Session 1: Leading From 30,000 Feet

Looks like Session 1 is closing in here a little.

It looks like the focus of not only this session, but the remaining ones is going to be essentially geared on helping us grow our churches numbers through the 150 attendance mark and beyond. This is what some call the 100 barrier. The conventional wisdom says that the next barrier should come to 300.

The idea is that once the growth barrier is broken you sort of naturally grow until you hit a ceiling.

This is a debatable thing among leaders and I don’t want to go there here. If you have thoughts or comments about the legitimacy of thinking in these terms, please email rather than raise hell on here.

It’s obvious that Crew has sort of bumped up against a natural growth momentum at exactly this number. So, I’m open to evaluating my leadership, our systems, any obstacles that churches and leaders who’ve gone before us can help with. So…here are some things that they’re teaching us in this session.

THINKING ABOUT OBSTACLES:

Many churches think of getting through obstacles by beating through them. This may work, but you’ll leave a body count behind us. It will be change and growth, but you’ll really hurt people in the process. It’s an our way or the highway mindset. Instead of that, leaders need to get above the obstacles and circle them in order to get perspective. Then you zero in on the solution.

A book recommendation they gave is The Dip by Seth Godin.

LEADERSHIP CAPACITY

Know leadership capacity of yourself and team. What can you do as a leader or what can this leader do? What kind of capacity do you need from that position or this one. Then make sure you have someone with that capacity.

Most likely barriers come because of the leaders. The church leadership doesn’t know what steps to take now to take the church to another level of growth.

They’ve  suggested:

• Go to a church that is at the next level and go pick their brains. Types of Questions to Ask Folks Who Are Ahead of You: What kind of leadership does it take? Tell’em where you are and ask them what you ought to do. Make them consultants. Ask system questions: How do you discipleship? What do you do with folks who come to Christ? Ask personal life questions: Who are you learning from? How do you lead staff?

Several other nuggets I could post, but this will do for now.