Executive Leadership

The adult Bible study class I lead is going through Joshua - we study a book of the Bible verse by verse and chapter by chapter. It's a lot of fun leading a very discussion oriented class. We just began Joshua.

In Joshua 2.1, "Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp..." Some points to consider:

• He sent out two (2) spies - 40 years before, Moses sent out 12 spies and only two came back with a favorable report. The other 10 were so pessimistic that their majority report caused the nation of Israel to wander in the desert for 40 years until every person age 21 and over had died.
• He sent them out - Joshua had probably selected these guys and trained them for a dozen years or maybe more. That reminds me of the quote of General of the Army, George C Marshall, Chief of Staff during World War II, "I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player." Joshua got exactly the person he wanted for this mission.
• He sent them out secretly - Joshua did not ask for a vote of everyone; he didn't ask them to huddle for a church-wide prayer meeting; he just did it and knew that if things went wrong, he'd bear the blame. But he was willing to do that. He weighed the consequences of having everyone know what he was doing (and maybe word getting out to the wrong people) versus doing what he knew was right and getting the info he needed for his decision.

Leadership is tricky. In this case, Joshua decided executive leadership was necessary and that's what he did. In other circumstances, legislative authority (corporate buy-in) is necessary. Frankly, I feel that executive leadership is needed more often than it is used; executive leadership must always be tinged by the advice of clear-headed counselors. The decision can/must be explained to all later, but a leader must lead - that's why God made leadership and leaders.


Lead On!
Steve

IRS Baptist Church

In August 2004, Hurricane Ivan hit Pensacola, Florida and caused massive devastation. First Baptist Church of Pensacola suffered damage as did many other churches. At some point in the storm, the "F" and "T" of "First" fell off giving the church a new name: IRS Baptist Church!


Lead On!
Steve

A Bad Funeral

This happened this week - there is no moral to the story. It's just one of the many things that happen in church life that are hard to believe.

As is their custom, the ministers drove their own car and led the hearse and other funeral procession cars from the church out to the cemetery. The ministers got out of their car at the gravesite and began walking to the hearse as all the other cars were parking and people walked to the gravesite. As the ministers approached the hearse, they heard the undertaker mutter, "Oh, sh**!" Since that is not normal language at a funeral, one of the ministers asked what happened.

"We locked the keys inside the hearse." And they didn't have a spare key with them. When they called the funeral home to get a spare, the funeral home said they didn't have a spare, either! After a quick huddle, the ministers and the family agreed to proceed with the funeral at the gravesite without the body since the casket was inside the locked hearse. The undertakers spent the funeral trying to get into the hearse. When the funeral was over, the ministers, family and friends left the undertakers standing outside their locked hearse in the bitter cold of a January day.


Lead On!
Steve

My Favorite Fundraiser

This story happened in the mid-1980s somewhere in South Carolina. A friend whose parents witnessed the event told their son who told me. It is the most amazing church fundraising story I've ever heard.

It seems that a small church wanted to raise $1.5 million for a new building. The Finance Committee and Building Committee met, reviewed the options and potential and then came to a church business meeting to make their presentation. Everyone felt that the new building was very much needed and then it came time to vote on whether or not to do a fundraiser.

During the Q&A time before the vote, several pertinent questions were fielded. But then one of the older, most respected men of the congregration stood and began to speak. He spoke slowly and deliberately, "Well, let's see. I tell you what. I'll give half a million dollars if Fred over there gives half a million." All heads immediately turned to Fred to see if he would accept Sam's challenge. Fred stood up and spoke, "Hmmm, okay. I'll give half a million if Bob here gives half a million." Again, in unison, all heads turned to look at Bob who stood up. "Yeah, I'll give half a million." The congregation erupted in applause for these three men and the fundraiser was officially over!

I like this story for several reasons: its fun, funny, very true to life, shows the most church members can give more than they think, should help pastors realize that some church members have very deep pockets and will give if asked (but pastors are scared to talk about money), and finally it demonstrates the leadership of three respected older gentlemen. They had no problem talking about money (each knew what the other could afford) and when given the opportunity to give their money to something worthwhile, they stood up.

I encourage all ministers to cultivate wealthy members. Have lunch with them periodically. Ask them to teach you how to manage money but more importantly how to talk about money with others. These men and women will be glad to oblige - we've just got to ask.


Lead On!
Steve

Church Office Life Stories

I've got a great idea for a sitcom - church office life. Problem is that I could collect all these stories and try to sell them to Hollywood but Hollywood would never believe these actually happened. So I'm going to share with my readers (all two, so far!) some funny and amazing stories of church office life. Here's the first one - I've got a bunch more. And if you're reading this, please contribute your own church office life stories.

Best story I heard this week:

A church changed its email and its URL. They had to. A church member (who is about 80 years old) owned the URL and would not release it to the church. In fact, when the church administrator went to Mrs. Smith's house to talk with her about this, Mrs. Smith very proudly showed the administrator her three computers. When one of the computers had a new entry on its screen, Mrs. Smith invited the administrator over. "Look, here's a new email. Let's open it." Mrs. Smith not only had hijacked the church's URL and the email but she was reading all church email!! The administrator quickly left the house and realized the church had to change its URL and email in order to protect itself from Mrs. Smith!


Lead On!
Steve

The Church At Play

I really wanted to address two separate but related issues: church staff and the church itself.

What I mean by "at play" is very simple - how do church staff (and members) do fun things together on company time. Here's why: years ago I had a boss who said that the only time he gets worried about his staff is when he did not hear laughter in the halls of the church office. Laughter is an indication that the staff is having fun together and not taking life too seriously. If you don't hear laughter, you're going to hear gossip. Laughter is much better.

Most church staffs do church together. Nothing else. That is not healthy - they need intentional times when the church approves (and funds) the staff going out on the company clock to do something memorable together: bowling, watching a movie, painting pottery, playing golf (if you like chasing a little white ball) or frisbee golf, playing softball or flag football, going fishing or sailing, etc. You get the idea. Do something that does not involve church. That will the staff something to talk about for months (years?) to come that does not involve "talking shop." Give your staff something else to remember - not just last week's worship and Bible study. After all, church is very stressful - giving your staff permission to play will reduce the stress and give them good memories and a pleasant shared experience. You'll never regret it.

That leads to the church at play. I know a couple of churches that intentionally shut down their doors on Sundays for the entire church to go on a retreat over Labor Day or Easter. It's the same principle as above - give the church members something to remember, an experience to share that is out of the ordinary. Going through seminary I worked for a large hospital company - 7000 employees. Each year during the state fair, the company rented a large tent, provided free food (served by top management), and gave away free admission tickets to the state fair to all employees and their families. Many churches do a picnic once a year and that is very healthy.

Most churches know that fellowship is a key component of a healthy church. Most churches view fellowship as punch and cookies after a Sunday music function or the Wednesday supper. Sorry to burst your bubble, that is not fellowship - that is a church program (church programs are quickly becoming a "four-letter word" to me - more in another post). The best fellowship invovles getting away from the church buildings - do something out of the ordinary and out of the four walls of your church. Get out, go away, make memories, take pictures, and have FUN!


Lead On!
Steve

Churches as Businesses

Every so often someone will tell me that "the church is not a business and shouldn't operate as such." Just as frequently, I get the comment, "the church really is a business." So, which one is correct? Well, let me say unequivocally, both are right. Here's why and why not.

Churches are businesses in that they have the same basic building blocks of a business - every church has:

• operating budgets
• staffs
• "products" (in churches it is "intangible religious benefits" in IRS terms)

Churches are not businesses in that they have a different purpose

• Their goal is to give to people, not get from people
• Their goal is empower people to give away more to other people

The foundational structure of every church is business-like. The programming of churches is not necessarily business-like. However, I need to clarify one area there where churches should be more like a company: evaluation.

Churches shy away viscerally from evaluating their programming. They hide behind the phrase "but if it helps just one person, it was worth it." After 35 years in church work (I worked in a Christian bookstore as a teenager), I feel that churches must evaluate almost everything they do. They can't hide behind the trite phrase of helping just one person - I do not believe God honors that (or better said, God blesses even more those ministries that are regularly evaluated and improved). The church today must evaluate its staff, buildings, and programming.

Staff: many churches do an acceptable job of evaluating staff but it is frequently a look back and not setting goals for the future. Staff (from the pastor on down) need to be assessed on what they did in the past 6 or 12 months against goals that were established for those staff. Too infrequently bosses fail to set expectations for staff so that there is nothing against which to measure the staff. Then you have the hard part, staff that is not performing need to be encouraged/mentored if they have potential. But if there is no chance that a staff member is going to succeed in your church's environment, then that person needs to be terminated. Termination is very hard on everyone but in the long run it is beneficial to the rest of the staff and the church. In the words of Spock from Star Trek, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." Pruning is hard, but it leads to greater growth in the next season.

Building: this represents sunk costs. A church has already built and paid for those bricks and mortar. But the evaluation should be, "is what this building was originally built for still a viable option or should we change the building to meet future needs?" Buildings can be retro-fitted (for a price, yes) for needs that the church leadership feels is coming up. Do not be wedded to the past "just because we've always done it that way." Years ago I learned how the new anti-termite pesticides work: the chemical inhibit the termites from shedding their old skin when they outgrow it. Thus, the termites strangle inside their old skins. Don't let your church do that - change your skin as often and necessary to keep the church from killing itself.

Programming: by far, this is the most politic- and emotion-laden area of church work. People have invested their own blood, sweat, and tears in their pet ministries and feel that any mention of cutting them is a threat to them personally. Evaluation is not acceptable and they play their trump card almost immediately - "God is using this ministry." My grandparents decided that a car was better than a horse and buggy; my parents decided that telephones are better than letters; my generation decided that computers are better than typewriters; the next generation is totally committed to the internet (which is replacing just about everything!). Change is painful but evaluation is an absolute necessity if a church wants to grow or not lose ground.

Evaluation is a matter of opinion - not everyone will evaluate the same program or person the same way. Church leadership needs to determine how the evaluation will occur and how the results will be implemented. That cannot be explained in a blog - every church has a unique culture and that culture must form part of the decision-making/evaluation process. But please heed this note of warning: to do nothing, to not evaluate things on a regular basis, is to ensure that the church will continue its present track with no heed to the future of the church. If you want a biblical example, read Acts 15 when the church in Jerusalem struggled with whether or not to permit Gentiles to be part of the church. Enough said.


Lead On!
Steve

Why Do Churches Continue to Exist?

I can prove that God exists: Is there a church in your neighorhood? If so, then God exists.

Let me explain. Most churches (about 90% and maybe higher) are so poorly run that if they were a for-profit business, they'd go out of business within a matter of months.

• churches don't have a business plan,
• the leaders don't generally understand finances,
• CEOs don't want to know who their major customers are,
• the employees typically give things away rather than ask customers to pay for things,
• even the customers expect to be given things just because they say they're a member,
• and so on - you get the idea

Churches are bad businesses. They don't get the concept of running like a business and most don't want to even have the term "business" associated with them. Churches have all the trappings of a business: employees, customers, and transactions (tangible, intangible and financial) between the parties. But churches still don't want to operate like a business: market focus, strategic staffing, and ROI on physical assets.

See, if God did not exist, almost all churches would go belly up within six months. Because God exists, God keeps churches afloat despite all human endeavors to mess things up by operating "like a church." So, because churches continue to exist, God exists. Case closed.


Lead On!
Steve

Resources, Insources, and Outsources

Several years ago, Dr. Al Sutton of the 6th Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, spoke to a group of church administrators. D. Sutton used the biblical text of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men (or about 25,000 men, women, and children). It was getting late and the people were hungry. The disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd away. The disciples wanted to outsource the problem but Jesus insisted on "insourcing" the situation. Then the disciples said they didn't have any money and Jesus replied, "what resources do you have and lets see how we can use that." Dr. Sutton thanked us administrators for putting up with pastors who want to imitate Jesus by insourcing problems and by telling the finance people to just use whatever you've got (without fully knowing what there is to begin with). I'm not doing Dr. Sutton justice with this brief paragraph, but you get the idea.

Every day Christians (and non-Christians) ask God to make personal problems go away. If the issue will only disappear, then there won't be a problem, right? We even throw Jesus back at God, "If we have faith the size of a mustard seed, God will solve everything."  God wants us to deal with issues - not run from them. God wants all of God's disciples to get involved, to get our hands dirty, and to "insource" problems. God doesn't outsource - God uses you and me. BTW, I'm not talking about medical, ethical, or legal problems - those have tangible consequences and are a matter of much prayer; sometimes God does intervene in human events in miraculous ways to cure diseases and take care of situations far beyond our powers and require divine resources. But what is within our control, God wants us to confront and deal with directly - not push aside.

Next, Jesus asked about the resources available. All too often we tell God that we don't have enough; that if he'd only provide more we could do more; that the problem is too big for our meager resources. Jesus isn't about what we have - he's about what God has. I don't like it one bit when God tells me to start out on a project when I know that I don't know the way or have the material goods to finish - I even tell God about the parable of the king who went to war without counting the cost. Invariably God tells me to keep going and trust him. I know it sounds corny and trite, but it is true (about trusting God for daily needs - not daily wants).

So here's my stewardship lesson for all who read this - all Christians must get involved using every bit we've got. Asking God to take the issue away won't solve anything. Problems are opportunities for God - stop telling God to take some issue away that you don't want to deal with. Next, use all the resources (time, energy, money) to address the opportunity at hand. As you're in the middle of the issue, you may be surprised to see God at work and multiplying resources more than you thought possible. Or it may be like the disciples, only after the event is over and some time (hours, days, or months) has passed, will you be able to reflect on that event and see how God was at work. But rest assured of this, God is always at work!


Lead On!
Steve

Legal Software on the Cheap

I found a neat website the other day (actually, it wasn't me - my wife told me about it after she went to a class for grantwriters; if you're interested in her services, contact jenniferklaw@gmail.com).

Techsoup.org provides 501(c)(3) organizations with dirt cheap software. MS Office 2010 for $24 (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc). That's a lot cheaper than anywhere else I've seen. They have a whole host of other software products such as Blackbaud, Adobe, etc. (probably about 30 different titles).

Check them out and see if you can get some current software on the cheap for your organization. They'll think you're a hero (and you can thank me later).


Lead On!
Steve