by Gary Fenton

Read any book about leadership and the word vision is addressed throughout. For good reason, the strength of a leader is often tied to their ability to communicate and rally support behind their vision. But it is easy to misunderstand the definition and application of a church leader’s vision.

Every ministry leader has a vision for their ministry. Sometimes a ministry’s lack of energy or a church’s stagnate growth is attributed to the absence of a leader’s vision. While some leaders are better than others at succinctly communicating their vision, they all have a picture in their mind of what they want their ministry to be and to become. A leader’s vision may be that things never change. And the problem isn’t that the leader lacks vision, the problem is that their vision doesn’t produce an attractive or relevant ministry environment. When conflict arises on a church staff, it is nearly always because two ministry leaders have competing visions and not that either has an absence of vision.

Vision and strategy are different. Vision is what a leader wants the ministry to be or become. If vision is to be communicated, it must move from a mental picture to a word picture. The vision is the destination. Strategy is a tactical plan for how to move toward the destination. Developing leaders sometimes confuse strategy with vision, creating a plan that may or may not work toward fulfilling the vision. For example, a staff member may propose an event to intentionally attract unchurched families to the church campus. But what do you want to accomplish in the lives of attending nonbelievers? Do you want them to just show up? Or do you want them to take a first step toward becoming disciples? Vision driven strategy will always include plans to help newcomers return to the church where environments and mentors are waiting to disciple those same people. Conversely, many churches have the stated vision of reaching non-believers, yet their strategies (and church culture) only appeal to existing Christians. Vision must precede strategy. Vision without strategy is wishful thinking. Strategy without vision is simply a way to organize busy work.

You may have to ask a senior pastor to help you understand his vision. Invite the senior pastor to paint a picture of what the church looks like one year and three years from today. Without understanding his goals for the church, you may be running on a track parallel (or perpendicular) to your senior leader’s goals. And when you understand your pastor’s vision, you can shape the vision of your own ministry to support the bigger picture goals. It will be much easier to gain the mindshare of your senior pastor when you can speak his language, helping him to see how your ministry vision aligns with the overarching goals for the church.

Keep in mind that not all church leaders can explain or interpret vision well. They may struggle to put their goals into words. Other staff members and influential lay leaders may be better at vision interpretation than the pastor. Because there is always a subjective dimension to interpretation and application, it may help to seek the perspective of key staff and church members.

Learn about the history of the church’s vision or mission statement. Sometimes a vision is a reaction to a previous (or ongoing) problem in the church. Occasionally, the official mission incorporates goals imposed by a pastor or a committee and without explanation. Understanding how the vision was formed can help shape its application inside your own ministry.

Design the events and environments under your leadership to support the big picture goals of the church. Use the vocabulary and imagery of your senior pastor’s vision to describe the goals of your own ministry. When promoting your ministry within the church, begin with the end in mind. Talk about what you want to ultimately accomplish rather than focusing on what problem you want to solve. For example, invite prospective volunteers to make an eternal impact rather than draft workers to fulfill a state mandated childcare ratio.

Dr. Gary Fenton is the senior pastor of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Gary blogs at www.CharacterPath.com and can be found on Twitter @CharacterPath.

When I started working at North Point seven years ago, I was given a project right off the bat. I was asked to create a new orientation process for Small Group Leaders. I had been a Small Group Leader in our middle school ministry for four years so it seemed fitting to give the job to me.

I was faced with the question that many of you have faced: How do you equip a new Small Group Leader to do the job they signed up for?

It seemed like a simple idea at first. I’ll just start making some bulleted lists of the things you need to do, right?

WRONG! Those of us who have tried to do this realize that these list gets very long very quickly. And those of us who actually finished those lists and tried to present it to some wide-eyed hopeful leaders realized how ineffective it was after the first 30 minutes of droning on about different possible scenarios.

It seemed a bit hopeless. There was so much to tell a new Small Group Leader that it was impossible to find where to start. So, I did what I was always taught never to do. I quit trying.

I realized that this is a relational ministry and you just can’t teach people how to do relationships—they just happen. And, to be honest, that worked out very well with about 30-40 percent of our Small Group Leaders. They just got it.

But, that didn’t settle with me either. At the end of the day, the effectiveness of our ministries will not be defined by what happens in the best groups, but by what happens in our worst groups.

So, we got back to work trying to figure out how to answer the question I started with. How do you equip a new Small Group Leader to do the job they signed up for? And I think we’ve finally figured out an answer. Here’s what we discovered:

1. You can’t give a new Small Group Leader a recipe or a list.

2. You can’t give them nothing and hope for the best.

3. You CAN give them a list of THEMES in their initial training that they can put their own relational twist on as they lead.

So, we went to work uncovering what those themes were by talking to some of the best Small Group Leaders we knew. And we found something! We took those themes and called them our BIG IDEAS in a book called Lead Small.

To me, these big ideas finally give me something I can offer to new Small Group Leaders to help guide and encourage them without weighing them down with unnecessary information. Also, it provides a vocabulary to use with my Small Group Leaders to continually encourage and equip them. These five big ideas are broad enough to encompass everything our Small Group Leaders will face but small enough to give them a handle to hold onto when they find themselves in uncertain waters.

Check out Lead Small and give them a try. I hope they’re as helpful to you as they are to me in my ministry.

What do we mean by the “Orange Experience”? It includes the Orange Strategy, Orange Specialists, Orange Curriculum, and the Orange Community.

The bottom line is that Orange surrounds you with the resources and support that you need. If you haven’t read about it already, click here for the “Orange Strategy” and you’ll see what we mean.

You can try one thing or try everything for free. And, if you’ve tried it before but want another look, try it again because we’re always adding new features. Choose from any of the resources here. The Orange Strategy and Orange Specialists are always included!

If you need more information before deciding, spend a few minutes tooling around our sites by just clicking on one of the buttons on the menu bars above. When you know which Orange resources you’d like to try, just go here to this page by clicking on the “Free Curriculum” tile in the bottom right corner of most pages.

If you have any questions, please call 888.513.1788 or email freecurriculum@rethinkgroup.org. This offer ends December 31, 2012.

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The fine print:
Our fine print is very limited, but we do have one simple request. If you’ve used or tried either First Look, 252 Basics or XP3 curriculum within the past six months, you’ll need to select a different option(s) for free. For example, if you’ve used 252 Basics within the past six months, but do not have an active subscription, you’ll still need to choose from First Look, XP3 Students, YouLead and/or MarriedPeople.

by Nina Schmidgall, National Community Church (Washington, DC)

Multi-site ministry is an effective way for churches to expand their influence and reach more communities! More and more churches are exploring multiple campuses. National Community Church first went multi-site when we launched our second location in 2003. Since then, we have navigated multi-site children’s ministry as we have continued to expand to our current six locations, meeting primarily in movie theaters across the Washington, DC, metro area.

Before we went multi-site we had to identify the things that made us “one church.” Our family ministry team began to explore how our children’s ministry would operate as one ministry as well. We decided that, like the overall church, we should have one budget, one primary set of policies and procedures. Each location should have individual leadership but share one vision, mission, and set of values. Just as the adults would hear the same message at various locations, our children would learn from the same lessons each week.

Here are some benefits to multi-site children’s ministry:

Reaching New Communities – One of the greatest benefits to multi-site family programs is the ability to reach new people and new communities. We give people the opportunity to feel comfortable inviting friends from school and neighbors to a location right there in their own community—without asking them to cross the bridge. Multisite church puts the “local” back in the local church.

Growing Small – The greatest benefit of being multi-site is the opportunity to have the excellence and resources of a large church with the intimacy of a small church setting. We are able to grow—but by going smaller! Our multi-site structure allows our families to feel the sense of community at their location. Children are still able to receive significant hands-on attention of a smaller church. Families have connections with one another. Our teaching and small group teams have great connections with each child. We are able to respond to individual family or child needs.

When Andy Stanley was recently asked where the church is going, he answered, “Smaller.” Hooray for multi-site then!

Collaboration and Shared Resources – The multi-site approach raises the level of quality for our ministries across all of the campuses. We have a strong commitment of collaboration among our ministry leaders. When we overcome a challenge at one location, we are able to implement that solution across all locations.

Learning Opportunities – Innovations at the new campus inspire improvements at every other campus! Whenever we try something and it works, we take it back to other locations. Multiple locations can be intimidating because, when you make a decision, you have to make it work across all your locations! BUT many of our best ideas come from an experiment we tried at one location.

One of our core values as a church is “everything is an experiment.” The multi-site framework gives us a wonderful opportunity to put that into practice!

Best Practices of Multi-Site Children’s Ministry
Every church does multi-site a bit differently but here are some of my recommended tips and tricks.

Strong Leadership and Strong Vision – In order for multisite strategy to succeed, strong leadership is essential at every site. Within family ministry, we call this person the Location or Campus Coordinator. It is very important to have a “face” with the “place.”

Re-invent! Be flexible! – Systems we had in place when we had two locations have to be adjusted now that we have six—and might have to be totally re-worked when we have 20! We have to encourage a strong attitude of flexibility with our teams and with our parents.

Safeguard the Brand – One leader I know recently identified the head of the ministry as the “Guardian of the DNA.” I love this idea and would identify this as one of the most important aspects of my job leading the family ministry. As we launch more locations, my team and I guard the DNA of our ministry. We regularly visit all campuses, giving a quality check and ensuring commitment to the overall vision. We invest in our team and re-communicate our vision again and again.

Of course, this means that you need to KNOW your DNA. What is the DNA that you are guarding and why is it important? What can be flexible and what really can’t? Can you communicate your vision in 30 seconds? Can your teammates do the same?

Communication – This might be the big ugly hurdle for multiple locations. Keeping everyone on the same page can be tough! A system for communication is essential with multiple campuses. Our teams at each location share a weekly report—touching base about how things went for the morning. This allows our team to ensure we are properly supporting each location, helping them address any needs or concerns, and celebrating their wins.

Ensure Adequate Support – Unfortunately, I have heard too often that new or branch locations do not feel like they have the support they need from the pre-existing campuses. Much like a church plant, the teams in place are trying to juggle multiple hats and face new and unique challenges. If you are launching an additional site, over-estimate the support and infrastructure that site will need to be successful.

Launch – Launching a new location is when a lot of multisite systems are set into place. If you are launching a multi-site ministry, here are some ideas:

• Preparation – Set a timeline and budget goal for your location launches. When we first aim to launch, we raise a core team and they begin meeting for a period of time in preparation for the launch. Typically, these are people who live or work in the community of the upcoming launch and have an excitement and energy to get it off the ground. We have a couple of “prep” services for a few weeks leading up to the official launch date. This allows us to be in the space and practice setting up and using our equipment.

• Ministry Matrix – To fill all of our leadership and volunteer needs, we prepare what we call a “Ministry Matrix”—a diagram of volunteer slots for each ministry. We print it on a huge board and take it with us to all launch team meetings so that the launch team can visually see where the needs are and where we need some more help.

• Volunteer Vacuum – We make an extra effort to maximize our recruiting strategies for ALL locations each time we launch a new site. One great benefit of being a church that is continually launching new locations is that we are consistently creating new service opportunities. We create a “vacuum” for new volunteers. Each time we launch, we encourage folks to prayerfully consider joining a team to help plant a new location or re-commit at their current location.

Our pastor often says that there are many ways of doing church that none of us have even thought of yet! What a privilege to try something new! If you are exploring multiple sites, embrace innovation and the opportunity to take the gospel into new communities!

Nina Schmidgall serves as director of family ministry at National Community Church in Washington, DC. She originally moved from California to the nation’s capital to serve as a legislative director in the House of Representatives. Writing and directing education and family policy, Nina realized her deep passion for strengthening the family and the home. She now oversees the family ministry department and children’s programs at NCC’s seven locations. Nina and her husband, Joel, live on Capitol Hill with their three small kids: Eloise, Ezekiel and Lorenza. When she’s not working, Nina enjoys dance, photography and bargain shopping. Twitter: @ninaschmidgall

What do we mean by the “Orange Experience”? It includes the Orange Strategy, Orange Specialists, Orange Curriculum and the Orange Community.

The bottom line is that Orange surrounds you with the resources and support that you need. If you haven’t done it already, read about the “Orange Strategy” and you’ll see what we mean.

You can try one thing or try everything for free. And, if you’ve tried it before but want another look, try it again because we’re always adding new features. Choose from any of the resources here. The Orange Strategy and Orange Specialists are always included! Try it today!

If you have any questions, please call 888.513.1788 or email freecurriculum@rethinkgroup.org. This offer ends June 30, 2012.

---

The fine print:

Our fine print is very limited, but we do have one simple request. If you’ve used or tried either First Look, 252 Basics or XP3 curriculum within the past six months, you’ll need to select a different option(s) for free. For example, if you’ve used 252 Basics within the past six months, but do not have an active subscription, you’ll still need to choose from First Look, XP3 Students, YouLead and/or MarriedPeople.

Did you miss the Orange Tour near you or want a refresher? Then check out the Orange Tour Online with Reggie Joiner, which was hosted live by Matt McKee, Sue Miller and Jared Herd on March 6, 2012.

Learn the strategy you need for effective family ministry in your church!

The Orange Tour is for every member of your team—preschool, children’s, student ministry and senior pastors.

Session 1: The 5 Essentials by Reggie Joiner
Your church is either characterized by random activities or an intentional strategy. Review the core ideas that “Orange Leaders” use to keep their ministries focused and on mission.

Session 2: The Big Idea by Reggie Joiner
There were critical moments in Scripture when Jesus made it clear what was most important. Learn how the “Great Commandment” should be a critical filter to evaluate how we are leading and teaching the next generation.

Session 3: The Core Insights by Reggie Joiner
All truths are not created equal. There are certain core insights that should be cycled through the lives of kids and teenagers as they grow up. Learn how some of these insights can keep your ministry centered on a relationship with Christ.

For more information on the Orange Tour, please visit www.OrangeTour.org.

On-demand video will be available through the end of March. Note: This broadcast currently only works on Safari or Internet Explorer. Currently Fire Fox is incompatible with this broadcast.

Over the past week there has been a story circulating through Facebook, Twitter, celebrity endorsements, and online news outlets that has fueled a sense of urgency—a video posted on YouTube about the Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony. No matter what your thoughts on the video or campaign, this story evoked a lot of emotion and urgency among Westerners in a matter of days, thanks to the accelerated news cycle in an Internet era. This viral video demonstrated so well the power of how a story can speak to hearts and fuel a sense of urgency among people.

In chapters 3 and 4 of the book A Sense of Urgency, author John Kotter outlines how to increase a true sense of urgency with one strategy and four tactics. Chapter 4 reveals the first of those tactics. One theme is very clear throughout these two chapters and is also very much a part of the Orange philosophy—strategy. Let’s take a look. . . .

True Urgency
Kotter outlines the strategy for creating a true sense of urgency as this, “Create action that is exceptionally alert, externally oriented, relentlessly aimed at winning, making some progress each and every day, and constantly purging low value-added activities—all by always focusing on the heart and not just the mind,” (p. 60). When we aim for the heart, there are four tactics that have five characteristics that will successfully increase urgency: 1) thoughtful human experiences, 2) effective experiences that work appropriately on all of our senses, 3) experiences that are not designed to create just any emotional reaction, 4) experiences that are rarely, if ever, explained, and 5) experiences that lead us to raise our sights and emotionally embrace goals beyond maintaining the status quo.

Chapter 3 gives great suggestions on how to create meaningful experiences such as eliminating barriers during presentations like podiums, using appropriate humor, being vulnerable and avoiding PowerPoint slides that are cluttered with too much information.

On the Outside Looking In
Chapter 4 is filled with information on the First Tactic: Bring the Outside In. For the church, the ideas provided in this chapter give leaders a wealth of strategic information on not only fueling a sense of urgency, but also smart techniques to improve and grow your ministry. Here are just a few of the ideas to glean from this chapter:

• Reorganize the problem of internal focus – When you think you have the answers to problems and others don’t, the instinct is to not pay attention to others—especially outsiders. Changing your culture to an externally focused one will help people naturally look to the outside for relevant information and new possibilities.
• Listen to customer-interfacing employees – Who are these people in the local church? Your volunteers! They have a pulse on the kids, students, and families you’re trying to reach. Listen carefully and often to volunteers and seek their input on a regular basis.
• Send people out – Whether it be your staff or key volunteers, send them out to observe and capture the wealth of information and ideas available at not only other churches, but businesses and organizations who are successfully reaching today’s families.
• Bring people in – As important as it is to send people out, it is also beneficial to bring experts into your church to look at your environments and culture with an outsiders perspective.

Think On This
What stories can you tell that will create a sense of urgency in your ministry culture? What are the barriers you currently have in your ministry that are preventing you from telling a compelling story? How are you gleaning information about customers—people you’re trying to reach in your community? Where can you send people out in your local community to learn more about how to successfully reach families?

For those unable to join the Orange Tour Online, March 6, the sessions will be posted online, March 12-31, for on-demand viewing at www.WhatIsOrange.org/orangeleaders/touronline.

Session 1: The 5 Essentials by Reggie Joiner
Your church is either characterized by random activities or an intentional strategy. Review the core ideas that Orange Leaders use to keep their ministries focused and on mission.

Session 2: The Big Idea by Reggie Joiner
There were critical moments in Scripture when Jesus made it clear what was most important. Learn how the “Great Commandment” should be a critical filter to evaluate how we are leading and teaching the next generation.

Session 3: The Core Insights by Reggie Joiner
All truths are not created equal. There are certain core insights that should be cycled through the lives of kids and teenagers as they grow up. Learn how some of these insights can keep your ministry centered on a relationship with Christ.

by Misty Phillips

I love to hear of families who have had their kids impacted by the influence of a consistent Small Group Leader. It’s a beautiful thing! It thrills my heart to hear stories of kids and parents sharing sweet moments talking together about God at the end of their busy day. I get chills as I consider how many churches are doing creative, innovative services to reach families on the weekend. What a beautiful trifecta. When God, home and church align, it’s rarely by accident. It is purposeful. It’s strategic. It makes room for kids to grow and live out their faith in practical ways.

As a ministry leader, there were days I’m glad my head was attached and I remembered both shoes. Ministry is hard! If I could start again, I’d do less and focus more. It’s easy to fall into the trap of letting “IT” (ministry) happen to you.

What if you stepped back before the New Year and decided to be PROactive rather than REactive in ministry to kids and families? I decided long ago that I didn’t want to run programs. I wanted to invest and provide tools to bring about spiritual fruit in families—the fruit of the unfolding story of this glorious gospel. My heart wanted energized volunteers “in the flow” of their gifts who couldn’t wait for another weekend to come. I wanted to invite more people into serving.

Do you really want results as you lead? Have a long-term strategy in place. Do the math: Church has about 40 hours with a child per year, and parents have 3,000. Those are statistics that invoke the need for strategy. With a three-part focused strategy to align church, Small Group Leaders and home, there’s an opportunity for a bigger impact.

Check out Ecclesiates 4:12 (NIrV):

One person could be overpowered.
But two people can stand up for themselves.
And a rope made out of three cords isn’t easily broken.

Church, home and another consistent voice speaking into the life of a child is the trifecta. Three strong cords of a strategy win so a child in your ministry won’t be overpowered.

Misty Phillips is a 252 Basics Orange Specialist, Orange coach, and a strategic thinker who thrives on helping leaders be effective.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a church where people from different generations had a deep-seated desire to be around each other because they valued the differences of the others? Wouldn’t it be great to have older adults that actually embraced their role of discipleship? And, wouldn’t it be amazing to have a bunch of younger people that felt like they belonged in the overall church?

We all would answer these positively. Or, at least, I hope so. But most of us have experienced the difficulties in creating such an environment.

When we talk about a solution to the relational chasms between generations we often talk about mentorship. We think about the practicalities of who we can approach, how to approach them and typically how to get the most amount of people involved—immediately. We dream of the connections to be made and the transformation stories to be told.

But, if I may, I would suggest we ought to be talking about creating culture instead.

Because we too often jump to an eHarmony-for-Mentors approach where masses of people are lured into a programming of relationship, we inevitably miss the creating of culture. Out of a desire to mass-produce, we get both potential mentors and mentees to sign up and in much excitement we begin connecting the dots. If you’ve tried this approach then you know that it might look good initially, but most of these connections don’t last. This can be awkward and cold at best. And, the reality is, at its worst this approach can end up crushing the potential of cultivating the culture we all long for.

Creating culture requires paying the price of time—and much of it. It requires patience and a posture that values individual steps as markers of success. And possibly at times, a posture that rejects the tendency to force mass production. This is hard for us Americans. So, here are a few things we can do to connect people in more sustainable and culture-shaping ways:

1. Begin by focusing on those in your church you already know have a heart for people of different generations.
2. Find an older adult that is relaxed, committed to Scripture and is a good listener. Then, find younger people that are in a place where they could use someone else’s wisdom in a particular area of their life. Maybe even begin with a vocational interest.
3. Intentionally, but personally, connect these two individuals for one cup of coffee or lunch.
4. Follow up with both individually, afterward, to see if they connected with each other. If so, encourage them to get together again. If not, talk positively about what they did learn and then look for another potential connection for them.

Taking it one step at a time like this is the starting point of creating culture. A culture cannot be created overnight. It takes time. Time is a big price to pay, but it’s always worth it when there are connections made and those individuals begin talking about it with others they know. When this happens, the snowball just gets bigger.

Chuck Bomar is part of the creative team for XP3 College (www.xp3college.org), and the author of several books, including his latest, Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds.