Monthly Archives: January 2007

What it’s like @ Northgate

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Yesterday @ our Management Team meeting we spent the first hour of our meeting in prayer. I am so excited about a group of leaders that wants to start the decision making process only after being saturated in prayer! (see here for “The rest of the story)

One of the things that we realize as pastors is that our perception of church can be pretty skewed. We spend 5-6 days a week at the church and are constantly thinking about, reading about, talking about, dreaming about, and praying about church! The things we see may not be the things that others see. So, in order to be as objective as possible we seek out what others are saying about the church.

Yesterday we invited a lady who has been coming to Northgate for about one year to come and share with us her perception of Northgate. It was a moving experience! ;-)

She had some nice things to say that confirmed some of what we (i.e. pastors) see, but there were some other helpful insights… things we may have overlooked!

Some “Walkaways” from this presentation included…

- We must become more intentional about asking people about their relationship with Jesus Christ. This lady attended our church for a little over a year, was a part of an ABF, and no one ever asked her about her relationship with Jesus. This must start with me… I must stop assuming and start asking others, “How’s your relationship with Jesus?” CAVEAT = This does not mean that we tackle people as soon as they walk through the door with “The question”… that’s just dorky!

- We must create a culture of greeters. Everyone in our church is a greeter! You don’t have to have a badge around your neck to greet! If you don’t know someone… meet them! We have to take the initiative to greet people we don’t know, cause they’re probably not going to take it! Everyone greet one that you don’t know!

- We must become more intentional with our ushering. When someone comes into church our ushers need to ask two questions: 1) Can I help you find a seat?; 2) Can I introduce you to someone? These two questions demonstrate sensitivity and interest on the part of the ushers. Sensitivity in that they don’t assume that the person wants to be introduced or led to a seat, and interest in that they do demonstrate through these two questions that they care about the individual! (This is not a “shot” at our ushers it’s just a learning point)

- We must ask others to join our group! It is possible for someone to attend here for many months without being asked to be a part of a group! If everyone in our church took the initiative to ask one or two other people to join them for dinner, or in their group (ABF or otherwise), or at a game, etc. can you imagine the kind of connections that would begin to happen! The idea here is that everyone should be connected to someone!

- We must become more intentional about having a faith story… and asking others about theirs! This is closely related to the first point. We are going to be teaching about this in our current sermon series. The idea here is to share your story in a minute or less… your story about how Jesus has changed your life! The idea, again, is that everyone in our church should have a story and be ready to ask someone else about their story!

Planned abandonment

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Currently I’m reading Hesselbein on Leadership – a valuable set of insights on leadership for any leader!

I am really intrigued and impressed with a concept that Hesselbein keeps referencing, “Planned Abandonment.” This is a Peter Drucker concept but one that Hesselbein has introduced me too.

Some quotes about this concept…

  • “We must practice ‘planned abandonment’ and give up programs that may work today but will have little relevance in the future.”
  • “To be effective, leaders in every sector of the economy must concentrate on their niche – what they do uncommonly well – constantly reasses their performance, and, most difficult of all, be prepared to abandon what doesn’t work and retain only those policies, programs, and practices that further the mission. Planned abandonment is the ultimate management discipline.”
  • “There should be no sacred cows as we challenge every policy, practice, procedure, and assumption. In transforming themselves, organizations must practice ‘planned abandonment’ – discarding programs, policies, and practices that work today but have little relevance for the future and the organizations we are building to meet that future.”
  • “Today more than ever, we need to put our house in order. In fact, some people believe the house is on fire. Over many years all organizations, especially long established ones, accumulate outmoded practices, policies, and procedures; the leader’s job is to take stock, assess our organizational estate, and discard what no longer works. Clearing the cobwebs from this old house is an adventure in ‘planned abandonment.’”

I believe in this concept… and the church does too! Think about all of the things that we used to do that we don’t any longer… because they quit working (make your own list)!

I wonder what things we are doing right now that five years from now we are going to look at and say, “It’s not working anymore.” I pray that I will be a strong enough leader to look at things that I have initiated and say, “We have to abandon it, because it’s not bringing people to Jesus or building them up in their relationship anymore.”

I think that if we started every program, policy, etc. with the idea that “Someday we won’t do it like this anymore” we would save ourselves a HECK of a lot of headaches!

Having said all of that let me say, some things will never change, and those things are our mission and our core values.

The critical “thing” to realize is that it is not programs or methods that are sacred… it is the mission and the values that are sacred! All things are subject to change… except the mission and the values - in our case – we exist to “Bring people to Jesus and to build them up in that relationship” and that will never change!

Once we have established the “Unchangeables” we must assume “Planned abandonment” for everything else!

In his introduction to this book, Jim Collins writes,

“The organizations that best adapt to a changing world first and foremost know what should not change. They have a fixed anchor of guiding principle around which they can more easily change everything else. They know the difference between what is truly sacred and what is not, between what should never change and what should always be open for change, between ‘what we stand for’ and ‘how we do things.’ [...] Yes, there [should] be change, but it [should] all be done in the spirit of reinvigorating the soul of the institution, not destroying it.”

We must identify what will never change (i.e. our mission and our core values) and then plan to abandon every method, policy, or strategy once it has accomplished its purpose.

After church thought

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WOW! We had a great week of ministry!

- Our Kids JAM (Jesus And Me) team led the service. It was GREAT! I was so proud that
I cried on Saturday night as I watched our team lead the service! A few things about the
team:

- They are all volunteers – I LOVE YOU GUYS!

- They are not all parents of kids in Kids JAM

- They are HUGELY innovative

- They use everything from technology to whip cream pies to teach kids about Jesus

- I would put them up against any other kids program! (Trying not to be to proud or
ambitious here… ;-)

- our attendance for the week was 988 (Thursdays has been over 100 every week since it
launched!)

- Jeff Painter held a worship concert on Sunday night… Awesome! He is a wonderful man
with a gift from God that pulls people right into the presence of The King!

- I’m looking forward to our new sermon series starting next week – “Just Walk Across
the Room” – a series in which we are going to be teaching the value and practice of
personal evangelism. I’m PUMPED up about this series! Pastor Vern and I are going to
team teach the first two weeks of this series and then Anthony is going to join me on the
last two weeks of the series!

- Please join me in prayer that this series will be the launching point for HUNDREDS OF
PEOPLE catching the vision for leading their unbelieving friends and family to Jesus!

Women leaders

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In a time when Hillary Clinton is running for President; Condoleeza Rice is the Secretary of State; Oprah Winfrey is a formative voice in social affairs; Stacy Snider is the chairman of Universal Pictures; and Joyce Meyer is a leading preacher of the gospel… women still seem to have a tough time finding their place at the leadership table. We continue to hear talk of the “glass ceiling“.

While there are plenty of advocates for women in leadership (e.g. Tom Peters; Free Methodist Church – see here) the struggle continues. (For a current illustration of what I mean see this story)

Right now I’m reading a great book on leadership by Frances Hesselbein – Hesselbein on Leadership.

Hesselbein is the former CEO of the Girls Scouts of America and the chairman and founding president of the Peter Drucker Foundation.

In a chapter entitled “Focus on the Task” I believe Hesselbein gets to the heart of the matter!

She writes…

“For seven years I served on the board of a large electric utility with eleven directors who were men. I served as this company was building two nuclear power plants. There is nothing more macho than a nucleur power plant. Yet in all those meetings – ten times a year for seven years – I never walked into the board room thinking ‘I am a Woman.’ I participated because I had something to contribute beyond gender. I never thought of myself as the woman on the board (though indeed I was); rather, I knew I brought a special perspective to the deliberations and the decisions.” (Bold print = my emphasis)

(Me speaking here) There is something comfortable about a woman leader who is comfortable with who she is and what she brings to the table! Believe me women leaders – you bring more to the table than just your gender!

On the other hand, there is nothing more uncomfortable than a woman leader who is awkwardly aware of gender and is on a crusade to make everyone else aware too. To all women leaders who do this… STOP!

If the foremost thought on your mind at the leadership table is gender then you may as well excuse yourself and leave the responsibility of leadership to others who are focused on the task.

A couple of other worthwhile quotes from Hesselbein:

- “Focus on task, not on gender.”

- “For me management is like money – it has no gender.”

- “As we focus on task, we move beyond the old assumptions, practices, and language that
can be barriers to equal access. One barrier is placing women in a special category of
gender. If we see and describe ourselves as a ‘woman vice president,’ we may remain in
a category never to be considered for the chief executive position.”

I love what Hesselbein says! I weary quickly of any leader who has “something to prove” and particularly if it has to do with gender, race, or age.

Here’s the scoop… if God has gifted you with leadership abilities then take it seriously and lead (see Romans 12:8).

In time, regardless of gender, race, or age, if your leadership is authentic and results-oriented, people will see and acknowledge you as one gifted to lead.

In a world desperate for effective leadership I raise my glass to GREAT women leaders! Lead on and don’t apologize for who God has made you!

New hires

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I’m really excited about several new hire that we just made!

We have just hired Justin Michaeu as our new Communications Manager. He will be serving in a full-time capacity.

Justin comes from The Martin Group – an award winning marketing and graphic design group in Buffalo, NY. He has just been nominated as a “Rising Star” in the Buffalo area!

Justin will be overseeing all church publications (e.g. bulletin, newsletter, etc.) for both campuses; the Northgate website; video presentations; slides used in worship; etc.

We’re looking forward to Justin coming on staff!

We also hired Traci Wells to be our Administrative Assistant at our south campus! She has been hired to work 15 hours a week.

Traci will be helping to coordinate activities at the south campus; serving as a point person for the various groups meeting at our south campus; coordinating cleaning and maintenance; coordinating purchases for the south campus; and facilitating clear communication between the various groups meeting @ south and the north campus!

She’s gonna be busy! We’re looking forward to having Traci on the team!

We hired additional office help – 10-15 hours per week. This person will be named soon. This position will serve as an assistant to our Director of Operations (Jeff Harmon) and our Office Manager (Teri Noble).

Believe me… we are all excited about this hire! It is crazy around the office and the more help we have the more effective the Management Team will be!

Finally, we are in the process of hiring someone to clean the North campus. This is a HUGE endeavor which is supplemented by volunteer help (Thanks to all of you who are volunteering in this capacity!).

We believe that it is critical to keep our building clean! This requires flexibility and consistency! We regularly have weeknight activities and need our building cleaned before the activity (e.g. the Christmas memorial service) and after the service in preparation for the weekend!

We will still be relying on volunteer help to clean our facilities, but the addition of paid help will relieve a lot of stress on those evenings when we have a wedding or another special event!

Management Team and Church Board Retreat (Part 2)

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A couple of days ago I posted about a retreat that our Management Team and Church Board went on (see here).

We discussed the fact that administrative structure can be a barrier to growth.

We confirmed the fact that as our church grows we must continually be adapting our administrative structure to accomodate and facilitate further growth.

Let me give you an illustration of what I’m talking about…

I used to pastor a small church (avg. attendance of 50-60 on the weekend). Our monthly board meetings consisted of decisions like:

1) Who is going to teach our children in Sunday School?

2) Can we buy a computer for the church? What kind?

3) We need a secretary. Can we hire one? How much? Who?

These kind of questions used to consume our board meetings.

I have quite a bit of experience with smaller churches (vicarious and personal) and know that “stuff” like the following consume much time in meetings…

1) We don’t have enough money to pay all of our bills. Which ones should we pay? Let’s
form a committee to determine which bills should be paid.

2) The pastor is going on vacation. Who is going to fill the pulpit? Let’s form a committee
to oversee the process of filling the pulpit while the pastor is gone.

3) Who is going to mow the lawn? Let’s form a committee to oversee the mowing of the
lawn.

4) We need to paint the church sign. Do we have enough money to do it? Let’s form a
committee to oversee the painting of the sign.

OK, OK, you get the point!

Here’s the problem, the larger the church grows the more decisions there are to be made, and often times they need to be made quickly! The problem is that if you only have one board meeting a month there are A TON of “little decisions” to be made and often times they needed to be made sooner! So, you can either have multiple meetings a month or you can allow the pastors (and other staff) to make those decisions.

For instance, we recently had to decide who was going to plow our parking lot. Most small churches would wait until the board meeting to decide that. What happens if it snows BIG? Larger churches realize that it is okay and prudent to allow staff to make those kinds of decisions.

Larger churches realize, or they should, that most board meetings take hours to bring lay people up to speed to make the same kind of decisions that the staff would make. So the question is, why not allow staff to make them and save everyone a ton of time?

Our church’s administrative structure has been continually evolving over the years. We don’t have board meetings to decide whether or not we should buy a printer or who is going to paint the church sign. Our board meetings consist of things like…

1) approving the annual budget

2) discussing and setting policy (e.g. how much insurance should we carry on our two
campuses?)

3) Ministry updates (The Management Team is considering launching a new service @
South for 18-30 year olds.)

Let me be clear about this… I believe that the church board plays a critical role in the life of the church. They provide accountability to mission, vision, values, and policy; they provide wise counsel; they serve as a policy setting board; they serve as trustees of the local church; they are the models of what faithful leadership looks like; they approve Management Team level hires; etc.

At the above mentioned retreat we discussed the fact that more and more decisions are needing to be made on a daily basis that regard finances and personnel. So, in the continuing evolution of our administrative structure the Board made the following decisions…

1) The Management Team can spend up to $5,000 without board approval as long as it is
not against the policy, mission, vision, or values of our church and as long as the funds
are available.

2) The Management Team can spend up to $10,000 without full board approval as long as
the Director of Operations identifies the purchase and confirms this decision with the
treasurer.

3) For any of these expenditures to take place there must be a consensus of the
Management Team (four pastors and the Director of Operations).

We are also in the process of identifying a standardized hiring process… but more about that later.

The point of this post is to say that in order for a church to grow the leadership must be trusted to lead and that includes making financial decisions.

I want to thank our board for trusting the Management Team to make these kind of decisions.

One last thing… why did I post about this? Two reasons:

1) I want our church to know how our administrative structure is evolving, and

2) I want to help other pastors/churches who may be making this same journey

Great old book

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I’m reading a great book right now… Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar.                                                                                                                                  Written in 1860, this book still has profoundly timely wisdom for every follower of Christ.

A few quotes that are gripping me right now include…

“Our position is such that we cannot remain neutral. Our life cannot be one of
harmless obscurity. We must either repel or attract – save or ruin souls.”

“The soul and eternity of one man [or woman] depends upon the voice of another.”

This lengthy quote from Richard Baxter has been moving me deeply too…

“I know not what others think, but for my own part I am ashamed of my stupidity, and
wonder at myself that I deal not with my own and others’ souls as one that looks for the
great day of the Lord; and that I can have room for almost any other thoughts and
words; and that such astonishing matters do not wholly absorb my mind. I marvel how I
can preach of them slightly and coldly; and how I can let men alone in their sins; and that
I do not go to them, and beseech them, for the Lord’s sake, to repent, however they may
take it, and whatever pain and trouble it should cost me. I seldom come out of the pulpit
but my conscience smiteth me that I have been no more serious and fervent. It accuseth
me no so much for want of ornaments and elegancy, nor for letting fall an unhandsome
word; but it asketh me, ‘How couldst thou speak of life and death with such a heart? How
couldst thou preach of heaven and hell in such a careless, sleepy manner? Dost thou
believe what thou sayest? Art thou in earnest, or in jest? How canst thou tell people that
sin is such a thing, and that so much misery is upon them and before them, and be no
more affected with it? Shouldst thou not weep over such a people, and should not thy
tears interrupt thy words? Shouldst thou not cry aloud, and show them their
transgressions; and entreat and beseech them as for life and death?”

I am praying much these days that God will break my heart and move me to action over the condition of those around me who do not know my Leader – Jesus! I want to be a part of a life-changing team leading God’s “Cherished missing” back home to Him!

Will you join me?

Management Team and Church Board Retreat (Part 1)

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Two weekends ago our Management Team and our church board went on a retreat. We left on Friday night and returned Saturday night.

We went to Olmstead Manor in Ludlow, Pa. We had a great time and got a LOT accomplished!

For the retreat we all read through the book Go Big and allowed it to serve as a guide for our discussions.

Friday evening Pastor Darlene led us in telling our “Northgate stories.” It was great to hear everyone’s Northgate experiences! We heard stories from “Lifers” (Barry Northup) to “One Monthers” (Anthony Hoisington). It was great to hear how Northgate has continued to evolve over time and to hear it from those leaders who have lived through it!

Saturday morning we met for an hour of prayer followed by an hour of breakfast!

Our first session was entitled “Breaking Growth Barriers at Northgate” and was led by Pastor Vern. We discussed the various “barriers” that would prohibit us from continuing to “Bring people to Jesus and build them up in that relationship.”

We settled in on three categories of “barriers”:

1) Physical (e.g. parking, seating, etc.)

2) Structural (e.g. complicated committees, etc.)

3) Attitudinal (e.g. people’s emotions, etc. as the church continues to grow)

Following this session we moved into Part 1 of a discussion entitled “Breaking the Barriers.”

After lunch we had Part 2 of the same discussion.

The walkaways consisted of…

- Some policy adjustments (more about this later) that will allow the Management Team
to more effectively lead in a fast pace environment.

- Discussion about space logistics (e.g. parking, service times, etc.). I will be blogging more
about this later too.

- A discussion about the strategy to help us most effectively “Bring people to Jesus and
build them up in that relationship.” Again, I will blog more about this later.

The bottom line is that we have a GREAT Management Team and Church Board! I love working with these guys!

I’m getting ready to head out to an Administrative Team (i.e. the church board) meeting and I’ll have some more “stuff” to blog about later!