All posts tagged Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley, Round 2 :: Catalyst 2010

by Tim Schraeder on 10/08/2010 in Catalyst 10 with 1 Comment

Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, author, and founder of North Point Ministries, Inc. (NPM). Since its inception in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown to from one campus to three in the Atlanta area and has helped plant over twenty strategic partner churches throughout the U.S. Each Sunday, more than 20,000 adults attend worship services at one of NPM’s 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: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication, Making Vision Stick, Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future, The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, and How Good Is Good Enough? Andy lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with his wife, Sandra and their three children.

  • The local church should be the best run organization in your city.
  • The people in the marketplace should be asking how we get such great people to do such extraordinary things with such extraordinary passion.
  • The organizational side of our church should be extraordinary.
  • All truth is God’s truth.
  • It takes us time to find chapter and verse, but it’s all God’s truth.
  • We all have opposable thumbs… it enables us to do things that no other thing in creation can do.
  • With our thumb and four fingers we can exert pressure to lift things.
  • What allows us to make progress is that we are able to exert the right amount of pressure for the right amount of time.
  • Pressure and tension happen every single day in our organizations.
  • Tension is a necessity for any organization that wants to make progress.
  • Unresolved tension is a part of any organization that is making progress.
  • Great leaders don’t solve all of the problems and don’t resolve all of the tensions… they learn to use the necessary tension of organizations life for the sake of progress.
  • If you try to solve all of the problems and all of the tension, you lose the ability to make progress.

Every organization has problems that shouldn’t be solved and tensions that shouldn’t be resolved.

  • There are many tensions and problems inside of our organizations.
    • The tension between excellence and careful stewardship.
    • The tension between research/development and sales.
    • Tension between management and leadership.
    • Tension between local and global outreach.
    • Leading people versus developing people.
  • We have a temptation to try to come up with a system or solution for our tensions.

If you resolve any of those tensions you will create new tension.

  • You create a harsher climate for getting things done.
  • If you try to solve tensions you end up wasting a lot of time and energy and impede progress.
  • If you cut off your thumb you feel the effects immediately.

If you resolve any of those tensions you put a barrier on progress.

Progress depends on the successful management of tensions.

To distinguish between problems to solve and tensions that need to be managed, ask these questions:

1 – Does this problem or tension keep resurfacing?

  • Do people keep asking the same questions?
  • Do the same issues keep coming up?

2 – Are there mature advocates on both sides?

3 – Are the two sides of the tension really interdependent?

  • Are they leveraging each other to be a tension in the first place?

The role of leadership is to leverage tension for the benefit of the organization.

  • Tension results in progress when leveraged properly.
  • Identify the key tensions to be managed in your organization.
  • Create terminology.
  • Inform your core.
  • Continually give value to both sides.
  • Our words, as leaders, weigh 1,000 pounds.
  • We must get into the habit of methodically speak value to both sides.
  • Don’t weigh in too heavily based on your personal biases.
  • Our goal should be to make sure the important progress-critical tensions never drop out of sight.
  • We can accidentally win the argument, trump opinions and cut off our thumbs.
  • Understand the upside of the opposite side; understand the downside of your side.
  • We have to make sure tension remains and learn to manage the tension.
  • Don’t allow strong personalities to win the day.
  • It’s not a win when somebody wins.
  • You need passionate people who will champion their side but you need mature people who understand this reality.
  • Don’t think in terms of balance; think rhythm.
  • Leadership is more art than science.
  • Don’t be a fair leader, just do the right thing.
  • As a leader one of the most valuable things you can do for your organization is to differentiate between tensions that need to be managed and problems that need to be solved.
  • Learn to leverage your tensions… they can be key to the growth and progress of your organization.

Andy Stanley :: Catalyst 2010

by Tim Schraeder on 10/07/2010 in Catalyst 10 with 3 Comments

Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, author, and founder of North Point Ministries, Inc. (NPM). Since its inception in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown to from one campus to three in the Atlanta area and has helped plant over twenty strategic partner churches throughout the U.S. Each Sunday, more than 20,000 adults attend worship services at one of NPM’s 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: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication, Making Vision Stick, Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future, The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, and How Good Is Good Enough? Andy lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with his wife, Sandra and their three children.

  • The internal tension all of us carry is associated with our appetite.
  • The internal tension we all carry because we want more.
  • The only word our appetite knows is: more.
  • Appetites aren’t just about food or hunger; there’s the appetite of food, sex, fame, etc.
  • God has designed us in a way that we are a bundled with many different appetites.
  • Each one of our appetites creates tension.
  • Every appetite creates tension because they only have one word in their vocabulary: MORE.
  • When it comes to leadership there are heightened appetites we face.

Tensions we face in ministry/leadership include:

  • Progress
  • Responsibility
  • Respect
  • Win
  • Growth
  • Fame
  • Achievement
  • To Be Envied

3 Things to Know About Appetites

1 – God created them and sin distorted them.

  • All of our apetites are given

2 – Appetites are never fully and finally satisfied.

  • we think there is something, somebody, some achievement or responsibility that will absolutely fully and finally fulfill our appetite.
  • We can spend our lives and make poor decisions trying to achieve it.
  • There is always, always tension in this area our lives.

3 – Your appetites always whisper now, never later.

  • Our response to our appetites will determine the direction of our profession, our family and our life.
  • Look at your parents.
  • Some of our parents wrecked their lives over their appetites.
  • We can lose everything over our inability to manage our appetites.
  • If you don’t get this right it doesn’t really matter if you get the rest right.
  • If you are ruled and controlled by the voice that says “…a little more” ultimately we will experience loss.

Jacob & Esau

  • Genesis 25:39-34
  • The story of Jacob & Esau is centered around the ancient idea of a birthright.
  • The oldest son was made wealthier than their siblings because of their birthright.
  • You were given the authority over the rest of the family, the judge.
  • A birthright was associated with the blessing of God.
  • Esau came in and wanted the stew Jacob was preparing because he was famished.
  • The older brother rarely needs the younger brother; the younger brother always wants something from the older brother.
  • When older brothers need the younger brother, younger brothers think about what’s most valuable to the older brother.
  • Jacob asked for Esau’s birthright.
  • Who would throw away their ministry, influence, leadership, etc for something so small like a bowl of stew?
  • We would.
  • We would do the same thing if it was the right bowl of stew.
  • Appetites are powerful and they are never fully and finally satisfied.
  • This tension represented in this story is a tension we will carry as leaders every single day.
  • We will be offered something with temporary and to solve a tension that is about now and not later.
  • What good is a birthright to me?
  • Impact bias – a simple appetite magnified out of proportion.
  • Our brains lie to us and deceive us into thinking something will be much better than it really is, satisfying our appetites.
  • Focalism – focuses our minds on one thing and blurs out everything else.
  • We have appetites that get blown out of proportion and they lie to us.
  • Esau says, “who needs a birthright when I can have a bowl of stew?”
  • This happens in our brains every single time an appetite gets blown up out of proportion.

Reframe Your Appetite

  • We need to reframe our appetites.
  • As leaders, this tension will never, ever go away.
  • Whatever you want you will only want more.
  • All of our appetites will always whisper now not later.
  • Our only hope is to develop the habit of reframing our appetite in the broader context of what God has called us to do .
  • Focus on the future, not now.
  • There are opportunities you should never take advantage of because they are going to pull you away from what God has called you to.
  • There are places that are bigger and better you should never go to because they are big, messy and not where God wants you to be.
  • Don’t allow your appetites to dictate your leadership.
  • Don’t give up your legacy or leadership for something temporary.

10 Years from Now…

  • … write whatever comes to mind.
  • What do you want to see God do?
  • What do you want to see God do in your family?
  • Through your ministry, in your church?
  • In your business?
  • This will reframe all of your appetites.
  • The clearer, bigger and more defined the frame, the less grip your appetites will have on your lives.
  • Properly reframe your appetites, they always want more.

Questions to Ask

  • What’s your bowl of stew? The thing being held out to you right now that you are finding difficult to say, “NO!” to?
  • What are you talking yourself into? You already know what you would tell someone else in your situation but think our situation is unique – it’s not, you’re just in the moment.
  • What are you contemplating that your spouse is uncomfortable with?
  • What are you are doing that’s not illegal or immoral but you hope nobody finds out about? Never do anything that you would have to stand up before a crowd and explain.

Reframe, then refrane.

  • What’s true of Esau is true of us.
  • We have no idea what God wants to accomplish through our lives.
  • No one will be there to help us reframe our temptations.
  • Whatever you do, don’t trade your future for a bowl of stew.

The Upside of Tension :: Andy Stanley

by Tim Schraeder on 08/05/2010 in Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit 2010 with 18 Comments

Under the leadership of Andy Stanley, North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, has become one of the largest and most innovative churches in the United States. Founded in 1995, the church has grown to three campuses and a weekly attendance of more than 22,000 people. They have also helped plant more than 20 strategic partner churches across North America. Stanley is a dynamic speaker and author whose books include Visioneering, Next Generation Leader, and Communicating for a Change. His latest volume, The Principle of the Path, explores a basic truth that can eliminate regret, as it helps to successfully move people from where they are to where they want to go.

  • I’m not going to try and inspire you.
  • I want to take you back where you began.
  • We began with specific leadership principles.
  • It’s always tempting to look at mature and successful leaders and think they know it all.
  • It’s tempting to look at successful churches and think they have it all together.
  • All of their challenges/problems are just great stories because they are great leaders who know how to solve them.
  • The myth we tend to believe is that if you are a great leader with a well-lead organization that you will solve all of your problems and get rid of all of your tension.
  • The general notion is that problems and tension are a result of poor leadership.
  • Great organization have tensions and problems that are never solved.
  • Leaders learn to leverage the problems that never go away in a way to create progress for the organization.
  • The right amount of tension and pressure at the right moment can lead to extraordinary results.
  • Tension and pressure can lead to progress and can allow us to go farther and faster.
  • We can create a third-category for all of our problems.

Every organization has problems that shouldn’t be solved and tensions that shouldn’t be resolved.

  • Example: The tension between work and family life.
  • It’s not a problem we can solve, it’s a tension we can manage.
  • In business there are many different problems and tensions… but they are VERY specific to individual industries/companies.
    • Marketing/sales
    • Systems/flexibility
    • Led by the Spirit/Led by the Clock
    • Attracting/Nurturing
    • Local/Global
    • Numeric Growth/Maturity
  • If you “resolve” any of those tensions, you create will new tension.
    • What if you opt to commit to excellence without regard to finances?
    • What if you are all theology and no application?
    • What if you let the Spirit lead and neglect your volunteers?
    • If you were to cut off your thumb the results would be immediately recognizable.
    • In organizational life, we cut off our thumbs by solving the wrong problems.
  • If you resolve any of those tensions, you create barriers to progress.
  • Progress depends not on the resolution of those tensions but on the successful management of those tensions.
    • How do you know the difference between problems and tensions?

To distinguish between problems to solve and tensions to manage, ask the following:

  • Does this problem or tension keep resurfacing?
    • If it keeps coming up you have a tension to manage, not a problem to solve.
    • If it resurfaces seasonally, it’s more than likely a tension.
  • Are there mature advocates for both sides?
    • If yes, you’ve stumbled on a problem you can’t solve but a tension you have to manage away.
    • Every single healthy church should have the tension of calling seekers and teaching believers. We must be comfortable living with this tension.
    • We must get comfortable living in the tension.
  • Are the two sides really interdependent?

The role of leadership is to leverage the tension to the benefit of the organization.

  • Identify the tensions to be manage in your organization.
    • What are the problems we need to quit trying to solve and need to learn to manage?
  • Create terminology.
    • When you create terminology you create a third category for your teams.
    • When you get two strong personalities on opposing sides of an issue, if there is no third category it’s only win/lose.
    • Some people shouldn’t win.
    • It gives you an option to say, “this is a tension we are going to have to learn to manage.”
  • Inform your core.
    • Make sure your key players understand this principle.
    • Help create new terminology around the idea.
    • It allows conversations to go better.
    • Don’t try to solve, leverage.
    • Certain tensions are key to progress.
    • If you decide them out of the conversation you miss an opportunity to grow your organization.
  • Continually give value to both sides.
  • Don’t weigh in too heavily based on your personal biases.
    • We have an opinion.
    • We all have personal values.
    • As a leader, if we aren’t careful, we are by personality and the weight of our words, will accidentally take things off the table because we don’t want to talk about them anymore.
    • We can’t afford to weigh in too heavily as leaders.
    • Understand the upside of the opposite side; understand the downside of your side.
    • “Our churches are characterized by something that is a weaknesses for me.”
  • Don’t allow strong personalities to win the day.
    • We need passionate people who will champion their side, but we need mature people who will understand its reality.
    • We need people who are passionate but mature enough to understand there’s a tension we have to learn to live with.
  • Don’t think in terms of balance. Think rhythm.
    • When you think about two opposing sides of an argument, we have a tendency to look at both sides and we try to figure out a way to be fair.
    • Fairness ended in the Garden of Eden.
    • Don’t think in terms of “fair” or “balance.”
    • In the rhythm of your organization there is a time to weigh in heavily and times when you need to lean away.
    • There’s a time in the rhythm of church life where you need do more of something and less of something else.
    • It’s not about balance or fair, it’s about paying attention to the rhythm.
    • Make the call in the light of what’s going on around us.

As a leader, one of the most valuable things you can do for your organization is differentiate between tensions your organization will always need to manage vs. problems that need to be solved.

  • If you’ll identify and leverage them, these problems and tensions will actually become part of your story and part of the progress of your organization.
  • Taking your organization to the next level and keeping it relevant will mean you living with these tensions and problems and managing your team through them.
  • There’s a tension that benefits you and a tension that benefits your organization.

Gaining and Sustaining Momentum :: Andy Stanley

by Tim Schraeder on 03/25/2010 in Catalyst One Day with No comments
  • Momentum = Forward motion fueled by a series of wins.
  • You love your problems when you have momentum.
  • Ministries that lack momentum are a drag.
  • We all know what momentum is not by definition but by experience.
  • In the marketplace when a company lacks momentum hey do something about immediately.
  • The church can go generations without changing anything.
  • Churches can tend to be anti-leadership culture.
  • The mission for most churches is “pay the bills.”
  • If we pay the bills, why do we need to change?
  • Momentum is disruptive.
  • For some church people, if momentum showed up it would scare people to death.
  • Momentum is all about moving forward and leaders like thing to move forward.
  • You either have it or you don’t.
  • When we come across churches with momentum in our community, it’s our natural tendency to say, “If I had _________, I would have momentum too.”
  • We tend to excuse momentum of other organizations.
  • If you have momentum right now and don’t understand what to do with it, you are one decision away from killing your organization.
  • If you lack momentum, you’ll expend a lot of energy trying to gain it because you don’t have the principles of how to gain and sustain momentum.
  • We have a bad habit to say “well God’s just blessing…”
  • Be careful.
  • What exactly is God blessing?

Three Components of Sustained Momentum

  1. New
  2. Improved
  3. Improving

1 – New

  • New triggers momentum.
  • ANythign new, by definition, generates some kind of momentum.
  • The momentum can be positive or negative.
  • Negative Events – Negative Momentum [9/11]
  • Negative Events – Positive Momentum [Rescue]
  • A senior pastor leaving can great both.
  • Negative circumstances are the fertile soil for a burst of positive momentum.
  • Positive Event – Postivie Momentum = New Sports Franchise.

Organizational Momentum is often triggers by one of three things:

  • New leadership
  • New direction
  • New product [program]

Implication: When evaluating an organization or program or  program that lacks momentum, ask “Do we need a new leader, a new direction, or a new product? Or do we need some combination of the three?

Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old. It is triggered by introducing something new.

  • We spend too much time in meetings trying to tweak something old.

Warning: New does not guarantee sustained momentum. But new is  an essential trigger for momentum.

2 - Improved

  • The new must be a noticeable improvement over the old.
  • When evaluating a new option, ask, “Is it a significant improvement over wheat we had before?”
  • If you can’t afford an improvement, let go of what’s not effective to make space for something new.
  • In business it’s easy to make these decisions because things rise and fall on money.
  • Churches can sustain themselves financially for generations without making change.
  • Find a way to fund it by unfunding something else.

Warning: Even a significant improvement has a shelf life.

3 – Improving

  • Momentum is sustained through continuous improvement. [Example: household products that continue to improve]
  • Continuous improvement requires systematic evaluation. [Evaluation has to be built into the rhythm of the organization.]
  • Continuous improvement requires unfiltered evaluation. [Feelings will be hurt. Sacrifice the one for the many.]
  • Continuous improvement requires that nothing and nobody be off limits. [If you are not evaluating the areas where you are experiencing momentum, the clock of your success is ticking down.]
  • Everything you do and everything your church does is being evaluated every week. Are you learning from other people’s evaluation of you? Why not build a feedback system?

Applying “New and Improved” to the World of Ministry

  • New Personnel
  • New Programming
  • New Season [Shut programs down for a season so they can relaunch]
  • New Series
  • New Look
  • New Venues

Improving

  • Look for ways to upgrade your presentations.
  • Visit other organizations.
  • Attend other churches.

Momentum Stoppers

  • Disengaged leader.
  • Overactive management. [ Momentum always creates an element of chaos, managers like to minimize it. Managers manage, leaders create momentum]
  • Complacency. [Nothing works forever.]
  • You rarely regain momentum by simply doing what you did to create it in the first place.
  • Understanding momentum is sometimes more important than knowing your history.
  • Complexity [New organizations are always simple.]
  • A breech of trust.

Q&A

  • Gather feedback from multiple sources.
  • Check out Zoomerang.
  • Evaluation has to be environement-specific.
  • Clarify the win for everything you do.
  • You can’t evaluate effectively if no one knows what a “win” is.
  • The goal is never to be fair, the goal is to do the right thing.
  • We don’t add programming, we add steps.
  • When considering something new, ask “Is it an easy, obvious step toward community?”
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