. He also serves as a pastor/consultant/coach for the Missiouri Conference of United Methodist Churches.

Three Reasons Why Our Current Strategies Slow Down

2009-10-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

The assumptions we have in our heads about leadership only answers the questions attached to those assumptions. Why is it all of a sudden, we are starting to slow down? Has our current paradigm(ministry strategy, vision, etc) answered all the questions it can answer?

The word paradigm carries a contemporary meaning which refers to a set of practices that define a scientific discipline during a particular time of time. To leaders and practitioners like me, a paradigm can be a new idea, new ministry, new program that… (a) can be observed and scrutinized, (b) the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed in relation to the subject and (c) how these questions are to be structured and interpreted.

Charles Handy, who served as a professor of the London Business School, said, “What worked well last time almost ensures it won’t work well this time around.”
Here’s the profoundness of Handy’s statement about change. We want to be careful as leaders that we don’t calcify what’s working now… because what’s working now is because…it’s working RIGHT NOW! In other words, because the paradigm works this minute is because it works this minute (this place, this location, at this moment).
Here is what you need to know and understand. All ideas go thru a life cycle and start out at Point A where they experience newness, freshness, momentum, excitement and especially effectiveness. These are the things new ideas in their inceptional stage generate.

Once we get momentum with the new idea, then what happens over time is that we hit Point B where there is some noticeable and observable climb. More importantly, this particular idea is now reaching its maximum level of effectiveness.
Why is that? Let me give you 3 plausible reasons.

Reason #1:
The current paradigm no longer answers questions. It has answered all the questions it can answer. With the current paradigm, idea, or ministry program, there comes a “tiredness” and a need to get the next stage of questions. When this happens, certain things are gonna have to happen—a whole new construct (paradigm) has to enter.

It is here when someone becomes an adjutant and starts asking “what if” questions.

Reason #2:
At Point B there begins to settle in a confusion and disorientation. Why? Because someone has begun to do site analysis by looking at all the pieces and saying, “we are doing the things they way we’ve always done them” Why isn’t it working the same way?

This uncovers exactly the problem. We are doing the same idea, same ministry, same program by doing exactly everything we did when it was effective.
Confusion and disorientation is the first sense of the need to “retool” or “re-invent.” Maybe the old paradigm is tired and exhausted. Probably, it is.
Interestingly, there is a “tiredness” because the emerging questions cannot be answered primarily because the current paradigm has answered all the questions it can answer.

We should know that most people start hunting for a new way at Point B while others wait until an old paradigm or model get to Point C where momentum is in serious debt levels and is getting ready to crash and burn. If you are waiting to Point C, then I’ve got news for you. You are sledding into serious decline and you will not recover with one great idea.

Reason # 3:
One great idea or “silver bullet” will not rescue your organization from peril and maybe even death. It will not take “one” thing but an entire group of things to create a new construct. Looking for salvation at this stage never works.
Sharp leaders will intervene before Point B because they are already on the hunt for a new way---after the paradigm is functioning well and hasn’t exhausted itself. I know it seems counterintuitive, but knowing when to intervene and always being ahead of the change curve is extremely important.

What is great leadership? Great leaders will not let their church or ministry organization get to Point C. For instance, just today I had coffee with the director of a Non-profit organization called Love INC. that coordinates churches with needs in the community and serves as a clearinghouse for this effort. Eva Hillis is a terrific leader. She explained to me the current problem and the probing question. –She said, “Love INC. can’t expect its volunteers to work around their schedule (Love INC. office personnel)because those service-minded volunteers (many work themselves) give time, energy and ability when they can. She said that purchasing a “go phone” for the clearinghouse coordinator is necessary in order to contact volunteers outside of office hours.
Sounds like a simple solution. Right? This intervention becomes huge because it was anticipated by great leadership. As leader we must anticipate problems before we identify problems.

“If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” -- Mario Andretti

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” -Peter Drucker

“What worked well last time almost ensures it won’t work well this time around.”—Charles Handy

Why Millennials Need Mentoring

2009-09-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

Once a person understands where a generation is “coming from”, then we can target our mentoring techniques to unpack solution strategies for salvaging troubled relationships When their backs are against the wall, we can teach Millennials how to ask the right questions.

Who are the Millennials?

Millennials (Born 1977-1998—75 million) celebrate diversity, assume technology. They spend a good deal of time online, and they are heavy users of tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogging platforms. They were raised in the most child-centric time our nation has ever known. For better or for worse, these Millennials were showered with attention from us as friends and family__the Boomers. They are new to the workforce, work well in groups, and often prefer this to individual endeavors. They view institutions as irrelevant.

Why do Millennials need mentoring?

They have learned how to master and maintain a social network online but often unable to follow a healthy relational flight plan. They “toss away” relationship like upgrading for a newer cell phone model. For instance, if their marriage or friendship is struggling, let’s say two months in,--they are to quickly unwind or untie the commitment they previously made to the other person and find a replacement.

They are definitely in need of mentoring, no matter how tech-savy and confident they are, they lack the structure and stability and struggle to find it within themselves I believe this Millennial behavior pattern stems their inability to ask the right questions.

What are the right questions for Millennials to ask?

Allow me to use a painting metaphor to represent relationships. Let’s say that you (the reader) are a Millennial. You’ve attended an art gallery and purchased a painting resulting from a first glimpse. You’ve made the decision, coughed up some cash, and took it home. Two weeks later, however, you decide it’s not a particularly attractive painting and questioned …“what was I thinking” at the time of the purchase.

Encourage the Millennial to take the option of replacement “off the table.” Then, ask two mentoring questions applicable to relationships.

1. What can I do to make this painting more eye-appealing for me?
Consider the frame. Then, consider the room or the wall where the painting could be hung and would be more “sight-appealing” to you. What furniture pieces contribute to the accessibility, viewing and enjoyment of the painting? How can arranging the room (your schedule, your spiritual reading and theological reflections) make a difference? Remember, creativity is a millennial’s participation platform.

Instead of thinking of “tossing” away your spouse or friend you already have, why not list some ways in which you can enhance the relationship —to shape it with your influence—to discard biases and pre-conceived notions and structure to your strengths and enjoy the differences, not just the similarities.

2. How can I add value to the significance of having the painting in my home or apartment?

Consider who else sees the painting and benefits from it. Children? Spouse? Friends?
While most Millennials expect immediate and ongoing feedback, it is equally rewarding to give feedback to others. Becoming comfortable enough in your “own skin” to use a pragmatic approach to enjoy the people who are in your life already by not giving in to the temptation of substitution.

For Reflection:

List some additional questions you can ask to sharpen your mentoring technique for serving and equipping Millennials?

Why You're Not Getting Prospects

2009-09-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

Now more than ever it’s important to be practical. Take a deep breath. Then tick through your church calendar, plan and implement more point-of-entry outreach events that target a particular slice of the population in your church and community.

Spend your time gearing up, not freaking out. The post-advertising age is scary, yes, but many of the tenets of outreach___connection to communities of adults and children, co-journey and agenda-less friendships and engage others through community service projects with no strings attached__are objectives at the top of any pastor’s To-Do-list.

Here’s The Reality Check, checklist:

1. Think about your church’s reach.Do you have an established marketing effort in place so that your church keeps in touch with its attenders through e-mail, a Web site, events, newsletters, conferences, etc.

2. What do you know about your church demographics?Have you collected recent information on who participates and why? Where they live? How far they drive to participate? Whether they are repeat attenders? Whether they are young families, empty-nesters, seniors, or teens? Your demographics dictate the categories on which you should focus your efforts and the ones you shouldn’t waste time and energy on.

3. What is the competitive environment like? Look around. Are other churches of your church’s type and in its region getting prospects?

4. Do you know your prospect base?To guage the effort in reaching prospects, tighten and tweak your assimilation systems. In other words, close the back door. Before every church committee meeting conducts business, ask participants to take five minutes and write down three names of individuals, friends, associates, to invite and engage life conversations.

The Value of Collaborative Conversations

2009-08-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Before any step away from the status quo, congregational development thru collaborative learning conversations must happen first. Challenging the status quo is what I do for a living. Either I challenge or encourage other people to do it.

Hence, an effective change process looks likes this:

Collaborative Learning Conversations>Collective Commitment>Collective Efficacy>Changes in Practice>Members See New Learning>Members Have Self-Efficacy = Congregational Development

Collaborative Learning Conversations

Collaborative learning conversations add congregational development where leaders, other than pastor and staff, dialogue about strategy and vision for change in ways that are understandable and contextual.

Create a venue such as a monthly leadership luncheon for leaders to ask "how" and "who" questions. For instance, "If budget constraints were not part of the equation, how should we do ministry"? Or, "If we were the only church in this community, who should we contact first"?

Changes In Practice

Changes in practice don't occur until we take the time to talk about who we are now and who we want to be. notice in the process above that changes in practice happen once we feel collectively effective...we know we can make a difference.

Feeling collectively effective doesn't occur until we are collectively committed to a cause, which doesn't happen until we take the time to have collaborative conversations. The whole thing is a building process with each step being dependent upon giving your best to the one before...no skipping steps.

I also like the idea of Collective Commitment and Collective Efficacy. If the leader is committed, it isn't enough. If the leader feels effetive or one of the members feels effective, it is wonderful but it isn't enough.

The idea of being collectively committed to a cause and of feeling collectively effective comes as the fruit of a long growing season with careful tending by an observant gardener.

My observation is that organizations don't have enough constructive conversations that are designed for a specific purpose...not venting or complaining...not spontaneous but carefully designed to create positive outcomes.

Are leaders afraid of such conversations? Do they know what to do after such a conversation?

Distracted Churches Can Reclaim First Love

2009-07-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received word that Church Central Leadership Community, a church consultant and certification firm located in Louisville, Kentucky, posted excerpts this week from my latest book Finding the Missional Path. These excerpts were published in their publication Church Health Today, a monthly magazine available to church consultants, pastors, and leaders.

I am honored and pleased ChurchCentral has chosen to do this. Several years ago, ChurchCentral provided valuable consultant training to me which has served me well in giving leadership assistance to churches and pastors of several denomination. I am grateful for such mentors as Thom Rainer, John Maxwell, Dan Reiland, Tom Bandy, Chuck Lawless, Reggie McNeal, Craig Loscalzo, Will Mancini and Paul Bordon. Just to mention a few.

Also, ChurchCentral has asked me to be a contributing blogger and I look forward to posting. Ministry Indicators is the consulting business I founded in 2000. It is a privilege to serve the United Methodist Churches of the Missouri Conference and others.

Thanks to everyone for their confidence in my consulting skills and 38 years of pastoral experience. At age 55, and for some time now, equipping and empowering leaders (in diverse ministry settings) so they can reach their own optimum ministry performance and leadership excellence, has been my primary goal.

Below is a portion of the excerpt and you can read the entire post by clicking here or by logging on to www.ChurchCentral.com

Contemplate a total surrender of meaningless activities and church busyness.
What would the church look like if we stopped counting people, stopped soliciting new donors, and stopped staffing or funding ministry programs that only serve our members?

Distracted churches come in many varieties: Missionary Church, Maintenance (Survivor) Church, Seeker-Sensitive Church (Weekend Church), Consumer Church, Church Growth Church, and Activist Church. Most churches are a combination of these characteristic types. Critical to understanding distracted churches is being able to definitely describe where your church is and to strategize ways to lead the church to practically demonstrate its first love of connecting people to God.

Missionary church
This type of church is noted for sending a lot of missionaries to foreign countries, raising funds for missionaries, holding missions conferences and, when they are in town, featuring missionaries prominently in worship services.

Because of rapidly-changing Western culture, however, many churches are experiencing outreach ministries that are as cross-cultural as traditional missions.

Maintenance church
If a pastor expends the most energy emphasizing the need for more workers to begin and sustain church programs, it can easily be interpreted as an organization primarily concerned about providing benefits. Thus, the pastor is the recruiter and members are clubbers.

Reggie McNeal describes such churches as having a "club" mentality. They are churches who have made themselves their purpose. Their priorities include maintaining established programs and practices, in large part because they are established, and keeping people coming to the church in order to maintain the programs. The church building (enlarging and maintaining it) is often a key goal or priority.

This model easily surrenders to legalism and making a "Little Big Horn" stand against the different look and change in the religious landscape. Many Christians who are loyal to this model see their faith and way of "doing" church as the only way. Tolerance of examining one’s faith is seen as compromise of their interpretation of the Bible. Either/or answers are viewed as the right answers.

In their view of church behavior, command and control are central issues. Discernment of scriptures always runs consistent with church polity and doctrine. To them it would be reprehensible to question the way the church does things or gets things done. In their eyes, there is no middle ground to those who see their mission in life as preserving the church against the attacks of the world. The huge problem with this mentality is that the church is certainly not a perfect world in itself. Click here to continue

Why Leaders Should Insist On Change

2009-06-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

Real leaders know and insist on change in the church where they lead.

Here’s a thought you can use when you lead to change, discuss change in a sermon or another venue. This will help you to engage and groom your leaders with the importance of making consistent, necessary and timely change.

Little corrections save us from making inevitable big corrections.

Here’s why. If we drift two degrees at a time, before long we’re across several lanes. So all we have to do is make two degree changes to avoid making big changes.

I saw this illustrated the other day in traffic on a busy interstate. The driver was texting, shouldn’t have been, and gradually veered off to the edge of the highway. When she realized she was not in her lane, she immediately made the course correction of frantically jerking the steering wheel to the left. It was a major change that almost cost her life!

Just think. When leaders fail to make the two degree adjustments when they should and where they should, it guarantees a major change will be needed later on.

This is precisely why people in our churches resist change. They are conditioned to major changes which are usually painful, demanding and over-correcting because “in action” or the guts to change all along was neglected or delayed by the leader.

Leaders, don’t blame your people if they resist major changes because you haven’t made the little corrections consistently that create a culture that expects and understands change.

Understand this principle and you will be able to give a reasonable answer for change and be able to resist the temptation to "back off" change when others say they don't like it.

Innovative Outreach Idea

2009-05-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

Taking a youngster fishing can be one of the most rewarding days you will ever spend.
When you take a kid fishing, be prepared for one thing: communication. It's a great opportunity to listen and communicate with your youngster, and it will be an experience you'll both treasure for a lifetime. It's a chance to talk about nature, his or her school, their friends, things they like or dislike . . . you've got the idea . . . plus its building a foundation that will keep that youngster focused on this great American sport for many years to come.

On Saturday, May 16 our church, Wesley United Methodist Church of Fruitland, MO, will sponsor a Community Fishing Clinic for Kids. The fishing instructor named Joe "Wildlife" (neat name uh) is one of our members. Joe is a wildlife biologist for the Missouri Dept. of Conservation. Time 9:30 a.m. till Noon. All attendees are asked to park at the North Elementary School parking lot.

The event is limited to 20 kids. We already have 18 who have registered. Each child must be accompanied by an adult. A registered nurse will be onsite. Bait, fishing tackle and snacks will be provided by the church. Door prizes and fishing tackle will be given away from Walmart and The Grizzly Jig Company.

Please pre-register your child by calling Pastor Barry at 573-837-6587. After registering for the event, attendees will be mailed information regarding directions to the secret fishing hole.

This is a free community event, however a $3 donation is recommended. All donations will go to the Jackson Food Pantry.

You're all set to go. We have the tackle, We’ve got the snacks, and you're about to depart on one of the greatest adventures you and your child will ever enjoy together. It's called bonding at its best. It's called fishing.

Be prepared to enjoy the sounds of nature, fresh air, and maybe catch a fish, too. But most importantly, it will be the sounds of you and your child talking to each other and enjoying each other's company and the great outdoors. But as with all wonderful experiences, there are also lessons to be taught and learned.

Monday I did a radio public interview on a local station in Cape Girardeau. We plan to engage conversations with the kids and invite them to attend a new Thursday Night communion service for the summer. It is called "Summer Grace."

Already this idea has generated a lot of interest. Do you think your church could sponsor a fishing clinic for your community? If you would like more information email me.

This Was My Moment!

2009-04-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

Just got home from playing in a charity golf tournament for my former high school (Crittenden County in KY) to help them raise funds for their young team. My nephew, the golf coach, headed up the foursome I was in that included my brother and another individual. The tournament play was best ball or as some call it "scramble." The fundraising event took place at Drake Creek Golf Course in Paducah, Kentucky.

It all came down to the 18th green. We desperately needed to sink a 10 foot birdie putt on this Par 5 to clinch Third Place. Before we all sized up the putt, my nephew asked "Who wants the pressure?" Without hesitation I spoke up. My reply was "I do." Then, one by one they all looked the putt over to their own satisfaction and missed. It was up to me. To be honest, I love pressure to perform. This was my moment. I felt like I was in the position that my golf idol Kenny Perry was in at the Masters earlier this month.

I walked up near the ball, stared down the cup and visualized the ball rolling over the front edge into the hole. Then, I took my stance and stayed still until I felt very comfortable. My goal was to hit a firm stroke straight at the hole. The ball left my putter and went to the heart of the hole and it dropped. Wow! What a rush it was.

Looking back on it all, the visualization process was key. Further, visualization and the execution of that vision is absolutely key to leadership and in most things we do.

For my winnings I received 1 dozen of Taylor Made golf balls, a $25 gift certificate to Red Lobster, and an attractive ceramic coffee mug from Olive Garden. Most of all, the golf team made great profits for the outing. It was a great day!

Confirmation Can Never Be Graduation Because You Cannot Graduate From God

2009-04-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today was confirmation and baptism day at our church. Three youth ranging from age 13 to 19 were baptized and confirmed. Confirmation is an ongoing journey of faith. As church pastor and leader, I want to lead the church to instill the passion to be life-long learners as the norm for us.

Biblically speaking, once Nicodemus in the scriptures (John 3) understood what it meant to believe, he did not become an automatic follower of Jesus immediately. He was still resistant to God. For us it is hard to confess that we truly can’t do it by ourselves and that God’s love for us is far greater than anything we are able to offer him. To overcome resistance is to humble ourselves and recognize that we all depend on Jesus for our salvation.

We can be sure we are Christians because of resistance awareness. Resistance awareness is manifested in three ways:
1. Our resistance as part of our human nature
2. Our resistance to God
3. Our resistance to Sin

Allow me to illustrate as I did in today’s message. Every bicyclist has to overcome wind resistance. Plus, bicycle racers are aware of this problem of wind resistance and over the years have developed several techniques for reducing it.

One of these very important techniques is called “drafting.” You see, as the bicyclist moves through the air, he or she produces a turbulent wake behind themselves. It makes vortices. The vortices actually make a low pressure area behind the bicyclist and an area of wind that moves along with the bicyclist.
Now comes the leadership lesson in all this. If you’re following a bicyclist and move into the wind behind the front bicyclist, you can gain an advantage because the low pressure move you forward and the eddies push you forward.

Surprisingly, “drafting” not only helps the bicyclist following the leader, but the lead cyclist gains an advantage as well. In other words, when you are filling in their eddy you improve the front person’s performance as well. So two people who are drafting can put out less energy than two individuals (who are not drafting) would covering the same distance in the same time.

Further, bicyclists group together in a pack knows as the “peloton” or a pace line called an “echelon.” And to be effective drafting, a cyclist needs to be as close as possible to the bicycle in front of them. This is exactly the reason why many professional cyclists get within INCHES of the bicycle in front of them. The shorter the distance between them, the larger the decrease in wind resistance.

Do you see how this relates to your leadership? Do you see how important it is to understand how and why we never graduate from God?

Your Easter Strategy Really Begins Now and Really Counts The Most

2009-04-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Your Easter services and attendance are over and now the strategy really counts!
Here is the checklist.

1. Sort through the guest information cards to determine those who are really good prospects.

2. Ask a lay person in your church to contact those prospects with a simple and friendly phone call with an invitation to come next Sunday.
(3 minutes TOPS!!

3. Ask a lay person to report back to you about the phone call and how it went.

4. Send a personal follow-up card or letter with a handwritten note from you to those guests who are good prospects Promote you next begin event.

5. Continue to identify occassional attenders and turn those occassional attenders into regular attenders.

6. Create more occassional attenders.
Understand how this process is called normalizing your attendance week to week.

The Ultimate April Fools Day Joke!

2009-04-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Being from the Commonwealth of Kentucky and still bleeds "Wildcat blue", the ultimate April Fools Day joke would be if John Calipari called Lexington and said he changed his mind. Believe me, it would rock the state more like an earthquake.

This week UK signed Calipari to an 8 year contract for an estimated 35 Million to lead their basketball program to the top in 2010. Coach Calipari is a welcomed change as a alumni of the University of Kentucky we're tired of losing the best high school recruits to Memphis, North Carolina, Duke, and not to mention Louisville.

He is a great recruiter which is about 85% percent of college coaching today. Getting the right people on the bus is priority to the mixture of any sports team, church, business, or otherwise.

The spirits of Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, and Rick Petino are working in our favor. Go Wildcats!

How Often Do You Underestimate God?

2009-03-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I had two evangelistic encounters where I admitted how much I underestimated God. In the first instance, a lady had asked to meet me in a local restaurant to discuss her search for God. She first contacted me over 30 days ago. I told her I never really expected her to call again and want to meet as she had first asked. I underestimated that God’s presence had been dealing with her in her journey to know him. I personally invited her to attend our church this weekend.

The second encounter was when Carmen and I were at Panera Bread for dinner and coffee. A young man and his wife came up to me and said “you look familiar to us.” They knew me from another church where I used to serve as Executive Pastor. They were not part of the congregation but had relatives who were.

Interestingly, this couple had just moved here from Jefferson City, Missouri about two weeks ago. He had a new sales position and had just rented a house for their family. We spoke briefly at the restaurant. I asked him where they attended church. He said they were looking. I invited him in a general way to our church sometime. I gave him my business card and asked for a phone number and said I would follow-up with a phone call. We both said, “good to see you again” and then we left.

Later in the evening, God spoke to me again and said “you’ve underestimated me once more.” I had remembered how I heard Doug Anderson from the Reuben Job Institute, weeks earlier in Fayetteville, Arkansas, said there are 3 components to a personal invitation.
1. It is personal
2. It is specific
3. It is relational

So, I called the couple whom I met at Panera and explained how I believed God arranged our impromptu meeting. This was my opportunity to make the invite a “do over” and most of all specific. I said “_____I want to personally invite you to attend our church (not sometime, as before) but this next Sunday. I shared with him about my current message series from Luke 15 the Prodigal Son story. He said that he would definitely discuss the personal invitation with his wife and they would come.
Wow! I underestimated God twice in one day!

Five Best Practices For Your Easter Strategy

2009-03-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Easter is arguably the biggest day of the year in the life of the church with only Christmas as its nearest competition.

So, what is your Easter strategy?
Will you take advantage of the window of opportunity that Easter provides, or will your lack of preparation block the way?

From both an attractional and incarnational perspective, are you intentionally putting into place those critical pieces to capture the spiritual curiosity of people?

Firm up and implement

Best Practice 1.
Cover all your bases in your hospitality quotient. Do not assume your leaders know what to do, rather, instruct your leaders on hospitality and guest follow-up. Make absolutely sure your frontline, best leaders are motivated, engaged and visible in the lobby, in the pews, in the greeting areas, in the parking lot and near the coffee pot. This is a good time to go over your strategy with them and the practical yet professional steps they must do on the Monday after Easter (sorting out the real prospects) for effectiveness. If you don’t have a firm strategy, call me. Don’t bother your guests on Easter afternoon. They are with family and you should be too.

Best Practice 2.
Direct mailing to those on your prospect list and in your community.Use oversized postcards and / or pastoral letter on church stationary. Keep you invitation brief and crisp not wordy. Be specific.

Best Practice 3.
Submit your Easter services and times to your local newspaper and church newsletter. Request your ad be place on a featured Easter section or the classified section. Add color if you can.

Best Practice 4.
Submit a change to your church ad located on the church page of your local newspaper. Easter is probably the only time of the year in which the unchurched read the church page.

Best Practice 5.
Strategically plan your preaching beyond Easter Sunday by launching a new message series on Easter. Here’s why?

Give the unchurched something extra when they can come Easter Sunday. Emphasize the added benefit to their interest when they get in on the beginning of a message series? By doing this, guests and those invited by church members will have the option of returning to hear other messages. The expectation is more likely to be met if they hear the first installment. It gives guests an incentive to return and they will appreciate your forward thinking.

Here is my angle: Capture interest using a word that we all can't stand right now---BAILOUT! Give guests and those invited by our church the option of returning to hear other messages. They are more likely to return if they hear the first installment. It gives your guests an incentive.

So it hit me like a ton of bricks. The resurrection of Our Lord is “Christianity’s Biggest BAILOUT”! By the way, this is original with me and one of the few good ideas I’ve come up with lately.

The sermon titles for the series are as follows:
Easter Sunday, April 12 Christianity’s Biggest BAILOUT!
Sunday, April 19 How To Be Sure You’re A Christian
Sunday, April 26 Keys to Christian Growth
Sunday, May 3 Getting Up After Falling Down
Sunday, May 17 Christian In A Non-Christian World
Sunday, May 24 Where Do I Go From Here, God

By strategically planning your preaching calendar and your service, and being aware of the numerous ways you can impact the first-time guests that Easter will bring, will advance you down the road to maximizing this big day. Preaching a stand -alone message or from the Lectionary is what 95% of church pastors will do this Easter. Be different. Be in the 5% percentile. With a stand-alone message they are not hooked and left wanting more.

By launching a message series on Easter, you will lead your guests to feel like they have shown up on a Sunday when things are just beginning to rock and a new chapter is beginning in your church. Sound good so far?

Additionally, this gives you as pastor the opportunity to challenge those first-time guests with the incentive to return. Challenging guests has more influence than getting too fancy with your worship, the music and maybe even the breakfast.

So, now that you have read this far in the blog, let me ask again. What is your Easter Strategy and where are you in the process? Which pieces of the strategy needs tweaking, revision, or scrapping?

Email your comments to me at bwinders53@cablerocket.com or enter you comments on the blog site.

Leading Small Churches to Ministry Celebration

2009-03-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Last week I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the Small Church Leadership Institute. Participants received tremendous encouragement on how to minister to small churches who are on hospise care as a congregation (many churches under 50 in average worship attendance).

Presenter Julia Kuhn Wallace gave practical "how to's" when a small church has declined in membership, attendance, resources, and desperately needs pastoral leadership with a compassionate understanding of celebration as a reality.

Rev. Wallace said small church pastors are integral in helping their congregation to rejoice in the outstanding contributions they have made in the past and shift their focus to a respectful closure of their ministries. In other words, the celebrated legacy is not only the focus and goal. More importantly, it is a behavior modification.

I counted it a professional privilege to have met such a dedicated servant of God like Julia. She is advancing the Kingdom in creative ways. She is an outstanding small church consusltant and brings much needed leadership talents to the table. She is very compassionate and able to articulate her passion for hospice congregations.

Rev. Julia Kuhn Wallace, who has been Director of Small-Membership Church Ministry for the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church. She is currently an independent consultant serving UMC Churches throughout the U.S.

Can Small Churchs Adopt "hard to place" Folks?

2009-03-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Ron Crandall, spoke this morning about "hard to place" folks who come to small churches desiring to be adopted. Ron Crandall is the retired Sundo Kim Professor of Practical Theology and Evangelism and Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Crandall says, "to adapt is a special shift to make." When the small church looks at its community and identifies the folks who need to be adopted they find it difficult and uncomfortable because those folks could be bi-racial and non-religious. Like all the unwanted children in the world who want to be adopted by a loving family, the unchurched crave the same love from the church.

The small church has incredible opportunities to grow if it is willing to attract and adopt a different clientel. In today's diverse world, certainly those outside of the church are never like the ones inside.

This is never an easy shift for small churches to make. However, if they really want to grow they the church folks must learn to adopt. Plain and simple. Adopt people with the baggage and their obvious differences. God does. Why can't we?

It was just like any other Sunday!

2009-03-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

No doubt this story sends shock waves to clergy and churchgoers. Unfortunately, it is reflective of the serious times we live in. This blog is from Todd Rhoads. I'm in Fayetteville, Arkansas for a Small Church Leadership Institute. Will blog more this week.

I'm sure it seemed like just any other Sunday yesterday morning when Pastor Fred Winters left his house for the church. Little did he know that while he was preaching during the first service at First Baptist Church of Maryville, IL, a man would walk up the center isle and shoot and kill him. The congregation at FBC was caught off guard as well, in fact many people thought that this was just part of a sermon illustration (Pastor Winters would often use unusual illustrations and dramas during worship). It was all over in seconds. According to some reports, Fred held up his Bible to shield himself from the shots of the 27 year old gunman. But it was to no avail. Pastor Winters was pronounced dead at the local hospital minutes later. Fred leaves behind a beautiful wife and two young daughters.

This incident has sent shock waves through the church community; particularly among pastors and church leaders... as well it should... for a couple of different reasons...

I would love to hear your comments regarding this story. Do you think this was an isolate event or reflective of the dire times we live in? Read the full post here...

Try this at your next confirmation session

2009-03-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

If you are willing to take a risk, try the graffiti strategy for brainstorming. You ask, what is the “graffiti strategy”? Here it is. Simply state a question on a large sheet of paper and ask participants, without talking, to write their ideas about the stated question. After two minutes, all participants move to the right, read the comments before them, then add their own. Encourage them to build upon the thought processes of others, compound ideas, disagree or agree with what has been written. Still no talking at this point. Continue this process until everyone is back in front of their original comment.

I conducted this exercise in Confirmation Class (high school and college students) this weekend. It was outrageously productive. All three students and three adult mentors were engaged and enthusiastic. The stated question--What should our church do to reach out to the community?

We then debriefed, discussed the benefits of the process and scrutinized the obvious. Everyone agreed there were both generalized and specific thoughts on the sheet of paper. We discussed more. I asked them to sharpen their focus and sharpen the lenses of their critical thinking.

Then it happened. The students unanimously agreed that “visibility” was a problem for our church. Then, I asked them for solutions. It was so productive and the adult mentors who were present, included in the process, were amazed by how well the students jumped on everything when the gauntlet was thrown down. Out of it came three viable solutions:

1. Light the cross on the church steeple
2. Move the entrance from the highway to the church
3. Rent a billboard for a few months out of the year

I told the students the exercise was so impressive and I was going to create a venue to share the outcome with the rest of the church. I asked the students if they would be willing to come to some future meeting and help with the presentation. Each one said they would participate.

I believe this will lead to church-wide acceptance especially if we (confirmands and adult mentors), in the words of Will Mancini, “Sell the problem before you sell the solution.”

A tip. This process can be done with larger groups as well. For example, if you had fifty people in a room and 6-7 people working the process at their table--as a facilitator all you would have to do is ask each working table to send out a "spy" to other tables and to view their comments. Then, the spy returns to share what they learned. Wow!

Where could the "graffitti strategy" work in your church? Staff meeting? Vision team? Youth group? Church board?

Suicide at Crystal Cathedral

2009-02-19T07:19:00.000-08:00

This post was originally posted by Todd Rhoades in his blog MondayMorningInsight.

The Crystal Cathedral is going through a rough time... and now the L. A. Times is reporting: "A man walked into the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove on Wednesday, knelt down at the foot of a cross and fatally shot himself in the head.

The man entered the sanctuary about 9:40 a.m. and gave a handwritten note to a church volunteer. He then walked to the front of the pews, knelt before the cross and removed a semiautomatic handgun from his backpack.
The article continues:
Betty Spicer, a volunteer greeter at the cathedral, said that when the man walked in, the sanctuary was nearly empty except for a group of Canadian tourists.
“I said, ‘Good morning, welcome to the Crystal Cathedral.’ “ She asked the man, “Where are you from?” He replied, “Oh, from around here.” He handed Spicer a folded note written with a felt-tip pen. Tucked into the middle of the note was his driver’s license and what appeared to be a business card. As Smick was walking down the aisle, she began reading the note, which referred to a truck in the parking lot and a gun.
“The next minute, there was a pop,” Spicer said. “I thought he was praying. I didn’t realize he had shot himself.”
Yvette Manson, another volunteer, said she was talking to the tourists when she heard a sound that she likened to the noise from a firecracker. “I had just been telling them about the suicide prevention ministry we have.”
Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz said the shooting was tragic, but may have revealed something about Smick’s faith.
“This must be a person who believes in God because he went to the foot of the cross,” Ortiz said.
You can read more here at the LA Times...

Hats off to caring people!

2009-01-30T19:19:00.000-08:00

Many people in several states besides Missouri have been inconvenienced by power outages, water, heat, and a warm bath or shower. Both of my parents, age 78, have been displaced because the small town in Kentucky will be without power and water for three weeks.

This has been a severe winter storm. I am so thankful for all the electrical workers from many parts of the U.S., social agency workers, police, fire, and rescue workers, and volunteers. Hats off to caring people who live in our neighborhoods. In the midst of bad economic times, human capital still remains our most appreciateable asset.

Making an investment in others weekend

2009-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend was truly missional and more than the usual "cramming" for the Sunday message. Doing this is always motivating and invigorating for me. Let me explain.

It all began on Saturday afternoon when I visited with a new young family in our church and their youngest daughter informed me she had asked Jesus into her heart. We read scripture together, planned her baptism, and discussed church membership with the entire family.

Sunday morning began by talking with two leaders in our Conversations Cafe' about the formation of a new Sunday class designed for adults who didn't grow up in church. We decided to title the class "Basic Bible Introduction" and discuss where the Bible came from, key personalities, how Christianity grew out of Judaism and how Jesus changed the way we relate to God. Then, we put together a list of nearly 30 names as our target audience. Then, we commited to execute on strategy and use layered communication (letter, phone-call, email, bulletin, announcements, person to person)to assimilate those we would like to attend.

After the service, I provided Lay Leadership Team Development training during a luncheon. It was the first of a monthly leadership training event planned for 2009 Wow! Was this exciting!

Finally, the afternoon ended by leading a Confirmation Class; instructing one sixth-grader, one high school sophmore, and one college freshman about our relationship with Jesus.

Mostly, I am humbled and amazed how much people today want to be empowered for leadership. Leadership development is vital to the health and growth of the small church.

The Convergence of Crisis and Opportunity

2009-01-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

Obama paraphrased the Bible early in his speech (it is time "to set aside childish things"), and he asked for "God's grace upon us" at the end.

The Bible itself (no doubt a King James Version)is bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed white metal rim around the three outside edges of both covers. All its edges are heavily gilt. In the center of the top cover is a shield of gold wash over white metal with the words "Holy Bible" chased into it. The book is 15 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 4.5 cm deep when closed. The 1,280-page Bible was published in 1853 by the Oxford University Press.

Certainly, these are times in which we are witnessing the convergence of crisis and opportunity for our nation and for the American church as well. In this young 21st Century, I believe we have seen the end of the Christendom Era. However, some churches and denominations still act as if we are all about polity. Because we live between the now and the not yet, fulfilling a purposive identity prescribed by organizational-management-minded denominations we have failed to see the redemptive reign of God in Christ that is already present. Polity is more concerned about preserving ecclesionlogy, the functional,the loyalty, and the operational.

Missional conversations, on the other hand, reach to the center or the nature and essence of the church. It is not about what the church does (denominational-established church) but how the church is and sees as being inherently "missionary" in nature. When the church sees itself as missional, then in is not afraid to participate in God's mission in the world. The church that views our changed world as full of opportunities instead of being in crisis, will outlast other churches.

Far too long the established church has functioned primarily as an end within themselves which has led to our decline. Our church function now should be to ENGAGE people and culture where they are. Or, to quote scripture, "..be in the world but not of the world." How can we reach the people in culture and secular society that we are afraid of or intentionaly shun?

I know that as the established church we are hardwired to function as we did in the 19th and 20th centuries. But we must change. We must see ourselves as extensions and find new missional identity with the Triune God (Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit) in which we ENGAGE culture. In other words, rather than touch lives and interact with people different from us, we prefer to communicate by leaving voice-mails and short emails. More church work and polity is not enough to reach current society. Christ is changeless yet ever-changing and relevant to every generation. The church needs to become the same by trusting in the changeless message but participating in the world with "ever-changing" methods.

In my humble opinion, denominations should rethink and reimagine themselves by reducing the number of "polity preservatives" in their brand and packaging. Instead, they can insert more "missional initatives" which encourage ENGAGING conversations with people and culture beyond the church walls.

To me, this is what our new president is asking of us as a nation. At this moment in time, both our nation and the church is at the convergence of crisis and opportunity.

Will our country choose crisis or opportunity? Will the church choose crisis or opportunity? What's your perspective? If my thoughts make sense to you or if you have questions, please don't hesistate to respond. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Who are you and what do you do.

2009-01-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've been in Kansas City all last week attending Saint Paul Seminary. Just got home Friday night. Here is a great blog to consider from Seth Godin suthor of Tribes. It will help you to not take too serious the words emailed to you online.

The neat thing about the online world is that you are judged almost entirely by your actions, usually based on just your fingers.

If you do generous things, people think you are a generous person.
If you bully people, people assume you are a bully.
If you ask dumb questions, people figure you're dumb.
Answer questions well and people assume you're smart and generous.
... you get the idea.

This leads to a few interesting insights.

1. If people criticize you, they are actually criticizing your behavior, not you.
2. If you're not happy with the perception you generate, change the words you type and the messages you send.
3. When you hear from someone, consider the source. Trolls are almost always trolls through and through, which means that you have no obligation to listen, to respond or to placate. On the other hand, if you can find a germ of truth, can't hurt to consider it.

The biggest takeaway for me is this: online interactions are largely expected to be intentional. On purpose. Planned. People assume you did stuff for a reason.

Be clear, be generous, be kind. Can't hurt.