Eternal perspectives on ordinary issues

Here's an interesting concept. Many of the ordinary things we do and activities we engage in have eternal consequences. So here is the question: Is it possible to develop eternal perspectives on ordinary issues?

Last year I became a grandfather - which of course means I am gentle and kind and wise (at least in his eyes). An ordinary occurrence (nothing ordinary about my grandson of course) but one that has eternal consequences. How I see my stewardship of this important relationship will impact his relationship with God, with others and perhaps with his divine calling on life. Thus I desire to take an eternal perspective on this special relationship.

Every month I make decisions on my finances - an ordinary issue. Yet, Paul says that we are to be generous and willing to help others and in doing so we store up treasures in heaven. In saying that, he removes my monthly financial decisions from the ordinary and suggests that I take an eternal perspective on my decisions.

Or, take my friendships in our neighborhood with people I like and love and who don't know Jesus. If Mary Ann and I can influence them to look at Jesus and His life changing relationship, our common friendship just took on an eternal perspective. So for the waiters and waitresses in our favorite restaurant - the Downtowner Woodfire Grill. Every meal there presents an opportunity to relate to and love those who serve us and know us and all of a sudden our meal takes on an eternal perspective.

Then there are my deep friendships with those who do know Jesus and are fellow pilgrims in the journey that is life. How I encourage them and influence them - and they me - has eternal results. If we encourage one anther toward a closer walk with Jesus and support one another in the hard times and rejoice in the good times, what are special friendships take on eternal perspective.

When you think of it, there are many ordinary activities in our lives that can actually have an eternal perspective if we pay attention and think them through. Life is more connected with eternity than we often realize. What happens here often has eternal impact. In that perspective, much that we see as ordinary is actually not ordinary at all.

The ability to do critical analysis of staff

A key skill of leaders is that of being able to do critical analysis of people they lead. Critical analysis is not about being critical. It is about the ability to realistically understand and honestly evaluate strengths and weaknesses of people (we all have them) and not to gloss over problematic issues or areas of needed growth.

Many corporations require, for instance, that a supervisor defend the annual review he/she does for subordinates with other select individuals. The reasons is that they want a realistic and honest evaluations rather than glossing over needed areas of growth. They know that without honest discussion, it is possible to ignore important issues.

This matters because one of the most important roles of a supervisor is to help their staff grow and develop and become all that they can be. Unless they are serious about discerning the areas of need growth this will not happen. In the ministry world it is often, frankly ignored to the detriment of staff growth.

It also matters because a lack of such critical analysis impacts others in the organization who either flourish or suffer on the basis of the health of leadership.

Here are some evaluative questions for staff who lead others:

• Do they both empower others but stay connected in order to help them achieve their goals?
• Are they clear on what their missional agenda is and do they communicate it clearly?
• Do they keep their staff focused on the missional agenda at all times?
• How intentionally do they coach their staff?
• Are they able to do critical analysis of their staff in order to position them for success and keep them growing?
• Do you see regular growth in their leadership skill and emotional intelligence? Where do they need to grow?
• If there was one thing that would make a major difference in their leadership, what would it be?
• How focused and disciplined are they in their work?
• Where would they benefit from coaching and growth?
• Are they candidates for a higher level of responsibility? If so, what additional experience do they need to become qualified?

Moving a church from deeply institutional to missional

Those who are attempting to move a church from institutional to missional face a daunting task, but not one that is impossible - with a lot of prayer, wisdom and perseverance. In fact it is a job to attempt only with eyes wide open, knowing that this is one ministry where a fair amount of blood can be shed before it is accomplished.

As I often point out, congregations have a very specific and ingrained genetic code. They do not change easily and the longer they have been in existence, the stronger the resistance to change. People inside a system often cannot imagine or picture life outside the system and since what is works for them, they have no incentive to move to what could be. Churches are like family systems and family systems are difficult to change.

Resistance to change often leads to sinful and obnoxious behaviors when someone seeks to bring renewal (seen as unneeded change). YouTube has many examples of church fights (ah the wonders of everyone having a cell phone) and behavior that would be funny if not so tragic. 

People may say things, assume things, accuse others of things that are downright nasty and to say the least lack the character of Jesus. Even if their motives are not bad (and we cannot judge those), behaviors can be truly destructive. Remember that it is a family system that naturally moves toward protecting the comfortable and known status quo.

And then there are the politics of power which can be as unhealthy in a congregation as in the workplace. Remember, someone has a vested interest in what is. They helped create it and they have had influence within it. To suggest moving away from what is can be a threat to those who created it and they may well resist that movement knowing that if it happens it impacts their influence in negative ways. 

The resistance may well not be overt but rather is often passive aggressive and therefore more difficult to pin down and deal with. If you are going to challenge the status quo be very sure what individuals you are also challenging and be aware of how they may respond. Be realistic about how they may respond rather than taken by surprise. 

An absolute key is to get the right people in leadership to provide a guiding coalition of resolve to move the congregation in healthier directions. This means finding ways to move the wrong people out - those who will resist the move from institutional to missional. Until there is a core of healthy resolved leaders, it will be an uphill and often impossible road.

Recognize that this is a spiritual battle as institutional and inward focused churches are not a threat to the enemy while intentional, missional and outward focused churches are. An ongoing and unrelenting prayer strategy is essential to make the shift.

A key is to appeal to those in the congregation who want to accomplish something for God. You will probably not convince those who are deeply opposed to change so it is not worth your time trying to do so. In fact, you may assume that there will be people who will always be convinced that you have ruined their church no matter what transpires. The constituency you want to appeal to are those who are more interested in reaching people for Jesus than they are in guarding the status quo.

Expect that people will leave the church. Whenever major change takes place some people will get off the bus. This is normal. If your board is united and you are moving the church toward health do not let the fact that people leave threaten you. They may well be very happy where they go and what is at stake are many who will never hear the gospel unless the church becomes healthy.

Be resolved about your direction but remain kind and gentle to those who disagree. Listen to those who are unhappy but stay the course. This is not about people liking you. Rather it is about helping the church become the church it was meant to be. In the middle of such a transition you are likely to be deeply discouraged and wonder if you did the right thing. That is not the time to abandon ship. It is the time to see the change process through. In fact, to start the process and then leave in discouragement may well do more harm to the congregation than if one had not attempted to bring change in the first place.

Be clear where the leadership believes the church needs to go and what that looks like. Celebrate small wins as people respond to the new vision and live it out. This will reinforce the new values and practices in a powerful way. It also gives people hope that the church will emerge on the other side of change.

Finally remember that this is not about whether people like you. It is about whether the congregation becomes what God wants it to be. In the process you may take major hits. It is the nature of leading through change. It is not comfortable but it is natural. Good leaders have counted the cost, have major resolve and stay the course with their eyes fixed on what can be, not what currently is.

The Emotional Intelligence of your ministry team or board: take the test

The emotional intelligence of your ministry team or board makes all the difference in terms of its health and your ability to carry out healthy and effective ministry. Here is an inventory that can help you gauge the EQ of your team or board. 

Give each question a number from 1 to 10 that describes the accuracy of the statement with 1 being very untrue and 10 being very true. 

Ask each member of the team/board to score the ten questions. Take the total score for each participant and divide by the number of respondents for your group score. 

You may want to discuss the ten questions in one of your team/board meetings as a growing exercise.

What the scores tell you:

• 60 or less, your board/team needs to do serious work and would be considered to have poor corporate Emotional Intelligence.
• 60 - 75, your board/team has moderate Emotional Intelligence but needs to be more intentional in these areas.
• 75 - 90, your board/team has fairly good Emotional Intelligence and would gain by talking about places where the score was low and could be brought higher.
• 90-100, your board/team has excellent Emotional Intelligence and should both celebrate and work to stay that way.

Take the test and grow your board/team.

1. There are no issues that we cannot put on the table for discussion. _____
2. Members of our team/board respond with non-defensive attitudes when their position is challenged. _____
3. All of our team/board are willing to abide by decisions of the group once they have been made. _____
4. Members of our team/board keep short accounts and quickly resolve interpersonal conflicts. _____
5. There are no ongoing divisions on our team/board. ______
6. Total honesty and candid discussion is always encouraged by the team/board leader. _____
7. Members who may disagree with a course of action are never marginalized. _____
8. Members carefully listen to the opinions of others and fully engage in the discussions of the group. _____
9. There is a high level of interpersonal trust among members of the team/board. _____
10. When members of the team/board become disruptive to the work of the group the issue is handled and not ignored. _____

Six things every church planter should pay attention to from the beginning

A Church's genetic code is hardwired into it early in life so if you want to establish a healthy transformational church there are values and practices that need to be planted up front. Ensuring health on the front end prevents the need to back up later and fix something that is not going well.  

If you are a church planter, consider these issues before you plant. It is easy to let them slide in the chaos and busyness of church planting but if you do they will be hard to retrofit later.

1. How you do leadership/board work will generally set the tone for a long time. From the start, keep the board focused on the big rocks of mission, values, spiritual temperature, and the six responsibilities of leaders: keeping the spiritual temperature high; ensuring the congregation is taught; developing, empowering and releasing people into ministry; ensuring that the congregation is cared for; led well; and protecting the congregation. 

If you want to keep the board out of management and focused on governance and direction, do that from the beginning. Bad habits die hard once started. My book on boards can help you chart a healthy course.

2. When you write your constitution and bylaws (yes you need them) make them as short as possible in order to give you the most latitude as possible. Remember that there are people who believe bylaws to be more sacred than the sacred text (which they may violate all day but not allow you to violate the bylaws). You can always add later. It is easier to add than to subtract in this case.

3. Be absolutely clear about what your church is about and is not about. Clarity solves a lot of problems especially as people from other churches show up and want you to become what the church they left was (never mind they left unhappy). 

Clarity on your mission, your guiding principles, central ministry focus and culture will allow you to be aligned around the most important things from the start. If you are not clear from the start, others with agendas will fill the gap with their clarity - usually not a healthy thing.

4. Develop the kind of team relationships you want to see long term on the part of your staff and volunteers. Again, what you teach, model and put in place at the beginning is going to last a long time so develop the healthiest ethos as possible from day one - and insist on it. Larry Osborn's Sticky Teams and my Leading From the Sandbox can help develop healthy teams from the start.

5. Keep the congregation focused on the right things like evangelism and life transformation. The minute you cross the line toward programs that start diverting from outreach and life transformation you have started to move from missional to institutional. Keep the main thing the main thing from day one and keep them focused. When people live out the main thing, celebrate and tell the story from day one. It will stick if you stick to it.

6. Set the date for the church plant your new church is going to commit to. If you are planting a church you believe in church planting. The sooner you birth a church the more likely it is that you will birth others and that those you birth will reproduce. Put the goal out there from day one.

Refreshment for pastors

In all the discussion on leadership in the local church - which I often write on - we sometimes forget the goal of all that we do - the care of souls that Jesus has put in our charge.

My friend of many years Lee Eclov is the quintessential pastor who loves the day to day care of his congregants. He has written a refreshing book on the Pastoral Graces: Reflections on the Care of Souls. 

It will encourage you, refresh you, remind you of our ultimate calling and challenge you. We need to be reminded often of what ministry is all about. This book will do that.

If you are not a pastor, consider gifting this book to your staff as a thank you for the care they provide you and the flock.

When boards are unable to police their own

Here is an interesting dilemma to consider. One of the Biblical roles of church boards is to protect the flock against the "wolves" of heresy, unrepentant ongoing serious sin and those that cause division in the body.

Yet many church boards are unable to even police themselves and deal with individuals on their board who cause disruption to the board itself. How can a board that cannot deal with its own issues deal with the issues of the church at large?

Consider these behaviors of board members that hurt the board:
- Unwillingness to abide by corporate decisions and team process.
- Sharing of confidential board discussions with others outside the board in an attempt to influence others.
- Holding offense against other board members that they are unwilling to resolve.
- Speaking ill of other board members or the staff.
- Problems of anger.
- Defensiveness that prevents others from speaking into their lives or behaviors.
- Disruptive behaviors that hurt board processes.

It takes only one unhealthy and unaccountable board member to poison the atmosphere of a board. Almost everyone who has served on a church board has encountered one or more of these. Yet all too often, the board itself is unwilling or unable to deal with behaviors that hurt the board and consequently the church. 

Two rules of thumb that I have observed over the years make this even more problematic. First, the congregation rarely rises above the spiritual temperature of the board - and this issue is a spiritual issue. Two, the behavior of a board usually becomes the behavior of a congregation. Thus, unhealthy behaviors on a board will usually be reflected in the congregation as well.

I strongly advise boards to have a board covenant that all members sign before they come onto the board. When there is a violation of that covenant, boards must exercise the discipline of policing their own for the sake of the health of the church.

The bottom line is that when boards cannot police themselves the hurt the church as a whole and cannot expect members of the congregation to live by standards they themselves cannot live by.