values Archives - Passion for Planting

Episode 572: Creating Core Values

Sean Cronin — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 10:00:00 +0000

By NewChurches.com: In Episode 572 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed discuss figuring out your values when you are planting a church.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

How to determine what your core values are
When vision drift occurs

Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“When you plant a new church you have the opportunity to articulate what are the values of your church.” – @danielsangi
“Most of the time, the values that churches have are permission to play ones or statement of faith ones.” – @danielsangi
“When it comes to reaching your community, most people aren’t going to evaluate whether they want come to your church based on your stated values, they are going to come and experience your values.” – @danielsangi
“What you embody close to your heart often become the values of the church plant.” – @danielsangi
“Make sure that the core values that you have actually move you toward the mission and the vision that God has given you for you area.” – @danielsangi
“The more you add staff and the more you add key leaders, they bring their values, and in the absence of clearly-stated core values you begin experiencing vision drift.” – @danielsangi
“Every church I planted, the vision evolved over time, but part of my job as pastor and shepherd was to make sure it didn’t drift.” – @edstetzer

Recommended Resources:

For an audit to develop the values at your church, see chapter 7 of Daniel Im’s No Silver Bullets

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Source: Episode 572: Creating Core Values

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The New Scarcity: Why Content Alone Won’t Generate Future Growth For Your Church Or Organization

Sean Cronin — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 10:00:00 +0000

By Carey Nieuwhof: For years, the key to growth for many churches and other organizations (think media, conferences etc) has been to create great content.

In the case of a church, great preaching often (not always, but often) has been synonymous with growth.

In the case of conferences, media and other organizations focused on messaging, the same thing has been true: generate great content and you grow.

Church leaders, media and live event organizations (we’ll focus on those three for now) have all noticed something over the last decade: it’s been harder and harder to get people in the room.

People are attending church less often. Conferences are finding it harder to fill venues and stadiums.

Great messages that used to guarantee growth don’t any more. What used to attract people now gets a shrug of indifference instead.

Don’t get me wrong: bad content (bad sermons, articles, talks or events) can still kill a mission. But great content (including great, faithful preaching) in and of itself doesn’t naturally generate the kind of momentum it used to.

The question, of course, is why? And what can you do about it?

I realize this is a bit of a strange framework through which to view the work of the church. But as you run through this post, my guess is you’ll see the trends described playing out all around you.

And if you’re trying to reach and equip people in the church or any other organization focused on gathering people around content, you’ll see the patterns.

So…hopefully this post can give you a new framework for moving forward.

Great messages that used to guarantee growth don’t any more. What used to attract people now gets a shrug of indifference instead.

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1. Scarcity Drives Value

If you’re struggling to understand the massive shift happening in the world

Scarcity drives value. The more scarce something is, the more value it has.

When something is scarce, it’s worth something. Conversely, mass availability drives down prices.

Take a look at how humans have interacted with phones over the last three decades.

Scarcity drives value. The more scarce something is, the more value it has.

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In the era of landlines, phone companies made their money off of long distance calls. Your parents and grandparents spent a lot of time agonizing over long distance bills and whether they could afford to make that call to a friend in another state or country, let alone another continent.

Then cell phones came along and suddenly, sensing new competition, phone companies made long distances calls free or almost free, trying to prevent people from ditching their landlines.

Cell phone service service providers underwent a similar evolution, creating scarcity for things as long as they could.

At first, cell phone service providers made their money by charging more for weekday minutes than evening minutes or weekend minutes. 15 years ago, it was still common for people to say “Can I call you after 6? I used up all my day time minutes.”

Then texting came along and phone companies started to include evening and weekend minutes as part of basic plans and instead focused on limiting the number of texts you could send.

Early text messaging packages ‘included’ things like 400 free text messages, or 1000 text messages. Most of us couldn’t imagine sending even close to that number of texts. Until, of course, we did.

Now, text messaging and voice calls are almost all unlimited.

Which moves us to a more recent frontier: data. And after years of people worried about going over their monthly data allowances, you and I are now watching before our eyes as almost all providers are now pivoting to unlimited data.

The point?

Things that used to be scarce and valuable even a few years ago aren’t any more. And it changes so quickly.

You don’t need to think much past toilet paper in a pandemic, bitcoin or Tesla shares to understand how quickly value fluctuates.

Value, fundamentally, is about perception. If people perceive value, they are happy to pay for it or line up for it. If they don’t, they won’t.

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2. The World is Now Drowning in Content

While no one was really paying attention, the exact same thing happened to content.

Fifteen years ago, you paid registration fees, flights and hotels to hear a keynote speaker deliver a message because you had never heard her before and that’s where she shared her ideas.

Then the internet exploded, and suddenly you’ve probably heard every message from your favorite thought leader/writer/preacher via YouTube, social media or a multitude of other sites.

So what’s a conference’s competitive advantage now, when TEDTalks you can watch for free garner tens of millions views and two million podcasts on Spotify and ApplePodcasts that serve most listeners for free?

A very similar thing happened for church leaders in the last decade.

Go back a generation, and the only way to hear a preacher was to attend that local church. Maybe if you had a relative in a church who told you how awesome a preacher was, you might subscribe to the cassette ministry and get tapes sent to you.

But that was about it. You essentially listened to the preachers nearest you, and that was it. Radio and television offered you a slightly wider menu, but even then, none of that was available on-demand unless you subscribed to that particularly cassette ministry.

Messages in and of themselves were scarce, time limited events (you had to assemble at 9 or 11 to hear one).

Fast-forward to today, and sermons from incredible communicators are anywhere and everywhere. They’re also free and available on-demand.

The Disruption of 2020 accelerated that trend even more. Almost every church moved online, and more people than ever realize they have access to the top communicators in the world any time, anywhere, for free.

Almost every church moved online, and more people than ever realize they have access to the top communicators in the world any time, anywhere, for free.

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The challenge is that many churches are still primarily communicating a message designed for another era:

Join us for our new series Saturday Sunday at 9.

Don’t miss last Sunday’s message. Available online, on-demand.

I can’t wait to share a brand new message with you.

Preachers will often tell themselves and their church that this is different because they’re preaching the Word of God.

And that’s true.

But so are a thousand other pastors. And their messages are available just like yours. Some of them sound just like yours. And some of them (let’s be honest) are more compelling than yours.

Please hear me. I am NOT insulting your preaching. I now how hard you work and how sincere you are.

I’m a preacher too. I’m just realizing things have changed—in my lifetime and yours.

What moved people to hear local preachers in the past will not move them to hear you in the future.

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That may not be right. But it is real.

So what do you do?

Well the first thing is to realize that what you’re pretending is scarce isn’t. At least not anymore.

When you behave like something is scarce or has tremendous value when it doesn’t, you not only confuse people, you lose people.

Then you come up with a new strategy.

When you behave like something is scarce or has tremendous value when it doesn’t, you not only confuse people, you lose people.

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3. Meaning and Insight Are Rare

Is it possible to grow a church or organization with great content?

You bet. It’s just harder.

With the explosion of digital options for content, there are more and more communicators and preachers who will draw followers and views in the millions.

But they’ll be the outliers…the charismatic communicators who have exceptional gifts, talents and skills (and with it, hopefully character to match).

But what about the rest of us?

While there’s no shortage of information in our culture, there is a shortage of meaning and insight.

It’s one thing to know something, it’s another to know what it means or why it’s significant.

While there’s no shortage of information in our culture, there is a shortage of meaning and insight. It’s one thing to know something, it’s another to know what it means or why it’s significant.

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The more you can help people cut through the noise and get to the heart of why things matter, how they matter and help them integrate the insights into their lives, the more people will value your content.

This is true both for preachers and any content creator.

This is particularly true of the next generation. They’ve had more access to information than any generation who’s ever lived.

They just don’t know what to do with it.

Any and all help you can give them is both needed and valued.

Meaning and insight are so scarce these days that people almost immediately see the value when they find it.

The next generation had more access to information than any generation who’s ever lived. They just don’t know what to do with it.

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4. Community and Connection Are So Scarce

So does all this mean you should abandon content?

Nope. Not at all.

Great preaching is needed and required. So is meaningful content. But again, everyone you’ve reached or are trying to reach has access to more content than they can possible process.

Providing meaning and insight will help, but it’s rarely enough.

What is deeply scarce right now are community and connection.

A year into the pandemic, people are more isolated than ever. That’s playing out the crisis in mental health, rising addictions and new (and dangerous) tribes are forming (we are the most tribalized we’ve been as a culture in generations).

Authentic, loving and genuine community are more scarce than they have ever been in our lifetime.

The competitive advantage of the local church isn’t content, it’s community and connection.

Every church should be running to fill that hole.

The competitive advantage of the local church isn’t content, it’s community and connection.

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If you think about the future of any live event…the power will not be just in the content, because almost everyone in the room will have heard the content or content like it before. It will be in community and connection—the ability to connect people to each other around a common cause.

Moving forward, make the goal of digital content connection and community, not consumption.

Sure, absolutely produce the best content you can, but make the end goal connecting people to each other.

What used to be scarce—content—isn’t. What’s truly scarce is community and connection. So build the future on that.

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What Do You See?

I realize this is a completely different way of thinking about what’s happening, but I hope it can connect some dots for you. Not everyone will get it. But if you get it, it will move your mission forward like few other things.

What are you seeing about scarcity and value?

How is it shaping your plans for the future?

Scroll down and leave a comment.

The post The New Scarcity: Why Content Alone Won’t Generate Future Growth For Your Church Or Organization appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: The New Scarcity: Why Content Alone Won’t Generate Future Growth For Your Church Or Organization

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2 Essential Guidelines for Your Goals

Sean Cronin — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 10:00:00 +0000

By Shawn Lovejoy: With all this talk about goal setting and New Year’s Resolutions, I thought it was important to clarify something very foundational when it comes to goal setting.

When charting our aim for a new year the question we must answer is, “Why do I want to accomplish this goal?”

Does accomplishing your goal take you where you want to go in the larger scheme of things?

As you crystalize your goals for the new year, here are 2 guardrails to guide you to pursuing goals that best fit you.

#1 – Determine Your Core Values.

The reason core values are called CORE values is because core values are usually already inside of us. They drive our thoughts, decisions and behaviors. We already value certain things. How do we pick our core values? Begin by asking yourself some questions.

What do you value?

What is important to you?

What fuels you?

What frustrates you?

What excites you?

Values that drive our decisions should be processed through before we begin setting goals that may or may not take us where we really want to go!

#2 – Determine the Most Important Thing.

Success is born of focus. Want to achieve your goals in the new year? Narrow them down to what matters most.

These questions can help you focus your goals…

If you had to get one thing accomplished this next year what would it be?

What one thing would make you feel successful one year from now?

If there’s one thing you want to be said of you at the end of your life, what would it be?

What would you wish your tombstone to read?

What is priority #1 to you?

More goals should be focused in this area!

I say in my book Be Mean About The Vision that “When we forget WHY we do WHAT we do we will eventually lose our passion.” This includes the goals that we set!

Do you want to be successful in your resolutions this next year?

Think Values before Goals.

Think Why before What.

Answering the why question also provides us the motivation we need to keep going when pursuing the goal becomes difficult or experiences a setback.

Need help?

Accountability adds teeth to chasing your goals.

Need accountability for 2021? Have a history of goals that become unrealized good intentions? Well, you need a Coach. Part of our Coaching Process includes the 5 Pillars of Accountability where we move you from intention to execution.

Why do we put so much time into this? Because Accountability is the #1 Missing Ingredient in Leadership.

Get started by booking a call with us and see how coaching can help you in the New Year.

Schedule A call

Source: 2 Essential Guidelines for Your Goals

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Creating a Culture of Evangelistic Accountability

Patrick Bradley — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 09:00:37 +0000

By Ed Stetzer: Evangelism has the ability to make some of us very uncomfortable. We worry about offending people. We agonize over saying something wrong, unorthodox, or unhelpful that might end up leading someone further from Christ in lieu of closer to him.

While we certainly don’t want to share Jesus carelessly or apart from the spirit’s leading, avoiding evangelism out of fear is not a God-honoring option. There is no ‘perfect’ way to share Christ—we’re told to do it and do it boldy trusting that the seeds we plant will bear fruit in his timing.

As D.L. Moody famously said, “Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”

For pastors, avoiding the topic of evangelism cannot become the default choice. For the church to continue thriving, we need everyone—churchgoers young and old—to buy into a shared passion for the spreading of the gospel. If our hearts are truly for the unbelievers—those who haven’t yet heard the good news of God’s love for them—we’ll be willing to face discomfort, difficulty, and even the possibility of failure to share it with them.

Here are some ways to practically encourage evangelism in our churches, organizations, and personal lives:

Create a culture of evangelistic accountability

I am always conscience of the shoes I’m supposed to fill—I sit, after all, in Billy Graham’s chair and preach at D.L. Moody’s pulpit. Evangelism, for obvious reasons, should be my middle name.

One of my goals during my time at the BGC has been to create a culture of evangelistic accountability to serve as a reminder of its importance to our organization. At the Billy Graham Center, I’ve tried to encourage other staff members to take our responsibility to show and share the love of Jesus in a broken and hurting world seriously.

I’ll often ask the staff to tell our team who they’ve shared the gospel with most recently—it’s a form of accountability that I’ve found to be most effective in organizational settings.

For the pastors and church leaders, the strategy can and should look similar. Individuals who are truly passionate about building thriving church communities will be willing to push the envelope on their comfort level in order to create disciples. They’ll also be willing to encourage their congregation to do the same.

Does this approach sound forced? Maybe it does. But the point is that after a few times of being asked, “Who did you share the gospel with this week?” our team members and colleagues won’t need to fumble for words. Sharing Jesus after a while will become something all of us do automatically—not because we have to, but because we want to.

It will be something that happens naturally, flowing out of a love for Christ and a desire to build his kingdom in this world.

Tell evangelistic stories in public

Of course you should always ask before volunteering to share someone else’s story for them. But, I’ve found that hearing stories about the transformation that the gospel has brought into people’s life encourages others to pursue opportunities to share their faith.

For many of us afraid to share our faith, it brings courage and confidence. For others, it serves as a reminder that telling someone about Jesus is worth those moments of discomfort and uncertainty.

Some have attributed the quote “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary” to St. Francis of Assisi. To set the record straight, St. Francis never said that. But nevertheless, I believe it’s misguided a lot of Christians, giving them the impression that actions are holier or of higher value than words.

Don’t get me wrong, the things we do for God—the acts of self-sacrificial service and obedience—matter. But chances are, serving at a soup kitchen or volunteering at an animal shelter are not in and of themselves going to bring anyone into a relationship with God. The gospel is certainly demonstrated in deeds, but it is primarily proclaimed in words.

As we tell others about the opportunities God we’ve been given to evangelize, we open doors for them to do the same. If we do not, scripture says that even the rocks will cry out in proclamation of his glory.

Pray for the harvest

In Matthew 9, Jesus’ instructs the disciples to “Ask the Lord of the harvest…to send out workers into his harvest.”

Prayer is a critical part of the process. We, after-all, are not the producers of the crop nor do we bear the responsibility of producing a successful harvest. We are workers in our heavenly father’s fields—and we need to pray that God will soften more hearts to come and do his work.

In Matthew 10, after asking his disciples to pray for laborers in the previous chapter, Jesus sends them out into the world as agents of change in a broken world.

Let us, as his followers, heed this same call and go out with willing hearts to proclaim the gospel as we make disciples for Christ.

Source: Creating a Culture of Evangelistic Accountability

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Challenges to Becoming a Multicultural Church

Patrick Bradley — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 09:00:08 +0000

By Ed Stetzer: One of the biggest issues in our culture is race relations. I write about it often, and the latest #Charlottesville incident reminds us of the brokenness we face in this area.

One of the biggest knocks on the Church is that 11:00 on Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America. There is no reason to argue it. Neither should that fact cause us to change everything we do to make it untrue. I’m not defending the reality, and I do understand that there are many reasons for it. But it is also encouraging that many churches are trying to overcome that history.

However, I also know that there is a strong movement to help us not be defined by ‘white church’ and ‘black church’ labels. There are many good people reaching across ethnic and color lines to help the Church become as diverse as the many types of people God created. There are challenges for sure. But these challenges can be met and dealt with successfully.

When we talk about churches becoming more multicultural, I’m not here to shame anyone. I get that many Anglo churches are filled with angst because they are “too white,” but that can be good or bad. The fact is, some churches are in communities that are not very diverse. A church is not primarily responsible for how multicultural its neighborhood is, but it is responsible for how kingdom-minded it is. So what does it look like to make a healthy cultural shift away from who you are to who you can be?

Notice the Neighborhood

The goal is not to meet a quota.

It is to meet the expectations God has for us. In some ways, that expectation varies from local body to local body. But it seems fair to suggest that the Church should have a goal to reflect its local community—not because it has to, but because it wants to. So, as we go forward, it is important to understand that the move to multicultural Christian community is not something we achieve because we are forcing it, but because we realize the force in it.

It starts with a church being like its neighborhood. But, if possible, it is good to be morediverse than your neighborhood.

It affirms the value of the diversity God has created. It says that we are not satisfied to simply be around people like ourselves. We expect missionaries to engage in partnerships with various cultures. Well, our mission starts in our communities. So we should ‘go’, even if the going is in Jerusalem.

Push beyond what naturally occurs, and watch what God will do.

Become a Welcoming and Understanding Community

One of the things we should recognize is the dynamics of a congregation or gathering of people.

What is a person thinking, hearing, or seeing when he or she walks into a church? The first thing most people do when they walk into a church and look around is ask, “Is there anyone like me here?” That is a natural human question.

If the person is young, he or she is probably looking for young people. If he or she is a parent, they are likely looking for families. If he or she is a person of color, they are looking for people who look like them. You may say that doesn’t sound very spiritual. I’m not saying it is right or wrong. I’m saying it is true. And we all do it.

Years ago, I visited a very large all-black church. I looked around out of curiosity, “Are there any white people here?” There weren’t. But what was great was someone came up to me and said, “Listen, the pastor makes sure we welcome all kinds of people. We want to welcome you.”

At that point, I knew a bit how African-Americans feel when they visit Anglo churches, though there are many other issues at work when it is reversed.

So, as we realize how people are wired, it becomes important for us to not create an environment that is naturally off-putting. If we want to minister in our community, it is a good idea to look like our community so people in the community feel at home when they enter our church. Part of this happens when your church enters the community. Build relationships with people across the diverse lines in your neighborhood.

Hire Leadership Who Reflect Your Values

If you want to be diverse, it’s important to build a multicultural team. If your church is not large enough to hire staff, you can still develop a diverse group of leaders.

What you celebrate, you become. If you celebrate diversity in your leadership, it will be reflected in your pews. So hire well.

But don’t bring someone on just because he or she is the right ethnicity or color. It takes a lot more than that. And some people, Anglo or people of color, just don’t want to work to be in a multicultural setting, and they won’t help you—you need people who value that diversity and want to work for the kingdom value that a multicultural church expresses.

Look for bridge builders who are willing to learn to relate to people of different cultures and contexts.

You need leaders who value diversity, but not just that, they have to value reconciliation, which helps us undergird diversity.

One final note there: It is also important to remember that many minority-majority churches are so because they can’t become multicultural. Sometimes it’s a choice that those of us in the majority need to respect.

It’s not like most African-American churches are sitting around wishing they had more white people in their lives. Many enjoy a historic spiritual and cultural heritage in their church because, for many years, that is where their community has been enriched, empowered, and educated. It is where their leaders were recognized and appreciated. This is true in several minority communities. Many do not want to lose that heritage by trying to become more diverse. Many also live their lives in majority culture and need a safe place where they can express the sides of themselves that don’t get affirmed in the broader culture. Or else they may lose those valued parts of their culture and identity and history.

That’s worthy of our respect even as we seek to become more diverse.

Always Focus on the Big Mission

There are many dynamics at play when it comes to growing in cultural diversity within a church. None of these factors should overwhelm the mission of the Church, which is to be God’s reconciling agent in a fallen world. But in that reconciling of humans to God, there should always be a part that is focused on reconciling human to human. In a way, it is the natural outcome of a renewed human.

This movement to open up the Church to a multicultural face is the visual expression of what happens in the heart when God heals our land. It should not be used to beat down those who are less diverse. Rather, it can be a great way to build the family and reach the lost. After all, if the redeemed can reach across the gulf to reconcile with the lost, certainly we can join hearts and arms with those who have a little more or less melanin than we do, right?

Source: Challenges to Becoming a Multicultural Church

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What Do Highly Effective Organizations Measure?

Patrick Bradley — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 16:30:22 +0000

by Dick Blanc: As we continue to introduce more and more large churches to our RoadMap process, we’ve found this introductory content to be extremely beneficial to leaders who are looking to understand what it takes to grow and lead high-performing organizations. Over the next few weeks we will be republishing this series of content in hopes that it will be useful to you and your leadership team.

In my previous blog post, “How Do Large Churches Become High-Performing Organizations?”, I highlighted one of the key differences between high and low performing organizations. The leaders of enduring high-performance companies regularly use a process to measure and assess the organization’s leadership alignment and capacity to achieve the vision on at least an annual basis. The question becomes, “What exactly are they measuring?”

In 30 years of advising leaders of high-performing companies, I’ve observed there are nine foundational areas of operational capacity that enable highly effective organizations to thrive over the long term. These 9 foundations of organizational capacity were first developed through a collaboration between McKinsey & Company and Venture Philanthropy Partners, based on insights from hundreds of highly successful organizations. The outcome was the creation of the Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool which has been used repeatedly by some of the strongest companies across the globe.

This survey tool has also been custom-designed and tailored to the non-profit social sector that comprises churches, ministries and other social enterprises focused on changed lives. In fact, Leadership Network and McKinsey are collaborating on behalf of large churches on a RoadMap process for large church leadership teams that utilizes the highly proven McKinsey assessment tool and Leadership Network’s capabilities in facilitating ideas to actions and outcomes for your church leadership team.

In order to grasp the significance of this assessment for large churches, I want to dive deeper into each foundational areas of organization capacity and vision alignment. Through two blog posts and a 7-week email series, we’ll discuss examples of what high performing organizations have done to thrive in each of the above 9 capability areas, and how each of these applies to your church.

How well is your church doing in the 9 organizational capacity areas? Do your leadership team and key volunteers have clarity and strong alignment with your vision?

The Roadmap Process can help you find out!

Source: What Do Highly Effective Organizations Measure?

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