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The Great Recovery – My Thoughts

July 26, 2011 in Church finance, Church generosity, Church giving, Church leadership, Church planting, Church Stewardship with 0 Comments

I was on vacation last week so I did not get to see The Great Recovery launch event live. I watched it this morning and I am blown away. If you thought you had seen Dave Ramsey on fire before, wait till you see him in this event. If you did not see it live, you can view it here: http://www.thegreatrecovery.com/live.

I love the message of The Great Recovery. As I write this post, the politicians in Washington — all sides — are debating how to solve the budget and debt ceiling issues. I watched only briefly last night because I just cannot listen to any more “blah, blah, blah” political posturing from Republican and Democrat alike without proposing a viable solution. I’m just sick of it — all talk, no real action. Dave Ramsey, on the other hand, is proposing a real, workable solution — The Great Recovery. Restoring the hope of the world as embodied in the church. Living lives based on Biblical values as it relates to our finances. Restoring America one life at a time. Having the courage to face our challenges and work our way out not just wish our way out. Putting our hope in God as our provider, not Washington, DC.

I am really grateful God has raised up a courageous, faithful man like Dave Ramsey to speak up and bring us this message. Count me in. It’s that simple.

I am joining The Great Recovery movement. Join me. You’ll be glad you did!

www.TheGreatRecovery.com

The Indispensable Ingredient

March 30, 2011 in Church generosity, Church leadership, Church planting with 0 Comments

I was in San Diego a couple of weeks ago to attend the Harbor Presbyterian MultiSite 3.0 conference. It is not a big conference, but I was impressed with the depth and breadth of the wisdom and counsel offered to the attendees, most of whom were planters or multisite campus pastors.

My friend, Dick Kaufmann, is the founding pastor of Harbor Presbyterian. He was Executive Pastor of Redeemer Church in New York before leaving for San Diego a little over ten years ago to begin Harbor Presbyterian. Today, they are a thriving multi-site church reaching San Diego for the Kingdom in a meaningful way. Dick is one of those guys who doesn’t say much, but when he does, you probably ought to pay attention.

The last session of the two days was an open forum Q & A. It seemed to me that a proverbial tsunami of information had been shared, so I asked the question — “Among everything that has been shared, are there any 1 or 2 factors that rank above everything else in establishing a viable, gospel centered church plant?” Dick was the first one to respond and here is what he said.

“To me, there is one indispensable ingredient. It is the personal holiness of the senior leader. Churches do not fail because of the lack of giftedness, bad preaching, poor location, wrong strategy, though these factors can have an impact. However, if the senior leader is not committed to a lifestyle of gospel-centered personal holiness and that leader has a moral or integrity failure, the collateral damage is huge. So, to me, that is the indispensable ingredient.”

Yep, that’s it. Dick nailed it.

The one indispensable ingredient — personal holiness.

Everything else is a distant second.

Thanks, Dick, for reminding us how important this is.

Talking Multisite with Jim Tomberlin

March 15, 2011 in Church generosity, Church leadership, Church planting with 0 Comments

I had a chance to catch up with my friend, Jim Tomberlin, recently to ask him a few questions. Jim is a leading voice on multi-site churches. He began his multi-site church journey in the mid-1990s when he was the senior pastor of Woodman Valley Chapel. In 2000, he went on to pioneer the multi-site model at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. Since 2005 he has been consulting and coaching churches in developing and implementing multi-campus strategies.

I posed a few questions and here is what Jim had to say.

A lot has changed in a short period of time. I can remember, not too long ago, when multi-site was a new concept. Now, it seems everyone is talking multi-site. What is a common misconception about multi-site?

When people hear multisite, they tend to think megachurch and video sermons. Yes, some multisite churches are also megachurches. However, the reality is that megachurches (weekend attendance of 2,000+) comprise only a third of all multisite churches nationwide and only half of all multisite churches utilize video to deliver their teaching content.

Is it easier for a new church to start out as a multi-site church or an established church to become multi-site?

In the long run, it is definitely easier to start out as a church with a multisite mindset than to transition a church from a mono-site mindset to a multi-site paradigm. The older and larger a church is going multisite, the more difficult it is to move to a multisite paradigm.

What are the challenges of each?

Older and larger churches will tend to be more “mothership-centric” and view multisite campuses as “satellites” that revolve around the hub campus. They function as a church with multisite campuses. Younger and newer churches that start with a multisite mindset tend be more “community-centric” and see themselves as a church of multisite campuses. Both can and do work, but ultimately a church of multisite campuses will have less inter-campus relationship and management challenges. Starbucks and Target stores have a central headquarters, but you don’t get the sense that their local stores are satellites of headquarters.

If I asked you to name the top 2-3 critical success factors for making multi-site work effectively, what would they be?

The three most critical factors of a successful multisite strategy are a compelling reason/vision for multisiting, a high capacity campus pastor leader who bleeds the DNA of the church, and delivering the overall campus experience as good or better than the sending campus. If any of these three are lacking, the multisite strategy will be an uphill climb.

Okay, so what’s the other side — the most common mistakes churches make in trying to become multi-site.

Not having a compelling vision for multisiting, leading out with a follower rather than a leader, launching too close or too far, under-delivering the campus experience, not embracing the paradigm shift from a mono-site to a multi-site paradigm.

I see you have a new ebook. What’s in it and how can I get it?
My free eBook “125 Tips for MultiSite Churches and Those Who Want To Be” is the distillation of my 15 years as a multisite pioneer and church consultant. My multisite journey began for me as a senior pastor of a megachurch in Colorado, got me invited to pioneer the model at Willow Creek Church in Chicago, and propelled me into full-time multisite consulting nationally and internationally. I have been tweeting a daily multisite tip for several years and have compiled these tips into an eBook in an easily accessible topical manner. The eBook also includes helpful articles I have written over the years and features a snapshot profile of ten successful multisite churches. You can read and download it here: http://multisitesolutions.com/125-tips-for-multisite.

Great insights, Jim! Thanks for taking the time.

Organizations Are The Way They Are…

March 8, 2011 in Church finance, Church generosity, Church giving, Church leadership, Church planting, Church Stewardship with 0 Comments

…because of the way they are.

I have seen it any number of times but it really crystallized for me in the last few days. Organizations, including and especially churches, do not end up the way they are by accident. It happens on purpose. The excellent church continually finds ways to do things better and reach more people. Other churches struggle just to maintain whatever they have and some do not even do that. Why does the excellent organization seem to make the right call almost every time and the mediocre entity seem to seldom make the right call?

The people, theology, thinking and systems all contribute to it. If nothing changes, nothing changes. The entity becomes stale and replicates itself over and over. On the other hand, the excellent entity keeps itself fresh and continually reinvents itself to adapt to changing circumstances. Whatever your church or organization is — for better or for worse — will replicate itself internally until there is a significant change of some kind.

You could peg it all on leadership and, to some extent, that would be true. But leadership alone is not the issue. I could show you churches who have had several leaders in recent years and the result of the church is the same. That begs the question of culture. Yes, that is probably an issue, too, in a number of cases. Culture matters more than vision. Bad culture trumps great vision every time. But there is more.

Churches make choices. Remaining the same is a choice for the most part. Challenging the status quo to effect change for the better is a choice, too. For there to be change, something has to change.

Sometimes, the change that is necessary is “major surgery” of some kind. More often, it is something not so major. Perhaps just a change of perspective for the senior leader or a team of leaders. Conferences are good and can provide a spark. Consultants can provide an additional perspective. But real change is more grass roots than that. You have to see it in action to be persuaded it will really work.

There are any number of ways you could do that, but here is one suggestion.  Find a church that is like what you want your church to become — missional, evangelistic, global missions, community outreach, worship and arts. Whatever it is you want to see change in your church, find a church who does that well and go spend time with them. Better yet, if they are local, arrange to swap places with the senior leader for a couple of days. In other words, you go see what makes their church tick and vice versa. Then sit with each other and share your observations. You’d be surprised how illuminating this can be.

Change does not happen all of a sudden. It takes time. But the decision to change can happen right now. For Christ’s sake, if your church is stuck, find a way to get unstuck. You don’t have to be the way you are. You can effect change.

Organizations are the way they are — because of the way they are.

Fund Your New Church: 6 Questions For Church Planters

April 19, 2010 in Church finance, Church generosity, Church giving, Church planting, Church Stewardship with 0 Comments

As we head to Exponential 2010 this week, I asked Brad Leeper of our GENERIS team to help me take on 6 key questions for church planters as they look to fund their new church plant. Here is our dialogue.

1.    How much money could we possibly need to simply launch a church?

Brad: Depends upon how much leadership want to align the launch with the mission. Financial resources must align with the vision in the context of the community. Otherwise, you as a leader are creating a very steep climb for yourself to most likely not break the 200 barrier.

Jim: Launching a church is more expensive than you think. Raising the initial funding entails a lot more than just the initial gatherings. There are salaries to pay and expenses for weekly services. Many church plants grow quickly and the growth puts a lot of pressure on the church to keep up. It is best to have an upfront strategy that raises not only the launch funding, but also some measure of support over the first 1-2 years.

2.    Are there outside sources besides friends and family to support my church plant?

Jim: Yes. Many church planters find financial support from people other than friends and family. You have to be intentional about finding these people. They probably won’t just land in your lap.

Brad: Financial resources are available from many surprising sources.  It is important to tell your story in a compelling way to these different kinds of potential financial partners so that they are inclined to give to their greatest capacity.  You can raise significant financial resources from more than just your friends.  You will need to do so if want to abundantly fund your new church.  Or even more practically, if you want some level of income while you work to build the church plant.  Having a conversation with a close friend for a $100 investment is much different from the conversation with the person who could invest thousands.   Learn how to have those different conversations that will catapult your new church to abundant funding.

3.    Don’t we just send out letters to our friends?

Brad: This practice is the default standard and what most will do without a formal connection to a church.  The letter strategy will work because people love you.  The letter strategy tends to be minimally effective in the results based on a realistic budget of what it takes to launch a new church. You can learn the number of options for developing financial resources from a number of sources.

Jim: That is one part of a funding strategy, but not the only part. The most strategic gifts will likely come from a relatively few persons with above average capacity. You will need to cultivate the relationships and make the ask in person.

4.    Will we have the money we need when we need it?

Many church planters spend a lot of time worrying about this very question. It is a natural part of our human nature. There is a God-inspired shaping and pruning that takes place as the church plant is launched. The reality is that most church planters have the money they need when they need it, even if it was not the same amount they were originally thinking.

Brad: Most new churches start with some funds, but can run out quickly.  The lack of adequate can be the largest obstacle to launching the new church with passion, excellence, and effectiveness.  Many effective church plants can plan for and have adequate cash flow for the length of time to plan and to launch the church. Perhaps the biggest winner in this process?  Your spouse.  Often, it is the spouse who bears the brunt of inadequate funding creating emotional turmoil and long term baggage from the launch season. The leader is out having all the fun in leadership while the spouse is left with minimal funding to handle the household.  Is the lack of funding worth the unnecessary wear on the marriage?

5.    Can’t I as the Senior Leader delegate the fund raising role to someone else?

Brad: The senior leader sets the tone for the generosity culture of the church from the very beginning of this process.  Understanding your leadership in generosity will make a huge difference in the quality of the new church plant process and will free you emotionally to invest in the actual execution of the ministry plan.  You can delegate the expression of the church core value of generosity.  You cannot delegate the passion and align of financial resources and the new church.

Jim: You could, but that is probably not the wisest choice. Some things should be delegated and some should not. Several factors are important to consider:

  • If it is not a high priority to the Senior Leader, it will probably not be a high priority to everyone else.
  • The launch team and key supporters have to know the Senior Leader is on board with his support.
  • The initial funding effort will set the tone for the generosity culture in the church. Rarely does a leader have a second chance to shape this culture so it is important to get it right on the front end.

6.    How do I ask people to give to my church plant when they already give to another church?

Jim: From the start, the church planter has to be prepared for the reality that not everyone will say yes. It may take a number of asks to get one supporter. The role of the Senior Leader in the church plant is to find enough opportunities to make the ask. Do not worry about the response, just make the ask.

Brad: Raising financial resources is so much more and more fun than asking for funding.  It is a rare privilege when you as a new church leader can align a donor’s vision and passion with the mission and vision of the new church.  There is more money available for new churches than you can imagine.  Learning how to align those funds with the new church vision will make a huge difference in the long-term health and vibrancy of the new church.

You will find a brief video and other resources at the web site we have set up for our time at Exponential 2010: www.FundYourNewChurch.com