6 Extremely Powerful Questions for Simple Ministry Design
This is the second post related to a forthcoming ebook. The first post was titled the Tyranny of More, (6 Common Myths that Drive Churches to Do Too Much) You can still comment there to ensure a free copy of the book.
My purpose is to provide a powerful question checklist to break pastors and staff out of the leadership fog of “just doing more.”
These questions allow you to plug one of two kinds of words in the blanks.
- Young adults
- Senior adults
- Singles
- Mothers of preschoolers
- Recently divorced people
- Women’s bible study
- Kids-focused discipleship
The second set of words are for ministries designed for develop spiritual practices and aspects of discipleship like:
- Personal bible study
- Prayer
- Giving or financial peace
- Missional living
- Accountability
- Witnessing
Six SIMPLE Ministry Design Questions (or you can call them SILO STOPPERS):
Your Clarity Favorites: Top 7 Posts in 2010
I’m on the family drive from Houston Knoxville for Christmas, reviewing your favorite posts in the last 12 months. Romy and I are sitting in the back seat with Jacob and Joel at the helm. This is Jacob’s first year to pull a leg on our annual road trip which creates a very interesting mobile office experience.
I hope you enjoy this review!
#7 10 Distinctives of Culture-shaping vs. Church-building Leadership
#5 The Christian Blogger’s Dilemma and What to Do About It
#4 Introducing Open Source Vision Casting
#3 Vision Casting for Children’s Ministry: 7 Golden Principles
#2 Ten Power Principles on Church Strategy
#1 Guests at Church: 10 Mind Blowing Facts to Fuel Your Hospitality Ministry
The Church as Redemptive Tribe: 6 Ingredients
One year ago, I blogged a 7 part series that I thought was worth revisiting on the application of Seth Godin’s book, Tribes, to church leadership. Because I picked up the pace of writing since that time, many have started following my blog after this series was posted. The six ingredients of a redemptive tribe are passion, leadership, movement, communication, focus, and greatness.
Post #1: Take Seth Godin to Church: Here I introduce the series, challenging readers on how they apply the information they read from books. I set up the driving question of the series: Are you managing a program factory or are you leading a redemptive tribe?
Post #2: How Passionate is Your Tribe – 5 Team Questions: In this post I talk about the first ingredient of a redemptive tribe: Passion. I include some practical team questions. Every leader in your church can be placed on a continuum of emotional ownership. How do you increase their passion?
Post #3: Pastors are Tribal Leaders – 4 Things We Must Do: This post brings the second ingredient, leadership, to the forefront with four imperatives for every local church pastor. I pull my favorite quotes from Godin and spend more time on the fourth “must do:” Committing before its successful.
Post #4: Limit Your Limitations: The third ingredient of a redemptive tribe is movement. Here are some incredible questions to think through as a team about your story, your communication, and your unintended barriers to doing more as a church.
Post #5: The Essential Lesson of Tribal Communication: The fourth ingredient of communication brings us to a one primary application. What is the most principle for us to apply?
Post #6: Stop Trying to Reach Most People: This provocative little post had the highest hits in the series last year. I think you will enjoy the counter-intuitive principle here on tribal focus, the fifth ingredient.
Post #7: Your Church Was Made to Be Remarkable: The final post discusses greatness as the sixth ingredient of a redemptive tribe. Jesus is the most remarkable human to walk the planet. The gospel is the most remarkable message ever communicated. Now look at four quotes from the book through the lens of being a remarkable church.
I hope you enjoy this series and use it with your team. If you benefited from the extended series, please let me know.
What To Do with a Bad Ministry Name
We are exploring the fifth reason of 5 Strategic Reasons to Change Your Church’s Name:
#5 When an original name works against building awareness
Okay, that’s a nice way of saying that sometimes a name is just bad. I don’t mean a bad reputation, but a name that doesn’t mean anything. It may be too long, too generic, or too specific. It may sound funny, or just may never stick in a person’s mind. It may sound too close to another name that has much more awareness (and therefore, live in a shadow foerever).
A golden rule of naming is that a bad name keeps getting worse and a good name keeps getting better.
Just for fun, here are three of my favorite bad names that I have run across.
The first is a classic example of too long, in this case six words. If you chuckled at this name look at the back of the van.
Have you ever wondered whether to take “Baptist” out of your name? Why not put it in there twice!
How about a name that contradicts itself? I would have liked to have been in room the night the committee chose this name.
So what do you when you wake up one day and realize that your ministry’s name is not helping the ministry? You change it!
Years ago, I met a pastor outside of Portland who leads what used to be called the Christian Life Center. Over time, he realized that the name was too generic. In addition it gained very little awareness in the community.
After walking the Vision Pathway with his team, they were ready to communicate a new vision and build a new brand with people inside and out side the church.
We tested names through primary research in the community offering variations that built from the Christian Life Center but connected to their vision. As a part of the process I identified over 200 churches in the Portland area and studied their names. Less than 10 had a name of two words. This was significant and led to the intentional development of test names that were short and sweet- the less syllables the better.
Of multiple options, “Life Church” was most favored by unchurched people in the area. (This name change was done in 2003 before Life Church in Oklahoma City had national awareness.) The Life Church logo shown on the sign was designed by Auxano’s creative director, James Bethany.
The mission of Life Church is to guide self-reliant people toward a Christ-centered lifestyle.
Guests at Church: 10 Mind Blowing Facts to Fuel Your Hospitality Ministry
Every month for the last decade, the Auxano team conducts ministry observations during weekend services. We call itthe Guest Perspective Evaluation. Here is why I keep this strategic component in Auxano’s toolbox. Okay, each reality by itself may not be mind blowing, but when you put them all together the case is staggering and couldn’t be more compelling.
#1 You will have more guests in one year than you think. Our “information gathering” in churches doesn’t even capture the majority of guests. Auxano research shows that five to eight percent of your worshipping community will self-identify as guests. Therefore the number of guests in one year is:
[ (Ave. weekly worship attendance) x (.05) x (52)]
#2 Many of your guests are going through situations that make them more responsive to God. These are the folks that are most likely to be moving, changing jobs, getting divorced, having kids, etc.
#3 Your guests are assessing very quickly whether or not they are coming back. This happens much faster than we think. For example, read The 11-Minute Difference.
#4 Your guests represent step one of accomplishing the Great Commission- these are the people coming to you! How much does your church spend on foreign missions? Compare that to how much we invest into the fish that swim to the boat before we cast a net.
#5 A guest who is attending may represent years of prayer, service and invitation by a church member. My mom and I attended church without my father for 12 years. The first time my Dad came to church with us, imagine how I felt about the church and the hospitality of the people. All I could think is “Don’t screw up!”
#6 Studies show that guests will talk about their initial experiences 8-15 times with other people. Serve guests well and multiply your message.
#7 A welcoming ministry is a great “shallow end of the pool” to get people involved in service for the first time. Yes, you have plenty of intimidating places to serve like worship, small groups and children’s ministry. So why not leverage an easy place to start?
#8 Building a great ministry to guests nourishes a culture of hospitality because of the concrete reminders to the entire congregation that guests matter.
#9 Investment in a welcoming ministry is an investment into every other ministry your church offers. I ask churches to dream about what ministry they might start. I then tell them to get it done by first having great guest services. Do you want an amazing prison ministry? Maybe the next Chuck Colson is visiting next week.
#10 We are commanded in Scripture to be hospitable. The Greek word philoxenia literally means to “love strangers” and is used in Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 12:3.
