For the week of February 14, 2005
The Four Key Spaces
By: Tom Bandy
Many church leaders feel the need to evaluate their facilities, but don’t know where to start. Here is where you start. Understand effective church facilities should fit the core process of the church.
Traditional established churches rely on a core process of membership assimilation […]
For the week of February 07, 2005
Training
By: Tom Bandy
In most Congregational Mission Assessments, the most common failure in the system story of a growing, out-of-the-box church is that they are not rigorous and intentional enough training leaders. Perhaps they are too hasty to develop programs for increasing numbers of people; or perhaps they assume […]
For the week of January 31, 2005
Radical Hospitality
By: Tom Bandy
Most churches have learned that hospitality increases worship attendance … but they rarely go far enough. Radical hospitality is the readiness, not just to do what you like only better, but to do what you do not like for the sake of the newcomer. Imagine […]
For the week of January 24, 2005
The Purpose of Worship
By: Tom Bandy
Although there are plenty of theological definitions of worship, the wise church leader will understand the organizational and systemic purpose of worship. In this perspective, there are only two reasons why worship deserves dedicated time, space, and staff:
• Worship is the one regular […]
For the week of January 17, 2005
From Program Manager to Transformational Leader
By: Tom Bandy
One of the hardest shifts for clergy to make is the shift from program manager to transformational leader. This is a shift from program development to leader development, or, a shift from “shepherding” to “midwifing”. The key is to develop an […]
Separating Visioning and Management
By: Tom Bandy
Whatever your organizational model might be, it is crucial to separate the visionary and management functions. Most churches (especially small churches) fail to do so, even though their polities might designate “elders” and “stewards”, or “deacons” and “trustees” and so on. As soon as the separation becomes blurred, everyone […]
For the week of January 03, 2005
Mission Statements
By: Tom Bandy
Biblical visions are revealed, never created. That principle is forgotten so often! Churches accommodate to the corporate culture around them by assuming vision to be a function of strategic planning. Instead, vision is a function of adult faith formation … an extension of spiritual growth. […]
Supervising Staff
In order to supervise staff you have to have the power to hire and fire. Most churches don’t allow the lead pastor to have such power. This is one of the key reasons churches don’t develop team based ministries. It’s like a football team where the coach isn’t allowed to select or terminate […]
One of the mistakes I see pastors routinely making is the failure to terminate a staff person the moment they decide they can’t cut the mustard. It’s been my experience that the sooner an ineffective person is terminated the more likely it is that the pastor will survive the conflict.
Most Pastors wait too long […]