Organizations typically deal with employees in one of two ways:

The first kind hires employees for very specific tasks and gives them lots of rules. Do this. Don’t do this. Never do this. Be careful about those. Make sure you never forget about that.

The second does almost the complete opposite. They merely tell them what the goal is. And they share some parameters that delineate what they should not do. Outside of that, they’re free to use their creativity to reach and contribute towards the goal.

Google uses the latter theory, by the way. So much so, that they give employees permission to use 20% of their paid time to experiment and tinker with things that interest them. In other words, they are allowed to use one day per week to tinker and experiment and dream about things that aren’t in their job descriptions. Little things like Gmail, Google News, and countless other features have come about as a result of giving people permission to creative creatively.

Why am I pointing all this out?

I just started reading a great book called “Winning On Purpose: How to Organize Congregations to Succeed in Their Mission.” It’s a wonderful read that touches upon this exact principle. Most churches are really big on rules and committees. If someone wants to do something, you take it to some committee where the dream of some hopeful usually dies.

Kind of like the government.

Anyhoo.

Here’s a great quote that expresses the concept:

“What strategies and tactics should the pastor and staff use in an effort to achieve the mission? They may use any means they think best- as long as they do not violate the boundaries agreed upon beforehand…Sports commissioners and referees establish and enforce  the standards, but they do not tell the teams how to play the game. A soccer team and its captain are free to run the ball with the left leg or the right, and can even butt it with their heads. The officials do not tell them what to do or when to do it. The officials tell them only what not to do and when not to do it: no hands (except for the goalie), no stepping off the field, no abuse of other players…The Accountable Leadership strategy applies this freedom within boundaries to pastoral leadership. The pastor is the leader and is expected to lead, not merely to submit suggestions for approval. However, there are certain boundaries stated up front, such as financial policies, theological commitments,  and ethical standards. These must not be violated, but anything else is fair game” (p. 45-46).

Wow.

Imagine if all churches operated with a trust-based model such as this one? Imagine if there were accountability and leadership systems in place in which boards helped to govern, pastors led, and staff managed? I’m not through the book yet. I’ll give a full review after it’s done, but so far he seems to be making  a compelling statement for churches using a slightly different organizational structure.

Actually, it’s not that different or new. Growing churches have long been using these systems already. But for some churches. Yes…it’s new and very different.

So what do you think about this system and model? Why do you think more churches aren’t using it?

[image by thevisionsofkai]

In this post, entitled “One of the Best Ways To Learn Leadership,” I wrote about the principle of taking leaders you admire and want to learn from out to lunch on a regular basis. Today I had a question about what kind of questions I usually ask during those meeting times. Thanks Chris Jones for asking me about this.

Here are some of the top questions I ask:

1. What do you do for evangelism? What’s your evangelism strategy? Some churches go really big on Easter, Christmas, and usually a few other days in the year. I want to know about that. One pastor I spoke to has had great success in doing a big outreach during Mother’s Day.


2. What do you do for assimilation? How do you treat and respond to first time guests? Some churches send out cards, some call the people, some bake bread and deliver it. I try to understand how they contextualize this process for their area and people they’re trying to reach.


3. How do you get people involved in ministry? What process do they have to go through?
In some churches you have a chance to be involved in ministry once a year during a nominating committee process. In other churches they encourage you to be involved the very next week. I want to know what kind of metric they have in place for people to be involved in leading a team or just joining a team. 


4. What is the organizational structure of your church like? How are decisions made in your church? The second question will reveal most of what you need to know. Either decisions are made through some kind of boards or committees or they’re made by the pastor and his staff, or maybe just the pastor. I want to know if they have teams of elders and deacons and how they function and what their purpose is.


5. Do you do small groups? What’s your small group philosophy?
I want to know if they use affinity groups or cell groups? Are the semester-based or do they meet through the whole year? Do they meet in homes or at the church? How effective have they been?


6. Do you have a stewardship system in place?
What do they do to facilitate giving in the church? Do they do online giving? What do they use for that? How many are giving online?


7. Do you have a discipleship system in place? What’s your strategy for helping the people to become spiritually mature?

Those are some of the main questions I ask about. In short, I just try to be really curious and have an open mind that’s ready to learn. To read the post I reference click here.

What about you? What questions would you add to the list to ask a leader if you had one hour with them?


[image by amanki]

As everyone knows Haiti has had a devastating earthquake affecting about 3 million people. So what do people do to help?

In the past you could mail in checks to your favorite charities or you could always try and volunteer.

But I’ve been pleased as I’ve seen the response from various organizations that have adapted with technology to the times. The Red Cross, for example, is receiving donations via text message. To send a donation you could text “haiti” to 90999 to donate $10. In fact, I read on the Mashable blog that over 3 million dollars has been raised through text messages. It will be applied to your  cell phone bill. Most charities, of course, have had online donations for a while which greatly increases the likelihood of people giving.

And this, of course, greatly increases how churches and organizations can respond to help. In the midst of such a horrible tragedy, the good news is how people have been able to organize, volunteer, and donate via the use of technology.

I wonder what new technology exists, that we have yet to embrace, that could increase people’s capacity to participate and help?


[Image by deanj]

Are you still holding out on Twitter because you think it’s just some cute passing fad? Here’s a wonderful piece by David Carr in the New York Times called “Why Twitter Will Endure.” What’s nice about the article is that he goes a little deeper beyond the surface showing some really effective ways to use Twitter, all from the perspective of someone that was a cynical holdout.