Books @ Leadership Network

Multisite Road Trip Leadership Guru Stop – Steve Stroope at Lake Pointe Church

Welcome to day four of our conversations with senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  No reason to leave Texas so soon … so today we check with Steve Stroope, Senior Pastor at Lake Point Church.  

Steve, you say in Multi-site Church Road Trip that you and the team at Lake Pointe are always looking for leaders.  Outside of folks that are in your church, where and how do you look?

We utilize two primary profiles in vetting potential leaders to invite to the Lake Pointe team.  One is Strengthsfinders by the Gallup organization, which is a measurement of strengths.  This is not a personality profile.  It measures something entirely different.  It measures competencies.  When combined with a good personality profile, it gives you a good indication of how one will approach a task and their likelihood of success.  The second tool we use is a form of the DISC.  The one we use was developed by John Trent and is a profile called Leading From Your Strengths. 

In addition to these two profiles, we are looking for someone with strong character and a strong track record of leadership.  Of course, there is no profile to measure those two things.  We have found that it is essential to know someone who knows the candidate well and who also knows us well to assess both character and past performance.

You told me that you are known around Lake Pointe as somewhat of a “nut” about leadership!  I know that reputation is simply a reflection of your belief that if leaders are not developed, the church suffers and is limited in it’s capacity to touch its community and the world.  Your passion is a demonstration of a strong culture for leadership.  What are the things you do to develop and nourish that culture?

I agree with Bill Hybels when he said the best way to learn how to lead is to lead something.  We are continually putting people in situations to lead that will stretch their current capacity.  Part of our corporate language around here is to identify opportunities for leading as M1, M2, and M3.  If someone is doing a good job leading in a M1 situation, then let’s invite him/her to lead at the M2 level.  Then if that individual is doing well at the M2 level, let’s give him a try at the M3 level.  The way you get better at anything is to do it—including developing your leadership muscles.

Secondly, I think it is important to be around other leaders.

Finally, you improve your capacity to lead by reading everything you can get your hands on concerning leadership.  I have been mentored for years by many leaders who I’ve never met, but I have benefited from their leadership IQ by reading their best stuff.

Some have critiqued the multi-site movement believing that it feeds a diminishing pool of leaders.  You told me that you believe it has exactly the opposite effect.  How so?

This is a great time to be a participant in the church leadership world.  There are so many different kinds of opportunities to lead that require different types of leaders.  The multi-site movement is an example of this.  It is providing many more opportunities for strong leaders who may not fit into the “senior pastor” leadership mold.  Some do not possess a strong gift for communication or teaching, but they are high capacity leaders and the multi-site model is creating a variety of brand new categories for those leaders.

One of the key components to your leadership development model is what you call “resourcing.”  What are the resources you are feeding your leaders with during this season of ministry?

I think there are three streams of resources that help build a leader and I need to make sure that my leaders are getting a fresh infusion of all three streams.

First, there is what I call the science of leadership, and there are a lot of great writers and thinkers out there to whom I can introduce our leaders, i.e., Peter Drucker and Jim Collins. 

The second stream is the implementation of those leadership principles.  People like Ken Blanchard and Marcus Buckingham represent the group helping us with those issues.

Then the third and most important stream is the leader’s soul.  People like Mark Buchanan who wrote “The Rest of God” and J. Oswald Sanders, who wrote “Spiritual Leadership” are two examples of contributors who help us consider the importance of growing in character.

What is new about the multi-site ministry at Lake Pointe since we last talked?

In the last year, we have closed down a couple of what I would call “boutique” campuses.  These are campuses that were “flyers.”  In other words, we didn’t know whether they would work or whether there was enough of a critical mass for them to be successful in the long run, but we thought they were worth trying.  After giving them a good run, we realized they weren’t going to be viable.  We’re not sorry we started those particular campuses.  We learned a lot about what to do and what not to do, and we believe that a certain amount of experimentation and risk is healthy and necessary.  We are getting ready to launch a third major campus within the next 12 months, and because of the current economic environment are moving slower but are feeling confident that multi-site ministry is a proven and effective way to make disciples.

What have I not asked that I should have?

You did not ask what do we not have figured out about multi sites.  There are several—but the one most perplexing to us that we continue to struggle with is what strengths and personality type are necessary for an effective campus pastor.  We are still trying to figure this one out.  I think we are getting closer – but we’re not there.

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Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

 

Robert Emmitt, Community Bible Church, San Antonio – You Want to Launch a Campus Where?

Welcome to day three of our conversations with senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  Today, we are headed to San Antonio for a conversation with Robert Emmitt, Senior Pastor at Community Bible Church. 

1. Robert, your original campus there in San Antonio reaches 14,000 folks every week in a large, beautiful campus.  Some multi-site churches have chosen to secure locations with a similar look and feel to that of their original campus but you chose to go with a wide variety of locations?  Say a little about why you chose to do that?

Variety is the spice of life! The only people who really cared about the multi-site CBC's looking and feeling like the original campus, were those of us who were at the original campus. The communities that we are reaching with our multi-site CBC's don't know anything about the original campus. So rather than try to recreate something that no one knew about, we just decided to let the pastors and leadership teams build their own church. They are all called CBC's. They all have great music, practical bible teaching, and small group ministries. They are connected through our website. The pastor's job is to find the best building at the best price. Whether that is a school, shopping center, restaurant or sharing another church facility. We're open to whatever doors the Lord opens up for us.

2. What are the pros and cons of being in such a wide variety of campus settings? 

The pro's are the more different campus settings we find, the more doors we learn to knock on for the new CBC's. I can't think of any negatives for the wide variety. We are trying to reach, teach and help as many people as we can in Jesus name. The campus settings are secondary to our mission. That has been the history of CBC. We started in a restaurant, moved to a park, a movie theater, a store front, a shopping center and our current location. The buildings change but the mission remains the same.  

3. Which of the settings works best?  Why?

The permanent (at least 3 years) works best.  The shopping center with a 3 year lease, is working great. The 4 acres with a new church on is great. Schools have been frustrating as they don't really like having churches in them. 

4. What is new about the multi-site ministry at Community Bible Church since we last talked?

We quit playing the CD's of Robert, and let the pastors do the preaching.  We are looking more like a church planting ministry than a traditional multi-site. We are moving from a part time pastor to a full time pastor model. It costs more, but if you want the churches to grow, then the pastors need to devote their full time to it.  

5. What have I not asked that I should have?

How many CBC's would you like to have in the next 5 years? Answer: 100  Are you on track? No.
Why not? We got bogged down in trying to manage all the details for the multi-sites. What is your solution? Tell the pastors "You can do it. We can help." Wait a second, that's Home Depot's line.  How about "You can do it, we'll help you."

We will stay in Texas tomorrow with a stop in to talk with leadership development guru Steve Stroope, senior pastor at Lake Pointe Church. 

We would love to have us help spread the word about Multi-site Church Road Trip.  We have developed a free online resource – Multi-site Church Toolkit: Launch Analysis that we will send to anyone who completes one of the following. 

Buys a copy of the book

Posts this tweet – Get a copy of Multi-site Church Road Trip Now at http://bit.ly/2KZlzO

Posts a comment on this blog or creates a post on your own blog.

Posts a review on Amazon.com

Once you have completed one of the items above send an email to multisiteroadtrip@zondervan.com indicating where you purchased the book or made your post and we will send you the free resource.

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To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Multi-site Church Road Trip Gone Global, Dave Browning, Christ the King Community Church

Welcome to day two of the road trip.  This is the second in a series of posts containing conversations that we recently had with some of the senior pastors featured in our new book – A Multi-site Church Road Trip.  In each post you will gain additional insights by getting updates about the featured church and hearing the heart of the leader.  

Today’s guest – Dave Browning (twitter - @bigdaverino), Christ the King Community Church.

1. Dave, you say in Multi-site Church Road Trip that you and the team at Christ the King have 120 campuses and many of those are actually International campuses.  What does an international campus look like?  How is the same/different from one of your state-side campuses?

Overseas our gatherings are often not in an owned or leased facilities.  Some of our congregations meet in tents, or under trees, or town squares.  Often the gatherings have children present, whereas in the US we offer children's programming simultaneous the worship service.  In the US our services are typically an hour or less.  Overseas, our services are often longer than two hours.  In some cultures the leader has a more prominent role that we tend to see in the US.

2. I think it is interesting that you have a commitment to international campuses and a high value for use of technology in developing leaders but no Internet campuses?  Any reason for that?

Our international reach is more of a "God-thing" than anything else.  We had no plan to be outside of our own county, much less around the world.  But once you define the church by relationship, instead of geography, you realize that relationships do not respect geographical boundaries.  We say that we can go as far as relationships will take us.  Our goal is to raise up people to do ministry, so we view technology as a tool, not a strategy. 

3. We have talked recently about your discovery that there is a greater access to cell coverage than high speed internet in India and many of the countries you are serving in Africa and that this has prompted you to redesign your leadership development training to be delivered in text size messages. Can you give us an update on where you are in that process?  What is working?  What is not?

I send out a weekly email that gets resent as text by our international leaders.  Some of our leaders follow me on Twitter as well.  The cell phone is clearly the next laptop.  More SMS texts are sent every day in the world than email messages.  We are attempting to take our "teachable points of view" and distill them to 140 characters or less.  We are also developing 60-second sermons that can be utilized on cell phones.

4. You are the author of Deliberate Simplicity, another title in the Leadership Network Innovation Series.  How do the key principles of simplicity find application in the establishment and execution of International Campuses?

Simplicity resonates in the two-thirds world, because it really is the only option.  There are not resources available in much of the world to support the attractional model. 

5. What is new about the multi-site ministry at Christ the King since we last talked?

I believe that God is showing us some new things about worship.  Many of our leaders are feeling that our corporate worship has been too much about us, and not enough about Him.  We are also exploring more non-musical forms of worship that have great potential to reduce our dependence on musicians as key to expanding the church. 

6. What have I not asked that I should have?

You ask great questions.  One additional one might be, "What complicates overseas ministry?"  The answer would be:  money. There is such a huge resource disparity between our church in the US and our church in the two-thirds world that we are wrestling constantly with how much to support needs overseas.  So far we have sent very nominal and sporadic support, and have placed an emphasis on being self-sustaining.  But it is often difficult to say "no" when they need it and we have it.

Next stop? Robert Emmitt, Senior Pastor, Community Bible Church, San Antonio, Texas

To get the latest updates be sure to sign up for the RSS feed at www.multisitechurchroadtrip.com

To see all posts for the tour, select tour stop from the category sidebar.

Twitter - @gregligon @geoffsurratt @warren bird #mscr  #leadnet

Who Killed Change? Solving the Mystery of Leading People Through Change

If you like a simple story, a murder mystery no less, that teaches an important leadership lesson, then you may like Who Killed Change? by Ken Blanchard and a team of colleagues. Personally I always like the stories used by Blanchard to get his leadership points across although few, if any, are the foundation for a great screenplay.

The core truth surrounding this story is that many people in organizations—even congregations—intentionally or unintentionally wound or kill change efforts. And, it starts at the top as often as its starts in the ranks of employees or members.

The story of this book involves the questioning of 13 primary suspects in an organization to discover who killed Change. My favorite suspect is Carolina Culture—and it is not because I live in South Carolina. It is because I see dysfunctional and/or controlling cultural patterns as the villain in too many congregations.

A close second is Clair Communication since poor communication strategies and tactics often doom change efforts in congregations. That is why I focus so much on transition before change as the mantra of congregational change efforts I coach.

The concluding truth in the book is worth noting: “Change can be successful only when the usual characters in an organization combine their unique talents and consistently involve others in initiating, implementing and sustaining change.” [144]

Like many Blanchard books it can be read in one evening, or in my case, one airplane flight. My only significant disappointment is that the book is written for people and organizations who do their work in a linear fashion. It is hopelessly left-brained. But, who am I to talk. All too often that is me also.

I recommend this book to you. Read it, have your staff team read it, then engage in a couple of hours dialogue together about how the story and principles of this book are found in your congregation, denominational organization, or parachurch organization. Develop and take action on a short list of three to five things you are doing to do different as an organization in light of what you learn.

George Bullard, The Columbia Partnership, www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org, GBullard@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

"Reader's Digest" of Good Books for a Church Board

 A friend of mine recently emailed with a great idea:

I was asked a good question last night by our lay elders: what can we be reading to better ramp us up to the trends and realities of the church today, which you [our pastor] intuitively pick up through connections and conversations, as well as your reading?

I started thinking of all sorts of things they could read, but don’t want to overwhelm them. If I’m overlooking a “Reader’s Digest” of church growth out there, worth sharing, what would you say -- maybe your top few books right now?

The best answer is: It all depends. An aging rural church might want to read a different set of books than an urban church that reaches young adults. My friend’s church is a growing, exciting, faith-filled group with thriving ministry in every area from prayer to youth to worship. What might help his board? Let me offer three books I helped compile, plus reference to two published series that Leadership Network has created.

1. Eleven Innovations in the Local Church

This book has been described as providing an outstanding overview of many directions various churches are exploring today in their effort to find new ways to reach people for Jesus Christ.

2. Culture Shift

In this very readable book, two pastors each describe their own church journey toward developing a healthy culture in their respective congregations. The story-based narrative will help any church think through its current "atmosphere" in light of whatever particular mission God has given it.

3. Unleashing the Word: Rediscovering the Public Reading of Scripture

This book-with-DVD comes out in November 2009. It's a story-based account of how to make God's Word come alive wherever it's read, but especially in worship settings. It contains 15 illustrations of how exactly to prepare a reading. We've tested it with seminary students and lay readers in churches, all with very positive responses.

Eight Additional Books

Leadership Network has partnered with Zondervan to create the Leadership Network Innovation Series. Books in this series offer real stories, about real leaders, in real churches, doing real ministry. A list of all titles, each a highly practical book, along with a free sample chapter from each, can be found at leadnet.org/books.

Twenty-Six Additional Books

Books in the Leadership Network Jossey-Bass Imprint Series present thoroughly researched and innovative concepts from leading thinkers, practitioners and pioneering churches. Again, a list of all titles along with a free sample chapter from each, can be found at leadnet.org/books.

What do you think? What additional books would you suggest for a church board like this one?

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.

Are You Creating a Real Sense of Urgency in Your Ministry Setting?

John Kotter is author of the now classic business book, Leading Change, published in 1996 and still a bestseller. In that previous book he suggested eight steps in leading change. The first of these was to develop a sense of urgency.

As a follow-up Kotter has written A Sense of Urgency. In this 2008 book he clearly makes his point in the six page preface and the first three chapters that take up 61 of the 196 total pages of primary text. That is all you need to read to benefit from his VIP's [short for very important points].

Here are some of the VIP's:

• The single biggest error people make when they try to craft change is they do not "create a high enough sense of urgency among enough people to set the stage for making a challenging leap into some new direction." [viii]
• Our biggest challenge is complacency. "We underestimate its power and its prevalence." [4]
• Our second biggest challenge is a false sense of urgency. "A false sense of urgency is pervasive and insidious because people mistake activity for productivity." [9]
• To increase a true sense of urgency, "create action that is exceptionally alert, externally oriented, relentlessly aimed at winning, making some progress each and every day, and constantly purging low value-added activities--all by always focusing on the heart and not just the mind. [60]

To create a real sense of urgency I entreat you to go forward and do likewise. What is your first step to create a real sense of urgency in your congregation or other ministry setting?

George Bullard, The Columbia Partnership, GBullard@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

I Was Not Swayed

After reading The Starfish and the Spider a couple of years ago I was interested in reading Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman [one of the authors of Starfish/Spider] and his brother Rom. It is not that The Starfish and the Spider is the best book I have ever read. But, it was good. It was a laudable attempt to deal with the issue of seeing organizational movements not as centralized or decentralized, but as distributive or networked. It just did not go far enough.

Sway appears to be a book where an author says, "my first book sold so well, let me see if I can produce another winner. Hey, brother, you want to write this one with me?" It had a big roll out by its publisher. The book itself, however, misses the mark.

I was not swayed!

[I was also not convinced by Malcolm Gladwell's second book, Blink; while at the same time loving his first book, The Tipping Point. BTW, Sway is in many ways a counterpoint to Blink. I'm not sure the core premise of both books can be true.]

Sway is like a one point sermon where the singular point is told over and over again to convince the congregation it is true, significant, and something about which they ought to shout "Hallelujah!"

Sway does have some great illustrations that may almost convince you it is possible to be certain of the truth or the right thing in a given situation while at the same time being totally wrong. However, I do not believe anything can be proven by a string of examples. So for me the idea of page 7 that this book will "explore several of the psychological forces that derail rational thinking" is legitimate, but I was not convinced nor swayed by the book that the authors had really found something of great value.

This book would make a great read by a sophomore study group in a college. It may have value in teaching people to be cautious about their assessment or diagnosis of strategic opportunities. But ultimately truth cannot be swayed. Buy and read this book at your own risk.

George Bullard, The Columbia Partnership, GBullard@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

The Morning After Innovation 3

It's very quiet around here this morning. I'm sitting here in my favorite chair with a cup o joe reflecting on all that I saw and heard at Leadership Network's Innovation 3 Conference that concluded yesterday. Personally it was a phenomenal time of connecting and networking with a ton of old and new friends. I met so many young ministry leaders there that I would probably never cross paths with had we not gathered in Dallas this week. If I had to boil it down to just one thing that I took away from this gathering, it would be this -- how encouraged and hopeful I am for the future of the Church. As ministry leaders (and servants), we will always have our struggles and disagreements. That's just part of the deal. Beyond all that, I witnessed a real hunger for connection, for learning, for community, and for a real sense of mission, as overused as all of those terms are. As great as it was to hear positive feedback from conference participants, I know that there was so much more going on during those two days than just another Christian conference. Yet again, God showed up and put together some incredible encounters for us.

If you didn't have an opportunity to be there with us in person, you'll have an opportunity to virtually experience much of Innovation 3 in the coming weeks. We recorded just about everything! Todd Rhoades, aka The Monday Morning Insight Guy, told me last night that we probably captured and recorded somewhere between 40-50 hours of content. That includes audio and video recordings of main sessions and breakouts. We'll be rolling that out for you soon. Some of it is already posted on the Innovation 3 website. We'll post more on the site as we get to it. More details on that later.

Here's the link to the Innovation 3 Conference Live!site. You may want to check out the photos and other stuff posted there when you have a few minutes.

I'm keeping this post brief today. There's so much still rolling around in my head this morning. As the consummate introvert, I need some time to process and reflect. I just wanted to say thank you -- thank you to all of you who invested the time and the dollars to join us in Dallas this week. My thanks to God for showing up and for orchestrating the entire experience. And lastly, my thanks to God and to Leadership Network for providing this vocation for me. This is certainly not the path in life I would have chosen for myself. I wish I could say that I developed this tremendous, focused, intentional strategy for my life that led me to where I am today. The truth is, I stumbled into this vocation, I thought by accident. I'm glad that God had (and has) plans for me.

Well Mr. White, aka Coffee Drinking Cat, is actually drinking my coffee right now so I'm abandoning that cup and heading over to the kitchen to get another cup. Stay tuned for further Innovation 3 developments.

Linda Stanley directs the Life Stage Leadership Community Groups for senior pastors.

  

Are you the head fundraiser Part 3

Last post on this book.

Bottom Line: You are their pastor.

As I read Levy’s book I was struck by the similarity between his role as President of Lincoln Center and a good pastor.

I was trained as a pastor through my seminary education and my mentors. I didn’t stay in that field long but do work with pastors every day. So I know enough about the work of pastors to understand their points of view.

And most great leaders have the same skills as most good pastors.

1. They know what is going on in their congregants, or in Levy’s case, prospective donor’s lives. They know when to call to give encouragement and prayer and applause.
2. They know the situations where they themselves need help. In the case of a good pastor, they have to be willing to ask for help in specific ways, not just “I need your support.” Ditto the CEO of a nonprofit, they have to define specifically where they need funds, expertise, advice and volunteer effort.
3. They know that it has to be face to face. Pastors and Nonprofit directors communicate in many ways. Phone. Email. Blogs. Twitters. But nothing beats face to face. Yes, finding the time to do all that can be draining, but nothing replaces it. Not just in asking for help or support, but just to build the relationship of care and trust.
4. They know that the future is just as important as the now. I think this is one of the marks of a great leader. You have to manage the present in order to manage the future. The actions of the present determine the future. And sometimes you make adjustments to the present to get you to your future. But those that are consumed with either the future OR the present don’t get things done. You have to have your eye on both.

For a pastor or not for profit leader you are investing in a person now and developing them for the future.

Bottom line: If you think of the ideal pastoral skills, you have a pretty good description of what is needed to be a great Nonprofit CEO.

*** Dave Travis is Managing Director of Leadership Network.

Are you the head fundraiser part 2

Yours for the Asking: A n Indispensible Guide to Fundraising and Management by Reynold Levy.

 Get it here

Ok, read the last post for context but here are the big take-aways for me from this book.

1. Expand the board. They key to fundraising is a good and ever expanding board that gets you to new people and new contacts. The best fundraising is peer-to-peer and you need people that represent who you are trying to reach.
   

Too many times for religious not for profits we see boards that are friends of the founder who really have nothing to contribute except cheerleading. Good boards have funders, strategists and those willing to help make the asks.

2. Don’t depend on letters, proposals, events and the like. You have to ask face to face. Shoe leather beats stamps.
   

This is the biggest issue for church planters, pastors and not for profits. Be bold and ask.

3. Like many other monomaniacs that are successful in business or church or other fields, you do work all the time. I know my staff is like that. I know I am like that. I know pastors like that and Levy convinces me that is normal. Yep, I am thinking about it all the time. That’s part of the success.
   

4. a quote: “Be flexible. About the size of the gift. About the timing. And about the terms of payment.

Be grateful for whatever the response.

Building and sustaining long-term friends for your institution or cause is the objective.”

Too many of us view rejection as the end of the relationship but it is just the beginning. Find ways people can help you and your cause.

5. “Philanthropy is biography.” Giving usually flows out of their story and how it connects with the story of your organization. So take time to know their story.
   

6. Keep it simple. People really do want to help you. Don’t cloud the issues. Be direct.

And I love his chapters on humor and while his examples included in the appendices really don’t apply to my organization, I appreciate him sharing some of the materials there. Shows transparency and openness.

My sense is that if I ever had the privilege of meeting Mr. Levy and asking him questions, he would hold an open hand and try and be helpful with anything he had. That’s a good way to live.

Dave Travis is the Managing Director of Leadership Network.