5 Months of Essential Church Leadership Tools in One Place
That's subjective of course. But the Best of the 411 is here..
The 411 is my private, monthly email to pastors that highlights four links, one quote, and one Freebie.
About three times a year, I open it for new subscribers. If you are interested, click here.
Here is the “best of 411” for the last 5 months.
From May
A Framework to Assess Your Friendships:
This comes from Sahil Bloom’s Friday 5 newsletter back in April.
“Framework to assess your friendships:
Leaves, Branches, & Roots
Actor Tyler Perry—portraying his wise Madea alter ego—once shared a brilliant framing for thinking about your relationships.
There are three types of people in your life:
· Leaves: These are the people that are only around from time to time when the weather is good. They blow around as the winds change. They provide shade during the summer, but as soon as winter comes, they fall off the tree and disappear.
· Branches: These are the people who are more present and stable than the leaves, but they aren't permanent. They look strong, but if you try to stand on them or pull yourself up from them, they may break under your weight.
· Roots: These are the people who are permanent. They are deep and wide. They are there in the summer and the winter, they are unperturbed by the changing seasons. The leaves and branches may come and go, but the roots are there forever.
I love this perspective.
There's nothing wrong with having leaves and branches in your life. When times are good, these people can bring joy to your world. But never make the mistake of thinking they will be there during the bad.
The most important question: Who are your roots?
Who are the people who will be there through good and bad? Who are the people who will sit in the mud with you?
Find them. Cherish them.”
Some implications:
How would this qualify a board member/elder or other servant? We expect Staff to be “roots” people, but what about other leaders?
Congregations have people in all the categories. What is the healthiest percentage in each? I don’t think it’s 100% roots by the way.
Share your thoughts.
From June …
The Weekend now starts on Friday –
It's not that this is news to most of you, but if you are in a white-collar, high-remote worker area, they are gone by Friday.
“Remote workers also aren't waiting until 5 p.m. on Friday to take off for weekend trips, which now often span three or four days rather than two, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
Some Implications:
Fewer Thursday evening meetings – small groups.
Many churches have staff take Fridays off or half-day Fridays.
If the participants are gone Friday, they probably won’t be there Sunday either.
From July….
Story Link 3 – Age 25 – Then and Now
This won’t surprise you – Young Adults hitting key milestones later in life – from Pew
I used to do an innovation briefing for large churches talking about how everything has changed since 1980. I picked 1980 because that was the era of many boomer churches launching to prominence.
But check the chart here from Axios charts:
Big differences on marriage and children and that really has to impact how we think about churches.
Also – note in that report – Women are in a much better position than 1980 in most factors.
When people tell me – “we seem to have a lot fewer young couples in our church than when we started attending here…” Well, there’s a reason for that.
How we reach into those single segments is a whole other discussion.
Story Link 4. 29 million
And that’s just those that work AND care for aging parents or relatives.
Whether the statistic is highly accurate or not, I think it is right directionally.
Observations:
That’s something like 9% of the population.
It will impact your leadership – lay and staff. (Often very responsible people)
Not to mention those in the congregation.
It will cause lots of stress.
Creative churches will find a way to minister.
I am not quite there yet, but my wife and her siblings ended this phase with my mother-in-law's passing last year.
It has also impacted several of my Senior Pastor Smart Succession ™ clients in their transitions.
Most of us will have to deal with this one day. How would we want our church to respond?
If you have some good ideas, send them in.
Bonus:
Carey Neiwhof pointed to this and it is fascinating. How old are you compared to the rest of the population in the U.S.?
Use the slider to input your age, and then you can tell what percentage of males and females are younger or older than you. At my age, 79% of the males and 75% of the females are younger than me! And I am only 62.
While I think a pastor can communicate to multiple generations, there can be a limit as to your effectiveness at some point. How one views their congregation matters here as well.
Implications:
How do your age percentages relate to your congregational composition?
What is this saying to you?
In my experience, the older the Senior Pastor, the more limited the attractiveness to younger generations. There are exceptions, but they are rare.
One way to overcome this is a broader generational teaching team approach.
Another is to find a new role and turn over leadership.
1 Quote:
“Emotions are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate where your heart is in the moment, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to dictate your behavior.”
– Lysa TerKeurst, author
H/T Charles Stone for pointing me to this
FREEBIE(s)
· 33 Basic Statements on Senior Pastor Succession now available for Kindle. Best in Kindle app to get the photo flow.
· And our next webinar – October 17th – 7 Additional Statements on Senior Pastor Succession. Noon eastern. Register here.
A few clients transitioned to new leaders this summer, and I can reveal them to you: Venture Church and Ingleside Church. Both did a great job through the process. I am currently working with 7 others still in the quiet phase.
They join successful Senior Pastor Smart Succession ™ past clients such as: LCBC, Eagle Brook, New Life Queens, Bridgetown, and others.
Is it time to discuss your eventual plans? Schedule a free Zoom session to review the updated learnings. Reply to this email, and we can set a time.