By NewChurches.com: In Episode 568 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss what systems are needed for a post-COVID church.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

Why you should keep your simplified systems moving forward
How contingency planning now can help you in the future

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“We are all going to have a tendency to go back to the same systems rather than take a simplified system forward.” – @toddadkins
“Carry your simplified systems forward.” – @toddadkins
“Think through what we have we learned now so that we can be more flexible in the future.” – @toddadkins
“We all wish we would have had more contingency plans in place in the past.” – @toddadkins
“We do need to make sure that we are thinking about those contingency plans because that definitely will interrupt the regular ebb and flow of what ministry looks like in your church.” – @danielsangi
“We have a cycle where we are planning ministry three times a year.” – @danielsangi
“Five year planning is off the table. We really need to think in the terms of quarter, annual, and three years.” – @toddadkins

Recommended Resources:

Listen to Episode 564: What Established Churches Can Learn From Church Plants
Listen to Episode 566: What Church Plants Can Learn From Established Churches

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The post Episode 568: Systems for a Post-COVID Church appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 568: Systems for a Post-COVID Church

The post Episode 568: Systems for a Post-COVID Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: Are you an executive pastor wondering where you should focus your time and energy?

Are you wondering exactly how things are really going at your church?

Are you a bit mystified about how to evaluate what’s really happening under the hood of your church?

Executive pastors are an incredible gift to growing churches. The best executive pastors sit at the intersection of vision and reality. That is to say, they spend their time balancing the bright future of the church on one hand and the facts of where the church is today on the other. In order to move a church from where you are to where you believe God is leading you as a community, you need a series of robust systems. Systems are simply repeatable processes that “Save You Stress, Time, Energy, and Money”.

Executive pastors need to think about how these systems are performing across all areas of the church. In a very real way, the executive pastor is like a farmer cultivating a garden of systems by balancing each of the varying needs and requirements of the church against each other. An executive pastor should spend a considerable amount of time evaluating how well each of these systems performs and adjusting them accordingly when they don’t function the way they should.

This is a perfect time of year, the season of change, to build a plan for evaluation and adjust the systems required to help your church move forward. Here are six systems you should consider when leading as an executive pastor:

…

Source: 6 Systems Every Executive Pastor Needs to Evaluate This Year – unSeminary

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by Rich Birch: In October 2015, McDonald’s made a significant change to its menu that made a huge difference to its bottom line and market reach. That month they added all-day breakfast to their offerings, and in many ways it ended up changing the course of history for this corporation.

For years, insiders had been saying that all-day breakfast, while a great addition to the menu, simply couldn’t be done. In fact, the turnover between the breakfast and the lunch menu kept stumping the logistics folks. It was almost a joke that you could get breakfast up until 10:29 a.m., but at 10:30 a.m. the entire kitchen had to turn over to lunch orders only.

People who follow this industry had been saying that offering an all-day breakfast menu was a potential way for McDonald’s to increase its reach and attract customers who normally wouldn’t return later in the day. I know for our little family this change meant a switch in our consumption habits. You see, my wife is the decision-maker when it comes to which restaurants we frequent. Now that she could order oatmeal or an egg McMuffin for dinner, it meant that McDonald’s was now on the list of restaurants that we could go to if we needed to make a quick stop for a meal!

…

Source: 5 Lessons Church Leaders Can Learn From The “All-Day Breakfast” Trend – unSeminary

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Source: Five Characteristics of Structure for Church Multiplication

The post Five Characteristics of Structure for Church Multiplication appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: It’s easy to believe that there will come a day when your church or organization will never struggle and you’ll never struggle as a leader.

As tempting as that is to believe, it’s just not true.

Every church struggles. And every leader struggles. And—yes—even growing churches struggle.

I outlined the struggles smaller churches experience in my post 5 Tensions Every Small To Mid-Sized Church Leader Feels. Having started ministry in very small churches, I can relate to each of those struggles personally.

But your struggles as a leader or as a church don’t go away when your church starts to grow. They simply change.

I’ve always said I’d rather have the challenges associated with growth than I would the challenges associated with decline (and that’s absolutely true), but it still means you have challenges.

As our church has grown from a handful of people to over 1,500 people who now attend and over 3000 people who call our church home, we’ve navigated all of these challenges. So has almost every church that’s grown. And I’ve felt the same challenges as this blog, my leadership podcast and other things I do have grown.

Here are 9 thing pretty much every leader struggles with as their church or organization starts to grow…

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Source: 9 Surprising Challenges You’ll Face When Your Church Grows

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by Carey Nieuwhof: Ever think that growth will solve all your problems?

It’s tempting to believe that. I know, because I still fall into that line of thinking unless I stop myself.

I’d be the first to admit that I’d rather be part of something that’s growing than something that’s stuck or dying, but growth doesn’t mean your issues disappear.

In fact, leaders of growing organizations just sign up for a new set of problems. While I’ll take those problems any day, they’re still problems.

Having started ministry in very small churches, I can relate to each of these struggles personally.

As our church has grown from a handful of people to 1400 people who now attend and 3000 people who call our church home, we’ve navigated all of these challenges. So has almost every growing church.

What’s true in church is true in any organization or business. We’re even working through rapid growth issues associated with this blog, my writing, and my podcast. You hope and pray people show up, but when they do, you get a whole new set of challenges. As things grow, everything gets more complicated.  It’s the leader’s job to create simplicity in the midst of it all.

Bottom line? Your struggles as a leader or as a church don’t go away when your church or organization starts to grow. They simply change.

Here are 7 things every leader of a growing church or organization struggles with.

Your struggles as a leader don’t go away when your church grows. They simply change. Click To Tweet

1. The senior leader being less available

I began ministry in a church of 6 people (and that was a normal Sunday…a bad Sunday was 2 people). When your church is really small, you’re pretty much available to do anything anyone needs. How can you argue you’re not available when you lead a tiny church?

But as your church grows, you need to begin a transition away from being available all the time. If you don’t, you will implode or your church will stop growing.

You can be generally available to 20 people.

You will wear yourself out trying to be consistently available for 200 people.

You’ll die trying to be available to 2000 people. Frankly, you’ll never even serve that many people because it’s humanly impossible, even if you worked 7 days a week, 20 hours a day. People will just walk away, their calls unanswered and their needs unmet.

As my friend Reggie Joiner says, the problem with needs-based ministry is there’s no end to human need.

Your church will struggle with the pastor being less available as it grows.  But it will struggle even more if you don’t restructure to grow bigger.

To reach more people, you need to be available to fewer people.

I wrote more about scaling your ministry through different stages in my new course, Breaking 200 Without Breaking You.

In order to reach more people you need to be available to fewer people.Click To Tweet

2. The leader not doing everything

A companion of being less available as a church grows is the reality that a pastor can’t do everything.

Many pastors of small churches start out as jacks of all trades: preacher, pastor, chaplain, wedding officiant, funeral officiant, bible study leader, team leader, curriculum designer and even friend who drops by.

When your church is small, it’s natural for the pastor to do almost all the work, because it seems there is no one else available to do it, and no money to outsource it or to hire anyone else.

When I started in ministry, in addition to preaching, teaching and vision casting (my primary gifitings) I also designed and printed the bulletins, created any computer graphics, performed weddings and funerals, visited in hospital, led the church bible study and was actively involved in our kids ministry. I was only mediocre at most things on that list, and terrible at a few.

As our church has grown, my role has become narrower and narrower.

At 200 Pastoral care became a groups and congregational responsibility. So did bible study (which became small groups instead).

At 400, I let go of graphics and design entirely (thankfully).  I also go out of direct involvement in student and children’s ministry as we hired people (I still share the the vision, but no longer own the responsibility).

At 800, I stepped back from leading and attending most meetings and almost everything else to focus on preaching, teaching, vision casting and senior leadership.

The struggle here is dual: you will struggle with letting go, and people will struggle with you letting go.

If you want to grow, you have to let go.

And, of course, as Andy Stanley says, by doing less you’ll accomplish more. Far more.

This sounds like a small thing, but it’s a big thing.

If you want to grow, you have to let go.Click To Tweet

3. Not knowing everyone’s name

People who are part of a small church panic about not knowing everyone’s name as a church grows.

Time to challenge that assumption. Why panic?

Truthfully most people don’t know everyone, even in a church of 50.

Human reality dictates we can only truly know about 5 people deeply and about 20 people well.

Which again leads to small groups and serving teams. You can (and should) organize hundreds and even thousands of people to be known in smaller circles of groups and teams.

The point or church is not for everyone to know everyone. The point is for everyone to be known.

The point of church is not for everyone to know everyone. It’s for everyone to be known.Click To Tweet

I think I have a personal capacity to know between 1,500 to 2,000 people by name and then my mind fries. Our church (and my life) has grown beyond that. At one point I tried to know all of our volunteers by name, but even now, I get stumped (the volunteer name tags really help me).

If you’re leading a growing church, embrace that. Create a church where everyone who wants to be known…is.

You will reach far more people if you do.

Create a church where everyone who wants to be known…is.Click To Tweet

4. Shifting from leading people to leading leaders

If you’re going to lead a growing church effectively, you have to begin leading leaders instead of leading people.

That’s a hard shift for many people, including church staff.

There’s a temptation to want to be known and recognized by everyone you’re leading. The truly great leaders are prepared not to do that.

They realize that their greatest success will be found in leading staff and volunteers who can, in turn, lead others.

Which also means sometimes they get the credit rather than you. Which again, is fine if you’re committed to becoming an effective leader.

If you’re not fine with others receiving the credit, you’ll eventually stunt the church’s growth to the level of your insecurity.

If you struggle with insecurity, by the way, this is an amazing conversation with Josh Gagnon, who leads a top 5 fastest growing church in America and has had to battle his own insecurities in doing so.

But you must shift from leading people to leading leaders if you hope to reach more people.

5. Adding systems

This is a hard one for any entrepreneurial leader (like myself). I love freedom and even spontaneity.

But for your church to ever sustainably pass 500 in attendance, let alone 1000, you have to have systems.

Many entrepreneurial leaders are afraid of systems and structure because they think it means the creation of a bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy stifles mission. Great systems fuel it.

Bureaucracy stifles mission. Great systems fuel it.Click To Tweet

Like an office tower designed to house thousands of people, great systems and structure support the goals of the organization with lean but solid processes around finances, management, discipleship and even the weekend services a church offers.

Without structure, freedom collapses into chaos and disorganization.

The novice leader values freedom from structure. The mature leader values freedom in structure.

Without great systems that foster care for people, you won’t care for people.

Without great systems that foster care for people, you won’t care for people.Click To Tweet

6. Saying no

‘Yes’ gets you to initial growth; ‘No’ gets you to sustained growth.

Many pastoral leaders are people pleasers. As I argue here, that can be deadly.

Most great organizations become effective not just because they decided what they are, but fundamentally because they decided what they are not.

‘Yes’ gets you to initial growth; ‘No’ gets you to sustained growth.Click To Tweet

As you grow, more and more people will show up with ideas about how to make things better.

It’s much easier to say no when you have a clearly defined mission, vision, strategy and culture.

The leader who says yes to everything ultimately says yes to nothing.

The leader who says yes to everything ultimately says yes to nothing.Click To Tweet

7. Dealing with critics

So once you start growing, all the critics will disappear, correct?

Sorry to break the news…but just the opposite. They’ll line up.

You’ll have internal critics who want things to be the way they used to be. After all, the people heading for the Promised Land always want to go back to Egypt.

The people heading for the Promised Land always want to go back to Egypt.Click To Tweet

But the critics are not just internal, growth attracts a growing number of external critics.

Our generation seems to specialize in encouraging leaders and organizations to grow and then criticizing them when they do.

And before you accuse others, there’s a 99% chance you’ve thought or said something negative about a large church pastor you resent.

Growth attracts critics. It just always does.

So how do you process the criticism when you’re the one being criticized?

The best way to process what your critics have to say is to understand why they say it.

First, take whatever good there might in what they said and reflect on it. You’re not perfect. You can learn and develop from it.

But then process why the critics are often so mean-spirited.

What usually fuels a critics’ animosity toward success and growth? Three things:

Jealousy

A need to justify their own lack of progress

Sin

Once you understand that a critic’s arguments are often less about you than they are about them, you’re free to show compassion and even concern for them.

We encourage leaders and organizations to grow and then criticize them when they do.Click To Tweet

A Step-by-Step on Guide on How To Navigate Growth

Despite a leader’s best intentions, often leaders who start things don’t know how to scale things as they grow.

I had to learn the hard way, and have led our church past the 200 barrier well past the 1000 attendance barrier with multiple locations. These are barriers that, despite best intentions, 98% of leaders never pass. In addition, I’m learning how to scale writing and podcasting from hobby level into a team endeavour that’s reaching hundreds of thousands of leaders a month. Scaling isn’t easy, but it’s doable.

Surprisingly, the reasons most leaders don’t scale their ministries aren’t spiritual—they’re structural. It’s the same reason over 99% of businesses stay small—the issues are structural.

Breaking 200 Without Breaking You is a course I’ve created that provides strategies on how to tackle eight practical barriers that keep churches from reaching more than 200 people. And it’s designed so I can walk your entire leadership team or elder board through the issues.

So whether your church is 50, 150 or 250 in attendance, the principles will help you gain the insight you need to break the barrier more than 85% of churches can’t break. Even churches with attendances of 300-500 and multisite churches are finding the material helpful as they try to reach more people.

Click here to get instant access for you and your team.

What Struggles Have You Experienced?

And I’d love to hear from you. What other struggles have you seen or experienced in growing your church or organization?  Scroll down and leave a comment.

The post 7 Growth Challenges Every Leader Faces (And How to Overcome Them) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 7 Growth Challenges Every Leader Faces (And How to Overcome Them)

The post 7 Growth Challenges Every Leader Faces (And How to Overcome Them) appeared first on Passion for Planting.