The Columbia Partnership

The Five Critical Steps of Communicating Vision: Step Three

A Travel Free Learning Article

By Howard at BHoward@TheColumbiaPartnership.org. [Contact Bill for information on all five steps.]

Have you wondered how successful pastors get their people to follow? Have you ever wanted to share a vision, but feared it would get voted down by your congregation?

Successful vision casting is a skill every leader needs to learn. Read on to learn step three of the five critical steps of communicating a vision that will get a YES! from your congregation or ministry organization.

Remember, a minister who has properly communicated vision should go into a church decision process with a 95 percent certainty of how the vote will turn out. If there is a strong chance the vote may turn out negatively, that vote should never be taken. As a leader, you must do your homework. You should know long before any voting process what the Lord is saying to your church and what your people will likely do as a result.

Here’s how the process works.

Step One: State Clearly to Your People How You Received the Vision

Step Two: Cast the Vision to the Loving 3 (from 3 to 6 people)

Step Three: Go to the Respected 12 (The Loving 3 are included in this group)

This is a group of 12 people, plus spouses, who:

• · Support your ministry.
• · You respect their walk with Christ.
• · You know they have the best interest of the church at heart.

Initial Meeting:

• Invite them to your home.
• Tell them you chose them because you love and trust each one of them, and you know they love you, the church, and the Lord.
• Tell them you are asking them to help you determine God’s will for your church.
• Share the vision with them step-by-step.
• Assure them that you are seeking only God’s will.
• Tell them that you trust their walk with the Lord. “I believe the Lord speaks to you as well as to me. And, if He’s telling me this, I believe He will tell you as well.”
• What are your initial thoughts?

Action Steps:

• · Ask: “Will you pray over this for 14 days and meet back together to share what you’ve heard from the Lord?”
• · Give them the date of next meeting.

Follow Up Meeting

• When you meet back together, remember, you are looking for what God is saying, not how will it come about? Don’t get sidetracked with how.
• Ask them this one question: “What did you hear from God?”
• Takes clear notes on the responses you get from your Respected 12.

If their feedback is less than positive

• · Do not be defensive. Remember, these are people you asked the Lord to lead you to. Trust the work of the Holy Spirit in their life.
• · Would minor changes in the vision help the group come to consensus?
• · Discuss together what a total church vision would look like. By total church vision, I mean “what does the vision look like with all of our input?”
• · Clearly there will be some parts of the vision that are non-negotiables to you. For these things the Lord has put on your heart, you should speak honestly, clearly and boldly on these things. Yet always keep in mind the next point.
• · A wise leader will communicate a broad vision and allow the members to fill in many of the details.

If you cannot incorporate the changes they have suggested, or you don’t have the support of the Trusted 12, go back to the Lord and wait until clarity comes.

Either:

• · The Lord has put them there to protect you.
• · Satan has put them there to block you.

Either way, you cannot move forward in unity without your Trusted 12. If you force your way forward, you will see certain conflict, hurt, and suffering for all.

If their feedback is positive

1. Thank them for their support and love for the church.
2. Ask for their continued prayers and support.
3. Share with them your next step and ask them to attend

[Step Four is going to the Elected Leaders of the church. I’ll talk about that in my next article.]

Note: To request a copy of the entire manuscript, including all five steps, contact Bill Howard at bhoward@thecolumbiapartnership.org. At The Columbia Partnership we are committed to your success.

If you would like a personal coach to walk with you through the vision casting process,

contact Bill Howard at bhoward@thecolumbiapartnership.org.

Important Things to Know

Bill Howard is a Ministry Partner with The Columbia Partnership. He is also Lead Pastor with Willow Ridge Church in Lexington, SC. He is the Capital Campaign Coordinator for The Columbia Partnership and would be glad to talk with any congregations, denomination, or parachurch organization considering a campaign.

The Columbia Partnership is a non-profit Christian ministry organization focused on transforming the capacity of the North American Church to pursue and sustain Christ-centered ministry. Travel Free Learning is a leadership development emphasis of The Columbia Partnership. For more information about products and services check out the web site at www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org, send an e-mail to Client.Care@TheColumbiaPartnership.org, or call 803.622.0923.

Church and Clergy Coach

Accomplishing More with Less

A Travel Free Learning Article

By Eddie Hammett at EHammett@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

In tough economic times, not to mention tough leadership times, effective leaders are essential to keeping the church, judicatory, or denomination moving forward. I have been exploring, and experimenting for some time with the role of a Coach in Residence. What I’m discovering is that the coach approach often allows tasks to be accomplished or projects to be moved forward through the short-term, focused services of a Christian leadership coach working with an on-site leadership team.

I’m currently working, as part of my ministry through The Columbia Partnership, as a Church and Clergy Coach for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of NC. We are discovering more can be accomplished with less full-time staff, revenue, time and energy. Permit me to share a framework we are currently working with for the next year.

Effective churches for a 21^st century world are those who pay attention to the context, streamline their organization to maximize their energy, budget and resources, and mobilize their membership inside and outside the walls of their church building. These are not unknown challenges for many churches. The unknown seems to be how to move from where or who we are without losing our identity and integrity. How do churches move into the challenges confronting them to reach a new generation?

These are the issues a coach loves to work with when the leaders and congregation are open to the Holy Spirit and exploration. The skills of a Christian leadership coach are a keen synthesis of deep listening on multiple levels, posing powerful and well-timed coaching questions, keeping a focus and alignment with the mission unique to the leader or group being coached, and moving them to find and take the next steps in forward movement. Coaching is not just about talking. In fact, we often say “you haven’t really coached until there is action”.

As a church and clergy coach I have the distinct privilege of watching the Holy Spirit move in people’s lives in some very powerful ways. What fun! I also have the honor of walking with leaders and congregations who choose to face the unknown with faith, their fears with courage, and their challenges with intentionality. Walking with persons into these and other steep learning curves, within a confidential coaching relationship, has proven to bear abundant fruit more quickly than any skill set I have ever been taught.

Being coachable and determining coachability is key and essential for a meaningful coaching relationship to bear fruit. This is determined by assessing their openness to explore, openness to change, and willingness to discern the movement of the Spirit in their midst rather than just following their personal agendas.

Coaching is about asking powerful questions more than offering advice or counsel. That is left to consultants. Coaching is more about moving forward than unraveling the past. That is for counselors. When that chemistry is present, coaching may just be the most effective toolkit to tap into with a leader, pastor, church or group. Some of the powerful questions I’m working with these days seek to move churches to live out a missional lifestyle and ministry. What might be some powerful coaching questions a coach would use with churches on a missional journey? Consider:

1. What’s working?

2. What’s not working?

3. How does what you do and who you are line up with your divine mission?

4. What’s missing?

5. What adjustments is the Holy Spirit calling you to make now?

6. What is needed to make the needed shifts?

7. Who can help make this happen?

8. How does our God evaluate our effectiveness in today’s mission field?

9. What would please Jesus more?

10. Who is God calling us to be now?

11. How does this differ from who we have been?

12. What kind of leader do I need to be to make this happen in the next 6 months? 1 year?

13. How would we define success for our church?

14. How successful are we being in light of this definition?

15. What is needed now?

These are just 15 of the powerful coaching questions a missional leader or church might wrestle with in these days. Which three of these questions most resonate with you? What’s that about? How will you discover the answer? A more thorough overview of the coach approach can be found in my new book Making Shifts Without Making Waves: A Coach Approach to Soulful Leadership. This book is available at TCP Resources Store.

Important Things to Know

Eddie Hammett is a Ministry Partner with The Columbia Partnership. He is a certified coach with the International Coach Federation. He is also Church and Clergy Coach with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. Recent books of which he is the author or co-author are Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60, Spiritual Leadership in a Secular Age, and Making Shifts Without Making Waves. He is available for speaking and coaching with leaders, congregations, denominations, and parachurch organizations.

The Columbia Partnership is a non-profit Christian ministry organization focused on transforming the capacity of the North American Church to pursue and sustain Christ-centered ministry. Travel Free Learning is a leadership development emphasis of The Columbia Partnership. For more information about products and services check out the web site at www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org, send an e-mail to Client.Care@TheColumbiaPartnership.org, or call 803.622.0923.

The Five Critical Steps of Communicating Vision: Step Two

A Travel Free Learning Article

By Bill Howard

Have you wondered how successful pastors get their people to follow a vision? Have you ever wanted to share a vision, but feared it would get voted down by your congregation?

Successful vision casting is a skill every leader needs to learn. Read on to learn step two of the five critical steps of communicating a vision that will get a YES! from your congregation or ministry organization.

Last month I shared with you

· Two critical mistakes pastors make while communicating vision

· One critical core belief you must answer about receiving vision

· The three parts of a vision with a future

A minister who has properly communicated vision should go into a church decision process with a 95 percent certainty of how the vote will turn out. If there is a strong chance the vote may turn out negatively, that vote should never be taken.

As a leader, you must do your homework. You should know long before any voting process what the Lord is saying to your church and what your people are going to do as a result.

Here’s how the process works.

Step One: State Clearly to Your People How You Received the Vision

Step Two: Cast the Vision to the Loving Three (from 3 to 6 people)

Four requirements for the Loving Three:

• You know they love God.
• You know they love the church.
• You know they love you.
• You know that they will be honest with you.

This is vision testing on training wheels. If you cannot get the approval and support of the vision from the people who love you the most, your vision cannot succeed.

Initial Meeting:

• Invite them all to your home.
• Tell them you chose them because you love and trust each one of them, and you know they love you, the church and the Lord.
• Tell them you are asking them to help you determine God’s will for your church.
• Step-by-step share the vision God gave you.
• Assure them you are seeking only God’s will.
• If you believe it, say these words, “I believe the Lord speaks to you, just like he speaks to me. And if He’s telling me this, I believe He will tell you as well.”
• Ask “What are your initial thoughts?”

Action Step:

· Ask them if they pray for 14 days and meet back together on a certain date to share what they’ve heard from the Lord?

At a Follow-Up Meeting, Ask them, “What did you hear from God?”

· Remember, when you ask someone’s opinion, it is essential that you listen without interruption; no debate, no disagreement, no correction.

· Take good notes on what is said.

· During this time, questions concerning the “how” of the vision may come up. Remember, the goal is to discover the vision, not to plan how the vision will be fulfilled. All the “how's” will need to be discussed at a later time. Now is the time for discerning vision.

If their feedback is less than positive,

· Remember, these people love you, the Lord, and the church. Determine if they disagree with the vision as a whole, or only parts of it.

· Find out what changes they would make.

· Assure them you will pray over their suggestions and get back with them.

· Pray over what they have said. Ask God to give you an open spirit and mind.

Do your best to incorporate their ideas and suggestions into the vision. If you can you are ready to go on to the next step. If you cannot and you do not have the support of the three people who love you the most, go back to the Lord and wait until clarity comes. You cannot move forward without your Loving Three. The Lord has put them there to assist you and protect you. Value the Lord’s leadership in their life.

If their feedback is positive,

· Thank them for their support and love for the church.

· Ask for their continued prayers and support.

· Share with them Step #3 and ask them to attend

Note: To request a copy of the entire manuscript, including all five steps, contact Bill Howard at bhoward@thecolumbiapartnership.org. At The Columbia Partnership we are committed to your success.

If you would like a personal coach to walk with you through the vision casting process,

contact Bill Howard at bhoward@thecolumbiapartnership.org.

Important Things to Know

Bill Howard is a Ministry Partner with The Columbia Partnership. He is also Lead Pastor with Willow Ridge Church in Lexington, SC. He is the Capital Campaign Coordinator for The Columbia Partnership and would be glad to talk with any congregations, denomination, or parachurch organization considering a campaign.

The Columbia Partnership is a non-profit Christian ministry organization focused on transforming the capacity of the North American Church to pursue and sustain Christ-centered ministry. Travel Free Learning is a leadership development emphasis of The Columbia Partnership. For more information about products and services check out the web site at www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org, send an e-mail to Client.Care@TheColumbiaPartnership.org, or call 803.622.0923.

The Evolving Face of Networks | Technology | The Guardian

via guardian.co.uk

We are just beginning to learn from social networking processes. A lot more can be learned and will be learned. I am working on a project now concerning the implications of this for congregations.

The Columbia Partnership Recommends Constant Contact for Email Marketing and Online Surveys

Email Marketing |Online Surveys

Congregational Funding Streams: A Baker’s Dozen

By George Bullard at GBullard@TheColumbiaPartnership.org

One congregational solution in uncertain economic times is to embrace multiple funding streams. It is way past time to innovate in this area. Some congregations have. Many have not. Here is a baker’s dozen list of possible funding streams that include the typical and traditional ones, and also suggest a wider range of possibilities. What would you add to or strengthen in this list?

Stream One—Tithes and Offerings: The basic foundational funding stream for congregations is their tithes and offerings from members and regular attendees. Tithing as a basic commitment of Christians should continue to be taught in innovative ways that connects all generations with this core concept.

Stream Two—Special Designated Offerings: Increasingly people want to see that their funds are supporting causes around which they have great passion. Therefore, a limited number of carefully selected special designated offerings should be part of the annual funding plan of congregations.

Stream Three—Capital Fundraising Campaigns: Traditional and innovative approaches to capital fundraising campaigns is an appropriate strategy when a significant amount of money is needed for facilities or major program or missional efforts. It continues to work well in numerous congregations.

Stream Four—Fees for Events and Services: Congregations should divide what they do into basic services and premium services. Basic services should be free, and premium services should have a cost. A third category is that some events and services, like meals at congregational events, should be cost recovery.

Stream Five—Product Sales: Congregations have products they do or can sale or resale. They need to look for more possibilities, and for persons outside the congregation to whom they can sell various products. Congregations should use a store on their web site and other digital venues to increase their sales.

Stream Six—Fundraisers: Various fundraisers for special projects of the congregation are very appropriate. Certainly fundraisers by youth groups are a staple in many congregations. Such fundraisers can be cause-focused where the proceeds are going for a missional endeavor of some type.

Stream Seven—Financial Development Efforts: Many people are open to providing gifts over and above their tithes, offerings, and special designated offerings either through current or deferred giving. Congregations should include an approach that focuses on bequests, trusts, deferred gifts, and investment vehicles.

Stream Eight—Investments: Congregations are discovering a new benefit in investment income. While the investment climate may not always be great, a long-term commitment to an investment of even one percent of the gross income of a congregation makes an amazing difference in the funding base over the long-term.

Stream Nine—Grants From Foundations, Businesses, and Other Entities: A number of foundations are funding Christian organizations. They are becoming an important source of seed money for human needs, leadership development, staff sabbatical, and congregational redevelopment projects.

Stream Ten—Networks, Strategic Alliances, and Partnerships: Networks, strategic alliances, and partnerships with non-profits, government, and businesses may result in discounted or in-kind resources and services from organizations with products and services that can benefit congregations.

Stream Eleven—Sale of Lease of Assets: The sale or lease of assets can provide funding. What assets, and how the funds are used, should be carefully thought through. For example, generally it is better to sale appreciating assets that are also renewable in that the core asset remaining may continue to increase in value.

Steam Twelve—Income From Non-Members Benefiting from Events, Products, Services: When a premium event, product, or service is marketed to non-members, it can have an appeal that will more than pay for the cost of writing, production, marketing, and fulfillment. An example is a seasonal music event.

Stream Thirteen—Rental Income: The facilities of congregations may be the source of rental income. Other congregations, compatible Christian ministries needing office space, and ancillary services such as a day care program are all reasonable sources of rental income.

What are other funding streams you would suggest? What are additional thoughts on some of these streams you would share? For how many of these streams does you congregation already have a proactive strategy?

Becoming a Missional Congregation

What does it take to become a missional congregation? Not to co-opt the name and claim that is who you are, but to truly become a missional congregation. As a popular name or designation in many places, missional as a concept is being watered down.

First, let’s start with a definition. Another one won’t hurt, and it will also define the frame of these musings.

A missional congregation is one who, out of their worship of the triune God and their passion around fulfilling the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment, seeks to make the world more loving and just through actions focused on spiritually transforming the lives of their neighbors and modeling the gathering of these neighbors into healthy mission outposts called congregations for the scattering of these same neighbors through their own missional efforts. [Wow! That’s a mouthful. Let’s try a short version.]

A missional congregation seeks to make the world more loving and just through spiritually transforming the lives of neighbors.

Neighbors are defined here in a full global and local context. It is not a geographical neighbor but a theological neighbor. It is not neighbors to be attracted, but neighbors with whom we can represent the incarnational presence of the triune God.

Missional congregations, while deeply caring for the needs of one another in its own congregation, are focused externally and seek to mobilize their congregations to be received, accepted, caught, embraced, and trusted by their neighbors. Missional congregations do not send missionaries and volunteers into their immediate or world context. Rather they invite people to be received by the neighbors for whom God has given them great passion.

Since many congregations claim the term missional for what they do, let’s break down the concept into three different types. First, push missional congregations are seeking to increase disciplemaking processes in their congregation to prepare people to go out into the mission field and express their gifts and passions to neighbors. [I suspect this is the approach taken by 80 percent of congregations claiming to be missional. That is just a hunch. I have no research to support it.]

Second, pull missional congregations are seeking to understand the neighbors to which they perceive God has called them, and then equip disciples within their congregation with the skills needed to be received by those neighbors.

Third, leap missional congregations are seeking to connect with emerging cultures that often cannot be geographically defined, and for whom there are few if any people fully prepared to reach these cutting edge target groups composed of neighbors who may feel disenfranchised by God and the Church, or may have a clear awareness of neither.

Push is primarily boxed. Pull is moving beyond the box. Leap is outside the box and has declared it irrelevant. If your congregation is seeking to become missional, it must at least be pull in its focus. Anything less is not yet missional.

What are your thoughts? What is the next thing you need to know about becoming a missional congregation?

TCP Knowledge Sharing Articles Begin Next Week

Columbia Partnership is beginning a new series of articles next week by Ministry Partners and Ministry Associates focused around the themes of congregational transformation, denominational transformation, leadership development, and resource development.

Each week an article addressing one of these themes will be posted on this newsletter and the Columbia Partnership web site at www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org. For the first several months six of the Ministry Partners will be providing these articles.

This is part of the commitment of Columbia Partnership to engage in knowledge sharing. Among other avenues are the TCP Leadership Series books with Chalice Press, webinars, and teleconferences. In addition, several Ministry Partners are available for live seminars at your site.

The first week George Bullard will share an article entitled Becoming a Missional Congregation. He will be followed the next week by Eddie Hammett with an article entitled. In Troubled Times Congregations Have Opportunities.

In subsequent weeks Dick Hamm, Bill Howard, Ken Kessler, and Norman Jameson will share articles on one of themes.

Questions about Congregational Transformation and Change

This week two teleconference dialogues are being conducted by Columbia Partnership. One is on congregational transformation and the other is on change. For each of these dialogues, registered participants are invited to submit questions ahead of time for the presenter to consider. George Bullard is presenting on congregational transformation and John Britt, co-author with Ken Blanchard of Who Killed Change? is presenting on change.

[Register for these dialogues by clicking on the following links: http://bullarddialoguejuly14.eventbrite.com and http://johnbrittdialoguejuly15.eventbrite.com]

So, what questions are they asking?

Congregational Transformation

What question would you like to ask about congregational transformation?

• How do you sustain passion for the journey in the 'flat' times?
• What is the most important element to have in a congregation in order for it to be ripe for transformation?
• How can those of us who are functioning in the role of "coach" to congregations in transformation receive appropriate and affordable coach training that will enable us to be more proficient in our work with congregations?
• What advice do you have when there is one individual who seems to singlehandedly derail things and send people away? 
• How important is spiritual practices in the transformation process? 
• What measurements are helpful to use to assess a church's progress? 
• How do you begin attracting a younger crowd after decades of neglect (other than the children of congregation's members)? 

What are the most significant issues you are facing in congregational transformation? What has worked for you? What has not worked for you?

• Riding the wave of huge increases in giving, we expanded our staff for growth, and now finding ourselves having to tighten the belt financially.
• How can we move to a deeper spiritual place without overly threatening the establishment? 
• Competition with full service churches. Giving money to the congregation has not helped. Having a fearless leader has worked.
• How to sustain a church's transformation once the process it's using has ended and the coach/consultant is gone. 

Change

What are your questions about change and how organizations undermine it?

• How do you help people move "outside the box" from the ways they have always done things --- while they think they are ready for change?
• I am particularly interested in how Vision kills change
• Creating Urgency, sustaining that sense of urgency, learning to be patient!!! 
• How can I lead change without loosing the cong completely?
• Best practices when making changes 
• Why are we prone to repeating our predictable patterns with predictable results and yet when change is required we balk? 

What are the most significant issues you are facing in your congregation regarding change? What has worked for you? What has not worked for you?

• People are exhausted by the process of a necessary change due to sluggish outcomes and budget. How do I help them move beyond what was and see the possibilities that lie ahead when the change has been a forced change --- not one that they chose to have happen? 
• To help them sense the urgency of it. 
• Resistance by one powerful individual. 
• This cong was declining and near death when I arrived. While there as been growth in the last year there is still so much that needs to be done. How do I lead the continuing changes that need to be made?
• Moving toward turning the leadership reins over to the next generation .
• We are finding it hard to connect with any young person who did not grow up in our congregation. I have been part of using new worship to relaunch a church, but my present congregation launched a new service with no strategy to reach anybody before I arrived (and found nobody). How do you fix a busted up effort? 

What are your questions about congregational transformation or change? To respond post a comment or send an e-mail to seminars@thecolumbiapartnership.org.

Being Missional in Your Church Context Means . . .

. . . connecting, listening, building relationships, and ministering authentically in the midst of these relationships.

Last week in Houston five people connected with The Columbia Partnership participated in a panel discussion, with an audience of around 60 people, on Being Missional in Your Church Context: Meeting the Real Needs of Your Neighbors. The focus was around poverty, affluence, contextual ministry, and evangelism in the borderlands of society.

Among the more significant perspectives presented related to preparing to be missional. Congregations need to be aggressive in downsizing their management and program structures to provide greater opportunities for laity to focus on the context around them. The more time, finances, and focus placed on management and programs, the less time, energy, and desire congregations have to connect with their context through in-depth ministry relationships.

Ministry Partner, Dick Hamm, even suggested that fewer people over the age of 60 are interested in contextual ministry because of their desire to keep the inside or home base strong and focused on meeting their needs. At the same time some of the most passionate people about being missional are also over 60. It is just a smaller percentage of people than those under 40 years of age.

It was Gary Nelson, General Secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries, who suggested that the first thing a congregation ought to do to meet the real needs of its neighbors is to listen to them. When connecting with the context, do not be in a telling mode. Adopt a listening posture. The people in your context have a lot to suggest about their life needs, hurts, and hopes that provide entry points for ministry.

In affirming this point, panel moderator George Bullard suggested that doing to a context that which the church wants to do to them is “push missional” if it is missional at all. Responding to the real needs of real people in real time in the context is ‘pull missional” and begins to reflect the character and nature of people missional.

The distance between some congregations and their context is so great that at times an approach known as “leap missional” is necessary to cross over multiple cultural barriers. “Leap missional” efforts will often not result in people with whom the congregation connects ever feeling comfortable in the existing congregation. A new congregation may need to be planted in the context.

Panelist Ken Kessler, president of The Columbia Partnership, was one of several who suggested congregations may need to rethink Sundays, and commission some missional people to be actively involved in ministry on Sundays rather than attending church programs. PreChristians, unchurched and dechurched persons must be encountered during their own personal “down time” which is often on Sundays and likely out in the context rather than in church.

One of the best launch events for congregation is one know as Operation Inasmuch. David Crocker is executive director of the organization that advocates, and provides materials and training for congregations who desire to engage in one day servant ministry projects in their context that often address the needs of both people in poverty and people of affluence.

Being missional includes a focus on the “e” word—evangelism. Deep authentic relationships with people in your church context often provide the opportunity to talk to them about a Christ-centered faith journey. Being missional is ultimately about meeting the greatest need of your neighbors which is an eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Finally, telling the story should be a high priority. People who engage their context missionally should be given regular opportunities to share ministry stories with the congregation live during worship services, or through newsletter or web articles. Meaningful stories as a reinforcement of missional activities may inspire others in the congregation to take the risk of ministry in their context.