This Friday video contains two points regarding moving people toward ministry... 1. Some people just need to be asked - MAKE THE ASK! 2. Some people are eager to get involved - GET THEM INVOLVED! Have a great weekend!
Today on episode 33 of the 200churches Podcast we talk with Dan Reiland, the Executive Pastor of 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA, and author of Amplified Leadership - 5 Practices to Establish Influence, Build People, and Impact Others for a Lifetime.
Dan's book, Amplified Leadership, is so practical and helpful for pastors of 200churches who need to rely on what Bill Hybels calls the "Y Factor", or volunteer leadership. Dan dissects the entire process of raising up leaders in the local church.
The best thing you could do is buy Dan's book, in paperback, or on Kindle, and read Part 1- Establish A Relationship, before listening to this episode. It is not necessary, but you will get much more out of it if you do. The reading should not take you more than 20 minutes, and you will be well on your way to growing in your leadership development of others in your church. We are spreading out our 100 minute interview with Dan over five months, to give you the opportunity to read the book, and begin to practice what you are learning. Here is the schedule for this 5-Part series: August 28 - Part One: Establish A Relationship September 25 - Part Two: Engage A Follower October 30 - Part Three: Embrace A Team Member November 27 - Part Four: Coach An Apprentice December 25 - Part Five: Mentor A New Leader Again, this is a pace of learning that allows you to implement what you learn in your 200church. This moves the podcast episodes from encouraging, to equipping, if you will get Dan's book and begin to learn. The principles in this book are easily applicable in any size church! And, the book is a whopping $10 on Amazon.com. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Dan. We respect you and value you as a pastor of a small church! The people in your church are blessed to have your heart, love, and leadership in their lives! Here is a link to the book by Samuel Chand that Dan mentions in this episode: Cracking Your Church's Culture Code. Today, Monday, August 26, 2013 we are going to interview Pastor Dan Reiland for a series of podcast episodes we will deliver to you through the rest of this calendar year. He has been an executive pastor for many years, leading other pastors as they each shepherd their area of the church. That is why Dan is the perfect guy to talk with about pastors raising up leaders in their local churches – he has been helping pastors of smaller segments of his congregation do that for over twenty years! Here is a brief video highlighting his book that will be the subject of our talks with him… On Wednesday, the first of five episodes with Dan will be released. The final four will continue to be released on the last Wednesday of the month, September – December.
This week’s episode will deal with Part One of Dan’s book, Amplified Leadership – Five Practices to Establish Influence, Build People, and Impact Others For a Lifetime. Part One is all about establishing a relationship with people, connecting at the heart level, and appreciating people for who they are. We will be talking about selecting potential leaders in your 200church. How do you think about your pastoral leadership? Do you think in terms of “How can I accomplish everything I have to do – how do I get it all done?” Do you attack your task list and your schedule with vigor every morning, excited to be involved in the “work of the ministry”? We would like to suggest a slightly different way to think about it. What if you thought... “Who can I raise up today to join me in the work of the ministry in our church?” What if your focus was on not what, but WHO? Who can I encourage today? Who can I unleash today, with their unique Spirit-given gifts and abilities? Who can I lift up today in leadership in my church? Who can I invite onto our team of servants? What volunteers can I equip, encourage, and support today? WHO is just waiting to be asked, invited, recognized, encouraged, or inspired to serve Jesus today? And… When we think WHO, let’s also remember that our people’s influence and ministry does not happen only in our church facilities – far from it! The ministry impact of our people is felt every day in their homes, neighborhoods, families, workplaces, schools, businesses, and circles of influence. We do our people a disservice if our mindset is that their ministry is limited to the four walls of our facilities. The impact of our church is so much greater. This week we are going to begin a conversation about amplifying our leadership so that we are not solo or lone ranger leaders, but so that we lift others up to achieve their full potential in the body of Christ. Now, that is exciting! Why You Should Listen We want to reiterate that this is not the usual book promotion interview – at all! His book has been out for over two years. We are going to dive deep into the content of the book, as it is extremely practical for us as pastors – dealing with the nuts and bolts of ministry leadership. Over the course of five podcast episodes – over two hours – we will try to cover the teaching of the book so that we will all be better leaders and shepherds, for Jesus, and for our congregations. Dan Reiland’s mentor, John Maxwell, once said “It is wonderful when the people believe in the leader, but it is more wonderful when the leader believes in the people.” God wants us to believe in our people, because they are the body of Christ, called, gifted, and empowered by his Holy Spirit to do amazing and marvelous things in service to the King, Jesus. We get to be a part of it. That is how we want to think about our pastoral leadership! We love you pastors of 200churches, respect you, and pray that our conversations with Dan will be an encouragement to you, and an affirmation and recognition of your leadership significance in the Kingdom of God. No blah blah blah content from us today, just a personal video message wrapping up our Creative Communication theme for the week - then a peak into a very exciting podcast for next week, just below the video... Next week Dan Reiland joins us as we pepper him with questions about his book, Amplified Leadership. We've asked Dan onto the 200churches Podcast because we believe his book speaks very practically to pastors of 200churches.
Dan is not on a book tour, so this will not be a promotional event. Instead, we are going to unpack the content of his book with him, applying it all along to your church and our church - 200churches! Having said that, we would not have him join us if we didn't believe in him as a leader, and appreciate his track record of over 30 years of ministry leadership. So, we would encourage you to get his book, in the real universe, where you hold it in your hand, or on a Kindle - but you have to READ IT. Trust us, it's really practical and will be very helpful to you. Here is Dan's bio - and have a great weekend! Dan Reiland is Executive Pastor at 12Stone® Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, then as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY. Dan is best known as a leader with a pastor’s heart and a coach’s instincts. He truly loves the local church, and is described as one of the nation’s most innovative church thinkers. His passion is developing and empowering leaders who want to grow, are willing to take risks, and enjoy the journey. Dan is married to Patti, and they have two kids, Mackenzie and John-Peter who are both college students at Indiana Wesleyan University. Dan is a lover and collector of fine guitars and in a previous life is pretty sure he was a lead guitarist in a rock band.
We have what we think will be a very helpful and encouraging podcast for you with Episode 32. Even as we share this with you, we are working on creative ways in our 200church to share a new series over the next two weeks, and then the following nine weeks. We're excited!
Creative Communication Methods. Wow, that's a mouthful! Why should you embrace creativity in your 200church? Is there really any benefit to communicating "creatively" in your current context? Does it really make a difference when you keep things fresh and flexible in your church?
The short answer is YES! You owe it to yourself and your congregation to communicate in new and fresh ways and to really seek to be creative in the way that you present the Gospel.
Here's a few reasons why:
So what do we mean by "creative communication"? Some examples that we've used in our own 200church include:
We are really excited for the plans we've developed for this fall's message series. We think it will be the best one we've perhaps ever shared with out people. What are some creative things you've done in your own 200church? Have you struggled to keep people engaged in the past? We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments! Well, this is an easy one, right?! Just make sure that at some point during your message, three armed police officers interrupt your service to arrest, handcuff, and lead away at least one person in the front row. That’s it, no more boredom! But alas, there is one reason why that can’t happen… no one sits in the front row! Okay, so let me suggest something else. The fear of the majority of pastors is that they will bore their people when they preach or teach God’s word. Why, it’s inevitable at some point. The guy in the third row is sound asleep, people check their watch, or their smartphone. Even you or I get bored once in a great while during a message. But there is hope.
I’ve been preaching and teaching for thirty years now, so let me share a few presuppositions, then a few ideas. Presupposition #1 – God changes hearts with his holy Word. The Holy Spirit of God uses his word, to do the work. He can use what we might think of as the most boring sermon or lesson. Presupposition #2 – We do not use presupposition #1 as an excuse to bore people. Presupposition #3 – The listener must have a pulse. What I mean by that is the listener must have at least an entry level intention and willingness to listen, hear, and be changed. If not, we could explode, and they would still yawn. Presupposition #4 – Boredom is as much in the mind of the listener as in the actions of the speaker. Presupposition #5 – Content should trump presentation style. Content is most important. Without it, the presentation style is meaningless. Presupposition #6 – Presentation style should deliver content, not overshadow or obscure it. Now, here are some ideas for how not to be boring. We will share more in our podcast on Wednesday, Episode 32 – Why You Should Explore Creative Communication Methods In Your 200church, and in our post on Friday. This is “Communication Week” at 200churches! Idea #1 – As the preacher, we MUST be close to God ourselves. Be close to Him through prayer, intimacy with Scripture, and personal heart devotion to our Father, our Savior, and our indwelling Holy Spirit. There is no shortcut to OUR intimacy with God – the source of power in preaching! Yeah, I know this one is not a "silver bullet" that is easy to do - but it's the truth and there is no substitute for it. Idea #2 – Be close to our people. Our love for them, and our knowledge of them, will be both our motivation and our direction in our preaching. We are not preaching or teaching a crowd every week, but our friends, the people we love. While I prepare my messages, I am thinking about the lady who just lost her husband, the student struggling with alcohol and parties, the man addicted to pornography, and the parents whose teenage son shot himself in the head in their family room... and died. Our relationship with our people certainly influences our messages. Idea #3 – Variety! We can change how we deliver the message. Stand, sit, speak, point, loudly, softly, onstage, off stage, video, handout, object lesson, story, list, challenge, action step, lectern, table, whiteboard, pulpit, no pulpit, images, art, music, interview, team preach, personal story, etc. etc. We must use creativity and variety. It is good for our people to wonder what might come next. Idea #4 – Let’s be ourselves, not someone else. You have likely heard it before – God doesn't want another Billy Graham or Francis Chan – he wants YOU. God created us to speak to our people, love our people, and teach our people. We can trust him that he has given us the personal, intellectual, and creative resources we need to get the message across. Let’s just be ourselves. Well, that’s a good start! Wednesday’s podcast will expand on this, get you thinking, and hopefully inspire you to seek that “next level” in your ability to communicate God’s wonderful word. What was the most creative thing you ever successfully pulled off in a sermon? Last week I attended the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. Sounds impressive, right? Well, I almost didn't attend. Full disclosure – I had forgotten how helpful those things can be. Here’s what happened to me on Thursday morning of the first day of the Summit… I woke up and remembered that my wife needed the car on Thursday afternoon for an appointment in Sioux City. We live 45 minutes away. So, instead of going to the Summit, and then driving back at lunch time to pick up my wife (an hour and a half round trip!), I decided I just wouldn't go on Thursday, but maybe go on Friday.
Then I got the tweet. The tweet with a Bill Hybels quote – sent out in real time. He said this: “everybody wins when the leader gets better.” In that instant, my decision changed. I knew I needed to set aside my plans for the morning and go get better as a leader. I asked my wife how quickly she could be ready to go, we hopped in the car, and I arrived during the lunch break. The afternoon speakers were extremely challenging and encouraging to me! So, “everybody wins when the leader gets better.” If you’re a pastor, you’re a leader. How are YOU doing Mr. or Mrs. Leader? Are you better or getting better? Before the afternoon sessions started, I jotted down four areas I need to get better in as a leader: Differentiation – this means that I can take a well-defined stance on an issue, position, or decision – even when followers of my leadership disagree, and still stay connected in meaningful relationships with them. I do not have to be controlled by their anxiety over change or direction, but can actually be a non-anxious presence that diffuses the anxiety of others. If I am well differentiated, I am not controlled by another’s judgment or opinion of me, but can differentiate myself from them, while still remaining relationally connected to them. I am not drawn in to their drama, but help to create stability and progress. I can always be growing in this area. If I do not lead myself first, I abdicate the control of me to others, and thus lose my leadership influence and effectiveness. Spiritual Health – I think that most of us can improve in our spiritual health. Do we ever really arrive spiritually? Probably not. I would like to at least always be in a state of arriving. The alternative is to have the car parked in the garage and not even be on my way yet! I want to love Jesus with all my heart. I want that authentic and genuine friendship with him. I want to grow in my obedience to him as well. I want to be getting better spiritually, and be influencing everyone around me in the same direction. Prioritization – I want to become a better prioritizer of my time, resources, and relationships. I think of the four quadrants that Stephen Covey talks about in his book, First Things First. I need to get better in Q2 – the area where things are not urgent, but they are important. The important things in life that are not urgent, often get overlooked. Things like relationships, exercise, sleep, financial investing for the future, planning ahead on projects, reading and learning, etc. In this area, I want to get better. Self-Awareness – Why do I do what I do? What makes me tick? Why do I have the problems and challenges that I have? Why am I good at the things that come easy to me? What is the very next thing for me to do in order to get better? I want to be better at understanding me. Only when we understand the why, can we change the what. There are so many more ways I want to be better as a leader, so that everyone around me will be better. Those are just a few. How are YOU doing Pastor? What is the very next thing you need to do in order to be better, in any or every area of your life? Hybel’s quote, tweeted out, shook me up! It caused me to move, to act, and get better as a leader. As we lead and serve, and love and shepherd in our 200church ministry, we get to make everyone around us better. You and I can grow as pastors and leaders. We need to, because our church, no matter the size, matters HUGE in the Kingdom of God! Do you dare to share the one area you need to get better in? Let us know…
Today's podcast features the Founder of NewSmallChurch.com, Pastor Karl Vaters. Karl is the pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California - a 200church! Karl lives and pastors in the shadow of the giants in Orange County, CA. He and his church prove that you don't have to be a megachurch to impact your community for the Kingdom of God!
Like us, Karl appreciates the megachurches and we are grateful for the awesome ministries they provide both locally, around the country, and globally. And, we also believe that smaller churches, what Karl calls a New Small Church, and we call a 200church, are also absolutely essential in God's Kingdom plan.
Karl is going to be a regular guest on the 200churches Podcast, bringing some West Coast small church perspective. Jeff is from New York and Jonny is from Iowa - so we bring different perspectives on life and ministry to the mix. We're excited to have Karl dropping in from time to time, knowing that he has great content to contribute to our lives and yours.
Karl is providing five signed copies of his book, The Grasshopper Myth - Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides Us, for us to give away! If you would like to vie for a copy, simply go to www.200churches.com/grasshopper, and complete the three steps listed. We would love for you to click on the links to subscribe to the 200churches Podcast on iTunes, rate us on iTunes, and send out a tweet about Karl's book. That's it! We also want to recommend The Grasshopper Myth to you as well. This is no lightweight e-book, it's over 200 pages with a short discussion guide at the end. If you pastor in a 200church, this would be a great book for you. Here are some chapter titles:
You can buy a Kindle copy here, if you aren't interested in a paper copy. Next week's podcast is about why we need to explore creative communication methods in our 200churches. We talk about why creativity is essential, and we share some real life examples of some of the things we've worked on recently... and not so recently! We know you'll be challenged to think outside the box, but completely within your ability to innovate in every communication area in your church. Don't forget to go to www.200churches.com/grasshopper to enter to receive one of the five copies of Karl's book! God bless you this week and weekend as you serve Jesus. Remember your leadership and shepherding of the people in your 200church matters HUGE in the Kingdom of God! Like tens of thousands of others, I attended the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this past week, August 8-9, 2013. This event was pure Leadership Concentrate! It reminded me of the frozen orange juice concentrate that my mother used to buy. It came in a small can, but you had to mix it with a quart of water, you could never drink the concentrate! That’s the Leadership Summit – you can’t use everything you get there right away, you have to mix it with a lot of time, and practice. I had not attended a Leadership Summit since 2008. Every summer I’ve been on vacation with family in New York during that time. This year I could make it – WOW. I won’t miss another one. Every single session and speaker brought their absolute best thinking and best practice, and I took pages and pages of notes.
The Summit notebook was heavy duty, for which I’m glad; I will be referring to it for a while. I’ve already implemented some learning this weekend in my ministry. I’ve got a lot more to work on over the coming months. I truly cannot give you my “favorite” speaker. Every single one of them brought such great and different content, and I personally needed it all. One Learning I Took Away From The Summit Let me mention just one learning I took away, from Dr. Henry Cloud on day two. He said, “the hardest thing that a leader has to be ridiculously in charge of is him or herself.” And, he said that the greatest determination to the success of a leader is whether or not they think they can succeed. He cited a study that revealed that the “lower ability” employees, who nonetheless believe they can win and succeed, produce more and better than the “higher IQ, or higher ability” employees who have doubts and do not think they can achieve or succeed. In other words, a positive mental attitude and can-do spirit will win the day over intellectual or academic abilities alone. Cloud said, “the #1 factor is this – do you believe it can happen?” Okay, I have to check my mental attitude, my faith, and my determination. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course we believe that it’s God and his power at work in us – of course we do. BUT, we can thwart things on our end and squander even the power of God available to us, by wallowing in self-pity, fear of failure, or negative thinking. He said that a few failures can retrain our brain in a new direction – a negative direction. So I am thinking positively today, exercising my faith in a God who can move mountains, and use even asses to do his bidding. I want it to be true of me that “I believe it can happen!” God is willing. Am I? Well, yes, I actually am! Bill, I'm Back! Okay, I am a Hybels junkie from way back that has gotten busy in the last few years with college kids, long distance family, etc. But even I was shocked at the quality of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year. Such good stuff. I’m re-convinced, and recommitted. How To Process The Leadership Event? So how do you process a leadership event? One day at a time! Open the notebook regularly, process your notes, set goals, discuss learnings with others on your team, and ask God to help you be the best YOU that you can possibly be. The goal is not to be more like other leaders; the goal is to learn from other great leaders to be the best leader God wants YOU to be. The Global Leadership Summit is a great event to attend. This Wednesday's 200churches Podcast, Episode 31! On Wednesday, Karl Vaters is joining us for a conversation about small church ministry, on Episode 31 of the 200churches Podcast. We will talk a lot about leadership, belief in God and ourselves when it comes to small church ministry, and even the greatness of the next generation of leaders coming up. Karl is the founder of NewSmallChurch.com, and we are excited to be joining together with him in this episode to encourage pastors of small churches! Did you attend the Summit? What was the most important learning you took away from it? This week our theme has been strengths and weaknesses. We introduced it on Monday and talked about it on our podcast on Wednesday, outlining eighteen reasons why they both make our ministry what it is. Now, there are two final steps you must take to leverage both your strengths and your weaknesses. The first step is to provide a crystal clear answer to these two questions:
Maybe you've never actually put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, to list them. You may need a close friend or spouse to help you with this. Everyone has strengths, and everyone has weaknesses. Having them is not the question – you have both! The question is, what, exactly, are they? So list the top three. How about this, I’ll go first – deal? Here are mine: Strengths: 1) Relationality. I am a highly relational person. I connect easily and put people at ease in my presence. 2) Communication. I know how to communicate with people in small and large groups. 3) I have the gift of service. I love to serve people and help others. Weaknesses: 1) Administration. I am not a good organizer of details. I live in the moment and tend to forget last hour. 2) I am a people pleaser. This is the dark side of the gift of service. I like to make others happy. 3) I often lack sustained focus or follow-through. I lose interest, get busy with something else, and drop projects before they are completed. There you go. That’s me. The good, bad, and ugly. (well, mostly ugly…) Now, where are your lists? C’mon, just take a couple minutes and list those six areas. As I look at my six, it occurs to me that I probably should find out what to do about them! What should I do with my strengths? What should I do about my weaknesses? This brings us to the second step: Figure out how both of those lists inform what you do. If we don’t understand how those things affect us, we will never prioritize our lives in ways that build up the Kingdom of God, and bring us fulfillment and joy. When I was a young pastor, I had no idea I had any weaknesses, and thought that anything that had to do with ministry, must be a strength of mine. In fact, I never considered my weaknesses, nor had I ever doubted that I was strong in every ministry area. When someone would point out a weaknesses or flaw to me, or suggest that I might not be good at some aspect of ministry, I would get defensive. I truly believed that if those critiques were true, they threatened my staying power in ministry. So, step two, what to do about them? Let’s answer in a very general way, and then you can apply it to your specific strengths and weaknesses. First, you should work on your strengths, and in your strength areas. These are the areas where you are already naturally good, and can get really great if you work on them. Second, you should bring others around you who are strong in your weak areas, and let them help you. After all, you are naturally not good in these areas, and you will likely never be great in them. Remember, this is how God wired you, so get others involved and lean on them. I work on loving and caring for people, my public and private communication, and serving and helping others. I am really good in these areas. At the same time I try to find others to help me organize and plan. I try to have the people closest to me alert me when they see me caving in to others, just to please them. And I build teamwork with others who will insist I follow through to the end of a project. Go ahead and list your strengths and weaknesses – investing effort and work in your strength zones, and allowing others to shore up your weaknesses. Finally, rejoice in the way God made you! David said “fearfully and wonderfully” about how we were made (Psalm 139) and that God knows us fully, because he made us. Nothing is hidden from him. If he had wanted me to be a wiz-bang administrator, he would have made me one! Well, I’m not one, and that’s okay. The way God designed you is okay too, in your 200church, with the people you have, for such a time as this. How have you seen God use both your strengths and your weaknesses in your 200church ministry? |
Welcome to the 200churches blog! We have hundreds of posts covering every issue imaginable. So pull up a chair, pour a cup of coffee, and stay awhile.
|