Blog-Generated | Coaching Churches

5 Essentials For Today’s Church To Thrive

Posted by on July 19, 2023

With world class worship services available online, there must be another reason for people to come to your church on Sunday than great preaching and worship. There can be no real personal community online that offers the deep relationships that the church should be known for in your city. Your church must be committed to having a personal conversation with everyone who walks in the door.

This post by Dan Reiland is well worth the read: “If you quietly believe your church isn’t that different today than two years ago, consider that because the culture has dramatically changed, people see, perceive, and experience your church differently.

That reality is unavoidable.

The essential question is — Are people experiencing the difference in your church that you want them to experience?

In most cases, the difference is shaped by nuance, how you say what you say, how you treat people, and the values and convictions you stand for – not your programs.”

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The Power Of Delegation

Posted by on May 15, 2023

One of the best ways to leverage your leadership influence is to delegate as much work as possible to competent team members. At the start of every day you should ask yourself is there anything that needs to be done that I can give to someone else with the appropriate investment of my time?

In the Industrial age model of leadership the leaders made all of the decisions about priorities and strategies and the team was responsible only for execution. This resulted in very little delegation and significantly reduced productivity.

In this type of environment the leader would walk into the meeting and tell the group this is the new program for the fall and hear are your individual assignments, are there any questions?

In the Information age of leadership the leaders still make the decisions about priorities but delegate the development of the strategies and execution to the team. This is a major improvement and gets everyone into the game.

This meeting would involve the leader saying to the team, this is a program that we are considering for the fall, what do you think?

In the new Idea age the leader is willing to delegate the setting of priorities, strategies and execution with reserving the right to make the final decision on all recommendations from team. A meeting would include the leader saying to the team what are your recommendations for programs for the fall and why?

The need for and the type of delegation is changing dramatically in the last twenty years. In the past the leader was suppose to know all the answers to all the questions. Today they need to know how to ask the right questions and the team is responsible for the answers.

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5 Critical Mistakes Church Leaders Should Avoid In The Post-Covid World

Posted by on March 31, 2023

I wrote the book Church Scattered just prior to the pandemic. It clearly addresses all the issues that the pandemic forced on the church. In talking with church leaders, there is this powerful desire to just go back to the way things were before. Im sorry, that is no longer possible.

The good news is that you can create a new normal that will keep the sacred truths of the past and leverage what we have learned the last year about reaching more people for Christ. Carey Nieuwhof has been writing on this issue for months and this is his latest thinking:

“Finally, it seems like the post-COVID world is finally coming into view.

While different countries, regions, provinces and states will emerge out of COVID at different times, 2021 appears to be the year we will be able to move into a post-pandemic world.

So, as you get ready to embrace the new reality, what should you be focused on?

It’s obviously a tough question to answer because neither in-person church or online church is a panacea. Each has its unique challenges, promises and limits. In-person church attendance has been declining for decades before the pandemic, and online church hasn’t solved all the issues the church is facing either.

That said, here are some guidelines that can help moving forward.

Here are 5 critical mistakes it would be so easy to make right now as a church leader.”

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5 Practices Of Leaders Who Develop Leaders

Posted by on February 22, 2023

One of the hardest challenges for churches to grow beyond 500 is the necessary transition for staff team members from ministry to leadership. Most of them were hired for their relational skills and have no practical training on developing other leaders who actually do the ministry.

Most churches either simply hire more staff workers or stop growing and never really understand why. Hopefully, your current team can be developed into leaders of other leaders. If they cannot, they may need to transition to another smaller church that is a better fit for they’re gifting. This post by Dan Reiland will help clarity next steps:

“Developing leaders is an art. It’s a great responsibility and one of the most meaningful things you can do as a leader. Personally, I love it!

Developing leaders is life-changing, Kingdom advancing, and spiritual legacy in the making.

It’s nearly impossible to accomplish your God-given vision by yourself, therefore developing other leaders becomes essential.

It’s rare that anyone would disagree with that, and yet a surprising number of leaders acknowledge the lack of intentional development on their staff and among their volunteer leaders.”

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7 Disruptive Trends That Will Rule 2021

Posted by on January 19, 2021

I have talked a lot about disruption in my book Church Scattered and with a lot of clients. The major truth that must be understood is that there is no going back to the way things used to be.

We can continue to live in denial and long for the good old days but that will not help to lead our people through this critical and stressful period of change. Leadership through disruption means maintaining what is essential from the past and integrating that with what is critical for now.

This post by Carey Nieuwhof is a must read for church leaders: “Just when you thought the world couldn’t get any more turbulent or surprising, the opening moments of 2021 still have everyone trying to catch their breath.

So what are the leadership trends you should be tracking in 2021?

For years I’ve done a series of church trends posts. You can read the 2021 Disruptive Church Trends post here (along with backlinks to the Trends Series over the last five years). While those trends are aimed at church leaders, the implications are broader than that.

Last year, I added a more general Leadership Trends post, focusing on a broader swath of issues facing all leaders, businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, professionals—essentially all of us who lead.”

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2020 Prepared Us All For Living On Mission

Posted by on January 7, 2021

One of the fundamental truths in the book Church Scattered is that every Christian is called to live out their faith everyday starting at home and then taking that faith to work. This massive transition in priorities can be thought of as church members becoming missionaries. This is not some new marketing idea for evangelism but a radical commitment to make Christ known.

This post by Lloyd Kim is very helpful in helping you see the American we live in today just like you would any international mission field anywhere in the world. He writes,

“My wife just got the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. She is a family-practice physician and part of the first wave of recipients in the U.S. Leading up to her appointment, we read stories about the vaccine and its development. And as we did, we felt an intense emotional response we did not expect. What was going on inside of us?

It reminded us of our time on the mission field, where there was so much cross-cultural stress underlying daily life that we were often unaware of the emotional and physical toll it was taking on us. The first few years of missionary service are some of the most difficult years a person can experience.”

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7 Things That Changed in 2020 That Make Leadership Harder

Posted by on December 7, 2020

Just when you think all this chaos is about to stop, something else happens and it even gets worse. It is extremely difficult to develop a leadership plan when the crisis continues to change. However, there are some trends that are beginning to develop that are probably not going away and we must deal with that reality. Carey Nieuwhof has some great insights:

Your head likely hasn’t stopped spinning in 2020. Same.

Maybe on one or more occasions you’ve done what I’ve been tempted to do as well: bury your head in the sand because it’s just so discouraging to see what’s actually happening.

As much as it’s healthy to unplug for a day (or a week) to catch your breath, refresh your soul and tap into hope, ignoring reality isn’t a great long term strategy.

Leaders who ignore the culture have a hard time influencing it because they no longer understand it.

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5 Traits Of Churches That Will Build Again

Posted by on November 16, 2020

Every pastor in American is praying about what decisions they need to make moving forward into the new year. This disruption has forced more than a temporary set back with attendance. It is challenging us to rethink everything and that is a very good thing.

I have read a lot of opinions on this subject but believe that Dan Reiland as usual is right on with his advice:

“For more than eight months now, most churches have been doing everything possible to navigate what may be remembered as the most difficult season in ministry.

If not the most difficult, likely the most complicated. We often talk of the new normal, and that’s a great conversation; we need it, but we can’t wait for it to arrive. We need to lead forward now.

We need to build again.

Most churches are either open, trying to open, or preparing to open their physical buildings. That’s a good start. Their teams are simultaneously working hard to deliver high-quality worship services in-person and online, plus all their other ministries as well.”

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5 Simple Questions About The Future Every Leader Should Be Asking

Posted by on November 9, 2020

There has never been a more difficult time for church leaders in my lifetime than right now. There are so many things outside our control that we cannot change at all. However, that does not mean there are not things within our control that we must address.

The foundational starting point of this diving disruption is that we cannot go back to the way things were before. With that reality in mind, then read this excellent post by Carey Nieuwhof that will give you major priorities to consider:

“Knowing what you should do as a leader in normal times is hard enough. As you may have noticed, these aren’t normal times.

Trying to figure out what to do in the midst of a global crisis is so much more complicated. So how do you cut through the mess and noise to chart a course that leads you into a better future?

Here’s a simple place to begin: start by asking the right questions. After all, the quality of the answers you get as a leader are determined by the quality of the questions you ask.”

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Why Words Really Matter Right Now

Posted by on October 26, 2020

The Christian life requires us to speak words that contain both grace and truth. If you go to one extreme and only say encouraging things without combining it with truth, then it is really not grace anymore.

One the other hand if you only speak truth without any awareness of saying the right thing, the right way, at the right time, then people will never receive what they need to hear. This post by Ann Voskamp is incredible and well worth the read:

“It’s a loud, deafening war of words out there and when I stand in the farm woods these days, looking up into the outstretched arms of trees, I have to wonder:

When a leaf falls in the woods, and there is actually someone to hear it, why does it sound so much like the quietness of grace?

It’s like all the trees of the woods are asking the people in the streets: How can you all sound alot more like grace?

Because: The way words are spoken matters to the One who is the Word, who is the Way.

What we say and how we say it matters, because we are the people who believe that is was the Word that created matter. Words create actual matter — for good or for evil –in the world.”

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