ARCHIVES
September 2010
09.29.10
Small Group Trader... About to Make Web-Based Small Group Training Practical and Personal
I just finished a tour of the new smallgrouptrader.com online training. It's only in BETA right now but it will be available to all of us come January. If you've struggled with the training of new and well-versed small group leaders, you need to peer into this space in January.
A few of the fantastic aspects of this online training are noted below:
- A small group pastor or coach can create his/her own training videos or articles that will show up on their personalized training page.
- A small group pastor or coach will have access to the training videos or articles created by any church leader who has given permission for you to access and send their stuff to your leaders. I would imagine almost everyone will make their stuff available.
- A small group pastor or coach will be able to e-mail training videos or articles of their choosing to a small group leader.
- The small group pastor or coach will receive an e-mail when a small group leader has completed the training piece the small group pastor or coach sent to the small group leader.
- The small group pastor or coach can send a list of possible resources/curriculum pieces the small group might like to consider along with the training video or article. These will be hand-picked by the small group pastor or coach.
While I'm certain I've oversimplified the magnificence of this training, I can assure you, you will want to check this out. It may change the way we look at small group leader training.
09.28.10
Leaders and Clarity... Four Essentials... Without Them Don't Expect Much
Followers need leaders who are clearly defining four essentials. Without doing so, followers will find themselves lost in a pool of confusion, doubt, and misunderstanding. Ultimately the leader will lose her/his influence and those they once led will find someplace else to serve or will not serve at all.
Those four essentials are…
Clear Vision… Without clearly and consistently describing the ministry's vision (a mental image of the final outcome) followers will lose passion for the work.
Clear Strategy… Without a clear understanding of the strategy being used to accomplish the vision, followers create their own and go to work. Chaos will ensue as there will overlapping of work, role confusion, and followers will become discouraged.
Clear Expectations (of all followers at all levels)… Without clearly laying out the distinct responsibilities of every person on the team followers will not know what to do and will wait to go to work until someone tells them. In time, if they are not given a job description (in writing or verbally) they will quietly drift away never to be seen again.
Clear Markers of Success (for all followers at all levels)… Without clearly defining what success is followers will struggle to accomplish the work with the proficiency and expertise you had anticipated they would.
Other Leadership Blog Posts:
Leadership Vacuum, the Reason Many Leaders Lose
What All Effective Leaders Do, Five Simple Necessities
Alan Danielson Interview, Triple Threat Leadership, On-Line Book and Consulting
The Leader's Preparation, Wisdom from Henry and Richard Blackaby
09.20.10
Teaching Small Group Members to Pray Aloud
Jesus taught the disciples to pray. Shouldn’t we do the same?
I’ve been in ministry for 36 years now. An unforgettable ministry conversation took place one afternoon after our Sunday gathering of Christ-followers. One of the small group leaders at our church was speaking with me about the growth he was seeing in his small group members. I was already on the edge of my seat but when he told me about one of the members who had prayed aloud for the very first time the week prior I was trounced on by a dancing heart. And as I was driving home that day, my tear ducts got into the game. You see, the “first time out-louder” the small group leader was telling me about has a fantastic wife and two incredible sons. During my drive home that afternoon I realized that these young boys were going to grow up in a home where dad prayed for them at the dinner table, by their beds, on vacation, etc… The list could go on and on. And those kids will do with their own children what they have seen their dad do. Because a small group leader took the time and strategically was teaching his small group members to pray aloud a mountain of believers for generations to come will know what it means to be prayed for by godly, caring parents and as those children realize that God is real and alive they will want to know about His Son Jesus and will most likely choose a relationship with Him.
It is vital that small group leaders teach those in our groups how to pray… aloud.
Below you’ll find a simple step-by-step process that will help you as you teach small group members how to pray aloud.
LEVEL ONE: The Leader prays and models conversational prayer. The term “conversational” is important. Exhibiting a preacher voice, speaking in old English terms, or sounding as though you’ve swallowed a pile of “o pity me’s” will only confuse the small group member who longs to have an authentic relationship with Jesus.
LEVEL TWO: The Leader asks for volunteers and sees who emerges after it has been modeled for a couple of weeks.
LEVEL THREE: The Leader calls on two people to pray who have been volunteering and then the leader closes in prayer.
LEVEL FOUR: The Leader leads the group to “Complete the Sentence.” This could be a sentence like, “God, this is ______, I want to thank you for________, or God, would you help with ________.” The leader lets everyone know that if you prefer to pray silently to God instead of out loud, just let the group know by squeezing the hand of the person next to you (if the group is that close) or say the word ‘Amen’ to indicate you are going to pray silently. This is for those who still haven’t gotten into voicing prayers aloud. This is a giant first step for them.
LEVEL FIVE: The group grows to the place where they can pray conversationally as a group using this method: A prayer request is shared and the group spends time praying "sentence prayers" about that specific request before moving on to the next prayer request.”
You probably noticed that these are baby steps moving toward full-fledged paragraph prayers. In time, this will come naturally.
09.17.10
Answers to the Questions Most Often Asked by First Year Small Group Leaders
First year small group leaders are forced into situations they never thought about when they agreed to become small group leaders. In fact, for some of them, had they known what they were getting into, they might have hesitated to say yes to your request to lead a group. I wanted to give you a few links to blog posts that might answer some of the most often asked questions new leaders might be asking.
Just click on the title to go to a blog post on that particular topic.
What should we do about childcare?
Small Group Childcare, Three Options, Pros and Cons
Small Groups and Childcare, Five Options
What do I do about the overly talkative group member?
Suggestions for Helping the Overly Talkative Group Member
What should I do when most of the small group doesn't show up for the group meeting?
When Only a Few People Show Up for the Group Meeting
Leftover, When a Small Group Gets Smaller
How do I get group members to talk more during the meeting?
The Importance of Conversations Between Meetings
How do I get group members to make a meaningful commitment to the small group?
Small Group Covenants, Why Covenant, How to Covenant
How can I bring our Bible study time to life?
Journeying, Five Necessities for Guiding Your Group Beyond Bible Study
How do we handle confrontation in the group?
Confronting in Small Groups, Wisdom from Joel Comiskey
How do I make sure that our conversational Bible study isn't a night of shared ignorance?
Bible Study, A Night of Shared Ignorance
The Fine Line Between Authenticity and "My Truth"
09.16.10
Tools You Can Turn New Small Group Leaders to for Answers to Their Questions
New small group leaders have many questions that need to be answered. If you're the small group pastor you'll find yourself spending many hours answering the same questions again and again. This isn't a bad thing but it can be avoided. Below are some tools that you may want to make available to your small group leaders, tools that will answer most of the questions your small group leaders will ask of you. Just click on the title to either go to the website or see where to purchase the book.
Consider getting each small group leaders a copy of one of the following books. Each of these is an easy read reference guide for small group leaders.:
- Leading Life-Changing Small Groups by Bill Donahue, http://www.lifeway.com/product/001120924/
- The Pocket Guide to Leading a Small Group by Dave Early and Rod Dempsey, http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Guide-Leading-Small-Group/dp/0978877926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284557167&sr=8-1
- Destination Community: Small Group Ministry Manual by Rick Howerton, http://www.lifeway.com/product/005038477/
Make your small group leaders aware of the following blogs. Each of these has a number of quick reads that answer the questions they may be asking.:
- Allen White's Brookwood Small Groups, http://upstategroups.typepad.com/upstate_groups_blog/small-group-questions/
- Michael Mack's Small Group Leadership, http://smallgroupleadership.blogspot.com/
- Rick Howerton's Small Group World (you're already here)
Connect your small group leaders to the following websites. Before turning your leaders to these websites you'll want to check them out and see what the fees are for utilization of them.:
- Small Group Trader, http://smallgrouptrader.com/Home
- Small Groups .com, http://www.smallgroups.com/
09.15.10
What New Small Group Leaders Need
New small group leaders often find themselves submerged in murky waters. They aren't necessarily drowning in it but they are trying to keep their heads above it and sometimes they are lost in it. Why? Just prior to their first meeting the cringe factor scale peaks. After the first meeting or two the new small group leader is certain she/he has gotten in over their heads. We need to realize what they need and be able to turn them in the right direction.
What do new small group leaders need?
- They need answers to the questions that arise.
- They need someone available, the small group pastor, a coach, etc… to talk to, a human voice to hear theirs and sympathize and empathize with them.
- They need encouragement and someone who has already done what they are doing to remind them that the feelings they are feeling and the questions they have are right and real and normal for any new small group leader.
A few important principles to keep in mind:
- The newer a small group leader is the more of your time they are going to need. Give more of your time to new leaders than well-established leaders and it will pay off.
- New leaders can learn from longer-term leaders. If you don't have a coaching system in place, you may want to connect a new leader with a small group leader who has been in the ranks for a few years. This is a great way to meet the needs of the new small group leader as well as find out which long-term leaders will make good coaches. Use this system to find coaches and create a coaching system.
- Coaches have a window of opportunity to build a mentoring type of relationship with a small group leader in the first eight weeks of small group leadership like no other time. Coaches being available to answer questions, encourage, empathize, and sympathize with the new leader in this window will pay great dividends in the future. Coaches calling up leaders once a week at first to see if they can help them will establish the kind of relationship between coach and leader that you're longing to create.
- People learn best when they "need to know" not when you lead a training session for them. The best learning comes when the cringe factor is high. It is in these moments that people go looking for answers to their questions. New small group leaders will have a lot of questions. Help them find a place or a person who can answer their questions.
09.14.10
Recruitment Month... Going When You're Growing Tired... A Few Tips
It's one of the busiest times a small group pastor survives, yes survives… recruitment time. For months you've been building up to September, recruitment month. You've gotten your leadership team together for multiple meetings, together you've created what you believe to be an effective plan, you've been diagramming and deliberating and finding yourself waking up in the middle of the night asking the question, "Is there something I'm forgetting or have forgotten?," you've been calling and prodding people who would make good small group leaders because you have to have more leaders so that your anticipated number of new group members have someone to lead them, and you've been prompting your senior pastor to push groups from the pulpit.
It's now September and you're exhausted but there's no way you can slow down, at least not for a few weeks. You need more energy to be effective. So what do you do?
A few ideas that have worked for me through the years…
- Take a quick afternoon nap, even if you have to do it in your office. A power nap can be a powerful thing.
- Sleep in one day. That's right, just decide that tomorrow you're not going to the office until 10:00. If you wake up early, don't think about church stuff. Sip coffee, watch the news, read the newspaper, do life like you have no pressure at all. This will slow down your blood pressure and the relaxation will make you better when you arrive back at the office.
- Take an afternoon and do something you like to do (unless it has to do with church). I'm one of the worst golfers in the world but I love it. An afternoon at the golf course will take my mind off anything. And after playing golf, I normally am ready to go again but I'm ready to go again without the inner urgency that existed prior to hitting my first poor shot of tee box #1.
- If you can, go away with your wife or husband for an overnighter. Get out of town and enjoy one another's company. Ask her not to bring up church stuff and you agree to do the same. Go someplace that you've been to together in the past, a place where, when you were there the first time, there was no pressure. Your emotional memory will allow you to breathe without thinking about the present for a period of time.
- Sit around a campfire one evening. It's hard to think about work when you're staring at a fire, looking at the stars, and being invaded by God's creation.
- Don't miss your daily time with God. Your time with God should be one of the most refreshing times of each day. Rest in Him, be restored by Him, allow Him to remind you that the larger story is more vital to the Kingdom than the story of groups. And finally, while with Him, turn over all of your cares and concerns about recruitment to Him. Remember this passage as you pray… Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philip. 4:6-7
09.10.10
My Interview With Boyd Pelley, Small Groups Analytics IV, Churchteams.com... So Much More than just Small Groups
Today we're wrapping up a four day interview with Boyd Pelley. Boyd created Churchteams.com, a web-based analytic tool for small group ministries. It has become so much more. This is a tool that will not only enhance your small group ministry, it will make your church much more efficient and effective.
Rick: We've talked a lot about using Churchteams.com for analysis, what are some other benefits of churchteams?
Boyd: Well communication is huge. A church can text and email as well as send postcards and letters to the whole church, any group, set of groups or set of members with just a few clicks. It's really easy. Imagine a bad weather day being able to send an email or even text message to everyone in the church that a service is canceled from the pastor's home computer. Or what about a last minute change of plans for a small group where even email is too slow and text messaging is needed. You can imagine how much our student ministries love texting.
In addition, so many people have enjoyed Churchteams for small groups and they wanted us to expand it to be a full database. So we did that a couple of years ago. Now you can track membership, assimilation, contributions, children's check-in, recruitment, reporting, event sign ups and anything else a traditional Church Management System does. The only exceptions are accounting and calendaring. There are some great reasons we've not done these, but anything membership related, we can do. By the way, all for the same price. No extra cost for modules or training or support. It's all included.
Rick: So it does track contributions?
Boyd: Yes. Besides the obvious reason of needing to track individual contributions for tax statements, we wanted to include giving as one of the factors involved in evaluating spiritual growth. We're working on some innovative ideas on how to do this, but I'll save that for later.
Rick: Will Churchteams.com work for a church of 50?
Boyd: Yes. It will. Not just for small groups, but everything related to church membership including contributions. Small churches sometimes don't think they need a church database, but in reality web-based software makes it possible for any volunteer to help with whatever role they have to help with the church. This can be a tremendous help even for church plants with nothing more than a core team getting ready to launch.
Rick: Will it work for a church of 20,000?
Boyd: Four of the largest ten churches in the United States use Churchteams for their small groups. We don't yet have any churches running over 2,000 using it for a full database. But, I imagine that day will come in the next couple of years. In August, we had one church put 2,600 people in small groups using Churchteams.
Rick: Boyd, tell us about the cost. What can you tell church leaders about the cost of Churchteams.com?
Boyd: I managed a church budget for six years as the church administrator. I know church finances feel tight whether the budget is $12,000 or $12 million. A big church might have a $5 million budget. That would be a very small business. We wanted our pricing to enable the best stewardship possible for churches not reflect typical business pricing. So, for most of a decade we built the tool as a labor of love essentially front-ending development costs. That allows us to provide the highest possible quality tool for an incredibly reasonable price about 10-40% of other comparable web-based solutions. Here's a link to our prices. If any or your readers are interested, please invite them to join me for a webinar. I do like 5 a week.
09.09.10
My Interview with Boyd Pelley, Small Groups Analytics III, Connecting Every Person in the Ministry
Over the last two days this blog has been featuring an interview with Boyd Pelley. Boyd spearheads Churchteams.com, a web-based ministry helping churches utilize analytics to further God's Kingdom. Picking up where we left off…
Rick: That's fantastic. Hey let me jump back to the bigger picture of analyzing the ministry whole so that the small groups pastor can conclude what aspect of the ministry needs to be shored up. Would you tell us some of the categories of analysis that are required for a small group pastor to gain a correct snapshot of the ministry they're leading?
Boyd: I see the need for snapshots at three levels. First of all, the executive level. This is the most common one people have. Basically it is the number of groups, enrollment and attendance month to month. The second level is the ministry level. This metric shows the consistency rates of each group so that you can see which groups are healthy and which ones are stressed. I know of very few churches doing this without Churchteams. The third level is the individual level that shows leaders and their coaches consistency rates of individuals.
I've mentioned consistency because it is a far better indicator of individual and group health than mere attendance. We call this metric the "low-hanging" fruit because it is relatively easy to capture. Beyond consistency, we are also developing systems to measure things like ownership and spiritual growth progress in a number of areas. There's a lot to this that the next few years will flesh out more clearly.
Rick: You and I both know from working with small group churches, there are at least seven different systems for doing groups, everything from house churches to the free market system. Will Churchteams work for any of those?
Boyd: You know from the very beginning I knew that we'd have to build it for everything from Sunday School to G12 to Free Market systems. Our setup process allows you to customize the language, the tool and morph it so that it exactly reflects the strategy of small groups a church has chosen to use.
Rick: You just mentioned Sunday School. Are a lot of Sunday School churches utilizing this?
Boyd: We're starting to see more and more headed that direction. I have been pleased to see some churches using blended models be so pleased with what the tool does for their off-campus groups that they have moved to using it with their on-campus groups as well. One advantage over the traditional records room model for Sunday School is the way the tool communicates weekly to everyone enrolled. Typical inreach consists of directors and teachers calling folks. It gets awkward to continue calling after 4-5 times, but weekly e-mails showing attendance and sharing class prayer and other information seem to provide the right relational distance for connection without the awkwardness.
09.08.10
My Interview with Boyd Pelley, Small Groups Analytics II, Saving Your Ministry Money
One of my favorite guys in the small group space is Boyd Pelley. Boyd spearheads Churchteams.com, an on-line analytics website for churches doing groups. I once mentioned to Boyd just how important his role in the small group world was. I said it this way, "Without record-keeping we wouldn't know what was really going on." Over the next few minutes Boyd schooled me on the difference between "analytics" and "record-keeping." When he had finished I realized that every small group ministry that wants to flourish needs a strategic plan for gaining information about every group and using that information to reach optimal effectiveness.
Yesterday Boyd told us why analytics are essential. For many of us, if they save us money they become an essential. Check this out…
Rick: In order for a small group pastor to know what is broken and what needs to be fixed, they must first be willing to find out what is present reality. Why do you think some small group pastors are hesitant to do what is necessary to gain that information?
Boyd: Historically the logistics to collect the kind of data we're collecting today just wasn't there or it cost too much to do. Most small group pastors think the idea of trying to get weekly feedback from leaders is crazy and impossible. I know. I was one of them. We do a simple version of this for Sunday School, but the idea of doing it for decentralized ministry was overwhelming.
A second reason is that most pastors don't have the training, personality or spiritual gifting it takes to put together data in a truly meaningful way. This is where we come in. Software is really good at that stuff. Using today's technology, we automate for pastors both the logistics and the collated information they need.
Thirdly, there has always been a discussion about numbers in the church and using business systems. We've relied way to heavily on attendance and giving as spiritual indicators and intuitively most pastors know there is more to the story. So, there is legitimate skepticism that these metrics are telling the full story.
Rick: Okay, here's the deal. I'm working with hundreds of small group pastors, time is always an issue for these very busy pastors. So… how many days a week would it take for a small group pastor to gain the information, analyze the information and utilize the information that Churchteams will give them?
Boyd: The few churches that are trying to do it, with as few as 20 groups, hire part time staff just to make all the phone calls and manage their accounting-based info systems. We completely automate all of that for you by empowering leaders to communicate well and in the process provide the necessary info updates and summaries. If I were going to put a number to it, I would say you would need to hire someone an hour per group per month and provide them training in analytics to be able to put together equivalent feedback … maybe.
Rick: So you're saying then, with churchteams, that a church won't need to hire part-time staff yet they can still acquire and utilize the information as if they had taken on additional staff?
Boyd: Exactly. All the small group pastor has to do is open up his inbox and he can pray over the groups that met the night before and reply to the leader or forward to coaches and staff. We provide 4 steps to set up the system and a video on how to train leaders. Then the software is designed to run itself and to collect that information. Not only will it save them staff hires, it will also help them use their limited time most effectively.
09.07.10
My Interview with Boyd Pelley, Small Groups Analytics I, Why Analytics are Essential
One of my favorite guys in the small group space is Boyd Pelley. Boyd spearheads Churchteams.com, an on-line analytics website for churches doing groups. I once mentioned to Boyd just how important his role in the small group world was. I said it this way, "Without record-keeping we wouldn't know what was really going on." Over the next few minutes Boyd schooled me on the difference between "analytics" and "record-keeping." When he had finished I realized that every small group ministry that wants to flourish needs a strategic plan for gaining information about every group and using that information to reach optimal effectiveness.
This is the first in a series of four blog posts, my interview with Boyd. Hang on. You're about to realize a tool, that if used correctly, may take your small group ministry to the next level.
Rick: Boyd many people know you as the guy who helps them analyze their small group ministry. They may not realize that you are a small group expert. Would you tell everyone what your background is?
Boyd: For 18 years I served on church staffs in New Mexico, Nebraska, and Texas. My job titles varied from adult education to discipleship to administration to family pastor. Early on I realized the value of thinking about and organizing every ministry from a small group or team perspective. It makes administration more streamlined and brings alignment across the organization which serves both staff and volunteers well. I learned ministry in a small groups / discipleship atmosphere on college campuses and brought that experience and commitment to the church. I have had the privilege of learning from the best thinkers, consultants and authors on small groups in the last 40 years. Each one has influenced my thinking in some way. My primary spiritual gift is shepherding, not administration. This tool grew out of a pastor's heart that is passionate about doing a better, more effective job of caring for and discipling people. It became reality thanks to Mark Horan; my partner, co-founder and the software architect. He influences and owns this thing at least as much as I do.
Rick: You once said, "I believe analytics will do for ministry in the next ten years what the arts did for worship the past twenty." That's a huge statement. What has driven you to believe this statement to be true?
Boyd: When I think back to what church was like in the 70's and 80's, you could pretty much go to any church and you knew how it was going to work. There were three songs, announcements, a music special, communion (depending on the church) and then the sermon. When we opened up the church to the arts and began having worship bands with guitar solos, drama, dance, poetry, and video projectors showing printed art, media and sermon support images; worship changed. There was new life to what was happening on Sundays. Sunday began to relate to the rest of our week much better.
Of course, not everyone saw that the same way and the last twenty years have been filled with debate, discussion and a lot of change in churches. It has been a huge revolution in the church and I honestly think that analytics will do the same thing on the ministry side.
Right now, we can track and provide for staff the analytics that show the relative health of each group: healthy, normal, at-risk. This helps pastors better focus their ministry efforts where it is most needed. Very soon, we will be able to do the same thing for individuals helping them pay more attention to their spiritual growth goals and making leadership much more aware of the state of their flocks.
The discussion of the role of numbers and metrics in church life has been around a very long time. We engage in that discussion all the time. But, with the way technology has advanced, I believe we can revolutionize ministry and ministry leadership efforts. I relate it to Luke 15. The shepherd didn't count to brag. He counted so that he could clearly see the need and focus his efforts where it would make the most difference. This is our Father's heart and we should do everything we can with today's technology to reflect that same heart.
Rick: So with churchteams.com a church can actually peer into every individual group utilizing churchteams.com to know where they need to be strengthened so that that group doesn't die. Is that correct?
Boyd: Yes, it is. A quick story.
Damon is a friend of mine in Seattle using Churchteams. He's a master black belt six sigma expert who volunteered to lead a small group ministry in a church of about 250. In the summer of 2008, he called me and said, "Boyd I'm concerned about the health of my groups. Would you say that a healthy group trusts each other?"
I said, "Sure. Absolutely."
And then he asked, "Isn't trust, by definition, a function of consistency?"
I thought about that and said, "Sure. I trust you because you've consistently been there for me."
He asked, "Can you measure consistency?"
I said, "Yes, that's just attendance over time."
"So," he asked, "From your experience, what degree of consistency would you identify a group as healthy?"
Without much thought and based on 18 years of experience, I said, "I guarantee that any typical, off-campus, small group of 6-12 that averages 80% consistency is healthy."
"What about an at-risk group?"
Again, very quickly I answered, "Any group not averaging 50% probably has some issues that need to be addressed."
Well he took that, used the data we gave him and put it together for his groups. He called me up. "Boyd, I've got 12 groups. I know all 12 leaders. I know everybody in all 12 groups. What I didn't know is I have 5 healthy groups, 4 in between, and 3 are at risk."
He said, "So I decided to go to those 3 and test our hypothesis. All three of them, when I began asking the right questions, had issues that we needed to work on to restore them to health."
And he said, "Boyd I would have never known that without the analytics."
And that conversation began a huge learning curve for me and for Churchteams on how to use and present the data we had learned to collect from 2004 to 2007 in the most effective way to help pastors shepherd well.
09.03.10
Nine Things to Remember When Discipling Men
This past week my church asked if I'd do a session for our men on discipling men. I gotta tell you, it brought about a lot of personal soul-searching. When it was all said and done one of the outcomes was a list of "things to remember" when leading men. The list below may help you as you lead men in your small group, accountability group, or some other kind of group.
- Men need to see a vision. They need a mental image of the final outcome.
- Men need social time, not just meeting times. Social time on the golf course, at the pool hall, on the ball field, etc… is what will make the meeting time come to life.
- Men are warriors and need an enemy to fight and a battle to win. This is just the heart of a man. Be certain they know who the enemy is, Satan.
- Men need a bar raised high. Boredom sets in quickly when a goal is easily attainable.
- Men don't read. Many men are not going to pick up a book and read it. You may be a book junky, they may junk the book.
- Men will dodge real life issues by deflecting and talking about facts. For instance, you might ask a guy what God is teaching him during his daily time with God. His response might be to tell you he had his quiet time three times this week. You'll need to dig deeper.
- Men need a safe place and a safe person to tell real life stuff to but they need time to know they can trust you. You'll need to open the door to this kind of transparency by revealing your stuff first.
- Men will lie to you. Every accountability list I've ever seen had as the last question something like this… "Were any of your responses misleading or all out lies?" Don't declare a man the enemy because of this, he's been taught by society to protect his influence in this way. Simply help him step into the light of honesty so God can redeem his heart.
- Men need MODELS, not INFORMATION.
09.01.10
Leadership Vacuum, the Reason Many Leaders Lose
Many church leaders find themselves in a very awkward situation. Someone else seems to have the ear of their team members. You know the story… You're the senior pastor or staff member. But when you speak people aren't listening to you but they are allowing someone else on the team you lead to give direction to an initiative. This may simply be because someone else has a longer tenure with the team. But it may be that you as the key leader have left a leadership vacuum. A leadership vacuum is a hole that needs filling... a question that goes unanswered, a task that needs assigned, or a pre-existing responsibility that was never followed up on and has been left hanging. A leader can often realize when a leadership vacuum is being created if, during a team meeting, a question is asked or a task needing to be done is suggested but the key leader of the meeting remains silent. The awkward silence that follows may be a clear indicator that a leadership vacuum has just been created and, if you're a leader leading leaders, someone in the room will probably try to fill that vacuum. Someone once wisely stated, "If there is a leadership vacuum, someone will fill it." At that point the key leader loses some level of influence with the rest of the team members. The proactive team member has trumped the level of authority of the staff member spearheading the ministry. This is why it's important for those of us who spearhead a work to be certain we don't leave room for a leadership vacuum to appear.
A Leadership vacuum is perceived to be or is a reality when….
- A key leader stops casting the vision God has given them. Cast vision at least every 30 days.
- During a team meeting, a team member begins to describe a different vision that that of the key leader and the key leader allows the revamped vision to linger without graciously renouncing and redirecting the group back to the original vision.
- A question arises in a meeting and the key leader tells the team she/he will get back with the group but doesn't.
- There is an obvious job that needs to be done and others on the team are vividly aware of it, but the key leader ignores the need and assigns no one the responsibility to accomplish the task.
- The key leader seems to go AWOL on the team. She/he gets busy with other obligations and stops contacting team members, calling team meetings, and/or loses touch with team members.
- The key leader is poorly prepared when the team meets simply having meetings with no purpose and no meaningful outcomes.
