TURNAROUND & They Are About Direction And Consistency, Not Speed Or Size

It’s called a turnaround for a reason. It’s more about the direction you’re heading than the speed you’re going.

By Karl Vaters, Christianity Today, 8/25/17.

…Almost 25 years ago, I was called to help a church turn around from a decade of numerical, emotional, spiritual and missional decline.

There were about 30 very discouraged people when I arrived and, while I wasn’t expecting to go “from 30 to 3,000 in three years!” I did expect a lot more than we got. The church is situated on a busy street in a very populated area, after all. Onward and upward, right?

If you had told me that the church would still be under 100 and worshiping in the same small building after ten years of pastoring, I probably would not have taken the assignment.

And if you’d told me that we’d be under 200 and in the same building 25 years later (as in, today) I’d have been out the door so fast there’d be a Roadrunner cartoon trail of smoke behind me.

But here I am. In exactly that spot. And I’m so profoundly grateful to be here…

Read more at … http://www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2017/august/church-turnarounds-direction-consistency-not-speed-size.html

grit consistency tenure

JOB TENURE & When Should You Switch Jobs? 4 Career Lessons in 3 Graphs #ForbesMagazine

by Stephanie Denning, Forbes Magazine, 4/25/16.

Job-hopping is commonplace these days among millennials. I’ve often wondered how much time one should really stay put in a job? And if you leave, what are you really at risk of missing? Can you leave a job too soon? Can you stay too long?

In my experience there are two important variables. The first is your learning curve. Every job has one. Surprisingly, I’ve found the learning curve to be pretty universal across jobs. From what I’ve seen, it takes about 1.5 to two years to really surpass the steep part of the learning curve. It looks something like this:

After 1.5 to two years, you start to experience diminishing returns to learning. So if you’re concerned about leaving a job too soon, and foregoing some of that learning, let your concern be assuaged by the fact that after two years, your opportunity cost of learning isn’t as high as it once was.

Only after you’ve past this learning curve can you really start to experience productivity gains, the second variable. After surpassing the steep part of the learning curve, it will take you a lot less time to complete a task than it did six months ago. But productivity gains only matter if you’re trying to make a career for yourself in that job. If you’re trying to rise the ranks, this can be helpful because you can spend more time on other tasks and less time on the old ones…

Read more at … http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2016/04/24/three-career-lessons-in-three-graphs/#7fdd2cf727d1

 

TENURE & Most healthy churches led by a pastor who has been there a long time

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel:  When is it time for a leader to leave a church? And how is the centrality of Christ enhanced or undermined by our transitions?  What happens afterwards? And, how does the centrality of Christ figure into the important decision that a leader must make about moving on?

These are some of the questions students often ask themselves, and which some of my readers may even be asking at the present.

A colleague of mine, who studied as did I in the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Seminary, wrote an interesting article about his topic.  In addition, he reflected on the man who greatly influenced my life, and who many say started the Church Growth Movement, missiologist Dr. Donald McGavran.  I thought you might enjoy theses reflections of Rick Warren, and that they might provide some food for thought during this week’s discussions.

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“One reason churches grow,” by: Rick Warren, 3/2/06, retrieved from http://www.christianpost.com/news/discovering-my-purpose-driven-principles-13991

LAKE FOREST, Calif. –In 1974, I served as a student missionary to Japan. I lived with a Southern Baptist missionary couple in their home in Nagasaki. One day, while rummaging through the missionary‚s library, I picked up an old copy of HIS, a Christian student magazine published by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

As I thumbed through its pages, a picture of a fascinating older man with a goatee and sparkling eyes caught my attention. The article‚s subtitle said something like „Why is this man dangerous?” As I sat there and read the article on Donald McGavran, I had no idea that it would impact dramatically the direction of my ministry as much as an earlier encounter with W.A. Criswell had.

The article described how McGavran, a missionary born in India, had spent his ministry studying what makes churches grow. His years of research ultimately led him to write “The Bridges Of God” in 1955 and a dozen more books on growing churches that are considered classics today.

Just as God used W.A. Criswell to sharpen the focus of my life mission from ministry in general to being a pastor, God used the writings of Donald McGavran to sharpen my focus from pastoring an already established church to planting the church that I would pastor. Like Paul declared in Romans 15:20, „It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else‚s foundation.‰

McGavran brilliantly challenged the conventional wisdom of his day about what made churches grow. With a biblical basis and simple but passionate logic, McGavran pointed out that God wants His church to grow; He wants His lost sheep found!

The issues raised by McGavran seemed especially relevant to me as I observed the painfully slow growth of churches in Japan. I made a list of eight questions to which I wanted to find the answers:

— How much of what churches do is really biblical?

— How much of what we do is just cultural?

— Why do some churches grow and others die on the vine?

— What causes a growing church to stop growing, plateau and then decline?

— Are there common factors found in every growing church?

— Are there principles that will work in every culture?

— What are the barriers to growth?

— What are the conventional myths about growing churches that aren‚t true anymore (or never were)?

The day I read the McGavran article, I felt God direct me to invest the rest of my life discovering the principles — biblical, cultural and leadership principles — that produce healthy, growing churches. It was the beginning of a life-long study.

In 1979, I was working as a grader for Roy Fish, professor of evangelism, and finishing my final year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. I decided to do an independent study of the 100 largest churches in the United States at that time. I wrote to each of these churches and asked a series of questions I had prepared. Although I discovered that large, growing churches differ widely in strategy, structure, and style, there were some common denominators. My study confirmed what I already knew from Criswell’s ministry: Healthy, large churches are led by pastors who have been there a long time. I found dozens of examples. A long pastorate does not guarantee a church will grow, but changing pastors every few years guarantees a church won’t grow.

Can you imagine what the kids would be like in a family where they got a new daddy every two or three years? They would most likely have serious emotional problems. In the same way, the longevity of the leadership is a critical factor for the health and growth of a church family. Long pastorates make deep, trusting, and caring relationships possible. Without those kinds of relationships, a pastor won’t accomplish much of lasting value.

Churches that rotate pastors every few years will never experience consistent growth. I believe this is one reason for the decline of some denominations. By intentionally limiting the tenure of pastors in a local congregation, they create “lame duck” ministers. Few people want to follow a leader who isn’t going to be around a year from now. The pastor may want to start all sorts of new projects, but the members will be reticent because they will be the ones having to live with the consequences long after the pastor has been moved to another church.

Knowing the importance of longevity in growing a healthy church I prayed, “Father, I’m willing to go any place in the world you want to send me. But I ask for the privilege of investing my entire life in just one location. I don‚t care where you put me, but I‚d like to stay wherever it is for the rest of my life.”
—-
Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of “The Purpose-Driven Life.”

TENURE & 10 Traits of Pastors Who Have Healthy Long-term Tenure

by Thom Rainer, 9/29/14

Read the entire article here … http://thomrainer.com/2014/09/29/ten-traits-pastors-healthy-long-term-tenure/

Here are some takeaways by Thom.

I approached this issue by looking at over 30 pastors whose tenure exceeded ten years. And from my perspective, their tenures have been healthy and loving. Here are the ten traits of those pastors:

1. They pray daily for their church members and staff. Many of the pastors kept the church membership roll in front of them and prayed through the entire congregation and staff every year.
2. They view their family as their first line of ministry. They did not see a dichotomy between church and family. To the contrary, they saw their family as the first priority of ministry in the church. I will elaborate on this matter in my post this Saturday, where I will share ways Satan seeks to destroy the families of pastors.
3. They connect with and love people in their community. Pastors are more likely to stay at a church longer if they love the community in which they are located. That love must be deliberate and intentional.
4. They choose their battles carefully and wisely. Not every issue is worth a fight. Long-term pastors are not cowardly; they are just highly selective and wise.
5. They welcome structures that make them accountable. Certainly, they don’t seek structures that hinder their leadership. But a leader who avoids accountability is headed down a path of destruction.
6. They spend time developing staff. These pastors view their staff, whether fulltime paid, part-time, or volunteer, as one of their highest priorities for development and mentorship.
7. They expect conflict and criticism. They are a reality in any family or congregation. But these leaders are not surprised or frustrated by conflict and criticism. They realize, if it is handled well, it can be healthy for the church.
8. They connect with other pastors and ministries in the community. They realize that their congregations cannot minister to and reach the community alone. Other churches and pastors thus become partners in ministry rather than competitors.
9. They affirm both theology and practical ministry. Their foundation is the Word of God. They have a robust theology. But they don’t neglect such practical issues as attendance trends, outreach ministries, financial health, and parking lot capacity.
10. They ask long-term questions. They are constantly seeking to lead the church beyond their own tenure. They avoid short-term solutions with long-term negative consequences.

TENURE & The Dangerous Third Year of Pastoral Tenure #ThomRainer

by Thom Rainer

“At least part of the answer to the question above can be found by analyzing the third year of a pastor’s tenure. When I wrote Breakout Churches several years ago, I did just that. My book was primarily about long-tenured pastors who see sustained church health after a period of decline.

But in that study to find longer-tenured pastors, I discovered that the largest numbers of pastors were leaving their churches in the third year of their ministry at that specific church. The finding both intrigued me and concerned me. I began to interview those pastors to ask them why they left.

The Reasons for the Third Year Departure

Though I found no singular reason for the third year departure, I heard a number of common themes:

• The honeymoon was over from the church’s perspective…
• The honeymoon was over from the pastor’s perspective..,
• When a new pastor arrives, most church members have their own expectations of the pastor…
• Typically by the third year, the church has a number of new members who arrived under the present pastor’s tenure…
• In any longer term relationship, that which seems quaint and charming can become irritating and frustrating. ..
• All relationships have seasons. …

Possible Ways to Address the Third Year

Here are a few ways to address that dangerous third year of a pastor’s ministry. None are a panacea; but some may be helpful.

• Have an awareness of the possibility of a third year letdown. It is not unusual, and you are not alone.
• Be prepared for the down season to last a while. The dropout rates for pastors in years four and five were pretty high as well.
• Surround the pastor with prayer. Be intentional about praying for the pastor’s emotional, physical, and spiritual strength during this season.
• Keep the church outwardly focused as much as possible. Church members who are focused inwardly tend to be more critical and dissatisfied.
• Be aware that pastors who make it through these seasons are usually stronger on the other side. Their churches are as well.
• Church members need to be highly intentional about encouraging the pastor and the pastor’s family. While they always need encouragement, they really need it during this season.

Read more at … http://thomrainer.com/2014/06/18/dangerous-third-year-pastoral-tenure/