REINVENT YOUR FUTURE

Reinvent your systems . . . everyday!


Vibrant, fruitful, growing congregations create a cycle of ongoing innovation and reinvent. It's a Spirit-driven process that involves asking powerful questions, the art of noticing, a willingness to experiment and prototype possibilities, and learn from our results. This training address reinvention from the mindset of discerning and developing a strategic vision and as a process embed reinvention into our daily lives and routines.  Join the conversation, share your wisdom, and learn from others.

 1 | RETHINK STRUCTURES

  • Align structure with purpose & priorities.
  • Establish operational values.
  • List outcomes for teams & programs.
  • Write job descriptions for teams.
  • Keep structure simple & strategic.
  • Create scorecards/wins for ministry..
  • Assess staff & structure regularly.
  • Inform leaders about structure/process.
  • Create leadership roster (master list).
  • Reduce friction; increase collaboration.
  • Create a leadership planning calendar.

2 | RETHINK STAFFING

  • Roles - separate between major & minor roles..
  • Define your rocks; schedule time for them. 
  • Create space for rest, rethinking, and reinvention.
  • Leaders raise up new leaders to multiply ministries.
  • Make reviewing results your norm.
  • Get the right people on the bus; in the right seats. 
  • Build on strengths; work around weaknesses.
  • Help leaders lead better meetings.
  • Make staff review self-led; more future-oriented.
  • Create plans for checking the pulse of your leaders..
  • Use coaching principles to empower your teams.

3 | RETHINK CHURCH NORMS

  • Connect whats to whys.
  • Challenge everything; assign people to observe.
  • Create norms for setting & reviewing goals.
  • Create norms for evaluating events & programs.
  • Create 1-page ministry plans; include deadlines.
  • Include "next steps" in your meeting agendas.
  • Share "Why Transformation Efforts fail with leaders.
  • Create new norms for onboarding/evaluating staff.
  • Ask new people to help you see with new eyes.
  • Use CTAD form for programs & processes.
  • Experiment with "clean slate" exercises.

SAMPLE NEXT STEPS

1 | Streamline our church structure 

IDEAS FOR NEXT STEPS
  • Assess our current church structure (what's working/what's not working).
  • Clarify the role of committees, teams, task forces, and project coordinators.
  • Create job descriptions for team members.
  • Establish criteria and process for selecting vision team members.
  • Discern the appropriate size and meeting frequency of our teams.
  • Create and maintain a current list of all ministry leaders.
  • Assign a person to send monthly updates to ministry leaders.
  • Establish quarterly "check-ins" with volunteer leaders to support their efforts.
QUESTIONS
  • If we were a brand new church, how would we organize ourself?
  • How do we differentiate between board and staff roles?
  • How large should committees/teams be?
  • How often to our committees/teams need to meet?
  • How will help leaders stay abreast of what's most important?
  • How can we help all leaders be ambassadors of our mission?
  • What types of ministries can be done outside of a committee?
  • Which committee/team job descriptions need to be updated?
  • How often are job descriptions updated? Who updates them?

2 | Design new norms for onboarding & developing staff

IDEAS FOR NEXT STEPS
  • Update Leadership Toolkit; reintroduce to lay/elected leaders.
  • Update Employee Handbook.
  • Embed 15-minute leadership training modules into Board meetings..
  • Assist paid staff with setting 5 annual goals (3 ministry/1 development/1 self-care).
  • Train paid and unpaid leaders to listen, observe, evaluate, and experiment.
  • Create a roster of current ministry leaders to support increased collaboration..
QUESTIONS
  • Does your church have a current strategic plan?
  • What's the status of your ministry teams/committees?
  • What's working? What's not working?
  • What's for process for onboarding members? Leaders?
  • Are we staffed for the past, present, or future?
  • List expectations you have for members.

3 | Help leaders plan and leader better meetings 

IDEAS FOR NEXT STEPS
  • Create video training series to teach leaders how to lead impactful meetings.
  • Work with lay leadership teams to use and submit meeting planner forms.
  • Equip paid staff to help lay leaders build meeting agendas and action steps.
  • Help teams to create one-page ministry maps related to annual goals.
  • Help leaders design different meetings based on different meeting outcomes.
  • Explore ways to move meetings out into the community.
QUESTIONS
  • What prevents people from befriending others?
  • What norms can be create help people befriend?
  • Is it safe for people to let their guard down?
  • Do your leaders regularly befriend?
  • Which church events are idea for befriending?

4 | Use Rethinking Norms forms to reimagine worship & communications

IDEAS FOR NEXT STEPS
  • Contract with worship consultant to assess our worship services.
  • Develop a worship evaluation tools that helps us assess the right things.
  • Form worship and communications task forces to help us rethink our norms.
  • Contract with a coach for 6 sessions to new opportunities to observe & experiment.
  • Develop 1-page project road maps to guide our next steps.
  • Develop evaluation tools to assess the new norms we experiment with.
QUESTIONS
  • Which norms are working for your members?  Guests?
  • What would happen if you piloted a new norm for 60 days?
  • Is there a better, faster, cheaper way to achieve our outcomes?
  • Who can help us think differently about this situation?
  • Who can give us a reality check on our current norms?
  • How could we create a culture of ongoing innovation?

TOOLS to try

VIDEOS to watch

BOOKS to read

BLOGS to read and comment on

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