Mark Clement

Outsourced Worship

This post is from the blog of Tim Stevens, Exec Pastor at Granger Community Church. I had the privilege of hanging out with him and Jeff Powell last week in Dallas. Was thinking about posting this same story but no reason to reinvent the wheel. Tim did a great job outlining the topic. Check it out:

I had a fascinating time last week with Jeff Powell, one of the leaders at First Hattiesburg Church in Mississippi. He told me a story that was very interesting...

A little over a year ago their church had an open position for a worship leader and couldn't find the right person to fill the role. So they began to hire worship leaders to come in, a weekend at a time, to lead their band and congregation in worship. It worked so well that they decided to continue doing this--not as a stop-gap measure--but as their intentional strategy. At this time, they have no plans of ever hiring a worship leader. They will continue to outsource.

In the first year they brought in 15 or 20 different leaders, but they have since settled to about 4 or 5 that they continue to bring in to lead their people.

Jeff says this strategy offers several advantages:

• Many worship leaders don't enjoy building teams, managing budgets or organizing departments. They just love to lead worship. This strategy let's them stay in their sweet spot.
• This decision saves money for the church. He is able to pay them really well for a weekend and still save enough money in the church budget to use toward another staff position.
• They love the variety that this brings to their church. Keeping things unpredictable is a plus, says Jeff, to keeping people's attention.
• They have learned so much from these worship leaders that they wouldn't have learned from one person.

It's a very interesting twist on staffing. I think churches are going to have to think creatively about staffing in the future--and this is a very creative method.

What do you think--good strategy or bad idea?

Conference Craziness: Good Thing Or Bad Thing?

Let me begin by stating that I LOVE conferences! I love the atmosphere, the networking, the learning and the chance to simply get away. I have been a part of creating and leading multiple events and love the entire process. I've experienced many break through and AHA moments at conferences. I LOVE it!

That said, is it just me, or does it seem like recently that there are more church/ministry conferences out there than any one human could possibly keep up with, let alone actually attend? I am constantly amazed at how many events are popping up, seemingly everyday. It's my job to stay 'in the know' about what's going on around the country and straight up, I can't keep up with them all. It seems like every week I'll hear about another event that somehow got past my radar. Just this past week there were two big events going on that I knew about and then all of a sudden I heard about 2 others. All happening at basically the same time. It's conference craziness. Or is it?

It seems everywhere I go people are talking about it, commenting on it, complaining about it, etc...and the question I want to ask is this: All these events/conferences/seminars...good thing or bad thing? Let's look at the pros and cons according to chatter I've been hearing. Keep in mind I'm not necessarily advocating or validating all of these, but they are each real or at least perceived to be real...to somebody.

Cons

1. Money - No doubt the economy has affected churches. In many places giving is down, staff has been reduced, expenses limited, etc... How can anyone afford to go to all these events?
2. Time - For those of us who are in the trenches and really knocking it out, how could we possibly get away to even a fraction of all these events? Already gone from family too much and feel spread too thin all around.
3. Cookie Cutter - It seems everybody and their brother who has had even a hint of success thinks they have something to add to the conversation by way of a conference. End result is tons of events that look, sound, and in fact are, pretty much the same. A market flooded with mediocre product. Case in point, Ed Stetzer's pictures that he tweets at beginning of most events where he speaks: Band + giant screen + cool logo = conference. Every single time. And how about the fact that many of these events have virtually the same cast of characters. How do we know on the front end which ones are really going to be worth it?
4. Information overload - even if I can make some of these events, how will I ever be able to process/digest everything? Again, who has the time? 

Pros

The pros I'm not going to address via a list, but rather a stream of thought centered around one simple concept: competition is good. For everybody. Especially the consumer. No doubt there is some fallout here and there. There's often brand confusion, information overload and a fragmented marketplace along the way. And this may last for 2-3 years or longer. But when the dust settles, and I think we're starting to see the beginning of that, the best options will be clear.

Competition forces the players to compete and only the best teams can consistently win. The others will eventually fall to the wayside. We're already seeing many players close up shop or merge with others. Competition tends to drive down costs, increases value and perks, and inspire creativity and innovation, all things that benefit the consumer. New and better events will be created. Niche markets will be created becoming ever more specialized and focused. More diverse and unique speaker lineups will emerge. More and better options will be offered. And at the end of the day, you, the consumer, get to decide what works and what doesn't, what stays and what goes. You have the power.

No doubt it can be a bit murky as we wade through all the wannabes, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. So choose wisely, and may the best conferences win. Because when they win, we ALL win.

Would love to hear your feedback on this issue. Hit me back and let your voice be heard. 

3 Signs of a Healthy/Unhealthy Church

Having spent 15  years on various church staffs and time with hundreds of church clients over the past six years, I've developed a bit of a sixth sense when it comes to the health of a church. Fact is it's not rocket science. The signs are everywhere and pretty easy to spot. But when we're in the middle of it, when it's OUR church, it suddenly gets complicated. Sometimes we're so busy we just don't see the signs. Other times we see them but ignore them in hopes that they will just go away. Finally, and this may be the worst of them all, we see them very clearly but we are quick to excuse or justify. This list is by no means exhaustive, but will help you to start asking the right questions. So let's take a quick look at three of the biggest signs we should all be watching out for.

Sign #1 - GROWTH AND FRUIT

Bottom line a healthy anything (person, church, animal, plant, organization) grows. Some grow faster or different than others, but all healthy things grow. And they can grow numerically, or by reproducing, or in strength/effectiveness. Healthy things are full of energy and life, and they produce fruit of some kind. In a church that fruit should be things like salvation, life change, spiritual maturity, giving, serving and sending. No growth, no fruit = no health.

Sign #2 - INNOVATION/ADAPTABILITY

Healthy things stay that way because they learn to adapt to their changing environments through innovation. This isn't a contemporary vs. traditional issue, it applies to all. You have to remember that the degree of innovation is determined not by the innovation itself, but by the point of origin. You have to measure your church's innovation against itself, not other churches. All points of origin are different. It's also important that we don't change for change's sake, but because it's necessary for growth. Bottom line, if your organization looks exactly the same as it did a year, two years, five years ago, your health is definitely in question.

SIGN #3 - LONG TERM MEMBERS (AND STAFF)

This sign goes hand in hand with #1 (Growth). One without the other is not good, but as you grow, if you tend to keep people a long time, that is a great sign of health. The fact is that healthy people can not and will not stay at an unhealthy church for very long. The biggest test for this is among leadership. These are the people who get to see behind the curtain, who work directly with the staff. Sooner or later they will get a true picture of the health of the church. If there is constant turnover among people in leadership, you have a serious problem. And no amount of new people coming in the front door will fix it. Longevity = health.

Customer Service Gone RIGHT

There's no shortage of stories where customer service has gone wrong. Unfortunately that has become somewhat the norm, even in our churches. But this past weekend I experienced three very cool examples of excellent customer service. Examples that bear repeating.

Saturday I had to go to Lowe's for some lawnmower parts. I was dreading it. My expectation was that they either wouldn't have what I needed or the parts would be impossible to identify or find. Imagine my utter delight to discover all three parts right there on the shelf next to the lawn mowers, right where they should have been. It was like they knew I was coming and had them set out just for me. To make it even better they had multiple registers open and I checked out immediately. 

Sunday after church we hit Taco Bell to make a run for the border. The checkout girl was shockingly polite and professional. When one of our orders was going to take a minute we got the dreaded 'can you pull forward and we'll bring it out to you?' line, she offered us free drinks (we hadn't ordered any) for us to enjoy while we waited. Then when she brought the late order out to us she apologized yet again then informed us that to make up for it they had given us 3 extra tacos. This girl and this Taco Bell scored big with us. 

Monday I received a letter from Southwest, a company I'm already pretty high on. To celebrate my recent award of a free flight they were sending me free drink coupons to 'toast' the occasion. Icing on an already great cake. 

All of these things were small and simple, yet they made a huge impression on me. The truth is that people talk. They talk about the bad things AND the good things. By doing just a little bit more than their competitors they have made me want to come back and tell everyone I know how great they are. Remember, the best marketing isn't the kind you buy. The best marketing is the kind you earn.

Church leaders, how can we exceed expectations so that people want to come back AND tell everyone they know how great it was? Would love to hear some feedback and examples of churches knocking it out of the park in this area.

Control or Growth: A Cautionary Tale

"Every pastor has to decide what he wants most: Control or Growth. You can't have both.The bottleneck is always at the top." - Rick Warren

Wow, what a great statement. Yet while we hear these types of things a lot, I often wonder if we really get it. To that end a couple of brief, real life examples that may shed some light on what this actually looks like. Sadly, these are true stories.

Many years ago I worked with a booming church running well over 2000 each weekend. I've worked with hundreds of church staffs over the years and I can say without hesitation, this particular group was the most talented I've ever seen in one place. Passionate, motivated, visionary. But the more success they had, the tighter the senior pastor squeezed. He was scared to death of things getting beyond his control. He loved the fact that he had a stable full of thoroughbreds, but he would never let them loose to run. Eventually those types of horses are going to kick the door down and run free, like they were meant to do. After 3-4 years of the grip tightening, and after many opportunities to course correct, the dam burst. Within about 18 months, 8 of the 12 senior staff left and over the next year after that 2 of the 4 remaining left. Almost all of the lay leadership moved on and the church dwindled about 50%. It has never fully recovered. Incredibly sad. 

On the other end of the spectrum is a young church plant I consulted with a few years back. About 2.5 years old they were doing great, running close to 300 with potential all over the place. But after just a few meetings, it became painfully clear that their biggest obstacle was the pastor. They had 2 or 3 talented young staff guys and some phenomenal volunteer leaders, but no one could make a move without the pastor. Every decision, every new idea no matter how small, had to go through him and it would often take him weeks to make a decision. These guys had the longest staff meetings I've ever seen, longer than most mega-churches I've worked with. So essentially they hit a wall. It's been about 2 years since then and last I heard they are still stuck. No significant growth whatsoever. What a waste.

Pastors/leaders, you can be your organizations greatest asset or greatest hindrance. Self awareness is crucial and you need people in your life who are free to speak truth to you. If your organization is stuck, quit looking outside for who or what's to blame, and start with yourself. More often than not, there is where you'll find the answer. The good news is once the issue is identified, YOU have the power to change it and get things back on track. Let go and enjoy the ride!

Going Deep: The Key to Just About Everything

"Having impact spread wide and having impact that resonates deeply are two very different things. They are not mutually exclusive, but more often than not, we settle for a season of brief popularity." unknown

Often times when we build organizations, churches, small groups...anything built on relationships...we want to grow them as quickly as possible. It seems natural that more is better. Why impact only 5 people when you can impact 10, right? That's all well and good, but the key is not how many you reach, rather HOW you reach them. Without really thinking about it, our tendency is to go out and reach as many people as WE can. So WE invite OUR friends, and OUR family, and OUR neighbors, and OUR coworkers, and if WE work hard at it then pretty soon WE have a group that looks something like this:

 You may have 5, or 10, or 100, but this is the basic structure, lots of people connected to one thing: YOU. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this...at first. It's a great start and you've got some momentum and everyone is excited, but how long can it last? The answer is not long. Because eventually YOU are going to get tired, or sick, or complacent, and as soon as YOU stop doing what YOU did to get the thing started, it will die. Now if you're a super duper hard worker you can keep it up for a while, but sooner or later the ball will be dropped. You can only spin so many plates for so long. This is why so many small groups die young. 

Have you ever taken a good look at the roots of a tree that has been blown over in a storm? If you have you probably noticed that the root system was very shallow. It may be super wide, but shallow nonetheless. The key to strength and health and sustainability is going deep. 

Now the truth is that going deep is a bit harder, and may take a little bit longer on the front end. But long term your job gets easier and easier, because once you have a strong, deep root system in place, growth is virtually unlimited. The key is to not just connect new people to yourself, but to dive down deep through the people you are already connected to. Find 2 or 3 in your group with the most leadership potential and help them make some new connections. Then help them identify a potential leader under them and repeat the process over and over until it starts to look like this:

You are leading and training by example. After you go down 2-3 levels then you can step back and the guy next to you keeps diving and then he hands it off to the next guy, etc...  Now which model do you think is stronger? You get 2 or 3 legs going like this and you are set. And think of the benefits: You're identifying leaders at every level. You're modeling true Biblical discipleship. You can easily break off one of these legs and let it become a new group unto itself, duplicating the process infinitely. This works in church, in small groups, in business, in networking.

Bottom line: if you want longevity, strength, sustainability, duplication, health...you've got to go deep. 

7 Keys To Starting A Movement

[The best 3 minutes of your day]

A few things I think we can learn from this video.
1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
3. When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.

by loswhit in Deep Stuff

Selling Walkmans in an iPod World

From the American Express blog contributed by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing.  By the way, highly recommend checking out the Duct Tape Marketing web site, some great tools there. 

You want to sell what you’ve got to sell, but what if that’s no longer what the market wants to buy. The Sony Walkman (for those of you under 30) was once the thing. Rich kids and cool kids had them and then everyone had them. But, that was yesterday, now it’s an iPod world.

So, the question is, are you still trying to peddle your industry’s version of the Walkman or are you willing to take a look at every aspect of your business, your products, your services, and your processes in an effort to give the market what it demands?

When times are good, people will spend their money on things they don’t really need, but right now, consumers and businesses are pretty darn focused on getting the most bang for every penny spent. Now is the time to make sure that your products align with that kind of thinking.

Let me give you an example of Walkman vs. iPod business models.

Traditional medical practice

Walkman - you make an appointment through your insurance company, mountain of paperwork, doctor makes you wait 30 minutes past appointment time, doctor pretends to listen, discounts treatment options you’ve found on Internet as a hoax, prescribes several medications to treat symptoms without any discussion about prevention, diet or exercise.

Neighborhood clinic

iPod - same day appointment, paperwork online, massage therapy and green tea while you wait, appointment on time, discussion about overall health, encouraged to explore combination of traditional medicine and alternative therapies.

So, you’re not in the medical business - whatever industry you are in, I assure you there are standard practices that no longer mirror what the ideal customer is looking for - find out what they tolerate and blow it up.

No matter what you make, fix, ship or sell in this day and age, what you really have to offer to differentiate is the customer experience. You are in the customer exciting business and that comes about only when you can put away everything that you assume about your business and products and focus 100% of your strategic attention on understanding just exactly what the market wants today.

From the American Express blog contributed by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing.  By the way, highly recommend checking out the Duct Tape Marketing web site, some great tools there. 

You want to sell what you’ve got to sell, but what if that’s no longer what the market wants to buy. The Sony Walkman (for those of you under 30) was once the thing. Rich kids and cool kids had them and then everyone had them. But, that was yesterday, now it’s an iPod world.

So, the question is, are you still trying to peddle your industry’s version of the Walkman or are you willing to take a look at every aspect of your business, your products, your services, and your processes in an effort to give the market what it demands?

When times are good, people will spend their money on things they don’t really need, but right now, consumers and businesses are pretty darn focused on getting the most bang for every penny spent. Now is the time to make sure that your products align with that kind of thinking.

Let me give you an example of Walkman vs. iPod business models.

Traditional medical practice

Walkman - you make an appointment through your insurance company, mountain of paperwork, doctor makes you wait 30 minutes past appointment time, doctor pretends to listen, discounts treatment options you’ve found on Internet as a hoax, prescribes several medications to treat symptoms without any discussion about prevention, diet or exercise.

Neighborhood clinic

iPod - same day appointment, paperwork online, massage therapy and green tea while you wait, appointment on time, discussion about overall health, encouraged to explore combination of traditional medicine and alternative therapies.

So, you’re not in the medical business - whatever industry you are in, I assure you there are standard practices that no longer mirror what the ideal customer is looking for - find out what they tolerate and blow it up.

No matter what you make, fix, ship or sell in this day and age, what you really have to offer to differentiate is the customer experience. You are in the customer exciting business and that comes about only when you can put away everything that you assume about your business and products and focus 100% of your strategic attention on understanding just exactly what the market wants today.

Accentuate The Positive

Back in the 40's there was a song by Bing Crosby called 'Accentuate The Positive'. 

 You've got to accentuate the positive
 Eliminate the negative
 Latch on to the affirmative
 Don't mess with Mister In-Between

There's a great lesson here.  Not original though.  Consider

Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

 ⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

In the late 90s I was on staff at a church plant in Kansas.  Things were booming, doubled to 300 in one year, reaching tons of people, tons of buzz around town...it was great.  But there was this one family that wasn't happy.  One.  Out of hundreds!  And my pastor could think of nothing else.  It was a huge distraction to him which ultimately made it a distraction for all of us.  I remember asking him how in the midst of all of this incredible success did that one thing bother him so much? Apparently I wasn't listening to myself.

Fast forward to the last 7 days.  Most of our spring clients are wrapping up and getting final products from us.  The accolades have been awesome.  I'm honored with an incredibly talented team who have been knocking it out of the park and the clients notice.  Some recent client comments:

"Dude, VERY well done!  Very well done!  You guys do great work."

"That looks FANTASTIC!  You guys are the bomb!  Great Job."

"Take a step toward your window.  Listen for the wild applause coming from me
for this work!  Might be the best intro we have ever done!  Perfect
for this group! Goodness, it is good!  Proud to be associated with this work!"

"Just fabulous, especially for this audience!  You and your team outdid
yourselves on this!"

"You were all great to work with.  Maybe we will work together again and will give your name to others."

The list goes on.  I was flying high.  Then it happened.  One small, indirect, off hand, inferred, sort of negative comment.  And I was crushed.  Disappointed.  Disillusioned.  Distracted.  Defeated.  Tammy let me pity-party for a while then lowered the boom.  In essence she said 'Are you kidding me?'  She was right. 

Amazing how one small issue can overtake 100 great things.  If we let it.  You can walk for miles with a pebble in your shoe, or you can simply take a minute, pull it out, see it for what it really is, put it where it belongs, and get on with it.  Lesson learned.

Church Should Be Like The Dentist

So I'm at the dentist, in considerable pain, root canal looming.  I'm expecting it to get worse, much worse, before it gets better.  Anticipating hours of discomfort, etc...  Then the weirdest thing happened.  It wasn't bad.  At all.  It was almost pleasurable.  They over-communicated with updates of when the doc would be able to see me.  The waiting room was awesome, comfortable, great mags, flat screen, etc...  They're offering me drinks.  The dentist chair was like the nicest recliner I've ever sat in.  I was cold, they gave me a blanket.  There was a tv over the chair so I could have something to watch while he was elbow deep in my mouth.  No kidding.  A potentially scary, awkward, painful, uncomfortable experience turned out to be...great.  Surprisingly wonderful.  Completely painless. 

As church leaders, what can we learn from this?  People coming in for the first time have expectations, and not necessarily good ones.  A lot of the stuff the dentist did really didn't cost anything much, but made me feel great.  It was more about the attitude, the attention to detail, the focus on me.  Walking away I was impressed, and a bit fascinated by the experience.  I was also buzzing a bit from the drugs, but that's another story :)  Hmmm...