Books @ Leadership Network

Advance Issue #119 – The Externally Focused Quest

Authors Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw talk about their latest book, The Externally Focused Quest.

For those who have read The Externally Focused Church and/or The Externally Focused Life, this book will be fresh with concepts, stories, illustrations, and diagrams. The Externally Focused Quest will help the practitioners take the next step in their missional ministry. At the same time, for those who are new to ministry outside the walls, The Externally Focused Quest will be a great launching tool for churches of any and all sizes.

The question of our first book was, "If your church were to leave the community, would anybody notice…would anybody care?" This book answers a different question. The full title of our book is The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community.  The book is not how to become the best church in the community but how can we become the best church for the community. That one little preposition determines how we allocate our resources of people, finances, facility, time, prayer and technology.

For the full interview, check out today’s issue of Advance.

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Stephanie Plagens is the Publications Manager for Leadership Network.

Helping Others Excel

I mostly read new books, but maybe that’s not always good. There’s one very old book I try to read -– or listen to via audio -- each day. Yes, it’s the Bible, and besides being God’s Word, it is the world’s bestselling book. I also read other lesser best-sellers, such as Bringing Out the Best in People, by Alan Loy McGinnis, 1985, which I recently reread finding it very helpful.

Dr. McGinnis (1933–2005) was a best-selling author, family therapist, business consultant, and popular speaker. After 20 years as a Lutheran minister, he became a counselor and co-founded the Valley Counseling Center in Glendale, CA. In the 1970s, he began researching friendship and his first popular book was The Friendship Factor, published by Augsburg Fortress in 1979 and revised in 2004.

For all the millions of words that have been written about him, Jesus has been rarely studied for his people skills, according to McGinnis, “a curious fact when you realize Jesus was clearly the most successful motivator of all time” (page 14). He believes he sees each of the principles of his book in the way Jesus treated and viewed others.

McGinnis affirms that everyone is motivated to do something. The leader’s challenge is “to channel already existing energies into the most worthwhile endeavors” (page 19). This differs from manipulation. Motivators find goals that will be good for both sides, and then they “weld together a high-achieving, high-morale partnership to achieve them” (page 21). It’s what my favorite seminary preaching professor calls preaching for agreement: find what people want, and assuming it’s a good thing, help them get it.

The best question for me in the entire book was from chapter 2: Do I expect the best from the people I lead? When I was the lead pastor at church, I fear I didn’t. In my present church role, such as currently heading the personnel team, do I? In my supervisory roles at Leadership Network, do I? In particular, when someone lets me down, it could be for a number of reasons I caused: maybe my instructions were unclear, maybe there was some other communication issue, etc. But if it wasn’t, if perhaps indeed the person got too hasty or (gasp) forgot, or whatever, I need to frame my attitude in a way that helps their behavior become better. I need to convey, “__, that wasn’t like you at all.” In short, treat people as they potentially could be, and if it’s something they genuinely want, you help them become that way. As McGinnis says, “When we elect such a positive view, lots of buried talent begins to surface” (page 34). As a result, people accomplish extraordinary things, he says. “The best motivators are always on the lookout for hidden capacities” (page 34).

Over the course of the book McGinnis outlines these 12 principles:

1. Expect the best from the people you lead

2. Make a thorough study of the other person’s needs.

3. Establish high standards for excellence.

4. Create an environment where failure is not fatal.

5. If they are going anywhere near where you want to go, climb on other people’s bandwagons.

6. Employ models to encourage success.

7. Recognize and applaud achievement.

8. Employ a mixture of positive and negative reinforcement.

9. Appeal sparingly to the competitive urge.

10. Place a premium on collaboration.

11. Build into the group an allowance for storms.

12. Take steps to keep your own motivation high.

Everyone is changing every day, either for better or for worse. If I want people around me to succeed, as much if not more than they themselves do, then according to McGinnis, I have potential to bring out the best in others.

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation. His recent “Leadership Network” books blogs include What Is Necessary for Church Planting to Go Viral? Mark Batterson’s Primal, Updated Publishing Updates, Beyond Christendom Says Migration Keeps Transforming the Church, Terrific Biography of Rick Warren, Picking the Best Graphic to Tell Your Story Well, What We’re Reading at Leadership Network, The Soviet Plot to Kill God, Migration and Churches in Europe, The Worst Moment in Most Church Services, Excellent Resources for Church-Based Grants, Multi-Site Church Roadtrip Released Today and Do White Churches Hold Others in Cultural Captivity?

Untamed

Alan Hirsch continues to give us much to think about.  His new book Untamed is a book you must get and not only read but make sure you key leaders read it and have a group discussion on it.  It has the potential to revolutionize the way your leaders think about Jesus.

Here are some quotes to give you a taste of what awaits your reading.

“You simply cannot be a disciple without being a missionary- a sent one.”
“Jeebus made me do it”
“A sanitized Jesus is a misrepresentation of him and leads to sterile lives.”
“Allow Jesus to offend you again!”
“Your God is too sick.”
“If your conception of God is radically false, then the more devout you are, the worse it will be for you.”

 I wish this had been Alan’s first book. It would have eliminated some of people’s misunderstanding of his message- namely did he believe at all in the institutional church. After reading this book there is no doubt- he does believe in the institutional church, just not as most institutional churches live out their faith.

This book destroys any sentimental, sterile, sweet, nice, domesticated view of Jesus and the church.  He challenges most of the practices of modern day Christians and congregation. He re-introduces us to the wild, untamed, radical Jesus we all are suppose to be like. He and his wife challenge us to live a reckless life worth telling stories about. They ask us to “abandon the domesticated faith of suburban consumer Churchianity” in order to live a life of risk for the love of a savior….”

Untamed will rock the very core of a safe, consumer oriented faith. If you can read this book without feeling uncomfortable and moved to make some changes in your life and ministry something is radically wrong with you.

Grab a copy now and watch it change your life.

Teams that Stick – More Q&A with Larry Osborne

Yesterday our guest on The Spotlight was Larry Osborne, pastor and author of the new book Sticky Teams. We had great participation, and actually didn’t get a chance to get to all of our questions, so here are three more from the audience:

Q: What if the pastor and staff have a great vision and plan - but they get push back from the volunteer team who is to implement that vision?

Larry’s Answer: That’s often a sign that it’s time to slow down and really hear what the objections are based on and make some adjustments to overcome them. It’s also important that those who create the vision be willing to charge the hill to get it done rather than just giving out work to others.

I’ve also found that sometimes I’m in touch with God’s vision but not his timing. Resistance that can’t be overcome is often a sign that I’m either ahead of God’s timing or the resisters are sinfully holding back. To determine which takes humble introspection, prayer, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Q: What do you as a church do to create this "team" culture?  Do you have times when all teams get together or expectations that teams get together outside of their time of serving?

Larry’s Answer: The smaller the church the more spontaneous these times can be. But as a team grows larger, these kind of team building events need to be planned. At North Coast, a lot of the team building and social interaction takes place at ministry meetings where people from various teams interact on a common project, spontaneous barbeques put on by our facility team, and numerous all-staff training and social events we schedule (probably totaling about 10-12 a year when added together).

When the church and staff were smaller, retreats, longer lunches, and social events did the trick.

Q: How much time do you personally spend with your team to stay sticky and tight?

Larry’s Answer: When the church was small, we’d go out to lunch as a team about once a week.

Now with a huge staff, that is no longer possible. Instead, I spend a significant amount of time each week with a smaller segment of our staff in planning meetings (10 to 15 key players) and much less with the rest of the team. That said, in a larger church the lead pastor still has to be available (and visible) to some degree. The ultimate goal is for each of our staff members to have their own circle of staff and lay leaders that they are bonding with.

I look at it this way. The smaller teams are similar to the nuclear family units of our staff and the staff as a whole is much like an extended family. So while I’m expecting healthy relationships among all of us – I am not expecting everyone to be equally close or to spend the same amount of time together.

Thanks again to Larry for taking the time to be our guest, and to all of the participants who made the webinar a success!

If you were not able to be on the live webinar yesterday, you can download the recording & slide presentation here. (Note: the file is very large, and will take at least several minutes to download on a high speed internet connection. When prompted, choose “save file” and wait for the download to finish before opening the recording.)

I’ll be announcing upcoming Spotlight topics in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

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Stephanie Plagens is the Publications Manager for Leadership Network.

What Is Necessary for Church Planting to Go Viral?

This week Amazon sent me an email about a book they thought I’d be interested in, based on other books I’ve bought. The book they recommended is VIRAL CHURCHES, which I co-wrote with Ed Stetzer. Today the publisher mailed me a bunch of author copies. So it’s off the press and available for all!

Here’s what you’ll enjoy in the book:

1. Great stories of people who have shifted from planting churches to birthing movements. This is the difference between addition and multiplication.

2. Great advice from a new set of heroes: people who are leading church planting networks.

3. Great discussion about the Biblical basis for building replication into everything you do. You’ll have new perspective on a lot of passages.

4. Great statistics about church planting. Did you know that at the 4-year mark, 68% of churches are still going? (This debunks the myth that 80% of new churches don’t make it past their first year.)

5. Great practical ideas for how to be more involved in the “new evangelism” – church planting.

Yesterday Ed and I did a 30-minute discussion with Q&A on the book. It’s on THE SHOW and is archived here: http://theshow.leadnet.org/Archive/archives_edstetzer.htm.

See also recent blogs here and here each with a short written interview from the authors.

This book has huge potential to reshape a lot of conversations and hopefully to contribute to a dramatic shift in how church planting is approached in North America. We warmly invite and urge you to join that conversation, and hopefully Viral Churches will help more people do so.

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation. His recent “Leadership Network” books blogs include Mark Batterson’s Primal, Updated Publishing Updates, Beyond Christendom Says Migration Keeps Transforming the Church, Terrific Biography of Rick Warren, Picking the Best Graphic to Tell Your Story Well, What We’re Reading at Leadership Network, The Soviet Plot to Kill God, Migration and Churches in Europe, The Worst Moment in Most Church Services, Excellent Resources for Church-Based Grants, Multi-Site Church Roadtrip Released Today, Don’t Let This Book Cover Fool You and Do White Churches Hold Others in Cultural Captivity?

Books Update On Our Fan Page

Hello readers! If you’re on Facebook, check out this video I just uploaded about the latest titles in our book series, and become a fan of Leadership Network while you’re at it.

We want to know what you think about our books. What’s that? You don’t have your own copy yet? What are you waiting for? Head over to leadnet.org/books and order your copy today!

Then head over to our fan page on Facebook and post your thoughts on our wall. “See” you there!

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Stephanie Plagens is the Publications Manager for Leadership Network.