I have a new post today on Leadership Journal's Out of Ur blog entitled
A CEO says pastors would never make it in the business world, but is that bad?
by Andy Rowell
I comment on a BusinessWeek article by Jack Welch regarding people trying to move from the non-profit world (i.e. church) to the business world.These new business resources have helped me to become a better strategic thinker as a church leader.
1. TED Talks. This is church for secular people. They bring in the most passionate, worthwhile, creative and successful people to share what they feel other leaders most need to hear. You can watch the videos of the talks online. They are informational, inspirational and remind me of what church should be. In March 2007, David Pogue of the NYTimes gives this summary,
Last week, I attended my second TED conference, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. During the four-day conference, you hear 50 speakers, who are given 18 minutes each. They are the most compelling, passionate, informed speakers you've ever heard (all right, maybe 45 of them are). Some bring back reports from the edge of medicine, archaeology, nanotech, neurology, psychiatry or the Web. Some, like Paul Simon, Tracy Chapman, and They Might Be Giants, perform live. But a good number of them bring you face to face with some of the most upsetting realities of human existence. The horrors in sub-Saharan Africa. The viruses that are gaining on us. The increasing scarcity of drinkable water. And over and over and over again, climate change, presented with the most harrowing examples, measurements and projections . . . There are so many standing ovations, you're practically doing 18-minute calisthenics. And the cumulative effect of the conference is devastating. You can't return to the real world thinking the same thoughts you thought before; you just can't do it. Only 1,000 people can attend TED live (it's in Monterey, California). The auditorium holds only 500 people; the rest sit downstairs in a comfortable "simulcast lounge" and watch on flat-panel high-definition TV sets. (So why don't they hold the thing in a bigger theater? They tried. Last year, they held one afternoon's talks in a Broadway-style theater. It was a disaster. The enormous hall drained all sense of intimacy, humanity and urgency from the speakers.)
I listened to Bill Clinton's talk on the world's health-care crisis. At the beginning, Clinton rattles off statistics about the plight of the world. Oh, that all American pastors (including me) could do the same.
I can't help but think these 18 minute presentations are what our congregations are hungry for: intelligent, passionate talks about changing the world. Watch them at TED's website here.
2. Jack and Suzy Welch's The Welch Way column and podcast. I have listened to all the podcasts. They are outstanding. It is great to hear the "greatest CEO in history" give his take on common management (leadership) issues. You will be a wiser supervisor for having listened. The Businessweek Welch Way website is here. I subscribe with iTunes. The link for that is here.
3. Businessweek's Cover Stories. I love the interviews on iTunes but you can read all of the past cover stories on Businessweek's website. These give you the latest of what is happening in business from the inside. There have been fascinating recent stories on Wal-Mart, Best Buy, McDonald's, Home Depot, Amazon.com, the Best Performers, the Best Places (Companies) to Launch your Career, MTV and the World's Most Innovative Companies. Businessweek's website is here. The iTunes link is here.
Of course, a church is not a business but we can certainly learn from the strategic thinking and the creative structures of other effective organizations. All of these resources inspire me and give me confidence to be an innovator - to make changes, to lead.
For more information about podcasts and iTunes, see my article the Best Podcasts for Church Leaders.
For more arguments about church and business, see the various posts related to Andy Stanley who embraces business practices. He is a good case study of the strengths of that approach and I also point out some possible weaknesses.
This is a guest post from my brother Brad Rowell who works for DeWALT Industrial Tools and is involved in a church plant called Hillside Church of Southeast Denver. (See photo from last summer to the right).  |
 | ||
| New Rules | vs. | Old Rules | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agile is best; being big can bite you. | Big dogs own the street. | |
| 2 | Find a niche, create something new. | Be No. 1 or No. 2 in your market. | |
| 3 | The customer is king. | Shareholders rule. | |
| 4 | Look out, not in. | Be lean and mean. | |
| 5 | Hire passionate people. | Rank your players; go with the A's. | |
| 6 | Hire a courageous CEO. | Hire a charismatic CEO. | |
| 7 | Admire my soul. | Admire my might |
On Tuesday I listened to the first two of "Seven Practices of Effective Ministry" podcasts with Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner and Lane Jones. They are the authors of the popular 2004 book of that title. I have heard pastors recommend this book in the last year more often than any other.
Two comments and a question:
1. I want to thank them for putting this out for free. Podcasts are great! I love audio for when I am in the car! It is great to hear the North Point folks trying to explain how they practically implement these tips.
2. I have been reflecting on how these hints apply to worship planning. It has been helpful for me.
For "Clarify the Win," I am asking: do we want to be a) more seeker-sensitive, b) have more meaningful worship, c) equip worship leaders, d) see more participation, e) have more ancient and contemporary worship, or f) see more age-blended worship? North Point tries to have their worship leaders create unforgettable experiences because they are seeker-driven. It would be good to get clear with the leadership of a church what we are trying to achieve in worship. Once we have that, they encourage us to state it simply, repeat it often and celebrate it.
They encourage intentionality in their "Think Steps Not Programs" practice. How do we make sure that worship is actually moving people where we want them to go? How does it fit with the overall plan of the church? Is it central or peripheral? If it is peripheral, nix it. In other words, there are lots of nice things we could do in worship (improve the prayer time, sharpen the PowerPoint, improve the flow of songs, etc.) but do these improvements unintentionally produce more problems in other areas of the church life? The North Point folks want everything to flow from their three environments: "The Foyer" (welcome guests) to the "The Living Room" (connect with friends) to the "Kitchen" (intimacy with family). (See also Andy's January 8&15 2006 messages "A Face in the Crowd" and "Our House" for a description of their church strategy.) All in all, I think this is excellent stuff.
3. My question is: what do we lose when we become focused? Under this strategy, a few people set the "clear vision" and other possible purposes are weeded out. Some might go too far with what the North Point people are saying and try to impose a focus or vision on their people. "Andy Stanley told me to do this! I cannot listen to you people because you are not focused on the vision - my vision."
I listened to a John Ortberg talk on Jesus, Leadership and the Kingdom of God podcast immediately after listening to the North Point material. Ortberg (quoting Jesus) emphasizes that Christian leaders do not lord their leadership over others. The North Point leaders don't lord their leadership over people but it is very clear who the leaders are and it is they that set the direction.
The North Point folks are emphasizing the motto "do less things and you will do those things better." Most of our churches need to hear this. And yet we will have further problems if we think that all of the vision and focus are going to come from the top tier of leadership. In reality at North Point, the leaders do a whole lot of listening to thoughtful and godly "regular" congregation members. Though the church seems to be led from the senior pastor, in reality Andy is also highly influenced by his conversations with regular folks.
So let's do both.
As leaders, let's pay attention to the voices of creative people, prophets, and real people. We might not always enjoy what they have to say. It may not be comfortable. They may not agree with our vision or "focus." But they may have a point that we haven't seen. They may need to tell us the truth because we are off-track. I was tremendously helped to be advised that
Sometimes your critics and the complainers are simply good leaders in disguise who need a place to plug in and unleash their gifts. The reason they are unhappy is that they know we can do better and they want to help.
The Old Testament prophets were constantly trying to make sure that the temple priests didn't get so into their rituals, efficiency and duties that they forgot the real point. I think creative, prophetic, and ordinary-Joe people often help me remember what really matters. Their criticisms of me often have some validity that I need to pay attention to.
At the same time, the North Point folks remind us that we can't be scattered and confused and unfocused because of every little opinion or criticism. We can sort through the feedback and focus on what is most important. So let's listen and focus - that seems to me to be the road toward effective ministry.
See another post about Andy Stanley here where Andy S. actually commented.
See also Granger Community Church pastor Mark Waltz's blog on the 7 practices. Part 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
I rewrote this point on September 14, 2006.
Bossidy, Larry, Ram Charan, and Charles Burck. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Crown Business, 2002.
Buckingham, Marcus and Curt Coffman. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Buckingham, Marcus and Donald O. Clifton. Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: The Free Press, 2001.
Collins, Jim. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t. New York: HarperBusiness, 2001.
Drucker, Peter. The Effective Executive. Collins, 2002.
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. 10th Anniversary Edition. Bantam, 2005.
Goleman, Daniel, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence. Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press, 1996.
Kotter, John P. and Dan S. Cohen. The Heart of Change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
Lencioni, Patrick M. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Welch, Jack and Suzy Welch. Winning. Collins, 2005.
I have given you denomination, website, and attendance if I could find the data.
Anderson, Leith. Dying for Change. Bethany House Publishers, 1998.
________________. Leadership That Works: Hope and Direction for Church and Parachurch Leaders in Today's Complex World. Bethany House Publishers, 2002.
http://www.wooddale.org/ Wooddale Church; non-denominational but is associated with Baptist General Conference; Minnesota; 4000 attendance; six daughter churches.
Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.
http://www.mhbcmi.org/findex.html Mars Hill Bible Church. Non-denominational; Michigan. 10,000 attendance. Emergent.
Bisagno, John R. Letters to Timothy: A Handbook for Pastors. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001.
http://www.houstonsfirst.org/ Houston’s First Baptist Church. Retired in 2000. 8,000 attendance.
Cladis, George. Leading the Team-Based Church: How Pastors and Church Staffs Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders. Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Former pastor at http://www.westminster-okc.org/index2.html and http://www.norotonchurch.org/ Medium sized PCUSA churches.
Cole, Neil. Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. Jossey-Bass, 2005.
http://www.cmaresources.org/ Church Multiplication Associates. Founder of Awakening Chapels – house churches targeting younger people in urban settings.
Cymbala, Jim with Stephen Sorenson. The Church God Blesses. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.
Brooklyn. Brooklyn Tabernacle. 10,000 attendance. http://www.brooklyntabernacle.org/ Non-denom.
Driscoll, Mark. The Radical Reformission : Reaching Out without Selling Out. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.
________________. Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons From an Emerging Missional Church. Zondervan, 2006.
Mars Hill Church, Seattle. http://www.marshillchurch.org/ Acts 29 church planting network. http://www.acts29network.org/ Emergent. Non-denominational roots with PCA theology.
Frazee, Randy. The Connecting Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
Now a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church. Was Senior Pastor at Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas from 1990-2005. http://www.pantego.org/index.cfm Non-denom. Megachurch.
Hansen, David. The Art of Pastoring: Ministry Without All the Answers. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1994.
http://www.kenwoodbaptist.com/index.html Kenwood Baptist Church. American Baptist. Cincinnati, OH. Attendance 500.
Hull, Bill. The Disciple Making Pastor. Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1988.
Was pastor in Evangelical Free Churches. Now works with http://www.tnetwork.com/index.htm
Hybels, Bill. Courageous Leadership. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.
http://www.willowcreek.org/ Founding Pastor; South Barrington, IL. 17,500 attendance.
Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.
http://www.vintagefaith.com/ and blog: http://dankimball.typepad.com/ and Vintage Faith Church http://www.vintagechurch.org/ 400-500 attendance. Non-denom. Emergent.
Lewis, Robert with Rob Wilkins. The Church of Irresistible Influence. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
Lewis is former pastor of http://www.fbclr.org/ Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, AK. Non-denom. 2,000 attendance.
Lewis, Robert and Wayne Cordeiro with Warren Bird. Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out. Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Cordeiro is Senior Pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship O'ahu, a Foursquare church in Honolulu, Hawaii. http://www.enewhope.org/index.php 9,000 attendance.
Mallory, Sue. The Equipping Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.
Executive Director of Group Publishing’s Church Volunteer Central. http://shop.grouppublishing.com/cvc/index.asp Was director of lay ministries at Brentwood Presbyterian Church http://www.bpcusa.org/index.asp PCUSA, 1200 members. Los Angeles.
McLaren, Brian. The Church on the Other Side. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.
Founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church http://www.crcc.org/ No longer Senior Pastor. Non-denom. Personal website: http://www.anewkindofchristian.com/ Maryland. Emergent.
McManus, Erwin Raphael. An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind. Group, 2001.
Personal website: http://www.erwinmcmanus.com/ Mosaic church http://www.mosaic.org/ Southern Baptist. Megachurch. Los Angeles. Emergent.
Mittelberg, Mark and Bill Hybels. Building a Contagious Church: Revolutionizing the Way We View and Do Evangelism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.
See Hybels above. Mittelberg is Executive Director of Evangelism for the Willow Creek Association. http://www.willowcreek.com/
Pagitt, Doug. Church Re-Imagined: The Spiritual Formation of People in Communities of Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.
Personal blog: http://pagitt.typepad.com/ Solomon’s Porch: http://www.solomonsporch.com/index.html Minneapolis.
Peterson, Eugene H. Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.
________________. The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction. Eerdmans, 1993.
Founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. PCUSA; 300 attendance. Left in 1992 to be professor at Regent College.
Rusaw, Rick and Eric Swanson. The Externally Focused Church. Group, 2004.
Rusaw is Senior Minister at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado. 3,000 attendance. Non-denom. http://www.lbcc.org/templates/cla23bl/default.asp?id=22545
Swanson worked with Campus Crusade for Christ for twenty-five years before moving to the Leadership Network. http://www.leadnet.org/
Scazzero, Peter with Warren Bird. The Emotionally Healthy Church: A Strategy for Discipleship That Actually Changes Lives. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.
Senior pastor at New Life Fellowship. http://www.newlifefellowship.org/ Queens, NY. Four other churches planted.
Stanley, Andy, Lane Jones and Reggie Joiner. The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry. Multnomah, 2004.
Stanley is pastor of http://www.northpoint.org/ North Point Community Church. 14,000 attendance. Georgia. Nondenom.
Stanley, Andy and Ed Young. Can We Do That? 24 Innovative Practices That Will Change the Way You Do Church. Howard, 2002.
Young is http://www.fellowshipchurch.com/fcweb/home.aspx 16,000 attendance; Grapevine, TX. Southern Baptist.
Stevens, Tim and Tony Morgan. Simply Strategic Stuff: Help for Leaders Drowning in the Details of Running a Church. Group, 2003.
Granger Community Church, Indiana. 4,300 attendance. http://www.gccwired.com/ United Methodist Church.
Taylor, Steve. The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change. Zondervan, 2005.
Personal blog: http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz/ Pastor of Opawa Baptist Church http://www.opawa.org.nz/ New Zealand. Medium-size.
Waltz, Mark L. First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences In Your Church. Group, 2004.
See Granger Community Church under Stevens.
Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
http://www.saddleback.com/flash/default.htm 15,000 attendance; California. Southern Baptist.
