Momentum – Part 5 – Learning from the Master

Andy Stanley is by far the Master of Momentum in my book. I heard him give a talk about momentum a few years ago. I still remember his 3 points. They’re brilliant.

1. New. Anything New generates momentum. Everybody loves new. That’s why Gap changes their product line every 6 weeks. That’s why series preaching works so well. Every few weeks, it’s something new.

2. Improved. People like to know that something isn’t just staying the same. How can you improve what you’re already doing? and then exploit it, like Tide does!!!

3. Improving. People will get on board with something that is in the “process” stages. Giving people an opportunity to be apart of the Developmental phases of something gives them ownership, buy-in and generates momentum.

Momentum is a leader’s best friend, or worst enemy. Learning to make the most of it, can be make or break for your organization and your leadership.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Momentum – Part 4 – Reactive Momentum

One underlooked and under-utilized momentum generator is Reactive Momentum. Okay, ready for this… Reactive Momentum is taking advantage of a specific win, in another direction. It’s like drafting in racing, or “boing-ing” somebody on a trampalene. (You know, when you jump near someone, & it sends them flying!!!) Let me illustrate Reactive Momentum. Reactive Momentum is about finding something with momentum and using it to create momentum in another area of your organization. Let me illustrate it.

This fall, we are hosting a Women’s Weekend at our church. We’re bringing in a National Best-Selling author to speak, etc. This weekend will be a huge momentum builder for our entire church, even though it’s focused primarily on women.

Reactive Momentum is us announcing that “we men need an event of our own too!” during the weekend! Take advantage of the momentum and sling-shot a men’s event for the spring on the heels of it!

We miss opportunities to utilize Reactive Momentum to our advantage! The one danger in this is “pegging your pants too long.” Remember in the 80’s when everyone was pegging their pants? But then, all of a sudden, everyone stopped? Remember the one guy that kept doing it? Yeah, nobody wanted to tell him it wasn’t cool anymore.

The danger of reactive momentum is doing something that has passed it’s peak!

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Momentum – Part 3 – Momentum Killers

Too many great visions have never come to pass simply because a leader could not find the momentum needed to keep the organization moving forward up the hill they were called to climb! Being able to recognize the momentum killers around you will allow you to head them off at the pass, and keep the momentum moving in your organization. Here are a few big Momentum Killers…

1. Negativity. Nothing will kill momentum like a negative voice in the organization. It has always been my thought to go right at the voice in a private way. Most negativity comes from people “not feeling heard.” I am a firm believer in the idea that, “there aren’t too many things we can’t work out with a little bit of communication.” Therefore I make it my practice to keep short accounts. I love the saying, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

2. Lack of Perceived Wins. One mistake leaders often make is not celebrating along the way enough. Everyone loves to win! And, there are wins happening everyday in our organizations. The problem is, we are not noticing them, or we haven’t trained our people to notice them. Teaching our people to focus on the wins will generate momentum automatically.

3. People Playing Out of Position. Nothing will demoralize team members like playing out of position. No one wants to watch Shaquille O’Neal try and play point guard for an entire game. That’s just plain painful. He’s a great player, but not as a point guard. We will kill momentum in our organization if people feel like they’re playing out of position, or being under-utilized. Truth be told, if we don’t deal with it, they’ll leave the team.

Of course, there are more, but these are 3 big ones. Keep an eye on these, and you’ll end up with more momentum.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Momentum – Part 2

Every leader is constantly looking for ways to generate momentum in their organization. When it comes to your organization, the most effective way to generate momentum is by creating opportunities for your people to Unite! This can be found in a few ways:

1. Find a common enemy. Everyone wants to unite around something they don’t like. Unfortunately, that can have negative effects on an organization, but it certainly is one way to generation some momentum.  There are good enemies for your organization to do battle against.  My recommendation is to find one of those!

2. Find a common cause. Positive momentum is found when a leader begins to unite the troops around a new cause to fight for! Look around your community, there may be a cause just beyond your reach that you can leverage to generate new momentum in your organization.  This is why churches feel so much momentum around building programs.  It gives people a common cause to fight for, for a season.  The danger is the momentum let down they feel when they finally move into the building etc.  The greater cause is a people cause.

3. Find a common hill to climb. Nothing unites people in an organization like a vision of a higher place, not just a bigger bottom line. People will sacrifice, serve, give, pray and live for a vision that makes a difference in the world around them and improves their organization! Find that, and you’ll find momentum.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about momentum killers…

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Momentum – Part 1

This week I want to walk through a series of blogs about Momentum. As John Maxwell likes to say, “Momentum is a Leader’s best friend, or worst enemy.” Over the past decade and a half of ministry and leadership experience, I have certainly been on both sides of the momentum pendulum. I want to throw out a few thoughts on momentum this week. Here we go…

1. There are times and seasons for everything. The Bible definitely gets this one right! Unfortunately, too many of us leaders, don’t. We want to constantly be pushing and moving our organizations forward, but one of our primary jobs as leaders is to know what our people can endure. The leader who never rests their organization burns people out.

2. You need mountains and plateaus. It’s just good for the rhythm of an organization if there are seasons of rest. Farmers know this, and rest their fields 1 out of every 7 years. It gives the soil a chance to replenish the nutrients that have been lost by growing crops for 6 years. (Wow, that was a total Indiana Illustration! I guess I’m going back to my roots! Sorry about the pun!)

3. The great task of leadership is to create momentum even in the Plateau seasons. The tendency of leadership is to think that momentum must be lost during a “plateau season.” I don’t believe that to be true. It simply requires us as leaders to refocus our energy and efforts of the organization into a different direction.

4. Think Momentum Shift. Good leaders think in terms of shifting momentum from advancement to fortification. Momentum can be created and sustained during seasons of rest for an organization, but it all depends on the leader’s perspective and approach.

Do you need to shift the momentum in your organization or department?

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Trustworthy – Part 5

John Maxwell once said, “It’s amazing what we’re capable of when we don’t care who gets the credit.” Wow. Imagine what the Body of Christ could accomplish if we lived that? Imagine what our churches, businesses or organizations could accomplish if we didn’t care who got the credit. Being found faithful is about Humility.

Humility is:

Truly celebrating your “competition.” As much as we would like to think we’re not in competition with one another in the body of Christ, the unfortunate reality is, In our minds, we are. I think it’s just a natural tendency to “size one another up.”

So here’s a thought, what if instead of denouncing this tendency, we actually leveraged it? The next time you think a competitive thought toward another church in your city, stop and do 3 things:

1. Pray for them. On the surface, this looks like the easy one, but in actuality it’s probably the most difficult. Pray for God’s double portion blessing on them. Pray that their church will double by this time next year. Easier said than done.

2. Call them. Call them within 24 hours just to tell them that you love them and are their biggest fan in town!

3. Bless them. Go ahead, write them a check. Or buy them a gift card. The best way to be found trustworthy is by being kingdom minded. That means writing them a check. Even if, No, Especially if it looks like they don’t need it. After all, that’s just a cop out to not following through. (a sure sign that you are not trustworthy…)

Even if it’s something small, do it. You’ll be amazed at what happens in your heart when you become “invested” in what God is doing across town in their church. In the same way that the people of our church take a greater interest in what’s happening when they pray, give & tell others, so we will begin to take a greater interest in the life, health and blessing on their church when we pray, give & tell others about it!

Humility is a huge attribute of being found Trustworthy. Humility encompasses our body, soul, & spirit. The 3 recommendations above involve all 3.

I dare you to try it… & see what happens in your life.

That’s what it means to be Trustworthy,

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Trustworthy – Part 4

I don’t want to go there, but I have to.  My only hope is that you’ll not tune me out, or click away too soon.  But being found trustworthy is about patience.  And doggone it if the King James word for patience is long-suffering.  Oh come on, King James, that just sucks.  Patience is:

1.  The ability to not have what you want and still have a life. Too many leaders have destination disease.  They think that just because they haven’t arrived means they’re not going anywhere.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  And honestly, the longer I’m in this thing as a leader, the more I’m realizing that the life is what happens while we’re waiting to arrive at a destination.

2.  Being okay with where you are. Alot of leaders are living with a constant gnawing in their stomach because they aren’t where they thought they would be by this time in their life.  Being trustworthy means learning the art of being okay with where you are.  Until we embrace where we are, we have given God no evidence that He can trust us with the next place we want to be.

3.  Learning what we need to learn here, so we can move on. If we don’t get what we’re supposed to get at each stop on the train, we’ll have to circle back later to learn it again.  Too many leaders are spending too much time circling back because they lacked the patience in the moment to pause and ask, “What is it I’m supposed to learn now?”

As hard as it is, if we want to be found trustworthy, we’ve got to be willing to grow the fruit of patience in our lives.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Trustworthy – Part 3

Becoming a leader God can Trust involves an element of Steadfastness. Or, in real people terms, staying steady. Leadership is alot like a sailboat ride on a choppy sea.

There’s gonna be alot of ups and downs and you’re likely to throw up a time or two before it’s all said and done.

If you want to be found Trustworthy, then learn the art of staying steady. I’m not sure I do a super job of this all the time, but I’m working on it. Here’s a few thoughts on what that looks like in real time…

1. A Shock-Absorbing Spirit. I just gotta tell you, I have a team who knows how to absorb the shock that comes from ministry. These guys (& gals) know how to take hits and keep right on moving. That’s trustworthiness.

2. A Long View of Reality. One of my favorite lines to quote to myself is: “it won’t always look this way…” Regardless of the circumstance, be it good or bad, the truth is, “your reality probably won’t always look this way.” Learning how to take a long view of where you are, makes the difficult bumps easier to endure.

3. Establish a Sustainable Pace. Ministry is a marathon not a sprint, I work with too many pastors & leaders who want to see success in a 100 meter dash, and can’t figure out why they’re dying at the 1 mile mark. They have failed to find their rhythm and settle into a sustainable pace for the long haul. It takes stamina and rhythm to go 26.2 miles in a marathon.

Trustworthy means Steadfast. The ability to remain steady, no matter what bumps may come on your journey.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Trustworthy – Part 2

To be found Trustworthy requires Faithfulness. The determination to stick with it no matter what it takes. Faithfulness is an essential characteristic in a marriage…obviously. A Determination to make it work. Here are 3 things that test and prove our faithfulness.

1. Full of faith. To be faithful is to be faith – full. (sorry about the cheesey-ness right there) but it’s true. God won’t bless something that isn’t faith filled. The thing about life (or ministry) is that it can wear you down if you’re not careful. Building in “water stops” along the way isn’t just a nice idea, or luxury, it’s essential to being found Trustworthy.

2. Faithful when the chips are down. Everybody’s a Cubs fan when they’re winning. But my grandpa (who would have turned 99 this month) was a Cubs fan for His entire life. Even though he was born in 1909, the year AFTER they won their last world series. He spent his entire life (89 years) routing for a team he never saw win a world series. That’s faithful. He was a Trustworthy fan.

3. Faithful on the mountaintop. Remembering where it all comes from is so huge! Craig Groeschel said, “If you’ll blame yourself when things go bad, you’ll be tempted to blame yourself when things go good.” Faithfulness on the mountaintop looks like giving the credit to God and to others when you win!
If you want to be trusted with more, then increase your level of Faithfulness.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt

Trustworthy – Part 1

If there is one prayer that we have prayed since the beginning of Next Level Church 6 years ago it is, “To be found Trustworthy.” Our heart is that God would see fit to trust us with souls for His Kingdom’s sake. More than grow a big ministry, or make a big impact, etc. Our heart as a leadership team has been for God to find us Worthy of His Trust.

After all, when God can trust us with more influence and more souls, then He’ll obviously do that, right? I mean, He’s more in love with people then we are! He’s more passionate about lost, hurting and broken people finding their way back to Him then we are! He’s more in love with the idea of People coming into relationship with Him than we’ll ever be.

So when we think of Church Growth, or ministry expansion, we must first think in terms of being found Trustworthy. That’s what this weeks blogs are all about..

What does it mean to be found trustworthy? I think it first means: Listening. As we talked about last week, listening is a highly underrated, and yet highly necessary Spiritual Discipline. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Listen to God. Being trustworthy is about listening to the voice and heartbeat of God. If we’re not keeping our ear close to His heart, we’ll get distracted by the screaming pace of the world around us.

2. Listen to People. We can’t lead people we don’t know. What systems are in place in your organization to allow you to listen to the people you lead?

3. Listen to your heart. Unless we’re being true to ourselves and who God has created us to be, we’ll never create the kind of organization God wants us to create. Lead an organization that you would like to attend, or do business with. That’s got everything to do with listening to your heart.

Being found Trustworthy starts with Listening. How are you doing at that? If the answer is, “Not Well.” Why not review last week’s series of blogs.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt