August 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

Five Reasons People Volunteer

My friend Casey Graham teaches churches all over the world that there are five reasons people give, and that churches should be intentional about speaking to each of these reasons. These reasons aren’t just true for churches, they are true for every non-profit organization that raises money. According to Casey, here are the five reasons people give:

  1. They see a need.
  2. They believe in the vision.
  3. They have a relationship with someone.
  4. They are taught how to do it.
  5. They want to obey God.

As I thought about these reasons, I realized these reasons don’t just speak to why people give, they are the same reasons that people volunteer. Here’s what I mean:

  1. People volunteer because they see a specific need. This is why it’s always better to highlight specific needs rather than make general appeals. Just like it’s a mistake to think that people give only to vision, we’ve got to understand that some people will get more fired up by a part of the vision rather than the whole.
  2. They believe in the vision. While everyone isn’t motivated by the vision alone, some people are. Volunteers need to know they are a part of something bigger than themselves. If you’re just asking people to complete tasks, and they don’t understand how those tasks fit into the bigger picture, they won’t last long. Burnout happens when people forget why they do what they do and are expected to keep doing it.
  3. They have a relationship. Most organizations do a poor job of creating a fun environment and connecting people…we’re so busy giving people tasks, we forget that people want to hang out with friends and have a good time. As much as possible, volunteering should occur in teams, and those teams of people need to care for one another. Relationships keep people engaged.
  4. They are taught how to do it. If you want people to serve, you’ve got to make it simple and you’ve got to show them the way. One of the worst things you can do is throw a new volunteer into an important opportunity. There are naturally gifted leaders, but
  5. They want to obey God. God’s Word teaches that we need to love and serve others. This fact alone motivates some people to serve.

If you’re a leader working with volunteers, you’ve got to speak to each of these reasons. Vision alone isn’t enough. Beating people with “you should” after “you should” from the Bible isn’t enough. Find ways to speak to all the reasons that people step up to serve.

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August 30, 2011 By 2 Comments

When Saying Yes is Saying No

Whenever you say yes to something, you’re saying no to many more things.

  • Every new idea you pursue is brain power taken away from another idea.
  • Money invested in one stock means money NOT invested in another.
  • Time spent developing one idea is time you’re not spending on the original idea.
  • You can’t be in two places at once. When you decide to be somewhere, you’re essentially saying no to being anywhere else.

When you decide to focus on something, you’re essentially deciding not to focus on everything else. Time, energy, decisions and even relationships come at a cost. They aren’t renewable resources, but are used up over time. There’s actually a fancy name for this idea: effort allocation.

And there’s another side of this principle that’s important for everyone who leads anything.

You can’t keep adding things to the plate without pushing something to the side. Trying to make everything a big deal means that nothing will be a big deal. You can’t keep adding to the plate without pushing things off.  If you want to add something new, you probably need to remove something old.

What does this mean for me? It means that taking on another project means something that I’m doing now has to go. It has applications in our personal finances and hobbies. And it keeps me from biting off more than I can chew.

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August 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

A Church IS Like a Business

Six years ago, I moved to a brand new town to start a brand new business. It wasn’t a restaurant, or an internet marketing agency…it was a church. You might not think of starting a church like starting a business, but it is. From incorporation to marketing to fund-raising to business plans, we started a successful business. Now for all of my Christian friends, please understand…starting a church is so much MORE than starting a business, but it’s AT LEAST starting a business. Here’s some of the similarities.

1. We raised money. We started with no money, and learned how to bootstrap. Five years later, we were paying for facilities and personell and covering $800,000 of annual expenses. Most small business start with a business plan and little money…we did the same thing. I still have a lot to learn, but I learned a ton about raising money, and how to do things well without much money.

2. We attracted customers. I certainly don’t want to insenuate that people looking for a church are simply customers, but there is a little bit of similarity. In a town where there were plenty of churches to attend, we had to differentiate and attract attenders. And on top of that, we were trying to reach “customers” who really didn’t want anything to do with church…ANY kind of church. After a couple of years, we were running 750 people in a town of 17,000.

3. We hired, fired and reorganized staff. We started with one person on staff (me) and grew to about ten people. We had to look for potential hires, interview people, and plug them into new positions. We reorganized for growth, and went through uncomfortable moments of change. We went from having generalists who did everything to working with specialists who focused on a specific part of the church.

4. We dealt with insurance, facility and other issues. We had to learn how to work with other businesses, city officials and participated in other local businesses. Just like your small business wrestles through real issues, we did too. Churches are not immune to the rules of business. In fact, trying to find the “church way” around a business issue can be deadly.

5. We had to learn tools. Growing from 0 to 750 people required a lot of learning, especially on the business and administration side of things. And without a lot of money, we learned how to utilize free or cheap resources. We had to grow and learn and change.

6. We communicated to “regulars”. With a database of more than 3,000 people, we learned how to leverage effective communication to inspire people to take action. We had to continually communicate to the core, and inspire people to take action.

7. We wanted to grow. Like most small businesses, we had a vision and a plan and some goals. We wanted to reach people in our community because we knew that our message is eternally important. Hopefully, you started your business because you believed in what you were offering. But wanting to grow, and actually growing are two very different things. Even if you know where you’re heading, you need a plan to get there. Charting that course and executing the plan requires skill, determination and help.

Starting a church is much bigger than starting a business, but it is similar. Some of the things I’ve learned along the way have helped me have intelligent conversations with business leaders…conversations that I enjoy having. If you’re part of a business that’s looking to grow, expand, or refocus, I’d love to help you.

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August 28, 2011 By 1 Comment

Sunday Sermon Notes: Recovery Road Part 2

Here are my notes from Buckhead Church today. Andy Stanley continued a series called Recovery Road.

As a church, we have a responsibility to talk about what’s going on in our nation. If people are talking about it during the week, the church should probably talk about it on Sunday.

It’s easy to point the finger, but the reality is you can’t make a decision for THEM. You can only look at yourself. At the heart of recovery is a fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Look in the mirror without excuse. You will never fully recover from anything if you are not completely honest with yourself.

Our pattern is: If it weren’t for _____, then I wouldn’t have _______.  That’s the blame game.  We start to take responsibility for our actions, then say BUT…We employ coping mac

You know this to be true, and you want other people to embrace this truth, but it’s human nature to point the finger.

Scripture: Jeremiah 17:9.

Jeremiah addressed two kings who both foolishly attacked Babylon, who God was using to judge Israel.  The kings kept making terrible decisions.  Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”  We look back and say “what was I thinking” because we weren’t thinking clearly…our heart deceives us.

We naturally resist looking in the mirror, and we lie to ourselves all the time. But if you are brave enough to stop making excuses, you can recover from anything.

Andy then asked some serious application questions (joking…”if you were thinking about leaving early, now would be a good time.)

1.  Are you racist? “Some of you don’t like black people or hispanic people,” he said. That’s a YOU problem. Some of you just don’t like poor people…you think all poor people should just quit drinking and get a job because that’s what your grandfather said. You’re a Christian racist.

Stop using Christianity as an excuse not to like gay people. Or rich people. Or poor people. This is a YOU problem.

2.  Some need to admit that there’s a real reason (not the elaborate story) behind why you married her, dropped out of school, or are selling your home.  Refusing to deal with the real reason leads you to create coping mechanisms and you end up compensating for that hurt in some way.

Answering these personal inventory questions is terrifying on the front end but liberating on the back end. You will never fully recover if you keep lying to yourself.

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August 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Stuff I Starred

Here’s a list of a few things I starred in Google reader, favorited on Twitter or clipped into Evernote.

  • Will Mancini gives ten ways to use your mission statement.
  • Shannon Sharpe:  “My grandmother never told me as I was getting to leave for Savannah State, ‘Shannon, don’t do drugs.  Shannon, don’t drink.  Shannon, go to class.  Shannon, do your homework.  Shannon, be respectful.  Shannon, iron your clothes.’  She laid that foundation for 18 years.  A 10-minute speech wasn’t going to work now.” (via Joe Sangl
  • Great post from The Resurgence on Pluralism and Christianity.
  • Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. – Oscar Wilde
  • I’m renaming my wifi network to one of these.
  • expressing your idea in a simple way is almost as important as the idea itself. – @mikefoster
  • Thought provoking post on the appearance of worship leaders (including “excessive weight”) from Tim Stevens.
  • Vision without execution is hallucination. – Thomas Edison (via @tonymccollum)
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August 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Book Notes: Buy Now

Buy Now: Creative Marketing that Gets Customers to Respond to You And Your Product
by Rick Cesari and Ron Lynch

  • You have a strong need. We can fulfill it.
  • People are grateful to be sold something they truly want and need.
  • The Super Bowl shows us that we do, indeed, like advertising.
  • “All marketing is bad – unless, of course, it is for something I want and need.”
  • “You cannot afford in this day and age to say, “Our product appeals to everyone then shotgun a message in hopes of landing business. That’s a stupid waste of money.”
  • But wait, there’s more.
  • We had the right guy (who could get your attention), the right product (it actually worked) and a good distribution model.
  • When selling, focus on the benefits, not the features. You can accomplish this with the “problem/solution” scenario
  • P90X wasn’t marketed using an “exercise is easy” strategy. The makers let you know it was tough.
  • “To a man, a good sales pitch is like a good arrow: It gets to the meat – short, straight, and to the point. It actually may leave some things unanswered. To a woman, a good pitch is more like a good based: woven, connected, and three dimensional. It needs to hold more water.”
  • With consumers hearing 40,000 marketing messages a week, you must have a unique selling proposition. If you cannot find a way to create a definite USP, you should probably change the product or service.
  • Product price testing showed that people think in terms of twenty dollar bills. Virtually no difference between $29 and $39 – call volume was identical at both price points. Same proved true for $49 and $59.
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August 24, 2011 By 2 Comments

How to Preach Like Andy Stanley

A few years ago, I calculated that I had preached about 2,000 times in my life. I’ve also listened to hundreds of sermons from dozens of different preachers. Recently, my family and I started attending Buckhead Church, where Andy Stanley is the Senior Pastor.  In my opinion, Andy is one of the top three speakers on the planet.  Twenty minutes into his sermon, I’m hanging on for more, not hoping he is done.  Here’s six reasons why I believe that happens:

  1. He understands the people. I get the sense that Andy truly understands the people sitting in rows. I’ve heard him reference “Your first marriage” many times. Last week, one of his application question was about paying child support. This kind of understanding, and the real life examples he works into his messages build credibility.
  2. He is a master of the content. Andy doesn’t use notes, and if you pay attention, you’ll see him reference a slide on the screen just before it appears. That’s because he’s prepared. He knows his material and he’s not reading it from a sheet of paper.  In my experience, the more a preacher relies on notes, the less he engages the congregation.
  3. He will get you to agree with him in the first five minutes. I’ve listened to thousands of sermons from dozens of preachers in my life, and I’ve never heard anyone creation tension like Andy Stanley. In the first five minutes of a message, you’ll find yourself agreeing with something. He might say, “You’ve thought this…” and you’ll agree in your heart. Even if you disagree with the truth, you’ll agree with the emotion. This is incredible, because if you can get someone to agree with you about something early on, you’ll be far more likely to get them to agree to take an action step in the end.
  4. He speaks to a broader audience. If you were to watch a video of Andy Speaking, you probably won’t know when and where he was when speaking. That’s because he’s not just preaching to the people in the room, he’s preaching to people in other rooms. He knows that his audience is larger than the people looking at him. You may think, “I don’t have the need to do that because we don’t have other campus and this message isn’t on the internet,” but the process of speaking “evergreen” will make you a better speaker.
  5. He tackles tough topics with grace. A few weeks ago, I heard Andy talk about the tough subject of marriage, divorce and remarriage. He handled the topic with grace, but also spoke the truth. He was courteous, and recognized that everyone wouldn’t agree with his message, but that didn’t keep him away from explaining what the Bible said on the subject. I don’t think people feel beat up, but they know they need to make changes.
  6. He speaks with vision. I don’t have any insider information, but it seems like Andy ends nearly every message with a vision section. He often uses the word “Imagine” and paints a picture for people of what life would be like if they applied the principle. He causes you to think about the future, whether he’s talking about marriage, faith or finances.  I usually leave feeling a sense of hope.

Those are just six of the things that make Andy Stanley one of the best preachers of our time.  Of course, I don’t believe you should try and preach like Andy Stanley, or anyone else for that matter.  Every speaker must work hard to find his or her own unique voice.  But I believe this six transferrable principles will help you.

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August 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

The Ten Minute Meeting

I know meetings are not productive.

I understand that people hate them.

I realize you think they are a waste of time.

But maybe, just maybe, you need to have more meetings, not fewer.

Before you take an axe to your meeting schedule, think about refocusing. Instead of a staff meeting with your entire team covering a large agenda, maybe you need to schedule a few 10-minute, one-item agenda meeting with the people who need to really be there.

Cut down the number of people attending. Cut down the items on the agenda. And get it all done in a short amount of time.

Master the ten minute meeting.

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: ,
August 22, 2011 By 8 Comments

Six Thoughts from a Church Attender

After several years working on staff as a church, and six more as a church planter, I’m now attending a church with my family.  This has actually been a positive and refreshing time, and it’s given me a much different perspective things.

I don’t offer this list as a criticism…simply some observations from someone new to sitting in rows.   Here are six thoughts from a church attender.

1. It’s hard for me to think about church during the week. As a pastor, I thought about church all of the time, and I assumed people in the church did the same thing. I’m still probably more interested than the average church attender, but I can’t really tell you what series is starting this week. I’m numb to the hype, and real life is busy.

2. Singing is strange. I know that worship is more than singing, and I believe that singing is a form of worship, but it’s just strange to stand in a room full of strangers and sing sings. It might happen after the 7th inning and at a birthday party, but it’s strange when a room full of adults break out into song. I’ve looked around, and by my estimations, maybe 30% of the room is participating publicly. And most guys are just standing there.

3. I don’t know the people you’re talking about. Again, I know more about the church world than the typical church attender, but the people sitting in the pews don’t know Bill Hybles and they thing Hillsong is something from Lord of the Rings. It’s awesome that you know those people, but my celebrities are on TV and not on church leadership blogs.

4. I can’t possibly remember all the information you’re throwing my way. I’m trying…I really am. But you gave me five points and three things to do. It’s really hard for me to remember the points from your sermon. Not to mention the six announcements you gave at the end of the service…I’ve forgotten those things by the time I picked up my kids.

5. I want to laugh more. I know it’s church, and I know you’re preaching a sermon. But I really do want to laugh a little. If you tell a funny story or say something witty, I’ll be more engaged. I’m not expecting a Vegas show when I come to church, but does it always have to be so serious?

6. I don’t like crowded rooms or parking lots. As a pastor, I loved the crowded room. As the person trying to find a seat, not so much. In fact, I would love it if the seat next to me was empty. And while I know a crowded parking lot is a sign of life, it’s hard for my kids to talk about what they learned in their class when trying to get out of a crowded parking lot. I know it’s shallow and I’m trying to get over it, but it’s where I am.

I know there are a lot of church leaders who read this blog, so I offer this list in humility, just to let you know what some of us “regular” people might be thinking.  Every church is important and every person matters.

Filed Under: Leadership
August 21, 2011 By 1 Comment

Sunday Sermon Notes

Below are my notes from Andy Stanley‘s first message in a series called Recovery Road.

Introduction:  As a church, we have a duty to talk about culture when it intersects from Scripture.  It’s easy to look at faith through the lens of our politics, but we should look at our politics through the lens of faith.

Tension:  We’ve all seen superstars and businesses go bankrupt and we’ve all thought: “If I had that…I would never screw up like them.”  And we think, “If I was in charge of the country, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Whether it’s a bankrupt superstar or a bankrupt nation, look beneath the surface and you’ll see that there was never a cash flow problem, but a management problem.  Financial problems simply expose the real problem.  As a nation, we have abused prosperity.  That’s led to…

  • A discipline problem
  • An entitlement problem.  Remove entitlements and rich people and poor people respond the same way.We’re “spoiled.”
  • We have a greed problem. The more you have, the less you give.
  • We have a failure of nerve problem.  We fear the consequences of what we know needs to be done.

As a nation, we are reaping what we have sown. But mature people don’t look for someone to blame, they look for something to do.

Scripture: Matthew 7:3-5.

Jesus said the solution was not to examine other people, but to examine yourself.  A hypocrite expects someone else to do what they are not willing to do themselves.  Recovery is going to begin with WE, not THEY.  It’s time to take personal responsibility.

A few application questions…

  • Are you undisciplined with your money?  If so, you have no right to complain about government spending.
  • Are you greedy?
  • Are you caught up in your child support?  If you’re not, you’re a hypocrite.
  • Are you on disability even though you have the ability to work?
  • Are you stealing from your employer?  If you are, then you’re a hypocrite and you need to examine the speck in your own eye.
  • Are you doing drugs?  (There’s no cassette tape cartel because people don’t use cassette tapes.  If you would stop smoking marijuana, then the industry would go away)
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