renown

(i think this will be my last post on my takeaways from Drive 2010. You can catch up on tons of my thoughts and takeaways over the past 9 posts!)

the 1st breakout i went to was "Developing Teams that Work". it was probably the best breakout session ever. (And i've been to hundreds!) the content was masterful!
it was with Clay Scroggins (aka - the "Scrog Dog") who's in the student ministry, but i think he said this was developed by Reggie Joiner & Kendra Fleming at North Point. And i'm almost positive i've read it before from one of them...

The subtitle explains it better. These are "5 Critical Responsibilities EVERY Ministry Team Must Monitor to Stay on Track"
(So, we've got 7 Core Values + 7 Practices we live by... but these are 5 things that MUST BE PRESENT on our team! i am working this out currently in my head. trying to figure out how our teams can improve...)

These 5 responsibilities are simply necessary in order to accomplish our mission. they are probably directly related to the success of our mission. When stuff goes wrong or when we want to improve it will usually come back to 1 of these 5 areas.
I am now convinced that every team needs to have an expert in each of these 5 areas! here they are...

1  Refine the Environment - we've got to have an environment person. Somebody who can practice "Vuja De" = always see the environment with fresh eyes. (It's a George Carlan joke... the opposite of "Deja Vu" where you've never been to an environment but feel like you have. "Vuja De" is a unique ability to have been in an environment hundreds of times, but still be able to see it for the 1st time.) We all know that the environment is HUGE! We must have peeps from the outside speaking into our processes and environments! ("Listen to Outsiders.")
If we don't continually do this 1st one with expertise then ultimately a generation will be lost! it's a pretty big deal.

2  Nurture the Leader - we need an expert leader of leaders. "Coached leaders go further faster." - Andy. we just need an expert leader coaching the top leaders... and then everyone leads a few... all the way down. this expert has gotta be a people person.
I'm thankful that if we're a part of any culture in this North Point system, we're a part of a leadership culture!
Speed of the leader = speed of the team. Our quality and growth will be determined by the quality of our leader!

3  Value the Team - We need a relational guru who can motivate with vision and appreciate the heck out of the individuals on the team! (I feel like #s 2 & 3 might have a little overlap.) ***Everybody needs to value everybody else's role! Connect every single person's role to the big vision! (remember we're a body like Paul said in 1 Corinthians...)

4  Inform the Crowd - We need a marketing genius like Seth Godin on our team! (i wonder if he's looking for a job at a small church plant in NC? seems like that'd be right up his alley...) somebody who can communicate & market to the masses.. how else are they gonna know?
i can't tell you how many times i've thought (and i'm not the only one) - "i just wish more people would have experienced that!" (it's the marketing experts job to make sure they do! or at least know about it.)

5  Perfect the System - Oh yeah, we need a systems nerd. An orgizational guru! someone who says "How are all these disorganized people [like me] even Christians??? Disorganization is so ungodly!" i want that person on my team!! Because they are the opposite of me.
if we don't perfect the system we "waste critical resources ($) and time."


I think we need somebody who MAJORS in each of these 5 areas on our teams!
*When these 5 are working it simply removes most of the barriers so that the Holy Spirit can work.

***I have not stopped thinking about this for over a week now. i can't get it out of my mind. i know we've got to step it up in some of these areas because the mission is that important!

*some other great leadership stuff during this breakout:
-  "The longer something is neglected, the greater the damage and the harder it is to fix." [man we need to keep that in mind!]
-  our job in every environment is to "Build a bridge and turn on a light." - Reggie Joiner
-  "Teams need a rallying cry." - Patrick Lencioni

You can read the 1st half of this post HERE. (Seriously take 2 minutes to read that post. This won't make sense without reading that setup. this will just feel cold and rigid and you will probably accuse us of being idiots... you might do that anyway, but just read the last post!)

Today we'll dive into the 8 steps of "the funnel" that looks something like this:
And remember from yesterday's post that the whole point is LIFE CHANGE. but there is no sense in offending people with our crap. The only thing that should ever offend them is the gospel! (the message itself.) So we want to earn the right to challenge people each Sunday by intentionally walking through the steps of this funnel. (Not all 8 steps happen every Sunday.)
1  Pre-Service Experience - this begins in the parking lot. This is the broadest part of the funnel, trying to welcome everyone and make them feel GREAT!

2  Opener - Usually a song or game of some sort or something fun/entertaining... *We want to make people HAPPY they are here! **If we can make them laugh/smile the 1st 5 minutes they are here that's a huge WIN!

3  Welcome - Because there are GUESTS! we welcome guests into our home... we don't load them up with a bunch of info. We want 1st timers to feel WELCOMED, not announced at (that's not the win)!

4  Singing/Worship - (it's all worship... so the musical part of worship is step 4). There is a funnel even within this step of the funnel. we must be sensitive to the emotional flow... don't start with a crazy intense song about the blood of Jesus flowing down... that should come at the end of this step of the funnel. Start with a worship song that's way broader and more engaging.

5  Baptism - the way we do baptisms and the stories will get all the people in the room involved emotionally. You can't argue with someone's story! you just emotionally connect.

6  Tension (Andy calls this a "special") - Goal = to create a tension that the message will address. this is usually a song, maybe a video or interview or something. the tension should not resolve during this step! just create it! **tap into human emotion here. make eveeryone in the room say "I hope someone can answer that".

7  Message - start a whole new funnel here! Start out broad and catch everyone and then funnel down to the point that we RISK challenging them... risk offending with the gospel... for the sake of life change.

8  Closer - the only point is to punctuate the point of the message (or whole series).

Following this funnel/template should allow us to be way more creative!

*Here are some great Rules for the exceptions to the rules!
- It's OK to move away from this template on purpose, but it's not OK to drift by accident! You can decide to do it, but don't do it unintentionally. (we recently did this on purpose at Ridge for "Throwback" in April! It was intentional and we all acknowledged it and talked about it.)

- It's never OK to move away from this template because we're bored, we want to do something "cool", or we just want to change it up... *** "If we can leverage cool fro something good that's awesome, but cool is never the goal."

- When we move outside the template, there needs to be a good reason. (Like Throwback for us or our upcoming "Strategic Service" Sunday.)


There you have it. Our funnel or Sunday morning strategic template.

(If you missed the video set up for this yesterday, just click HERE. or even if you just want a good laugh watch the video HERE.)

**Everything we do at Ridge Church we do on purpose. Especially on Sunday mornings. Every single word, action, movement, environment, color, angle, etc... it's intentional. Nothing is an accident. it's all strategic. We have planned and are ready for every person who comes through the doors.

This is modeled for us beautifully by our "mother" church who we are a strategic partner with = North Point. Andy Stanley (their lead pastor & 1 of our teaching pastors) does a better job communicating most things than most people. But he definitely does the best job communicating how intentional we are about what we do on Sunday mornings. Below is my humble attempt to download and think through 2 talks he has done about "the funnel". (The 1st talk was with strategic partnerships in '09 and the 2nd was just last week at Drive 2010.)

This funnel is like a road map or a template for the experience we want to create every Sunday morning. (I think he might call it "Rules of Engagement" now?)
To create this funnel (or template) we have to begin with the end in mind. Which in my very humble opinion and in my limited experience most churches don't do! 

So, on a Sunday morning, one of the goals for us is to have people change their thinking which leads them to change how they live. Goal = Life Change!
We're all about clarifying WINS at Ridge too. When an adult (or student or child really...) comes to Ridge who is not a "church person" and usually not a believer -> a WIN is when that person finds an environment (context) that's welcoming and good and comfortable (familiar) + communication that is engaging and helpful so that it makes them say "I'll come back next week." That's the WIN for us.
But, of course long term the win is life change as they keep coming back again and again.

In our church & no doubt at your church there is a wide range of peeps showing up. Peeps who have never been to church and don't like Jesus and peeps who were born at church and haven't left since.
So, here's a big Question = How do you help such a wide range of people take steps forward spiritually?
Answer = Do what Jesus did... unite them around a common emotion! 

Take 3 minutes and read Luke 15. you can even just click HERE if you don't have a Bible handy.

In that passage Jesus is speaking to a WIDE range of peeps. The craziest "sinners" around who knew nothing about God + the Pharisees and teachers of the law who knew everything about God. How in the world does Jesus engage both ends of the spectrum? He brings them together on common ground with a common emotion! = "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them..."

The sinner & the teacher are immediately FEELING the same emotion together! they're thinking "ahhh, that would be horrible..." 
**Jesus 1st takes them ALL somewhere emotionally! Doesn't matter if they are learned theologically or a "newbie"... He takes them all to the same place emotionally. Because "We build common ground with emotion, NOT INFORMATION."

He keeps going and creates 2 more emotions like this in order to drive home how he wants their thinking and their LIVES TO CHANGE!

*Jesus skipped giving information. He just got everyone nodding their heads "yep".

So, here are 3 Questions you should ask yourselves as you develope the elements for your template for what your Sunday mornings look like. (you do have a template even if you don't know you do.)
1) How will this make people feel?
2) What do we want people to feel?
3) At what point is it worth the risk to make people feel uncomfortable?
*This is so important because every Sunday we have to earn the right to challenge people.

Tomorrow we'll dive in to the actual 8 elements of the funnel and I'm going to think through some other great thoughts about what our Sunday mornings should look like.

This was a hilarious video at Drive 2010. It was the perfect bumper video to play right before Andy Stanley talked about the funnel. That's the "funnel of love" or the "rules of engangement" North Point plans a Sunday worship service by. At Ridge we operate by the exact same funnel.
Our team of 26 people were sitting there cracking up. I love a good spoof video and I love it when The Church can be sarcastic and laugh at itself. ENJOY!


("Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.)

Haha, are you laughing your head off yet? What was the funniest part to you?
(What do you get when you mix contemporary and relevant?)

*check out my post tomorrow as I process my thoughts on "the funnel". This video is the perfect intro for "the funnel." i'm going through 2 different sets of notes when Andy taught us about it... Should be good.

These are some scattered thoughts from one of the greatest breakout sessions ever this week at Drive 2010 at North Point. It was called "Creating a Culture Where Leaders Thrive". I went to it because I think Jeff Henderson is one of the greatest leaders around... but it wasn't just him! The Chick-Fil-A VICE PRESIDENT (David Salyers) + a big dog with Zappos.com (Donavon Roberson) were also talking with us in the breakout!!!

It was freaking awesome. 3 great leaders from 3 great organizations with great leadership cultures talking leadership culture! like i said... freaking awesome.

So, here are my random thoughts & takeaways as i process them:
- Solomon was the wisest man in the world and he talked more than anyone about getting advice and counsel.

- Chick-Fil-A studies the greatest organizations in the world in order to learn from them. A couple years ago they studied NORTH POINT! Wow! CFA, one of the greatest - studying a church!

- "Endearing actions create enduring organizations." Do awesome things for family of staff, unexpected surprises, etc...

- The bottom line is PEOPLE. never lose sight of that.

- "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't care who gets the credit." - Truett Cathy

- Don't motivate people. RELEASE people. I've gotta release the potential of our team! Release them to try, experiment, and lead in their own way (within the guardrails of our mission and core values of course).

- On that above note, i love this formula from the VP @ CFA = Quality of the Idea X Acceptance = Effectiveness (Q x A = E)
10 that is the best idea ever, but the Acceptance is only 5 that = 50. BUT, If the Quality of the idea is only a 9, but Acceptance is a full on 10 the Effectiveness will be 90! that's powerful even though the idea wasn't quite as good.> I hope this is encouraging to all leaders to be accepting of all the half crazy ideas from leaders on their teams.

- "Creating a great leadership culture where the team thrives doesn't cost a lot of money. It does require intentionality." - Jeff Henderson

- We gotta Coach our leaders all the time. If we only do it when something goes wrong then that's really Criticism.

- "We want people to be just as clear on what we want for them as what we want from them." - Salyers. That is great great advice! I am going to start implementing that TODAY!

- ***Probably the greatest thing i took from this whole session was something Jeff said. It convicted me and brought something important back to the forefront of my mind! = "The best thing we can do to lead up is to pray for our leader! My job is to make Andy Stanley as successful as possible."
**I fully agree. My job is to make Chris Brown as successful as possible!
Jeff again encouraged us that we don't have to wait on formal authority! especially when it comes to this. right on. I need to be honoring our pastor & not wait on some kind of formal authority to do this. i need to figure out how to do this practically. working on it...

Those are my random takeaways as i break them down and try to apply them.  

(This post is simply me processing my thoughts from Andy Stanley's final talk at the Drive Conference 2010. It looks like the guys at Catalyst liked the talk so well they have made it the theme of Catalyst 2010!)
This is brilliant! I'm just trying to process it and take it from my brain to action (via this blog).


*Humans have opposable thumbs and it is an amazing phenomenon. That phenomenon is responsible for much of the good things we do and all the progress we have made through the millennia. It is all possible because we can apply pressure and tension with our opposable thumbs.
**Just like the thumb - the right amount of pressure/conflict/tension lets us make progress! There are some tensions that if taken away, would be like cutting off our thumbs!

Every Organization Has Problems That Shouldn't Be Solved and Tensions That Shouldn't Be Resolved. (because to do so would be like cutting of your thumbs.)
Some examples would be:
- Excellence vs. Stewardship = you can't choose 1! that's a tension that needs to stay.
- Time @ work vs. Time @ home = you cannot neglect either one!
- missional vs. attractional = we'll always need both.
- safe environment for unbelievers vs. deeper teaching for believers = this is a tension we will always need to live with.
- and there are hundreds, probably thousands more...

1) we create a new tension. but that new tension is more like a big problem that will wreck everything! **So don't "SOLVE" it... you're not solving anything, just making everything worse!
2) we create a barrier to progress. because...
**Progress depends not on the resolution of those tensions, but on the successful management of those tensions. (our Pastor tells us all the time all the time = "That's not a problem to solve. That's a tension to manage!" brilliant.)

a Great Question is = Are there mature advocates for both sides? - if so, chances are this is a tension to be managed. most of us grew up where all these necessary tensions ONLY had advocates for one side... so the ministry was screwed!

**We have got to be comfortable managing and leading through these tensions!

The Role of Leadership Is to LEVERAGE the Tension to the Benefit of the Organization.
YES! As leaders we have to maximize the upsides of each view and minimize the downsides!

*Here's some great suggestions for how we can leverage these tensions for the benefit of God's mission:
- "Identify the tensions in our organization." **We dare not let anyone  "win" this argument! if we do then we lose as an organization.

- "Continually give VALUE to both sides."

- "Don't weigh in too heavily based on my personal biases." = I lean to 1 side or the other in all these tensions because God wired me that way. We're all this way. SO, we've gotta give value to the other side!
**As a leader you could naturally champion 1 side & suffocate the other side! "See the Upside of the other side and the downside of your side." that is beautiful, mature advice for ANY situation!

- "Don't allow strong personalities to win the day." Don't let their side win just because they're loudest or complain a lot.
** "We need passionate people who will champion their sides, but mature people who understand this principle."

- "Don't think in terms of balance. Think Rhythm." Managers don't naturally go by rhythm, they lean toward balance and fairness. But rhythm goes by the crazy seasons in ministry...
Balance is equal, but we don't always need the same amounts of things. It depends on the time and rhythm of ministry.

Andy concluded with this:
** "As a leader, one of the most valuable things you can do for your organization is to differentiate between tensions your organization will always need to manage vs. problems that need to be solved."


**This is such great stuff. I feel FREED up to EMBRACE TENSION. Tension is a good thing. It lets us make progress in our mission!

I am stoked to work for a great leader like my pastor and boss, Chris. Andy started this talk by saying he had "never taught on this concept publicly" but had only taught it to his staff, etc... BUT, Chris says this stuff to the Ridge staff ALL THE TIME! maybe Andy passed this on to Chris at some point?
i feel pretty lucky.

I hope this has been helpful! This was awesome for me. In every facet of our ministries we must learn to embrace tensions between all the different kinds of people and ministry ideas and philosophies, etc... 
**Many times it's BOTH/AND NOT EITHER/OR!

I am completely exhausted. physically and mentally from all the amazing ministry and leadership principles  packed into my brain over the last 3 days. I really want to start unpacking it all and writing about it on here.

Andy Stanley's final talk was worth the price of the conference. in fact, I think that talk is the main talk and entire theme at Catalyst 2010 coming up in October! It needs an entire post on its own just to process my takeaways. it was awesome.

I mentioned the 3 main talks from yesterday that would be posts all to themselves...

I would say my biggest takeaway from a breakout today was one with Bill Willits & later Jeff Henderson about creating a healthy culture for leaders & staff...
I love that North Point has created a working staff culture that attracts the BEST people and where those same peeps say "This is the best job I've ever had." That's their goal and I think it's pretty worthy...

Along those lines with developing people, Bill quoted Jim Collins who said something i think is awesome = "As leaders you can't predict the future. What you can do is develop your people. Doing so will take care of the future."

Obviously that's a principle and not something that will be true every single time, but that is a principle I want to live by with the people God allows me to lead at any point in time...

All the great (session long) takeaways wil start flowing tomorrow, so don't worry! In case you're dying for something right now, go check out Kendra Fleming's great summary of the "Partnering with Parents" pre-session HERE.

Otherwise, check in tomorrow - late afternoon or evening and I will have a pimp post up with a full brain load of processed takeaways from one of these amazing sessions...

Drive 2010 kicked off tonight & it was bumpin!
Around 3-4K Church leaders from around the world gathered for the kickoff tonight at North Point.

(i shot a short video of the opener on my iPhone and i was gonna post it here, but then i think i read somewhere that they ask we don't post video or something like that... can't remember where i saw that, but i'll be safe and not post it. my crappy quality video wouldn't do it justice anyway!)

Basically they rocked a cover of "Run this Town" from Jay-Z & Rhianna with a girl doing the Rhianna part who dropped down from the roof. pretty crazy. but no Jay-Z part... it was a crazy combined remix with Toby Mac's "Ignition" & 2 guys flowing with that. pretty sick.

Jeff Henderson said the last time somebody dropped through the roof in church was Luke 5 with the paralyzed guy and his 4 buddies... lol.

so, yeah. good times tonight. 3-4K church leaders worshipping God together at the top of our lungs is always an amazing thing! We took communion together and that was awesome.

I was overwhelmed by 1 of the verses on the screens during communion = Hebrews 2:9 = "...He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."
blown away by that awesome thought tonight. that Word was powerful tonight.

Andy Stanley's talk tonight was great as always. I'm honestly really intrigued about what he's gonna say in the morning! They moved session #2 to 8:30am because he said it's really important for us all to hear what he has to say before all the breakout sessions tomorrow...
*I kind of think it will be about learning and being great learning and growing organizations.

Anyway, his talk tonight was stellar. He set it up by talking about the Vision God gives us and this "impossible" Dream we have that actually seems possible. BUT LIFE HAPPENS and we begin to shrink our dream to make it "manageable". (not cool.)

What's your dream? Does it seem impossible these days?
Andy reminded us all that Christianity growing and spreading was ridiculous and even laughable. it was impossible. But God made it happen. all God and He gets all the glory.

But Christians also had a part in changing the world by living out John 13:34-35 & loving each other! Loving slaves, women, the outcasts, Gentiles, etc...
**Jesus gave every single person value when He called us to love each other!

Because of all that - Andy's tagline over & over was "today, there's a cross hanging at the Emperor's entrance in the Roman Colosseum." Which of course, would have been an impossible thought back in the day when the Roman Colosseum was the height of violence and torture and everything that was wrong with the world...
just 1 example to show that no dream is too big. All this vision that God gave us is absolutely possible!

i am so tired.
but tonight's Family Birthday Celebration was awesome. Big thanks to everybody who made it happen. & all glory to an amazing God who does amazing things in our lives for His Name's sake.

Drive Conference 2010 kicks off tomorrow at North Point. We'll be there for the pre-session at whatever time that starts. leaving at 8am for the ATL. The whole Ridge staff team is going + a ton of volunteer leaders. It's gonna be a great week.

As always, i'll be learning and soaking up a TON of awesome stuff and this blog is my outlet for all that great stuff i'm learning... so, i'll try to write a blog each night with some takeaways from that day at the conference.

So thankful to be under the wing of an excellent and learning organization like North Point. tonsa love and respect.

looking forward with some big anticipation all that God has for me over the next 3 days. looking forward to dumping it here on renown each night. (Assuming I'll have internet access...)

i have an addiction to learning and growing and becoming a better leader and better at everything God has for me to do
i love being a part of a learning and growing organization - Ridge Church.

and i love the privilege to learn from and with our awesome "parent" church - North Point Community Church. Probably one of the greatest learning and growing organizations on planet earth!
i count it an awesome privilege that we were planted by North Point and are a strategic partner because we get to learn so much from them + get to participate in some awesome things.

Today I got to hang out at North Point and grow along with them at their children's staff retreat. All the Waumba, Upstreet, and Kid Stuf staff were on their 2010 retreat.

But check out who they get to learn from on their staff retreat! i got to sit in on 3 sessions with Reggie Joiner, Jon Acuff (of "Stuff Christians Like" fame), and Mrs. Children's Ministry - Sue Miller (originally from Willow Creek & now with ReThink).
It was a really awesome day of learning! worth getting up the 2nd day in a row @ 4:30am.

Thanks to North Point & the leadership for setting the bar high & being committed to being a learning & growing organization! and because of my passion for learning and growing, I'm just thankful to get to listen in...