Why Strengths isn’t working!

Last week we updated you on the motivation behind why we do what we do.  This week, I want to answer a question publicly that many of you have asked me privately over the past few years and that is the question: ”Why is our Strengths Initiative Not Working?” Typically, this question is asked within the context of multiple scenarios. For some, you are simply starting out and people are not catching the vision for stewarding talents into strengths, but for others the problem is more advanced.  For some of you, you have coached literally hundreds of people within your ministry or circles of influence and initially there was exuberance and excitement. It was as if the veil had been lifted and a wildfire quickly began to spread . . . and then it stopped.  For some, coaches burned out as new coaches didn’t rise to take their place. For others, there were tangible issues that arose. Conflicts within leadership. Key people moving away and other symptoms could be pointed to . . . but let me challenge you that those are not what stymied the growth.  There is another issue that needs to be uncovered and highlighted, and this issue ties directly into last weeks email.  Simply put, people lost sight of the “Why” behind the what. Strengths are not an end unto themselves.  The goal of training coaches to equip people in your context is not to simply identify that they are fearfully and wonderfully created by God.  It’s to equip them to take a step in a much larger process and when we lose sight of the larger purpose of why we exist everything else is simply a temporary distraction.  In my doctrine class, I teach my students that there is a difference between worshipping God and praising God.  We worship God for who He is, but we praise God for what He does.  At first, this may seem like a matter of semantics, but consider it carefully. If we teach people to worship God for what He does, then we are setting them up for failure due to idolatry. God simply becomes my magic genie in a bottle and if I do the right thing or pray the right way, then He is obliged to give me what I want.  The result is that His creation become our god.  The catechism teaches us that we Worship God because of who He is because we worship the Creator and not the created.  In a similar way, we discover our identity in Christ because it leads us to our ultimate purpose of Reflecting Christ not so that we can simply sit on the talents that He has entrusted to us.  It is only when we are clear about our ultimate deliverable that we will lead people purposefully through the process of being engaged. The church, parish, individual or ministry that is not clear about the “Why” will most certainly be unclear about the ultimate deliverable and the result will be plateau, dissatisfaction and decline.  I’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks, but I’d like to encourage you to discover what other ministries, churches and leaders discovered about the ultimate deliverable and how to engage people in the process by planning on attending our ENGAGED 4Leadership and Equipped 4Growth Training in 2012.  I’d also love to hear back from you. Do these scenarios strike a chord or sound familiar? Shoot us an email back and let us know your thoughts and we can even set up a time to talk.

Why your motivation impacts your mission.

Motivation Matters!
Have you ever noticed that God doesn’t care as much aboutWHAT we do as much as He cares about WHY we do it?

That’s right, the Bible doesn’t teach that God loves “givers”, it says that He loves a “cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

In the same way the Old Testament teaches us that to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22), Jesus teaches in the New Testament that loving God is what leads to obedience to God and ultimately Friendship with God (John 15).

That’s why WHAT you do needs to be motivated by WHY you do it.

Each of us needs to ask, what is the underlying motivation forWHY we do what we do?

TRAINING LEADERS to EQUIP PEOPLE . . . 

During our training on the road last summer, we were challenged with that question at Engaged Churches. Since 1999, we had always said we were about training leaders to equip people to be the church, but as more and more people got excited about what they were learning in our training solutions, people began asking if they could take the material to their places of ministry, business and families.

It caused us to really reflect on WHY we were doing what we do.

We existed to Train Leaders.

The reason why is because we believe that many church leaders are trained to exegete the text of scripture, but are lacking in the skills needed to lead engaged churches and teams. In addition, our conversations with pastors around the world have taught us that many of our church leaders are leading anecdotally and need to be encouraged to discover their unique God given talents to become the leaders God uniquely designed them to be.

That’s why our training for pastors is led by pastors who have been in the ministry, know the struggles and can speak the language.

We existed to Train Leaders to Equip People. 

Experience also tells us that many of our church leaders are “doing” too much of the ministry and have not learned what it means to equip or how to implement an equipping pipeline that engages people to steward their unique talents in teams that build the church. That’s one of the reasons 85% of our churches are led by one person (with a board to “oversee” their progress). We believe that Ephesians teaches us that a leader needs to Equip people, not simply fill ministry slots if we are to become the church God intends.

We existed to Equip People to Be the Church. 

Statistics show us that the high majority (between 80-90%) of our churches lack a clearly defined definition for spiritual maturity. It’s been said that a new employee at 7-eleven has a better chance of knowing what is expected of them at work, than the average member of a local church.

We exist to change that. To equip people to identify, define and progress along the Christ-centered, Biblically-based pathway toward personal and corporate spiritual maturity.

That’s WHY we existed.

This summer we were challenged to expand that vision to meet the needs of the whole church.

For example, those who are serving in Missions and Ministries: Last week we were on a conference call with some coaches who were trained through our Level I and Level II coaches training and heard the update on how our training is impacting leaders in Eastern and Southern Africa, Ethiopia, Eurasia, Kenya, Indonesia, Nairobi, Panama and with requests from other countries.

Those who are serving in business: God has strategically placed leaders in businesses both here and abroad where they have opportunities to literally “shepherd” their employees.

Families: We are having more and more requests to meet the needs of families and parents who desire to apply the principles to their marriages, families and as they raise their children. Literally training the leaders of our homes to equip their families.

Schools: There is a huge need within our schools to connect our     students with their identity in Christ and disconnect them   from systems that lead to moralistic and legalistic views   of God, Christ and the Church. Statistics are  overwhelming on our failure to equip our next generation of disciples and disciplemakers. That’s why we’ve been working with schools the past few years to implement the principles of Following the Path Christ modeled for equipping disciples and why we are expanding this area of our ministry as well.

The bottom line is that we exist to ministry to the Body of Christ and Train Leaders to Equip People to Reflect Christ within their circles of influence. 

 

That is why over the past few months we have expanded our staff, begun building  out our websites, expanded our strategic partnerships as we  prepare to equip you with more opportunities to equip those in your circles of influence to reflect Christ.

It’s also why as of January 1, 2012 we will officially become EngagedSolutions.com and you will have the opportunity to choose from resources, coaching, training and consulting specifically designed by subject matter experts in your area of influence.

Our mission hasn’t changed. 

Our capacity to deliver on that mission has expanded!

Over the next several weeks we’ll tell you more about coaching opportunities, training opportunities and even opportunities to earn college credit beginning in 2012.

Until then, blessings on you in your continued service to Christ in your circles of influence. 

The Crisis of Spiritual Health part II

Part two of an article by The Barna Group

3. Most Christians offer one-dimensional views of personal spiritual maturity.

A second open-ended question probed self-identified Christians’ personal definition of what it means to be a healthy, spiritually mature follower of Jesus, regardless of how they believe their church defines it. One-fifth of self-described Christians were unable to offer an opinion.

Other identified elements included: relationship with Jesus (21%), following rules and being obedient (15%), living a moral lifestyle (14%), possessing concern about others (13%), being involved in spiritual disciplines (13%), applying the Bible (12%), being spiritual or having belief (8%), sharing their faith with others (6%), and being involved in church activities (5%).

Further reflecting a lack of depth on the subject, the open-ended questions typically produced, on average, just one response from survey respondents, despite the fact that interviewers repeatedly probed for additional or clarifying comments.

4. Most pastors struggle with feeling the relevance as well as articulating a specific set of objectives for spirituality, often favoring activities over attitudes.

The research among pastors highlighted several inter-related challenges. First, while nearly nine out of 10 pastors said that a lack of spiritual maturity is the most significant or one of the largest problems facing the nation, a minority of pastors believe that spiritual immaturity is a problem in their church.

A second challenge is that only a minority of churches has a written statement expressing the outcomes they are looking for in spiritually mature people. A third challenge is that pastors often favor activities over perspectives in their definitions of spiritual maturity.

Their metrics for people’s spirituality include the practice of spiritual disciplines (19%), involvement in church activities (15%), witnessing to others (15%), having a relationship with Jesus (14%), having concern for others (14%), applying the Bible to life (12%), being willing to grow spiritually (12%), and having knowledge of Scripture (9%).

Tell us what you think: Does your church have a working definition of what it means to be spiritually mature?

The Crisis of Spiritual Health: part 1

Many Churchgoers and Faith Leaders Struggle to Define Spiritual Maturity

America may possess the world’s largest infrastructure for nurturing human spirituality, complete with hundreds of thousands of houses of worship, thousands of parachurch organizations and schools, and seemingly unlimited products, resources and experts.

Yet, a study from the Barna Group identifies an underlying reason why there is little progress in helping people develop spiritually: many churchgoers and clergy struggle to articulate a basic understanding of spiritual maturity. People aspire to be spiritually mature, but they do not know what it means. Pastors want to guide others on the path to spiritual wholeness, but they are often not clearly defining the goals or the outcomes of that process.
The research was conducted by Barna Group and included a nationwide, random sample of adults and a similar national survey among Protestant pastors, exploring definitions of, perceptions about, and perceived barriers to spiritual maturity.

Five Challenges

The study showed five significant challenges when it comes to facilitating people’s spiritual growth. This week we’ll highlight the first two:

1. Most Christians equate spiritual maturity with following the rules.

One of the widely embraced notions about spiritual health is that it means “trying hard to follow the rules described in the Bible” – 81% of self-identified Christians endorsed this statement, and a majority agreed strongly (53%). Even among those individuals defined by their belief that salvation is not earned through “good works,” four out of five concurred that spiritual maturity is “trying hard to follow the rules.”

2. Most churchgoers are not clear what their church expects in terms of spiritual maturity.

An open-ended survey question asked churchgoers to describe how their church defined a “healthy, spiritually mature follower of Jesus.” Half of churchgoers simply said they were not sure, unable to venture a guess regarding the church’s definition. Even among born again Christians – that is, a smaller subset of believers who have made a profession of faith in Christ and confessed their sinful nature – two out of five were not able to identify how their church defines spiritual maturity. Among those who gave a substantive response, the most common responses were having a relationship with Jesus (16%), practicing spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible study (9%), living according to the Bible (8%), being obedient (8%), being involved in church (7%), and having concern for others (6%).

Tell us what  you think:

Next week: The Real ‘Health Crisis’ in America – Spiritual Health

What is the most non-religious State in America?

Gallup Video video link Gallup Poll Editor in Chief Frank Newport reveals the most Catholic, most Mormon, most Jewish, and most non-religious states in the union.

Click Here for the Video

Click Here for the Article

What does this mean to you?

Mississippians Go to Church the Most; Vermonters, Least

Released February 2010:

Overall, 42% of Americans attend church weekly or almost weekly

“Church attendance levels are widely dispersed across the states, with the highest levels generally occurring in the South and the Midwest, and the lowest in the Northeast and the West.”

Gallup’s compilation of church attendance data is based on more than 350,000 interviews conducted among national adults, aged 18 and older, across all 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2009. Gallup began tracking state-level church attendance on a daily basis in 2008, asking respondents how often they “attend church, synagogue, or mosque — at least once a week, almost every week, about once a month, seldom, or never.” Frequent church attendance for the purpose of this analysis is defined as those who report attending at least once a week or almost every week. Nationally, 41.6% of all Americans in 2009 said they attended church this often.

Church attendance levels are widely dispersed across the states, with the highest levels generally occurring in the South and the Midwest, and the lowest in the Northeast and the West.

Nine of the top 10 states in church attendance — Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas — are in the South. Utah, with its high concentration of churchgoing Mormons, provides a Western exception. Six of the lowest church-attending states are in New England — Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut — while the others are in the West: Nevada, Hawaii, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington.

Click Here for the whole article:

Tell us what you think - Does this reflect your community? Your church?

Couldn’t have said it better (simpler) myself

Just caught this great video on what it means to be a Missional Church.

Would love your thoughts and feedback – what would you add regarding engagement?

How Big (Great) is Your God?

An Encouraging Message to Kick off your 2010 You are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made – and I can prove it!

Why you should care about Laminin Just before Christmas Break, I had the opportunity to see a video featuring Louie Giglio titled ‘How Great is our God.’ Perhaps you’ve seen it – or at least heard about the clip toward the end where he discusses Laminin. Either way – I wanted to share it with you as together we kick off 2010. Perhaps you are preparing for a sermon series on Strengths and just need a really great “left hook” to punch home the point that God has uniquely created and designed ever single one of us. Or you are coaching someone who is still struggling with “weakness fixing” and needs to be reminded of how they are God’s unique masterpiece. Or perhaps you just need to be reminded of the Greatness of God in your own life. No mater what the reason – I trust that you’ll be encouraged by these videos AND know that if they impact you in the same way they impacted me that you’ll want to share the message of God’s unique fingerprint on our lives with others. Click Here for Part I EngagedChurches.com We Train Leaders to Equip People to Be the Church.

Training Great Leaders

Training Great Leaders Overcoming the Leadership Crisis in the Church Part IV A Leadership Crisis If we are to believe the statistics, it is statistically safer to play Russian roulette than it is to become a pastor.  In Russian roulette the odds of devastation are 1 in 8.  In ministry the odds are often less than 1 in 2. ·         50% have considered leaving the ministry in the last months. ·         50% of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years. ·         50% feel unable to meet the demands of the job. As if those were not enough, here are a few more: ·         90% feel they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands. ·         70% say they have a lower self-image now than when they first started. ·        Less than 10% of those who enter the pastorate will actually retire from some form of ministry. (source link) Gallup Faith Practice – Growing Great Leaders Several years ago, Gallup CEO Don Clifton approached his pastor with the need for Gallup to meet the leadership crisis in the church head on. In the 1990′s Gallup had entered the world of leadership training and development with their first bestselling book on great management called “First Break All the Rules”, a book that literally changed how managers looked at leadership within their organizations. Since then, Gallup consulting has risen to be among the top consulting firms in the world working with leaders in the areas of Fortune 100 Companies, Government, Education, HealthCare and most recently Gallup has been training Faith Leaders around the world. The Outliers In a 2005 study by the Barna Group, they identified that 80% of churches that were growing in the United States were lead by non-seminary graduates and that 80% of seminary graduates were leading churches that had reached a plateau or were in decline. Clearly their is a need. Unrealistic Expectations and Realistic Solutions In a study of 341 clergy from 36 denominations and 43 states, William Moore uncovered that one of the biggest factors in pastor burnout was unrealistic expectations (Malony and Hunt). As we near the end of 2009, Gallup offers two proven solutions to the crisis of unrealistic expectations that plague the church. Strengths Coaching and Training First, Gallup coaches ministry leaders to view themselves realistically from the perspective of talents and strengths. The result is nothing short of astounding in the lives of these pastors and helps to remove the false expectations of anecdotal leadership that Pastors place on themselves(click here for video testimony). Gallup also offers Strengths Performance Coach Certification to churches and ministries at a rate that is significantly reduced from their corporate training events. At these training events, churches and ministries send members from their congregation to become Gallup Certified Coaches who can then coach other members of your parish or congregation. Engagement In addition to learning to manage personal expectations through coaching, church leaders also have the opportunity to  Identify, manage and measure their ministry expectations through the process of the ME25. Through the ME25 Experience, congregations have the opportunity to use proven Gallup metrics to simply and easily measure the spiritual health of their congregation in terms that move deeper than “nickels and noses”.  Then trained Gallup Consultants work with leadership teams from the church to identify and implement a strategic plan that focused valued resources and reap the greatest results. In March 2010, EngagedChurches.com will be hosting a One-Day International Summit for Congregation and Parish Leadership to learn how to implement the EngagedChurch Process in their local context.  The Summit comes with an ME25 Assessment and a years worth of consulting and training from a Gallup Faith Field Advisor. Next Step Opportunities In March 2009, EngagedChurches.com and Gallup University will be partnering to host The EngagedChurchSummit and Two Strengths Performance Coach Training Certifications at the Chicago Training location. The EngagedChurchSummit – March 16, 2010, Chicago, Illinois Level I, Strengths Performance Coach Training, March 17-18, Chicago Level II, Strengths Performance Coach Training, March 18-19, Chicago Note: coaching registrations are limited to 16 people and are expected to fill up fast. We suggest you register early for this opportunity. Together as we train leaders who equip people to be the church we will turn the tide in this leadership crisis and watch God do more than we could ever possible ask or imagine through His church. Watch for more details and information in the weeks to come. Next Week – How do we Engage Members? EngagedChurches.com We Train Leaders to Equip People to Be the Church.

Don’t Inoculate Your Congregation…

Help Them Find the Right Fit

Last week, we started a series on the Gallup Faith Pathway and introduced the concept of helping people discover that they were “fearfully and wonderfully made” (click here for article).

Unfortunately,  too many stop with step one…  Everyone buys a book…they take the Strengthsfinder….they discover their Top 5 Signature Themes….They ooh and aah about how amazing everything is…. then they move on to the next shiny object… without ever experiencing the full value of the rest of the pathway. Then a few months or years later when someone brings up the subject of Strengths and/or Engagement the response is . . . “Oh yeah, we did that once…”

The result – Inoculation. They were given just enough to grow immune to experiencing the full potential.

Don’t let this happen to you!!!

Identifying Strengths is only the First Step in the process. It is crucial as we lead people to Identify their Strengths that we coach them to “Find the Right Fit”.

WHAT WE OFFER FOR STEP TWO

COACHING

When I am working with a congregation or parish one of the first things that we do together is the Leadership Team takes the StrengthsFinder and identifies their Talent themes.  The very next thing is that we set up individual coaching appointments with each of the leaders and we coach them through the process of how to leverage their talents and turn them into Strengths.

After our individual coaching appointments I lead them through a Team Blend Coaching Experience and discuss what each team members greatest contribution is to the team.  What can they bring to the team? What needs to they have where other team members can exercise their strengths? And as they look toward the future what areas do they need to staff toward to become well rounded?

The result is a next step toward maximum performance and appreciation of themselves, their teammates and their team.

After coaching the leadership team – we then talk about the value of – “What if everyone in the congregation had the same opportunity to be coached and become part of a well-rounded team?”

COACH TRAINING
Strengths Performance Coaches – Help People Find their Fit

To help congregations achieve this – Gallup offers Strengths Performance Coach Training on three different levels.  A good rule of thumb for  congregations is that they certify one coach for approximately every 100 regular attendees.

For example, College Church in Nampa, Idaho last fall began their Strengths Journey by certifying 9 Strengths Performance Coaches for their 900 people. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Pastor Daryl Johnson about the amazing results over this past year – the interview will be posted in the next few weeks.

Here is what Strengths Performance Coaching looks like:

Level I – Certifies Coaches to coach people within your congregation in their Top 5 Signature Themes (click here for dates)

Level II – Certifies Coaches to coach teams within your congregation (Level I – is a prerequisite). (click here for dates)

Level III – Certifies Coaches to coach people through all 34 Signature Themes (Level I – is a prerequisite). (click here for dates)

SMALL GROUPS

One of the other ways that congregations have found to help people Find the Right Fit has been through the Living Your Strengths Journey Small Groups.

In fact, St. Matthews in Charlotte has just reported a 16 point jump in their latest ME25 score and one of the factors they point to has been involving people in The Journey Small Groups.

Participants in the Living Your Strengths Journey are walked  through each leg of the Strengths Journey. Homework activities prepare participants to contribute to and benefit from valuable discussion in the seven weekly meetings, while progressing toward the discovery and fulfillment of a calling.

Each participant also receives one Living Your Strengths Journey bookmark, which also serves as a reminder of the purposes of the journey.

Meanwhile, Leaders receive step-by-step instructions and timely insights that enable them to easily facilitate the groups seven weekly meetings and guide valuable discussion centered on the weekly homework activities.

Click Here for information on the Participant Guidebooks

Click Here for information on the Leaders Guidebooks

What would it mean for your congregation if the people who were Identifying their Strengths were also beginning to find their way into Ministries and opportunities where those talents could be maximized?

If instead of inoculation people where getting into Small Groups and discovering new opportunities to Share Jesus with your Community.

Click Here to view a testimony and find out?

Next Week – How do we Train Great Leaders?

EngagedChurches.com
We Train Leaders to Equip People to Be the Church.