Assembling and getting the most out of your staff is one of the toughest things that a pastor deals with in leading a growing church. On top of all that has to be done from week to week, staff communication can quickly become overwhelming.

In one of my recent coaching networks, someone asked this question: “How do you deal with all the questions that staff members bring you?”

What a great question – and one that many of us don’t think to ask. I wanted to take just a moment to share a principle on this topic.

Here’s the quick hit (in case you’re running late for an appointment):

If Your Staff Has Questions, Demand Options

What I mean is that, as a leader, you should never respond to a question from a staff member (in person, by phone or email) unless they first give you two or three suggested answers.

Why?

1) Because they know better than you. The fact that they are asking tells you that they have already spent more time thinking about it than you have.

This is essential, because it only gets more true the larger your church grows. When The Journey was just getting started, I knew everything that happened in every area. Not so these days.

Let the staff member share their thoughts on the question, then you can help them build on those thoughts.

2) Your staff needs to learn to think for themselves. In leadership development, it’s vital that you are being intentional about helping your staff learn to think.

If they can just run to you and let you fix it every time they run into a problem, how are you helping them grow?

Use your staff’s questions to teach them to think.

3) Perhaps the most important reason for implementing this principle is that you get better answers when you have multiple people thinking about the solution. It’s the old “two heads are better than one” idiom.

All of us are smarter than any of us.

I hope that’s helpful!

P.S. To learn six secret skills every leader can develop, check out Leadership Skills for a Growing Church

Yesterday was the memorial service for Dr. Ralph Winter.  I only met Dr. Winter one time at a missions planning meeting in Irvine, CA, but his writings and speaking have had a great impact on my thinking.

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that Dr. Winter was the most influential missiologist of the second half of the 20th century.  He was the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, William Carey International University, and the International Society for Frontier Missiology.

Beyond all of that, perhaps his most notable contribution to world missions was his introduction of the concept of “unreached people groups” in 1974.  This led to a shift in thinking from a country by country approach to a more Biblical, “all peoples” approach to reaching the world for Christ.

I hope you’ll take a moment to thank God for Dr. Ralph Winter and for using him in such a powerful way to stoke the fire of world evangelization.

Dr. Ralph D. Winter
1924 – 2009

Here are a couple of Dr. Winter’s most influential works:

• Perspectives on the World Christian Movement
• Dr. Winter’s Paper Lausanne 1974

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
— Benjamin Franklin: 18th century statesman, scientist, and writer

I hope you got my podcast email that went out earlier this week.  If not, you can subscribe here.  You can also listen to my latest podcast here.

At the bottom of the email I shared a 10% off coupon code.   We’ve had a bunch of people using that code already, but I know it slipped past a few of you.

So I’ve decided to reward you for faithfully reading my blog.  I’m sweetening the deal and giving you 20% OFF of whatever you invest in through the Church Leader Insights store between now and Monday.

Simply enter the special code BLOGREADER and click “Apply” when you’re checking out to receive 20% OFF!

And remember, this discount is only good through Monday!

P.S. You never know what you might be missing if you’re not reading my emails… or my blog

Just a couple of days ago I put the finishing touches on my mid-year Giving Letter that will go out with the 2nd Quarter Giving Statements to all of The Journey’s givers.  I thought I would take a moment today to share it with you (the link to download it is below).

In addition to the letter I’m enclosing:

• Year to Date Giving Statement
• Giving Envelope
• Auto Debit Form
• Series Promo Postcard
• And custom printed ice cream scoop

All of this in 6 x 9 envelope.  The ice cream scoop makes it lumpy so its certain to be opened.  Your giving letters are worthless if no one opens them!

In the past, my giving letters have been very well received.  You can see the ones I’ve posted prior for a sample on how to write this one up.

Here’s the current letter:

2Q 2009 Giving Statement Letter.doc

P.S. To learn more about how to get your church’s Stewardship System running on all cylinders, check out The Stewardship Intensive.

I just want to thank all of you (over 600 senior pastors) who participated in one of my Top 3 Growth Barriers Webinars last week.  What an awesome experience!

Here’s one of the follow-up questions I answered about the SPACE growth barrier:

Q: As I was listening to you teach about the “space” growth barrier, I got to thinking about our situation and wondering if there is a “reverse space” growth barrier as well…

In other words, is there a point when the room is too empty?  At what point does the room feel so empty that the extra seats become another growth barrier altogether?  What can be done if “too much space” is having a negative impact to growth?

A: Thanks so much for logging on for the Top 3 Growth Barriers Webinar.  I hope you found it helpful!

Let me first say that your questions is a good one and it sounds to me like you’re asking the right questions trying to find out what’s keeping your church from growing.

Here’s my basic advice on this issue: It’s easier to make a large space feel smaller than to make a small space feel big.

If the space is too large, there are some very practical things you can do to “shrink” the area.

One great technique for shrinking the space is to put up pipe and drape (like you might see at a trade show) to cordon off part of the space so you have about twice as many seats as you need.  If you have the measurements of your building, a company like Georgia Expo can supply you with the pipe and drape.

Let’s say you have 100 people, you would use the pipe and drape to shrink the room to 200 seats or so.  As your church grows, you simply move the pipe and drape back, opening up more and more seats.  This does a great job of creating the smaller space and gives you plenty of flexibility to expand as you grow.

We use this technique at The Journey’s Brooklyn location and it works great.

I have also used custom chair covers to cut off the chairs in the back of the room (forcing people to sit toward the front).

I hope that helps!

P.S. You can learn all about SPACE and the other 8 most common growth barriers that all churches face, regardless of size, in The Growth Barriers Workshop.

It’s Sunday, so it’s time for me to tell you about another one of my recent coaching alumni.

This week’s highlight is Heath Davis.  Heath is the founding pastor of Pinnacle Church in North Carolina and a former Marine (so don’t mess with him).  After meeting in rented facilities up until now, Heath is leading his church through their first building campaign.

Keep working to reach the people of western NC for Christ, Heath!

Heath Davis
Lead Pastor
Pinnacle Church
Canton, NC
http://www.mypinnaclechurch.com

Won’t you consider applying for my upcoming Senior Pastor Tele-Coaching Network?

For more information or to apply now, visit:

http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/telecoaching

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill, British prime minister

This is Kerrick Thomas – I’m the Executive Pastor at The Journey Church and the co-author of “Activate” with Nelson. Just a while back, Nelson asked me to answer the following question and then to share my answer with you:

Q: Our leadership team has asked me to have a “pastor’s small group” with new people.

We are seeing new people at church every week now and we’re really trying to do a better job of connecting them.

Any suggestions on what to do or how many to have? We think that after this, I may be able to direct them into other small groups.

A: Thanks for your question. Let me first say this: having new people attending your church is a good “problem” to have.

As far as having a “Pastor’s Small Group” for new people, of course you can do that – and you might have some success with early sign-ups. But that has not been our strategy or philosophy at The Journey.

Our goal is to get new people into a small group where they can develop relationships within the church as quickly as possible.

We really believe that a regular small group with regular people from your church has the potential to connect a new person to your church just as effectively if not more effectively than a group led by the lead pastor.

We have faith that our Sunday service is the front door of the church and that our small groups close the back door.

If there is a reason why a regular small group wouldn’t be effective in connecting a new person to the church, introducing them to the church culture and assimilating them, that might be an indication that something is not quite right in your current small groups system.

The only advantage I can think of to the lead pastor leading such a group is that it might draw a crowd of people to it. But that purpose is served just as effectively by having a monthly or every two month Newcomers Reception for those new to the church hosted by the lead pastor after a Sunday service. Then you can encourage the newcomers at that event to sign up for a small group.

Another question to consider is this – is that where your energies are best served? As lead pastor are there other groups that you could lead that no one else could lead? Is this really where you want to spend your energies every semester? And is it really a scalable model as your church grows if it’s built on you leading it?

Yes – you could lead the small group for newcomers – and it might work. But we believe that it’s better to get newcomers integrated into our regular small groups immediately with our members and regular attenders so that they can naturally get involved in the life of the church.

Those are just my initial thoughts – I hope they are helpful!

God bless…

Kerrick

P.S. For an all-inclusive look at how to implement an effective Small Groups System at your church, check out The Small Groups Intensive.

Hi, it’s Kerrick Thomas again – Executive and Teaching Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Launch. Nelson asked me to share my answer to this recent question about re-launching a church:

Q: I recently came across your book “Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch,” and was hoping for some assistance.

I have recently become the pastor of an older church that is on its last legs. Our attendance is very low currently and the church has been declining for years.

However, those who are still around have expressed a renewed passion lately to make a real Kingdom difference in our community and the consensus is that we are ready and willing to do “whatever it takes.”

With that in mind, we are trying to put together a strategic plan to “re-launch” the church – not to dismiss the church’s history, but to demonstrate our renewed vision to reach this community for Christ.

I know your book was about “launching” a new church, but could you give me any advice on how to re-Launch this one?

A: Thanks so much for the question. My suggestion is that you follow the “Launch” model and pick a strategic launch date for your weekly services.

Back off of that date by 6 months and do 6 monthly services leading up to that launch date. Ask those who have been attending to join you in the endeavor to re-launch and be part of your new “Launch Team.”

Then use the monthly services and creative “come-back events” (fun events like cook-outs, movies, etc. between the monthly services) to recruit people to be on your launch team.

The entire goal of the launch team is to successfully launch the weekly services. So, you are not focusing on discipling your launch team, but on equipping them to serve and prepare for the beginning of the church.

We lay out this process in Launch and I suggest that you do the same thing in your re-launch as a normal church planter would do in an initial launch.

I hope that helps – please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help!

P.S. You might consider getting your hands on the 2-Day Launch Conference that Nelson and I taught for ideas of what to do and how to prepare your launch team.

Here’s a link to grab The Launch Conference on CD.