Converge Rocky Mountain

Leadership Deep Dive

November 2016

Contents

Introduction to Systemic Thinking

What is a System?

Systemic Thinking

System Matrix

Triage Evaluation

Recruiting Implementers

Increasing Church Capacity

Appendix: Triage Evaluation

Introduction to Systemic Thinking

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.Ephesians 4:15-16

How does one learn to think systemically? Church leaders tend to fall into one of three groups:

Some leaders think systemically about the church naturally. These people usually are successfully building church systems already. They may not even be aware of their talent.
Other leaders have learned to think about the church systemically. This means they have experienced a paradigm shift in their thinking.
Many more leaders have no clue about systemic thinking, other than systems exist. They are not sure how many there are. They are not sure they want to know. In fact, some are hostile to systems, feeling like this turns churches towards being a business or a dead organization. What they are doing is missing the real problem of the vision and spiritual life of the church by rejecting a natural aspect of organic life.

Thinking systemically is about how to develop a biblical church culture. These include:

Deep love for God versus Habitual Worship

Transformational versus Reformational

Seeing the Lost versus Seeing Ourselves

Developing an Army versus Developing an Audience

What is a System?

All healthy organisms have multiple systems, including churches.
‘System’ is a word used to define the dynamics of how a church does it ministry regularly and consistently in each of the eighteen necessary church functions.
All churches have the same eighteen systems.
All systems are in symbiotic relationship, each one dependent on the health of the others.
Systems are not the same as Programs. Each system has multiple working parts that have to be addressed for a program to work for your church.

Program = packaged part of a particular system. Successful programs are the outcomes of complete systems.
System building addresses all the parts that make a program sustainable.

There is no one right way to do a system, but there are incomplete systems in many churches.

Systems are significant, but they are not the ‘magic bullet’ for starting and establishing healthy churches.

Church health is rooted in intimacy with God.
Church health is also rooted in the people of the church seeing the lost. Seeing the lost means that the people of the congregation will intentionally seek to build relationships with lost people.

Systemic Thinking

Systems do exactly what they are built to do, so if a church wants them to work they have to build them to work.
Systems at their best need to be integrated and invisible.
Systems allow churches to build more ‘relationship slots’ so they can increase their capacity to make and retain more disciples.

Relationship Slots are an inclusion place within the congregation that offers the same level of:

Discipleship
Shepherding
Ministry opportunities
Connection
Trainingas all the others who belong have.

Changing how you operate your systems will create more relationship slots.
Discipling: create a clear pathway in for new believers.
Connection: from the Pastor to Growth Systems.
Leadership Training: it takes more leaders to have more people.
Facilities: prepare for the 80% full rule.
Shepherding: develop 1 shepherd for 10 people.
Communication: multiply ways how people will hear.
Growth Systems: continually add more Small Groups, Ministries, Missions.
Systemic thinking will guide leaders to what needs to be examined when something is not working.
Building appropriate systems for a church is a capacity issue.

System Matrix

Triage Evaluation

These five broken systems are consistently found in plateaued or declining churches.

These five are the foundational systems that allow a church to be a growing presence in its community.
These five are in a sequence, each one depending on the system that precedes it.
All other systems depend on these five being healthy.
Other systems can be broken as well, but in plateaued churches, they are symptoms and not the core health problem.

When a church neglects its Spiritual Life, it is noticed by an increase in:
Apathy towards God’s reign and worship
Counseling demands
Prayerlessness in the congregation
Sin crisis in people, including leaders
Shallowness in discerning God’s purpose for church

In many churches, Spiritual Life is assumed.

When a church is unfocused in its Vision, it is noticed by an increase in:

Aimless activities
Lack of engagement by leaders in effective outreach
Stagnated growth
Competition for church resources
Lack of compassion for lost people in the community

Vision Substitute: A personalized theological definition of the church.

Example: A new church’s vision statement: Multi-cultural community of believers passionate for God and love for each other fulfilling the Great Commission.

Vision Clarity

Lack of a clear vision is the number one reason churches do not grow because the congregation does not see what God wants them to do.
Vision is . . .

When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:36-38
a God-given revelation of why He has this church in this community at this time.
Sacrificial

Vision Examples

God has called us to proclaim the gospel to the working poor in this area through word and deed.

We desire to be used of God to reach the Latinos in this area with the good news about Jesus, especially reaching kids who have become gang members.

God has called us to be a regional church that proclaims the gospel with such power to the people of the community within a ten mile radius around us that regardless of their ethnicity, education, economical station or age, the walls of hostility between them will be broken down and Jesus reign of peace will be seen.

We are here to proclaim the gospel to the various people groups in this neighborhood in order to break down the walls of separation and bring these people together as one church.

Strategy: The steps we will take to fulfill our vision.

Keep in mind that . . .

- a vision without a strategy is a dream!

- a strategy without a vision is just activity!

When a church has inconsistent Evangelizing, it is noticed by adecrease in:

Baptisms
Prayer for the lost
People inviting people
Passion for the Gospel
Dependency on, even competition for, transfer growth

Evangelizing Substitute: Big Push Days

When a church has an undefined Discipling Process, it is noticed by a decrease in:

Maturing believers
Potential leaders
Consistency of Christian walk
Cohesiveness of congregation
People are not trained to be the army of God

Discipling Substitute: Lectures

When a church lacks consistent Leadership Training, it is noticed by a decrease in:

Church growth
Functioning systems
Pastor’s free time
Multiplication of ministries
Lacking leaders with shared vision to forward mission

Leadership Training Substitute: Using Warm Bodies While Waiting for Leaders to Come through the Door

(The Triage Evaluation can be found in Appendix)

Recruiting Implementers

As a pastor, your greatest challenge is to recruit partners with different leadership gifts to build the necessary systems your church needs. These people are called implementers.

Why a pastor typically struggles with system building is that many pastors are big picture people. They lose interest in finishing the details because they prefer to focus on leading, teaching and shepherding.

The pastor does have a critical role in system building:

He needs to understanding what needs to be built.
He needs to own the systems – no ‘hands off.’
He needs to recruit the right team or find the right partner.

He also needs to avoid two obvious mistakes:

First mistake to avoid: Looking for some other (lay or vocational) staff person first.
Second mistake to avoid: Recruiting ‘yourself.’

Characteristics of Implementer

The implementer is the practical organizer who works with the pastor to make the church’s vision a reality. Disciplined, orderly and task-oriented, an implementer develops the necessary systems and the leaders to run them. They are concerned with what is workable. They sort out priorities and pursue them logically.

Core characteristics

Agenda harmony with Pastor
Self-starter
D or C on DISC Test, but never an S
Strength Finders Spectrum: Achiever, Activator, Arranger, Command, Developer, Focus, Responsibility
Team Builder
Highly developed people skills in order to move leaders to the right place

Two characteristics to avoid in recruiting implementers: Ideation and Competition

How to Partner with an Implementer

Build trust. If you do not trust each other, you need to find another implementer.
COMMUNICATE!
Avoid doing a lot of the early stage working and telling your implementer that “I’ve got this.”
Take your strategic ideas to the implementer and put them into his or her hands. (The pastor is not leading if the implementer is defining the ideas for the direction of the church.)
Never let your implementer’s ideas that you know are wrong override your ideas that you know are strategically right.

Starting the Process with an Implementer

To begin building systems, the pastor’s minimum need is one part-time implementer or a team of five or more lay people who can give the church a collective total of 15-20 hours a week.

Evaluate to determine which systems need to be built first and in what order. This probably will call for reassigning leaders and resources.

Increasing Church Capacity

The starting point for increasing capacity is vision: Who are the lost that the people of the church see?A congregation has to care about the lost being found more than becoming a larger church.

Family church:Up to 50 attenders, a tight knit group with everyone involved in every decision.
Single-cell church:51-150 attenders led by a pastor who works with a changeable lay team to offer leadership.
Multi-celled church:151-350 attenders led by the pastor and a select group of leaders. People connect through its small group system.
Large church:351- 900, led by both staff and lay leaders. People tend to connect through its ministry programs.
Decentralized church: Over 901 attenders, which is staff led. Connection is self-determined.

What makes these five sizes different? It is not merely the amount of people who identify with the congregation.

Different in how the pastor understands his role.
Different in the amount of leaders it has. This is an intentional choice.
Different in the speed in which decisions are made.
Different in the way systems create more relationship slots.

Becoming a different kind of church often means shedding comfortable ways of doing their systems.Yet church systems must grow and change to allow the church to grow. This is the decisive issue.

The critical factor in growth capacity is the pastor’s ability to grow and think rightly as a leader. To grow forward in the following five church sizes, the pastor must:

Family size church (2-50): Take on the role of an equipper.
Single-cell church (51-150): Raise up ministry leaders and delegate ministries to them.
Multi-cell church (151-350): Focus on recruiting and leading strong core leaders.
Large church (351-900): Develop multiple partner leaders and team teach so the pastor can focus his time and energies to lead growth.
Decentralized church (901-2000 plus): Develop a higher level of spiritual accountability than ever in his ministry.

Spiritual transformation, which is the practical application of the Gospel, must permeate all systems.

Common ways in which churches can change their systems to increase their church’s capacity for making and retaining disciples.

Vision: Having a clear, understandable vision that allows the congregation to see the lost and a strategy to sow the Gospel into their lives.

Leadership: Hire generalists (leaders who equip others for ministry) for your staff instead of specialists (leaders who do the ministry themselves).

Decision Making: Continually revise the decision making process so that decisions can be made quicker at each stage of growth rather than holding on to a process that delays decisions and puts church ministry on hold.

Evangelizing: Training every attender to be a witness to their network of family, friends and co-workers, thereby increasing the numbers of potential disciples to be made.

Discipling: Making transformation the upfront bedrock of the discipling system. Hope-filled disciples tend to stay with the congregation and help grow other disciples.

Gathering: Multiplying the times and places the church can gather.

Connection: Creating a pathway from the gathering to the Growth Systems for new attenders so that they can connect in deeper relationships with others.

Leadership Training: Always be training more leaders. This has the highest impact on a church’s ability to increase its capacity beyond that of proclaiming the gospel. Growth is triggered first by making more leaders, then reaching more people.

Financial: Building a process to disciple attenders in biblical generosity/stewardship. It takes money to operate a growing church.

Facilities: Being ready at 70% full to take the next step in shifting space usage or procuring more space.

Shepherding: Increasing the number of shepherds to care for the spiritual needs of the attenders so that the pastor is freed up to be the leader and teacher of the church.

Spiritual Life: Train leaders in repentance, confession, reconciliation and restoration. This will make it possible to build the congregation without leadership conflict issues.

Teaching: Train the congregation in sound doctrine as well as biblical knowledge. Many contemporary churches neglect this issue.

Communication: Work to close the communication loop so that complete communication takes place. This especially matters the larger the church becomes.

Community Relations: Allow the pastor to become the pastor to the community and not just the congregation.

Small Groups & Ministries & Missions: Make it a priority to increase the number of these exponentially, as these areas increase the relationship slots available for new attenders to connect deeply with the church.

Which systems have to change to go to the next level?

Family Size Church to Single Cell Church

Decision-making: The pastor must move away from group decision-making to leadership decision-making in some form.
Evangelizing: The attenders must embrace their role in making the church evangelistically effective.
Discipling: There must be a definite process for taking new Christians and growing them into co-workers.
Connection: A family church tends to be clannish and exclusive. The pastor must teach them to recognize and change this pattern.
Gathering: The congregation must develop a gathering system that is inclusive rather than “just for us.”
Facility: The congregation must have room to grow. To go to the 125 level, space is needed to seat 120 adults and teens plus a room or rooms for children.
Financial: The congregation must be invested in its future to afford a larger space. Greater accountability with the finances is required for this step.

Single-cell Church to Cell Church

Leadership Training: The pastor must develop a training process for emerging leaders and invest heavily in time with them.
Connection: The pastor must move from allowing everyone to connect relationally with him to a connection system that utilizes other people, groups and ministries.
Shepherding: A system of shepherding care must be offered through lay leaders in the congregation rather than wholly by the pastor alone.
Small groups: The church must develop a healthy small group system to help create relational connections among its other functions.
Facility: The congregation must have room to grow. To go to the 250 level, space is needed to seat 220 adults and teens plus rooms for children. This can be accomplished by going to two services if you have room for 120 in your main room.

Multi-cell Church to Large Church

Communications: At this size, many things are happening every week and people need to know what is important for them and what is optional. A good communication system will help people still feel connected in spite of the congregation’s size.
Ministries: The church must weigh the ministries it has in order to see if they are helping to increase the capacity.
Mission: The church must start planting the next church if it has not already. This counter-intuitive step will actually drive growth.
Facility: The congregation must have room to grow. To go to the 500 level, space is needed to seat 480 adults and teens plus a room or rooms for children, or go to multiple services. The congregation also needs places to meet and connect apart from the main gathering.

Large Church to Decentralized Church

Decision Making: Because of the increased speed and broader scope of decision making, the church must shift from lay leader decision making to staff decision making. This also means that you have to staff for growth.
Leadership: The church must have staff members who develop others instead of being specialists who personally lead ministry. The church will also need to build up more leaders. The church will also need separate leadership over the business responsibilities and the spiritual responsibilities.
Gathering: The church must begin to diversify its gathering style to speak to the heart language of different groups of people it is seeking to reach.
Ministries: The church must increase its ministries to meet the challenge of the increasing diversity of people.
Mission: The church must become more engaged in mission to its Jerusalem if it is deficient in this.
Facility: The congregation must have room to grow. To go to the 1000 level, space is needed to seat 450 adults and teens with multiple services or a room that holds 900 people. Larger children’s spaces will be needed.

The most common mistake that pastors and leaders make for building systems to move from one level to the next is trying to look several levels ahead for a model of their systems.
The most important change that pastors must make to advance their congregation from one level to the next is to change their mindset about what it means to be the pastor of the church.

Family church:The pastor must assume the role of equipper.
Single-cell church:He must practice the art of delegation.
Multi-celled church:He must focus on leading leaders and not be threatened by having strong leaders around him.
Large church:He must partner multiple leaders who will oversee significant portions of the church’s life, plus be willing to share his pulpit with other speakers to free up his time to lead growth.
Decentralized church:He will need higher spiritual accountability than ever in his ministry.

Appendix:Triage Evaluation