We live in an outcome-oriented culture. Even in church we ask outcome oriented questions: “How many people attend your church?” “How many small groups do you have?” “What’s your budget?”

Outcomes are easier to measure than inputs. Outcomes are very tangible and relatively easy to chart. Inputs can be more abstract and more difficult to track.  For example:  it’s simple to track how many people came to church, but it’s hard to track how many people were invited.  I’m toying with the idea of measuring how many invite cards we print and how many are taken.  Those measurements will force me to think differently about how I encourage people to invite their friends.

Outcomes are the result of inputs. Good outcomes flow from good inputs. We’ve all heard it before: “Garbage in, garbage out.” In my own experience I’ve seen the best outcomes when I stopped thinking (and worrying) so much about them and I instead focused more on the front end work (the inputs). When good outcomes are not present in my life, my work, and my small group, it’s almost always because I’ve not been putting adequate effort into the inputs.

Outcomes are God’s business. It’s up to the farmer to plant, water, and harvest. Yet the actual fruit being harvested was made and grown by God, not by the farmer. The same, I believe is true for those of us in leadership. We plant, water and harvest (inputs) but the fruit is produced by the miraculous work of God.

Maybe we should focus more on inputs and trust God for the outcomes. It’s human nature to want to control things, but the reality is that we are not in control. We are all taking a ride on a giant dirt clod hurling through space at thousands of miles per hour. WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL! Once we grasp this liberating truth, we are free to focus on inputs.

Input more development into the people you lead.
Input more hope into people who are hurting.
Input more passion into your work.
Input more Jesus into yourself.
Input more time into your spiritual growth.
Input more preparation into your sermons.
Input more excellence into your projects.
Input more time into your practice.

I guess what I’m saying, if I’m saying anything at all, is that if we focus on the inputs the outcomes will improve.

But all of you, leaders and followers alike, are to be down to earth with each other, for—
“God has had it with the proud,
But takes delight in just plain people.”
~1 Peter 5:5 (MSG)

Organizations need avenues for honest, humble feedback.  One of those avenues is the hiring process.  New hires must know that it is a practice in your organization to provide immediate, honest feedback.  During the interview give the potential hire some honest, blunt (not cruel) feedback and see how he/she responds.  If the response is folded arms, skepticism, glares, or even panic, this person shouldn’t be hired.  Why?  Because they aren’t humble enough to receive feedback.

Another avenue is what I call the “post event review”.  Soon after an individual or team conducts a presentation, project, or meeting take 5 to 10 minutes to review the event with that person or team.  Talk about what went well, then talk very honestly about what could be better, but never use this as an opportunity to bully.

These first two avenues will lead to an organization that destroys the morale of its team members unless accompanied by a third avenue: the avenue where bosses receive the same kind of feedback from their teams. 360 degree surveys are a great way to get feedback, but making it a regular practice to ask for immediate, honest feedback is much better. The catch here is that leaders must openly hear criticism and NEVER become defensive. If you become defensive when someone you lead is giving you feedback, then you have immediately caused a breakdown of the system.  Those in leadership positions set the tone for cruelty/kindness, honesty/BS, fear/safety.  Leaders must be secure enough to receive this kind of feedback and change their own behaviors accordingly.

Here’s the bottom line: because of insecurity and pride people don’t want to offer or receive feedback. So because of insecurity and pride our organizations stagnate.  Top-down and bottom-up (universal) immediate, honest feedback is kryptonite to insecurity and pride. Immediate, honest feedback is the builder of humility, but only if the leaders of an organization allow it to be.

For today’s post I’m highlighting just three of the questions we discussed because I believe they are applicable to ALL small group ministries whether old or new.  You’ll notice that each question is followed by a subset of questions.  By answering the subsets you’ll find your answers to the 3 main questions.  You’ll also notice that this post is missing my usual commentary.  That’s because I don’t want my opinions or answers to jade yours.

Take some time over the next couple of weeks and really answer these questions.  I believe this exercise will help you discover what’s broken in your ministry, how to avoid potential pitfalls, and clarity regarding the systems and strategies you should use.

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1. What do you want groups to accomplish?

• Why does your church need groups?
• What is the biblical reasoning for this ministry?
• What defines a “win” for a small group in your context?
• What is the definition of “group” in your context or what makes a group a “group”? (e.g. frequency of meeting, group size, mission/purpose)

2. What is the Structure/Control DNA of your Church?

• Does your church more often structure for growth or control?
• Is your Senior pastor more “go with the flow” or more “I want to know every detail”?
• What do you desire more: A faster growing small group ministry or highly trained small group leaders?
• Which does your Senior Leadership prefer?
• Is your church better equipped to handle the problems associated with growth or control?

3. What is your unit of one? 

• What is your mental picture of an ideal leader?
• How realistic is that mental picture? This is your “unit of one” for leaders.
• What is a “disciple” in your context?
• How do you know someone is a disciple in your context? This is your “unit of one” for disciples.
• How do you envision reproducing these mental pictures of leaders and disciples? What systems, strategies, and models will help you best reproduce your units of one?

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Leading a church through change is one of the most difficult things in leadership. Many times those of us in leadership moan that our people are “holding on to the past”. We are frustrated by the fact that people have a hard time letting go of yesterday, but perhaps holding on to the past is actually a good thing.

When leading a church through change, we should always tie the change to the past.  Look back at the legacy of your church and why it was founded.  You’ll see that the thing people cling to is the memory of the good that was done in the past.  People aren’t as attached to that old building as you might think.  They’re attached to what that building represents.  People aren’t as attached to a particular style of music as you might think.  They are attached to what that music represents. People aren’t as attached to that old program as you might think.  They are attached to what that program represents.

So when we lead through change, it’s vital that we listen to those who have been around a while. We should listen to the stories they tell about how wonderful things were in the past.  Ask questions about the lives that were changed in the past.  Ask questions about how effectively the mission was being accomplished, and capture all those stories.

The people who “cling to the past” have fond memories of people being impacted in that old building. They have memories of people being changed by that old music.  They remember when that old program was reaching lots of people for Christ. Listen to their stories and capitalize on them.  Tie the needed new change to the legacy of the past. Help people see that what they love about the past are the stories, not the programs, buildings or methods.

When leading your church through change, you must tie it to the mission and to your church’s legacy of fulfilling that mission.  In doing so, more people will embrace the change.  Let’s face it, leaders who don’t tie new change to the old past ultimately promote division in their organization, and that’s never healthy.  Tie new changes to old stories and you’ll promote unity in the middle of needed change.

In my opinion, the greatest leadership myth is this: Leaders should maximize their strengths and ignore their weaknesses.

Leadership experts promote this idea quite a bit. The basic concept is that leaders don’t need to waste time trying to improve on the skills they aren’t naturally good at. Instead they should tap into their talents and become even better in those areas. 95% of the time I agree with this idea. However, there are some weaknesses that leaders can not ignore.

There are three leadership skills that people must have to lead well:  Casting vision, executing strategy and fostering relationships. Being unskilled or untalented in any of these three areas goes beyond weaknesses and moves into the dangerous territory of liabilities.

Few leaders are naturally gifted in all three skills, but think about the best leaders you’ve known. They could do all three skills at least marginally well. In all likelihood they excelled at one or two of the skills. The one or two that they weren’t naturally good at, they still did pretty well. Now think about the worst leaders you’ve known. They may have been good at one or two of these skills, but they were horrible at one or more of them.

For example, many of us have worked for a person who had the relational IQ of a caterpillar. Their lack of ability to foster relationships was not a weakness, it was a liability. People felt unimportant, undervalued, maybe even used. That experience taught us that fostering relationships is a non-negotiable for leadership.

Many of us have worked for a person who couldn’t put an organized strategy into place if their life depended on it. They were nice and they had great ideas, but they just couldn’t get any traction. Their lack of ability to execute a strategy was not a weakness, it was a liability. It cost the organization lots of time, money, and even personnel. That experience taught us that executing strategy is a non-negotiable for leadership.

Perhaps you’ve worked for a person who couldn’t motivate or inspire you. They cared about you personally and they ran an organized ship, but the work felt stale, monotonous and uninspired. People liked working for this person, but only for so long. Eventually they got bored and wanted to move on. Those who stayed, stayed for the paycheck and endured the lack of passion. This leader’s lack of ability to cast vision was not a weakness, it was a liability. That experience taught you that casting vision is a non-negotiable for leadership.

Now think about yourself as a leader. If you are untalented in one of the three critical leadership skills, don’t think for a minute that it’s a weakness you can ignore. You have a leadership liability that must be eliminated before you can be an effective leader. In my eBook Triple-Threat Leadership I unpack these ideas more and provide an assessment that helps you see your default approach to leadership. It will make you aware of your liabilities and help you take steps to eliminate them.

Whether you use my book or some other tool, address your liabilities today. The cost of keeping them around is just too high! ‘Nuff said.

That is one of the biggest issues for ministers today because of the model of success that comes to us. We get the idea we are supposed to make something happen, and so we need our services to go just right. The concluding benediction has hardly ceased before those in charge are saying to one another, “How did it go?” or “It went really well.” The truth is we don’t know how it went. From God’s point of view, it will be eternity before we know how it went. These folks are not at peace if they are trying to manage outcomes in that way.

This paragraph really got me thinking. I’ve traveled all over the United States working with churches of all sizes and denominations. Most of the pastors I’ve worked with fit the description in the above paragraph. This is because of what I call “the idolatry of excellence.” Don’t get me wrong, I believe that excellence is a good thing. The problem is that it’s just so easy for excellence to become THE thing.

I was filling in for a pastor once and had a video that was a part of my sermon.  When it came time for the video to run, I gave the verbal cue and sat on the stool behind me.  The video didn’t play.  For what felt like an eternity there was silence. Then I said, “And that was the cue for a video to run.”  People laughed and the video started.

In the tech booth, the producer had missed my first cue for the video.  When I sat down he was wondering why I’d gone silent.  When I gave the second cue he had a moment of panic and then hit “play.”

After the service he sought me out and (for lack of a better term) grovelled. “I’m so sorry, Alan. I made a mental error. I went back and watched that part of the service on video and my mistake led to a full 12 seconds of dead air.  Please forgive me!”

“Done,” I replied. “There are much more important things to think about than a simple mistake.  I’m just glad we got to work together.”

The producer was stunned. He said, “If you were my Senior Pastor I’d probably be fired right now.”

“Well I wouldn’t fire you,” I quickly said. “Seven people made decisions to follow Christ at the end of the service.  I call that a win.  Thanks for doing your part to lead people to Jesus.”

About a week later I was talking to the senior pastor at that church and he confirmed that he would have fired the producer that night for making such a huge mistake.  Thankfully the pastor said, “The next day I would’ve felt bad and I would have apologized and offered him his job back.”

That whole experience shook me. Why do we get so caught up in excellence that we are willing to do emotional damage to the people on our team?  Why do we believe that getting things perfect is that important?  When we lose sight of what really matters we’ve made excellence a god.

What matters?

1. People.  God loves people.  People can never meet God’s perfect expectations but He loves them anyway.  If people are going to fail, and God accepts them anyway, who are we to treat people differently? We, as leaders, should never sacrifice a person’s dignity because of a mistake. We should focus our attention on what God is doing in spite of our mistakes, rather than focusing our attention on what we can do when we are mistake free.
2. Eternity. Focus on eternal wins not temporal mistakes. Because of Christ’s work on the cross God forgives all of our temporal errors and gives us eternal life. If we have a hard time forgiving someone’s simple mental error, we really need to examine our own hearts!
3. Jesus. We are commanded to do all things for his glory, not ours. We are also commanded by Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. Abusing people, in the name of excellence, when they fail doesn’t fulfill either of these commands. To honor Jesus we must honor people.

Below are 10 practices you should consider to help improve your ability to influence the people you lead:

• Treat people like human beings rather than human resources.  Too often leaders threaten their followers, use them, or neglect them.  Remember, the people you lead are just that:  PEOPLE.  Leaders who write people off and treat them poorly always reap the negative benefits of those actions later.
• Err on the side of generosity.  Be generous with your time.  Be generous with your resources.  Be generous with forgiveness, praise and encouragement.  Yes, this will cost you, but the results are worth it.
• Always let people know where they stand.  It is leadership cruelty to let under-performing team members think they’re doing well and to let excellent team members wonder if they’re succeeding.  Give your followers clear direction and keep them abreast of how you view their progress.
• Believe in your team.  People beat themselves up a lot, they don’t need you to add any bruises to their collection.  Help their confidence by believing in the people on your team.  Look for the untapped potential in all of your team members.  Tell them you are proud of them.  Tell them you believe in them.  When you reprimand someone make sure you genuinely believe they can improve.  If you don’t believe in your team, you have the wrong people on your team, you have people in the wrong positions or you are too darn cynical.  Figure out which it is and take address the issue immediately!
• Praise people publicly and correct them privately.  Never never never never reprimand people publicly.  You’ll lose equity with the person being corrected and the people hearing the reprimand.  Always always always encourage people publicly. This gives a boost to the person being praised and gives hope to those hearing the encouraging words.
• Refuse to respond in anger.  When a team member fails, don’t explode.  If you’re mad, go somewhere to cool off before you address the issue.  When you explode, you make the people you lead afraid of telling you when something is wrong.  Losing your temper is the fastest way to create a culture where your followers lie to your face and cover up their mistakes.  Can you say, “unhealthy?”
• Apologize.  When you make a mistake, admit it. Tell your followers that you regret your actions. DON’T MAKE EXCUSES or say “I’m sorry, but…”  Just say “I’m sorry.” The people you lead don’t expect you to be perfect, but they do want you to be humble.
• Send hand-written notes. In an era of emails, texts, tweets and Facebook wall posts, it’s truly astounding to be given a hand-written note. Send hand-written apologies, thank you’s and notes of encouragement. Your team will be moved by the fact that you’ve taken a little extra time for them.
• Strive for excellence.  My former pastor, Craig Groeschel, often says, “Excellence honors God and inspires people.” I couldn’t agree more.  As you strive for and expect excellence, your team will respond. People want to do remarkable things. They want what they do to matter. Aiming for quality results contributes to a culture of excitement, hope, confidence and expectation.
• Do what you say. Nothing will undermine your leadership influence faster than inconsistency. Never forget, people judge themselves by their intentions but they judge you by your actions. When you don’t do what you say, people begin to think you lack integrity. They may overlook it at first, but eventually they’ll think you are full of hot air (at best) or an outright liar (at worst). Do your absolute best to always follow through on all of your commitments no matter what!

50% of each purchase will go directly to Church of The Messiah, a mission organization in Guatemala.  Church of the Messiah began in 1974 as one church.  Since then it has grown to 17 churches across their entire country as well as schools and medical clinics.

LIST OF DEVOTIONALS

BENEFITS

EXCERPT

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God…

~Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

Each of the four Gospels has a slightly different telling of the Christmas story, but did you know that Paul also told the Christmas story in Romans? The following passage from Romans 8 is not traditionally thought of as a “Christmas passage”, but the Message translation certainly opens our eyes to a new way of looking at Christmas.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem [of sin] as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

~Romans 8:3-4 (MSG)

With nativity sets, ornaments, paintings and carols we typically picture Christmas as an innocently sweet scene. Yet from sin’s perspective Christmas was the first blow of God’s redemptive war hammer! When Satan peered into the stable, he didn’t see sweet little angels, sheep and swaddling clothes. He saw a mighty warrior waiting to burst forth from the manger and free humanity from sin’s slavery. He saw the first battle in a war that he would eventually lose.

The next time you look at that little nativity set or sing carols about the birth of Christ remember that God indeed went for sin’s jugular. He personally put on an earth suit, came onto the scene and made war against sin and death. Christmas was the bugle call informing the forces of Hell that they would soon be defeated!

Activity:

Look at nativity set or a picture and imagine Satan’s perspective of this scene.  How does it make you feel to know that this precious baby would ultimately become the most powerful warrior of all time?

Prayer:

Lord, let us see Christmas in a new light.  This year let us not only see Your love and beauty.  Let us also see Your power!

Yes, I’m a ridiculously fanatical Star Wars lover. I’ve collected Star Wars memorabilia since 1977 and I still enjoy collecting today. Two friends suggested that I write some kind of post about Star Wars and small groups, so here goes. All small groups have a few stereotypical people in them. Today we’ll give faces to a few of these group-member-stereotypes by comparing them to classic Star Wars characters.

Obi Wan Kenobi — The noble group leader who is trying to get a diverse bunch of people on the same page. He understands spiritual growth and the need everyone in the group has for it.  He’s not perfect though: he has martyr issues.

Luke Skywalker — The naive group member who dreams of things to come, and needs to become a little more connected with reality. This person has potential, but needs a lot of growth.

Han Solo — The cocky small group member who is a tough nut to crack.  He acts like he’s got everything together on the surface, but underneath he has real issues and needs the friendship-bond of faith far more than he realizes.

Chewbacca — The group member who seldom says anything, but is loyal to the rest of the group no matter what.

Princess Leia — The group member who recognizes the necessity of small groups and has a “whatever it takes” attitude when it comes to fulfilling the vision of small group ministry.  She asserts herself into a co-leader role whether or not she’s been asked to serve in that capacity.  Although she’s really committed to the group, NEVER ask her about the problem she has with kissing her brother.

See Threepio — Every group has “that person”: the super-needy, always complaining, never optimistic, paranoid, downer who is at the same time the group’s plucky comic relief.

Artoo Deetoo — The group servant.  He loves to help and make sure that everyone feels important. Everyone loves him to the extent that he’s almost the group mascot.

Aunt Beru — The “hostess” of the group.  She loves to bringing food and being the group “mom”.  She’s really nice, but don’t drink her blue milk.  It’s good for you, but tastes like Degoba swamp water.

Yoda — The small group coach who shows up from time to time with great advice and insight.  He makes group life look and sound easy, but his coaching is sometimes hard to put into practice.  He also has a slight tendency to talk over group members’ heads.  Plus that whole backwards-speak thing is just weird.  ”Out you must go, for your mission to succeed.”  I mean, seriously, who talks like that?!?!?