Tag Archives: momentum

Why You Can’t Change Like Andy Stanley

I’ve been in a series of discussions on “change” this week, and it’s always such an interesting issue in ministry.  Yesterday, our staff joined with several other church staffs to view some of the sessions from Catalyst on the issue of change and momentum.  They were great!  Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel do what they always do, speak clearly and inspire.  Today, we’re going to spend some time in our staff meeting discussing and unpacking what we learned.

I love change.  I really do.  It energizes me, motivates me, fills me with hope, and excites me.  Early in my career, I would often change things just to change things, without much forethought or process to it.  This is such an undermining action.  I never understood how many people did NOT like change, and I yanked them around all the time.  It was not healthy.  There have been tons of books written on that concept, so I won’t go into it here.

One thing I do not hear alot of discussion on in ministry is how to grid the source of the change.  Here is what I mean; we will hear someone speak, like Andy or Craig.  They will make a compelling argument for change.  They will use scripture to show how the change they are describing is theologically correct.  Often, it is.  They will lay out values, methods, and review tools for people to succeed.  The presentation is extremely methodical, clear, and powerful.  We, then, return home with a set of notes and a lot of hope.  We’re going to do it!  We plan, pray, work hard, set up the system, begin to move forward, and then it falls.  We assume it’s because we went too fast, too slow, didn’t communicate well, or a host of other things.  The communicators will even tell us that if we fail, it’s probably because of these things, and we need to try again.  We do.  We work diligently, faithfully, moving forward.  Yet, we hit the wall again, and it doesn’t work.  It doesn’t produce the results we felt sure we were supposed to see.  We’re left with a conclusion that either we are failures as change agents and leaders, or our people are unwilling to be led orchange.

But what if it’s not either of those options?

What if we simply missed the cultural pieces that underlie the whole process?  Over the years, I have noticed that very few of the communicators bring their culture to bear on the process.  I’m not sure if it’s because they assume we will do it ourselves, they are unaware of the uniqueness of their culture, or the are not comprehending the impact their culture has on their leadership/change process.  Having worked in churches of all sizes (275 – 20,000) in surburban, metro, rural, and small town areas; I can tell you with certainty that culture plays a huge part.  So does the church culture created by the leadership of the church.

Here’s what I mean.  Organizations will take on the personality of their leadership, given enough time.  Churches are no exception.  Whoever the true leader(s) is in your church, if they are in leadership long enough, your church will reflect their values and personality over time.  If your church is lead by a senior pastor, and he/she stays long enough, the people who attend the church will resonate with his/her personality, strengths, and weaknesses.  Those who don’t will typically find a new church home.  In your setting, it may not be the senior pastor.  It might be the chair of the elder board, a finance team leader, the head of the deacons, etc.  It’s not necessarily about who has what title.  It’s about who has the actual influence in your community of faith.

Identify that person.  Then note how long they have been in that position.  The longer they are there, the greater the impact the have on the culture.  This is where it gets tricky.  Whoever that main influence is, they are not necessarily good or bad in and of themselves.  If we like them (have similar values, personality, and preferences) we tend to see them as “good”.  If we differ in values, personality, and preferences, we tend to demonize them and see them as “wrong” or “bad leaders”.  That is a completely immature stance for us to take.

We need to evaluate first if that leader is leading from an authentic goal to follow Christ, and serve the church.  They can disagree with you on almost every issue, and still be genuinely praying, humbly listening, and trying their best to do what is right.  Understand that.  Give them grace.  Wrap your head around that concept.  Differences in process, values, systems, or methods have nothing to do with sin, much of the time.  They are just different.  So, where is your leader in relation to following God’s call?  Where are you?  No, honestly, where are you?  Are you being humble, a servant, a person of integrity and truth, working hard and following God’s call?  If so, you should be more than ready to extend grace to your leader.

What needs to occur is a grace filled exploration of the strengths, weaknesses, values, and personality traits and style that your leader brings to the table.  The odds are, they are not Andy Stanley or Craig Groeschel.  Most pastors / church leaders are not like those guys. The Andys and Craigs of the world are a small minority.  They are not more blessed, more gifted, or more right.  They are just different.  Your pastor may not be such a visionary.  They may not enjoy the change process as much.  They may not be quite so willing to take on confrontation.  Your leader may be more shepherd, and less CEO.  Your leader may value your autonomy as a leader, and give you much more space to operate.  Your church may not embrace a culture of “bigger/newer/flashier is better”.  Honestly, that’s okay.  Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that “bigger/newer/flashier” is better.  That is a cultural issue for us today.  Not a Biblical issue.  We do need to be culturally relevant.  But that’s why its SO crucial to really wrestle with what is your culture?  Not American culture per se.  The culture of your geographic area, your church community, your staff/leadership.  Just because I love “bigger/newer/flashier” (which I really, really do), doesn’t mean it’s “right” or holy.

An excellent leader like Andy or others may advocate a certain style of change, based on their values.  If those values are not the values of your community, you will unnecessarily hit avoidable walls.  If you assume that all good leadership is like ___________ (insert name of your favorite pastor/leader here), then you will frustrate your local leadership and yourself.  If you believe there is one Biblical view on leadership, you’re in for a long life in ministry full of disappointment.

We need to be students of our culture, our communities, and ourselves.  We need to lead with humble integrity, and follow with grace filled passion.  Change IS necessary.  But HOW you communicate, the schedule you take, the tools you use all vary depending on the culture and values of your community.  Sometimes, when we hit walls, it’s because we didn’t consider these issues first, BEFORE we embark on the change process.  If we will take the time to do these things first, not only will change come and momentum be built, but it will be organic and honor God in so many unforeseen ways.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and ideas.

Craig Groeschel – Busting Barriers – Momentum

I had a chance to go to a video conference today where we watched videos from Catalyst on Momentum with Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel.  Here are the notes from one of the sessions if you’re interested.

 

Craig Groeschel

Busting Barriers

 All organizations want to settle

The longer an org settles, the harder it is to get out of it.
If a little tweak was needed, we would have done it a long time ago.

Romans 12:2 – Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

1. Think differenly about your church culture.
a. “Our people won’t _____________________________”
b. “We haven’t let them to _____________________________”
- Do we lead by example?
- If you want your church members to be generous, then is the staff generous?  Is the church generous?
- If we want the church to be evangelistic, then are we as a staff being evangelistic?

2. Think differently about programming.
a. We have to do more to reach more.
b. We can reach more by doing less.
- We need to do the things we are uniquely called by God to do.
- We need to evaluate the effectiveness for our “cool” programs or the ones we are “expected” to do.

3. Think differently about mission.
a. In most churches, we don’t really believe about what God is calling us to do.
b. We can’t hurt about someone’s feelings.  We won’t move a person who is in the wrong place.  We have to make the necessary changes to
further the mission.

4. Think differently about people leaving the church.
a. Churches have personalities.  If you fight people leaving, your personality becomes that of a needy church.
b. When a church is insecure, people can feel it.
c.  We can grow when people leave.
d. There are some people who need to leave.
e. When you create a culture where people can leave on good terms.

5. Think differently about limitations. 
1. “We can’t because we don’t ________________________________________”
2.  Change it to “You can, because you don’t.”
3.  Limitations are often the breeding ground for inovation.
4.  Example of raising $100,000 in six days, vs child dying without a $100,000 shot by next week. Priorities make the impossible possible.

Assignments
1.  Find someone one or two steps ahead of you and find out how they think. (not what they do)
2.  Identify one wrong mindset and ask God to renew your mind with truth.
3.  Identify one painful decision you’ve been avoiding and commit to make that decisions no matter what the short term pain.

Andy Stanley on Momentum (Session 2)

I had a chance to go to a video conference today where we watched videos from Catalyst on Momentum with Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel.  Here are the notes from one of the sessions if you’re interested.

 

The Power of Momentum
Andy Stanley
1.  Programming was designed to answer a specific question or to address a specific need.

“How do we capture the heart of a teenager?”  Is that our question.  I’m not sure.

2.  Over time, programming becomes part of the organizational culture.

Don’t be that couch.
When an old couch was new, it was bought because it was stylish, fresh, beautiful, new.
It fit a specific place in the room.
It gains emotional attachment because of the stories tied to it.
The family becomes blind to it after time.
When visitors see it, it’s frightening.
The couch gets moved house to house to house due to the attachment.
It needs retired, but no one is willing to let go of it.

As culture changes, many of the questions remain the same but the answers don’t.

What parts of youth ministry don’t work, but we do them because of tradition/ease/emotions?

The clock is always ticking backwards on our programs.

3.  If we institutionalize our programs, the day will come when its no longer an answer.

II.  We must continue to be more committed to our mission than to our program or model.

A. Over time sustaining the model can become the mission.

B. Over time, the model can work against the mission.

III. Points of Discussion

A. What have we fallen in love with that is not as effective as it used to be?

B.  Where are we manufacturing energy?
     Where are you creating excitement about things you don’t really care about?
Where are you sending staff and you don’t want to go? 
If, as insiders, we are/have lost energy, it’s only time before others see it that way too.
If we got kicked out, and a new person came in, what would they do?  Why don’t we do that ourselves?
Don’t let the “how” talk us out of fixing things.

C.  What are our organizational assumptions?
Leaders must bring the underlying assumptions that drive company strategy into line with changes in the external environment.
If your assumptions are wrong, everything is wrong.
When we try to do what we used to do, only “better”, we end up in a ditch
The assumptions a team has held the longest or the most deeply are the most likely to be their undoing.
*Make a list of our assumptions*  Some should seem ridiculous
What do we assume about people and how to reach them?
What do we assume programmatically?
Which assumptions are false?
Which assumptions are true, but are not being truly leveraged?

The challenge is to send a clear vision to your church about the programming/strategy but not to hold it too tightly.
To reach people no one else is reaching we’ve got to do things no one else is doing, and not hold on to ineffective programs.

Andy Stanley on Momentum

I had a chance to go to a video conference today where we watched videos from Catalyst on Momentum with Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel.  Here are the notes from one of the sessions if you’re interested.

Andy Stanley -

Momentum
  • When we lack momentum, we should be even more willing to achieve Biblical goals than a business is in achieving financial goals.
  • It seems that for Andy Stanley; momentum = numerical growth.  Does it?
  • Andy seems to advocating change for the sake of change in his product discussion
I. Three components of sustained momentum
A. New
- New triggers momentum
- New generates momentum
- New creates positive or negative momentum
- Negative event can create negative momentum
- Negative event can create positive momentum
- Positive event can create positive momentum
- Organizational momentum is often created by new leadership, new direction, or new product.
- When you’re looking for momentum, which do you need?
- Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old.
- Momentum is triggered by introducing something new.
- Established organizations will tend to tweak something old.
- New does not guarantee sustained momentum.

B. Improved
- The new has to be NOTICABLE improvement over the old.
- When evaluating new options, ask “Is this a SIGNIFICANT improvement over what we had before?”

C. Improving
- Momentum is sustained through continuous improvement.
- Continuous improvement requires systematic evaluation.
- Continuous improvement requires unfiltered evaluation.
- Continuous improvement requires that nothing and nobody be off limits.
- Never forget that everything you do is being evaluated every week by the attenders.

II. Applying the New, Improved, Improving to the World of Ministry
A.  New personnel – If someone isn’t worried about momentum, you may have the wrong person
B.  New programming – Don’t just reheat the old
C.  New season- Use the seasons to change momentum
D.  New series of lessons
E.  New look
F.  New venues

- Look for ways to upgrade your presentations.  (Same stories, new tools)
- Visit other organizations.
- Attend other churches

III. Momentum Stoppers
A. Disengaged leader
B. Overactive management
Momentum requires friction. Anything that reduces friction reduces momentum.
C. Complacency
D. Complexity
E. A breach of trust