First Who…Then What

Continuing on my analysis of Good to Great by Jim Collins. Here are my favorite quotes from Chapter 3 - First Who…Then What.

…they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. (41)

Great vision without great people is irrelevant. (42) LOVE THIS QUOTE

You get the best people, you build them into the best managers in the industry, and you accept the fact that some of them will be recruited to become CEOs of other companies. (43)

I don’t know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great. (45)

If you have the right executives on the bus, they will do everything within their power to build a great company, no because of what they will “get” for it, but because they simply cannot imagine settling for anything less.

The right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they’re capable of, regardless of the incentive system.

…but to get the right people on the bus in the first place, and to keep them there. (50)

The Nucor system did not aim to turn lazy people into hard workers, but to create an environment where hardworking people would thrive and lazy workers would either jump or get thrown right off the bus. In one extreme case, workers chased a lazy teammate right out of the plant with an angle iron.

In determining “the right people,” the good-to-great companies place greater weight on character attributes…(51)

To be rigorous mean consistently applying exacting standards at all times and at all levels, especially in upper management. (52)

The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving.

To let people languish in uncertainty for months or years, stealing precious time in their lives that they could use to move on to something else, when in the end they aren’t going to make it anyway – that would be ruthless. To deal with it right up front and let people get on with their lives – that is rigorous.

Rigor in a good-to-great company applies first at the top, focused on those who hold the largest burden of responsibility. (53)

Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. (56)

But how do you know? Two key questions can help. First, if it were a hiring decision (rather than a “should this person get off the bus?” decision), would you hire the person again? Second, if the person came to tell you that he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity, would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved? (58)

The good-to-great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems.

…building your opportunities is the only way to become great.

The right people want to be part of building something great…(59)

…each core member of the team transformed personal ambition into ambition for the company.

You need executives, on the one hand, who argue and debate – sometimes violently – in pursuit of the best answers, yet, on the other hand, who unify fully behind a decision, regardless of parochial interests.

All of debates were for the common good of the company, not your own interests. (60)

He was good at assembling the right people around him, and putting the right people in the right slots, that he just didn’t need to be there all hours of the day and night. That was Colman’s whole secret to success and balance. (61)

Members of the good-to-great teams tended to become and remain friends for life.

They enjoyed each other’s company and actually looked forward to meeting.

For no matter what we achieve, if we don’t spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life.

The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with. (62)

Whether someone is the “right person” has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities than with specific knowledge, background, or skills. (64)

Level 5 Leadership

I recently finished reading Good to Great by Jim Collins. It was one of those "recommended" books in grad school that I never got around to reading until now. Actually, it was one of those that I started, got about 30 pages into, and put away. Anyways, I finally got around to reading it. Here are my favorite quotes from Chapter 2 - Level 5 Leadership.

…they were self-effacing individuals who displayed the fierce resolve to do whatever needed to be done to make the company great.

…but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves. (21)

…fully developed Level 5 leaders embody all five layers of the pyramid. (chart on page 20, 21)

…a dedication to making anything he touched the best it could possibly be – not just because of what he would get, but because he simply couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. (25)

…ambition first and foremost for the company and concern for its success rather than for one’s own riches and personal renown. (25-26)

…But he was not a Level 5 leader, and that is one key reason why Rubbermaid went from good to great for a brief shining moment, and then just as quickly, went from great to irrelevant. (27)

They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results. (28)

It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.

Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results. (30)

The evidence does not support the idea that you need an outside leader to come in and shake up the place to go from good to great. (31)

Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly. (35)

…those who have the potential to evolve to Level 5; the capability resides within them, perhaps buried or ignored…they begin to develop.

The problem is not, in my estimation, a death of potential Level 5 leaders. They exist all around us, if we just know what to look for. (37)

This chapter is about what Level 5s are; the rest of the book describes what they do. (38)

Good to Great Introduction

I recently finished reading Good to Great by Jim Collins. It was one of those "recommended" books in grad school that I never got around to reading until now. Actually, it was one of those that I started, got about 30 pages into, and put away. Anyways, I finally got around to reading it. Here are my favorite quotes from the introduction.

What did the good-to-great companies share in common that distinguished them from the comparison companies? (7)

Larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from outside are negatively correlated with taking a company from good to great.

…there is no evidence that the good-to-great companies spent more time on long-range strategic planning than the comparison companies. (10)

…[the good-to-great companies] focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.

…technology cannot cause a transformation.

…two big mediocrities joined together never make one great company.

Under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and change largely melt away.

…[the good-to-great companies] produced a truly revolutionary leap in results, but not by a revolutionary process.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice. (11)

Level 5 Leadership – Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of humility and professional will. (12-13)

First Who…Then What – People are not your most important asset. The right people are.

Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith) – the Stockdale Paradox: You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

A Culture of Discipline – When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance. (12)

Yes, the world is changing, and will continue to do so. But that does not mean we should stop the search for timeless principles.

It is ultimately about thing: the timeless principles of good to great. It’s about how you take a good organization and turn it into one that produces sustained great results, using whatever definition of results best applies to your organization. (15)
That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem.

If we have cracked the code of the question of good to great, we should have something of value to any type of organization.

The best students are those who never quite believe their professors.

One ought not to reject the data merely because one does not like what the data implies. (16)

Madonna of the Future (not the singer)

Epilogue from Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase.

The Madonna of the Future is a story about an artist who devotes her whole life to a single painting. When she dies it is discovered that her canvas is blank.

She never finished because she never started. (163)

What God given dream is collecting dust?

Instead of living by faith, we let our fears dictate our decisions. (164)

Until we come out of whatever cage holds us back, we will live unfruitful and unfufilled lives. (165)

The Wild Goose is eternally evasive. And that is why He is worthy of chasing.

Maybe it's time to stop praying and start acting. If you step out in faith, confirming signs will follow. (167)

God is able to do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine. (168)

The hard way is the best way! Quit living as if the will of God is an insurance plan. Dare to dream great things for God. (169)

It's not about you. It's about the One who wants to write His-story through your life. (170)

He died to make us dangerous.

Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. (171)

Don't stop making mistakes. Celebrate your failures. (173)

Good Old-Fashioned Guts

Coming out of the Cage of Fear - Chapter 7 of Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase.

...the aversion to loss of a certain magnitude is greater than the attraction to gain of the same magnitude.

It is our indecisions, not our bad decisions, that keeps us in the cage [of fear]. (144)

most of us are educated way beyond our level of obedience. (144-145)

We need people who are more afraid of missing opportunities than making mistakes.

...dream the unthinkable and attempt the impossible. (145)

The will of God is not an insurance plan. The will of God is a daring plan! (147)

More often than not, the will of God will involved a daring decision that seems unsafe or even insane. (148)

Faithfulness is not holding the fort. Faithfulness is storming the gates of hell. (149)

...we need to get out of the comfortable confines of our Christian ghettos and invade some hellholes with the light and love of Christ. (150)

"I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." [quoting T. Studd p. 150)

As we grow, God gives us more difficult things to do. (150)

You will have to climb a cliff or pick a fight with the enemy. (151)

The most satisfying days are not the days when you had nothing to do. (152)

Saul was a spiritual spectator. Instead of playing to win, Saul was playing not to lose. (153)

...the church fosters a subtle form of spritual codependency.

We take the presence of God with us wherever He leads.

...if God is calling us to go, and all we do is give, then giving is actually a form of disobedience. (154)

If we don't do anything, nothing will happen. (155)

"The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be may be the painful decision you refuse to make." [quoting Craig Groeschel p. 156]

The reward outweighed the risk. (157)

You have to stop living defensively and start living dangerously for the cause of Christ.

Stop repeating the past and start creativing the future. (158)

Lack of goals is lack of faith.

You need a vision for your marriage. You need a vision for your family. You need a vision for your life. (159)

You won't accomplish the goals you do not set.

The driving motivation has to be maximizing your God given potential.

We need to dream God sized dreams because they're the only things that will drive us to our knees and keep us living in absolute dependence on God the way we were designed to.

The more vision you have, the less you will sin. (160)

The way to stop sinning is by getting a God sized vision that consumes all your time and energy. (160-161)
Ouch. Okay, I'm convicted. Mark Batterson has an article on how to write life goals. You can read it here. I read last week and have so far come up with 29 goals as my first very rough draft. I'll post those at a later time. They need some more prayer and work.

Sometimes it takes a Shipwreck

Coming out of the Cage of Failure - Chapter 6 of Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase.

...failure also has a way of opening us up to other options. (118)

...sometimes it takes a shipwreck to get us where God wants us to go.

...sometimes our plans have to fail in order for God's plans to succeed. (119)

...it took a snakebite to set up this divine appointment...

But when you chase the Wild Goose, you never know where you'll go or who you'll meet. (121)

A healthy relationship between parent and child moves from dependence to independence. But a healthy relationship with our heavenly Father moves in the opposite direction. (126)

...it is our dependence on God, not our best laid plans that will get us where God wants us to go.

Thank God for failed plans! (127)
Maybe one day I'll be able to say this. At this moment, time, place, I cannot. Failure is a hard pill to swallow. I do everything I can to avoid failure. Maybe that is why most of life is boring. I don't try things that I know that I cannot succeed in.

God is far more concerned about about your future than you are.

God wants to reveal them [His divine plans] more than we want to know them. (128)

God is in the business of positioning us in the right place at the right time. (129)

...our reasons and God's reasons are often very different. (132)

...you have to trust His promptings more than you trust your own plans. (134)

What He shuts no one can open, and what He opens no one can shut. (136)
This Scripture is given an entirely different meaning when read in the context of the One who holds the Key of David. This is a reference to the mayor of the palace of David who had the master key to every room in the palace. The doors he locked, no one could open. The doors he opened, no one could shut. Wow. What a difference. The doors Jesus shuts, no one can open. The doors Jesus opens, no one can shut. How does this effect our efforts to discern God's will?

God seems to be far less concerned with where I'm going than with who I'm becoming.

I think some of us want to know the will of God more than we want to know God.

You can't do the will of God if you don't have the heart of God. (137)

What we call the process, God calls the end. [quoting Oswald Chambers p. 137]

Hard work doubles as gratitude insurance. (138)

The size of our dreams is a measure of our spiritual maturity.

If I couldn't enjoy pastoring twenty-five people here and now, then I probably wouldn't enjoy pastoring a thousand people then and there. (140)

As I see it, you have two options when you don't like your circumstances: complain about them or make the most of them. (141)

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them." [quoting George Bernard Shaw p. 141]

God is in them [your circumstances]. He is capable of working them together for your good. (142)

The Cage of Guilt

A Rooster's Crow - Chapter 5 from Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase.

A critical personality is often born out of psychological insecurity. We criticize in others what we don't like about ourselves. (94)

We become so fixated on past mistakes that we forfeit future opportunities. (95)

He [Satan] wants to remind you of your greatest failures over and over again. (97)

...the heights of grace are attainable only after experiencing the depths of guilt.

We can't appreciate the full extent of God's grace until we realize the full extent of our sin. (99)

Start praying for the difficult people in your life, and it will change the way you feel about them. (100)

Thank God for the pressure valve called prayer. (101)

...the Enemy's attacks become counterproductive when we counteract them with prayer. (102) I would add to this prayer and Scripture and even praying Scripture.

If you want to impact someone's life, love them when they least expect it and lease deserve it.

Do you deserve the grace of God? (104)

God's love is proactive. (105)

...forgiveness is the way we unplug from the past.

A tiny seed of bitterness turns into a forest of unforgiveness. (106)

But He [Jesus] did more than heal someone who had come to crucify Him; He also destroyed the evidence against Peter.

Through His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus destroyed the evidence against us.

It's like Jesus says, "You give Me all of your sin. I'll give you all of My righteousness. And we'll call it even." (109)

What a trade! Especially when you consider that our righteousness is like used tampons.

...all of us have guilty secrets, but it takes a courageous person to confess. (113)

Guilt has a shrinking effect. It shrinks our lives to the size of our greatest failures.

Grace has the opposite effect. ...it gives us the courage to chase the Wild Goose all the way to the ends of the earth. (114)

Jesus reconditioned Peter while the roosters were crowing. (115)

In the same context that Peter failed, when the roosters crowed, Jesus restored him and challenged him to be the Apostle Peter. - My Paraphrase. What does this mean about my failures? Does this mean that Jesus will use the same circumstances, challenges, trials, tests and bring me through it to remind me that in Him I am a success?

Eight Foot Ceilings

Coming out of the cage of assumptions...chapter 4 of Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase. Here's my favorite quotes from this chapter.

...we make far to many assumptions about what is and what is not possible in the physical universe. We do the same thing spiritually.

The smartest people are the people who know how much they don't know. Or to put it another way; the smartest people are the people who make the fewest assumptions. [My paraphrase: "Be Smart; Don't Assume"]

...intellectual humility coupled with curiosity drives scientific discovery.

Humility welcomes the challenge because the desire to know god is greater than the need to be right. (75)

[As adults] we lose 119 questions per day. (76)

Faith is theological.

...faith is trusting God more than you trust your own assumptions. (79)

Our inexperience leads to another false assumption that keeps us caged. (80)

God loves using us before we feel like we're ready.

...you'll never be ready. (81)

Don't stay in the cage just because it's never been done that way Before.

We feel unqualified because of something we have not done, can not do, or do not know. (83)

Quit assuming and start believing.

I CAN do everything through (Christ) who gives me strength. (84)

God is able. (85)

But when I pray, the best I can do is no longer the best I can do. The best I can do is the best God can do.

Prayer is one way we overcome our assumptions and escape our space-time limitations. (86)

Sometimes we fail to connect the dots between our faith and God's faithfulness.

When you give beyond your ability, God will bless you beyond your ability. (87)

Abraham is the patron saint of Wild Goose chases. (90)

"People cannot discover new lands until they have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Andre Gide

You have to be willing to go somewhere you've never been or do something you've never done. (91)

Dictatorship of the Ordinary

Coming Out of the Cage of Routine - chapter 3 of Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase. Here are some of my favorite quotes.

...we take constants for granted.

God is the ultimate constant. (42)

...the sacred becomes routine.

We need to change our routine, take some risks, and try new things. (44)

...if you let routine rule your life, you'll never get where the Wild Goose wants you to go. (45)

One name for God in rabbinical literature is The Place.

The holy ground wasn't the Promised Land. It was right where Moses was standing.

...the inaudible yet unmistakable voice of God. (47)

...have a natural tendency to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember. (48)

Their (the disciples) experience was four-dimensional, while ours is one-dimensional. (49)

When god wants us to experience a change in perspective, He often does it via a change in scenery.

Change of place + change of pace = change of perspective.

New places open us up to new experiences. (50)

I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in providence. (52)

...how you start is not nearly as important as how you finish.

It seems like I have to run faster and faster just stay in the same place.

You know what you really need? A stop-doing list! (53)

What are your primary God-ordained passions? [question derived from this page] (54)

The way you speed up is by slowing down. (55)

Hurry kills everything from compassion to creativity.

No room for Spirit-led spontaneity. (57)

...spritual maturity - moment by moment sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

When we learn how and forget why, we start going through the motions spiritually. (58)

...people stop thinking about the lyrics of a song after singing it thirty times.

We need new words, new postures, new thoughts, and new feelings. (59)

We need to inject a little imagination into our prayers. [derived from page 60]

Small changes in routine can result in radical change. (63)

Moses' staff symbolized his physical, financial, and relational security. It was also part of his identity.

Who you are isn't the issue; the issue is whose you are. (65)

Goose Bumps

Chapter 2 of Mark Batterson's book - Coming out of the cage of responsibility. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this chapter.

Ironically, discovering something worth dying for is what makes life worth living. (16-17)

...we turn our responsibilities into excuses. The only way out is responsible irresponsiblity.

...responsible irresponsibility means refusing to allow your human responsiblies to get in the way of pursuing the passions God put in your heart. (18)

[Nehemiah's story] A cupbearer rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem is pretty laughable when you think about it. Most God-ordained passions are. (19)

God often uses us at our point of greatest incompetence. That way He gets all the credit.

...that God-ordained passion becomes your responsibility. (20)

And he said one of the greatest obstacles in his path was his responsibility as a husband and father. He told me that he had to confront the embarrassing possibility of failure and the need to move his entire family back in with his parents if the passion didn't pan out. (21)

...pursuing a God-ordained passion, no matter how crazy it seems, is the most responsible thing you can do.

Supernatural sadness and righteous indignation often reveal our God-ordained passions.

If you want to discover your God-ordained passions, then you need to identify what makes you sad, mad, or glad. (22)

God want us to delight in what we do.

Their ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. (Successful at the wrong ladder)

I would rather fail at something I love than succeed at something I don't enjoy. (23)

If you've never identified your God-ordained passions, let me give you some simple advice. Start praying. (26)

There are some things you don't need to pray about. What you need to do is quit praying and start acting. (27)

God didn't send His Son to pray for us but rather to act for us.

If the twenty-first century church said less and did more, maybe we would have the same kind of impact the first-century church did. (29)

...I think this was a spiritual test. I think God wanted to see if the priests had enough faith to get their feet wet. (31)

If we open His Word, God will open His mouth and speak to us through it.

Signs follow faith.

...signs following. (Mark 16:20)

...signs follow decisions. (32)

God will sanctify your expectations, and you will begin to live your life with holy anticipation. (33)

Supernatural synchronicities - moments when the sovereignty of God overshadows our incompetencies. (34)

...good press is the favor of God. (35)

Your passion is Jerusalem, yet you're stuck a thousand miles due east in Babylon. (36)

...be the best cupbearer you can be.

Don't whine. Don't complain. And don't check out. And faithfully carry out your current obligations. (37)

"Find your own Calcutta." - Mother Teresa (39)

How should end of service hospitality work?

This is my last post on the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. Again, I higly recommend this book For those of you that are in church work or considering work. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 27.

It is one thing to say "Hi" to folks when they walk in the doors of your church. It is something wholly different to express hospitality to them when they leave.

Guests, in particular, need to know that the church is as real at the end as it is at the beginning.

The last image that guests should have as they leave the church is of the greeter smiling. (My paraphrase) (182)

Create a consistent church hospitality space. (My paraphrase) (183)

Many guests will not come to your church hospitality space the first time they visit.

End of service hospitality for guests is of the highest value.

You want everything you do at the end of the service to connect with what was said from the pulpit and what occured in the service. (184)

In summary, 27 Questions is a great reference guide to anyone wondering about "everything but preaching". This book will definitely stay handy.

How important are Inside Greeters?

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 26.

Greeters are frontline faces for your church. They can make you or break you.

Do not assume that everyone knows how to greet. They don't. (176)

When passing out bulletins the greeter should always give a genuine verbal welcome to the church.

Make sure greeters have plenty of hand sanitizer nearby and that people coming to church know they do.

If your churches chooses to not have greeters shake hands, then you as the senior pastor need to communicate that at some point from the pulpit.

The greeter needs to avoid at all costs looking past the person they are greeting in that moment. (177)

It is important that greeters non get caught up in the fun of weekly reconnecting with friends to the exclusion of identifying guests.

..when assistance is needed a system needs to be in place for care to be provided.

If assistance in the form of a wheelchair is needed, the greeter needs to konw where to get one. (178)

I urge you in the strongest possible way to take the filling of these positions seriously.

Then train, train, and retrain those folks to be all they can be for you and for the church. (179)

3 Types of Outside Greeters

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 25.

It seems the church is very friendly with itself.

It happens because the church normally does not create enough waves of hospitality to engender a genuine lasting sense of welcome to newer people to the church. (170)

I suggest creating your first wave of hospitality on the parking lot. (170-171)

Parking Lot-Entrance Greeters
I recommend you place two people at each of your entrances to welcome all the cars.

This is a great place for high school or college age students to serve.

Car Parkers
Car parkers take their ministry role seriously. One of the things you need to do is to make sure they remember "service" and not "boss-man-on-the-lot." (171)

...people want to park where they want to park.

It is recommended that the church provide special up-close parking for those potential new friends of the church. When appropriate, the car parker can briefly tell the guests about whatever hospirality expression the church has following the service, e.g., a place to met the pastor, a place to have some coffee or goodies, a place to mingle with leaders of the church, etc.

Sidewalk Greeters
You will be amazed at how your folks and guest to your church will respond when they are greeted by someone before they expect it. (172)

Please note for churches with colder winter settings, providing an outside space heater for greeters makes it a whole lot easier to recruit for this important role.

...find ways to create hospitality outside the building. (173).

The 9 Facets of the Art of Welcoming Guests

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 24.

How do we create a sustainable welcoming culture?

...the sense of welcoming new people to the family gets harder and harder the longer the church exists. (164)

Building a culture of evangelism starts in the pulpit - it must be seen as your heartbeat. (164)

Develope a culture of evangelism and guests will return because of relationship. (164)

When people give of their time and resources thier arms are open. When arms are open, guests feel it. (165)

...not meeting guests is analagous to a senior sales manager saying he is too busy directing things to meet with a new prospect who shows up on the showroom floor. (165)

Whatever you do make sure you provde the very best for your guests. (165)

Go visit your guest. This must be done right... No effort should be made to enter the house. (166)

You will get smaller attendance than your monthly guest count, but those who attend [a Sunday welcome lunch] will be the most interested in the church. (166)

Make sure your signage make sense to those on the outside, not just folks on the inside. (166)

Be consistent. The same level of consistent friendliness and openness must pervade your church culture. (167)

...Kent Mankins - hey, I know this guy! :)

How to Not treat Visitors

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 23.

Putting guests on the spot (158) - this one makes me cringe. I currently attend a church in which they ask the guests to raise their hands. This past Sunday the statement was made, "Come on. It's okay. Raise your hand." It made me sick to my stomach. I'm a Christian and I haven't even raised my hand to get the visitor packet.

Pouring it on (158) - this one has been a problem as well. In a church that I used to attend, we were a small congregation. So, whenever a guest attended, we were perhaps "too friendly". The feedback we received is so many people were introducing themselves to the guests that it was overwhelming and intimidating.

This is a hard balance. How do you show genuine interest in people without them thinking that you are trying to stalk them?

Start from Scratch Budget

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 20.

How do I build a budget for the church I serve?

I really appreciate this chapter and the practical advice given on how to build a budget from scratch. My only real question about this is what if the church is a New Church? Then what?

The Basics of Discipleship

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 18.

Make 24-Hour Contact
Babies can't lie around for a week without attention. These first few hours and days are critical. (125).

You must assume the new believer knows nothing of their new faith. Start from scratch.

I am not really too fussy about what you do to disciple new believers...just do something. (127).

Staff Disloyalty

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 17 (yes, I skipped a few more chapters).

By definition, loyalty is the quality of being faithful to those persons or ideals that one is under obligation to defend or support. (116)

Nip it now! It is absolutely critical that, whenever you hear of disloyalty, you nip it in the bud. Problems like this don't just go away. Deal with it right now! (119)

Interviewing a Potential Staff Member

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 14.

If there was something less than flattering about your character, life, or ministry, and you were presenting yourself to a prospective church, what is it you would rather they not ask? (98).

Can I say ouch? Although, I wish I would have had this section a long time ago.

You've Got to Have Timing

I'm reviewing the book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask by Dick Hardy. For those of you that are in church work or considering work, you should buy this book. It is filled with practical insights from a pastoral perspective. Here are some of my favorite quotes from chapter 13 (I skipped a few chapters).

Bringing in the right people around you at the right time is the art all pastors crave, and it is truly that, an art. (92)

Act like you are paying the new position well before you actually do so. (93).

God is not averse to good timing.

...think in a sales-and-growth mindset, not an establishment and play-it-safe way of thinking.

[do not] fall prey to the paralysis of analysis so common with late hires. (94)