Page 3024 – Christianity Today (2024)

When our small staff (of two) met for a long-term planning and goals review, my colleague was visibly stressed. She said, “My whole life is church. I’m drained, rather than energized, by ministry. I want to be able to go home without thinking about work all the time.”

We talked about delegating some of her duties. But she was already delegating effectively. Then we talked about her schedule. She produced a “to do” list with 64 items on it. No wonder she felt pressured!

Her list included everything from meetings and telephone calls to recruiting ministry leaders and revising ministry positions. With the help of another set of eyes, she realized some of the duties could be delegated. But it still left an intimidating list and an incredible mess on her monthly planner.

Eventually we arrived at a simple but effective way of keeping priorities straight and burdens in perspective.

Focus on five

The “Big List” was overwhelming, and the cluttered pages in her planner added discouragement to defeat. So I suggested she choose no more than five things from the 64 and write them on a clean page in her day calendar.

Which five? First, she evaluated deadlines and started with the most urgent. What needs to be done by tomorrow? By Sunday? Second, she asked, “What steps could be taken now to make visible progress toward long-range goals?”

By narrowing her focus, she discovered many of the pressing things weren’t as urgent as she felt before. She chose five items, and then we established a rule: she had to finish all five before looking again at her Big List. She could not add a sixth task after completing the first. Only after all five were done could she choose up to five more. The rest of the Big List stayed hidden in the hard drive of her computer until the five were done.

We did, however, make two exceptions to the rule. On Friday, if she had the time to choose one more task for the day, that’s fine. Second, if the unexpected happened and something else on the Big List needed to be dealt with immediately, it had to replace one of the five already chosen. The replaced item, then, returned to the Big List.

In this way, we controlled the pressure while gaining a sense of accomplishment and success.

Calendar clutter

We also needed to remove the clutter from her monthly calendar. Too many of the little squares were stuffed with writing that overflowed or turned vertical to fit in.

We decided first that the monthly calendar would only be used for recording evening appointments. Other appointments were written in her day calendar, where they were always visible alongside the daily list of five tasks.

Then we developed a master copy of a weekly calendar. We divided each day into three segments: morning (9:00–12:30), afternoon (1:30–5:30), and evening (7:00–9:00). We further divided the afternoons into two task sessions.

Into these boxes, we placed time for working on the list of five, for study and prayer, for relationship building, for meetings, and for developing new ministry.

Yet as we assigned tasks to various spaces on the calendar, we discovered there was more time than we imagined!

As we’ve practiced this plan—both the list of five and the weekly master schedule—we’ve found that it works.

It’s adaptable enough to meet the flexibility ministry demands, and it puts into balance ministry, administration, and personal life. In other words, it has tamed that Big List and made it a servant of ministry rather than a tyrant.

Grant McDowell is pastor of Leduc Alliance Church in Millet, Alberta.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

When I travel, I look for Starbucks. I know I will need a good cup of coffee in the morning. And when I go to any Starbucks I know I will get a great cup of coffee from friendly people in a relaxing environment with good music. I know this because after hundreds of visits in dozens of cities, I have almost never been disappointed. Starbucks has proven itself as a brand. That is one main reason you can find them on what seems like every corner of a given neighborhood.

Whether we like it or not, similar thoughts go into how people choose to attend church. People want to find something they need—the good things of God—from friendly people in a relaxing environment with good music. And they want to experience that consistently enough that they can trust the church.

The megachurch proved that a church can draw from an entire region rather just one neighborhood if it becomes one of those trusted places. The problem is that people will drive only so far, and buildings can grow only so big. More recently, many churches are finding a way beyond those limitations: multiple sites. We now clearly see that we are not limited to a particular community, region, or building size.

Reproducing Groups

When five buddies started our church, Community Christian, in 1989, we had no idea that ten years later we would be meeting at more than one location. What we did know was that we would emphasize the often-talked-about and less-practiced idea of reproducing through apprentice leaders. We made sure that every small group knew it was expected to reproduce, and that was done through developing an apprentice leader.

Reproducing Services

As we developed leaders, we took a step of adding a second service. We didn’t wait to do that until we ran out of space or seats. Instead, we believed that if we had the leaders, God would send the people. So we added a second service within six months of starting Community Christian Church. Today, we have 22 weekly celebration services.

Reproducing Sites

The Multi-Site Church is simply an advanced and sophisticated understanding of that same idea. The same idea that motivated us to reproduce small groups caused us to reproduce services (congregations) and when God presented the opportunity, reproduce sites. When we started Community Christian we were just five college kids trying to disciple one leader at a time; we didn’t know that in a few short years we would have eight locations in Chicagoland.

See more details about the next Multi-Site Conference

Reproducing Churches

But the idea doesn’t end there for a church with a reproducing culture. In the last three years we have planted four churches and will launch a fifth next year. This simple idea of reproducing leaders has now evolved into a network of reproducing churches (www.newthing.org).

Benefits of a Reproducing Church

When a church becomes a reproducing church, it discovers several benefits:

1. Increased Outreach. At Community Christian, we want to reach people because we believe that each person matters to God. And as we have coached hundreds of churches, we have seen that when churches begin multiple locations, they dramatically increase their outreach. When Leadership Network surveyed one thousand multi-site churches, the number one reason churches added new sites was “for evangelistic purposes”.
2. Involved Followers. When you reproduce sites, you involve more people in ministry. Last year, one of our sites sent 150 of its best people to start a new site. Before they left, 54 percent of the people at the sending site were both in a small group and involved in serving. So when those 150 key people left, we worried about the effect it would have on the sponsoring site. Now, one year later, we have seen the total outreach increase from 800 people weekly to over 1,100 people weekly—with 74 percent of the people at both locations connected in a small group and involved in serving others.
3. Improved Quality. Each time we launch a site, we rethink how we do children’s ministry, creative arts, small groups, etc., which improves their quality. Plus, since certain overhead and personnel expenses are shared, costs drop.

If your church is limited by geography, demography or building size, those need no longer be inhibitors. When your church history and tradition says “stay here,” but growth opportunities say “move over there,” you now can do both by employing the Multi-Site Church strategy.

Dave Ferguson is Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church, Naperville, Illinois (www.communitychristian.org). The church is hosting a Multi-Site Conference, October 24 & 25 in Chicago, along with the leadership teams of North Coast Church in San Diego and Seacoast Church in South Carolina (www.multi-site.org).

What are your primary goals for the immediate and long-range future?” The question came from the audience at one of our annual pastors’ seminars.

“I have none,” I replied.

Dubious stares and blank looks everywhere. I continued, “We never set goals—that is, in the sense of numerical targets, fund-raising drives, or enlargement campaigns. Our one goal is to build big people. Every effort goes into developing each believer in the threefold ministry of worship, fellowship, and stewardship of the gospel.”

And I was telling the truth. From the time I came to the Van Nuys church 15 years ago, I virtually abandoned the church methodology I had used the previous thirteen years. I knew the quotes (“Aim at nothing, and you’ll hit it,” “No vision, no victories,” “Plan your work, then work your plan”) and I knew the ropes (zeal, promotion, enlistment, persuasion, training, projecting, enthusing, inspiring, recruiting, educating, etc., etc.). The quotes held an obvious element of wisdom, and the plain work of developing goals and generating means and personnel to fulfill them is a very practical way to get jobs done—naturally speaking.

But it was at that juncture—the natural—that something inside me began to creak under the weight of the years.

Conviction Growth

While pastoring in Indiana and then working for several years at my denomination’s headquarters and also at its largest college, I had seen spiritually oriented human enterprise at its finest. I had also seen it bear a certain amount of fruit.

However, God brought me to this church with the conviction that there was a better, simpler way to do things. I didn’t know what that way was, however. So the congregation of eighteen members and I began fumbling, trying to apply New Testament priorities in ministry without surrendering either to mysticism or fanaticism.

A primary principle evolved: I would stay away from the pressure to perform (something I was well acquainted with from the past). I began to discover the joy of (1) finding direction through prayer and (2) watching the fruit of obedience as people grew—and the church did, too. Individual health became apparent in the larger group, and we began to see more progress this way than I had ever achieved through promotional precision and evangelistic programs.

We did not set out to prove a point or challenge a system. We only decided that the New Testament church seemed simpler and far more fruitful than most of what I had been able to produce. When we investigated why, we found that the Holy Spirit was the director of its life and program.

The Goals Learning Curve

I was in prayer one day about the church’s finances at a time when the monthly offerings totaled around $1,000. I felt no complaint, but I knew there was reason to request more cash flow, if for nothing else than refurbishing the building; it certainly needed it. I started to ask God for “more money,” when suddenly it came to my mind that I didn’t know how much to ask for.

I stopped short, meditating. Hmmm. If I don’t know how much to request, how can I pray specifically?

On the other hand, God obviously knew at that juncture exactly what our church ought to be doing. So I decided to ask him to teach me. Then it would be easy to ask in faith, since the amount was his idea.

“Lord, how much should I be asking you for the general budget each month?” I’d never phrased it that way before, and I knew it would sound clumsy to many, but the risk was small.

“Two thousand dollars a month.”

That was the answer—and I won’t be offended if anyone accuses me of imagining the number. “Sure,” someone may say, “you just thought up the figure, or your subconscious suggested it.” I’ll only say that I have been surprised often enough by such promptings to know, at this point in my life, that they don’t spring from within. The numbers have often been far different from what I would have ventured.

So I began praying, “Lord, I ask for your blessing and increase of church income toward the $2,000 per month I felt you called me to expect.” It was my version of “Give us this month our monthly income,” and I prayed it two or three times a week.

After four months, without any special appeals, the monthly income stood at $1,700. I began to sense a strong need to ask for the next figure before the present “goal” had been reached. One day I stopped in the middle of my praying. My usual request for $2,000 didn’t seem right. No voice spoke, but I sensed an inquiry inside:

“Why haven’t you asked the Father lately for a new amount?”

I did—and immediately felt an inner sense of freedom to pray for $3,000 a month. Later I realized that the key to my liberty was my choosing to become as a child. I was not setting goals; I was simply asking questions of my Father. I refused to intellectualize the promptings, nor did I try to psychoanalyze myself. I simply believed.

I seek to walk in the same simplicity today, even though the monthly amount is now comprised of six figures, and the church’s annual total runs into the millions of dollars. I rest knowing that we have not come to be a congregation of more than forty-five hundred through human kingdom-building or financial goal-setting, but rather by responding to the Holy Spirit’s step-by-step direction.

This does not mean we escape the practical duties of responsible management. All monies are carefully accounted for and reported to the penny. We leaders project an annual budget each fiscal year and adhere to it. But we do not proclaim that budget to the congregation or flaunt it to others as an attainment. Neither do we burden one another with it as a challenge to fulfill. We simply plot it on the basis of the track record and then wait in prayer for God to fulfill or adjust it.

Whenever he prompts us to expect greater income, we pray accordingly. Whenever we sense a need to cut back, we do so without feeling guilty. Since the “goal” is not something we set, we don’t have to defend it. It is rather a case of God’s purpose being clarified as time goes by.

I have given an economic example, not because I feel it is more important than any other area, but because it is probably as good an indicator as any of general spiritual health. I am not surrendering to “prosperity-ism” in that statement; I am simply pointing out a fact that can be demonstrated in the Third World as well as the First. Life in the church manifests itself in giving, and giving begets new life.

The Principle

The general advantage of goal-setting, as I understand it, is that it enables both the pursuit of ideals and the measurement of progress. I would not criticize either ideals or progress, for the Word of God endorses both.

The problem arises, however, when we take this philosophy into church life. Without realizing it, our goals become numerical: so many workers trained, classes conducted, decisions registered, dollars given, missions begun, results tabulated. That is the way goals are verified.

It is hard to write about this, because in no way would I devalue any of the above ministries. But given enough time, something sinister often invades, and the goals begin to haunt their makers. If we reach the goal, we conclude that “God is blessing.” The next assumption is “God is in this program,” and before long we are serving the program instead of the Lord himself. People and institutions begin to corrode when fleshly zeal is tied to spiritual goals. We pastors have a propensity for launching our crusades with righteous intent and then fueling them with carnal energy.

For example, religious organizations frequently arrive at deep financial difficulty by doing nothing worse than concluding that “blessing” is carte blanche to pursuing bigger and better projects. Again, let me say that I’m not against growth or large finance in the kingdom of God. But the mindset that employs goal setting as the key to growth is in real jeopardy of setting time bombs for itself.

What if a goal isn’t reached? We could discard it as fruitless—but we seldom do, because built into the definition of our goal is that it is “for God’s glory.” So the goal must be pursued by all means, even by promotional means frighteningly parallel to Madison Avenue. Why? Because “they work.”

The Implications

I do not mean to be an obscurantist who denies the worth of contemporary technology or media. I am fully aware I risk sounding like a childish iconoclast.

Nor do I propose leadership by whim of a pastor who claims the Lord spoke to him. In fact, I am quite in favor of strategizing. I do, for example, appreciate the modern computer analyses of world missionary efforts and the consequent focus on pockets of hidden peoples yet unevangelized. I do think that analyzing a congregation’s growth (or nongrowth) rate may effectively disturb the status quo and explode people out of the rut of passivity. I do believe dreams and visions are worth formulating into strategies for action.

But goal-setting must be approached in the light of some primary questions:

1. Is this goal a direct result of a God-given directive, not just a desire to “be like the other nations”? Has the Holy Spirit spoken to the leadership, and has this sense of direction been submitted to elders and deacons? Have they confirmed it? Is the congregation generally positive toward the vision?

2. Does this goal sacrifice any principles or people on the altar of exigency? In God’s order, there is never a situation so desperate that it must grind people to powder or press a financial appeal at the cost of integrity, exploitative tactics, or world-styled salesmanship.

The Plan

In the past four years, The Church On the Way has completed and paid for a major building program and now has another $5 million development underway. We are not approaching the task with reckless abandon. But our desire is to “birth a plan” rather than “plan a birth.” The conception of vision, gestation of plans, and carrying to delivery are all pursued in an unabashed spirit of prayer and absolute dependence upon the Holy Spirit to lead—to correct, to time, to inspire faith, to release resources, to stir response.

Surely many readers of this chapter who set goals think much the same way as I have described. But I am suspicious of the practice of erecting targets, however noble the intent. Much of my early ministry was the fruit of setting goals and then pursuing them with all my promotional zeal. Naturally, I prayed. But things tended to stay on the natural level.

My intention is not really to debunk goal setting but to confront the tendency to dissolve into naturalism—to pursue holy goals by merely human means. “No goals,” in my mind, does not mean the absence of direction, strategy, or planning. It does mean:

We will not undertake anything without a clear sense of the Holy Spirit’s direction, confirmed by eldership.

We will not utilize any means of promotion or fund-raising that depends on human genius or style to be effective.

We will not pursue anything that overlooks the priorities of worship, relationship, and ministry.

At the same time:

We will pray much, often, and always.

We will think—trusting God’s Spirit to give clarity, coherence, and conviction to us all.

We will believe, knowing that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” As we do so, he will grow his purpose in us.

The following translation of (my own) expresses and summarizes my perspective: “Brethren, I do not count myself as having attained any goal, but I do this one thing: Leaving what is past, I reach ardently for what is ahead—in quest of that goal which is God’s high calling to Christlikeness.”

From the book Renewing Your Church Through Vision and Planning, Copyright © 1997

Although church staff evaluations are used to determine many things regarding the work performance of church staff members, the purpose of this article is to show how staff evaluations can be used to determine whether salary increases are justified.

The one area of church staffing that seems to cause more disagreements than any other is the reviewing processes that churches use to evaluate whether staff members deserve pay increases.

Evaluation of church staff members is quite different from employee evaluations in the corporate world, which rely heavily upon productivity, effectiveness, performance, and contribution to the overall profitability of the company.

How can a church evaluate the effectiveness of staff members as a determining factor for the issuance of salary increases? Can their salary be linked to the number of baptisms they performed? The number of commitments made to Christ through their influence? How much money was brought in to the general fund by the particular department in which they minister?

In reality there are only two points in which church staff, especially pastoral staff, can be evaluated: accountability and effectiveness.

How church leaders view their staff

Although the following list is far from extensive, it does identify five guidelines that church leaders can use to evaluate their staff members with regard to salary increases (anything over a cost-of-living adjustment).

1. Staff potential. Every staff member’s potential to his or her respective department and/or ministry, as well as to the church overall, should be taken into consideration when making an evaluation.
2. Position appreciation. Staff members should be evaluated with regard to their attitudes toward their positions and responsibilities. Whether members are appreciative or resentful of the opportunity to serve should be taken into serious consideration.
3. Fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. Although it may be difficult to determine how faithful staff members are at performing the jobs for which they were employed to do, special efforts should be made and notice given to both conscientious as well as lackadaisical work habits.
4. Rewards are earned, not given. All staff members must realize that the paternalistic corporate approach of “giving” a raise or “giving” a holiday cannot be extended beyond the accepted just because they work in a church environment. Laborers are truly worthy of their hire and their work ethic must reflect that truth.
5. Fair and consistent treatment where there is no favoritism. One of the quickest ways to lose the respect of staff is for the church leadership to vacillate in the observance of standards and procedure, be inconsistent in day-to-day policy, and show partiality in the treatment of one member over another.

The evaluation

Staff performance reviews are not only valuable tools in determining responsibilities, expectations, and performance, but they can serve as guidelines to determine whether particular laborers are truly worthy of their hire.

Staff members are done a disservice when reviewers consistently give flowery and nonconstructive evaluations. This type of policy seems to imply that the reviewer wants to be a person who is liked by the staff more than one who is honest and can give constructive criticism for improvement.

For performance evaluations to be effective, there must be honesty, objectivity, and open communication.

Conclusion

The managing of staff members in the church must be done with care, concern, and a desire to help them attain their goals. This is especially true when the question of the monetary worth of staff members’ responsibilities and work performance come into play.

Although it is not totally foolproof, the performance evaluation is the most common tool used by churches to determine whether staff members are fulfilling the obligations and responsibilities they were hired to perform.

These evaluations should be fair, yet firm; consistent, yet compliant; and discerning, yet encouraging and constructive.

Copyright © 2002. Crown Financial Ministries. www.Crown.org.

I once asked Don Shula, longtime coach of the Miami Dolphins, "What are your goals next year?"

He said, "I think goal-setting is overrated."

"What do you mean?"

"Everybody in professional football has a similar goal," he answered. "If they have halfway decent players, they want to win the playoffs. If they have good players, they want to win the Super Bowl. So I haven't won more games because I have better goals. I've won more games because I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and do whatever it takes to make it happen."

Leadership demands that we have the ability to realize our goals—to turn vision into reality. Those who have given themselves to leadership know how difficult this is. But effective leaders have a way of getting to the real issues.

Vision Alignment

The challenge for every pastor is to match his or her vision for the church with the congregation's. It's easier to match your vision with the church's when you create a church, like Rick Warren did in Orange County and Bill Hybels did outside of Chicago. The pastor creates the vision and then invites members who want to buy into the vision. It's more difficult in churches that have been around. Many churches don't know what business they're in; they try to be all things to all people. When the pastor creates a vision, it can go against the vision of the people who hold power. Then the pastor gets fired.

I have been working with a minister in San Diego who has the potential to turn around a church, but it will be difficult. The older crowd wants hymns; the baby boomers want different kinds of messages. Especially in that situation, I'm not sure a minister can pull a vision from the crowd. Moses didn't go up the hill with a committee; if he had, he would never have come down.

My advice to ministers: be clear about the vision.

When you are in the process of developing a vision, the first secret is to decide what you want. What's your vision of perfection? Every great organization I know has somebody at the top who has a clear vision of perfection and is willing to put it to work. If reporters came to your church because of the excitement there, what would they see? What would the youth see? What would the members see? What would the staff see? What would this church be like?

Developing clear vision takes time—something many pastors feel a shortage of—but that perceived shortage is the result of faulty values. A woman said to me yesterday, "In America, we don't value thinking." If people walked by the office here and saw the two of us talking, they wouldn't interrupt. But if they walked by and I was sitting alone, they'd knock. They'd assume I'm not doing anything. We don't legitimize thinking. Most people have a sign on their desk that says, "Don't just sit there, do something." What they need is a sign that says, "Don't just do something, sit there."

We need to think things through, create a strategy and a plan, and stick with it.

In the process of setting the vision, it's important to find out what the congregation wants. But notice that this is second. In business, many people ask, "Why wouldn't you first see what the customers want?" Well, because the customers don't have the big picture.

Every time you get a suggestion from the congregation, you see where it fits into your picture. The reality is, you can't include everything in your picture. For example, you cannot get a tablecloth and candlelight at McDonald's. It's not part of their vision. Some would ask, "Wouldn't McDonald's want to attract everybody who is going out for dinner tonight?" No, if they tried to attract everybody, they'd get nobody.

After you create a vision, the people will probably want to tweak it, but they're not going to change it significantly. If the first person says, "Yeah, but you didn't think of this," and you snap back, communicating, "This is a closed deal," you're in trouble. The biggest problem in implementing change is when you think, "If it wasn't invented by me, it's not worth considering."

Journey of Change

Much has been written in recent years about the central importance of vision, and some people wonder whether vision is overrated. I don't think so, but vision alone can't get it done. Too often we spend all our time on vision and none on implementation. At some point you've got to move.

Managing the journey of change is more important than announcing the destination. Often we announce a destination: "Here's a vision; here's what I want to do." Then we use a delegating leadership style and don't roll up our sleeves and get in there. Why don't New Year's resolutions work? Because people announce them and then don't do anything.

Disney Corporation invites their competition to Disneyland to observe and take courses. How do they feel safe doing that? Because they know nobody else will follow through on the vision. People imitate Disney's rides because they think that is the key. But they miss that the key is follow-through on the details—the friendliness of the staff, the cleanliness of the park.

The question every leader and organization needs to ask is, Are you committed to reaching the vision or are you just interested? A lot of people are interested in improving, but they aren't willing to pay the price. A person interested in exercise will wake up in the morning and if it's raining, say, "I'll exercise tomorrow." A person committed to exercise gets up in the morning and if it's raining says, "I'll exercise inside."

Follow-through is so important. I asked Max De Pree, former chairman of the board of Herman Miller, "What is your role in the vision of your company?"

He said, "The top manager should be like a third grade teacher: You repeat yourself over and over until people get it right."

Managing the journey means coming up with the vision and the direction, and then implementing the vision: coaching, supporting, giving directions, praising progress, and redirecting.

The leader who best models this is Jesus. I told Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, who wrote In Search of Excellence, "You didn't invent management by wandering around. Jesus did."

He wandered from one little town to another, and people would say, "How do you become first?"

Jesus said, "By being last."

People would ask him, "How do you lead?"

"By following."

How many people do you know who go to their boss's house for dinner and the boss says, "Take off your shoes and socks and let me wash your feet"? Managing the journey of change is servant leadership. We must get our egos out of the way and praise, redirect, reprimand—anything it takes to help people win.

Bumps Along the Journey

Organizations resist change because people get comfortable with the way things are. They prefer what's familiar.

Adding to the problem is the fact that most leaders of change don't understand the concerns people have when they go through transition. Their first concern is for information: "Tell me what you've got in mind; let me ask questions about it." The second concern is personal: "Will I be able to survive? Where am I going to fit in?" The third concern is implementation: "Okay, now I know what you are talking about, and I think maybe I can live with it. How is it going to be done?" The fourth concern is impact: "What's the result? What's the benefit?"

Notice that not until the first three concerns are answered do people care about the benefits. That means a leader cannot announce a change and explain its benefits and expect people to support the change. When you ask people to do something different, they focus on what they have to give up, not on what they are going to gain.

I went into several divisions of AT&T just before it broke apart into seven companies. The chairman was talking about all the great benefits—more entrepreneurial activity, more initiative. But nobody was giving the employees a chance to deal with the loss. So we created "mourning" sessions and brought in crying towels and let people talk about what they were giving up, which was a lot—prestige, lifetime employment, status. If you let people talk honestly about their concerns, often the concerns are resolved.

Situational Leadership

To determine the most important qualities of a leader, people have done tons of research over the years and found there are no constant ones—except for integrity. The qualities needed in a leader depend on the situation.

For instance, the issue of how pastors should relate to board members—employee to employer, leader to follower, or friend to friend—depends on the structure of the board. If the board has hiring and firing capability, you work for them. Your job is to figure out what their needs are and to satisfy them.

It's important to understand whether a board member is high on dominance, influence, steadiness, or compliance—as the Disc instrument measures. Board members high on dominance fear losing control. If you know that, you can battle the person appropriately. A person who scores high on influence fears rejection. Such people are not going to give you a hard time because they want you to think they are good people. The High S person—steadiness—fears change. They'd like the church to stay the way it is. Board members high on C, compliance, fear having their work criticized.

A very important trait for a minister dealing with a board is not to need to be right. You're crazy if you get into a win-lose confrontation with key board members. My experience has been: the people who get fired have let their egos eat their brains. Jesus knew he was right, but he didn't waste a lot of time proving it. He didn't get into a lot of win-lose confrontations, even with those who wanted to kill him.

I've come to think more and more that leadership is not something you do to people; it's something you do with them. Leadership is more of a partnership; unless the follower is willing to follow, you don't have much leadership.

Turning vision into reality is something leaders do with their followers. Leaders must be committed to both develop a vision with their people and then walk with them through the difficult journey of implementing change.

From the book Renewing Your Church Through Vision and Planning, copyright © 1997

You know your church needs to rethink its strategy. You know there is no real sense of how to accomplish the work that God has called your church to do. You look at your church, and it seems that every year is simply a repeat of the past year. There is nothing intentional about what you do. But you wonder if strategic planning is biblical. First, you wrestle with this in your own mind. Then you realize some of the lay leadership in your church are asking the same questions.

Is there a biblical basis for strategic planning?

Do we have a biblical foundation for the concept of strategic planning, or is it something we have taken from the secular business model and applied to our churches? Does God honor the process of strategic planning? By principle and by example, God's Word establishes strategic planning as one of the ways He works in and through His people. There are a number of leaders in Scripture who thought and acted strategically. Yes, strategic planning is found in Scripture.

Moses

We see clearly in Scripture that Moses was a strategic thinker—or at least he learned to be. Moses was struggling as a leader soon after he led the nation of Israel out of Egypt. His father-in-law, Jethro, came to see him after hearing the incredible things God had been doing. Jethro observed that Moses was overwhelmed with the burdens of leadership and shared with him a God-given plan—a strategy—for dealing with the issue. Jethro taught Moses how to set up a strategic plan by delegating the work so that the load would be spread among many. As a result, the manpower resources were used more effectively and the ministry was accomplished. Moses was also thinking strategically when he sent spies to the land of Canaan.

Joshua

Joshua, the protégé of Moses, also demonstrated strategic leadership. In Joshua 6 God gave Joshua a little lesson on strategic thinking. As Joshua was to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, they were facing the first enemy in the land. It just so happened to be the strong city of Jericho. God gave Joshua a strategy. He could have simply reached down from heaven and zapped the city, but God chose to work through a strategy that involved His people. God continues to work through His people today.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah was a God-appointed leader who used a strategy. When God laid it on his heart to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah began to establish and then work through a well-planned strategy to accomplish the vision God had given. He assessed the damage. He secured the resources. He established leaders and distributed the assignments among them. Anyone who has ever built a structure, from a doghouse to a three-bedroom house, will acknowledge Nehemiah's need for some kind of drawn-out plan for the reconstruction of the walls.

David

David was a strategic thinker from boyhood. He did not defeat Goliath with his might or strong armor. He defeated Goliath using a God-given strategy that pinpointed the weakness of his enemy. Later, as a leader of soldiers, David used strategy in battle. David needed men who could think and plan strategically, and God gave him the men of Issachar (1 Chron. 12:32).

Jesus

The Old Testament is filled with examples of leaders who established strategic plans and carried them through. What about the New Testament? We can point to Jesus Christ as a great example of one who had a strategy. He began by recruiting His leadership, developing them, then sending them "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8, NIV).His strategy included some public teaching and miracle working. Ultimately, His strategy took Him all the way to the cross, the grave, and the resurrection. Jesus Christ knew the plan to provide redemption for all of mankind long before leaving heaven to carry it through.

Paul

The apostle Paul, a key player in establishing the early church, had a strategy. It is obvious in reading the accounts of his missionary journeys that Paul chose key cities in which to establish beachheads for ministry. He chose cities where he might have the greatest influence on the largest number of people. Ephesus, for example, was the gateway to Asia Minor.

Accomplish God's purposes through strategic planning.

Proverbs 19:21 says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." God's purpose is the element in strategic planning for the church that is vastly different from the secular strategic planning models. We see setting our hearts and minds on God as the beginning of the strategic planning process. Without question, it is God's plan we want, not our own.

God obviously expects us to plan. He has given to us a number of clear principles along with some great examples. He makes it clear that we are not to trust our own plans and strategies and ignore the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is only after we seek the heart of God and His direction that we can establish plans that are pleasing to Him and plans that will succeed.

Strategic planning is not only a biblical concept, it is a biblical mandate. It is God's chosen method of working to establish how you and your church intend to carry out the Great Commission. Don't just repeat last year. Be intentional in getting God's heart and knowing how you will accomplish His mission in your setting.

Proverbs Speaks

The book of Proverbs has a number of clear practical principles regarding strategy and planning.

1. Proverbs 14:15: "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps."
2. Proverbs 15:22: "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."
3. Proverbs 16:3: "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."
4. Proverbs 16:9: "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."
5. Proverbs 20:18: "Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance."

Mark Marshall is regional manager for Georgia and Florida with LifeWay Church Resources in Nashville, Tennessee.

Unless otherwise indicated Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, copyright © 1973,1978,1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

This article was adapted from the Fall 2002 issue of Church Administration. www.lifeway.com

What to do

Some church leaders find planning a formidable exercise. In reality, the planning process is simple — conceptually. It can be described as answering seven key questions:

1. Spiritual Needs Assessment: What are the greatest spiritual needs of our church and community?

2. Strengths and Weaknesses: What are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of our church?

3. Opportunities and Threats or Barriers: What are the most significant ministry opportunities for and potential threats (or barriers) to our church, given the answers to the first two questions?

4. Ministry Options: What appear to be the most viable options for strengthening the ministry of our church?

5. Ministry Platform: What is the primary ministry platform on which our specific ministries should be built? Included in the ministry platform are our statement of faith, vision statement, mission statement, philosophy of ministry, and listing of ministries.

6. Ministry Goals: What goals is the Holy Spirit leading us to strive for to enhance our church's ministry over the next year? The next two to three years?

7. Action Steps: What action steps must we accomplish to achieve these goals?

Getting your team to agree on the answers to these questions (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) may or may not be simple, depending on the circ*mstances and the relationships of leaders in your church.

What not to do

In New England, where I live, potholes are in abundance on most side roads. Some can be avoided, while others come upon you so quickly they are difficult to miss. On the avenue called planning, it's important to know the potholes to avoid:

1. Making Planning Too Complex: There are usually two or three key issues that will be discovered, and, if acted on, will lead to enhanced health and vitality. One church in Boston narrowed their planning to: (1) revising the organization chart, (2) enhancing community life, and (3) streamlining priorities. When these three issues were named, each ministry team could set goals for day-to-day ministry, based on them.

2. Not Reaching Conclusions and Making an Action Plan: Tie up loose ends along the way, and outline appropriate action steps.

3. Not Keeping the Action Plan Simple: One church I worked with had such a long document, with dozens of goals and action steps, that it felt overwhelming and didn't win approval. The objective is to create a plan that every member can articulate without having to refer to any documentation.

4. Not Revisiting the Plan: Your plan should be adjustable along the way, revised and renewed according to the needs and resources available to you. Keep your planning documents alive. Don't shelve them, file them, or formalize them in pretty documents. At Leadership Transformations (www.LeadershipTransformations.org), we hold our plans loosely, in a "white paper" format, with lots of room for give and take each step of the way.

5. Taking Too Long: Don't let your planning team tire and begin to complain about the value of doing this. Keep the group moving forward toward conclusion and celebration.

6. Trusting Your Instincts apart from Prayer: As a team, lean fully in God's direction to hear his voice, feel his heart, understand his will, and trust his empowering presence to lead you. Strategic planning in a local church is a process that God through his Holy Spirit must direct. Become a people of prayer as you trust him for his design for your church!

Stephen A. Macchia serves as founding president of Leadership Transformations, Inc. (www.LeadershipTransformations.org), a ministry focusing on spiritual formation of leaders and the spiritual discernment of leadership teams. He is the author of Becoming A Healthy Church (Baker, 1999), Becoming A Healthy Disciple (Baker, 2004) and the Becoming A Healthy Church Workbook (Baker, 2001) from which this article has been adapted by permission.

Steve can be reached via email at Steve@LeadershipTransformations.org and his books can be found at your local Christian bookstore or www.healthychurch.net.

Imagine a compass north, south, east, and west. Almost every time the word leadership is mentioned, in what direction do leaders instinctively think?

South.

Say the word leadership and most leaders' minds migrate to the people who are under their care. At leadership conferences, people generally think, "I'm going to learn how to improve my ability to lead the people God has entrusted to me."

South. It's a leader's first instinct.

But many people don't realize that to lead well, you need to be able to lead in all directions—north, south, east and west.

For example, good leaders have to lead north—those who are over you. You can't just focus on those entrusted to your care. Through relationship and influence good leaders lead the people over them. Much of what I do at Willow Creek, through relationship, prayer, and careful envisioning, is to try to influence those over me—the board and the elders.

Effective leaders also learn how to lead east and west, laterally, in peer group settings. If you don't learn how to lead laterally, if you don't know how to create win-win situations with colleagues, the whole culture can deteriorate.

So a leader must lead down, up, and laterally. But perhaps the most overlooked leadership challenge is the one in the middle. Who is your toughest leadership challenge?

Yourself.

Consider 1 Samuel 30. David, the future king of Israel, is a young emerging leader at the time. He is just learning to lead his troops into battle. He's green. But God is pouring his favor on David, and most of the time the battles go his way. One terrible day though, that pattern changes. After returning home from fighting yet another enemy, David and his men discover soldiers have attacked and destroyed their campsite, dragged off the women and children, and burned all their belongings.

This would define "bad day" for any leader! But it's not over. His soldiers are tired, angry, and worried sick about their families. They're miffed at God. A faction of his men spreads word that they've had it with David's leadership. They figure it's all David's fault, and they decide to stone him to death.

In this crisis David's leadership is severely tested. Suddenly, he has to decide who needs leadership the most. His soldiers? The officers? The faction?

His answer? None of the above.

In this critical moment he realizes a foundational truth: he has to lead himself before he can lead anybody else. Unless he is squared away internally he has nothing to offer his team. So "David strengthened himself in the Lord his God" (1 Samuel 30:6). Only then does he lead his team to rescue their families and what's left of their belongings.

David understood the importance of self-leadership. And although self-leadership isn't talked about much, make no mistake, it is a good part of the ballgame. How effectively can any of us lead others if our spirits are sagging, our courage is wavering, and our vision or commitment is weak?

Last summer I read an article that created some disequilibrium for me. The author, Dee Hock, challenged leaders to calculate how much time and energy they invest in each of these directions—people beneath them, over them, peers, and leading themselves. Since he's been thinking and writing about leadership for over 20 years and is a laureate in the Business Hall of Fame, I wanted his wisdom.

His recommendation: "We should invest 50 percent of our leadership amperage into the task of leading ourselves; and the remaining 50 percent should be divided into leading down, leading up, and leading laterally." His numbers bothered me so much I put the article away. But I let it simmer, which is my normal practice when someone messes with my mind.

While that was simmering, I read an article by Daniel Goleman, the author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence. Since that book was released in 1997, Goleman has been spending his time analyzing why some leaders develop to their fullest potential and why most hit a plateau far from their full potential.

His conclusion? The difference is (you guessed it) self-leadership. He calls it "emotional self-control." What characterizes maximized leadership potential, according to Goleman? Tenaciously staying in leadership despite overwhelming opposition or discouragement. Staying in the leadership game and maintaining sober-mindedness during times of crisis. Keeping ego at bay. Staying focused on the mission instead of being distracted by someone else's agenda. All these indicate high levels of emotional self-control. Goleman says, "Exceptional leaders distinguish themselves because of superior self-leadership."

As I read his corroborating data, I thought, Maybe Dee Hock's percentages aren't all that absurd!

Recall the first five chapters of Mark's Gospel. Remember Jesus' pattern of intense ministry quickly followed by time set aside for reflection, prayer, fasting, and solitude? That pattern is repeated throughout his ministry. Jesus was practicing the art of self-leadership. He would go to a quiet place and recalibrate. He would remind himself who he was and how much the Father loved him. Even Jesus needed to invest regularly in keeping his calling clear, avoiding mission drift, and keeping distraction and temptation at bay.

This is self-leadership. And nobody—I mean nobody—can do this work for you. You have to do this work yourself. Self-leadership is tough work—so tough, Dee Hock says, that most leaders avoid it. Instead, we would rather try to inspire or control our people than to do the rigorous work of reflection.

Some years ago a top Christian leader disqualified himself from ministry. A published article described his demise: "[He] sank like a rock, beat up, burned out, angry and depressed, no good to himself and no good to the people he loved."

When this pastor finally wrote publicly about his experience, he said, "Eventually I couldn't even sleep at night. Another wave of broken lives would come to shore at the church, and I found I didn't have enough compassion for them any more. And inside I became angry, angry, angry. Many people still wonder whatever happened to me. They think I had a crisis of faith. The fact is I simply collapsed on the inside."

He failed the self-leadership test. He should have regrouped, reflected, recalibrated. Maybe taken a sabbatical or received some Christian counseling. Goleman would say that this guy lost his emotional self-control. Now he's out of the game.

A little closer to home, I'll never forget when three wise people came to me on behalf of the church. They said, "Bill, there were two eras during the first 20 years of Willow Creek history when by your own admission you were not at your leadership best—once in the late seventies and again in the early nineties. The data shows Willow Creek paid dearly for your leadership fumble. It cost Willow more than you'll ever know when you were off—not hitting on all 8 cylinders."

Then they said words I'll never forget: "Bill, the best gift you can give the people you lead here at Willow is a healthy, energized, fully surrendered, focused self. And no one can do that for you. You've got to do that for yourself." And while they were talking, the Holy Spirit was saying, "They're right, Bill. They're right."

Because I know what's at stake, I ask myself several self-leadership questions on a regular basis.

Is my calling sure?

On this matter, I'm from the old school. I really believe that if you bear the name of Jesus Christ, you have a calling, whether you're a pastor or a lay person. We all must surrender ourselves fully to make ourselves completely available to God. Ask, "What's my mission, God? Where do you want me to serve? What would you have me do in this grand kingdom drama?"

Remember what Paul said about his calling? "I no longer consider my life as dear unto myself. Only that I fulfill the mission or the calling given to me by God himself" (Acts 20:24).

What happens when you receive a call from the holy God? Your life takes on focus. Energy gets released. You're on a mission.

I have to keep my calling sure. So on a regular basis I ask, God, is your calling on my life still to be the pastor of Willow Creek and to help churches around the world? And when I receive reaffirmation of that, then I say, "Then let's go! Let's forget all the other distractions and the temptations. Burn the bridges!"

If you've been called to be a leader, it's your responsibility to keep your calling sure. Post it on your refrigerator. Frame it and put it on your desk. Keep it foremost in your mind.

Is my vision clear?

How can I lead people into the future if my picture of the future is fuzzy? Every year we have a Vision Night at Willow Creek. You know who started Vision Night? I did. Guess who I mainly do it for? Me. Every year when Vision Night rolls around on the calendar it means that I have to have my vision clear.

Every leader needs a Vision Night on the calendar. On that night you say, "Here's the picture; this is what we're doing; here's why we're doing it; if things go right, here's what the picture will look like a year from now.

We prepare very diligently for Vision Night at Willow Creek. We have countless meetings to discuss the future. We spend many hours in prayer: "God, is this what you would have?" We search the Scriptures. By the time Vision Night rolls around, the vision is clear again. But it takes a lot of work to clarify the vision and to keep it clear. Nobody can do that work for you. It's the leader's job.

Is my passion hot?

Jack Welch, the celebrated leader of General Electric, says, "People in leadership have to have so much energy and passion that they energize and impassion people around them."

I couldn't agree more. When I appoint leaders, I don't look for 25-watt light bulbs. I look for 100-watt bulbs because I want them to light up everything and everyone around them.

Whose responsibility is it to keep a leader's passion fired up? The leader's. That's self-leadership.

Last year, at an elders' meeting, a couple of the elders asked me, "As busy as you are, why do you fly out on Friday nights to speak in some small out-of-the-way church to help them raise money or dedicate a new facility? Why do you do that?"

My answer: Because it keeps my passion hot.

Last year I helped a church in California dedicate their new building. One guy took me to the corner of the auditorium, peeled the carpet back, and showed me how everyone in the core of their church had inscribed the names of lost people in the concrete. Then they covered it over with carpet. In that auditorium they're praying fervently that the lost will be found.

It was a four-hour flight back to Chicago. I was buzzed the whole way. That church fired me up! I just love watching men and women throw themselves into the adventure of ministry. It inspires me. I know that my passion has to be white-hot if Willow is going to catch it. I can't become a 25-watt bulb—nor can you.

We do a lot of conferences through the Willow Creek Association. At times pastors of flourishing churches will pull me aside and say under their breath, "I have to come here once or twice a year just to keep my fires lit." They seem embarrassed about being here so often, as if it's a sign of weakness.

I tell them, "If you're a leader, it's your job to keep your passion hot. Do whatever you have to do, read whatever you have to read, go wherever you have to go. And don't apologize. That's a big part of your job."

Is my character submitted to Christ?

Leadership requires moral authority. Followers have to see enough integrity in the leader's life that high levels of trust can be built. When surveys are taken about what it is that inspires a follower to throw his or her lot in with a particular leader over a long period of time, near the top of every list is integrity.

A leader doesn't have to be the sharpest pencil in the drawer or the one with the most charisma. But teammates will not follow a leader with character incongruities for very long. Every time you compromise character you compromise leadership.

Some time ago we had a staff member who was struggling in his leadership. I started poking around a little bit. "What's going on here?" I asked.

Then the real picture emerged. One person said, "For one thing, he sets meetings and then he doesn't even show. He rarely returns phone calls and often we don't know where he is."

I spoke to that guy and said, "Let's get it straight. When you give your word that you're going to be at a certain place at a certain time and you don't show up, that's a character issue. That erodes trust in followers. You clean that up, or we'll have to move you out." If character issues are compromised, it hurts the whole team and eventually impacts mission achievement.

I don't want to be a leader who demoralizes the troops and hurts the cause either. So on a regular basis, I sing Rory Noland's song in my times alone with God:

Holy Spirit, take control.
Take my body, mind, and soul.
Put a finger on anything
that doesn't please you,
Anything that grieves you.
Holy Spirit, take control.

It's the leader's job to grow in character. No one can do that work except the leader.

Is my pride subdued?

First Peter 5:5 says, "God opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble." Do you know what Peter is saying? As a leader I have a choice. Do I want opposition from God in my leadership, or do I want grace and favor?

If you're a sailor, you know how hard it is to sail upwind. You also know how wonderful and relaxing it is to sail downwind. Peter is saying, "Which way do you want it? Do you want to sail upwind or downwind? If you're humble, the favor of God carries you. If you're proud, you're sailing into the wind. God opposes the proud."

Do you want to know the best way to find out if pride is affecting your leadership?

Ask.

Ask your teammates. Ask the people in your small group. Ask your spouse. Ask your colleagues. Ask your friends, "Do you ever sense a prideful spirit in or around my leadership?" If you just couldn't ask a question like that, then you probably do have a pride issue!

It's a leader's job—with the Holy Spirit's help—to subdue pride.

Are my fears at bay?

Fear is an immobilizing emotion. Sometimes I ask pastors, "Why haven't you introduced more change in your church when you know the church is crying out for it?"

I ask business leaders who are hesitating to launch a new product, "Why haven't you pulled the pin?"

I ask political leaders why they haven't taken a stand on a particular issue, one I know they have strong personal convictions about.

So often the response is: "Because I am afraid." Fear immobilizes and neutralizes leaders.

Believe me, I am not above this. I remember the morning in the year 2000 when it became clear to me that we needed to launch a $70 million building program. Our vision for the future was clear. The elders, the board, the management team signed off on it. The last step in the whole equation was for me to have the guts to pull the trigger. And you know what swirled around in my mind? The minute you go public with a $70 million campaign, there's no backing out. It's pass-fail. I realized that everything we had worked for over the past 25 years, all the credibility our congregation has established in our community and around the world was on the line. Fear kept building in my heart. Why expose Willow to that kind of risk? We're cruising along. We're growing and baptizing a thousand people a year. Why are we doing this?

I am not above letting fear mess with my decision making as a leader.

At a certain point, I just had to say, "I can no longer let fear sabotage my leadership." I reminded myself of that little verse, 1 John 4:4, "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world." I asked myself: Has God spoken to me? Has he made his direction clear? Is the leadership core with us? Is he going to love me if I fail? Am I still going to heaven if this whole thing doesn't turn out right? I struggled but finally I found the courage to step out in faith. (The campaign was enormously blessed by God. Our church could have missed a great miracle had fear won the day.)

Are interior issues undermining my leadership?

All of us have some wounds, some losses, and some disappointments in our past.

All that stuff has helped shape or misshape us into the people we are today. I laugh at people who say, "My past has not affected me. My family of origin has not affected me."

Leaders who ignore their interior reality often make decisions that have grave consequences for the people they lead. Most of the time, they're unaware of what's driving their unwise decisions. Some pastors make grandiose decisions that enslave everybody in their churches to an agenda that's not God's. It's an agenda that comes out of their need to be bigger than, better than, grander than.

Other leaders are incurable people pleasers. Every week they want to take a poll to see where they stand in the Nielsen ratings.

Who's responsible for your interior issues getting processed and resolved? You are. I am.

I've spent lots of time in a Christian counselor's office. I still am in contact with two Christian counselors. And whenever I think, Man, there's some stuff coming out of me that has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit, and I don't understand it, I call these counselors. I say, "I don't understand why I said what I said, why I did what I did. I know it's junk. Would you help me?" Effective leaders must get a handle on their "junk!"

Are my ears open to the Spirit's whisper?

I estimate that 75 to 80 percent of the breakthrough ideas in my leadership over the years have come from promptings of the Holy Spirit, not through hard machinations of my mind. Some of the great sermon series or vision adjustments, value clarifications or strategy changes, some of the greatest people selections have not been due to my cleverness. It has been the Holy Spirit whispering to my spirit.

Leaders cannot afford to be deaf to heaven. Training, process, and strategy are all good. Developing your mind is essential. But ultimately, we walk by faith, not by sight. There is a supernatural dimension to leadership and it comes our way by keeping an ear open to heaven.

I ask myself regularly, Can I still hear God's voice? Is the ambient noise level of my life low enough that I can still hear God's voice when he speaks? And do I still have the guts to obey him even though I don't understand him all the time?

Is my pace sustainable?

I came close to a total emotional meltdown in the early 1990s. Suffice it to say I didn't understand self-leadership. I didn't understand the principle of sustainability. I fried my emotions. I abused my spiritual gifts. I damaged my body. I neglected my family and friends. And I came within a whisker of becoming a statistic.

I remember sitting in a restaurant and writing: "The pace at which I've been doing the work of God is destroying God's work in me." Then I remember putting my head down on my spiral notebook in that restaurant and sobbing.

But I asked myself, Bill, who has a gun to your head? Who's forcing you to bite off more than you can chew? Who's intimidating you into overcommitting? Whose approval and affirmation and applause other than God's are you searching for that makes you live this way? The answers were worse than sobering. They were devastating.

The elders, to whom I'm accountable, did not cause my pace problem. It wasn't caused by the board or the staff or family or friends. The whole pace issue was a problem of my own making. I had no one else to blame. That's a terribly lonely feeling—having no one else to blame.

So I sat all alone in this cheap restaurant in South Haven, mad as a hornet that I couldn't blame anybody for my kingdom exhaustion and my emotional numbness. To find the bad guy, I had to look in a mirror.

To further complicate matters, the only person who can put a sustainability program together for your future is you. For 15 years, I lived overcommitted and out of control, and deep down I kept saying, Why aren't the elders rescuing me? Why aren't my friends rescuing me? Don't people see I'm dying here?

But it isn't their job. It's my job. Please, if you haven't already, commit yourself to developing an approach to leadership that will enable you to endure over the long haul.

Are my gifts developing?

Pop quiz: What are your top three spiritual gifts? If you cannot articulate them as quickly as you can give your name, address, and phone number, I'm tempted to say, "You need your cage rattled!" Before you write me a note telling me I've made you feel bad, I need to let you know that on this issue, I have Sympathy Deficit Disorder. Maybe I need medication or something. But seriously, leaders have to master their spiritual gift profile. They must know which gifts they've been given and how they rank in order.

In addition, the Bible holds every leader accountable before God for developing each of those gifts to the zenith of their spiritual potential.

It's sobering to have to ask myself regularly, Bill, you know God's only given you three gifts. Some people have five, six, or seven. You've been given three—leadership, evangelism, and teaching. Are you growing them? Developing, stretching these gifts? Reading everything you can read? Getting around people who are better than you in these areas? Are you developing the three gifts God has given you? Because those are the ones I've been given, they're the only ones I'm going to stand accountable for before God someday. I'm learning that I cannot give myself any slack when it comes to spiritual gift development.

Is my heart for God increasing? And is my capacity for loving deepening?

Have you reminded yourself recently whose job it is to grow your heart for God? Is it the church's job? Your small group's job? No. It's your job to make sure your heart for God is increasing. Nobody can do that for you. You've got to develop the spiritual practices that keep you growing towards Christlikeness.

Likewise, is your capacity for loving people deepening? If you think about it, you realize God has only one kind of treasure. It's people.

When our kids were young and Lynne and I needed some husband-wife time, we'd get a babysitter. And I'd give those sitters my little talk. As we were heading out, I would say, "You need to know something. We only have two treasures in this life, only two. I don't care if you wreck our car or if the house burns down while we're gone. Really. Just promise me. Promise me you'll take really good care of our children. They are all that really matter to us in this world."

God is saying to leaders, "Promise me. Give me your word. Take care of my treasures. Grow in leadership so that you become the greatest you can be at taking care of my treasures. Love them. Nurture them. Develop them. Challenge them. Mature them. They are all that really matters to me in this world."

And right now would be a good time for you to say to God, "I will."

Bill Hybels is pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership.

For three years Jeff Thompson’s recruiting system had run well. He’d had occasional problems, but not one major Christian education position had gone without a qualified person on promotion Sunday. The secret was his annual, churchwide recruitment survey followed by personal interviews that allowed Jeff to match people’s gifts with ministry needs.

But now he was stymied. Mary Jenkins had retired from children’s church for preschoolers.

She was a legend at Walnut Heights Bible Church (churches and people named are composites of true situations). For eighteen years, even when the silver-haired lady was the only adult present, children had been touched by her love.

Mom Jenkins’s longevity, though, was part of the problem now. Potential leaders balked at the idea of being held captive by 3-year-olds for the next two decades.

Now, four days from promotion Sunday, the position was still unfilled. Dozens of people had been considered, and eight had been approached. Their responses were classic: “I simply cannot lead that department.” “I’m going to have surgery in the fall.” “I’m going back to work.” “I need some time off.”

He was ready to accept any warm body that would say yes. He wasn’t sure he even could find one of those.

Worker Deficiency Syndrome

Unfortunately, virtually all church leaders or committee heads face a similar problem for some position: the junior high youth sponsor, the vacation Bible school director. Most vacancies represent thankless jobs in which the only comments heard are from unhappy parishioners.

In some churches the worker deficiency syndrome seems chronic. Often, these churches haven’t developed a year-round strategy for recruiting and developing volunteers. Or they have a declining membership and a static but aging pool of workers. Or they contain many new Christians who cannot yet be placed in teaching positions.

But even the healthiest of churches inevitably faces a time when no one wants a particular job. Then church leaders try a variety of recruiting strategies.

Ineffective Strategies

Calvary Church is one such healthy church with a recruitment problem. The church has seen rapid growth. An articulate young pastor has involved adults in home Bible studies. People exhibit a genuine excitement about the future of the church — everyone, that is, except the Christian education workers.

Frances Clancy, the chair of the Christian education committee, has tried everything she can think of to provide enough teachers. First pleading. Then buttonholing. Then announcements in the bulletin and from the pulpit. Finally, she got the pastor to give one of his patented “volunteer for the Gipper” messages. But even it yielded only meager and short-term results.

In the meantime, Frances has gone to part-time helpers in children’s church—one month on, two months off. The problem with the system is best illustrated by the crying of the DeHaan twins on the Sunday of the change in leaders. Preschoolers need the security of familiar faces every week.

For a short time Frances contemplated combining two departments but had rejected the idea because of the dramatic developmental differences between a 2-year-old and 5-year-old. The only other option was to pay someone, but with the church strapped by payments on the new building, the idea wasn’t realistic.

Frances had tried or considered every option she knew. When the traditional recruitment strategies fail, what then?

Key Questions

Before throwing up their hands in despair, both Jeff Thompson and Frances Clancy need to ask themselves several questions. While the questions may not solve the crisis, they will provide new perspectives on it.

• Drop? What would be the impact of discontinuing the program? From time to time, each ministry should be reexamined. A lack of workers, especially when such a shortage becomes chronic, may indicate the ministry has outlived its usefulness.Released-time classes for children from Lowell Elementary School had been held at Abel Memorial Church for over forty years. Spurred by the slogan, “By God’s grace we’re able,” the church viewed the prospect of discontinuing the classes as a concession of spiritual defeat. The fact that a majority of the children were Hispanic and none of the parishioners was conversant in Spanish was not considered significant. Yet the language problem hindered the church from securing parents’ permission for their children to attend, and classes had dwindled to only five or six children per week.When surgery put the teacher, who had faithfully been instructing the children for twelve years, on the disabled list, the Christian education board had to ask, “What would be the impact of discontinuing the program?” The conclusion, honestly stated, was that they would have a bruised self-perception and nothing more. The released-time program had been seen as the church’s effort to evangelize a changing neighborhood, despite the lack of enthusiastic response by the Hispanic children. To drop the class might even force the church to become more realistic about its relationship to the neighborhood.
• Harm? What would be harmed by continuing the existing program without the staff we feel we need? Unfortunately, this question frequently is answered by adults who have not spent an hour in an inadequately staffed Sunday school class, club program, or youth group meeting. Seldom do adults consider the negative attitudes children may develop through poorly supervised situations.Bellwood Community Church had tripled in size in four years. One key to the church’s growth was the dynamic Sunday morning adult Bible classes. They were so meaningful, however, that few adults wanted to leave to teach the children. And the rapid growth of the church necessitated placing in each room twice as many children as the fire code allowed. Had the church asked the harm question, the board might have shut down an adult class or two until appropriate staff and space were found for the children.There is a time when the short-term harm is an acceptable risk — when, for example, greater harm may be inflicted by rushing into leadership adults who are spiritually or socially immature. But the emphasis is on short term. If there is long-term risk, it may be wiser to discontinue a program.
• Other approaches? Could other activities accomplish the same ministry goals? Children’s church had become impossible to staff at Greenwood Assembly of God. For one thing, no one really understood what the children’s church was supposed to accomplish. Further, there were too few curriculum materials for the volunteers.Then Lenny Fletcher suggested the grade-school children be taught to worship through creating puppet programs for the preschoolers. With Fletcher’s enthusiasm, the sewing ability of old Mrs. Collingsworth, and some children’s Bible story and music tapes, Churchtime Puppets became part of the educational program. Volunteers were much easier to secure, since most adults had seen Muppets on TV and had enough child in them to be willing to work with the idea.Woodlawn Congregational Church answered the other-approaches question for its six-member junior high youth group. Every year the church had to twist a parent’s arm to be youth-group sponsor. Then Harry Jacobsen dedicated his video equipment to the Lord. Harry was turned loose with the youth group to document everything the church did for the year. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, a video camera with two or three junior high students behind it began showing up at worship services, Sunday school classes, board meetings, choir practices, weddings, and even a funeral. In the process the students learned the meaning of the word appropriate and got an in-depth view of the church in action.In both these cases, innovation captured the imagination of people whose abilities had been overlooked in the previous recruitment process.
• Dramatize? When the previous questions have been asked without a satisfactory solution, ask, How can we dramatize the need for workers?Two words of caution: drama should not be used Primarily to create guilt, but rather vision; and workers obtained in this manner likely will need immediate on-the-job training to be effective. Obtaining preschool Sunday school teachers seemed impossible in a major West Coast church. The church had provided a full-time staff member and two part-time helpers, but still the ratio of learners to teacher was about 13:1. So one Sunday, at the invitation of the pastor, the entire 3-year-old department was led, hand in hand, down the center aisle of the church during morning worship. The pastor sat down with children all around him and expressed his deep concern that Christian people were not available to teach the love of Christ to such wonderful children as these. Then he taught a brief lesson, with the children responding. For the immediate future the recruitment problem was solved.A Florida Sunday school superintendent printed in the bulletin, “Due to a shortage of volunteer ministers to teach in the primary department, only the first sixteen first-, second-, and third-grade children to arrive at Sunday school next week will be permitted to attend classes. The Sunday school board is sorry for any inconvenience caused by the understaffed condition of our church’s teaching ministry.” The superintendent was prepared to turn away the seventeenth and succeeding children. The announcement brought enough volunteer workers to continue the teaching ministry without interruption.

The Ultimate Solution

When all is said and done, the issue of workers in the church’s mission is a spiritual battle. The problem can be addressed by crisis management techniques, such as the ones suggested here, but the ministry needs are seldom met by such strategies alone. The Lord Jesus admonished his followers to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field (Matt. 9:38). It was a recruiter’s prayer.

When it comes to the jobs no one seems to want, the prayer base must include as broad a representation from the congregation as possible. Even the children who will be led should ask the Lord for appropriate volunteers. As James 4:2 reminds us, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

Jeff Thompson had to dramatize the need, but when people realized its severity, trainable leaders were available within days. Frances Clancy found an alternative to children’s church. She formed a puppet ministry for the 2- and 3-year-olds that combined the creative efforts of select junior high students with a couple of adults. Her imagination created a ministry team for a job no one had wanted.

Mark H. Senter III is assistant professor of Christian education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and is active in Wheaton Bible Church.

Here are eight areas a church must address to transform committees into caring communities. I’d start with the governing board and then apply the steps to each committee. This is especially applicable to the nominating committee or anyone who’s recruiting committee workers.

1. Deciding who serves. It’s a bad idea to put old Joe on your elder board because he needs to get more involved, or let Gertrude chair the deaconesses because her family makes hefty financial contributions.

Choosing leaders already involved in ministry is one clear biblical priority. When deciding who serves is based on commitment to ministry, faith, a clear job description, and an understanding of what really needs to be done, a committee structure can become a support base and a network of mission communities.

2. Recruiting honestly. I know a college board member who was recruited under the premise: “It won’t take any of your time; you don’t even have to come to meetings. We’re just proud to have you on our board.” What kind of quality can you expect from a board with that view of itself?

An executive I know accepted a position after being told his main task was to encourage people. After taking the job, he learned the institution was bankrupt; his real job was to solve its financial problems. Since that wasn’t what he signed up for, he has little motivation for his work.

As church leaders, we want people to discern God’s will and hear his calling. When they respond freely and in faith, they will be excited about their ministry. This means being straightforward about the costs. It means giving people a chance to pray, discuss matters, and have the freedom to say no without jeopardizing our friendship or approval.

If we expect someone to put out extra effort in September, we tell them. If training and special events are involved, as they should be, we say, If you’re going to take this on, we expect all new elders to participate in a four-week training experience and an annual retreat the first weekend of December. If you cannot do that, maybe this isn’t your year to be-come an elder.” It’s not fair to coax a yes and then up the ante.

3. Setting the tone. The first training experience is crucial because it establishes your group’s community building tools and ministry tasks. In my last church, this training session began with everyone sharing his or her faith journey. Every session after that began with a question to open up relationships. This sets a precedent: “As we work together, we want to care for each other. Bring your whole self to the party”. The leader, of all people, must model this openness and care.

At one Christian Education meeting, I asked, “What was your experience in Christian education, if you grew up in the church, and how did you respond to it?” I learned more about the viewpoints, prejudices, and concerns that made up that committee than I ever did from heated committee speeches. I learned why people were impassioned about certain matters. Most important, the group grew closer.

4. Holding a yearly retreat. It may take years to move from a voluntary retreat to a required one for leaders. The benefits, however, can be cumulative, with each year’s attendance and content improving as you build a history and sense of commitment.

One year we had ten elders retiring from the board. All ten asked if they could still come to the retreat! The question was no longer, “How can I get out of this?” but, “How can I be involved?”

Like the training sessions, the annual retreat should begin with sharing led by a pastor or key leader. This can create energy and excitement as leaders grasp the overall picture of what God is calling them to.

The next step is evaluation. How did we do last year? How do we stack up to the vision? This provides a basis for the next stage, clarifying expectations and setting goals.

Just listing various positions and asking what we can expect from each can be revolutionary. It clarifies who owns what and can create a shared sense of owner-responsibility, and excitement about ministry.

5. Making meetings productive. Homes are the meeting places. Committees behave differently in homes than on metal chairs in a sterile classroom. At home, people treat each other with dignity. They relax. Some refreshments and a little sharing can infuse energy.

People often fear relational exercises will make meetings longer. But if you give people fifteen minutes in groups of three or four with a focused question for each person to answer briefly, it can actually shorten meetings.

People have a need to be heard. A rule in building relationships is: Never let someone come to a meeting and say nothing. When people feel they’ve had their air time, they can focus on issues and are less likely to make inappropriate speeches later. They feel cared for, and with discipline the meeting actually can end earlier.

Discipline for me means no meeting goes past 9 P.M. I figure if you can’t solve it between 7:30 and 9:00, it isn’t worth pushing, because the level of personal competence goes flat after that. Ending the formal meeting before people absolutely have to leave has a way of giving a group an extra shot of energy. They may sit around informally, share notes, touch base on projects, form strategies, and end up having spontaneous mini-meetings.

Remember the first hour of a meeting is your most productive. Don’t kill that energy by going straight into trivial reports and minutiae. Ask yourself, What are the issues we most need to work on? After dealing with these issues, go to routine reports that require little creative energy and insight.

Giving a timed agenda is another secret to making meetings work. It says, “We have four things to discuss. We need about ten minutes for the first and twenty for each of the others.” When people know they have ten minutes on a subject, they behave differently than when they think they can talk for two hours. The key is to enforce the time limits. Anything that can’t fit a time frame gets referred to a subcommittee, assigned to an individual for research, or tabled for a future meeting.

6. “Spinning off” mission groups. Every committee runs into tasks that fall within its scope of responsibility but beyond its ability to tackle as a group. The answer is to form subcommittee task forces that can put in the extra time and energy.

Most committees should spin off at least two mission groups a year. These groups might work with intensity for three months or a year but then go out of existence once their tasks are complete. Each should maintain the priority on relationships and community modeled in the committee that formed it.

7.Using “expanded” committees. If the ministries of your committees are truly significant, you will want as many people involved as possible. Committees can function well with up to twelve people. If you know when to create subgroups (during sharing times, for example), and if everyone is recruited to a specific ministry, committees don’t have to stay small.

Expanding committees to include nonelders provides context for no elders to discover and use their spiritual gifts. This enables the church to assess people’s callings and creates a reservoir from which to recruit future elders.

8. Remembering it does make a difference. When we opened one committee meeting, Ken, an engineer, expressed concern about his daughter. His tone was matter of fact, but I knew this was a difficult thing for him to do. We prayed, and someone prayed for Ken and his daughter by name. When we lifted our heads, tears streaked Ken’s cheeks, and he said, “I have just discovered what Christian community is all about.”

This is the kind of breakthrough we all look for in ministry and it happened on a committee!