All posts tagged Andy Stanley

Creating a Come & See Culture – 3 Essential Ingredients :: Andy Stanley, Catalyst One Day

by Tim Schraeder on 11/17/2011 in Catalyst One Day with 2 Comments
  • The way that you evaluate your ministry environments establishes the culture for the rest of your church.
  • Your church is a conglomeration of ministry environments.
  • Parking lot, hallways, children’s rooms, check-in process, greeting, worship experience, etc are all ministry environments.
  • Every environments communicates a message.
  • The message of your environment speaks so loudly that it can sometimes overcome the message that’s being communicated from the pulpit.
  • The Gospel is offensive but other things in our church shouldn’t be.
  • The responsibility of the pastor/speaker is to be offensive.
  • Every ministry environment needs to define the win.
  • Make sure there is a filter for everyone to use to evaluate the experiences that happens in the environments that your church creates.
  • It won’t look the same for every church.
  • At the macro level answer this question, “What does is it mean to have a great ministry environment?”
  • When everyone evaluates through the same grid, you accidentally create a culture of evaluation where everyone is evaluating through the same lens.
  • If you don’t tell people how to measure success in their ministry environment, they will default to numbers.
  • We can end up rewarding things that don’t match our values if we don’t have a standard.
  • The word North Point uses to evaluate is the word irresistible.
  • They want to create irresistible environments… so people say, “Wow! I’ve got to come back and bring a friend.”
  • What does an irresistible environment look like?
1 – An appealing setting.
  • Setting is the physical environment.
  • All ministry takes place in a physical environment.
  • Settings create first impressions.
  • First impressions matter.
  • An appealing setting speaks to people.
  • Settings for 20-30 year olds are HUGE. They are sensitive to physical environments. Starbucks gets it, restaurants get it, churches don’t.
  • An uncomfortable or distracting setting can derail ministry before it begins.
  • Physical environments impact people.
  • Every physical environment communicates something.
    • Cleanliness communicates, “we were expecting you.”
    • Organization communicates, “we are serious about what you are doing here.”
    • Check out the book The eMyth.
    • What people see says something to them.
    • A business that looks orderly communicates that people know what they are doing.
    • Safety matter
  • Design, decor, and attention to detail communicare what and who you value most.
  • Design, decor, and attention to detail communicate whether or not you were expecting new people.
    • The sermon begins in the parking lot.
  • Periodically, we all need fresh eyes on our ministry environments.
Questions:
1. Are our ministry settings appealing to your target audience?
2. Does the design, decor, and attention to detail of your environments reflect what and who is most important to you?
3. What’s starting to look tired?
2 – An Engaging Presentation
  • Engaging presentations are central to the success of our mission.
    • Presenting the Gospel is a primary responsibility of the church.
    • “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” is the unique responsibility of the church (Matthew 28:20)
  • To engage is to secure one’s attention.
  • Generally speaking, it’s the presentation that makes information interesting.
    • Great presenters know how to make information people already know interesting.
    • An audience’s attention span is determined by the quality of the presentation.
  • Engaging presentations require engaging presentations or an engaging means of presentation.
    • The the presenters present, let the content creators create.
    • Create a system that gives you the flexibility to surface your best presenters and content creators.
    • What we are presenting is too important to fool around with.
    • We need engaging presenters.
Questions:
 1. Is your culture characterized by a relentless commitment to engaging presentations at every level of the organization?
2. Does your system allow you to put your best presenters in your most strategic presentation environments?
3. Are your presenters evaluated and coached?
4. Does your system create opportunities for your best content creators to partner with your presenters?
3 – Helpful Content
  • Helpful =  Useful.
    • Truth isn’t enough.
    • Matthew 7 – “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice…”
  • Helpful content is content that directly addresses the issues of thinking and living.
  • Content should be age and stage-of-life specific.
    • Information that does not address a felt need is perceived as irrelevant.
      • All Scripture is equally inspired but is not equally applicable. – Reggie Joiner
    • Information that isn’t perceived as useful is perceived as irrelevant.
    • Irrelevant doesn’t stick.
Questions:
1. Is your content helpful?
2. Do your content creators and communicators understand that the goals are renewed minds and changed
behaviors?
3. Is your content age and stage-of-life specific?
Conclusion
Of every environment, program, and production, ask:
1. Was the context appealing?
2. Was the presentation engaging?
3. Was the content helpful?

Building a Healthy Staff Culture :: Andy Stanley, Catalyst One Day-

by Tim Schraeder on 11/17/2011 in Catalyst One Day with No comments
  • The process is often far more important than the product.
  • The local church should shave the best organization in your city.
  • The Monday-Friday life of your church should be as excellent as your weekends.
  • We have huge advantages… shared faith, shared values, honor, integrity, clear mission, etc.
1- Healthy and productive staff cultures are characterized by mutual submission.
  • Mark 10:32-45
  • …not so with you.
  • …not so with me.
  • Jesus introduced a new paradigm for leadership.
  • Jesus argued against the way it was done.
  • Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.
  • In being a leader you are becoming a servant of all.
  • You’re not abdicating leadership or abandoning authority, you are becoming a slave or servant of all.
  • Even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.
  • Jesus is the head of the Church.
Healthy and Productive Staff Cultures  Are Characterized by Healthy Submission
  • The message of mutual submission: I’m here to facilitate your success regardless of where either of us shows up on the organizational church.
  • The assumption of mutual submission: While our responsibilities differ, we are both essential to the success of the enterprise.
  • The question of mutual submission asks: “What can I do to help?”
    • The Gospel is God looking down from Heaven asking, “What can I do to help?”
    • He looked at our pitiful situation and sent His Son for us.
    • Great leaders don’t serve over, they serve under.
    • How can you leverage your power and your influence to make others successful?
    • There is no such thing as God’s anointing on a man or woman of God for ministry.
    • The Anointed One is Jesus.
    • The idea of us being the “anointed” is an Old Testament way of thinking that works against the way Jesus taught.
    • The New Testament way of thinking teaches that every part of the body of Christ is essential.
    • The idea of “the anointed” creeps away into the way we looks at and approach our leadership.
    • We set up our pastors for failure and set our staff up with unhealthy patterns.
    • Jesus gave us a brand-new view of leadership that is all about leveraging our authority for other people’s benefit.
    • We are all essential.
    • Abandon the way of thinking of a pastor as being “the anointed.”
    • That doesn’t dishonor your pastors or leaders, it protects them.

The ultimate dysfunction of a team is the tendency of members to care about something other than the collective goals of the group… Team status and individual status are prime candidates. – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Best Practices

Do for one what you wish you could for everyone.

  • “If I do it for you, I’ll have to do it for everyone…”
  • If you want to create a culture of mutual submission, look for opportunities to be fair.
  • Fairness is not a biblical value.
  • Fairness ended at the Garden.
  • Don’t be fair, be engaged.
  • If you use fairness as an excuse to not be engaged, you’re living unbiblically.
Systemize top-down service.
Create and maintain a sustainable pace.
  • Without margin, there is no room to serve.
  • Without margin we seek first our kingdoms.
Celebrate and reward mutual submission when you see it.
  • What’s rewarded is repeated.
Confront your ego.
  • What’s most important, building a great organization or building a great name for yourself?
Drop the term loyalty from your vocabulary.
  • Loyalty isn’t a fruit of the spirit.
  • If you have to ask people to be loyal you have an organizational problem.
  • If you ask for it or demand it, you are the one with a loyalty issue.
  • If you can’t serve people so well to the point they wouldn’t be loyal to you, you’ve got a leadership problem.
  • You don’t need loyalty if you’re leading well.
  • If you need it, you need counseling.

Andy Stanley :: Catalyst 11

by Tim Schraeder on 10/06/2011 in Catalyst 11 with 1 Comment

Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, and the founder of North Point Ministries (NPM). Since its inception in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown from one campus to five in the Atlanta area and has helped plant over twenty strategic partner churches throughout the United States. Each Sunday, more than 25,000 adults attend services at one of NPM’s three campuses: North Point Community Church, Browns Bridge Community Church, and Buckhead Church.

Andy’s books include the newly released The Grace of God, as well as Communicating for a Change, Making Vision Stick, Next Generation Leader, The Principle of the Path, and How Good is Good Enough? Andy lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with his wife, Sandra, and their three children.

  • The more successful you are, the less accessible you will become.
  • This isn’t a good or bad thing, it’s just a truth of leadership.
  • We can get tricked into thinking that we will always be present and available to everyone.
  • We won’t be able to.
  • It’s an unavoidable truth that could drive us to do one of two things:
    • Refuse to face this reality and burn out by trying to be accessible to everyone.
      • Even though your body may be present, your mind won’t be there.
      • You can only be fully present to a few people.
      • When you are called to ministry, it was all about people.
      • Over time, you’ll become distracted.
    • Use success as an excuse to become more inaccessible than necessary.
      • People will start conversations with us saying, “I know you are busy, but…”
      • Don’t use that as an excuse to excuse yourself.
      • This isn’t a problem just for megachurches, it’s something as simple as a church that goes from 150 to 300.
      • Over time it’s easy to use our success to become even more inaccessible than we really need to be.
  • Unawareness is bliss.
  • The more aware you are of the needs of the people around you, the more helpless you feel.
  • There are no easy solutions or quick fixes.
  • Our awareness of the issues and problems around us will wear us out.
  • Every single day we are bombarded with information and aware of global events… disasters, need, tragedy, etc.
  • The awareness of all of this is overwhelming.
  • We finally want to close our doors, shut ourselves off, etc.
  • Our hearts can grow cold. We’re no longer accessible. We’re no longer present.
  • We can burn out or run away.
  • We all have moments where there’s too much information, too much hurt, etc.
  • The Apostle Paul delved into this dilemma.
  • There is a collision point of our limited time and opportunity.
  • Galatians 6:9-10 – …let us not become weary in doing good, at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
  • Galatians 6:2 – carry each other’s burden…
  • You can’t shut it all out.
  • You can’t take it all on.
  • This is one of the primary tensions that we have to manage as leaders.
  • This is not a problem to solve.
  • This is a tension we live with every single day as leaders: limited time, limited opportunity, and a responsibility for the people God has called us to live with.
  • “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”
  • As kids, we were always told, “if I do this for you, I’ll have to do it for everyone.”
  • That way of thinking creeps into a our thinking as people in ministry.
  • “If I did your ____, then I’ll have to do everyone’s _____”
  • No you don’t.
  • This is how you manage your limited time with growing ministerial responsibilities: you choose to do for one what you could do for everyone.
  • Don’t give up.
  • Don’t get so far away from the struggles that you grow cold to them.
  • Don’t use the excuse that you are so busy and “so big.”
  • Don’t be fair, be engaged. 
  • Fairness ended in the Garden of Eden.
  • Fair is nothing
  • Go deep rather than wide.
    • Go deep with one person, not everyone.
    • Give someone close access, not everyone.
  • Go long -term rather than short-term.
    • Don’t rob yourself of the joy of ministry: a success story.
    • Walk with someone through their entire journey; don’t just give them an hour.
    • The only way for you to be present is to decide to spend an extended amount of time with a few rather than fragmented time with many.
  • Go time, not just money.
    • Don’t just support missions trips, go on one.
    • Go back to the same place next year.
    • When you go time, not just money, it engages your heart.
    • Be fully engaged with what God is doing in one place, in one person, in one situation.
    • One person can give you hope for many.
  • We can’t save everyone, but maybe we can save one.
  • When you do for one, you often end up doing for more than just one.
  • Don’t be fair, be engaged.
  • Go long.
  • Go deep.
  • Maybe this is how you change the whole world.
  • Even if you don’t change the world, you will change somebody else’s world.

Andy Stanley :: CatWest

by Tim Schraeder on 03/03/2011 in Catalyst West 11 with No comments

Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, and the founder of North Point Ministries (NPM). Since its inception in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown from one campus to three in the Atlanta area and has helped plant over twenty strategic partner churches throughout the United States. Each Sunday, more than 20,000 adults attend services at one of NPM’s three campuses: North Point Community Church, Browns Bridge Community Church, and Buckhead Church.

Andy’s books include the newly released The Grace of God, as well as Communicating for a Change, Making Vision Stick, Next Generation Leader, The Principle of the Path, and How Good is Good Enough? Andy lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with his wife, Sandra, and their three children.

  • In life, in our history, in our experience and in everything we do, oftentimes a single act of courage is the tipping point for something extraordinary.
  • A single expression or act of courage can begin a transition point for something absolutely extraordinary.
  • It begins a transition that takes people by surprise.
  • The individuals involved often have no idea what they are a part of.
  • Dec 1, 1955 – a 42 year-old African American woman decided not to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Rosa Parks became an international symbol for racial equality.
  • You can go back through every kind of history and see individuals or small groups of people making single acts of courage that
  • This should be of particular interest to those of us who are Christians.
  • Throughout the Bible we see the very same thing: men and women who display courage that brings them onto the scene of history.
  • Abraham decided to leave his home and follow God – a nation was born.
  • Moses returned to Egypt to face Pharaoh – a tipping point for the nation of Israel.
  • Joshua crossing the River.
  • Joseph forgiving his brothers.
  • David facing Goliath.
  • Gideon and his army.
  • Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
  • Joseph deciding to marry his fiance Mary.
  • The problem with all of these stories is that they are so big and dramatic.
  • If we found ourselves in those circumstances and someone told us how they would end it would be easy to take courage.
  • In our everyday life things don’t seem so big or dramatic.
  • In spite of the fact that our stories won’t be so dramatic, there are still opportunities and circumstances in our lives and in church leadership that will be tipping points for something extraordinary in our lives.
  • Challenges and moments of fear in our lives will represent tipping points for our ministry.
  • It won’t be as dramatic or public or the things legends are made of, but in our lives and in our context, there will be multiple circumstances that will demand the kind of courage we tend to shrink back from.
  • It will be a tipping point for something extraordinary in our life and in our ministry.

3 Faces of Courage

1 – Courage to stay when it would be easier to go.

  • “When I look around at the circumstances everything in me says, “go.” But when I get on my knees and ask God, He tells me to stay.” – Charles Stanley
  • Some of us are in crappy ministry environments right now and that makes coming to conferences difficult. There’s nothing going on.
  • Sometimes it would be easier to go. We’ve maybe even had offers to go other places.
  • Whenever everything around us says, “go” but we know in our hearts that God wants us to stay, our decision to stay may be the single act of courage that is the tipping point for something extraordinary in our lives.
  • You will never know unless you stay.
  • For all of us in life or in our ministry, something in us will want to leave when God wants us to stay.

2 – Courage to leave, when it would be easier to stay.

  • Andy faced the challenge of choosing to go or stay with his father’s ministry
  • Sometimes we have to walk away from something.
  • Sometimes we have to walk way, not to something, but we just have to walk away.
  • To walk away can oftentimes feel irresponsible.
  • Andy read the book A Tale of Three Kings and had a moment of clarity.
  • Beginning empty-handed and alone, frightens the best of men. It also speaks volumes of just how sure they are God is with them.
  • Andy chose to go.
  • From that decision, North Point Community Church was born.
  • 4 years into their ministry at North Point, Andy’s wife said to him, “What if we hadn’t left?”
  • You have no idea what God will do hanging in the balance of the decision to go.
  • Sometimes God will tell us to go and it will be easier to stay when things are big, huge, and already successful.
  • That decision, that expression of courage is our Goliath… that’s it.
  • It’s not dramatic and no one will ever know besides us and God, but that single decision could be the tipping point for something extraordinary in our lives and in our ministry.
  • Some of you need to quit what you are doing and go back to school.
  • Some of you need to leave the marketplace and go into ministry.

3 – Courage to ask for help, when it would be easier to pretend like everything’s okay.

  • Secrets are dangerous.
  • Secrets grow into ugly things in our dark places of our hearts.
  • Secrets are what take Christian leaders out, not theology.
  • Christian leaders lose places of influence because of their secrets.
  • People won’t ask for help because they are afraid.
  • One of the most courageous steps we could take is the step to get help.
  • Secrets influence the way you lead.
  • When you carry a secret you compensate for it in your leadership.
  • It’s more important for leaders to get help more than any other segment.
  • In leadership, you’re at the front and it’s harder at the front.
  • We face more pressure, more responsibility, criticism, etc. We are never not at work.
  • That makes it even more difficult to compensate for it in our leadership.
  • Whatever you fear secretly will be compensated in your leadership.
  • We won’t get help because we are afraid.
  • “I won’t get help because I’m afraid that ________ …”
  • We are afraid  of what people will think about us and what we will find out about ourselves.
  • The simple act of asking for help may be the most courageous thing you ever do as a Christian leader.
  • By refusing to ask for help, you may be robbed of the extraordinary thing God wants to do in and through you.
  • If someone you love and trust says, “Maybe you should get some help with that…” you should.
  • One of the expressions of courage we must face is to be willing to have the courage to ask for help.

What you should be afraid of…

  • Our greatest fear for our lives should be waking up and realizing we are outside of God’s will for our lives.
  • There’s nothing worse in Christian leadership than not having the confidence that you are where you need to be, doing what God is calling you to do.
  • If you minister or lead without confidence it will show.
  • If we have the fear of the Lord we won’t do anything that moves us out of the center of His will for our lives, our family, our ministry, etc.
  • Fear the Lord more than what people say about us, than poverty, than missing the break-out moment.
  • Ask: “When this is all over, when this all said and done, what story do you want to tell?”
  • As you think about the tension you are living in with your ministry, what story do you want to tell?
  • Tell the story of making the courageous decision.
  • If God says go, go.
  • If God says stay, stay.
  • If God says disclose, disclose.
  • Those expressions of courage may be the tipping point of the extraordinary thing God wants to do in and through your life.
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