Innovative Church Community

For those who missed or want to review our ICC session with Gary Combs from January 2012: http://vimeo.com/35110543

Pastor Steve Davis of Spout Springs Church has a brand new ebook out on Amazon.  Transform(180) is a devotional ebook we are all bound to love (despite the fact that many of us know the author!).  Click here to purchase your Kindle version on Amazon. Be reminded, Kindle Readers work on almost all computers, smart phones and tablets.

Here is the Amazon product description:

“This is not your typical warm, fuzzy devotional book. Filled with cutting-edge analogies and real-life applications, Transform(180) contains 180 daily readings designed to redirect your spiritual journey and reignite your passion for God.

And with titles like Cranked to Eleven, Faith and Stupidity, Arrogant Butterflies, and The Buffalo Chicken Prayer, you’re sure to have quite a few laughs along the way.”

Want to affair proof your marriage and ministry? Click out this article from Ron Edmondson:

http://bit.ly/t0wguK

Jason (not his real name) and his sweet wife sat on the couch in our living room. They both had attended our marriage conference the year before and when he called and said they needed to talk, Deb and I knew from the tone of his voice what the problem was. Unfortunately we have heard that tone many times before and it almost always indicates some sort of sexual problem in the marriage. Unfortunately Christians, especially committed followers of Christ, seem to think they should be immune to such problems and are the only believers struggling with sexual issues.

Jason looked at us with downcast eyes. He was battling a pornography habit and when his wife found out she was stunned and dismayed. She had sensed something was wrong for a long time but just could not put her finger on it. They had only been married for a few years and to look at them you could foolishly think this would not be a problem for them. She was beautiful with long flowing hair and she had a great body; the kind of looks every young man hopes his wife will have. He thought getting married would be the answer for his years of sexual struggles as a single, but of course it was not. He had not set up adequate structures around him to help him overcome his problem. Now his life, ministry, walk with God, and marriage were hanging in the balance.

Frank, (not his real name either) was a good friend from seminary. He and his wife were in one of our small groups. God blessed him greatly in ministry and his church grew to thousands. Frank never told anyone, but his roaring sex drive and lack of emotional connection with his wife was something he thought he was just going to have to live with. He actually did fine for years, immersed in the busyness of a flourishing ministry. He was sure that infidelity was something that would never happen to him because he was committed to avoiding it and committed to Christ. Besides he had a family with a bunch of great kids he loved with all his heart. But through a series of emails with a female co-worker he let another woman into the hurting emotional part of his life and soon an emotional affair caught him totally by surprise. It was only a matter of time before it became a full-blown affair. In tears my friend told me he has now lost his church, his marriage, and he is retraining for a new career. They are close to bankruptcy and most everything he held dear is gone with his reputation. Read the rest of this entry →

I confess, I have not done a good job of addressing the economy in my role as pastor and Bible teacher.  I haven’t dealt enough with the recession of 2008-present because I just don’t understand the economy.  I am trained in counseling and preaching and church leadership and exegesis.  But my knowledge of issues related to money and employment/unemployment and business is pitiful.

Now, though, there is a new book out that seems like it was written for me and pastors like me.  Preaching in Plenty and in Want from Judson Press is about the relationship of preaching and the economy.  This is an extremely practical, user-friendly book.  It will help you address quite possibly the most pressing issue faced by most of the people who come to your church (or at least the perceived most pressing issue if we would  agree that sin is at the core the actual most pressing issue).

I encourage you to check it out.  Click here learn more and/or purchase from Judson Press.

Now, reading this post, and then checking out the book, you’ll note that the author, Matthew Tennant, has my last name.  He is my brother.  But, I wouldn’t ask you to go buy his book just because I want him to be successful.  I might do that on my facebook page, but not in the Innovative Church Community.  I respect this community too much to use it as a personal forum.  No, there’s one reason I am recommending this book.  I truly  believe your preaching-teaching will benefit.

Here’s a link for an endorsement from someone who does not know Matt at all, and it simply recommending the book on its own merit.

Read Preaching in Plenty and in Want and let me know how you are preaching with relation to the economy.

Based on the topic of our upcoming ICC Learning Community in December, I thought a link to this article that just came to my inbox might be appropriate:

Why a Healthy Sex Life Makes You A Better Leader

In a fairly recent session with a client, I heard what they were saying, beating around the bush, trying to express their feelings of frustration about their jobs, without being too hard on their upper level management, who they personally liked.

As I listened to them talk among themselves, I began to try to think of a way to summarize what they were trying to say.  All of a sudden it hit me – and so I blurted it out, without much thought.  ‘ACCOUNTABILITY WITHOUT EMPOWERMENT EQUALS MISERY!’  They stopped in mid-conversation, and said to me, ‘Say that again….’ And so I did, and wrote it up on my trusty whiteboard:  ‘ACCOUNTABILITY WITHOUT EMPOWERMENT EQUALS MISERY!’

“That’s it!” they said.  I was able to capture what I heard them say in just five simple words.  The framework formed, they were able to move forward into a productive conversation around the issues they were facing – an organizational culture that expects so much from them and their people, but one in which the ‘company’ (the leadership) doesn’t know how to give those employees what they need in return.

The fact is – it wasn’t like my statement was so revolutionary in nature (although the human ego in me would have liked to think it was…).  It was simply a statement of fact, I believe, for humanity in general.  I believe that just about all REASONABLE people would be negatively challenged in an organizational culture like this.  As a matter of fact, I had heard this same thing from numerous clients, in varying sectors – churches included! Read the rest of this entry →

Do you know the real, underlying values at your church?

If you attended our last ICC session in Burlington, you heard Angie Ward of The Leadership Lab talk about her doctoral work on the topic of Church Organizational Culture (COC for short). COC is the system of shared beliefs, assumptions and operational values that impact how your church approaches leadership, its mission, and relationships. Angie’s research has resulted in the development of the Church Organizational Culture Survey to measure these values.

You have the opportunity for your church to participate in the next round of pilot testing of this online COC Survey this fall. By participating in the survey, you will gain valuable information about your church’s culture to help you move toward greater ministry effectiveness. Best of all, participation in this phase of the survey is FREE and includes a free phone consultation to help interpret your church’s results and possible next steps.

If you are interested in your church participating, please email Angie at angie@theleadershiplab.net BY NEXT FRIDAY, September 30, to receive a Participant Kit with more information. We hope you will consider taking advantage of this unique opportunity!

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”   Larry Bossidy (director of the pharmaceutical company Merck.)

Hiring people is the biggest, most challenging decision any organization has to make.  It even more important for churches, because we’re dealing with the flock of God that we are called to lead and serve.

When hiring people, there are two ways to do it:
1.    Build a core, passionate team.
2.    Or don’t.

Very few folks would admit to choosing #2 as an approach, but lots of organizations do exactly that — they hire for reasons other than passion and fit.

I can remember when first starting NHF, my prayer was that God would provide the leadership needed where I was lacking.   We had no money, not a lot of people, we were meeting in rented facilities and a mentor of mine was encouraging me to “hire All-Americans.”    This presented a few problems.   Where do you find them?  And if we did, how could we possibly afford them?

Over the years, we have hired a lot of people.  And as is the case, some of those are still with us, and some have moved on.  Some left on cordial terms, and some…well, you know!   During this miraculous, painful and educational process, we have learned some valuable lessons on hiring the right people for our church.   In fact, we have a very comprehensive plan and program which we will share at ICC in October.

Chances are, you have a church website.  And, I presume, you want people who are searching for a new church home to find your church website if they do a search online.  So what happens when someone in your community is searching for churches in your area?  Does your church website show up?  Or is it buried 10+ pages deep on the search engine?  If you want to maximize the number of people who discover your church website, you need to learn and apply a few principles of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

So here’s Step 1. Go to one of the main search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and do a search for churches in your area using keywords you think someone would use to search for a church.  For instance, I use the search terms “morrisville nc churches” or “churches morrisville nc.”  Scroll through the results and find your church.  Are you the first church listed on page one of the search?  Are you on page two? Page three?  If you’re not #1 on page 1, then you have potential to improve your SEO.  (Before we go any further, just know that there are no guarantees with SEO.  But in my humble estimation, you should be able to at least get your church website to front page of a search.) Read the rest of this entry →