Category: Church Leadership

  • Getting Started in Investing, part one

    money_stuff

    I’d like to let my youth ministry friends in on a dirty little secret. While pay has dramatically improved for youth workers in the past two decades the most consistent reason people leave youth ministry once they reach their mid 30s and above is mounting financial pressure. In other words, there are some glass ceilings on the personal income side of things that will eventually cause you to look for higher paying work in the church or not in the church if you don’t plan ahead. Plan ahead and you relieve the pressure bit by bit. Don’t plan ahead and that pressure builds and leads to a catastrophic failure.

    Here is a short list of those pressures:

    – Housing expenses skyrocket: That rental gets old, doesn’t it? Buying a house can be great when you land in the same place for 10 years or more. But buy and sell a house a couple of times when you change jobs and you’ll quickly see that’s a bad strategy for financial security.

    – Retirement savings becomes important: Most churches either don’t offer a retirement plan for their associate staff or it is extremely inadequate. Even if you are in a denomination that pays into a pension fund… getting ordained in order to get vested in that fund can be more costly than the pension you’d earn in the long run! (And with many mainline denominations tanking financially, you really need to wonder if that money will be there in 30 years.)

    – Kids get more expensive as time goes on: When you first have babies you think diapers and formula is a blow to your budget. Just wait! Eventually those kids will need braces, outgrow clothes every two weeks, want to go to camp, need a car of their own, and gulp… want to go to college.

    – Medical insurance won’t cover it all: Again, when you are young and/or first married this doesn’t seem important. But with premiums soaring churches are cutting back on benefits. So as you age into needing good insurance chances are your church is increasing co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses.

    – Pressure to keep up with your peers: There’s only so long you want to live like college kids. Eventually, you are going to want grown up furniture, go on nice vacations, and have a little extra something here and there. I don’t mean that you’ll get more materialistic as time goes on… but you just get sick of scrounging.

    If you do nothing, eventually these pressures will leave you with no other option but to leave the ministry. You can do everything right in the 9-5 activity of working at your church. But if you don’t have a plan to address these mounting pressures, it will sneak up on you and the pressure will grow so intense that you may have no other option but to leave the job you love for a job that pays better. If the choice is lose your family or lose your ministry you will chose lose your ministry 100% of the time, right?

    My goal for this series is to encourage those in youth ministry– you don’t have to bail out!

    If you want to join along I will help you with a few basic strategies that will lessen these pressures. My hope is to help you stay in youth ministry longer. While things like soul care and youth ministry strategy are super important for staying in it for the long haul… I’m going to help you deal with the dirty little money secret that could eventually knock you out of ministry.

    Part two: Dealing with debt and savings

    Part three: COLA-  and I don’t mean Pepsi or Coke.

    Part four: 401ks, IRAs, 529 and other numbers that are important

    Part five: Outside income opportunities

  • The World Doesn’t Change Itself

    change-depends-on-you

    This weekend the family hosted my friend Andrew Marin. I suppose most people know Andy as a controversial speaker and author who is trying to help the church build bridges with the gay community. I know Andy more as a friend. We met last summer in preparing for National Youth Workers Convention where he was a general session speaker. In exchanging some Facebook messages  for a guest post I knew Andy was the real deal. There was something about him I instantly liked. Humble, yet bold. Courageous, with a healthy measure of fear. I could tell he had been biten by a few sheep as well. Then when we met in Sacramento he joined Cathy and I for a trio of fun that carried us all through the convention season.

    The point of this post isn’t my friendship with Andy.

    The point of this post isn’t that sheep bite.

    This post is about you and I bringing change to the world.

    The reason for change goes back to two core things which shape the world. First is the fall of man, which leads man towards a life in pursuit of sin, expressing enmity towards God and entropy in all systems of people. (Governments, local organizations, Christian organizations, etc.) Second is the redemption of mankind through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t come to the world merely to provide a way to salvation and for us to patiently wait for the world to go to pot until His return. [Honestly, this is the view of the Evangelical church in the last 30 years.]

    No! The Gospel cannot be limited to a singular, man-focused individualistic message! He came, first and foremost to be the Savior of mankind… but He also charged the church to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and the rest of the earth. He set us up to be agents of His. As Ephesians 2 points out… we (both individually as believers and as the church) were called by Him to do good works. We are meant to effect change. Our role as believers to to make life better. Our job in a life with Jesus is to change the world and make it a better place for others. Our desire must always be to fight systemic entropy. Our focus as belivers must be to continually force Jesus’ redemption into systems of church, government, charity, and friendship.

    The world will not right itself. The world will never wake up by itself and say… “You know what, we should stop this injustice. We should stop oppressing people. We should stop trapping them into slavery. We should stop corruption. We should stop stealing.”

    The world needs us to be agents of change. The world needs people who are absolutely driven, like Andy Marin. He is brave enough to look eye-to-eye with the most powerful men and women in Evangelicalism and say, “How you treat gay people is wrong. Let me help your church apply some principles that build bridges instead of walls.”

    One of my favorite songs right now is John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change.” I listen to it every Monday morning on my walk to work. It fires me up, it reminds me that I am not meant to wait for the world to change. I am meant to change the world. If you know Jesus as your Savior, you are meant to lean into the insane call of changing the world.

    Me and all my friends
    We’re all misunderstood
    They say we stand for nothing and
    There’s no way we ever could

    Now we see everything that’s going wrong
    With the world and those who lead it
    We just feel like we don’t have the means
    To rise above and beat it

    So we keep waiting
    Waiting on the world to change
    We keep on waiting
    Waiting on the world to change

    What are you waiting for?

  • Tom Sine on Movements in Church Planting

  • Rethink Church

    HT to Sara who left this as a comment for the post, Church of the world and not of the church. I think Mr. Wesley would be proud.

  • Church of the world and not of the church

    I’ve begun to wonder what church would look like if Sunday morning worship stopped being the central focus of the church’s ministry.

    – What if Sunday morning were a celebration of community and a rallying together of community groups?

    – What if we came together purely for communion, prayers, and a simple message pushing us back to community groups for discussion and implentation?

    – What if instead of investing the time it takes to put on a worship service the church staff served the community and offered leftovers on Sunday morning?

    – What if the program of the church were just serving the community?

    – What if discipleship were of “while going” activity as Matthew 28 suggests?

    – What is going to the church were seen as a negative in light of being the church?

    – What if churches intentionally sold their properties and chose to meet in the public arena?

    – What if each community gathering became a place to serve the poor a meal?

    – What if community groups pooled their resources and invested in their own projects?

    Why not these things? Probably because in America we don’t do this things. In America we do much the opposite. A successful church in the eyes of the American evangelical church has a big building with a big worship service attended by thousands of people. It flashes wealth on its stage. People come to be seen. People come to be awed. People take pictures. The Sunday morning worship service takes the most talented people in the community and locks their time into serving the worship service… a one hour event!

    The common church lives to serve itself with nominal efforts to reach the community where the building happens to be. In essense, a “successful congregation” lives as a barnacle on its community. It pays no taxes but receives millions of dollars in income. It says it exists for the community where it resides while importing most of its staff and spending most of its resources on things that don’t actually benefit the community. Traditionally, the successful evangelical church demands access to the communities resources when they desire, but the opposite courtesy is not offered back. It often houses the best facilities in town… but acts like a country club by limiting their access to members only. The chamber of commerce can’t meet there. Local charities cannot have their events there. The school cannot use their gym or have a tutoring program there. How about housing a community development organization? Yeah, right… not in our church… we have worship team practice. Simply put, the public is not welcome at most churches.

    I don’t really think Jesus intended for the church to become a barnacle on its community. I believe he desired for his church to be the bedrock of the community. I long to see my own church give more and more to the community it serves. More importantly, I long to see churches everywhere lean into practically meeting the needs of their community.

    Success for each congregation should be defined in context. Enough with the copycat compromise.

  • Leading to the edges

    ruler-edgeEntrepreneurs get this. Start-up businesses get this. New franchises get this. Church planters get this. But no one in an older business, church, franchise, or industry can comprehend this.

    You have grown your audience as much within what you are doing today as you will ever grow it. You primary demographic already knows about you and has decided whether to be a customer or not. They have decided whether to become a student in your college or not. They have decided whether or not your to attend your church.

    People largely make decisions on your project, widget, consumable, or institution in an instant. Five seconds or less. (Test it yourself, watch TV commercials. How soon until you decide if you are buying that product? I thought so.) Spending more money to advertise the same thing over and over again is just a waste of money. This is why Super Bowl commercials can be deal makers or deal breakers for companies you’ve never heard of.

    This is why marketers dump millions of dollars onto the airwaves and see little return on their investment. This is why church marketing sucks. Once you can identify who your audience is… your best possibility for growth then shifts to customer service and care. Can I keep the customers I have? Can I provide them such an amazing service that they tell their friends that they have to go there, be there, or be your customer?

    Growth comes as you lead your organization towards the edges. When you help your church or college find a new demographic, there is growth. When you design a new product that changes the game for an old industry, there is growth. When you serve a need that everyone wants but no one offers, there is growth.

    What’s the first step in determining how to find my edge?

    Spend time and discover where you are failing. Spend time finding out where everyone in your industry fails. Spend time finding out what churches in your area aren’t doing.

    Hint: Studying successful companies, institutions, churches, or whatever will only lead you away from growth and into their market. Learn from their best practices, for sure, but don’t study them to copy them. Their edge won’t ever be your edge.

  • Some advice for a newbie

    This morning I got a Facebook message from a brand new youth pastor. 2.5 weeks on the job, he asks “What advice can you give me?” Here’s my response:

    I just hope you’ve got “My First 2 years in YM.” Seriously, that’ll save your tosh.

    Some advice for the newbie.

    Just focus on what’s most important and try to limit the rest. (Build relationships with kids, avoid meetings) Don’t be an office rat. Buy lots and lots of kids cokes and ice cream.

    Wear a cup when you play paintball. Talk the church into a once per year permission slip. Make friends with the janitor. Tell the pastor you like his sermons.

    Find out what you suck at and find a volunteer to do that for you. Get to know the parents. Order one large pizza for every 5 kids. Only do fundraisers that return 100% profit or more.

    Keep your hobbies. Don’t try to dress like your students. Always say yes when an elder asks you to go to lunch. Use all of your vacation time. You love all types of music.

    Get a Netflix account. Create a 12 month teaching cycle to impress your boss with. Always make eye contact. Make an appointment with the high school principal and repeat after me, “I have 4-5 hours per week to volunteer, how can I serve the school?” Ask kids about their walk with Jesus. Let all your calls after 5 PM go to voice mail.

    Just focus on what’s most important and try to limit the rest.

    Adam

  • Update on the Dare

    the_double_dog_dare-artSix weeks ago I threw down the gauntlet and challenged pastors to get out of their offices and meet the people that go to their church, on their turf. My post, A Dare for Pastors, has been read, shared, linked to, commented on, and forwarded a few thousand times.

    Here are a few of my favorite responses:

    1. A senior pastor who commented on Monday Morning Insight that I was insulting the role of his sermon by saying he should either wing it or let Craig Groschell preach by video. Take this as someone who sits in the pews and occasionally preaches, actions speak louder than words. I guarantee you that your message that week, with little to no prep time, will be more memorable than 90% of sermons you preach the rest of the year. That week every person in the church will know that you lived out the Gospel more than you shared the Gospel. I’ll further the insult by the way. If your pastor claims to spend 20+ hours on a 30 minute sermon each week, he/she clearly not using time wisely. 6 years of education, years of experience, and a 30 minute message takes all week? My message prep takes no more than 5 hours. 8 hours if I have to do some hardcore research. You know we have the internet, right? 20 hours of prep time! Does that involve 2 rounds of golf?

    2. A good friend of mine who speaks around the country emailed me and asked if he could steal my idea and challenge church leaders to take the dare. I think that’s an awesome idea. The more church leaders who meet their people in their context, the better ministries will be as a result.

    3. Several pastors have emailed me to tell me that they are taking the dare. I know of two churches who will shut their doors to staff and force them to spend 5 half days with the people in their workplaces. I can’t wait to hear the results! The dare is still open. Need help pulling it off? Let me know.

    I can’t wait to update more on this dare later in the summer.

  • Deal with the rubble

  • The greatest small group night ever

    ob_small-group1I’ve done small groups in one form or another most of the last 15 years. I’ve been in high school, college, and adult small groups. I’ve lead middle school, high school, college, and adult small groups. I’ve always wanted a small group that gelled and did awesome things… and I could never make it happen as a leader. Just when I had nearly given up on small groups, along came Harbor and my stupid insane idea to say “yes” to hosting this group after visiting a church one time.

    It’s been about 8 months and I can’t imagine a better community group to be a part of. I’m growing. We’re growing. And I think we’re making an impact on the people around us. Moreover, I can’t think of a better church to be a part of in this season of my life. That may sound like hype… but you need to understand what happened tonight to see why I dig Harbor so much.

    Last week we decided that it would be fun to meet at Ocean Beach for a bonfire. For those who read this outside of San Diego all you need to know if that OB is kind of a leftover surfer area full of artists, hippies, beach bums, and those who can afford to live down there who probably secretly wish they were one too. The beach has these fire pits that are open to the public, just bring wood and claim one and you’re good to go.

    ob_small-group2So our group met at 6:30. In typical form everyone brought something. Wood, hotdogs, a cooler full of water, etc. We got our fire going and started to enjoy an awesome sunset laughing and catching up. Then Keith showed up. Keith is a homeless guy who asked if he could sit by the fire. Soon enough another person from our group struck up a conversation like he’d known Keith since grade school. Hotdogs eaten, water drunk, more sunset enjoyed. Pretty soon Keith asked us why we were hanging out at the beach. He didn’t really wince too much when we told him we were a small group from a church. “So, what do you guys talk about?” That’s when Richard pretty much told Keith the entire sermon from the day before. He read all of the Scriptures and then retold him all of the illustrations and all of us agreed… we were pretty much hypocrites and we were construction zones… we all settled on Stephen’s description of “holy mess.” Yeah, that pretty much explains me too.

    Just when we were all settled into a nice quiet moment another person shows up. This sort of thing happens in OB all the time. (This kind of thing happens to our community group all the time as well.) 10 people having a good time on the beach naturally draws others looking for a good time. So a guy walks up with a couple of his friends. “Hey, would you guys mind if I practiced my fire twirling?” Um… no!

    So here we are. A hodgepodge group, a holy mess, huddled around a fire enjoying s’mores, the perfect sunset, waves traveling thousands of miles across the open ocean and crashing on the shore 50 feet in front of us, and a guy with a boom box twirling fire. “This is the best night ever,” Amy says. She’s right. We all exchange high fives. He does his performance while we all look on. His friends are not sitting with us but are cheering him on. After a couple of routines our entertainer comes over to us and says, “You are in for a treat… a lot more people are coming.”

    ob_small-group3Within 15 minutes ten more fire twirlers show up. Each of them has a few of their friends. 20 or so of us huddle around the fire while people with flaming sticks, fireballs, and numbchucks wait their turn to show off their skills. More hotdogs eaten by anyone hungry. More s’mores by those who needed a sugar fix. And our hodgepodge small group, the holy mess, is completely surrounded by awesomeness. We’re all grinning ear to ear.

    Fire twirlers, hippies, girlfriends, and us. I post a couple of pictures and tweets onto Twitter… and my co-worker Mandy and her husband who live in OB come walking over. How could they resist, right? That’s when it hits me: This is the best small group night ever in the history of human existence!

    You can’t put small group mojo in a bottle. You can’t buy community at a conference. All of the training in the world couldn’t put this magic in a bottle and sell it. We’ve got the real deal in our community group and all we can do is enjoy it.

    As Kristen and I pulled out of the parking lot we roared with laughter. We knew full well that in most ministry contexts, including the ones we’ve served in, tonight would be viewed as an utter and complete failure. “What do you mean you had a bonfire? What do you mean you just talked to a homeless man all night? What do you mean you watched people twirl fire? I heard there were people their smoking drugs, is that true?” I’m glad to be a part of a church looks at tonight and screams SUCCESS instead of hides in shame, calling an elder meeting to discuss how to break those people up.

    As I drove home it hit me. The magic of our small group isn’t about an agenda. Don’t get me wrong, our leaders try to keep us moving forward. It’s never been about pounding out curriculum. It’s not about the hottest small group resource or DVD series. All of those things are great and I’m happy to have them. But when a small group hits the stratophere like ours has lately… all of those things just seem irrelevant. We get together. Not as a holy huddle but as a holy mess. We invite others in. It’s infectious. We need each other and we all secretly live for Monday nights. For me, this group is a magnet. Who wouldn’t want to be in a group that dyes Easter eggs one week and hosts Burning Man the next?