George Floyd and what God wants from His people

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” - Isaiah 58:6-9

Fasting is a spiritual discipline of clearing our hearts and minds so that we can concentrate more fully on God. The religious elites of Isaiah’s day loved to fast and ensure that everyone knew they were fasting - and that they were holy because of their religious practices. But God isn’t impressed with our religious practices, our going to church, our prayer or our Bible studies if our lives don’t intentionally reflect His.

God gets very practical here. The fasting He desires from us is to loose the chains of injustice, to break the oppressed free, share our food with the hungry, provide people with shelter, clothe the naked and not neglect our fellow believers. All of these characteristics reflect the compassion and heart of our God. In fact, they are proof that our spiritual commitments are real and that we value what God values.

Our world has a great deal of injustice and oppression. We witnessed this again last week with the death of George Floyd. We cannot shut our eyes to the realities of injustice in our society if we call ourselves followers of God. If our hearts are not broken like His heart is broken over  such events (and there have been many such events) we simply don’t have His heart. The marginalized and oppressed, the hungry and the homeless all matter to God. 

As a matter of fact, don’t ignore the promises that God makes to those who care about the things that God cares about. “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” 

Those are amazing promises. They are promises our country needs at this time. They are promises the church desperately needs. And they are promises each of us need individually. When we live out the character and heart of God and we cry for help, He will say, “Here am I.” 

It is easy to find reasons not to address issues in our communities or nation. But God’s people don’t stand idly by when there is injustice and oppression or deep human needs. It may take prayer and creativity to know how to respond but to respond is to be like Jesus. One thing all of us can do is to pray against the injustices, oppression of our world. But there are many practical things we can do as well. What we do may be different in differing circumstances but act we must. 

PRAYER

Father, forgive me and forgive our nation for too often not speaking up when injustice and oppression are present. Forgive me and forgive the church for not meeting needs around us that we could meet. Help me to not only believe the truth but to walk in truth. Keep me from a false religion that is not worship of you at all. May my commitment to you be genuine in spirit, in truth, and in action. Amen.

George Floyd Left a Gospel Legacy in Houston from Christianity Today

George Floyd Left a Gospel Legacy in Houston

An article from Christianity Today

A Handcrafted Life

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Ephesians 2:10

I love handcrafted things. My youngest son, Chip is one of the most creative people I know. All his life he has been creating things from wood, plastics, iron, canvas, leather - you name it. Today he handcrafts high end canvas and leather bags for the urban crowd. There is something very special about holding something that has been handcrafted by a master rather than mass produced. (Check out Chip's work at www.AddingtonCo.com)

What Paul says in the Scripture passage above is that God personally handcrafted each one of us. We are God’s handiwork, his creation. The word “handiwork” comes from a Greek word that means a one of a kind work of art. And that is what we are: unique, creatively made, intentionally crafted by God. There is no one else like you and never will be. 

But more amazing still is that God created you to do good works which He prepared in advance for you to do. In other words, not only did He handcraft you but he handcrafted a specific role for you to play in His Kingdom activities in the world at this time and in this place. These are the good works He prepared for you and me to do. 

There are two sides to this equation. On the one hand, God created us for good works. On the other hand, we must decide to live at the intersection of God’s call on our lives and our willingness to answer that call. He invites and empowers but we must respond and lean in.

Our world would be a different place if His people realized that they were made for greatness. Not by the world’s evaluation but by God’s. History is God’s story from start to finish and in the years that we inhabit this earth He invites us to join Him in His redemptive work - on His divine stage. Life doesn’t get better than that.

In Psalm 39:4, David says, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” David wanted God to continually remind him that life is short and it was up to him to invest his life in ways that God would approve. This is our challenge every day. We have been invited to join Him in His work. Our job is to show up, realize the opportunity and not take it for granted. Remember, He handcrafted you for a purpose.

How hungry is your staff?

How hungry is your staff?

Hungry people get things done. They have energy, ideas, are proactive and even impatient. In my experience, there are not enough staffs that have this quality. Over time staff can get comfortable, fit into routines, get stuck in ruts and lose their edge. How hungry is your staff?

How does this happen?

Simply stated: Leaders allow it. They allow staff to fit into their little niche, doing their thing without needing to pay attention to the mission as a whole. They allow silos to develop where each division does its thing. Sometimes they even add too many staff which relieves their teams of having to train volunteers and needing to work hard. Accountability for getting things done lags and there is not a missional impatience to see things happen. Expectations are tailored to the schedules of staff rather than the needs of the organization.

There is a big difference between a hungry staff and a comfortable staff. There is also a big difference in the results. Where does your staff fit on this continuum? 

Lean staffs with a passionately held mission and vision are far hungrier than a bloated staff with a mediocre vision. It is a good reason to staff lean: Hire the very best, pay competitive wages and staff as lean as possible. Anytime we become comfortable we lose our edge.

This is why staff changes are often necessary when an organization needs to be revitalized. New energy is needed as well as new leadership and vision. Otherwise, the inertia of old ways and comfortable paradigms creates a drag that prevents the organization from moving ahead. 

This is also why it is wise for boards to give a new leader significant leeway to make needed changes. It can be painful but is often necessary.

Seven signs of a hungry staff include:

• A compelling vision that cannot be ignored
• A willingness to do anything with anyone to achieve that vision
• A can do attitude that is willing to do whatever it takes with whatever resources it has to move forward
• A highly entrepreneurial, collaborative, fun and idea driven culture
• Leaders who are in the trenches with their teams - doing what needs to be done
• A self starting staff who don't need much management
• Politics virtually don't exist

Becoming an attractional church is not enough. The key is Engagement

Before I start I want to affirm that churches should be attractive to those who come. They should be welcoming, easy to assimilate into, with excellent preaching and music (the best one is capable of). If we do not have a welcoming culture we are hurting ourselves and not representing Christ well.

With that said lets consider the downside of building a church that focuses exclusively on being highly attractional in order to grow. It is very simple. 

First, the attractional model can create a consumer mentality among those it attracts. It cultivates the notion that church is about me (it isn't) and my needs (only part of the equation). 

We have all watched attractional churches suck people from neighboring churches because it's programming and preaching were "cooler" and better than their church. This generates church growth in terms of numbers but is often simply the rearranging of seats by believers. It is not the kind of church growth the New Testament envisions.

Then there is this: When the next cool church comes along, the same people who came to your church move along. They came as a consumer and they leave as a consumer. And consumer Christians are not generally mature Christians because maturity requires something far different than consumption. It requires engagement! Putting one's faith and gifts to work and living in community with fellow pilgrims. 

Without engagement there is no ownership and the back door of the church is as wide as the front door. If you want to close the back door there is something else needed: a  high level of congregational engagement. 

Engagement encompasses three areas: Engagement with God, engagement with people and engagement with service to others. The first has a lot to do with public services whether on line or in person. The goal is not to entertain but to help people connect to their Lord and savior.,

Engagement with others is equally important as the weekend services because it is in community that we often put what we have learned to work. It is where we receive encouragement and encourage. Engagement through the use of our gifts in service to others helps us grow and furthers the work of Jesus.

The New Testament talks about engagement at every turn. It is often the missing element in the western church where we put so much attention in being attractional that we don't grow disciples who are truly engaged.

Seven suggestions for managing ministry staff in the chaos of coronavirus

One of the realities of the coronavirus situation is that ministry has become far more complex and complicated. Our traditional ministry paradigms have vanished for this season. We don't see people we normally see on a regular basis, it requires far more effort to stay connected with constituents and all of that is complicated by staff who are working at home in many cases. 

Supervisors and leaders need to consider these factors as they lead in this complicated environment.

1. You may need to change your ministry priorities. Extraordinary times often require extraordinary responses. What was important two weeks ago may not be important in this season. Establish your very top priorities and ask how you can engage your staff to meet the need. Don't simply try to do everything you were doing without asking whether it is ministry critical in this environment.

2. You may need to change what some staff are doing. In this season, department distinctions and job descriptions are secondary to accomplishing the highest priorities of the ministry. For instance, if you determine that all folks 65 or older need a personal call to check on their welfare, you may need to reasign people from other departments to help you. Production teams may well need additional help as they work overtime to ensure that the online experience is all that it can be. Consider telling your staff that during this time they may well be asked to help with something that is outside of their normal purview. This is a good time to break down departmental barriers.

3. It is wise to stay in close touch with your staff or supervisors. Not everyone will easily transition from what they were doing to what they need to do now. Ensure that your supervisors are fully in line with what the church needs in this season and ensure that they are not only communicating the same to their staff but are helping their staff figure out what the need to be doing in this time. Some staff will easily adjust, some will feel like the world has gone from order to chaos and will need help.

4. Give staff clear expectations of what you expect in this season. Those who are working from home need to understand that this is not a vacation but that their work venue has changed. If anything, you need their involvement to increase rather than decrease. Clarity around expectations is crucial. That includes staying safe!

5. Ask staff to find ways to involve their volunteers. My belief is that volunteers are staff. They want to be involved which is why they volunteer in the first place. Ask what role they can play in the current environment and deploy them.

6. Remember that your staff have the same fears and concerns of others. They need encouragement, reassurance, extra emotional support and reminders that Jesus has this! We owe it to minister to them even as we minister to the congregation. Their spiritual temperature, faith and well being will spill over to the congregation at large.

7. Learn from what other ministries are doing. Everyone is trying to figure this out and we can cut our own learning curve by taking best practices from others and applying them to your own context. Large churches often can lead the way because they have the technology and staff to make it happen. Grab some ideas but don't think you need to match their standards. They have people.

These are complicated time. Don't continue as is but lead well in a changed environment. 

Five things that Jesus may want the church to learn in the age of the coronavirus

I have a conviction that nothing happens in our world, good or bad, that does not first pass by the hands of God and which He doesn't use to build His church. 

Having travelled the world for many years I have yet to find a place where Jesus is not working in the midst of suffering and hardship. In fact, church history would tell us that God does His greatest work in times of hardship because in those times He has our greatest attention. 

I believe that God is going to use this time in the church to strengthen and build it. Specifically, it is my conviction that He may use this time to help us grow in the following areas.

Faith
The American church has the resources, expertise and knowledge to do all kinds of things without much of God's power. Prayer is often perfunctory and an "add on" to our work. In the age of the caronavirus we are realizing that we actually need God desperately. That is a very good thing and a much needed course correction for the church.

Being the church
The average church attender believes that the church is the building that they worship in. It is not. Buildings are buildings. The church is made up of the people of God. We are the church and we take the gospel with us wherever we go. In a time when the church cannot meet, God is reminding us that the church is not a place but a people. This is a time to remind people that they are the church we we need to act like the church.

Sacrificial service
From the beginning of the church it has been the people of God who ministered to those in need, especially in times of crisis. This is such a time. The world is living in fear but the church has the hope of Jesus. For the church, crisis calls for engagement and service to those who need it. We may need to be creative but Jesus wants to remind us of the mandate and mission we have outside the walls of the building we meet in (or don't in this season).

From fear to trust and hope
Our world is driven by fear. Fear that I won't have enough, fear that I might get sick, fear that the stock market will wipe out my retirement account, fear that the world is coming undone. Jesus says "The righteous will live by His faith!" In these days we can learn again that Jesus invites us to a simple, child like faith in the loving, sovereign, all powerful Savior who never leaves us or forsakes us. It is a great gift to come to the place where all we have to trust in is God. He is enough!

True connections
Community is one of the key ways that we learn how to follow Jesus. Life together is about relationship, transparency, encouragement diving into God's word and a level of accountability that comes from loving relationships. In these days we need one another even more. We might not be able to gather in groups but we can certainly do life together via online tools. Perhaps God wants us to learn the value of relationships in a new way!

If you are a church leader, ask yourself what you believe God wants to do within your congregation in these troubled days. Point your people in those directions. God has everyone's attention. Let's pay attention to what He is up to behind this chaos. Remember, nothing happens in our world, good or bad, that does not first pass by the hands of God and which He does not use to build His church.

The Coronavirus and its potential implications for churches

We ought not operate from fear although the 24 hour news cycle is certainly driving fear deep into our national consciousness. I choose not to live in fear but to be appropriately prudent personally and in a leadership role. For any group that gathers large numbers of people together there is some risk - if the virus is resident in the local community. And of course, the church gathers weekly along with other events during the week.

Situations like this are opportunities for people to learn to live by faith, trust God (no matter what happens) and reach out to those who are living in fear. Like all issues we face in society and our world this is a spiritual issue as well as a health issue and we need to address it as such. God is up to something even in the most difficult of situations.

Best practices
The place to start is with some best practices that the church can practice:

1. Ensure that your staff and volunteers are regularly washing their hands. This is important for everyone but especially for those who deal with kids. Teaching kids to do the same will help mitigate the spread of the virus. 
2. Place hand sanitizer outside your gathering place, in the lobby and in easily accesible locations.
3. Ask those who have symptoms of a cold or flu to stay home until they are well. These can be signs of the virus or can be benign but one does not know. In childrens ministries this may mean telling parents that they cannot accept kids who have these symptoms - gently and kindly.
4. Use individual communion cups rather than a common cup.
5. Encourage congregants to greet one another with fist bumps or elbow bumps.
6. Encourage people to keep an appropriate distance from others.
7. Staff may be reticent to stay home if they have a cold or are not feeling well because of using up their sick days. This is a time to ensure them that you will cover such days as necessary regardless of their sick day quota. Ask them to work from home rather than coming in.

Questions to ponder before the situation arises

1. What do your childrens or youth ministries do if the local governament shuts down schools. Do you continue to meet or do you supend group events?
2. If you are in the unfortunate situation that large gatherings are either not allowed in a community or strongly discouraged, how does the church respond in terms of services?
3. If services are cancelled do you have a means of sharing a service via the web?
4. Do your staff have the ability to work from home and keep in touch with congregants?
5. How do you encourage the congregation in this situation where fear is the currency of the day?
6. If much of your giving is via the offering (which you will not be taking) how can you encourage your congregation to continue to give when they are not regularly meeting? Do you have an easy electronic means for them to use?
7. How can you use your small group leaders to stay in touch with members of their groups and can those groups meet using Skype, Zoom or some other platform?
8. Think about how you can mobilize a prayer effort so that people are focused on Jesus rather than their fear.
9. How can the church reach out to those who are affected, whether in the church or in the community during this time? Every crisis is an opportunity for ministry as people's attention is at an all time high and they are looking for divine help.

If you have suggestions to add to these best practices or questions for a church to ponder, please leave a response to the blog.

Why are Christians so mean? An article from Gary Thomas in Churchleaders.com

    

Why Are Christians So Mean?

Gary Thomas

Church Leaders.com

A profound leadership principle that many don't understand

   Leaders must transition from being responsible for the job to being responsible for the people who are responsible for the job.     

Simon Sinek

This truth from Simon Sinek is profound. Too many leaders get trapped into trying to do the job they used to do or trying to accomplish the mission their organization is responsible for and lose sight of the fact that doing the job is no longer in their job description. As a leader, their new job is to build into and be responsible for the people who are responsible for the job. 

Many leaders will not do this because it is counterintuitive to them. For many, to be the leader is to get the job done - themselves if necessary.

But, in becoming a leader, our job shifts in important ways.

It is the move from focusing on my work to focusing on those who are doing the work. This includes:

• Providing maximum clarity to your team about what the organization is about, where it is going, and how it will get there.
• Ensuring that all your team is on the same page and going in the same direction.
• Mentoring, coaching, and helping your team be successful.
• Creating a high-impact team of healthy individuals working synergistically together under good leadership with accountability for results.
• Training new leaders.
• Ensuring your team has the necessary resources to get their job done.

Notice that these activities are not about our doing the job but investing in those who do the job. 

These are the leaders that the staff want to work for! And these are the leaders who get stuff done by helping their team be successful. Be that leader!

TJ Addington is the lead at Addington Consulting. We solve dysfunctional cultures and teams and help you build healthy, scalable organizations of clarity, alignment, and results. If the pain is high, you need Addington Consulting. tjaddington@gmail.com

tjaddington@gmail.com

If you are a team leader you are responsible for ten things

Teams are integral to every organization. In fact, they are the building blocks of an organization so the health of each team is directly connected to the overall health of the enterprise. If you think of teams as the Lego blocks of your organization, think of  half of those teams being unhealthy and the other half healthy. Each unhealthy team will impact those other teams that touch it, interact with it or collaborate with.

Thus the role of team leaders is integral to the health of the organization, more important than many organizations recognize. If they understood the significance of a leader's role they would invest far more in the training and development of their leaders than they often do.

What then is the job of a competent team leader? I would suggest that it involves the following:

One: Building a strong, aligned, results oriented, healthy and synergystic team under good leadership with accountability for results.

Two: Provide great clarity to the team on how they are to contribute to the overall mission and purpose of the organization.

Three: Create a healthy team culture where everyone's input is valued, where people can speak the truth to one another and to their leaders and where new ideas are encouraged.

Four: Ensure that team member have the necessary skill, tools and authority to do their jobs.

Five: Help team members understand their wiring, gifting and lane and help them grow professionally and personally.

Six: Develop new leaders who could take the leader's role or a leadership role elsewhere.

Seven: Be a champion and encourager of team members so that they are encouraged to be all that they can be.

Eight: Provide timely feedback in order to help team members grow.

Nine: Rather than micromanage, give freedom within boundaries for team members to accomplish their work in ways that may be different than yours.

Ten: Ensure that there are results that are consistent with the clarity of the team's responsibilities.

The investment in team leaders is one of the most important investments any organization can make. It will change the return on mission or return on investment dramatically. 

Leaders who hurt others and the organization they lead

It is unfortunate but common to encounter leaders who hurt those who work for them and actually cause damage to the organization they lead. What is even more unfortunate is that these leaders don't realize what they are doing and often do not listen to feedback that could help them. If it is a business they generally will end up hurting the bottom line. If it is a non-profit they will hurt the very constituency that they are meant to serve.

What are the behaviors that end up hurting those we lead? They include a lack of empathy, an inability to listen, micromanagement, grabbing credit and blaming others for failure, seemingly capricious actions and changing of direction, unrealistic demands, dictating strategies without the input of those who must carry them out, putting subordinates down and a lack of encouragement. 

These behaviors do not necessarily come from a bad heart. Sometimes they come from poor leadership training, family of origin issues or wiring. But they do have a negative impact on the organization and their staff. 

How do these behaviors hurt the organization? First, it creates a toxic and unhealthy work environment. Second, it eventually drives out the best leaders who come to a point where they are unwilling to put up with unhealthy behaviors. That has a direct ripple affect on the rest of the staff and the mission of the organization. Both the people and the organization's mission suffer under this kind of leadership.

Team leaders straddle two worlds

Team leaders live and operate in two worlds and how well they do this will determine their effectiveness. Team leaders who do not understand the two worlds they straddle usually get themselves into trouble so understanding the two worlds is critical to leading well.

World one is the team they belong to and where their primary loyalty lies. This is not the team they lead. It is the team they belong to. Many team leaders do not understand this principle: Their loyalty is not primarily to their own team but to the higher team they are on. 

Let me illustrate. For many years I served as the leader of an international mission. But the senior team I belonged to was the senior team of the denomination. Thus my primary loyalty was to the team I was on and it was my responsibility to ensure that the team I led was always in alignment with the team I was on. 

On that senior team my job was not to advocate for the organization I led but to represent the whole organization - its mission and not "my slice of the pie." 

World two is the team that we lead. Every team has a unique mission that must exist in alignment with both the organizational mission as well as the other teams that make up the whole. That the team does this is the responsibility of the team leader. In this scenario, there is no place for politics, turf wars, silos or competition although this often exists and causes dysfunction within the organization.

Team leaders have the following responsibilities that impact both worlds.

• They must represent the ministry as a whole on the senior team they are on
• They must ensure that the team they lead is always in alignment with the organization's mission
• They cannot allow politics, turf wars, silos or competition to divide their team from the organization as a whole or from other teams
• The cannot engage in Leadership Default 

This last point is critical. Many team leaders want to be seen as one of the team. It is easy when decisions are made at the organizational level for a team leader to blame those above them for decisions because they don't want to take responsibility for those decisions. 

I call this Leadership Default because in blaming those above them, the team leader has introduced an us/them mentality to the organization and chosen to cause division between their team and the organization. This is a dysfunctional way to straddle the two worlds of a team leader. 

Team leaders have responsibility to the team they lead and the team they are on. Which one comes first matters and how they navigate those two relationships brings either alignment or division.

Coronavirus: Everything you need to know in an infographic

The Coronavirus:

Everything you need to know in an

infographic from The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong

Taking greater charge and responsibility for our lives

Most of us would be far happier and more productive if we decided to take greater charge and responsibility for our lives. 

Why is this? Because to the extent that we do not take charge of our lives - others will! They will fill our lives with obligations, commitments and "opportunities" that can suck the life out of us leaving us drained and unsatisfied.

I believe this is a major reason for low levels of life satisfaction and even depression. And the irony is that we often do it to ourselves. The greater charge we take of our lives - saying yes to the right things and no to the wrong things, the happier we become. 

Those who don't take charge of their lives are usually people who don't have a clearly defined purpose for their lives. If they did, they would steward their lives with greater passion and purpose and not allow others or circumstances to dictate their priorities and time commitments. 

The most successful people you encounter are individuals who steward their lives with great care. They know that every commitment they make has direct implications for other commitments they should or could be making. They know their purpose and act accordingly.

Taking charge of our lives takes place when we

• Are clear about our purpose in life
• Are passionate about making a difference in line with our purpose
• Are willing to say no to obligations and commitments that would take us away from our purpose
• No longer need to please people over living out our purpose
• Fill our schedules first with those things that allow us to make a difference
• Have margin to think, evaluate, get appropriate rest and spend time with friends and family
• Fill our lives with activities that fill us rather than deplete us

Taking charge of our lives has a rich payoff including a happier and more productive life.

Think about the vocabulary you use in your workplace - and the implications for your culture

I recently worked with an organization to bring greater health to their staff culture. Every evening the last individual to work the front desk makes a list of all the "mistakes" that were made that day. Thus, the next day staff are confronted with their "mistakes" (it is the vocabulary they have been using) and in our conversations it became apparent that this language was highly demotivating, 

The word mistake conjures up failure and those who made the "mistakes" ended up beating themselves up over it. How would you like to come in every day and start your day reviewing your mistakes. Whether intended or not, those responsible feel like they failed and were being blamed - after all, it was "their mistake."

In the course of our conversation it occurred to me that the language being used was hurting people and the staff culture. I suggested that the word "mistake" is full of negative connotations and that there might be a better way to handle issues that come up. We decided to talk about "best practices" (a positive word that we all aspire to) and ban the word "mistake" (a negative word and charged with the concept of blame.

As I think about places I have worked or organizations I have work with I think of the question "Whose fault was it?" when something went wrong. That very question or phrase is laden with negative connotations. What if we were to ask another question: "What happened here?" That is a neutral question that is not focused on blame but on understanding so that whatever happened won't happen again.

The vocabulary we use can often be negative and demotivating. Try to find positive ways to state the same thing so that we life one another up rather than give people a sense of failure.

Two key factors that can predict whether your ministry moves forward or maintains the status quo

There are two key factors that can directly influence whether your ministry moves forward or remains static. These two factors will not be new to you. Nor will anyone argue that they are not important. The real issue is that most leadership teams and boards do not choose to live these two commitments out. To their detriment.

If you want to change the status quo and find meaningful momentum two things are necessary: Time devoted to prayer and time devoted to thinking about the future. Few would argue with this but most do not practice these in a meaningful way.


Prayer is "time exposure to God." That is why prayer changes us - as it reorients our hearts and plans around His has for us. And if the Spirit is our counselor, prayer is that opportune time for Him to give us His wisdom rather than simply asking Him to bless our wisdom. 

Think about the difference of asking Jesus to give us His wisdom versus blessing our wisdom!

The second game changer for boards and leadership teams is not a new idea either. But executing it is less common than it should be. It is that of thinking and planning for the future. Why is it so uncommon? Because managing a current crisis or managing the day to day operations sucks the needed time and energy to focus on the future. What suffers is what could be at the expense of what already is.

What is already is - but what could be will not be realized without an investment of time, energy and careful thought.

This discussion comes out of carefully thinking about questions like the following:

• Where is God doing something already that we ought to be paying attention to?
• What opportunities has God put across our path that we can use for His Kingdom purposes?
• How can we take what we currently do to the next level in order to see more believers and better believers?
• Is God impressing something new on our hearts that we ought to be considering?
• How well are we doing on a discipleship pathway?

These and other questions are the kinds of questions we long to grapple with as leaders. The only thing needed is time. 

How does one find the time? By recalibrating meetings around what is most important rather than what looks in the immediate time frame the most urgent. There will always be urgent matters but time lost to think about the future cannot be regained.

Ensuring that your new church board member will help your board, not hurt your board. Nine questions to consider.

Adding a new member to your board is an opportunity to strengthen the governance to your organization. In many instances, however, it does the opposite because the new member has not been vetted well and they bring their own agendas to the board. This is especially true with church boards.

Here are specific questions you want answers to before you bring a new member on your board.

1. Does the prospective board member meet the Biblical qualifications?
While this may seem obvious, it is not! We overlook issues such as divisiveness, ego, lack of humility and even Biblical knowledge, especially when they are people of influence or wealth. Your board documents ought to specify the Biblical qualifications and any board that does not honestly evaluate a candidate against those qualifications is generally in for trouble down the road. 

2. What do you need on the board at this time to strengthen it?
A board full of type A personalities may well need someone who is more mercy oriented. Alternatively a board of nice Godly people who don't have strategic gifts may well need board members who think strategically. 

There have been too many instances in recent days of board members who have allowed ego driven pastors to do things that have caused shipwreck to the church because they did not have the courage or ability to speak truth and hold others accountable. In many of these cases the senior leader has stacked the board with individuals who will do their bidding rather than serve in a governance role in protecting the church.

3. Is the individual thoughtful and discerning?
Thoughtful individuals may not speak a lot but when they do, they often speak from a place of wisdom and discernment. Thoughtful and discerning individuals see below the surface, can identify the real issues at hand, and take a wholistic view of the ministry. They think before they speak, are able to identify key issues and contribute well to healthy solutions. They also ask the hardest questions which causes the board to think at a deeper level.

4. Do they understand how your board works and the ministry philosophy of the church. Are they in sync with that ministry philosophy? This question assumes that the board has done the hard work of determining the rules of engagement for the board, has a defined way that the board does its work and has that information in writing. The same needs to be true of the ministry philosophy of the church. Where these documents don't exist or are not known by board members chaos and conflict will inevitably take place. 

I have seen boards add people to the board who "represent rival philosophies within a church" so all voices are represented. This is foolish thinking as the board will not be able to work in a unified way. If a prospective board member does not agree with the rules of engagement for your board or are not in sync with the ministry philosophy of the church they will hurt you rather than help you.

5. Have they displayed any tendencies toward a critical spirit or divisiveness in their past?
Past performance is a pretty good indicator of future attitudes or actions. Critical spirits and attitudes will hurt your board while gracious individuals will help you - even when they are asking the hard questions. Those who have any history or being divisive may well do the same on the board which will hurt you badly while those who can unify will help your board. 

6. Are they team players who will wrestle well with issues and humbly submit to decisions of the majority?
Board members who are not team players and who will not submit to the decision of the majority end up holding the board hostage. These are signs that their personal agenda supersedes the united agenda of the board which will divide the board, stall its work, create unnecessary conflict which then needs to be resolved and hinder the work of the group. 

7. Are they financially vested in your ministry at a reasonable level?
Yes, before you bring an individual on the board be sure that they are generous with the church personally. Those who are not financially committed are out of sync with God's mandate of generosity and will likely turn out to be critical board members. No one who is not personally generous should serve in church leadership where they are to model a lifestyle that pleases the Lord of the Church. Ignore this at your own peril.

8. Will they abide by your board covenant that spells out how you interact with one another?
Any board that operates without a board covenant does so at its own peril. Further, if you do you have no objective standards by which to judge the behavior of any board member. You want to know that the new board member understands the expectations of board behavior and agrees to it fully. If you don't have such a covenant, I strongly advise you to develop one today.

9. Do you have any reservations about their being added to the board?
If you do, don't put them on the board until those reservations have been satisfied. Too often we overlook concerns in the name of optimism that all will be well. That is foolish and unwise. If you have reservations you may want to talk with the individual and honestly share your reservations. Only when you are satisfied with their answers should you put them on the board.

I am available to meet with church boards and dialogue with them on the challenges they face and possible solutions. With zoom technology, this can be done easily at low cost to you. If interested, you may contact me at tjaddington@gmail.com.

A no nonsense policy to deal with interpersonal conflict and gossip in the workplace

Few things destroy the health of a team or workplace more than that of triangulation and poor conflict resolution practices. In too many places, rather than resolving interpersonal conflict in a healthy manner, staff make it worse by talking to others about the one they have conflict with, gossiping with their "friends" about another individual which results in alliances being formed against other staff member(s). 

This is made worse when a staff member makes assumptions about another's motives and starts to see them through a negative lens no matter what they do. It is a lose lose proposition for the relationship and the greater team as the fallout spills over to others. 

Unfortunately many workplaces accept this is a part of their culture but they need not do so. 

Recently in working with an otherwise great organization, these issues came to the forefront and were poisoning relationships between good people. The first thing I did was to run a series of reconciliation meetings in line with my blog entitled, The Six Questions to ask in any Reconciliation Process. Not surprisingly what staff members believed to be irreconcilable differences were surprisingly easy to  clear up using this process.

When I asked how each of them had contributed to making the conflict greater, the consistent answers were:

• I talked to others but not to the one I had an issue with
• I assumed poor motives of the one I had conflict with
• I created alliances with those who were my friends against the other individual

We then instituted a new policy with staff. 

We are committed to the highest level of relational health in our organization. The following is our conflict resolution policy.

When there is a conflict or personal issue between staff members it is the responsibility of those who have an issue to speak directly to the staff member with whom they have an issue. 

It is not permissible to talk to other staff members about issues one has with another staff member or to speak negatively about other staff members. This constitutes gossip,causes division, encourages others to take up another's offense and results in greater conflict and ill will. Violation of this policy can be grounds for dismissal.

If resolution is not found in a conversation with the staff member one has an issue with, the only individual it is permissible to speak with about that situation is one's supervisor. The supervisor will seek to find resolution between the two parties. Staff members involved will be expected to abide by the requirements of the supervisor for resolving the presenting issue(s). 

If necessary, the supervisor may choose to bring a higher organizational leader into the conversation to ensure resolution.

We take great pride in a culture that is healthy to work in. This policy is designed to ensure that relational health is maintained, cultivated and issues that may arise resolved in a healthy manner.

Leaders who are proactive in laying out expectations and the consequences of violating those expectations create a much different and much healthier culture than those who do nothing.

The eight hurdles to innovation in the church

Most churches that are seeing significant growth and ministry effectiveness are also churches that practice regular innovation. They have a culture of looking for new and better ways of accomplishing their mission and pursue those opportunities regularly.

However, developing a culture of innovation is not as easy as it sounds. There are always significant hurdles to moving from a culture of status quo to a culture of innovation in a church. Obviously those churches who see regular growth have overcome these hurdles but understanding what they are is an important step in overcoming them.

Hurdle One: You have to want a culture of innovation
Do you embrace innovation, seek it and value it? If this is not a value at the leadership level it will not happen. If your leaders operate out of fear (what if something goes wrong? We've never done it before! Someone might object) innovation will not happen. Organizations that see regular innovation do so because they want it to happen and know how it helps them move forward and stay fresh.

Hurdle Two: You must be willing to fail and even celebrate failure
Truth be told, most leaders won't go toward innovation for the simple reason that it may fail. They would rather be safe than suffer the embarrassment of failure. Here is a simple truth: Innovation requires risk. That risk pays off in multiple ways but not all ideas work. Ministries that make innovation a part of their culture know this and will celebrate that people tried a new idea even if it failed. In fact, it is often after the learnings of a few failures that the right solution is found.

Hurdle Three: You must focus on the future rather than the present or past
If one wants to focus on the past or present, innovation is not for you. If your focus is on the future, innovation is the key to that future. Times change, opportunities around you change, generations change and unless we also change we become irrelevant and stale. If you are happy where you are, doing things differently will not be a value. If you live in fear of failure, innovation will not be a value. If you want to reach the next generation or new opportunities, innovation is your friend.

Hurdle Four: You must be willing to push through the naysayers
It is a sad reality that the majority of church leaders (staff and boards) live in fear of those that object when new ideas are suggested. Think about that: The most conservative and change unfriendly folks in your congregation hold the congregation hostage from moving forward because their voices are loud and intimidating and leaders are unwilling to challenge those voices. Lets be candid. New ideas face opposition. We have the choice of allowing naysayers to run our ministries or for us to lead well and push through the opposition. Every good idea that is different will face opposition.

Hurdle Five: You need to we willing to spend money when necessary
Innovation does not mean that it must be expensive but there are times when investments need to be made in order to try new things. If your leadership is unwilling to spend money to try something new you will never have a culture of innovation. No business prospers long term without making investments in R & D and nor do ministries. Such investments are investments in the future success of your ministry. Make no investments and you live with what is and not what could be. 

Hurdle Six. You cannot be too proud to steal good ideas
Cultures of pride say, "I won't do what others are doing, it has to be my idea." Cultures of humility say, "I am willing to learn from others any time I can and keep my "dumb tax" to a minimum. Proud leaders don't value learnings from others but humble leaders do. Learn from others and rip off their ideas. This is not about you but about maximizing the impact of your ministry.

Hurdle Seven. You must have a leader who promotes innovation
If the senior leader does not value innovation and you are an idea person, you may be on the wrong team. A senior leader must champion innovation and new ways of doing things if there is going to be a culture of innovation. Otherwise you are pushing a boulder uphill and it is likely to come back down and flatten you.

Hurdle Eight. The church board must value innovation
It is unfortunate that church boards can be the largest impediment to innovation in the church. I have watched this happen time and time again. This is where the influence and skill of the senior leader is important. Can they convince the board to take the same risk for the future that the staff is willing to take? 

Think about the level of innovation in your church or ministry. Which of these hurdles are keeping you from embracing a culture of innovation and what can you do about it?