Daniel Im's Blog, page 21

Fear, Scarcity, and Other Things That Prevent Church Multiplication

In every story and aspect of life, there always seem to be opposing forces.

On our planet, you have night and day. In Romeo and Juliet, you have the Capulets and the Montagues. In Star Wars, you have the Rebellion and the Empire. In Marvel, you have the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra. And in life, you have the close talkers, who don’t know what a breath mint is (Seinfeld anyone?), and everyone else, who seems to have a good handle on personal space and emotional intelligence.

There are characteristics that lead to multiplication, as well as factors that prevent…
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In the same way, we see similar forces when it comes to church multiplication. There are characteristics that lead to multiplication, as well as factors that prevent multiplication. In the same way, there are characteristics that can lead your church to becoming a Level Five church, as well as factors that will prevent that and stall you at Level Two or Three (see below for a chart of the various levels).

In this article, we will examine barriers that prevent a church from multiplying:
1. Fear

Church planters would do well to heed Paul’s exhortation to Timothy,

…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Tim. 1:7).

Paul knew that fear of anything other than a healthy reverent fear of the glory and sovereignty of God would prevent believers from fulfilling the call of God. Even Marie Curie, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize multiple times, understood the paralyzing power of fear, which is why she noted, “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
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The reality is that the fear of the unknown, of losing friends, of losing tithers, of change, and of failure are all factors that prevent churches from multiplying. For example, fear often drives churches to soothe their growing pains by starting another campus, instead of planting another church.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am for multisite, but only when it’s a strategy that comes alongside church planting. For many churches ridden with fear, they never plant a church because they’re afraid it won’t succeed. Multisite needs to be seen as an alternative for building a bigger building, rather than as a replacement for church planting.

Also, fear of people’s murmurs and spats of complaining about planting another church paralyzes leaders (and thus churches) from taking the leap of faith.

Some of your people may wonder why you’re talking about planting another church when you haven’t even broken the 200 barrier, as if a church has to be running over 200 to plant another church. But if you probed deeper, you would find that the murmurs and complaints are coming from a fear of losing friends or even losing control.

If these fears are not understood and addressed on a global scale, and in every ministry and system within the church, then your church will never be able to multiply. Vaneetha Rendall reflects on three Hebrews in exile (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) and offers cogent counsel to those of us who find ourselves vacillating between fear and obedience. She states,

Even if the worst happens, God’s grace is sufficient. Those three young men faced the fire without fear because they knew that whatever the outcome, it would ultimately be for their good and for God’s glory. They did not ask “what if” the worst happened. They were satisfied knowing that “even if” the worst happened, God would take care of them. Even if. Those two simple words have taken the fear out of life.

Replacing “what if” with “even if” is one of the most liberating exchanges we can ever make. We trade our irrational fears of an uncertain future for the loving assurance of an unchanging God. We see that even if the worst happens, God will carry us. He will still be good. And He will never leave us.

One of the easiest ways to gauge whether or not the fear of multiplication is present within your church is to talk to your small group leaders about multiplication. Ask them if they (or their group) are open to multiplying themselves. If they resist and balk at the idea, then you know that there’s a greater measure of fear than faith towards multiplication in your church.

2. Perceived and Actual Scarcity

“What’s the right size to multiply your church?”

There’s a rumor out there that goes like this: “It’s 25% larger than your current church. So if your church is currently at 100 people, then it’s when you’re 125; or if you’re 1,000, then it’s when you’re attendance is at 1,250.” The problem with this “statistic” is that it’s driven by a perceived scarcity mindset, which will ultimately keep your church from multiplying.

A scarcity mindset will keep your church from multiplying.
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Let me explain. This mindset says that you cannot multiply until you have enough leaders to fill the potential vacancies, or until you have more than enough tithers to replace those who are leaving. If this is your mindset, then you’ll never have enough to reach that 25% mark because there’ll always be more needs and additional ministry to do.

The opposite of a perceived scarcity mindset is an abundant mentality.

So instead of thinking that you’ll lose band members or small-group leaders when you multiply, you need to understand that others will step up and fill those vacancies when those leaders leave. We’ve seen this happen time after time.

There is a difference between perceived and actual scarcity, however. For example, there are times and seasons when planting another church would not be wise. This could be three months after your church launched if your church is going through a split, or if there’s been a scandal or a moral failure in your church.

During these moments, there is an actual scarcity of trust, resources, and people. But for the majority of churches, it is perceived scarcity that prevents them from multiplying. We would do well to remember Hudson Taylor’s words: “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”

God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.
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3. Bad Math

There’s a myth going around where some think that it’s a more effective use of time, resources, and energy to just add people to your church, rather than expend the energy to plant a whole new church. This is problematic.

In fact, it doesn’t make any sense numerically. When you plant churches that multiply and plant other churches, that plant other churches, you will reach a far greater number of people than if
 your church were to just add seats and services. Furthermore, we have discovered that new churches have a higher likelihood of making an impact and are more successful at reaching new people than existing churches.

Addition is fine, but multiplication is better.
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So let’s do good math—addition is fine, but multiplication is better. John Mark Terry and J. D. Payne speak to this reality in Developing A Strategy For Missions (2013):

The Church Growth Movement has always contended that church planting is the key to fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). The first century Christians obeyed Jesus’ command by planting churches all over the Roman Empire. Church growth research has demonstrated that new churches are more evangelistic than older churches and more active in church planting.

In other words, new units multiply more rapidly than older units. It is easy to see why the Church Growth Movement advocated aggressive church planting.

4. Church Centricity
One of the greatest temptations for pastors and churches is over focusing on your church at the expense of church planting.

I understand this temptation. The truth is, there will always be needs and ministry opportunities at your church.

You will always be tempted to purchase a building before planting another church—especially if you’re portable.

Members will always be lined up outside your office for counsel, although your time may be better spent developing leaders who could counsel those church members.

In church life, as in personal life, there’s always the temptation to spend the extra time, money, and resources on ourselves rather than investing them in others. Thus, church centricity is the antithesis to the first characteristic of a multiplying church, which is outlined in the book that this entire article is excerpted from: Multiplication Today, Movements Tomorrow: Practices, Barriers, and an Ecosystem. (You can download the e-version of this book for free here).

Church centricity is the antithesis to the first characteristic of a multiplying church.
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We must overcome the church centricity barrier by moving from an ‘inward focus’ to an ‘outward focus.’ So, what does a church with an ‘outward focus’ look like?

In the LifeWay research on transformational churches, churches that met our criteria as a transformational church had 67% of members agree that, “Our church leaders think as missionaries and work to understand the cultural context in our region.”[i]

In addition, 71% believed, “Our leadership senses a call to our local city or community”[ii] and 77% said, “Our church leadership understands the context.”[iii]

Such beliefs and behaviors display an outward focus. By having such a mentality, churches seem to embrace a Christ-centered, gospel-centered mindset—where they love God and others—which propels them to become a church that is mission- oriented and multiplication bound.

Next week, in Part 2 of this series, we will look at the next four barriers to multiplication.

If you want to learn the characteristics of churches that multiply, and the research that all of this is based upon, go here to download the entire book that this article is excerpted from.

Endnotes:

[i] Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer, Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2010), 53.

[ii] Ibid, 50.

[iii] Ibid, 59.

*My post here was originally published on Sep 7, 2016 in Christianity Today.

A Scalable Curriculum for Church-Based Leadership Development

A few years back, when I was in Myanmar visiting a local Bible College, I remember being in the back of a small oddly shaped “truck” bouncing around the dirt road. It didn’t feel like we were ever moving faster than 30 miles an hour. To be honest, the “truck” probably didn’t even have the capacity to do so.

As we began to drive up a hill and go around a bend, I remember our guide telling us that we were about to pass a Buddhist monastery. This monastery, he told us, had actually prevented the local electric company from extending power to the Bible College.

As I was reflecting on what it would feel like to live in a place where something like that could happen, I felt the air go thin and began to experience a bit of trouble breathing. I then felt this deep sense of heaviness in my heart. It was so vivid that I can still feel it to this day.

Eventually, a few miles later, we arrived at the Bible College to this tall wooden fence. As it opened, not only did I feel the air clear up, but the heaviness in my heart dissipated as I saw, not concrete buildings like the monastery had, but straw roofs and makeshift buildings. This felt like the most peaceful place on earth.

As I reflect on that experience—when I walked the grounds, talked to the pastors, and prayed for them—I couldn’t help but feel like my future was going to be somewhat tied to the encouraging, training, and equipping of pastors.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few

When I read Hearts, Heads, & Hands by M. David Sills, I couldn’t believe these three statistics that are outlined in the opening pages:

“In the USA there is one trained Christian worker for every 235 people. Once you leave the USA, that drops to one trained Christian worker for every 450,000 people.”
“An estimated 85 percent of the pastors around the world have no theological education or pastoral training.”
“Over 90 percent of all our tools for evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training has been produced for highly literate people.”

I know it sounds incredulous, but I believe it. Jesus said it himself, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt 9:37-38).

—– Enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article for a chance to win a copy of Hearts, Heads, & Hands by M. David Sills —–

The need is great, not just for harvest workers, but for harvest workers that are trained to have “minds for God, hearts for truth, and hands that are skilled for the task.” This precisely is the goal for this resource that I would love to introduce you to today.

Learn how to train minds for God, hearts for truth, and hands that are skilled for the task.
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Hearts, Heads, & Hands is a curriculum that was developed by M. David Sills, who is a missionary, church planter, pastor, author, Professor of Christian Missions and Cultural Anthropology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the founder and president of Reaching & Teaching International Ministries. If that isn’t proof enough of his qualifications to write this training program for pastors, how about his thoughts here:

My only “right,” qualification, or even audacity, to write this book and compile this curriculum is simply the calling and passion that God has placed on my life—to see the pastors and leaders of Christ’s global church thoroughly prepared and equipped for every good work.

The Content

The reason I’m so excited about this book is because Sills has been able to distill the essentials of theological education, leadership training, and pastoral training into such a valuable one-volume resource. What’s even more powerful is that he offers teaching guides for each of the nine modules outlined in this book. In other words, he wants to empower and equip you, the reader, to be able to go train and develop other leaders in a scalable fashion! Through his teaching guides and the actual content of the book, it feels like he’s walking alongside you as a coach and mentor, teaching you how to train others, who can then train others, who can then train others (2 Tim 2:2).

By the end of the nine modules, the learner will have covered the following topics, which are divided into three categories: heart, head, and hands.

The Heart: The Leader’s Spiritual Development

Personal Spiritual Disciplines

Bible Intake
Prayer
Worship
Scripture Memorization
Serving
Evangelism
Stewardship
Fasting
Silence and Solitude

The Nine Aspects of Galatians 5:22-23—Fullness of Spirit

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faith
Gentleness
Self-control

The Nine Aspects of Philippians 4:8-9—Thought Life

Truth
Honorable
Just
Purity
Lovely
Commendable
Excellence
Praiseworthy
Peace

The Head: The Leader’s Biblical Foundation

Overview of the Old Testament
Overview of the New Testament
Christian Doctrine
Church History
Hermeneutics
Missions and Church Planting
Homiletics and Storytelling
Family Ministry and Counseling
Worship Leadership

The Hands: The Leader’s Administrative Responsibility

God’s Call to Ministry
The Pastor’s Character
Shepherding God’s Flock
Ordinances
Developing Leaders
Mentoring
Community Engagement
Church Finances
Church Discipline

Delivery Approach:

Sills suggests that this curriculum is delivered via one-week intensive classes that happen every four months over a course of three years. This equates to a total of nine weeks of classroom time. Here’s a summary of how he has used the material to train others:

We train hearts, heads, and hands in an integrated fashion, constantly connecting personal discipleship to the content of traditional theological education and teaching practical pastoral ministry applications. We start each teaching day with a personal spiritual discipline, explaining what it is, how to practice it, why it’s important, and then actually doing so to model it, and then move into the head knowledge instruction, which more closely resembles what would be expected in pastoral education. We end the day with the hands portion, which is training in the skill set of pastoral ministry for more practical aspects of mentoring leaders, managing church finances, administration, etc. This last segment of our teaching day sometimes becomes a Q&A where pressing concerns of the students become known and addressed directly. As time permits, the instructors may act as a “Christian Google” in what could be called the “Ask Anything Hour.”

Application

Finally. Here we find a scope and sequence to develop equippers, pastors, church planters, and missionaries, in a scalable way, for missional engagement in the West and around the world. You don’t need a Ph.D. to teach this material, nor a ton of money. All you need to do is gather a group of people in your church who are passionate about the Great Commission and being on mission with God.

Transformation is the intersection between knowledge, experience, and coaching.
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Transformation is the intersection between knowledge, experience, and coaching. As a result, Sills does the heavy work in providing the knowledge piece. It’s up to you to provide the experience and coaching piece to help bring transformation to your church.

Who knows? Perhaps God will use you to train up future staff members, pastors, church planters, missionaries, and marketplace missionaries for His glory and His kingdom?

Click the button below to enter into a draw to win one of four copies of Hearts, Heads, & Hands by M. David Sills!

Enter to Win

Next Steps:

Pick up a copy of  Hearts, Heads, & Hands.
Enter the draw to win a free copy of the book before December 1.
Click here to learn more about this book, download an excerpt, and learn about certification.

100 Episodes on our Church Planting and Multisite Podcast

Recently, Ed Stetzer, Todd Adkins, and I celebrated our 100th episode on the NewChurches.com Q&A Podcast. It’s been such a joy to dream up and implement this idea of a podcast that answered real life church planting, multisite, and pastoral leadership questions.

Our heart is to serve the church in her mission of making disciples by helping her multiply. That’s what this podcast is all about. As a result, twice a week, we answer listener submitted questions.

Here are the questions from our top 5 most downloaded episodes:

Episode 1: As a young church planter, what are some blind spots that I need to be aware of?
Episode 3: In a context with so few believers, what strategies would you recommend for church planters to expand their network in order to raise financial support?
Episode 11: The growth is slow in my church. What are the growth barriers in church planting?
Episode 59: On launch day, what would you recommend to preach on? What would be your first series?
Episode 61: What are the differences in gifts and temperaments for someone who will revitalize a church vs someone who will plant a new church?

More than any other topic we covered, bivocational ministry was definitely the one with the most questions! This is because I believe it’s a trend for the future of church planting, as well as a topic with little to few resources out there.

Here are the episodes we’ve recorded so far on bivocational ministry:

Episode 9: Bivocational and Missional Church Planting
Episode 17: The Future of Bivocational Church Planting
Episode 49: Marketplace Jobs and Bivocational Ministry
Episode 63: Does the House Church Model Work in the West?
Episode 65: Self-Sufficiency, Survivability, and Financial Expectations
Episode 92: Bivocational Ministry

And as always, we love to speak in tweetables and quotables. So here are my favorite soundbytes from the 100 episodes:

“If you do not kill and crush the simple and the complicated, then you will not have time for the complex.”
“Spend time with the leaders and the lost.”
“I don’t know that I’d do a Pokémon Go service, but I’d serve Pokémon Go participants.”
“The natural result of growth is multiplication. We need to start somewhere.”
“It’s easier to birth a baby than raise the dead.”

What questions do you have on church planting, multisite, multiplication, and leadership?

Ed, Todd, and I are ready to answer them! Leave us a voicemail here and I promise you that we’ll answer it!

Here’s to another 100 episodes and counting! Subscribe today and never miss an episode.

Why Your Church Needs to Multiply

After the disciples received the Great Commission before Jesus’ ascension, they began to preach the gospel, first in Jerusalem and eventually expanding into other cultures. The book of Acts details early efforts to obey Jesus’ command. The letters of the New Testament give us an inside view of the establishment of Christianity in new territory. It may seem obvious to us now, but we should continue to contemplate the fact that everywhere Christians have gone to share the gospel churches were formed.

Church planting should not end with the establishment of one church. The process can repeat itself when a new church matures to the point of becoming a sponsoring church. The kingdom is best advanced through multiplication and not just addition. Reproduction is in the biblical DNA of churches.

Church planting should not end with the establishment of one church.
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Percentage of Churches that Multiply

In Viral Churches, Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird shared research from an interview of senior pastors in various denominations in the United States. In that research project, they discovered that 28% of those they surveyed indicated that they had directly participated in helping a new church. While that number may sound good, upon further investigation, they discovered that only 12% of that 28% were actually churches that acted as a mother church or accepted direct financial responsibility for a new church as a primary sponsor.

Compare that to the most recent research report on church planting that we at NewChurches.com and LifeWay Research conducted on 17 different denominational and church planting network organizations.[1] In this State of Church Planting in the U.S. report (you can download this and the Canadian one here), we discovered that 22% of churches—that started in 2012 or earlier—started at least one daughter church within their first five years of existence. Although we wish that number were higher, amongst those we surveyed, we are in fact seeing a higher percentage of new churches multiply today, than they did during the Viral Churches study close to 10 years ago. You can read the results of this research and download a specific book on our multiplication research for free here.

Many readers of this article will become church planters who will work hard at planting and growing their first church from inception to maturity. Then God will nudge them to plant another, and they may think: It’s taking everything in me to make this church plant work. I don’t see how we can help start another church. But a daughter church is the best way to expand your zeal for church planting and to put into practice what you’ve learned from planting the mother church. Churches of all sizes and ages can take part in church planting.

Churches of all sizes and ages can take part in church planting.
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Examples: Church of the Highlands and Pillar Church

Church planters who lead their churches to plant new works usually sense a call to reach their city and beyond, not just plant a church. For example, Chris Hodges, pastor of Church of the Highlands, Birmingham, Alabama, believed he was called to a city. Chris’ family moved from Baton Rouge to Birmingham with the goal of planting a church focused on “the simplicity of the gospel and the power of an intimate relationship with a loving God.” The church’s first gathering was held in 2001 and has since grown to one of the largest churches in the country. But Chris and his team didn’t kick back and consider their work done. They almost immediately started planning to plant more churches, and they’ve started many more.

Pillar Church has the same vision, but their focus is not just to reach their city; it’s to reach and plant a church in every US Marine Corps (USMC) base in the world. When Clint Clifton planted Pillar in 2005, he planted in Quantico, Virginia, which is the crossroads and hub of the USMC. As a result this church has always had a burden to minister to both active and retired marines and their families. This love for the marines, coupled with a passion for church planting, is what led to their current vision to train marines to plant churches when they get reassigned to another USMC base. They are calling this the Praetorian Project. They’ve planted six churches so far with future plans to focus first on four of the major USMC base regions and then eventually on every USMC location across the world.

Conclusion

Church planters need to be the best advocates and sponsors of next-generation churches. If you don’t have in your mind and heart the plan and desire to start another church early on, by the fifth year of your church plant’s existence, then you have already forgotten how important church planting is to the kingdom of God.

* Learn more about multiplication and church planting in Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply. This is a modified excerpt from the book.

 

[1] Denominations and networks which participated in the survey include: Assemblies of God, Baptist Missionary Association of America, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Church of the Nazarene, Converge, Evangelical Free Church of America, Free Methodists, International Pentecostal Holiness Church, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Missionary Church, New Thing Network, Presbyterian Church of America, Project Jerusalem, Southern Baptists, United Methodist Church, Vineyard Church of America and The Wesleyan Church.

How Do You Find Launch Team Members?

The process of gathering a launch team is not an easy task. With the right training almost anyone can plan the launch, mail appropriate advertising, and prepare for people to come on the launch day. But molding an effective launch team is another story. There are several ways to find such people committed to starting a new church with you.

1. Recruit Members from the Sponsor Church

One possible source for launch team members is a sponsoring church, which can appeal for volunteer families (sometimes called “extension members”). Bob Roberts, pastor of Northwood Church and founder of GlocalNet, has started over 180 churches out of his church (and many more in partnership with GlocalNet). Their local church is directly involved in training, mentoring, and coaching twenty-five church planters each year. In several cases, he has sent out members to start these new churches. Bob explains:

When we sponsor a daughter church, each church is different. Generally for a new plant, sending out three to eight families from our church is the most. We sometimes send staff as well. We don’t recruit this much because we have found that core groups from established churches can slow a plant down. A planter will start a small group and multiply it while being an intern at Northwood. If they can’t do that, they can’t plant a church. I give them a 100 percent fishing license with those people.

This presents both positives and negatives. A strong positive is that the planter has a launch team almost overnight, and the length of start-up time decreases considerably. The church can begin services while developing one-on-one relationships. In addition, the planter usually finds that these volunteer families are solid believers who can assist immediately in the development process.

On the negative side, not all of these people come from strong churches like Northwood Church! These “experienced” believers may have strong feelings about the form of worship, leadership style, and other matters. Such convictions, if different from the vision of the church planter, can create significant conflicts in the early development of the congregation. These conflicts may quickly put at risk the continuation of financial support from the sponsoring church. We recommend using this recruiting method for launch team development only if the sponsoring congregation is highly similar in philosophy and style to the new church and the planter and the context of the new start are similar to the context of the sponsoring church.

2. Develop a SWAT Team

In settings where extension members are unavailable or their use would be unwise, several other means for recruitment are possible. One alternative has been termed a SWAT team, an acronym for Servants, Willing and Temporary. SWAT team members commit themselves to the new church for a short time, usually six months. These volunteers staff the nursery, teach small groups, serve on set-up teams, or fill other roles in the first months following the launch.

Many churches will send their people for a short while to help a daughter church. For example, when Mountain Ridge Church decided to help Brian Bowman plant Valley Life Church in Arizona, they sent out teams of volunteers that were organized by their community groups. Each of these teams served in different capacities over a period of five weeks to help them launch. At the end of the five weeks, Valley Life was still short on children’s workers, so one couple committed to teaching a class for them for another six months. This was huge for them! Despite their initial short-term commitment, some SWAT volunteers often become permanent members of the church when their short-term commitment has ended. For Valley Life, two of those initial families made that decision, and today one of them serves as their finance and connections team leader!

In the same way, when John Kelley was preparing to plant Freedom Hill Church in Tacoma, Washington, his sending church, Bethany Baptist Church, let him hold a series of four vision meetings that happened after the 10 AM service. In these meetings he would share his vision for the church and the clear next steps they could take to join his team. Out of these meetings he was able to recruit twenty people to be a part of his launch team. Initially, these volunteers committed anywhere from six months to two years, but the reality is, many of those families are still with him today.

3. Use Leaders on Loan

Christians from nearby churches who want to become part of a new church are a third source for launch team development. However, for the sake of trust and to preserve a reputation of integrity, the planter must ask permission from the pastors of these churches before approaching their members. These people must be genuinely committed to planting the kind of church the planter has envisioned.

4. Advertise

Another means for recruitment is purchasing Christian radio and television ads. Posting notices in Christian bookstores also may help locate volunteers. You can even use targeted Facebook advertising to post ads, photos, and videos targeting those who live in your neighborhood. Several in our NewChurches.com Plus Membership community have used Facebook advertising in this way.

Conclusion

These common methodologies for recruitment present their own risks. Christians often envision helping birth a “perfect” church. They may anticipate that their involvement will help them realize their vision. Difficulties quickly arise when “borrowed” or volunteer launch team members’ ideas conflict with the planter’s vision for the new church.

The planter must ensure that these volunteers understand and agree with his vision. If not, the planter faces the unpleasant task of asking such workers to find another place for involvement. So when you choose launch team members, choose carefully!

*Learn more about developing your launch team and other systems for church planting in Ed Stetzer’s and my book, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply. This is a modified excerpt from the book. Learn more about this book and start reading the first three chapters, as well as download 30+ exclusive resources here, NewChurches.com/PMC.

Seismic Shifts and a Missional Response

There have been two seismic shifts in the church and culture in the English-speaking Western world over the past few decades. The first shift is predominantly a good one, while the second shift has mixed reactions.

Seismic Shift #1: An Increased Focus on Church Planting

Recently, I came across a tweet from my friend, Jeff Christopherson, who leads the North American Mission Board’s Send Network.

I love this! In the Southern Baptist Convention, church plants baptize almost four times the number of people than existing established churches! I agree with the hashtag, #plantingworks.

Statistics like this are one of the reasons that denominations are placing a greater emphasis on church planting. The dynamic long-term growth of many church plants has helped as well. Consider Life Church with Craig Groeschel, Saddleback with Rick Warren, and Redeemer Presbyterian with Tim Keller, among many others. Compare that to a few decades ago, when church planting was on the periphery and seen as a ‘suspicious activity’ to most.

Seismic Shift #2: The Church Moving to the Periphery

Over the past few decades another shift has occurred—the Church has moved from the center of the culture and increasingly to the side. In some places, like the U.S. North East, provinces like Quebec, and cities like Portland, this shift occurred years ago. In other states and regions (like in the U.S. South), the shift has just begun.

Although there’s been a greater emphasis on church planting and church growth, and church attendance has been relatively steady, the culture has not changed for the most part. In fact, it has become increasingly secular and pluralistic, with more people declaring “none” as their religious status. The writing on the wall is clear: Christians have lost their home field advantage.

The writing on the wall is clear: Christians have lost their home field advantage.
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When I was pastoring in Montreal, Quebec, I experienced this reality firsthand. At one time in Quebec, the Church was at the center. You see remnants of this history when looking at the giant cross atop Mount Royal in the heart of Montreal. You also see this when looking at the biggest church in Canada, Saint Joseph’s Oratory, which was patterned after Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Today, however, if you were to visit Montreal, you would see churches that have now been repurposed as condos and townhomes. In fact, if you were to listen to the French spoken on the streets, you would occasionally hear church words like tabernacle; the only difference is that they’re using it as a swear word instead of in a theological conversation.

A Missional Response

Instead of pouting or longing for the good ol’ days, what if we saw this second shift as a positive one? What if we understood that there are increased missional opportunities now that the Church is on the periphery? The fact that there are some who don’t have a negative predisposition to Jesus or Christianity is actually a good thing.

Today in Quebec, where Christianity moved to the periphery decades ago, we are beginning to see the long-term effects that this shift has on a culture. The younger generation does not remember a time when the Church was at the center. As a result, they do not start with a negative bias against Christianity!

Instead, they are seeing Christianity on the same level playing field as Islam, Buddhism, or New Age. This has provided the Church in Quebec with a unique opportunity to start afresh and enter the city as missionaries. And based on recent stories we’ve been hearing from Montreal and other areas in Quebec, we are excited and hopeful for the future where the Church is on the periphery.

Embrace these shifts. Don’t hold onto yesteryear and long for the Lord’s Prayer to be recited in schools again. Don’t long for Christian values to be embraced in politics. Instead, pray for opportunities to share the gospel to this dark and dreary world. Be the light of the world to a society that just seems to be getting worse as time goes on. The fact is, politics don’t change hearts; only the gospel does.

Politics don’t change hearts; only the gospel does.
Click To Tweet

Download the first three chapters to the book that I co-wrote with Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches That Multiply, to continue reading about these seismic shifts and how you can plant and lead a church that will missionally engage with culture. You can do that here.

*My post here was originally published on August 2, 2016 in Christianity Today.

My Seminars for Exponential West 2016

I’m excited to be speaking this week at Exponential West 2016!

If you are at the conference, I’d love for you to join me at one of my seminars. If not, then be sure to tune into the livestream that we at NewChurches.com are hosting for Exponential.

Thirty Network Pre-Conference: Initiative and Vision

The Thirty Network believes that Asian American pastors have something valuable and unique to contribute to the Church with the very essence of who they are and who God has created them to be at this time in this generation. The Thirty seeks to facilitate conversations, provide resources, and make connections that will actively strengthen the mainstream evangelical church. I will be speaking at their pre-conference at Exponential West on the topic of Initiative and Vision.
Time: Tuesday, 9:30-12:30pm
Location: Port Mariners Kids room #237

Workshop Session 1: Using Residency Programs to Develop Leaders that Multiply

Learn about five different types of residency programs, the spectrums that each are built on, and how to start one in your church. Are your residents fully funded? Are they full-time? Do you pursue partnership with a seminary? These questions and more will be answered in this workshop so that you can develop homegrown leaders in your church that multiply.
Time: Tuesday, 2:30-3:30pm
Location: Life Development Building – Room 203

Workshop Session 2: How to Create a City Multiplication Movement

Learn how to create a church multiplication movement in your city. Whether you’re a church planter, a staff member, a campus pastor, a lead pastor, or a denominational leader, you will glean insights to help you cultivate a multiplication movement in your city. When this session is done, you’ll leave with a strategy to employ in your city to see multiplication happen.
Time: Wednesday, 8:45-9:45am
Location: Life Development Building – Room 203

Workshop Session 3: Six Practices of Churches That Multiply

Learn the six practices of churches that multiply based on the largest church planting research project ever done. These practices aren’t conjecture, nor are they merely good suggestions; they were discovered out of churches that actually multiplied in their first five years of existence. Whether your church is a year old, or 100 years old, you will walk away with practices to help you move towards multiplication.
Time: Wednesday, 1:00-2:00pm
Location: Life Development Building – Room 203

Workshop Session 4: How to Create a Leadership Pipeline for Your Church

Your church will never grow beyond your leadership lid. That is, unless you have the right people on the bus in the right seats, as well as the appropriate systems to support your leadership. In this session, discover how you can develop your volunteers into your future ministry directors, campus pastors or future church planters. You won’t just hear a philosophy, you’ll receive tools and resources to help you do it. You will leave with templates and a pathway to create a leadership pipeline in your church.
Time: Wednesday, 2:30-3:30pm
Location: Life Development Building – Room 203

Workshop Session 5: Constructs to Get Stuff Done

Stop just talking about what needs to get done. In this session, you will walk away with practical constructs, systems, and tools to move your church forward. Learn how to advance your strategic initiatives and develop your people. In other words, you will learn how to help bring clarity to where your church needs to go and how your team fits in.
Time: Thursday, 8:45-9:45am
Location: Life Development Building – Room 203

Campus Pastor Skill #4: How to Lead Up

Campus pastors who never lead up will always hit a ceiling in their development.

Think about the team that you lead. When in a meeting or working on a project, how do you feel when everyone always agrees with you and never offers another suggestion? Or, how about when someone disagrees with you or offers a better idea? How do you feel then?

Refusing to lead up can either be seen as a lack of competence or a lack of care.

When you always seem to agree with those who are leading you, this is often viewed as a lack of knowledge or skill. After all, there’s no way that your boss can be more competent than you in every area, especially if you’re hired to be a specialist in a particular area. For example, how would you feel if you always knew more about children’s ministry than your children’s director? It’s one thing if you were more of an expert in their area when they started on your staff (this is referring to S1 in Situational Leadership, as we addressed in the previous post), but you wouldn’t want them to stay there.

In addition, repeated silence or unconditional agreement is typically interpreted as a lack of initiative or a lack of care. After all, if you truly cared about the project or the task at hand, wouldn’t you have been thinking about it, researching it, and trying to bring your best ideas to the table?

Now don’t misinterpret me. I’m not saying that you always need to have something to say, nor that you should play the devil’s advocate. There’s definitely a balance needed here, but what’s not an option is repeated silence.

When you do speak out and try to lead up, this can either be seen as a challenge to authority, or allegiance to the organization.

Let me explain. If those leading you are authoritarian and have big egos, they typically see ideas other than theirs as sub-par, and as a result, a challenge to their authority. When team members speak up, leaders like those are typically thinking, “How dare you say something other than yes? Do you really think you’re better at this than I am?” Or, if the presented idea is actually better than theirs, they will probably find a way to minimize it, and then secretly implement it, while taking all the credit. If that’s how the leadership is at your church, then consider asking the Lord for an opportunity to leave. This is not a healthy environment to be in.

What if your idea is taken into account? What if your idea is actually better than the leader’s? And then, what if your idea is actually the one that gets implemented? In a healthy organization or church, this wouldn’t be seen as a challenge to authority; instead, it would be seen as allegiance to the organization. The fact that you brought a good idea demonstrates that you are all-in, and want everyone on the team to succeed.

When you present a better idea, alternative solution, or even initiate a brand new idea, you need to think about the way you present it, as much as the content of it.

After all, the fate of your idea, and the fate of your future in the church, ultimately depends on your level of emotional intelligence, how you present the idea, and the amount of relational capital and trust that you have built with others. This reminds me of that often repeated phrase in relationships, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it!”

So instead of saying, “No, I don’t like that. I have a better idea. Listen up!” Next time you have a better solution than the one that the lead pastor presents, try saying something like this. “I love __________ (find an aspect of the leader’s idea that you appreciate). What do you think if we did this as well? __________ (present your idea).” Or, if your idea is completely different than what has already been presented, then try this, “I have an idea that’s pretty different than what’s been suggested, but I think it might work, or at least aspects of it. Do you guys want to hear it?”

Leading up can either be seen as a challenge to authority, or allegiance to the organization.
Click To Tweet

When you lead up, you are demonstrating your leadership capacity and competency, while also declaring your your love and allegiance to the vision and mission that your church is trying to accomplish.

Here are four areas that campus pastors NEED to lead up in:

1. Preaching

Effective multisite churches coordinate preaching across their campuses. If you consider yourself a multisite church, but aren’t doing this, then you’re missing out. More than a common budget and a vision statement, it’s coordinated preaching that keeps multisite churches together and in unison. Whether you do this via video, or with a live teaching team, it’s important that every campus is hearing the same core set of points on a weekly basis. There is definitely room for Campus Sundays where the campus pastors are preaching unique messages to their campuses, but this is more of an exception than the norm.

So how do campus pastors lead up in this area? Well, depending on your church, you may or may not have the opportunity to speak into the sermon calendar. If not, then you need to fight for it, but do this with tact. Don’t demand that you be heard, rather schedule a conversation with the lead preaching pastor or teaching team and ask them how they decide what to preach on. Then, sometime in the conversation, share about some of the unique needs of your campus, and ask if they might be able to keep those needs in mind or even design a sermon series around similar needs. Try doing this on a quarterly basis to keep your campus on the forefront of their planning. The goal isn’t for you to join the teaching team. The goal is for you to help inform them.

If you do have the opportunity to speak into the sermon calendar, then get up and dance. Be an active participant of those meetings and bring new ideas to the table. Bring your pastoral perspective and needs from your campus into those meetings.

2. Decision Rites

When you start as a campus pastor, you need to be clear on what decisions are yours to make and what aren’t. This is what we call decision rites. The clearer you are on where your line of authority lies, the better you’ll be able to both lead down and lead up. Every role in your church will have a different line of authority in this upside down triangle. For example, the Lead Pastor’s line of authority will be close to the bottom of this triangle, so that he is focusing on setting the strategic, while allowing his staff and volunteer leaders to determine the tactical.

He’ll still be able to inform the tactical, but the line of authority merely demonstrates that he needs to focus on the portion of the triangle that is largest for him—the strategic. Contrast this to the small group leader’s line of authority. For him, the line will most likely be close to the top of the triangle demonstrating that the majority of his decisions are going to be tactical, while leaving the strategic decisions to the small group coordinator, director, or pastor.

For the campus pastor, your line of authority will most likely be somewhere around the middle of the triangle. Half of your world will be in the strategic and half will be in the tactical day-to-day decisions affecting your campus. Now obviously, this will be different for every multisite church, largely depending on size and strategy, but it’s safe to say that campus pastors will have to make both strategic and tactical decisions all the time.

So in order to lead up, make sure that you’re constantly reevaluating your decision rites with your supervisor. Push for clarity. If you don’t get it, then just make the decisions that you need to make in order to move your campus forward. If you overstep your boundaries, then your supervisor will have a conversation with you. If not, then you’ve just gotten one step closer to defining that line of authority.

3. Strategic Direction

While you might be setting the overall direction of your campus, are you speaking into the overall direction of the church? This is how strategic planning typically goes. The elders/leadership team/executive team/lead pastor will set the Strategic Ends (SE) for the church. These are high level strategic goals that take the entire church into consideration. Then, campuses, ministry directors, and teams will create the Key Result Areas (KRA) that will flesh out the Strategic Ends, and move them from dreams into reality.

As a Campus Pastor, you need to be a part of setting the Strategic Ends for the church. If there are less than three campus pastors in your church, my recommendation is that you’re sitting at the table helping form the Strategic Ends. If there are more than four campus pastors, my recommendation is that you’re in the room when the Strategic Ends are being set, so that you can hear the context for each one, but you’re not a part of the discussion.

If you’re at the table, don’t just speak on behalf of your campus. This is a strategic global conversation, so put your global hat on and be an advocate for the entire church and other ministry areas. If all you do is speak about your campus, then you don’t deserve a seat at this table. You’re still thinking largely in the tactical realm.

If you’re not at the table but still in the room, OR, not at the table and not in the room, then have conversations with your supervisor before the Strategic Ends meeting to see what’s on the agenda. You might be able to influence what gets discussed, or have your supervisor bring up an idea for you. After the Strategic Ends meeting finishes, learn about the decisions before your staff does, so that you can have plenty of time to contextualize and think through the Strategic Ends for your campus before you help determine the KRAs.

If all you do is speak about your campus, then you don’t deserve a seat at the table.
Click To Tweet

4. Staff Development

This last example is short and sweet. Lead your campus staff the way that you think all the staff should be led. Set the example, and don’t inherit dysfunctions from above or from other campuses. Share examples and success stories with your supervisor as you do this. You might be surprised as you do this. Some of your best ideas will probably trickle throughout the organization.

Conclusion:

Leading up is more about tact, than it is about strategy. It is more about the way you do it, than how you do it. It’s more art, than science. So brush up on your soft skills, grow in your emotional intelligence, and build up chips in your pocket.

This is the last article in my mini-series on Campus Pastor Skills, click below for the others:

Campus Pastor Skill #1: How to Close a Service
Campus Pastor Skill #2: How to Lead Across
Campus Pastor Skill #3: How to Lead Down

Campus Pastor Skill #4: How to Lead Up

Campus pastors who never lead up will always hit a ceiling in their development.

Think about the team that you lead. When in a meeting or working on a project, how do you feel when everyone always agrees with you and never offers another suggestion? Or, how about when someone disagrees with you or offers a better idea? How do you feel then?

Refusing to lead up can either be seen as a lack of competence or a lack of care.

When you always seem to agree with those who are leading you, this is often viewed as a lack of knowledge or skill. After all, there’s no way that your boss can be more competent than you in every area, especially if you’re hired to be a specialist in a particular area. For example, how would you feel if you always knew more about children’s ministry than your children’s director? It’s one thing if you were more of an expert in their area when they started on your staff (this is referring to S1 in Situational Leadership, as we addressed in the previous post), but you wouldn’t want them to stay there.

In addition, repeated silence or unconditional agreement is typically interpreted as a lack of initiative or a lack of care. After all, if you truly cared about the project or the task at hand, wouldn’t you have been thinking about it, researching it, and trying to bring your best ideas to the table?

Now don’t misinterpret me. I’m not saying that you always need to have something to say, nor that you should play the devil’s advocate. There’s definitely a balance needed here, but what’s not an option is repeated silence.

When you do speak out and try to lead up, this can either be seen as a challenge to authority, or allegiance to the organization.

Let me explain. If those leading you are authoritarian and have big egos, they typically see ideas other than theirs as sub-par, and as a result, a challenge to their authority. When team members speak up, leaders like those are typically thinking, “How dare you say something other than yes? Do you really think you’re better at this than I am?” Or, if the presented idea is actually better than theirs, they will probably find a way to minimize it, and then secretly implement it, while taking all the credit. If that’s how the leadership is at your church, then consider asking the Lord for an opportunity to leave. This is not a healthy environment to be in.

What if your idea is taken into account? What if your idea is actually better than the leader’s? And then, what if your idea is actually the one that gets implemented? In a healthy organization or church, this wouldn’t be seen as a challenge to authority; instead, it would be seen as allegiance to the organization. The fact that you brought a good idea demonstrates that you are all-in, and want everyone on the team to succeed.

When you present a better idea, alternative solution, or even initiate a brand new idea, you need to think about the way you present it, as much as the content of it.

After all, the fate of your idea, and the fate of your future in the church, ultimately depends on your level of emotional intelligence, how you present the idea, and the amount of relational capital and trust that you have built with others. This reminds me of that often repeated phrase in relationships, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it!”

So instead of saying, “No, I don’t like that. I have a better idea. Listen up!” Next time you have a better solution than the one that the lead pastor presents, try saying something like this. “I love __________ (find an aspect of the leader’s idea that you appreciate). What do you think if we did this as well? __________ (present your idea).” Or, if your idea is completely different than what has already been presented, then try this, “I have an idea that’s pretty different than what’s been suggested, but I think it might work, or at least aspects of it. Do you guys want to hear it?”

Leading up can either be seen as a challenge to authority, or allegiance to the organization.
Click To Tweet

When you lead up, you are demonstrating your leadership capacity and competency, while also declaring your your love and allegiance to the vision and mission that your church is trying to accomplish.

Here are four areas that campus pastors NEED to lead up in:

1. Preaching

Effective multisite churches coordinate preaching across their campuses. If you consider yourself a multisite church, but aren’t doing this, then you’re missing out. More than a common budget and a vision statement, it’s coordinated preaching that keeps multisite churches together and in unison. Whether you do this via video, or with a live teaching team, it’s important that every campus is hearing the same core set of points on a weekly basis. There is definitely room for Campus Sundays where the campus pastors are preaching unique messages to their campuses, but this is more of an exception than the norm.

So how do campus pastors lead up in this area? Well, depending on your church, you may or may not have the opportunity to speak into the sermon calendar. If not, then you need to fight for it, but do this with tact. Don’t demand that you be heard, rather schedule a conversation with the lead preaching pastor or teaching team and ask them how they decide what to preach on. Then, sometime in the conversation, share about some of the unique needs of your campus, and ask if they might be able to keep those needs in mind or even design a sermon series around similar needs. Try doing this on a quarterly basis to keep your campus on the forefront of their planning. The goal isn’t for you to join the teaching team. The goal is for you to help inform them.

If you do have the opportunity to speak into the sermon calendar, then get up and dance. Be an active participant of those meetings and bring new ideas to the table. Bring your pastoral perspective and needs from your campus into those meetings.

2. Decision Rites

When you start as a campus pastor, you need to be clear on what decisions are yours to make and what aren’t. This is what we call decision rites. The clearer you are on where your line of authority lies, the better you’ll be able to both lead down and lead up. Every role in your church will have a different line of authority in this upside down triangle. For example, the Lead Pastor’s line of authority will be close to the bottom of this triangle, so that he is focusing on setting the strategic, while allowing his staff and volunteer leaders to determine the tactical.

He’ll still be able to inform the tactical, but the line of authority merely demonstrates that he needs to focus on the portion of the triangle that is largest for him—the strategic. Contrast this to the small group leader’s line of authority. For him, the line will most likely be close to the top of the triangle demonstrating that the majority of his decisions are going to be tactical, while leaving the strategic decisions to the small group coordinator, director, or pastor.

For the campus pastor, your line of authority will most likely be somewhere around the middle of the triangle. Half of your world will be in the strategic and half will be in the tactical day-to-day decisions affecting your campus. Now obviously, this will be different for every multisite church, largely depending on size and strategy, but it’s safe to say that campus pastors will have to make both strategic and tactical decisions all the time.

So in order to lead up, make sure that you’re constantly reevaluating your decision rites with your supervisor. Push for clarity. If you don’t get it, then just make the decisions that you need to make in order to move your campus forward. If you overstep your boundaries, then your supervisor will have a conversation with you. If not, then you’ve just gotten one step closer to defining that line of authority.

3. Strategic Direction

While you might be setting the overall direction of your campus, are you speaking into the overall direction of the church? This is how strategic planning typically goes. The elders/leadership team/executive team/lead pastor will set the Strategic Ends (SE) for the church. These are high level strategic goals that take the entire church into consideration. Then, campuses, ministry directors, and teams will create the Key Result Areas (KRA) that will flesh out the Strategic Ends, and move them from dreams into reality.

As a Campus Pastor, you need to be a part of setting the Strategic Ends for the church. If there are less than three campus pastors in your church, my recommendation is that you’re sitting at the table helping form the Strategic Ends. If there are more than four campus pastors, my recommendation is that you’re in the room when the Strategic Ends are being set, so that you can hear the context for each one, but you’re not a part of the discussion.

If you’re at the table, don’t just speak on behalf of your campus. This is a strategic global conversation, so put your global hat on and be an advocate for the entire church and other ministry areas. If all you do is speak about your campus, then you don’t deserve a seat at this table. You’re still thinking largely in the tactical realm.

If you’re not at the table but still in the room, OR, not at the table and not in the room, then have conversations with your supervisor before the Strategic Ends meeting to see what’s on the agenda. You might be able to influence what gets discussed, or have your supervisor bring up an idea for you. After the Strategic Ends meeting finishes, learn about the decisions before your staff does, so that you can have plenty of time to contextualize and think through the Strategic Ends for your campus before you help determine the KRAs.

If all you do is speak about your campus, then you don’t deserve a seat at the table.
Click To Tweet

4. Staff Development

This last example is short and sweet. Lead your campus staff the way that you think all the staff should be led. Set the example, and don’t inherit dysfunctions from above or from other campuses. Share examples and success stories with your supervisor as you do this. You might be surprised as you do this. Some of your best ideas will probably trickle throughout the organization.

Conclusion:

Leading up is more about tact, than it is about strategy. It is more about the way you do it, than how you do it. It’s more art, than science. So brush up on your soft skills, grow in your emotional intelligence, and build up chips in your pocket.

This is the last article in my mini-series on Campus Pastor Skills, click below for the others:

Campus Pastor Skill #1: How to Close a Service
Campus Pastor Skill #2: How to Lead Across
Campus Pastor Skill #3: How to Lead Down

The 6 Qualities of a Developed Leader in the Church

Growing up, my parents had some high academic standards for me. I remember the one time I got an A on my Calculus exam. It was a feeling of joy mixed with surprise because if you’ve ever done calculus, you know that it’s sometimes hard to tell if you got the question right or wrong—especially with the tricky questions.

—– Enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article for a chance to win a copy of Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck’s, Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development —–

Well, I was over the moon and I couldn’t wait to share my joy with my parents. While walking home, I was envisioning the celebration that was going to happen when I entered those doors and announced my triumph. I was victorious and the fattened calf was going to be slaughtered. We were going to party!

“Your favorite son is home! And guess what I got on my calculus exam? A big FAT A!!”

Unfortunately, the fireworks did not go off. My mom came over, took a look at the exam, and with a melancholic voice, said something to the effect of, “Oh son, good job. You should call your dad and tell him the results.”

Well, this wasn’t exactly the response I was hoping for, but maybe the celebration was going to happen when my dad heard about it. So I called him up at work and shared the good news with him. Instead of whipping out the party horn, he responded with, “So, you got 100%?”

I responded, “Well, not quite, I got 91%, but that’s still an A!”

He replied, “So…how many did you get wrong then?”

Okay. Clearly, this wasn’t going the way that I wanted it to. An A is an A. Isn’t it?

Success is an interesting thing. Unless we clearly outline metrics and define what success actually looks like, it’s up to the eye of the beholder.

This is why, for many churches, success is more about programs, than it is about people. Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck wrestle through this tension in their book, Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development,

So the programmatic rat race in most churches continues. Most churches merely exist to keep running their programs and services. They are not developing leaders intentionally and consistently. When leaders emerge from some churches, it is often by accident. “Wow, a leader emerged…How did that happen?” should not be heard among God’s people. Something is missing. Something is off. (13)

As church leaders, we need to make our metrics for success the same as Jesus’. And for Jesus, “the Great Commission is Plan A,” there is no Plan B.

Geiger and Peck argue that “The Church is uniquely set apart to develop and deploy leaders for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel.” They believe this because “leadership, apart from the work of God, cannot produce true flourishing or eternal results.”

So what exactly does a “developed” leader look like? What does success look like in leadership development? 

Many of you know me as the church multiplication guy because of all my work in creating and leading NewChurches.com, as well as with co-authoring Planting Missional Churches with Ed Stetzer. However, if you were to look behind the curtain, so to say, my official role is with the LifeWay Leadership team. In other words, I live, breathe, and eat leadership development. Specifically, I love helping churches and pastors develop systems for their ministry: both their discipleship pathway (the topic of my upcoming book with B&H in 2017) and their leadership pipeline.

As a result, I was a part of the team that Geiger and Peck references in chapter 8 where they lay out a leadership development pipeline for the church. Over two years, we brought in 18 different leadership experts, both who are leading in the church and outside of it, from different backgrounds, perspectives, and positions. Over a series of meetings, we wrestled through the idea of leadership development and if there were a core set of competencies that leaders shared, regardless of position.

After all, as outlined in the book, Leadership Code, 60-70% of leadership is transferable from position to position. In other words, up to 70% of what makes a leader effective in one organization, role, or position, is transferable to another organization, role, or position.

In the course of these meetings, we uncovered over 280 competencies that effective leaders shared. While studying and filtering through this data, we uncovered a pattern. There were six broad categories that stood out as common themes!

Discipleship: Theological and spiritual development
Vision: Preferred future
Strategy: Plan or method for the preferred future
Collaboration: Ability to work with others
People Development: Contributing to the growth of others
Stewardship: Overseeing resources within one’s care

These are the six core competencies for any and every leader within the church. Now based on the specific ministry area that a leader is serving in, there are also ministry specific competencies, like rhythm for a musician, or the ability to ask questions for small group leaders. However, regardless of the ministry area that you’re serving in, these six shared core competencies will guide you in your growth and development as a leader.

Click the button below to enter into a draw to win one of four copies of Designed to Lead by Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck!

Enter to Win

Next Steps:

Pick up a copy of Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development by Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck
Enter the draw to win a free copy of the book before November 1
Check out designedtolead.com to learn more about this book, download an excerpt, discussion guide, personal assessment, and more
Check out myleadershippipeline.com to learn about this year’s and next year’s Pipeline Conference that I’ll be speaking at
Check out ministrygrid.com/leadershippipeline to download a PDF version of the leadership pipeline we developed, as well as to watch FREE training that we developed for each level of the pipeline