Tag Archives for Society for Church Consulting

STO LEADERSHIP & Are you a general or a colonel? What characterizes your leadership style? #video

What characterizes your leadership style? Dr. Bob Whitesel, professor of Christian Ministry and Missional Leadership at Wesley Seminary, discusses two leadership styles that are also found in the military. How will different leadership styles implement the goals and vision of your church and ministry? (Excerpted from the Society For Church Consulting’s Church Staffing Summit 2015.)

https://www.biblicalleadership.com/videos/are-you-a-general-or-a-colonel/

VOLUNTEERS & What’s the prescription for your church’s role-to-task ratio? #CharlesArn – why your church community has too many tasks & not enough leaders to implement them.

There may be many factors involved in why your church community has too many tasks and not enough leaders to implement them. Dr. Charles Arn dives into this question and offers solutions for how to create a better role-to-task ratio for your congregation. (Excerpted from the Society For Church Consulting’s Church Staffing Summit 2015.)

 Video: What’s the prescription for your church’s role-to-task ratio?

by Charles Arn
There may be many factors involved in why your church community has too many tasks and not enough leaders to implement them.

Watch more at … https://www.biblicalleadership.com/videos/whats-the-prescription-for-your-churchs-role-to-task-ratio

FRIENDSHIP & How to create intentional opportunities for friendship #CharlesArn

Discover how friendship is a key to creating community in your church. Dr. Charles Arn, Professor of Christian Ministry and Outreach at Wesley Seminary, shares ideas of how to develop this aspect of your congregation and the reason why it will lead to church growth. (Excerpted from the Society For Church Consulting’s Church Staffing Summit 2015.)

 Video: How to create intentional opportunities for friendships

by Charles Arn
Discover how friendship is a key to creating community in your church.

Watch more at … https://www.biblicalleadership.com/videos/how-to-create-intentional-opportunities-for-friendships/

STO LEADERSHIP & Learning from your leadership style: Are you a shepherd, a visionary or a combination of both? #video #SocietyForChurchConsultingSummit

by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 1/15/17.

Are you a shepherd, a visionary or a combination of both? Dr. Bob Whitesel, professor of Christian Ministry and Missional Leadership at Wesley Seminary, talks about his leadership style and the pros and cons he found along the way. (Excerpted from The Society For Church Consulting’s Church Staffing Summit 2015.)

 Video: Learning from your leadership style

Are you a shepherd, a visionary or a combination of both?

Watch more at … https://www.biblicalleadership.com/videos/video-what-my-wife-taught-me-about-leadership/

Speaking hashtags: #TransformationalLeadershipConference

MARRIAGE & What my wife taught me about leadership #BiblicalLeadershipMagazine #video

by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 2/6/17.

Everyone is a mixture of various leadership styles. Hear Bob Whitesel share what his marriage unveiled about how different leaders approach decisions and even God. How could different leadership styles complement your church’s team? (Excerpted from the Society For Church Consulting’s Church Staffing Summit 2015.)

 Video: What my wife taught me about leadership

Hear Bob Whitesel share what his marriage unveiled about how different leaders approach decisions and even God.

PASTOR TRANSITION & 6 Things You Must Understand for a Successful Transition

by Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D., 9/28/15.

William Vanderbloemen has studied the inner workings of hundreds of churches. As the founder of maybe the largest pastoral search firm in America (www.vanderbloemen.com), he shared at the Society of Church Consulting Summit on Church Staffing at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I’d looked forward to hearing from him, since he helped one of my client churches (Vineyard of Cincinnati) complete an effective pastoral succession. Here are my notes from his presentation.

1) AGILITY: Power to nimble. By this he meant that churches have everyday innovation. They work at this because every day that a church exists it becomes less flexible. So, it requires churches, like people, top practice exercises that keep you nimble and flexible. Stretching exercises as a team are his recommendations to offset calcification. He suggests you recall the “unlock your past, to unlock your future.” Read the board minutes to cite examples of where the church in the past has become nimble and flexible to foster agility.

2) RECREATE EFFECTIVE CULTURES: The question he uses to understand culture is “When were the times when you functioned best as a team? And, what were the things that characterized your team at those times.” This is what he defines as “the code for your culture.” In new churches it it the set by the top five leaders in your church. In old churches it is set by its history. “I think we have seen the death of the 5-year plan. It is now about defining and supporting out culture.” So Vanderblomen feels the future is not planning your future, but understanding, stating and aligning your current and future teams with your culture.

3) FOSTER FLATTER ORGANIZATIONS: This means people on the front lines, those in the trenches, are given empowerment to make decisions rather than waiting for upper management to give permission. “It is not necessary to check in with the hierarchy. If those on the front lines understand the problem, they solve the problem on the front lines. This is a flatter organization, where teams can make the decisions, they don’t have to ask the higher-ups if those on the front lines know the culture.” He went on the say these we characteristics of Millennials.

4) FEWER SPECIALISTS: “There are fewer specialists on staffs today. A good Children’s Ministry leader can learn the speciality skill to be a youth pastor.” He stressed you hire leaders and then they can adapt and move around to fill needs. This is partially being filled by more part-time workers. A part-time but excellent leader will be better part-time rather than just using her or him as a volunteer. Hiring more part-time leaders is the future. “Fewer people, but better people; they are spending more money on smaller staffs.”

5) THEOLOGICAL AWARENESS: Being aware of theology and practice is something younger generations want today. Online and accelerated seminary programs are attractive, but they don’t want to leave their context to go to school. This is exactly what Wesley Seminary offers.

6) AWARENESS OF OPPORTUNITIES: My students undertake a SWOT analysis, where the O stands for external opportunities that an organization must respond to. This means a church is sensitive to what is happening on the outside and an organization is prepared to pounce upon new opportunities. “Communication breakthroughs lead to religious renewals that take advantage of those breakthroughs.” He went on to talk about Roman Roads that carried the Good News, how the printing press fueled the Reformation and I would add how the Industrial Revolution was used to spread the method of the Methodists. Being ready to take advantage of new communication tools usually leads to great spiritual breakthroughs.

PASTOR TRANSITION & Thoughts from a Conversation w/ William Vanderbloemen

by Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D., 9/28/15.

Tonight I had dinner with William Vanderbloemen, founder of one of the most successful pastoral search firms http://www.vanderbloemen.com/about/team and co-author with respected researcher Warren Bird of NEXT: Pastoral Successful That Works. As the former pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Houston (the oldest Presbyterian church in Texas) he learned from a colleague how Christian hospitals had effective succession plans. Out of these two careers came one of today’s most effective pastoral succession firms.

We were discussing how churches branch out with different cultural worship expressions. Knowing Bill was from Texas, I mentioned that a colleague of mine in Texas was branching out with a “Cowboy Church.” If you know about Cowboy Churches, these churches often hold worship at rodeos or under a tent, where boots and cowboy hats are welcomed, even expected at church (see Cowboy Church with Rodeo Arena, They do Church Different).

William responded, “The key for success is if the preacher is really from the cowboy culture. You can’t fake that in Texas. There is one Cowboy Church pastor and he is missing two fingers. He lost those riding in the rodeo. That is a signal that he is part of your culture.”

William’s response reminded me of what I had heard about his firm from my client, Vineyard of Cincinnati, that had used him with their pastoral search.

The key is authentic cultural relevance. The cowboy pastor with two missing figures was a sign to his cowboy culture that he was committed and authentic.

As a man who leads probably the largest pastoral placement firm in America, I’ve heard from my clients that he stresses the importance of matching a pastor to the authentic culture of the organization. “So do you have a place on your questionnaire that asks, ‘How many fingers do you have’?” May be we should he replied.

CONSULTING & COACHING: A Review of Gary McIntosh’s book “Taking Your Church to the Next Level”

Book: Taking Your Church to the Next Level, Author: Gary McIntosh (2009) reviewed by John (Jack) Pladdys, 4/14/15.Next level

What section of the book (pages and/or chapter) impacted you the most and why?

Much like The Interventionist, this book was filled with incredibly helpful tools as I work at becoming a change agent and church consultant. The classification of the congregational life-cycle as well as the classification of congregational size will serve me well as I develop as a pastor. However the section that impacted me the most was Chapter 7: The Dying Church. I believe this is in part because of my recent situation and being the closing pastor of a dying congregation.

All of the issues of a dying church were present in my congregation. Upkeep of the facilities was a critical problem. We had more space than we needed. As a young pastor in my first pastorate, I tried hard to bring about change. We reached a point when it was not financially feasible to keep the doors open.

One thing McIntosh said that I find baffling is, “Often in a dying church, change is perceived as a threat to the church’s existence, and people seem unwilling to try anything new” (p. 76). I agree very much with the statement, but it does not make sense. A dying congregation has no threats to their existence; they are going to die anyway. Why not attempt anything in order to turn around the status quo? This was a big issue for me in the beginning of my pastorate, and at least a quarter of the congregation left within my second year due to changes that were being made.

What were the two most helpful tools, insights or practices that you gained and why?

  1. The concept of feedback loops was insightful as I lead the next congregation God calls me to. McIntosh says there are three important clues in the feedback loop, that if I pay attention to, I will thwart off congregational closure. First, the feedback system alerts a congregation to the positive and negative aspects of the congregation’s ministry. Second, ministry capital (spiritual, directional, relational, structural, and physical) activates the type of feedback the system is reporting. Third, the feedback system helps my congregation stay within the “green zone” of growth opportunity.
  2. In order for continuous renewal, the pastor must either adjust his leadership style to fit the congregation’s stage in the life-cycle, or new leadership must be retained. Most leaders are not able to bounce back and forth. I extrapolated from this discussion that the senior pastor does not have to leave, but a leader with the skills necessary to move the congregation forward at the “choice point” must be hired.

What will you change about yourself and your tactics as a result of this reading?

In chapter 17, McIntosh says, “While planning for the future, we must be improving the present” (p. 201). As a strategic leader, I tend to always look ahead. This causes me to easily ignore what is currently happening. I do not do this purposely, but I just let it fall on someone else to deal with the present. One thing I am going to do is work to stay in the moment, rather than always think about what is next.

CONSULTING & COACHING: A Book Review of Lyle Schaller’s “The Interventionist”

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “I select the most helpful book reviews from my students and publish them here.  These snippets of some of the best ideas and tools from the book will hopefully inspire you to read it. But at the very least these reviews can help you glean a few of the important tools/principles.”

Book: The Interventionist, Author: Lyle Schaller (1997) reviewed by John (Jack) Pladdys, 4/14/15.

What section of the book (pages and/or chapter) impacted you the most and why?

It is almost impossible to find one section of this book that impacted me the most. Schaller’s book reads like a manual for church consulting. I feel as though I have taken an entire 16-week course just by reading this book! However, if I was forced to pick one section, it would be Chapter 10: Evangelism or Intervention? (Although it is closely followed by chapters 4, 6, 7, and 9.)

The first story in chapter 10 captured my attention. As a relatively young pastor and a candidate looking for a position, my first reaction to the question, “How do we attract more young people?” is to offer a solution. Schaller reminds me that taking this plea literally and offering a suggestion will only lead to frustration. The problem is not trying to reach young people. The problems are a resistance to change and lack of agreement on priorities. By dealing only with issue, I fail to deal with the real problem. Schaller then goes on to discus three levels of change. He describes first level changes as doing what is currently happening, only better. If that does not work, then second level changes are a little more intense, but incremental. Third level changes are considered radical changes as they are a complete departure from the status quo.

What were the two most helpful tools, insights or practices that you gained and why?

  1. Ask more questions. Early in the book, Schaller says, “More can be learned by asking questions than by giving answers” (p. 24). He goes on to support this thesis by helping the change agent develop a series of questions that will help the interventionist discover the problems that are keeping a congregation from growing. A change agent should ask a lot of questions. Schaller is so sure of this that he devotes an entire chapter to a list of 393 questions and says, “The questions presented in this chapter should not be viewed as a complete inventory” (p. 188)!
  2. The discussion in Chapter 7: European or American? was extremely insightful for me. As part of a “made-in-America” denomination, I understand better why my denominational leaders do not talk about the reformers as much as the European denominations do. A joke I have with a friend of mine who is a Methodist pastor is that the Methodist must not see the Holy Spirit because they never talk about Him. He responds with, “Oh, we see Him. We just don’t bath in the Holy Spirit like you crazy C&MA guys.” The distinctions between European and American congregations will be very helpful with me as I attempt to acculturate people from other denominations into my congregation. It will also be very helpful when I am asked to consult with a congregation different than my own.

What will you change about yourself and your tactics as a result of this reading?

I will be slow to offer answers and quick to ask more questions. The goal of a change agent is to understand what needs to be changed and how. I cannot achieve that goal if I enter a situation with a ready-made solution.