This past week our staff went to the beach (Avalon) for our annual planning retreat. We made great progress in defining some of what next year (September 2010-May 2011) is going to look like: message series, children’s and student programs, major events, etc. We also discussed new structures for our work together. Until recently we […]
Category: Communication
Here’s the rest of my list: Mistake #6: Trying to Fix Problems…rather than Process. Unfortunately, there have been too many times when I have found myself reacting to a problem rather than addressing the process that led to the situation in the first place. It takes a lot of discipline to rise above the […]
Yesterday morning we meet with our Strategic Planning Leadership Team. Each of these team members in turn lead a team of people looking at campus and buildings, finances, human resources, technology and a category we’ve been calling “teaching church.” As I learned in the course of the meeting, these teams are doing a […]
Most of my experience of church growing up was boring. I realize that some of that was due to my spiritual immaturity, but the experiences were still boring: not aggressively bad, but hardly good, hardly ever well done, rarely joyous or challenging, just boring. Unfortunately, my experience is in no way exceptional. Church should not […]
This week we’re taking time for some staff reflection and development before our big “fall launch” weekend. In that time we are going to be looking at our staff culture and values. I have been thinking about things I want my staff to know. But the other side of that are things my staff needs […]
We are getting ready for a staff development session on September 9, looking at our staff culture and values before we jump into the busy fall season. In preparation for that session I have been thinking about and reading about what I expect to see in our staff and what they need from me. Here […]
We are going to take some time as a staff to sit down before we launch the fall season and take a careful look at how we are working together as a team. To get ready for that discussion I am looking at what I need from my staff and what they need from me. […]
Beyond the buildings and programs and personalities that make up a Church community there is also going to be a culture, just like any organization or community. The dictionary defines culture as the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns characteristic of any community. It’s a style of social expression and activity that is deeply determining […]
This past Sunday we published four of the seven “great practices” we had found in successful Churches. Below are the final three practices. Take a look. Practice Five: Not only are you only as good as your web site, you are your website. The Internet is the most important place and way your Church will […]
As we gathered together with Parish staff and leadership last week we spent some time looking at things we’ve learned from others, especially the very best practices of some of the most successful Churches in America. As an exercise, and for purposes of our current discussion, we identified 7…obviously there are many more, but 7 […]
