Growing health and effectiveness
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Boards that are not united and don't face reality
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Signs of healthy and unhealthy boards
1. Are you ever frustrated by the pace of decision-making?
Yes No
2. Is it necessary to get the approval of more than one group
in order to get something done?
Yes No
3. Do you find your board revisiting issues that you thought
you had settled already?
Yes No
4. Is there confusion or conflict over what place the congregation,
staff team or board plays in leadership or decision-making?
Yes No
5. Does your board have a clear job description and understand
its responsibilities?
Yes No
6. Do you find that you spend more time “managing” day-today
activities than thinking and planning for the future?
Yes No
7. Could you identify the clear “preferred future” for your
congregation, and is this a shared dream of the board?
Yes No
8. Do your board and staff members have clear annual ministry
goals and plans?
Yes No
9. Are you frustrated with the number of decisions that need
to go to the congregation for approval?
Yes No
10. Is there a high level of unity and relational health among
board members?
Yes No
11. Do your church structure and bylaws hinder rather than
help leaders make timely decisions?
Yes No
12. Does your board have ample time for prayer and study of
Scripture, and to dream and plan for the future?
Yes No
13. Does your board have a covenant that spells out its procedural
and relational practices?
Yes No
14. Has the lack of such a covenant ever caused problems for
the board?
Yes No
15. Do you have a process designed to find the very best leaders
for your senior board?
Yes No
16. Do you have a process to mentor and train potential leaders
before they become leaders?
Yes No
17. Do you believe that your church is maximizing its ministry
impact?
Yes No
18. Does your congregation have more than one elected board?
Yes No
19. Is there tension or confusion between the staff and board
over who is responsible for what?
Yes No
20. Are you able to attract and retain the best leaders in your
church to serve on your senior leadership board?
Yes No
How many yes answers do you have? _____. A perfect score
would be a yes for questions 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20
How many no answers do you have? _____. A perfect score
would be a no for questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 18, 19
Take a moment and find out how each member of your board
answered these questions, and discuss the results together. The
resulting conversation will help you identify issues in your
church leadership paradigm that need to be changed—if you
are going to maximize your congregation’s ministry impact.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bold and Bolder Faith
If Jesus invites bold faith, if He invites BIG asks, we ought to take Him up on His offer. What is it that you need today? Be bold, pray BIG and wait for a loving father to answer!
It can be hard to be bold in our prayer or to do BIG asks if we are not used to doing this. There is another hard part of prayer. We are to pray bold and pray BIG but we are also to pray for God’s will to be done (Matthew 6:10). That is hard because while God always answers the prayer of faith (Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you – Luke 11:9-10) His perfect answer is not always our perfect answer!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Mentoring Revisited
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Building your leadership bench
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Suffering and Humility
Suffering has a wonderful way of stripping away pride. When life comes undone we can’t pretend we are sufficient anymore. We are forced to acknowledge our need for God and for others. Our weakness becomes our strength.
The Apostle Paul also had to learn humility the hard way.
It was humbling to go to Physical Therapy after my first long hospital stay and to learn how to walk and balance again after 36 days in bed. Or Occupational Therapy where they wanted me to count money and take timed tests of motor function – I failed miserably. Or Speech Therapy where they tested my cognitive skills and memory (flunked there as well). I still have days of “brain fog” where the neurons don’t seem to connect very well.