Great Teams Need Great FollowUp Emails

by: Bryan Rose

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Conducting a successful vision planning retreat takes courage, investment, and trust. First, courage is required to make a conviction-driven ask of your leaders to collaborate and fully engage in a conversation about God’s better future for your church. Second, an investment is required, because the commitment of time and financial resources to a visionary plan brings a necessary and natural accountability to the congregation. Last, trust is needed because inviting others into the vision conversation might involve receiving outside perspectives and handling honest input.

However, just conducting a successful retreat is not enough. The real power of a visionary plan like the Horizon Storyline lies within the successful execution of your initial set of 90-day initiatives. This first-foreground horizon usually provides the momentum toward overall plan accomplishment. Therefore it is of vital importance to communicate progress to your entire leadership team, especially those on the front lines of action and activity.

The following outline provides the general framework of a quick visionary plan progress report. You can see how it also works to affirm the team and even enlist more significant commitment if needed. The flow of a great 90-day initiative follow-up email goes something like this:

1. Tell the team how thankful you are for them.
2. Affirm the lasting impact of their efforts.
3. Share a story in 2-3 sentences that demonstrates impact.
4. Give an honest and high-level overview of the current status.
5. Summarize progress on each in only one sentence.
6. Affirm the staff and/or lay leader for each initiative.
7. (A) – Close with another brief, meaningful word of thanks.

-or-

8. Expand on the need with 2-3 sentences of detail.
9. Make a clear ask from your leaders.
10. If there is not something to do, then you should’ve ended the email at 7(A) above.
11. Encourage engagement by affirming the 5-10 year vision.
12. Close with another brief, but challenging word of thanks.

Here is a great example I recently received that uses many of the elements and the flow. This email was sent from an Auxano client-pastor (names and core content has been changed for privacy reasons) and illustrates a great 90-day initiative progress report email:

Greetings visioning team!

I’m pleased to report that the Elders have unanimously adopted our work without redaction. Thank you to Vince who worked with me to present the whole as a unified piece. All of your hard work was met with resounding excitement, thanks again for your time and thoughtful engagement. 

One of the Elders in attendance was able to clearly articulate their excitement about what is next, and apply it to her life and the potential impact on her neighbors. She affirmed this direction and will commit to engaging alongside each of us. 

Our meeting focus was on the short-range vision proper: the one year horizon and the 90-day initiatives. We broke up into teams to work on those five components, which gave everyone an opportunity to get their hands into activating this vision rather than just talking about it. There was positive energy and we have some momentum. On Tuesday, August 13, the Elders will meet for an extended deep dive into the background “big Ideas” and develop the 90 day pieces. Until then they will be chewing on our work and they may ask you some questions.

We still have some next step assignments to do from our Auxano Vision Framing sessions. Please make sure to get to work on these and feel free to invite current elders and others on the visioning team into your conversations. Our first round of 90-day initiative work is due by the end of September. Please see the below list for particulars on the assignments before us, as well as who is doing what. 

Cindy is the point leader for “Create a Stop Doing list”  – This needs immediate attention and must be handled carefully as some ministries with great impact years ago need to be phased out. 

Gordon is the point leader for “First Neighborhood Connection Event” – This will happen by the end of the month in my neighborhood.

Joseph is the point leader for “Fall Vision Frame Roll-Out Plan” – We have carved out 5 Sundays from late September into early October to communicate in worship and small groups. 

Mary is the point leader for “Celebrate Children & Youth” – We are coming off a strong summer and have been collecting stories at Bible School, Youth Camp and Children’s Camp, look for more here soon.

I’ll be working most closely with Joseph, but please keep me in the loop on the others and I’ll check in with you. We need a couple more of you to weigh in on the “Stop Doing List” – who can jump on a call with Cindy next Monday during lunch?

To keep our work in one place, and so we can check in with each other easily (hopefully), I’ve sent each of you an invitation to the communication tool we use at the church office: SLACK. This allows us to chat, and load and work on documents collaboratively. If this does not work, please let me know!

Thanks to each of you for the work you’ve put in thus far. Once we’ve completed this next phase, likely we’ll be in a good place to appoint a new visioning team and to give the congregation an opportunity to celebrate what each of you have put into this. I’m so grateful for each of you, and have appreciated getting to know you more through this process.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor 

Tags: Bryan Rose, Followup email, Progress Report, Team Followup, Visionary Planning

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Fill In These Hospitality Gaps ASAP

by: Bryan Rose

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Without that backup volunteer in place, conversations that change everything are hard to have. To stop and talk means that a welcoming task will likely not be done. Gospel opportunities exist on your church campus every weekend, but your hospitality team may not be ready to recognize and respond to them. Here are five holes in your hospitality to fill asap.

This weekend, put someone else…

…on the sidewalk.  The gap between your front doors and your guest parking spaces can feel like a long walk to the first time guest. Playing zone in your hospitality means that someone minds that gap, ready to receive a warm handoff from your parking lot team and walk alongside your guests into the front doors. Do you have anyone smiling on the sidewalk?

…in front of a counter.   The worst place for a hospitality leader is behind a desk. It is too easy to hide behind a table, to carry on a conversation with another volunteer behind a counter, and to forget that their first priority is to serve the guest. Do you have anyone positioned out in front of the counter, focused and poised to help?

…in the church office.  The office phone rings all week, and there is typically an operator or receptionist ready to give a warm welcome and connect callers to the appropriate extension. But on Sunday mornings, callers are likely looking for information or maybe even just reaching out for help. Do you have someone answering the phones on Sundays or will callers get an impersonal recording?

As the leader, it is up to you to recruit that “one more” volunteer to help provide the warmest welcome possible.

> Read more from Bryan.

Want to know more about Guest Experiences at your church? Let’s talk! Connect with an Auxano Navigator here.

Interested in bringing your team (up to 5 people) to Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp coming to West Palm Beach, FL on February 26-27? Find out more here.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Danny Franks, Guest Experience, Hospitality Volunteers

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Why “Friendly” and “Welcoming” are NOT the Same Thing

by: Bryan Rose

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The goal of excellent church hospitality teams should be to communicate “we are expecting Guests” every Sunday morning. 

However, this does not happen without intentionality. Every congregation, both healthy and unhealthy, tends to drift inward relationally over time. A strong Sunday morning welcome reminds everyone at the church of the presence of first-time Guests.

Remember, there is a difference between a friendly church and a welcoming church.

Without trained leadership and developed systems, a church welcome moves from the healthy expectation of Guests to one of three accidental mindsets. We know this because the team of Navigators at Auxano have experienced these non-verbal communications  in our 15+ years of performing Guest Perspective Evaluations:

“We think you can figure out where to go and sit because we are only tolerating your presence until we approve your theology.”

“We desperately want you to come back again because we need you to help us survive another week around here.”

“We are surprised you actually showed up because most of us have been looking for a good reason to leave for years.”

None of the three will result in a second time Guest visit.

> Read more from Bryan.

Want to know more about Guest Experiences at your church? Let’s talk! Connect with an Auxano Navigator here.

Interested in bringing your team (up to 5 people) to Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp coming to West Palm Beach, FL on February 26-27? Find out more here.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Guest Experience, Guest Experience, Hospitality

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12 Disciplines to Help You Recognize Leadership Identity Beyond Your Title

by: Bryan Rose

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Titles are a great way to organize our world and feel good about one’s self.

I am a barista.

At least I like to call myself a barista, since I make coffee every morning. I can even compare the number of mornings I make coffee to the number of mornings a Starbucks employee makes coffee. Or the number of cups made in the last twenty years, as compared to any of those pimply-faced apron-wearers.

By any measure I could make the title fit, yet, just making a bunch of coffee does not make me a barista. There are ongoing practices and skills beyond my kitchen counter or church brew-pots that an actual barista demonstrates. I am free to call myself a barista, but in reality I just drink a lot of coffee.

The Harvard Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as a congregation that sustains an average of 2000 persons or more in its worship services. However, the more I work within local church congregations, the more apparent the disciplines of an actual megachurch become. Without ongoing practices or skills beyond Sunday morning service attendance, a leader is free to call their congregation a megachurch, but in reality they may just be a large gathering of people in worship.

And a large gathering of people in worship can be found at most any concert, sporting event or Whole Foods grocery store.

Therefore, it becomes critical to realize identity beyond title, through ongoing practices and skills. Here are 12 disciplines of megachurch leadership:

1. Positioning discipleship beyond attendance of a class or program.
2. Creating a culture of leadership development, supported by process.
3. Consistent building of congregational ownership of the mission.
4. Articulating unique language that becomes viral in every ministry area.
5. Sharing leadership toward vision through an empowered team.
6. Executing intentionally developed processes over time.
7. Resisting the tendency to chase every new idea and possibility.
8. Remaining aware of hubris and the false trappings of competency.
9. Cultivating organizational humility by asking questions of other leaders.
10. Willing to change models of ministry as effectiveness wanes.
11. Leading with courage through decisions that are not easy and obvious.
12. Supporting, not fearing, success in nearby congregations.

No matter your average weekly attendance, growing beyond the Sunday gathering numbers requires active attention and discipline.

Whether your church is a hopeful, emerging or former “mega,” take a few minutes at the next staff meeting to challenge yourself and your team. Add “How are we…” to each of these disciplines to form questions that reveal practice. Then identify the three disciplines that need the most attention and develop two-to-three strengthening actions to take for each in the next six weeks.

Titles are great, but at some point, the practice must become more important than the label. If not, your “megachurch” might really just be a large gathering of people in worship, and I might just be making coffee.

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Leadership Identity, disciplines, leadership practice

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9 Reasons You’ve Not Scheduled that Staff Retreat

by: Bryan Rose

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Imagine a day when every staff member and key lay leader wakes up with a clear and shared understanding of God’s better future for your church. A day when the question “What’s your vision, Pastor?” brings you energy and excitement and not dread or suspicion. Imagine a day when every ministry understands their role in fulfilling the entire church’s disciple-making call, not just their role in filling a ministry program.

How does this become a reality? Is it possible that a time away together as a staff and leadership team could lead to these God-sized dreams? It will never happen if you keep putting off scheduling a meaningful leadership retreat.

This type of pastoral procrastination often happens because:

1. There has never been any measurable return on the investment of the time it will take.
2. Leadership is living from Sunday to Sunday putting out fires and cannot focus together for long.
3. Everyone typically makes great relational strides on retreats but achieves very little tactical progress.
4. There have never been any resources budgeted for getting the team away to pray and plan.
5. The team’s credibility is at stake if yet another plan gets created but not executed.
6. It is easier to install yet another “silver bullet” program than it is to invest in a lasting process.
7. Anyone on the team could lead a good enough retreat, but nobody has the time to facilitate an excellent one.
8. It has always been easier to just rely on the Senior Pastor for all the answers.
9. There is so much that needs to be done, it is hard to know where to even start.

If you’ve been putting off pulling away for a staff retreat one or more of the above reasons likely resonate with you. Waiting until you have enough time or money to get the team away just masks the reality that you won’t ever get around to it…

Until a significant enough crisis arrives and forces your hand.

> Read more from Bryan.

Connect with an Auxano Navigator to learn more about planning visionary staff retreat.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Staff Retreat, vision planning

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Is Your Mission Accomplishing Anything? 7 Ways to Know For Sure

by: Bryan Rose

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The Auxano team gathers each month by ZOOM videoconference to tell stories and celebrate how God is working through our Navigators and support staff members. One of our recent calls was particularly meaningful.

River Oak Community Church Senior Pastor, Heath Burris, kicked off our time together by sharing from his heart about the impact of working with Auxano Lead Navigator Jim Randall. He also described the tangible results of the Vision Framing process for his Chesapeake, Virginia church. It was a great moment for the entire staff to celebrate how God continues to use our efforts in creating breakthrough clarity for church teams to realize their vision.

Here are seven statements that signal mission accomplishment for everyone on the Auxano Team:

“We can learn from other ministries, but we have to be us. This vision frame is who we are and nobody else.” Heath’s words in referring to the unique expression of ROCC’s vision, resulting from the Vision Framing process. He ultimately chose to engage Auxano after visiting 20+ churches and studying every one of their models of ministry.

“I love seeing those colors… those are OUR colors.” Spoken as their vision frame was on the screen. The Auxano Brand Architecture team designed an entirely new logo as a visual expression of the River Oak vision.

“The building is now a tool to accomplishing our bigger discipleship vision.” Describing the newfound “upper room” clarity of visionary communication during their recent groundbreaking ceremony.

“It is a joy to my heart when I hear someone use our mission or see them sign an email with those words.” Auxano believes that redemptive movement happens when every church member excitedly lives the mission of their church and naturally uses the words as a result.

“I have new found confidence in how I am leading and even in my preaching.” Every Pastor can, and should, be an everyday visionary, leading out of their unique missional call in moments large and small.

“[The Vision Frame] allows me to have a filter in all of our hiring.” A deeply held, and broadly shared, articulation of the church culture provides a new lens for every critical decision, including bringing new people to the team.

“We can clearly see who on the team really believes in this vision.” Not everyone at the leadership table is there for the same reason, and team synergy suffers as a result. The clarity process allows for differences in the vision to ultimately be reconciled as a conflict of calling, instead of becoming a divisive conflict between people.

To learn more about addressing the leadership challenges at your church through the Auxano Vision Framing process, schedule a discovery call with a Lead Navigator here.

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Mission, Mission Accomplishment

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Three Keys to Avoiding Failure When A Change Must Come

by: Bryan Rose

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Nothing frustrates great leaders more than watching a project crucial to their church’s growth and missional effectiveness stall prior to completion. Hours of effort and dreaming often disappear in the span of one congregational meeting.

A misunderstanding of the Iron Triangle often leads to progress dying on the vine.

The Iron Triangle is a principle of project management that states this: there are three, independent, yet inter-dependent objectives in any initiative that, when applied, also become constraints. An increase in any of the two will necessarily result in a decrease in the other one.

A desire for each of these objectives results in three questions that are asked of every project:

Can it be great? Based on a desire for the highest quality.

Can it be quick? Based on a desire for the promptest delivery.

Can it be cheap? Based on a desire for the lowest cost.

People want all three objectives: a product that is good, fast and cheap.

The Principle of the Iron Triangle states that you can only ever achieve two of the three objectives at any one time.

It can be good and fast, but your project will not be very cheap.

It can be fast and cheap, but your project will not be very good.

It can be cheap and good, but your project will not be very fast.

It is not a question of style or experience, but of economy. There are only so many resources available at any one time. Effective leaders understand this reality and can prioritize the two resources that matter the most, as well as set appropriate expectations for their team.

The Iron Triangle is highly applicable to leading change in the church as well.

When it comes to leading effective change in the church, you can only have two of those three resources in any initiative:

Positive change that most everyone will receive without hesitation.

Expedient change that is responsive to immediately pressing matters.

Inexpensive change that is not dependent on significant resources.

A positive and expedient change will require higher financial and volunteer resources to realize.

An expedient and inexpensive change will require more significant relational capital, and concessions of personal preference, to realize.

An inexpensive and positive change will require a more extended season and more considerable investment of time to realize.

The Leader’s real secret lies in knowing how to set congregational expectations around which resources are being maximized and which will be missing. Setting appropriate expectations within the Iron Triangle often becomes the difference maker of success when change is required.

If you are facing a significant change in your church, your first step is to decide which pathway that you desire the most:

1. A change that everyone will like and that can happen quickly.
2. A change that can happen soon and will not cost a lot.
3. A change that will not cost a lot and everyone will be happy about.

Next, based on the pathway above, set everyone’s expectations for the resource that will be required:

1. This type of change will take significant financial and volunteer resources.
2. This type of change will bring sideways energy dealing with unhappy people.
3. This type of change will take time to implement and integrate across the body.

Finally, lead confidently knowing that you are pursuing God’s better future for your church and the Kingdom. Always remember that refusing to change is deciding to decline.

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Change

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Busting Myths of Church Vision

by: Bryan Rose

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Vision isn’t a moment on a Sunday – Vision is a movement happening everyday.

Vision isn’t a one-time event – Vision is an ongoing eventuality.

Vision isn’t a statement on a wall – Vision is a state of mind led by a call.

Vision isn’t a leader’s style – Vision is the substance of all leadership.

Vision isn’t a featured project to reveal – Vision is a future projection in which to revel.

Vision isn’t a upcoming program to launch – Vision is an ongoing picture to paint.

Vision isn’t a building for a church’s function – Vision is a framework for God’s future.

Vision isn’t a crystal-ball prognostication – Vision is a bent-knee revelation.

Vision isn’t a good idea for that one-day – Vision is God’s idea for your every-day.

Vision isn’t a realm for envied conference speaking preachers – Vision is the reality for every congregation serving pastor.

Vision isn’t a contemplative mountaintop excursion – Vision is a collaborative group discovery.

Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Vision, Vision, vision myths

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The Complex Work of the Simple Church

by: Bryan Rose

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1. Still doing too much yourself without developing anyone else
2. Still missing a clear path for spiritual development that is easy enough to draw on a napkin
3. Still running on the assimilation class hamster wheel never really getting anywhere
4. Still propping the back door open and wondering why unconnected people are walking out
5. Still elevating participation above transformation because you’re just counting heads
6. Still sustaining ministries that no longer contribute to your mission
7. Still tiptoeing around sensitive leaders who confuse passion for purpose
8. Still running events out of nostalgia, not conviction
9. Still pleading for volunteers instead of developing leaders
10. Still closing classrooms and blaming youth sports
11. Still circling the wagons of theology instead of living the gospel in your neighborhood
12. Still thinking that lots of activity must mean you’re doing a good job
13. Still asking for more money to do the same things and get the same results
14. Still building ministry calendars as if there are families out there just hoping for more to do
15. Still programming as if the church were the center of life and community
16. Still consuming members’ schedules with on-campus activity instead of giving them time to know their neighbors
17. Still chasing past programming success instead of charting future gospel influence
18. Still starting new, exciting initiatives without stopping existing, obligatory activity
19. Still putting words on a wall one day and thinking that people know or care what they mean the next
20. Still approaching discipleship in terms of products, instead of process
21. Still trying to get somewhere with your mission without giving anyone a map of where they’re going
22. Still running ministry that feels random instead of growing people in rhythm
23. Still announcing every possibility of church connection instead of one next step into community

Tags: Bryan Rose, Compexity, Doug Paul, Simple Church, Simplicity

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Discerning the Difference Between Urgent and Important

by: Bryan Rose

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On a recent episode of My Ministry Breakthrough, Eastern Hills Community Church Pastor Phil EuBank spoke of the maturing of his leadership as learning to discern the important from the urgent. (You can listen to the whole podcast episode here.)

Understanding this difference, between what is urgent and what is important, is a crucial facet of successful pastoral leadership. Here is the simple principle:

Not everything urgent is important. Not everything important is urgent.

In the day-to-day work of pastoral leadership, most of the urgent requests, tasks or conversations are not organizationally important. And similarly, most of the important requests, tasks or conversations are not immediately urgent. Those things that are both urgent and important do exist, but they are rare and easily recognizable. They are moments of shepherding through sudden tragedy or celebrating in a surprising victory.

When everything is both important and urgent, ministry is hard. In fact, it is nearly impossible to sustain. This is true for you, and for your team.

It remains then that knowing the difference between what is urgent and what is important creates margin and produces perspective for every leader in the organization.

Failing to steward the urgent and the important can also disguise, or even mute, the work of God in a particular moment or situation. There is something to be said about not being immediately responsive to every urgent request presented to the pastor.

The best example of this comes from Jesus in John 11. Upon hearing that Lazarus was sick, Jesus’ immediate response was nothing. He stuck around for two more days. Luke even tells us that: “Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. So… he stayed two more days in the place where he was.”

Brian Dembowczyk of The Gospel Project captures Jesus’ discernment between the urgent and the important in this way:

“Had we written the script, we would have settled for so much less, wouldn’t we have? Our version would have had Jesus rushing to Lazarus’ side to heal him followed by a festive party of some sort. And we would have missed so much more that Jesus actually gave to His beloved friends. Jesus gave His friends a great gift when He allowed Lazarus to die. He gave them the gift of advancing their faith and drawing them that much closer to eternal life in Him, the Son of God.”

Even if it didn’t make sense in human terms, Jesus knew the powerful difference in responding to what is urgent and what is important.

In most cases:

…urgent requests reflect personal preference.

…important needs protect organizational clarity.

…urgent challenges request responsive appeasement.

…important issues require collaborative agreement.

…urgent tasks captivate within ministry silos.

…important initiatives motivate across ministry goals.

…urgent needs come with a moving story.

…important moments bring Christ-honoring glory.

The mature pastor sees the urgent request that is not organizationally important as an opportunity to develop other leaders through empowering delegation.

The mature pastor sees the important need that is not immediately urgent as an opportunity to take the time to seek God and wise counsel through collaborative determination.

As you face another week of to-do lists, programmatic activity, and pastoral needs, what is seemingly urgent that you should hand-off, and what is truly important that you should fix your mind-on?

> Read more from Bryan.

Tags: Bryan Rose, important, tyranny of the urgent, urgent

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