jeremyhaines.com

“The Leader who does not seek the Kingdom of God first often does not seek it at all.” Blanchard and Hodges ~ The Servant Leader

As we discussed yesterday, Surrender is the process of seeking the will of God to find HIS mission or purpose for your ministry.  It is foundational.  It is the one thing that shapes, influences, determines and judges every decision and plan that you make for ministry.  It is the final destination for the people you lead.  It is impossible to overstate the ineffectiveness of a ministry that lacks clear vision or purpose.  It is also impossible to ignore the fact that moving in a direction that is not aligned with the will of God will result in long-term failure, even if you find short-term success.

There are literally millions of people that  have written about crafting and voicing you mission or purpose statement so I’m not going to explore that here, I am however going to look at couple of things that are often forgotten.

1.) Your mission/vision/purpose (MVP from here on out) will only be reached if you effectively communicate it to the people you are leading.  To simplify this I’m going to take this discussion out of the spiritual and into the physical.  Let say that I have sought God’s will and determined that the purpose of my ministry is to lead people to get to my church’s worship center.  It is very important that I clearly communicate to my followers that that is our purpose.  Most ministries communicate their purpose, but it has to be done effectively.  I could say “the MVP of this ministry is lead people to the worship center of my church” (least effective). Or I could say “the MVP of this ministry is to lead people to the worship center of Milestones Church in Spartanburg, SC” (more effective). Or I could say “the MVP of this ministry is to lead people to the Worship Center of Milestone Church located at 899 Simuel Rd in Spartanburg, SC 29301″ (most effective).  This not to discount catchy brief MVP statements, but to say that if that is the whole of your communication of MVP to your people, you will not be effective.

2.)  MVP is almost always static and free of change.  If you are properly striving to reach your MVP, then every strategy, plan, program, system and investment will be directly tied to and dependent on your MVP.  Therefore, any redefinition of MVP will be very costly; not only in financial capital, but also in the capital of influence.  It is possible that God will lead you to change you MVP, but that is cause to take a deep breathe and spend some extra time to make sure you are hearing the right thing from the right source.  However, if you are in the process of determining that you failed to seek God fully in initially determining your MVP, and now feel that what God has for your ministry is completely different than what you have invested in up to this point, you can’t afford not to follow God and just deal with the costs.

Tomorrow we will look at ways that you can test your MVP!

to be continued…

Happy day after Labor Day!  Hopefully you chose not to labor.  This week I want to explore what I feel are 3 nonnegotiable keys to effective ministry.  There is nothing to follow that is new or earth shattering, but, based on the lack of at least one of these 3 in most ministries, I don’t think it will hurt if I revisit these things here.  Today I’ll quickly define the 3 keys and then over the next 3 days I will delve deeper into them.  I firmly believe that no ministry can reach it’s maximum, God-sized potential if any one of these 3 things is missing: surrender, strategy, and systems.

Surrender, for this discussion, is the same as the mission or purpose that you have all read or heard about in both spiritual and secular leadership books and arenas.  It is the definition of what you exist for.  It is the destination you want your people to reach.  It is the one truth that all things in your ministry or business are ultimately compared and judged against to decide if something is successful.  However, I feel that there is something foundational that has to happen before we chart our destination: surrender to God’s will.  It has to be God’s purpose or mission for your ministry, not yours.

Strategy is the road you build to guide your people to get to the destination (or purpose) that you feel that God is leading you to lead them towards.  If you’re purpose is to make people more like Jesus, your strategy may be to do so through service.  If you goal is to reach the lost, your strategy may be through culturally relevant worship environments. It is the course you lay out for your people, and like travel itineraries it has to be clearly communicated.

Systems are the vehicles you design and build to carry your people down the road.  This is literally where the rubber meets the road and ultimately where the details matter.  You  have to look at your people’s needs and locations in reference to the ultimate destination, and then create effective vehicles to get them there.

Again, 1 or 2 out of 3 just won’t get it done.  Over the next few days we will look at each key in more detail, and look at ways that you can grade your ministry in each area.  I’m excited!

Buckle up!

Every now and then something comes a long that changes EVERYTHING in a certain arena.  I call these things game-changers.  Every Friday I will let you in on a new one.

This week’s Game-Changer is the latest (comes out in October) offering from those crazy kids over at LifeChurch.tv.  It’s called YouVersion Live and from what I’ve read it’s going to be incredible.  It will be an online app that allows you to create a digital experience to enhance you worship/teaching environments.  You’ll be able to create outlines, references, surveys, bible verses and notes that attenders can access and fill out from their mobile devices during the environment.  They even thought to add options for prayer requests and online giving (church administrators everywhere just got goosebumps.)  To read more visit their site!

PS: If you come across a game-changer let me know and I’ll pass it on!!

As I discussed yesterday, I find several fundamental breakdowns in the statement “we cast a wide net” when it comes to a church’s demographic strategy.  Today I want to look at another very important truth that one must understand to properly craft a demographic strategy: The size of your scope is directly influenced by your available resources. In other words, the only way you can effectively reach everyone is to have unlimited and infinite resources.  Let’s face it, even when we are not in the midst of economic recession, I don’t think there is a church in the world that would say they have unlimited resources (and if you are that church, are you hiring?).  So before you settle on a target demographic, you have to take a long hard look at your available resources.

The word “resources” in church life can mean a slew of different things.  The obvious things are money, facilities and staffing.  Some things you may overlook however may be volunteers, technical equipment, technical aptitude, racial diversity in your body, racial diversity on your staff and competing factors in the community.  I think the best way to explain some of these factors is by looking at some examples.

1. If you don’t have an ethnic group represented on your staff, you shouldn’t target that ethnic group.
2. If you don’t have cameras, video mixers, and post-production equipment AND people with the aptitude to use them with excellence, you shouldn’t start a video driven ministry (i.e. television ministry, web campus, or satellite video venue.)
3. If there is a church in your immediate community that is killing it with a certain target group, you shouldn’t target that group.  You just don’t have the available market share to support the endeavor.

DISCLAIMER:  I feel the need to pause here and voice a disclaimer.  We serve a God that defies logic.  The point of this conversation is not to apply man-made rules to a God that our feeble minds are not capable of fully understanding. However, these concepts should act as a warning system.  God very well may be leading you to do something that defies all rules of marketing, strategy and logic, but if your endeavor is illogical, take extra time to make sure that God is leading you and not something else (your selfish desires, fear of man, desperation.)  We can do all things through Christ, but to think that you can do something logically impossible through your on strength is prideful and irresponsible.

Once you  have worked through the process of choosing a general target demographic based on your available resources, I believe it is beneficial to take one final look at your scope (or size) of your target.  The truth is that the smaller the amount and the sizes of the targets you choose to throw your resources at can greatly increase or decrease your chances of effectiveness and success.  Let’s take another chunk out of the “wide net” metaphor.  Let’s say a net-maker is making nets out of a finite length of rope.  If he chooses to double the overall size of the net, the average size of the holes in the net will double as well, which will reduce the amount of return for throwing the net in a particular fishing area.  In the same way if he chooses to make 4 equal-sized nets out of the finite amount of rope, he will end up with ability to fish in 4 different areas, but each of the nets will only be a quarter as effective as a net that was the same size as the 4, but utilized all of the rope. Inversely, if he chooses to make just one net that is just the right size to fish a particular area, and he utilizes all of the rope to make that one net, he will maximize his effectiveness.  In real terms, this may be the difference between trying to reach people age 25-45 and trying to reach people age 25-30, and it very well may be the difference between scratching the surface and opening the flood-gates.

Thoughts?

When you talk to church leadership about their target demographic a common answer is: “We believe in casting a wide net.” Obviously this a continuation of Christ’s fishers-of-men analogy and it is commonly paired with a misrepresentation of 1 Corinthian 9:22 in which Paul states “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”  The thing that has to be understood is that, while Paul most definitely practiced what he preached in this arena, he do not do so all at once. He was not ALL things to ALL men ALL at the same time.  If you read passage in it entirety you find that Paul says,

“To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.”

When I read this I think one truth stands out clearly: Paul never cast a wide net.  When his target demographic was the Jews, he cast a laser-beam-of-a-net that was tailored specifically for “catching” Jews. When he wanted people “under the Law” to hear about Jesus, he switched tactics and made an appeal to them in way that was most effective for them.  When he came in contact with “those not having the Law”, he again interacted with them in ways that made the message of Christ most clear to them.

I can’t help but draw the conclusion that, had Paul adopted a less pin-pointed approach, his outcomes would have been far less successful.  If he had adopted the same methods as the majority of modern churches he would have tried to “catch” all of the different people groups with that one “wide net.”  Can you imagine the results of Paul’s efforts if he had approached “those under the Law” in the same exact way he approached “those not having the Law.”  In reality they would have probably stoned him, which I’m pretty sure constitutes failure to reach them.

So my encouragement for you today is: STOP! Take the time to seek God and find out who HE wants you to reach right now.  Then find the most effective way to reach that, and only that, group of people.  I trust that God will give you the exact “net” that you need to “catch” exactly the “fish” he desires.

to be continued…

Welcome to jeremyhaines.com version 4.0 (I think…).   I’ve made the decision to finally bite the bullet and roll my site from a portfolio to a blog.  I’ve reached this decision for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost is I officially have zero time for side-work, so the portfolio was pointless.  Second, I’m in desperate need of a mind dump.  I constantly have random thoughts in my head and I need a forum to explore them further and I treasure the feedback that a blog encourages. I hope and pray that, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, my random thoughts may enlighten and encourage the few of you that may wander across these pages.

One side-note:  I am still going to schedule opportunities to lead worship and would love to talk with you about how I may assist your ministry in that area.  If you would like to see video of me leading worship it is available in the “Media Center” at the Milestones Church website.

Again, thanks for stopping by.  I would be honored if you would subscribe to my feed.  Have a great day!

Jeremy