Executive Pastor Online

Eastern Christian Convention - Day 2

kevin@moviechurch.com — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0100

There was a lot going on today here at the Eastern Christian Convention at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The opening session this morning featured Vince Antonucci, lead pastor of Forefront Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Vince is also author of I became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. Vince spoke on God's passion for the lost and developing that same passion in all of us. Eric Olson and the worship team from Mountain Christian Church lead worship. It was a great session. Vince will soon be leaving his current position to plant a church on the Las Vegas strip. To find out more about the plant and Vince's passion for the most broken and lost, check out TheVegasProject.Com.

There were also a number of excellent Workshops hosted throughout the day. I hosted Building Church Infrastructure:

Church leadership is consistently challenged with addressing the internal issues of staff, planning, human resources, finance, information technology, and other functions of the church. Developing the infrastructure to accomplish these functions must be a primary leadership concern. It was very interesting. There were more than 25 people in the room to hear my "2 cents worth" on the topic.

I very practically boiled it down to these 5 steps: Adopt the PhilosophyAgree On and Use a "Structured Approach"Develop a PlanExecute the PlanCommunicate, Communicate, Communicate

Additionally, today was day 2 for Executive Pastor Online's booth in the exhibit area. Many have stopped by to check out the site and talk to me about the vision for the site. I think we had the best candy in the room, which didn't hurt anything!

Eastern Christian Convention - Day 1

kevin@moviechurch.com — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Well, day 1 of the Eastern Christian Convention has come to a close. What a day! I must say the convention's leadership has done a great job this year!

Good music and great speaking in the main session was the highlight of the day. I started the day with the privledge of sharing our relationship with the Church Development Fund (CDF). The CDF sponsors LeaderShape 2008, a leadership teaching forum that takes place on the Friday before the start of the convention. Since the CDF was unable to be here this year, they asked that I stand in for them to speak to the group about the CDF and its ministry to churches that need land purchase and building construction financing. It only took me about 10 minutes. I hope I did a good job inspiring the group to invest in the CDF, helping them to help churches to accomplish their missions to reach the lost.

I'm very happy to report that our video team won the "Best Promotional Video" award during the Videopalooza contest. We were treated to a viewing of all the entries tonight. There were a bunch of good ones.

Here's our winning entry ...

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QU5x_UaDVM 425x344]

The award is a really nice, brand new bottle of Mrs. Butter-Worth's syrup. I can't wait to let the team know they now have this awesome award.

Politicians Gone Wild

kevin@moviechurch.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0100

We just completed a sermon series entitled Politicians Gone Wild. It was very interesting to say the least.

Check out this video we produced as just a little fun pre-message intro ...

[video:http://www.vimeo.com/2152743 425x344]

Preparing for the Eastern Christian Convention

kevin@moviechurch.com — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been occupied with preparing for this year’s Eastern Christian Convention. I’m helping out at the Exhibits Chairperson. I am also leading a workshop on Building Church Infrastructure.

If you are a church leader in the northeast, you should plan to attend. You need to act quickly, though, it’s this weekend!

Bearing the Burden

kevin@moviechurch.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0100

With the economy being what it is, the Executive Pastors I network with have discussed cost cutting actions with each other at length. We were recently asked how publically staff cutting should be communicated.

Here's part of my response: I can tell you that whenever we’ve faced financial issues we’ve done so very publically. Lack of funds to cover “the plan” is a congregational issue (not a staff or leadership issue). Therefore, we go to the congregation (usually via a letter from our Senior Pastor) to make them aware of issues and our plan for resolution. Although, we have never had to cut staff and have always been understaffed, it would probably be via a letter like this that we would make the congregation aware that “cutting staff” is part of our plan (as a church – everyone owning the situation together) to make expenses match expected income.The bottom line is that as leaders in the church we must never forget that the church as a whole (staff and congregation) is responsible for meeting the financial need. When the need isn't being met and expenses have to be cut, everyone must understand and bear the burden together. We must rely on God and each other to sustain the ministry.

Continuous Learning

kevin@moviechurch.com — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0100

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you've noticed that I've been a bit absent lately. Sorry about that!

Over the last several weeks, I've devoted a bunch of time to my commitment to Continuous Learning. I spent the week of October 20th in class. That's right, I'm back to school! I am enrolled in the Orchard Group Institute, which is a partnership with Hope International University. In 5 days I completed all of the classroom requirements for a Bible Survey course and a Biblical Interpretation course. All that is left is completion of a pretty major reading assignment and around 4 major projects. All of this has to be completed by the end of December. Nice!

The Orchard Group Institute is a program we helped to start with the Orchard Group and Hope International University. It is designed to help meet the increasing need for second career church staff needing formal biblical training. The courses can be audited or taken for Bachelor's or Master's credit. Good stuff!

I've also recently been asked to speak a bit. I made a trip to Manhattan to be part of a leadership course for a group of Ozark Christian College students. And, I spent the day this past Thursday with the Leadership Team and staff of New Life Christian Church in Centerville, Virginia. For the Leadership Team I presented our approach to church governance along with some of my observations about the unique relationship between the Executive Pastor and Senior Pastor. For the ministry staff I presented a bunch of material on infrastructure development. (Most of the material can be found here on Executive Pastor Online.)

I am now preparing to lead a workshop on Developing Church Infrastructure at the Eastern Christian Convention. The workshop is on Saturday afternoon, November 15th at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA. My belief in the importance and high priority of infrastructure development in the church tends to catch people a little off guard. It should be an interesting session!

Difficult Financial Times

kevin@moviechurch.com — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I know many of you are dealing of being in or headed for tough times financially. Our network of Executive Pastors is working hard to as proactively as possible deal with this situation.

Here's an e-mail from my friend Rob Cizek, Executive Pastor of Northshore Christian Church in Everett, Washington.

With the across-the-board downturn, I imagine that many of you are dealing with reduced giving just as we are here in the Seattle area. I believe that it is important to get out in front of this. Last week we re-forecast our giving budget to reflect the changing realities that we have seen over the last months (our fiscal year is July 1 - June 30). Our best estimate is now for a 16% reduction in giving, necessitating cuts of $400,000. With one quarter of our fiscal year complete, we are not waiting to act. I am meeting next week with our ministry leaders. We are essentially re-budgeting expenses the year, strategically reducing costs now. We hope this will help us avoid major across the board cuts later.

I have included my memo to ministry leaders below, just in case it might be helpful to any of you working through similar situations.

As you are well aware, the economic downturn has affected giving at the church. This week we are at an important time of budget reevaluation now that we know what the year-to-year trends are for the summer months and First Fruits offering. I am very grateful that the First Fruits offering was on par with last year. This is a meaningful event for our congregation.

Not to take away from this, but overall giving to the general fund for the first quarter (July, August, September) was down significantly. When you combine this with the extended Boeing strike, rising unemployment and the historic drop in the value of stocks, it is only prudent to reforecast general fund giving for this year. Our previous projection was for church income of approximately $2.8 million. Our updated best estimate is now $2.4 million, a drop of 16% or $400,000.

Because time passes so quickly, it is important that take action now. When we address financial concerns early, we leave opportunities open and preserve flexibility. By contrast, waiting until a shortfall becomes daunting leaves little room for anything except drastic action.

Starting this week, we are assembling a financial action plan to present to our Finance Committee and Elder Board. Generally speaking, we are re-doing our current 2008-2009 budget to match an income of $2.4 million rather than $2.8 million. It is our desire to be strategic in spending reductions, rather than simply dictate cuts to you. As such we need your help. Please examine your current ministry budget, with an eye towards trimming it by 15-20%. We will meet with you next week to redo your ministry budget with these cuts in place. Some obvious questions to ask when trimming:

What can we simply live without? What can be done differently?What have we "always done" that we really don't need to do now?What are the things that are directly on mission? Keep them fully funded (or shift more money to them).What are the things that really aren't on truly on mission (reduce dollars to this line or eliminate altogether)?What things can be accomplished by charging participants?What things can we fundraise for?What things could I get donated or make by hand?Can a volunteer provide a service that we currently pay for?Can I buy something used instead of new?What can I put off until next year? Do I need to do this annually or can we do it every-other-year or perhaps every-third-year?Can I partner with another ministry to share costs?Can an event be changed or simplified to reduce costs?Can I accomplish the same ministry goal by using a different program or tactic?How do other churches accomplish the same thing in a different manner?
Please know that we understand the situation that our ministry budgets are in. Already modest budgets have been held flat for the past two years and trimming will not be easy. We also understand that trimming may result in cancellation of some programs the church historically has come to expect. This is a dynamic that we will simply have to ask our congregation to understand. People will respect prayerful, intelligent and strategic choices made during times such as these.

You are not alone facing this challenge. The church will make other changes to achieve a $400,000 savings:

Holding open all unfilled staff positions.Holding all capital spending.Using our reserve funds.
By taking these cost saving measures now we avoid drastic action later. After making these changes we can operate confidently with our budgets (provided that giving doesn't fall any more that 16% this year).

Forefront Church - Manhattan

kevin@moviechurch.com — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0100

Here's a note from Brian Moll, Senior Pastor of Forefront Church in Manhattan. We helped to plant this church and continue to support them now in their 3rd year.

As many of you know FOREFRONT JUST TURNED THREE!

Check out the BEACH BAPTISM VIDEO we showed at our 3rd Birthday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zTn1WyZhHU

We had a great 3rd Birthday...our Creative Arts Team made 400 cupcakes to celebrate the occasion, and we told everyone to come Sunday ready to give as we decided to give our entire offering away...our avg. giving is $11,000/week. On Sept. 18th we received $27,000! We gave it away to three different organizations in New York, Uganda & Haiti that we are in partnership with...

All this to say...thank you so much for your love and support over the past few years! We are gearing up for another great one and still need your love and support more than ever as we make our way to becoming a self-sustaining church.

Please be praying for us as we develop our staff, lead team and volunteers to serve our great city of New York.

Determining Appropriate Compensation

kevin@moviechurch.com — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:46:24 +0100

I am frequently asked how I recommend that a salary amount be determined for a potential candidate a church may be considering for a new position.

Here’s a quick summary:

In determining the amount a potential new staff member should be offered in terms of compensation, there are 3 primary considerations:

1. Market

2. Current Compensation Package

3. Internal Equity

Market

We do an annual market survey looking at “comparison positions” from our staff versus the national market. We use the NACBA (National Association of Church Business Administration). They have an online “salary survey” database that allows you to customize your search very well. Of course there are only a certain number of positions, so you have to pick something that it “close” to the Job Description you’ve created for the position.

Current Compensation Package

If the candidate to whom you are considering making an offer is currently employed, you have to consider where their “total compensation” is at their current place of employment and what it will take to get them. If the person is coming from outside the church, this is often the biggest challenge.

Internal Equity

Obviously, you have to consider how the amount you are going to have to pay this individual will impact other people on your staff. I know that salaries are supposed to be “confidential,” but my experience has been that people talk whether you like it or not. So, you have to be able to “defend” anything you do when it comes to compensation should the need arise. If nothing else, you have to defend it when you are gaining Management Team buy in on your annual salary budget!

Rocky Mountain Christian Church � New Campus

kevin@moviechurch.com — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0100

One of the things I like most about traveling is the opportunity to visit other churches, learning something from every visit. This past Sunday, while in Colorado, I had an opportunity to visit Rocky Mountain Christian Church's new Frederick campus. Man! What a nice place!

I don't know if you've heard, but Rocky Mountain has been in a dispute with Boulder County (the location of their Niwot campus) over their desire to build on their Niwot site. Read more about it here.

The long and short of it is that their application for a "special use permit" that would allow them to add to their existing campus was denied. It's interesting what God did with the situation, though. Although they are still in litigation with the County of Boulder, they found land in neighboring Weld County and built a beautiful new facility. They've got around 15 acres and a 70,000 square foot facility. Nice!

This past Sunday was their 2nd weekend in the new digs. I was there. I enjoyed the new facility and reconnecting with Rick Thielen their Operations Executive Pastor. Their opening weekend saw more than 1,400 people from the surrounding community.

I think it's amazing to see God work despite our disputes, disagreements, and court battles.

Helping Your Neighbor

kevin@moviechurch.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I'm sure you've heard the term "eminent domain." It is defined as "the inherent power of the state to seize a citizen's private property, with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent. The property is taken either for government use or by delegation to third parties who will devote it to public or civic use or, in some cases, economic development."

It's not such a bad concept, I guess, unless it's happening to you. There is a couple in our church that is learning firsthand how it feels to have the government take your property ... in this case for way less than "fair market value."

Check out this website ... www.helpoutyourneighbor.com

Fantasy Football Draft

kevin@moviechurch.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0100

On Tuesday night (9/2/08), I went where I've never gone before; I became a fantasy football team co-owner and participated in a live draft.

This must be the year of "firsts" for me or something. (See my Renaissance Faire post.) Another thing I've contemplated but never chose to take the time to do is to own a fantasy football team. This year is a bit different. My daughter and family (including my 3 grandkids!) recently moved to Pennsylvania from Colorado. My son-in-law is even more of a football fan than am I, and he's a "major league" fantasy football fan.

He and I had the opportunity to co-own a team this year in our neighborhood's league. These are the guys that I've spent lots of time with over the years as part of our neighborhood pool league and other stuff. I've been fortunate to make friends and stay connected to a bunch of guys who are not part of our church community.

As leaders in the church we are especially required to make and foster friendships with people outside the church. The best way to do this, of course, is through doing stuff that we like to do. I love to shoot pool (and am pretty good at it), and I love NFL football. Now I'm part of our neighborhood's fantasy football league.

We'll see if I'm any good at it!

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

kevin@moviechurch.com — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:00:00 +0100

On Monday (Labor Day) I attended my first ever Renaissance Faire and I have to say I should have gone a long time ago. My kids have been after me over the years, first in Colorado and now in Pennsylvania, to check it out and I never have. I'm now a believer.

The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire is a Renaissance faire located in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. As of 2008, the faire is in its 28th season. The 35-acre Shire hosts close to 100 permanent Tudor-style shoppes, 12 stages, one of the largest joust arenas outside of Europe, its own winery, and on site microbrewery. The Faire runs 12 weekends from mid-August through the last weekend of October. It has 250,000 annual patrons, not counting additional festivals held on the same site.

It's cool! The costumes, food, and fun are all worth experiencing. I have to admit that I don't know much about the era, but I'm committed to learn more now that I've experienced a small part of it.

Being a bit of a "people watcher" I'm always amazed at the number and different types of people that attend stuff like this. There were a bunch and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Many of the people that attend are in the costume of the time. They really go all out!

If you haven't been ... you should check it out.

Infrastructure Development � A Simple Example

kevin@moviechurch.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I've expended a lot of my blog energy, over my more than a year as a blogger, on the topic of Infrastructure Development. I've written about what it is, how to do it, and why it's important. Developing infrastructure boils down to deciding how to do something, committing it to writing (the Management System), and continuously improving the method through revising policies, procedures, work instructions, forms, etc. That's it.

But, why is this so critical to church growth and the accomplishment of the mission? In order to grow, the church must be very good at connecting people to ministry teams that "run the business." In all areas of the church people must easily get connected and deployed in one service area or another. If deploying a new volunteer takes a significant amount of effort, either by the staff member or key volunteer leader, the number of volunteers that are connected over time will be fewer. And, the lack of ability to rapidly grow the volunteer base will ultimately slow the growth of the church overall.

Last Sunday I had a real example of this that I thought I would share. In our operations area we have several teams that take care of everything from parking cars to changing light bulbs. One of those teams is responsible for putting directional signs out to help new comers find our site. Not that our site is hard to find necessarily; we have just found over the years that having signs out raises the awareness of people that we are having services and that new comers are always welcome.

Anyway, the guy scheduled to put the signs out that morning called me to let me know, due to some back trouble, he wouldn't be able to take care of it. I said, "No problem. We'll take care of it. You take care of your back." I'm thinking this isn't a problem because this is one "task" that has been documented in the form of a Work Instruction. All I need is to find someone that is willing, give them the procedure and keys to the church truck and off they go. It didn't turn out to be that simple, though.

The volunteer came back 5 minutes later and asked if he could borrow my cell phone. I said no problem ... why do you need it? He said that he needed to stay on the phone (his battery was dead) with the guy scheduled to get the job done that morning because the procedure was "nowhere near accurate."

Nice.

I loaned him my phone which allowed him to be verbally walked through the route and the placement of signs. I thought to myself, "Nice try man." How simple it could have been had our "documented procedure" just been accurate.

Service Design - To Plan or Not to Plan?

kevin@moviechurch.com — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

We recently hired a new Arts Director, which is a very good thing. During the more than 6 months it took to make the hiring decision, though, I had the privilege of directly leading the Arts organization including the development of a new Service Design process.

As the Executive Pastor I probably spend more face-to-face time with our Senior Pastor than anyone else on staff. This helped me to get a new process established, documented, and implemented. It also taught me a bunch about the constant "tug" between the lead speaker and creative design team.

The design team says, "We have to plan more in advance if we want to really do some good stuff." While the lead speaker says, "I need the freedom and flexibility to change my message at the last minute." Or, "I want to come up with the ideas and speak on them within a few weeks of each other when I'm still excited about the topic."

The problem is they are both right, and they are both wrong. (That reminds me of a line out of a movie. What movie?) The creative team does need significant lead time on song selection and many other creative elements. But if they had it their way, everything would be completely done and on paper for a year and there would be no flexibility to tweak anything as the world changes around the church. In other words, too much planning ahead can equal lack of flexibility. That's not good.

The lead speaker, on the other hand, does need to be excited about the topic in order to deliver the message with excellence. Depending on the person, getting and staying excited about a topic might mean not planning too much in advance. I've seen it before. "Six months ago during a brainstorming session I was really excited about this topic, but now (six months later) I wish I had never brought it up!"

The bottom line is that the lead speaker and creative team have to work together to establish the best process possible given the gifts of the people involved and the level of excellence desired. Depending on the service element, the creative team needs the lead time required to get the job done with excellence. For example, an all volunteer music ministry (made up of people with full-time jobs) needs more time to learn the music and practice than a paid band needs to perform with the required (and expected) excellence. If the required lead time is not provided, a lower level of excellence will be the result ... like it or not. If the creative element is a video or drama, obviously much more lead time is required.

The lead speaker needs to work on planning ahead and sticking to the plan once it's established. But, sometimes (for whatever reason) needs the flexibility to tweak or even completely change the plan. The creative team needs enough lead time to produce services that inspire attendees. But, they can't be so rigid that they can't tweak or even completely change the plan when needed.

So, I say establish a process (on paper) that works and that everyone understands. And then, work to continuously reduce the amount of lead time required to get the job done. The lead speaker continuously works to plan more ahead and the creative team works to be more flexible. As with every other area of the church (and just about any business), once the process is established revision B (an improved process) should never be far behind.

Check out CCV's Service Design process here.

Religiuous - The Movie

kevin@moviechurch.com — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

This looks like a movie worth the trip. Maybe a "staff outing" or something.

Check it out ...

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB8fPJ6zds8&eurl=http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2008/08/20/religiuous/ 425x344]

Coffee Cart

kevin@moviechurch.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

When we first moved into our new building in July of 2006 we had an immediate problem with trying to run a Hospitality ministry. Due to budget cuts and having to radically reduce the size of our building to get the project done for the money available, we couldn't build any space to even support Hospitality outside of the building. The single "kitchen type" sink in the building is located in a children's classroom and is only for use during the week. It doesn't help much, though, on Sunday morning.

For the first year (spring through fall) we made coffee in a couple of locations around the building (storage rooms, etc.) that were out of site and waited until after our 3 services to clean everything up. We even used a water hose on the curb in front of the building to rinse out coffee pump pots and other utensils. Needless to say, our volunteers weren’t very happy with us. We lost a number of team members during that period.

A way had to be found to provide something for the team to brew coffee and otherwise support a Hospitality area on Sunday mornings. Again, due to lack of space Hospitality has to be outside the building. Thankfully we have a large patio area in front of our building that can be used (weather permitting).

Enter the coffee cart. Terri, the leader of our First Impressions ministry, suggested we find some kind of mobile or portable way to get the job done. Along the way, we found Carts of Colorado. They manufacture carts or kiosks that businesses such as Starbucks use in malls and other public spaces for coffee and snack service.

I’m happy to say that we have had our cart for this entire season and it has been a HUGE success. If you have a similar need, I would suggest you contact them. Check out their website by clicking here.

Perspective

kevin@moviechurch.com — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I don't know about you, but I can sometimes get too focused on the task at hand and loose my perspective. You know ... what I'm here to accomplish. As CCV's Executive Pastor I'm "up to my eyeballs in alligators" all the time, usually focused on slaying one dragon or another.

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. And, I'm almost always having a good time doing it. Every now and then, though, I need to be reminded why I'm here. I need a little perspective.

A friend of mine sent me this link a few days ago. Check it out ...

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm

God's creation is truly amazing!

Dashboard - Measuring Results

kevin@moviechurch.com — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I've blogged before on the topic of measuring results. In my article on the Performance Cycle I discuss it in the context of everything else when it comes to leading the church in the accomplishment of the mission.

I have been asked lately about how to actually capture results and put them into a format that is readily available to staff and easy to read and interpret.

We use what we refer to as the Stat Sheet. It is e-mailed to the staff each week on Monday or Tuesday and contains just about anything you could possibly want. We also publish and review KPMs (Key Performance Measures) each month that put the data in graphical form. I have found that looking at data in graphical form makes it easier to actually learn something from the information. The Stat Sheet might be considered more of a dashboard, but both are needed and very helpful.

If you would like a copy of either our Stat Sheet or KPMs, send me an e-mail and I'll hook you up.

Starting Construction

kevin@moviechurch.com — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0100

We've been engaged in our second building program (Leave A Legacy) for almost 2 years (since completing our first) and are only now actually almost ready to put a shovel in the ground.

It is amazing to me how much effort goes into a building program! From the early work on the plan in preparation for the vision casting piece of a capital campaign to the continuous negotiation with the municipality, it is almost a full-time job. The effort is worth it, but I continue to wonder how churches without Executive Pastors ever get it done.

Over the last couple of weeks we've had almost daily meetings on site with the general contractor and a host of sub-contractors to clarify bids and work out the logistics of building a new building on a site that has to continue to function as our Sunday morning service location and mid-week preschool facility. Let's just say that "it's going to get much worse before it gets better" around here. It will all be worth it, though, when the new space is complete and we host what we hope will be more than 3,000 for services on Easter Sunday of 2009!

As of today, we've received our grading permit approval; have our Financial Security Agreement (township escrow), signed by the church and the lender, on its way back to our attorney for township signature and recording; and are only a few days away from loan closing. The pre-construction meeting with the Soil Conservation District is scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m. From there the dirt will literally start moving.

We're on track for a blowout Grand Opening celebration on Easter Sunday 2009! There's a lot to do, though, between now and then!