Coaching opportunities available

What would you like to accomplish in 2015?  In your personal life?  In your family?  In your ministry?  In your work?  Would you like to enjoy more balance in your life?  Would you enjoy being able to spend more time with your family?  Would you like to see your church get unstuck from ruts that may be decades old?  The reality is that if you merely hope that things will improve in 2015, they probably won't.  If you keep doing the same things you've been doing you will get the same results.  Nothing will change.  Two things need to happen if you want to see your life and ministry improve.

The first is that you need a goals program.  This season from mid-November through December is when I typically identify the goals I want to pursue in the coming year.  I began doing this several years ago, and it has had a very positive impact on my life.  I began using a program offered by Zig Ziglar that is probably still available through his organization.  I continue to use a modified version of that same program.

I begin by identifying some goals for the different areas of my life that I want to pursue in the coming year.  These areas will include my family life, my ministry, my career (if you are bivocational that will often be different than your ministry), my relationship with God, and my own self-care.  Writing these goals on paper turn them from being a dream to an actual goal.  This helps me be very intentional about pursuing these things and keeps me from merely drifting from one activity to another.  Once I've listed my goals (no more than one or two in each area) I then write down what I will gain from reaching the goal, I list the things I can identify that will hinder my reaching the goal, I identify the people and groups that can help me achieve the goal, I list some new skills or knowledge I might need, and then I begin recording the action steps I will take that will lead me to achieve the goal.  These action steps become mini-goals that reduce the big goal down into bite-size chunks.  I do not believe anyone can reach their fullest potential without setting challenging goals each year that will help them grow.

The second thing that is often helpful is to have a coach who believes in you and your goals.  The coach helps us stay focused and holds us accountable.  Many people will make a New Year's resolution to lose weight and will join a gym and begin an exercise program and diet.  All of this will last about three weeks.  One of the biggest reasons they will fail in their effort is that there is no one to hold them accountable.  The ones who succeed will often have invested in a trainer to work with them, show them the right exercises that will be most beneficial to them, and will often help them with their diet.

The business world has known for several years that a coach can help a person or organization get unstuck.  A good coach can help the one they are coaching to elevate their sights and begin to see past where they are to what they can become.  Many major corporations provide outside coaches to their top executives because they know that they get a good return on their investment.

Some in the church world are now seeing the same value in coaching.  At a time when 80 percent of our churches are plateaued or declining and ministry frustrations are driving many out of the ministry, some are turning to coaches to help their churches move forward and to regain control of their personal lives.  They are finding that this investment in themselves makes sense and provides a great return on both their time and money.  But coaching is not just for when things are not going well.  Some of the best returns is when things are going well, but the leaders want to take their church and themselves to an even higher level of ministry effectiveness.

For the past few years I have coached a number of ministers, both bivocational and fully-funded.  Due to my judicatory responsibilities I can only work with a few people at a time, but as we approach a new year I do have a few slots open.  My doctoral thesis was on "Coaching Bivocational Ministers for Greater Success."  I have found that coaching is an excellent tool to assist bivocational and fully-funded ministers move forward with their lives and ministries.  If you wonder if coaching could benefit you, please contact me so we can discuss it.

My latest book is a look at my doctoral project and the information that came out of it.  Included in the book are ten case studies of ministers I have coached and the results of those coaching relationships.  You may want to pick up a copy of the book to learn more about how coaching can benefit you.

Don't forget to stress the why

Anyone who has been in a church of any size understands how difficult it is for change to occur in a church.  People say they want things to be different, but they don't want anything changed.  As a pastor I tried to implement a number of changes in our church.  Some of them were accepted while others were rejected.  Sometimes my suggestions were rejected because wiser people than me knew our church better than I did and understood why those changes would not work in our situation.  That was especially true in my earlier years at the church.   Sometimes they were rejected because I had not been at the church long enough to have the influence it would take to effectively lead the change.  (I did not understand that at the time but see it clearly now.)  One of the principle reasons many of the rejections occurred was because I had failed to create a sense of urgency behind the reason for the change.  John Maxwell is right when he says that people will not change until the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of the change.  Likewise, Jeff Woods is right when he writes that "Change management is really pain management."  Whenever a congregation hears of possible change they immediately begin thinking of how that change is going to impact them and what level of pain it might bring to the congregation.  Change agents must manage that pain if they want the change to be accepted and successful.  One of the most effective ways to manage the pain is to create a sense of urgency around the change.  John Kotter believes that the single biggest reason most change efforts fail is because the leader failed to create that sense of urgency.  He's absolutely right.

As leaders in a church we often spend great amounts of time studying particular issues in our churches.  One day we find a possible solution to a problem, and we immediately want to describe some changes we need to make to our congregations.  At that point we recognize they don't seem nearly as excited as we are, and, in fact, may speak up quite forcefully against our proposal.  We forget they have not spent the days and weeks trying to resolve the problem like we have and wonder why they're not excited about our great plan to make things better.  That's why we have to stress the why before we begin talking about the what.

In recent years a number of churches in my area have changed the way they are structured.  In most cases they have moved from a two-board structure with monthly business meetings to a single leadership team and annual or semi-annual business meetings.  This has been a major change for every one of these churches.  The pastors who led the change most effectively were the ones who began the change effort by talking about how their old structure simply was not effective in the rapidly changing 21st century.  As the problems of the old structures were pointed out to the congregations some began to understand the need for some type of different structure.  By the time the church began exploring other structural options it had already been decided by many people that some change in the church structure was coming.  Sufficient numbers of people became dissatisfied with the old structure that had served them well for many years that there was minimal pain associated with the change.  There was a great deal of new learning that had to take place, and the transition to a new structure often took a few years to complete, but the transition was made easier because the leadership had created a sense of urgency around the need to make the change well before proposing what a new structure might look like.

Other churches have discussed making the same structural change but have not been able to do so.  Some in those churches want a different structure while others want to preserve the traditional structure that has worked so well for them for many years.  While they argue over the what, no one is talking about why a structure change might be needed.  There has been a lack of urgency in those churches around any possible change, so no one feels any pressure to make the change.

It should be noted that I am not advocating that every church needs to make this particular change.  In fact, if there is not a compelling "why" changes should not be made.  Change for change sake is stupid.  Changing something because of the belief that "if you build it they will come" is equally stupid.  Change is too difficult to just be changing things for the sake of change.  If you want to introduce some change into your church and you cannot find a compelling reason for the change then you probably should abandon that idea until you find such a reason.  Trying to convince a congregation to make a significant change without a compelling reason is foolish and will do little but create conflict among the congregation.  But, spending considerable time on the why will often lead to much less resistance to the change and make it much easier to implement.

Motivating volunteers in the church

I've just started reading a new book The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised] by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.  The book is based on a 10-year study of 200,000 managers and employees and is obviously written primarily for business leaders and managers.  However, even though I have just started reading the book, I am finding some principles that can certainly transfer to ministry leaders as well.  We often note that leading volunteers in a church is difficult because there is little we can do to motivate them.  When we say that we are probably referring to the fact that they are not getting paid.  As this book, and other studies, point out, money is not a primary motivator for most people.  A much more important motivator is recognition and appreciation for their work.

The authors write, "79 percent of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.  Sixty-five percent of North Americans report that they weren't recognized in the least bit in the previous year."  Over three-fourths of people who quit their jobs do so because they did not believe anyone appreciated their efforts.  It had nothing to do with money.  They refer to another study that asked employees what they really wanted from their jobs.  Number one was the opportunity to grow on the job, number two was recognition, and number three was pay.  Again, recognition was more important to these employees than their salaries.

If we transfer this thinking to the church it's easy to see that recognition and appreciation is what will motivate our volunteers, and yet I'm not sure that happens very often in many churches.  I think back to my pastoral ministry, and I can remember two individuals who were very involved in the life of our church.  They faithfully served for many years in a number of capacities.  In time, both dropped out of active involvement.  One told me she was burned out from all she was doing and needed to step back.  She never became as involved in our church as she was previously.  Another individual left our church and never told anyone why.  Until recently.  I was talking to him recently and he confided that the reason he left our church was because he felt burned out with all he was doing and didn't know what to do about it.  Chances are there were others who felt the same thing that I am not aware of.

As I began reading the reasons why people left their jobs I realized it was the same reason these two individuals dropped out of their church roles.  Our church never did anything to intentionally recognize our workers.  I might make a comment once in a while from the pulpit about a specific activity and the persons leading it, but that did not happen nearly often enough.  Like too many church leaders I'm afraid I assumed their dedication to God and to our church was enough for our volunteers. As a pastor I should have known better.  What pastor has not had periods when he or she felt unappreciated by the congregation and thought of leaving for another place of service?  Why would we not recognize that those who volunteer in our churches might feel the same way?

If we want people to engage in the life of our churches we need to do a better job of demonstrating our appreciation for their work.  We need to recognize those who are doing an excellent job.  Such recognition needs to happen publicly and privately.  We must become very intentional about showing our appreciation.  We can do that by having appreciation dinners, by making sure they have the resources they need, by providing learning opportunities for them so they can grow in the ministries they are doing, by speaking words of appreciation to them at various times, and by asking them what challenges they are facing in their tasks.  This is certainly not an all-inclusive list; you need to find the methods of expressing appreciation that will work best in your church.  But, the key thing here is that you become much more intentional about demonstrating that appreciation.

I seldom recommend a book until I've read all of it, but this one has really spoken to me in the first few pages.  I think it's a must read for church leaders.  You can order it by clicking on the title above.