Greg Atkinson

Recently, I decided to go back and read some classic books that it had been years since I first read. I figured that if I can read my Bible continuously, why not go back and re-read some books that were foundational in my ministry and life?

One of the books that I decided to re-read was Simple Church. I can’t express to you how much that book resonated with me the first time I read it. It was a breath of fresh air and struck a chord deep within me. So, I dusted it off and started to read it again this Monday.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter One – The Simple Revolution Has Begun:

Simple church leaders are designers. They design opportunities for spiritual growth. Complex church leaders are programmers. They run ministry programs.

Church leaders who are programmers focus on one program at a time. Their goal, though never stated, is to make each program the best. Church leaders who are designers are focused on the end result, the overall picture. They are as concerned with what happens between the programs as with the programs themselves.

The simple church leaders we surveyed were expert designers. They were not the producers of spiritual growth and church vitality. Only God is the producer of the growth. But like the apostle Paul, these church leaders are expert builders (see 1 Cor. 3:10). They have skillfully designed an environment where life change is likely to occur. They have designed a simple process that moves people through stages of spiritual growth.

To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process. This process must be clear. It must move people toward maturity. It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it.

Maybe you never thought of yourself as a designer. Maybe you’re more comfortable with the description of a builder. I urge you to strive for both. To my programmer friends, maybe you really resonated with the statement: “Their goal, though never stated, is to make each program the best.” Maybe that stings a little. We’re supposed to strive for excellence, right? Sure. Dig deeper!

A designer is focused on the end result and sees the overall picture – that’s the key difference that I want us to chew on today. Maybe you’re too busy being busy and His yoke is not easy for you. Maybe you’re in a system that is unhealthy. Maybe you need to go away on a retreat and prayerfully read through Simple Church as a leadership team.

I don’t know what your particular situation is, but I felt led to share this challenge with you and encourage you to be an INTENTIONAL and STRATEGIC (my two favorite words) designer. Work hard on a simple discipleship process that is clear to all. If I visited your church, would I be overwhelmed? Would I know my next step? Would I be given the opportunity to grow in Christ?

So, dear friends, are you a designer or a programmer?

One of the books that shaped me and my philosophy of ministry is The Purpose Driven Church. Another way of identifying or describing a purpose-driven leader is as an intentional or strategic leader. It’s no accident that Jesus instructed us to be “shrewd as serpents” (Matthew 10:16). Purposeful, intentional and strategic should be words in the vocabulary and arsenal of every church leader.

I don’t think what I’m about to say is black and white or cut and dry, but in my experience and travels, the biggest difference I see between small church leaders and mega-church leaders is grasping this concept of equipping others.

I know I’ll take some heat for this, but most small church leaders are doers and that’s why most churches in America never grow beyond 200 people. I mean really – how many people do you think one person can handle? 200 is it. Mega-church leaders know that they have to multiply themselves, understand Ephesians 4 and the equipping style of leadership and lead accordingly.

The reason I say this isn’t cut and dry is because as I’ve blogged about before, another huge difference between small churches and fast-growing churches is fast-growing churches are externally focused – that’s another issue all together, but for the purpose of this blog series, I want to focus on the leadership style of a doer vs an equipper and how that affects one’s capacity for leadership.

Moses is a revered leader in our Bible and seen as one who accomplished much in his time, but even he had to learn this lesson from his father-in-law Jethro.

Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.” Moses listened to the counsel of his father-in-law and did everything he said. – Exodus 18:17-24 (MSG)

Thanks to Moses’ father-in-law speaking the truth in love to him and opening his eyes to effective leadership, Moses learned a valuable lesson and because it was recorded in Scripture, it’s there for us to learn as well. Moses became an intentional and strategic leader.

I use these words in the context of our discussion on Equipper vs Doer in order to bring clarity to our calling as pastors and in light of the Ephesians 4 passage we looked at earlier. If we are intentional about what we do and don’t do and strategic about who we delegate to, empower and free up to lead and take risks, we can experience unbelievable fruit in our ministries and the joy that only comes from doing what you were created and called to do. Not only that, we get to watch others get to use their gifts and talents for God’s glory, too.

My prayer for and encouragement to  you is to be intentional and strategic in your leadership. Ask yourself daily, “Is this something I alone can do? OR “Is there someone who is more passionate and gifted to do this that I can hand this off to?” So, with our 3 day look at being an equipper vs a doer, where do you see yourself now? I’ll ask the original question: Are you an equipper or doer? And today’s question: Are you intentional and strategic as a leader?

I introduced this discussion of Equipper vs Doer yesterday. If you haven’t read that yet, please go back and read that first, as it sets up what we’ll be looking at today.

First let’s talk about what leadership is: “Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. (Wikipedia)

I see leadership as both influence and a process, meaning you have to be intentional and strategic – two words I use often in my consulting and work with churches, organizations and businesses.

“Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.” - Alan Keith of Genentech

Now on to the title of this blog post: “Why a hard worker is not always a good leader.” Am I against a strong and hard work ethic? Absolutely not. I have a very strong work ethic myself, but I’d rather work smart than hard. I’ve seen way too many leaders that are burned out and frustrated in their life and job and often times they are reaping what they have sewn. Andy Stanley’s book The Principle of the Path is a great read for more on this.

There are many hard workers across the country in churches, organizations and businesses that are working their tail off, but not experiencing health, growth, joy and the unmistakable test of being effective at what they do. If you’re flying solo in your area of ministry and playing the lone ranger, I can guarantee you that you’re not being as effective as you could be. You’re not reaching your full potential and worst yet, your organization will never be all it can be until you make some intentional and strategic changes in how you work and lead. Let’s look at this in more depth: In Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges book Servant Leadership they say:

“One of the quickest ways you can tell the difference between a servant leader and a self-serving leader is how they handle feedback, because one of the biggest fears that self-serving leaders have is to lose their position.”

Insecurity is at the root of many doers. Pride is at the root of other doers. Let’s look at both: First, insecurity is the downfall of many leaders from senior pastors to executive pastors to mid-level leaders and beyond. I’ve told several leaders over the years: In a small church, job security is “I’m the only one that can do this.” Think of that one sound man that runs sound every week, makes no effort to duplicate himself and thinks “They couldn’t make it without me.” Leaders in many small churches, do everything themselves because they think that secures their job. Leaders in large churches lead others to do the work of the ministry and empower those under their authority- that’s their job security.

*Please understand when I say “small churches”, I’m talking about small-minded churches and churches that have stopped growing. I work with many church planters and love churches of all sizes. Church plants won’t be small forever – they’re hungry and highly evangelistic and seek to grow. I’m referring to churches that have been small for decades.*

The other reason for a doer is pride. They think that they can do it better than anyone else and relish in the fantasy that they are the only one qualified to do a particular task or function. In truth, we all have a handful (maybe 3) of things that we alone can do. The majority of what you are in charge of can be given over to a team of volunteers to serve the church in that area of ministry. If you’re a senior pastor, obviously you don’t delegate the weekly preaching and sermon prep; however, you could put together a teaching team and start to share the pulpit with others, as many growing churches are doing.

The key is to not lead from a place of insecurity or pride – both are wrong. If you are to grow as a leader and be effective in your place of service, you must deal with these two issues head on. Emotional Intelligence is another great read that someone asked me to read in my 20′s. There’s no room for insecurity or pride in the church. This is a matter of character and knowing your identity in Christ as a Christ-follower first and leader second. In the beginning of Ken Blanchard’s Lead Like Jesus book he says,

“Every leader must answer two critical questions:

1. Whose am I?
2. Who am I?

The first question answers “Who am I trying to please?” The second question deals with your purpose in life. My encouragement to you is to wrestle with these two questions and two sins of insecurity and pride and leave them at the foot of the cross. You’ll be a better leader for it and those you lead will be glad you did. We’ll continue down this path tomorrow. For today, how do you handle areas of insecurity and pride as a leader? Do you ever sense them creeping into your life and ministry? Have you answered Blanchard’s two key questions? Where do you find your identity?

My philosophy of ministry can be summed up in one word: EQUIP. I’ve based my entire ministry career on this key principle: We, as shepherds and pastors, are not here to do the work of the ministry. As pastors and leaders, we are called to equip others to do the work of the ministry – thus allowing them to use their God-given spiritual gifts and find pure joy, satisfaction and peace in serving. All to often leaders rob their people of blessing by doing something solo and not allowing the people they lead to use their gifts.

As EACH ONE has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. – 1 Peter 4:10 (NKJV)

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. – 1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)

The above passage was given to the Church (people), not just pastors. This theme of using our gifts and as leaders, encouraging others to use their gifts has been a recurring theme on my blog for years. I was changed forever 11 years ago, when I heard Ray Johnston (Senior Pastor of Bayside Church in Sacrament0) speak at a conference on the Body of Christ. He burned a crystal clear image into my brain and heart of what a healthy church looks like – each person using their individual gifts to benefit and complete the whole organization.

When I’m in the interview process with a potential church that I’m considering, this is something I say up front: “I’m an equipper, not a doer.” When I’m hiring a potential staff or team member, this is something I look for and anyone that’s worked for me can vouch for that. I know that when churches get to a super size, there can be the occasional “specialist” – someone hired to DO something because of their unique skill and giftedness (like a designer or a video editor) – but even then, I expect them to duplicate themselves and grow their ministry area.

When I was a tech pastor, I didn’t just hire a Front of House Sound Engineer, I purposely hired an Audio Coordinator. I made it clear to him that though he was gifted at sound and would be running FOH on most weekends, I expected him to grow the audio team by recruiting, training and empowering other sound engineers to be used at FOH, monitor world and in other venues throughout the campus (children, youth and special events such as weddings, funerals, concerts, etc.).

In the world of video, I always utilized volunteer video editors for various ministry projects, even when I had a paid video editor. I expect all my staff to grow their given areas of responsibility. I’m passionate about this ministry concept and principle based out of Ephesians 4.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherdst and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ… – Ephesians 4:11-12 (ESV)

At the last church I served (Bent Tree in Dallas), I developed a Technical Arts Ministry Leadership Team (which I blogged about in the past) that was made up of a mix of volunteers and paid staff. This leadership team ran the Technical Arts Ministry. I gave away the ministry to them and worked myself out of  a job. They still run the ministry to this day.

At each meeting, I would preach to them that the Technical Arts Ministry could not and would not be “Greg-centric.” I expressed my vision for each of them taking ownership of the ministry (which I’ve blogged about before) and told them that they were the reason that the ministry was being blessed, growing and healthy.

To me, this is Church Leadership 101 and something that growing, gifted and effective leaders grasp. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about why not all leaders grasp this and why a “doer” is  a “doer.” So, I’ll ask you – Are you an equipper or a doer?

The following is a guest post from Don Chapman of HymnCharts.com. Check out his Easter resources HERE. Here’s what Don had to say about using hymns in a contemporary praise set:

For churches with a steady diet of contemporary worship there are two times a year when we’re almost expected to do hymns – Christmas and Easter.

A pastor I know in a very contemporary church dreads the Christmas season for that very reason – his distorted electric guitar driven praise band pulls their hair out during the month of December. Hymns and carols aren’t very guitar friendly.

Because I like to arrange music I’ve solved this problem for myself by contemporizing hymns and making them a little easier for a praise band to play, and my website HymnCharts.com grew out of this.

Try it yourself – take a hymn and see if by making a few simple tweaks you can make it fit better in your praise set. Here are my five tips for making a hymn more contemporary:

1. Change the key. Many hymns are in awkward, flat, anti-guitar keys like F, Eb and Bb. Sure, a capo is handy in these situations, but hymns are usually too high for modern congregations anyway. Just transpose it down a half step.

2. Smooth out the chord structure. Classically based hymns can change chords on almost every beat. If possible, in my hymn arrangements I try to have no more than 2 chords per measure – and 1 per measure is best.

3. Substitute minor chords when possible. Play around with the song – the right minor chord substituted for a major chord can give the hymn a contemporary twist.

4. Avoid the 5th. Western harmony is built on the V to I cadence but pop songs often go from IV to I. It doesn’t work all the time with hymns, but see if you can substitute a IV chord for a V chord here and there. (If you’re in the key of D, the IV is a G chord and the V is an A chord.)

5. Add a drum loop. A quick, easy way to add a contemporary sound to a hymn is to play with subtle drum loop. I use Spectrasonic’s Stylus to quickly create my loops in Sonar audio software (or any recording software that will play VST instruments) render it as a WAV and play along with it as you would any stereo track or click track. Other websites offer premade downloadable drum loops in various tempos (Google drum loops.)

Visit the front page of HymnCharts.com and you’ll find an MP3 player in the middle of the page. Listen to “Are You Washed In the Blood,” “Christ Arose” and “Jesus Paid It All” for examples of how it’s possible to turn a song older than your grandma into something totally usable in a modern praise set.

Have you heard of TheCommon.org? Maybe you should! They are my newest sponsor and have a cool service for your church that you should consider. Check out this guest blog post:

TheCommon.org started with a need.  Actually it started as a list; an extremely inefficient list of things people needed help, being communicated to a huge audience of people who “might be able to help” that led to an idea.  You see, every community has both Needs and Abilities.  And we’ve found that, generally, People want to help each other.  But the process of connecting these needs with the people who want to help is severely broken.

What if there were a better way for people help each other, and for communities to help people help each other?  Not just another piece of software or a place to share photos, but a movement and a connecting point—something that has true value to the community.  Something that can embrace both philanthropy and simplicity.

Connecting people looks like a huge, complex system in most communities.  You have an entire ecosystem that is dependent upon a central system of administration to drive service, outreach, care.  And your system is then limited by the capacity of that individual or team.

But when you open communication—allow your community to connect directly with those opportunities—those limits go away. I can really only speak from personal experience.  In the three years that TheCommon has been a living, breathing resource for people to serve, there have been connections I have been able to make, places to serve and relationships formed that flat out wouldn’t have happened in whatever you consider the “current model” without it.

And in the last few months I’ve witnessed some incredible interactions on the Projects and Marketplace as well: from baby clothes and waffle makers, to cars, refrigerators, and computers being given away to help people—all because they were made aware of a need and stepped up to meet it.

So, what happens when people have easier access to the needs in their community and partner communities through blending?  Check out our Twitter feed.  Listen to the 73 year old woman who just received help packing boxes, or the guy who just got help with his car repair.  They share the stories of connections made and the good that is right therewaiting to be done.

We would love for you to test drive it in your community, and for a limited time are extending a FREE 60 day trial to all of Greg’s readers.  Click the link HERE and be sure to enter the code “ga2011” when you create a community account.  It’s simple to get started and we have some great resources to help you along the way.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at hello@thecommon.org.

This was a guest post from Jay Kroll who works in Marketing and Relationships at TheCommon.org.  Follow them on Twitter at @thecommon.

Survivor, Survivorman, Man vs Wild, Dual Survival, Man Woman Wild … the list of survival shows today goes on and on. I love every one of them. If you watch any of these shows, they all agree on the basic needs of a person in a survival situation … FOOD, WATER, SHELTER, FIRE.

Lately I have been reading in the book of Joshua. The Israelites have wondered in the wilderness for 40 years and now it is finally time to go into the promised land. Before they cross over the Jordan, Joshua says to only pack the necessities.

“Go through the camp and tell the people to get their PROVISIONS ready. In three days you will cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Joshua 1:11 NLT)

As I read this passage I asked myself, “What are the provisions I need as I follow Jesus?” (Alright I know this list is not going to surprise anyone, but the know the things to do and doing them are extremely different.)

• time alone … (Psalms 46:10, Mark 1:35, 6:45-46, Luke 4:42, 5:16))

Life can get so busy that we never have time to sit, think, or rest. Jesus took time to be alone. I need to slow down.

• time alone with God’s word … (Ephesians 3:14-19, 1 Timothy 4:6-7, Hebrews 5:11-14, 2 Peter 1:2)

Reading, studying, journaling God’s word for ourselves is what enables us to live out God’s word in our lives. I need to make sure I take time to fill up.

• time with God’s people … (Acts 2:44-47, Ephesians 2:19-22, Philippians 1:27,  Hebrews 10:24-25)

Accepting Jesus is a personal decision that was never intended to be lived alone. God wants to use others to encourage and challenge me and wants  me to encourage and challenge others.

Life … it’s a jungle out there. Make sure you have your survival provisions.

*** The following was  a guest post by Jay Thompson, Pastor of Community and Connections at Lakeside Church in Greensboro, GA.

More and more, churches are turning to staffing specialists to get the right people on the bus. Last month, two of the leading search firms in the church world united. The Vanderbloemen Search Group (specializing in large church executive searches) and Help Staff Me (specializing in mid-level staff) have combined their resources and expanded their networks of relationships.

I recently asked the head of the firm, William Vanderbloemen, “What’s the best way to get promoted?” Here’s his answer:

“The single best piece of advice I’ve heard for succeeding in work didn’t come from a textbook or an expert; – it came from a most unlikely place….a job interview.

I was conducting an interview a while back for a search. The candidate, who had a good job, and had no reason to leave his secure setting sat in front of me, and I asked him why we were meeting. His response:

“I love my job. This is a good church. But I want to be somewhere where my ideas and vision are celebrated, not just tolerated.”

That’s a great lens for thinking about how to succeed in your work environment. Do you celebrate your work, or just tolerate it?

The best employees I see, and also the ones who get the most promotions, are the ones who don’t just tolerate, they celebrate. They celebrate their boss, even when that boss is imperfect. They celebrate their job, even if it isn’t the dream post for their life. They celebrate their church members, even when they act like they really, really need a Savior.

Think of Joseph serving while in prison. Think of David serving as a shepherd. Think of this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

“God doesn’t just tolerate you. He celebrates you.”

Try the same attitude at your work, and I bet you’ll be more productive, more appreciated, and likely promoted.

Follow William (@wvanderbloemen) and Justin Lathrop, founder of Helpstaff (@justinlathrop) on Twitter to receive regular pointers and insights on trends they see in the church world.

If you read my blog via email or RSS, you may not have noticed several things – such as the new blog design and some of the new sponsors recently added to my blog homepage. Sponsors such as HymnCharts and their Easter resources and my newest sponsor: Interactive Worship Live.

I’ve known Phillip Edwards for several years and remember when he called me and several Church leaders together in Dallas to show us his new resource and give us all an up-close-and-personal demo.

At my current home church in Georgia (where I play keys with the praise band when I’m in town), we use IWL each week and love it. I asked our worship pastor, Michael Wells, to share his thoughts on this resource for our church. Here are Michael’s thoughts:

I have been an Interactive Worship Live user for some time and would highly recommend it. There are three areas that IWL has made us more effective in.

First, because you can isolate studio quality musicians, our musicians can clearly hear things like strumming patterns or vocal inflections which has improved their skill level and learning speed.

Second, you don’t have to worry when a musician has to cancel last minute. If our bass player calls in late Saturday night sick I can unmute the bass player channel and sleep well.

Last, IWL fills out the sound by adding instruments not on our team. I may have an electric guitar but I do not have five and many artist tracks today will have multiple layers of instruments.

All three of these areas have made use a more skillful team.

*** I agree with Michael and have personally witnessed this great worship resource in action. We’ve had weeks where the drummer was out and we just plugged in the drummer track on IWL. We had a week when the bass player was out and we did the same thing. I also resonate with the third point Michael made of filling out our sound. We have a basic band, but love having the added percussion sounds added in and it’s always good to add a couple more electric guitars to fill out our sound.

Have you heard of IWL? Why don’t you check them out HERE at their website? If you use IWL at your church, please comment and share with us why you like it/use it and if it’s ever saved the day.

I came across this great management and leadership post and it resonated with me because I’ve experienced each of the four roadblocks personally in my ministry career. Nothing is worse than meaningless tasks and meetings that keep you from getting done the things that you need to get done and also hamper creativity and innovation. The following is a great post from Dan Rockwell:

“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” Peter Drucker

Four ways managers roadblock productivity:

1. Talking – Managers that roadblock work talk too much. Your people want you to leave them alone.
2. Meetings – Too many meetings that include too many people that share too much detail. Here’s some motivation to abbreviate or cancel meetings. They are expensive. A one hour meeting with 8 people in attendance costs their combined salaries plus lost productivity. Remember, you don’t get anything done in a meeting. Things get done after meetings.
3. Reporting – Requesting too many reports that include too much irrelevant detail that takes up too much space in file cabinets. One reason you ask for all the detail is to cover your butt. It’s a business culture issue. People expect you to know the details of all the projects you manage. Sadly, if you know all the details of all the projects you manage, you aren’t managing to your highest potential. I realize this is an organizational-culture issue.
4. Projects rather than people – It’s instinctive to focus on projects and deliverables. However, it’s more effective and efficient to give clear direction, encouragement, and motivation to your people than it is to get directly involved in long-term projects.

Enhancing productivity may not be about doing more and working harder. It may be about doing less.

*****

How do managers make it difficult to get work done? Please leave a comment of something you’ve experienced that decreased your productivity and effectiveness as a leader.