Pacing Change – Michael Bayne – @michael_bayne
If people get left behind, are we really leading? Are we just a loud voice or are we actually helping people take steps?
Change is a must in any family ministry setting. We are all leading change…
Spiritual Growth: People have to change
Parent Partnership: Our ministry has to change.
Empowering the home to be a place of discipleship: The home has to change.
The right pace leads to lasting change. You don’t just want your dreams to last today.
The wrong pace leads to 2 extremes…lack of momentum or confusion. When you don’t move fast enough you create a place where your leaders don’t see progress and get bored. They question if you have a vision. When you don’t move slow enough you create a place where people disengage.
Pacing change really hinges on our ability to be patient.
“One thing people in my Infuse mentoring and coaching program always tell me, it blows them away how patient I am with change. It’s because I realize that anything of value takes more time to build. The difference between a five-story building and a little lean-to is the value, and it is going to take a lot longer to build that five-story building.” – Jim Wideman
In Joshua 2, you can see the best leaders in scripture were able to look ahead and strategically said, this is a big deal, let’s get as much information and plan this out. Our problem isn’t faith, as ministry leaders, we haven’t thought through the strategy for the best environment where God can move fully. Joshua picked carefully, the right people, the right volunteers. Joshua paced forward. He looked ahead to figure out his next steps.
“Pacing change matters because we are leading people to a spiritual place full of promise and full of resistance.”
When planting the church. Spend hours, and hours and hours working through all of the next steps.
Before your Start…
Create a Map – What are the challenges coming up? Where are you starting from and where are you going? Your strategy ultimately determines the success of your ministry.
“Human nature is to need a map. If you’re brave enough to draw one, people will follow.” Seth Godin
“Your strategy impacts your success almost more than your heart does. Sometimes we forget this in ministry.” – Carey Nieuwhof
Vision and energy are not enough. Vision is the spark but the plan protects the vision.
Before you Start…
Gather the right team. Not just doing ministry aimed at people but doing ministry with people. Good strategies for change are focused on the right people at the right moments. Think through your staff and volunteers, who do you have on your team?
“Good strategies for change are about focusing on the right people in the right moments.” – Carey Nieuwhof
Surround yourself with the right people to enact change or the change will fail. Who to put on your team: People with passion, people who are servants, and people who you trust. Who to avoid on your team: People who complain, big talkers who are little investors, and the inconsistent.
Pacing the Change…
Limit the Scope of Change
For your to lead effective change you have to choose what not to change. Change leads to progress but it also causes stress. Too much stress will cause people to disengage and doubt to the point where they walk away.
Launch Change at the Right Time
Success and Timing are powerfully linked! You need to make sure you time your changes to have the maximum success and maximum engagement with the target audience.
“Don’t think. Act. We can always revise and revisit once we’ve acted. But we can accomplish nothing until we act.” Steven Pressfield
Make Sure Change Does Not Detract from Weekly Excellence
People are attracted to excellence and will endure change one some things when most other things are stable and thriving. What are you good at? Leverage what you are good at to have an opportunity to lead change in another area.
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. Luke 16:10
Keep Your Leadership Informed
When you keep your senior leaders informed then you give them info and vision to share with opposition when they go above your head. People opposed to your change will go above your head because it’s easier. Your opponents don’t want to hurt you but they love things to stay the same. Your team can be in sync and can answer the questions being asked of them. Don’t allow your pastor to be caught off guard.
Connect With Complainers and Lovingly Cast Vision
(embrace how we should respond not how we want to respond)
We have to make sure that we don’t take opposition personally. A change will bring friction and goal is to address the friction in a way that is kind, clear, and patient.
“Loud does not equal large and volume does not equal velocity the loudest people affected by a proposed change are those who are most opposed. The more opposed people are, the louder they tend to become.” Carey Nieuwhof.
Celebrate Intentionally
You look ahead at your plan and plot out a few places where you will celebrate with your team. Celebrate intentionally and with purpose. We want to be purposeful partiers! Celebration keeps the team on a mission. People want to be part of a winning change.
Adjust and Learn Along the Change Process
Don’t wait to make changes when you are leading through change. Make adjustments to your lessons learned as you advance the mission. People rally around leaders who are committed to solving problems.
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson
Push Through Resistance
Lasting time demands patient effort and encouragement if the change has a chance to merge into the culture.
Building Teams – Seven Questions to Answer Before You Hire a New Staff Member – Brian Haynes – @brian_haynes
Question 1: “What are we doing really?”
If you asked your leadership team this question, would you get 5 different answers? The work that you have to do is slow. You need to gain alignment with mission, vision, values, and strategy before you go into the hiring process.
What is your goal? Understand how everyone’s job contributes to the mission.
Vision is where we are going. The more you can spell out what you are doing, the better you can onboard people into your leadership team as well as volunteers at every level.
Values answer the question, “Who are we?” What are we all about?
Strategy answers the question, “How are we going to do this?” The lead pastor holds this piece. When you answer this question it frees everyone up in the downstream.
Question 2: “How do we staff to do it fruitfully?”
Hire to shared values. Don’t hire to strategy because strategy changes. Values also play into longevity. Has this person already done what we are doing before? Does this person value the same things we value?
The way you find this is to look at the fruit of their lives. Find ways that you have expressed this value over time. If he is inwardly focused he will tell you what he has done within the church. If he is externally focused he will tell you what he has done in his personal life. Is this person a love your neighbor guy or a love your church guy?
Question 3: “Who am I looking for exactly?”
Now we are looking into specific skill sets. What do they do? What is their competency? What is their education? What is their culture fit?
Don’t just ask this question in your own head. Ask key people you are working with already. Latch onto the themes being communicated from your team.
Question 4: “How do I search properly?”
First search in-house. You’ve seen these people grow, develop, and change.
Next look outside of the church. Start with your network and if you need to look through a search committee. Share the load of the work. You can also use a search firm but they often cost a lot of money.
Question 5: “How do I onboard a new team member effectively?”
As they come in, they need clearly written documents for salary, benefits, and team structure. Create clear job descriptions. Money doesn’t have to be the last thing that you talk about. If this number is a deal breaker for you, just let me know, I want to be upfront. When you are onboarding, everything needs to be in writing.
What are the expectations? In year one, here is what I’m expecting in your role. Help your family transition well, build community, join a group, cultivate 15 new leaders, etc. Put this in writing and come alongside the hire every 2-3 weeks in a casual way to ask questions.
Is the space set up and ready for him? If they have an office, is it set up and do they have the tools ready to start the first day? Computer? Email? Business Cards?
Question 6: “What staffing mistakes do ministry leaders/churches make notoriously?”
Sometimes we hire a professional instead of a discipler. In a company, you hire a pro to create a product. In a church you onboard a discipler.
We hire to strategy instead of values. The strategy can change and values stay the same.
Neglecting to hire champions to church and home to the highest level. Don’t compartmentalize this area because ministry is both church and home not just at a building. We miss it if we hire a great preacher but he can’t connect the church and the home. It comes from the top.
Neglecting to develop leaders from within intentionally. Not just swapping sheep from one church to another.
Avoiding necessary endings. When you have someone on your staff who is pulling the other direction or becoming toxic you need to cause a necessary ending. *Henry Cloud Necessary Endings Book. Help them find a different way of living out their calling. Give clarity and love. “I love you, and I know what I’m about to say is going to hurt.” Sometimes you need to say these 3 things need to change and next month we are going to see if you are making progress. You might also need to say, “You have 30 days to change your negative vibe, and here are the 3 things that you need to change.”Make it uncomfortable and hard because if they want to work through it they will be so much better on the other side and if not then they will move on. Trust your gut but test it with clear conversation.
Question 7: “What should I do when I hire erroneously?”
We ran out of time for this question.
Developing a Winning Family Ministry Team – Michael Bayne – @michael_bayne
Change that lasts is not only owned by you. You have to stop leading like a mega phone in isolation shouting where you are going. Link arms with other people on your team and empower them to be what God called them to be.
Equipping the saints means actually letting them lead and giving away leadership
“Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12 NLT
Your ministry will grow to the level of your leadership ability. Yo have to figure out what your leadership level is and continue to develop yourself as a leader. You aren’t done. You haven’t arrived.
Stop Leading Alone! You Need A Team!
One of the ways you can be abetter leader is to stop leading alone. You need a team. The easiest way to improve your leadership ability is to gather people around you who can fill your leadership gaps.
“Your ministry will grow to the level of your leadership ability. It will center on your strengths and will buckle under your weaknesses.”
Why do I need a leadership team?
Because I will hold back the ministry I am called to lead)
If I’m going to be a part of your thing, then I want to do something. I want to be challenged.
If you only attract loyal followers they will let you run yourself off a cliff. Leaders will see things that need to be changed. They will loyally run the ministry into the ground. The group leader might not be the best communicator but on the long run they’ll catch up.
What does a leadership team look like?
“A leadership team is a small group of people who are collectively responsible for achieving a common objective for their organization.” – Patrick Lencioni
Not everyone can be on your leadership team. A team can be too big. When the team grows beyond 6 it gets difficult. Every team has a head coach. A team without a leader is not a team.
Jesus built a team and empowered the team.
“Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.” Mark 1:16-20 (ESV)
Jesus get’s two people who are out doing the work and calls them to follow Him. He then goes to those who are fixing the nets and not out doing the work to follow Him. He calls people from different perspectives to join His team.
Jesus was immediately thinking beyond himself when he launched his ministry. You need to think about who will carry on when you are done leading in your current role. Lead for the future through a team!
When you build a team you can stay healthy and your ministry can get healthy.
If you want to grow bigger, you need to structure bigger. – Carey Nieuwhof
If you want to get healthy, you need a healthy structure – Michael Bayne
Chasing big leads you to think short term. Chasing healthy leads to processing growth and long term sustainability. You also need a team that will come along side you and remind you that you aren’t as big as you think you are. You need people that come beside you and let you know they have your back.
When you build a team you add influence, gifting, and encouragement to your ministry.
Not finance. Not Strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both became it is so powerful and so rare. Patrick Lencioni.
Look for people outside your current volunteers that are good at what they do outside the church and invite them to leverage their ability in the church. Look for people who you are afraid to ask and go for it. Look for people who have strengths you don’t have. Look for people who you enjoy being with. Look for people with servant hearts. When you build a team invest in them first so they can invest in others.
“The key lesson: humanity and connection are trumping the desire for corporate scale.” – Seth Godin, We Are All Weird
People need to know they are not being used. Burnout and disillusionment follow manipulation.
Your team gets your first thank you. Your team gets all the credit.
Your team gets to celebrate first. Your team gets to have access. When you have big news, always make sure your team knows this first. Let them come into the next meeting celebrating. You can’t give everyone complete access but you must give a few people complete access.
When you build a team you give away real authority and influence. Don’t ask people to come and be a part of things if you aren’t going to allow them do do something. Let them make decisions for you. If they decide to use blue cups instead of red, who cares. Let them lead. Say things like, “ don’t know if that’s going to work but let’s try.”
“Responsibility without authority only brings frustration and never leaves fruit that remains. You must dare to trust people to represent you well.” – Jim Wideman
You must allow your leaders to make mistakes.
You must allow your leaders to care for and lead people.
You must allow your team to have real input into ministry direction.
You must invite your team into regular evaluation.
Leading the team to win.
Winning teams are characterized by…
Progress
Communication
Trust
Evaluation
Celebration
“Great teams make clear and timely decisions and move forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team, even those who voted against the decision. Patrick Lencioni
Do you have people fighting agains the winning team characterizations above? When these things are not happening you may have the wrong team or inherited the wrong team. Time does not heal disfunction. Have the hard conversation. Have the courage to empower the right people with authority and move people pulling against you into roles with less influence or onto another team. Get the right people in the right seats on the bus.
How To Align Church and Home For Effective Generational Discipleship – Brian Haynes – @brian_haynes
Simplicity matters. The guy working and living a busy life needs to know just a couple of things. Where to go. What to say when there. And resourced to make it happen. Behind the scenes it can be complex with systems running but in the front it needs to be clean and clear.
Total alignment requires clarity.
Doctrinal Clarity – there is a thread from the beginning to the end that aligns the home and faith community.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Proverbs 22:6
Matthew 28:19-20
Ephesians 6:4
Discipleship is a two-sided coin: Church and the Family. If the church and family are to work together to equip the generations, we must have a common path on which to walk. We call this the path of Legacy Milestones and it is our desire to focus everything that we do to help people mature along this path.
Philosophical Clarity – Without clarity you pull in opposing directions. How you do things is forged in doctrine. The church comes alongside the family.
Missional Clarity – What are we doing? Our mission is making disciples who make disciples.
Values Clarity – Who are we? Share values cause us to move in the same direction. Christ in me. We are family. Love does.
Vision Clarity – What direction are we going? How are we going to do that at the end of the day? City Station
How do we do it as a staff?
Shared Strategy: http://legacymilestones.com
Milestone 1: Parent/Child Dedication.
Milestone 2: Salvation & Baptism
Milestone 3: Preparing for Adolescence
Milestone 4: Purity for Life
Milestone 5: Rite of Passage
Milestone 6: High School Graduation
Milestone 7: Life in Christ
Celebrate Milestone: Milestones can best be described as “an event, preceded by a period of instruction from parents, which celebrates a spiritual development point in a child’s life.” We believe that these Milestones are critical markers in the life of every individual and these Milestones help to provide a clear path for Spiritual development throughout all of our ministries.
Faith talk: At least one time a week. Faith Talks are intentional times set aside at least once each week for conversation around the Scripture with your family. We see this as a priority because we are convinced that spiritual training takes place one step at a time in the context of everyday life. While leading Faith Talks, relationship is your priority, the Bible is your handbook, and life is your classroom. For parents with young children, Faith Talks are the primary vehicle for leading your children along the path between each milestone.
God Moments/Stories: God moments are opportunities to teach our children spiritual truths informally as God moves in their lives. These moments can appear at any time, such as a good question from an inquisitive child or an unexpected blessing of family provision. We must be careful to capture these God Moments for the sake of discipleship. Our families need to see that God is working in the world and by capturing these moments we provide clear evidence of this reality.
How do parents self disciple?
How to have faith talks?
How to have God Moments?
The secret to Milestones is #7. Real life begins and grows in relationship with Jesus Christ. From that relationship, a Christ-follower grows in each Core Competency throughout the journey.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5
How do we build bridges to the home?
Equipping – An annual event called parent summit. One Saturday, 9-3pm, Speakers and then seminars on each milestone.
Resources – It doesn’t have to be a huge book store. You need to be pointing parents in the right direction to self disciple.
Easy Wins – If you’ve never had a faith talk with your kid and all of a sudden feel like you need to be leading, the first ones are so hard. Give them easy on ramps that are mostly successful.
Technology – Apps, Social Media, etc.
Secret Sauce of Effectiveness
Lead Pastor has vision for generational discipleship.
The conversation is alive in every small group. How celebrated a milestone this week? Who had the best or worst faith talk this week? Any God moments you’d like to share?
The conversation flows out of worship services.
Every group leader carries the DNA of generational discipleship.
Modeled by ministry leaders at home.
