Six Key Tasks of Pastors Who Make a Difference
Two weeks ago, I spent a few hours with Bob Buford who always passes on great nuggets from the life of Peter Drucker. Through the dialogue we came to what Drucker called the “tasks of the CEO in the new millennium.” I know that connecting the role of the senior pastor to the role of a CEO will, no doubt, cast a shadow on what I am about to say for some. Yet I believe that Drucker’s insights have profound implications for the role of the senior pastor who wants to make a difference. These are adaptations from chapter 43 of Drucker’s book entitled, Management.
#1 To define the meaningful outside of the organization. This is a very interesting way to think about a leader who keeps the church on mission. This would be Drucker’s articulation of “external focus.”
#2 To work on getting the information “outside” into usable form. Beyond an external focus, a leader must translate and infuse the most important information into the “bloodstream of the church;” to the staff, leaders and members of the church.
#3 To decide on what results are meaningful for the church. The problem here is that the functional bottom line for most churches is still attendance and giving which does not constitute the true measure of mission. That’s why I use the Vision Frame everywhere I go to help pastors focus on output results.
#4 To decide the priorities. On this point Drucker’s words need no translation for church leaders: “In any but a dying organization, there are always far more tasks than there are available resources. But results are obtained only by a concentration of resources.”
#5 To place people into key positions. Drucker reminds leaders that, “In the last analysis this task determines the performance capacity of the institution”
#6 To organize top leadership. Of course your church’s governance heritage will shape your leadership structure. Yet, the question remains, who wakes up thinking about the necessity to restructure and organize top leadership?
The Main Thing the Church can Learn from Steve Jobs
As I reflect on Steve Job’s resignation this week, I am grateful for how his achievements inspire my own thinking. Here are some updated thoughts on a post I wrote from 18-months ago.
Whatever your opinion of the Apple products, they continue to capture the consumer imagination and bring innovation to life. With the historic moment of the iPad’s original release, now about 18-months old, I want to revisit some of the actual sound bites of the marketing blitz. Quotes from the release include:
- When something exceeds our ability to understand how it works, it sort of becomes magical
- It’s hard to see how something so simple can be so capable
- It’s going to change the way we do the things we do, every day
- I don’t have to change myself to fit it; it fits me
- We decided, “Let’s redesign it all…let’s redesign and reimagine and rebuild from the ground up…”
- You get an order of magnitude more powerful
- There’s automatic orientation
- Everything gets out of the way so that you can focus on the content you care about
- We want to put it in the hands as many people as possible right from the start
- This is a new category, but millions and millions of people are going to be instantly familiar with it
What if the ministry of our local churches could reflect amazing claims like this? Go ahead and reread the list, but this time thinking about your church.
Is there even room for a comparison of Apple’s advancements to gospel-centered ministry? I believe so and I think the magic of this tech revolutionary has something to teach church leaders.
Listen to the linchpin strategy of Apple’s success:
“It’s built by our hardware team in concert with our software team and what that gives you is a level of performance that you can’t get any other way. Apple is the one place that you can really do this. We build battery technology, we build chip technology and we build software and we bring all those things together in way that no one else can do it.”
The singular application of Steve Job’s success to church leaders is that design from the ground up is so fully integrated, that quality and innovation are unsurpassed. In church speak, we would dream that ministry content, ministry environments, ministry people and processes are so integrated that life change and accessibility to the gospel are unsurpassed.
But often doesn’t happen. Why not? We simply prefer NOT to do the work of designing, thinking and building this way. We like the message of Simple Church, or Church Unique, but get stuck relying on existing models. We get weary of talking with lay leadership about real changes in ministry strategy. We get satisfied with the good results of duplicating a program rather than the great results of incarnating our own. We get so busy on the ministry treadmill that we let every staff person makes decisions based on their own “operating system.”
What would happen if Steve Jobs decided to make disciples?
How would he design the church? What adaptations would he make to your ministry design? What would he stop altogether? How would he redesign from the ground-up?
10 Ways to Use Your Mission Statement Today
No, you don’t need a cooler mission statement so you can call it a mantra. No you don’t need a better sounding slogan. You need to know what the heck your church or ministry is ultimately supposed to be doing and you need to state in a clear, concise and compelling way. This is a leadership statement to direct and integrate all of your thinking, speaking and acting. Let me repeat- this is a leadership statement, not a marketing statement.
Start leading today by doing one or more of these activities.
#1 Rewrite your mission on a sheet of paper as many times as there are words in it. Each time write a different word in ALL CAPS. Reflect on each word of the mission. (Note: If your mission has more than 20 words in it, its too long. Proceed to idea #7)
#2 Look at your worship guide from last Sunday. List all of the ministry opportunity categories that were promoted and force rank them with regard to how effective each is at fulfilling the mission. (Great to do as a team.)
#3 Write the mission real big on a white board or white pad in your office and see how people interact with it.
#4 Ask the next ten people you meet in your church office or church service if they know the mission of the church. (Make it fun and tell them you are doing research for blogger friend.) Pay attention to their response. (And let me know what happened.)
#5 Do this exercise with a person you are eating lunch with: Write the mission on a napkin and ask them, “What does this mission mean to you?” Listen. Then ask them, “When, if at all, did this mission come into your conscious thought?” Listen again.
#6 Create a five minute devotional using your mission, finding an appropriate biblical text to share. Use the devotional with the different groups you lead this week.
#7 Read this FREE chapter from Church Unique on mission. It’s called Carry the Holy Orders. If you need to re-articulate your mission statement, spend 30 minutes planning time and decision-making steps to get it done.
#8 Make a list of five people that you believe model the mission of your ministry. Send all five of them a quick note to say something like, “Thanks for living the mission. You inspire me!”
#9 Write your personal “shadow mission.” What tends to drive you practically? What tends to drive your church practically? Go ahead and really write it out. (For example, a shadow mission might be, “We want to draw bigger crowds every Sunday with great teaching and worship.” Compare and contrast the shadow mission with the real mission. Repent. Share this with other leaders.
#10 Spend time in prayer with you leadership team using your mission. Create time and space to pray through the mission and each word of the mission.
Top Ten Church Logos for Telling Story through Design
My favorite mantra for branding is “communicate vision visually.” Of course that is an important but not the only consideration for great logo design. Here is an example of some church logos by Auxano Design with a little explanation of how the design connects with the church’s story and vision.
LOGO #1: This congregation declares, “We are God’s Foundry to transform all people into faithful servants of Christ.” The logo creates a dynamic and memorable experience when you see the “molten pour” created by the white space of the mark for the first time. The process of transformation “being poured from God above” is strongly and uniquely visualized. This UMC church connects its identity back to Wesley’s first congregation that literally met in a foundry.
LOGO #2: The Met’s mission is to connect people each day to the real Jesus in a real way. The logo uses dot’s to represent people connecting. The busyness and sometimes fragmented activity of suburban living is reflected through the asymmetric circle pattern, inspired by the church’s Kingdom Concept. Yet a cross is revealed in the midst of life’s connections. The tagline of the MET is Live for More.
LOGO #3: The mission of First Baptist Spartanburg is to encourage complete and courageous living in Christ. This distinct cross emblem is a visual representation of “encouraging courage” utilizing a combination of a heart shape (encouraging) and a shield design (courage). The emblem creates four sub-icons for FBS’s strategy – the heart, the shield, the cross and a hidden icthus in the image. You can see them on the website.
LOGO #4: The Kingdom Concept of Neartown is to bring the whole gospel to busy young dad’s who are moving back to the city, signified ultimately by a deep experience of the peace of Jesus. The engaging and symmetric design is a unique, stylized cross connoting peace. Yet the cross also resembles a mix-master as a symbol of busy, city life. The beauty of the mark and subtle reference to a highway interchange creates a dynamic conceptual tension to highlight the mission. A masculine color scheme was chosen to resonate with the target audience.
LOGO #5: The mission of CFBC is to make sense out of life through Christ centered living. Instead of creating a cross “directly” with design, a cross is formed by the white spaced between the “random” placement of different size and color rectangles. The pieces of life don’t always seem fit but when Christ is seen at the center, life makes more sense. The unexpected placement of the typeface reinforces the distinction of the entire logo.
NEXT > See Logos 6-10
Clarity Comes By Working Not Waiting
Dennis Easter is a friend of mine who is deeply rooted and widely connected as a catalytic leader in the Foursquare Church. As a Church Unique Certified denominational leader, he appreciates all things vision and passed along this great quote from Steve Pavlina:
“If you aren’t yet at the point of clarity, then make that your first goal. It’s a big waste of time to go through life being unclear about what you want. Most people wallow way too long in the state of “I don’t know what to do.” They wait for some external force to provide them with clarity, never realizing that clarity is self-created. The universe is waiting on you, not the other way around, and it’s going to keep waiting until you finally make up your mind. Waiting for clarity is like being a sculptor staring at a piece of marble, waiting for the statue within to cast off the unneeded pieces. Do not wait for clarity to spontaneously materialize—grab a chisel and get busy!”
My favorite line is, the universe is waiting on you. What phrase struck you the most?
