Growth Barriers
There are many things that can keep a church from growing and reaching its potential. The most obvious is for whatever reason God is not able to bless the work and all you are left with is human effort and nothing supernatural can happen.
The list of other real issues includes lack of resources in the areas of staffing, programming and facilities that will prevent you from reaching the next level. Oh by the way, every significant increase of 500 people creates an entirely new list of different challenges that must be addressed in all of these areas.
Sometimes the problem is that a church gets out of balance in any one of these areas to the detriment of all the others. The most obvious is over building your site and incurring too much debt that strangles everything else you are trying to accomplish.
The single most significant issue beyond the blessings of God is the constantly changing role of the pastor and the people. In most small churches the pastor does the ministry and the people run the church. For any church to reach its potential the pastor must do the leading and the people must be equipped to do the ministry.
In my experience far too many times when this ongoing transition breaks down the primary blame is placed on the people and their unwillingness to follow. The hard cold truth is the reason they are not following is there is not a leader in place that has the character and integrity to say clearly come follow me as I follow Christ.
Customer Service
Every growing business needs to generate new clients and increase market share. That is why so much money is spent on marketing to try to reach additional customers and open the front door to additional revenue.
However, I have come to believe that closing the back door and increasing retention of existing customers is the most important factor in market share. In one area marketing, we are trying to attract and add new units while customer service is seeking to retain and multiply the impact of people who are already on board.
I would move significant budget dollars away from marketing until I had a world class customer service reputation. I would have real people on the phone that will stop at nothing within reason to satisfy the problems that I am having with your products or services.
The incredible bounce factor out of outstanding customer service is not only do I retain a significant percentage of existing clients; they become the most effective sales force for my organization by talking within their network of influence to generate the new customers I need to continue to grow.
The next time someone is trying to convince you to automate your customer service or outsource it to someone who answers the phone in India forget about it. Move the personal touch to the top of your marketing plan to support your existing customers and they more than any direct retail marketing plan will help you grow your company.
The Juice is Gone
I freely acknowledge that this post is not going to be for everyone. However, if you are a growing Christian and working in the corporate world it may be exactly what you need to hear.
As we mature in our relationship with Christ we start to see things the way He does and not the way the world does. Most people at work are motivated by power, pleasure, position and pride.
Even for us as Christians we get caught up in what kind of car we drive, the clothes we wear and the houses we live in. Our success status can even be defined by where we are in the leadership ladder at church.
When we grow to the point of real spiritual brokenness we move beyond success to significance. This means that we realize that the only lasting thing that really matters at work are the people and not the profits or performance reviews.
For the first time in our lives all the things that used to be important no longer motivate us in light of eternity. We often ask ourselves a thousand years from now will this really matter. Now we have moved from Success to Significance to Surrender. The old juice is gone.
Now your career has become your calling. No, you do not need to quit your job and go to seminary because you are headed for Africa. You need to live your new Christian life right where you are with reckless abandon for the glory of God.
Personal Mission Statement
Filed under: Core Values, Life Balance, Personal Development
All of us have become proficient at doing all the major components of the business plan at work. We know how to define goals, create plans, execute priorities and evaluate success.
However, very few of us use these same disciplines to help lead our personal lives. Research shows that approximately 95% of us have never written out our personal goals in life, but of the 5% who have, 95% have achieved them.
Steven Covey popularized the phrase Personal Mission Statement in his bestselling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He makes the point that ultimately all professional success flows out of our ability to lead ourselves first.
Every day we must say no to something because there is simply too much to do when you include the personal, family, career and civic responsibilities of our lives. If we do not take the time to define what we want our legacy to be for the people and things we care about the most they will by default usually end up on the no list.
What the annual plan does for your corporate productivity and performance your personal mission statement will do for the rest of your life. It will help define the core values for you personally and your family and set realistic goals with strategies that will help you to write your own script for the totality of your entire life.
It should never be acceptable to succeed in one area of our lives only to fail in all the others. Take the time to write down what is personally and professionally important to you in this life because in the end that is all that will really matter.
Security and Significance Part III
Filed under: Family Ministry, Marriage, Personal Development
God has designed us so that the most important needs in our lives can only be met through Him. His next priority is for us to be in a relationship with our spouse that reflects Christ unconditional love for the church and His willing submission to the will of the Father.
The trap I mentioned in the last post is that we can move our faith to the top of the list of personal priorities but we can substitute church for Christ. Church in many ways is just like the emotional support we get from our career.
We can serve in an important role and gain significance through our responsibilities and tremendous encouragement from all the people we help. Although these are certainly good things the danger of religion taking the place of a relationship is always emotionally seductive.
Even with faith at the top of the list and family in second place there are dangers there as well. When husbands and wives do not place their personal relationship above all other people and the pain of rejection starts hurting both parties they move their remaining emotional energy to the children.
After all doing what is best for the children is a worthy goal and it brings great emotional significance. It can be easy to justify hanging in a bad marriage “for the sake of the children.”
There is only one major problem, it will never work. The most loving thing a parent can ever do for a child is to love God in a passionate real way and love their spouse with grace and humility.
Other people and other things can never give us what only God can provide unconditional love and lasting significance. Beyond that the single most important relationship that we have in this life is with our spouse. Church and children can be dangerous temporary substitutes but they too will leave us empty in the end.
Security and Significance Part II
Filed under: Family Ministry, Marriage, Personal Development
The need to be unconditionally loved and to know that our lives have value and meaning are fundamental to every person on the planet. We all must have these needs met to some degree and therefore we will keep searching until we find some measure of fulfillment.
We start out in life with our family being the major source of love, protection and encouragement. When we are in high school and even through our twenties a transition takes place and the two major sources of meeting these needs are now fun and friends. That is why being a part of some community moves to the top of most young adult’s agenda and they will pay any price to be accepted.
By the time we reach our late twenties we have to start thinking about the future and a career. For many people the success and emotional support that is offered through work moves this provider to the top of the list.
Family moves back into the list when we get married and eventually start having children of our own. We even now feel the need to get back in church again so that our children can get what they need as well.
Faith and Family surely will be the answer to meeting our deepest emotional needs for security and significance. Actually, they can become the biggest trap because even though they are good things they can keep you from the best.
Security and Significance
Filed under: Family Ministry, Marriage, Personal Development
The two major things that all people are searching for in life are security and significance. Security is the understanding that I am unconditionally loved and significance means that my life has value and meaning.
Most of the time we are searching for both of these needs in all of the wrong places. We try to find unconditional love in human relationships that all inevitably fail us to some degree and cause pain.
Then we look to our career, church and children to give us the meaning and validation in life that we so desperately need. Here again although all of these are quote good things and can give us some degree of significance they to in the end leave us wanting more.
All human relationships are important and being successful in every area of our lives should be our goal. However, the major truth here we are missing is that we can never look to other people or things to give us what only God can provide.
When our relationship with God is first and His mission for our life is the ultimate measure of our success then all other relationships and endeavors play a secondary role and become complimentary and not primary.
Then when the pain, failure and rejection come in this life they can always be measured against the grace and peace that only God can give. The assurance that He will never leave us and nothing can separate us from His love gives us the courage to risk living life to the fullest.
In the end He is enough.