Best Practices

The business world is flush with buzz words such as "best practices." However, of all the adages created by the corporate community, "best practices" is one of the more descriptive and beneficial to follow.

A church is certainly not a business and in most cases is better off not trotting down the trail of fads that business entities gleefully follow. The search for "best practices" though is a beneficial goal for the church community and can come in many forms. Here are a few places to seek out those best practices for your congregation:

1. Start with the Bible. Christ was careful to map out for us how His message effectively flows through the people of His creation. At their core, people have not changed. They still seek the same things that Christ addressed. Carefully consider the manner in which the early church engaged with people to find the best practices of approach and execution.
2. Be a student of organizations represented in your congregation. Seek out casual conversations with lay leaders in your church to learn what is working best in their business, school, civic organization. How are they communicating with people? What are their goals for next year? How are roles assigned according to those goals? What motivates people toward action in their organization?
3. Read widely. Subscribe to Google Reader to track articles from innovative publications of best practices such as Fast Company. As you read, make notes in your paper or online based capture system. Look for application not just information.
4. Have courage to experiment. Effective organizations are willing to try new things. Unfortunately, churches usually are not. Be honest with your congregation ahead of time that it is a trial and their support during and input after is critical.
5. Recruit a "sister church" to share ideas and resources. Much like the once popular municipal trend for cities to have a sister city in the East or Europe, the same can apply to a church. Find a like-minded pastor to share ideas and resources. Visit each other's campus and meetings. Organize the manner in which you will share ideas and materials (set up a shared page on BackPack) to make it easy to share and navigate.

The search for best practices can be an encouraging and beneficial activity that the lay leaders of your church can become involved with and benefit from.

Step 3 of Fulfilling Your Vision (Focused Communication)

Let’s recap -- In Step 1 you chose your twelve individuals who share a desire to support your vision - your champions. Step 2 formed your urgent purpose and made sure it is well defined and easily described. You are now ready to begin the crucial phase of talking, often times deeply, about your urgent purpose and why you are called to achieve that purpose. Step 3 is all about communication.

The simplicity of this step will often cause people to down play its importance ending in a half communicated effort. Instead, commit that you will over communicate to the point that your 12 targeted champions will say “enough! -- we get it -- let‘s start!”

You should package your urgent purpose in a three size message. One version should be the short version -- an “elevator speech” that quickly communicates your passionate desire. Secondly, you should have a 20 to 30 minute version that you can share one-on-one with those in your targeted champion group ensuring that you wrap the message in the personal passion that you have for the purpose. Lastly, you should have a one hour version that is more suitable for a group that passionately paints the picture for the purpose and the end result of pursuing that purpose.

Once you have your three messages ready to go, the fun now begins. It should be your driving desire for the next 30-days to communicate to your targeted champions your urgent purpose, encouraging them to join the effort and recruit twelve of their own champions to join them in their part of the effort. As they identify champions, you meet with them in larger and larger groups so they can hear from you and hear from each other. It is in this pattern of focused communication that momentum is born.

The focus during this phase is to communicate your urgent purpose to champions. It is not a time to debate or address the controversy that will come from the typical naysayer. The message is in search of willing hearts. If willingness is absent in one person, move on to the next. A positive momentum fueled by the passion of champions will overcome negative reactions over time.

Finally, be creative in your approach to sharing your urgent purpose. Draw pictures on napkins, create a logo, boil it down to a memorable phrase -- do whatever it takes to share the spirit and excitement of the purpose.

Through focused communication your urgent purpose takes root in the hearts of those who will join with you in the effort. Communication at this level takes deliberate planning to ensure there are no distractions and that the setting inspires understanding. Let your champion understand the importance this purpose plays in your life as well as how important they are to realizing the goal. Test their understanding and acceptance; listen to their questions and use what you learn to strengthen your approach in future discussions.

Communication is the key to success and the cause of most failures. Give this phase the thought and dedication that it deserves. It will make Step 4, the last step and our next article, go much better. Begin today sharing your urgent purpose with your chosen champions!

Here are links to all 4 steps:

Step One - Engaging Ministry Champions
Step Two - Defining an Urgent Purpose
Step Three - Focused Communication
Step Four - Aligning Effort

Trends May Point to Freelance Pastors

As several trends begin to align, the potential for an increase in freelance pastors is a plausible outcome. As younger generations are more broad in their financial giving as opposed to retiring baby boomers who have been primarily focused on giving to their church, the prospect of cash flow problems are likely for many American churches. Churches with extended mortgages, when faced with reduced cash flow and high building costs will be required to reduce staffing.

The younger generations who are more diverse in their giving will likely be more loyal to causes that match their personal preference for ministry which will open the door for an increase in non-church affiliated ministries to seek funding for these more specific ministry projects.
To leverage their ministry, these non-profit freelancers may return to the traditional church setting with the offer of "outsourcing" their ministry. For example, an independent youth pastor may serve multiple churches providing individual congregation ministry and support while at the same time aggregating ministry activities to include all churches he covers. Loyalty with the minister rather than loyalty to a particular church or denomination will likely be more prevalent causing a more scattered approach to giving and a more conducive environment for freelance pastors.

The growing dissatisfaction among young pastors with the traditional board and committee approach to church governance, will further fuel this outsourced pastor approach allowing them to focus more on the goal of their ministry without having to manage the "politics" and risk of high turnover often found in more traditional church settings. It is plausible that independent pastors will eventually combine across multiple specialties to form an association of non-profit ministries that could eventually outsource an entire church ministry team, allowing the formation of new church start-ups to accelerate their development time-line and be more intentional in their particular area of ministry emphasis.

Courtesy of Trend Ping