Rich Kao

Great book by Pastor Craig Croeschel of LifeChurch.TV.  What is "it?"  You know it when you see it and experience it.  It's intangible, but it's real.  Great organizations have it, and aspiring organization want it.  Is there a way to grow it, nurture it, bottle it?  Not really.  And that's the fun.  IT is about moving with God and staying fresh.  Pastor Craig makes no claim to trying to define it definitively or turn it into a method, but he does point us in 7 directions that can help us get "it."  

1. Vision - you can see IT clearly.

2. Focus - you know where IT is not.

3. Camaraderie -  you enjoy IT with others.

4. Innovation - you'll do anything for IT.

5. Risk taking - you'll fail towards IT.

6. Outward focus - you want others to have IT.

7. Kingdom generosity - you share IT.

Full of good stories, good advice and hewn from real life experiences.  Great leadership book; great church organizational book.  Worth the read. 

I recently shared our 20 year plan for 5 Stones Church.  That's right, 20 years!   Two statistics helped forge my thinking on this.

#1 - Studies have shown church planters overestimate what they can accomplish in 5 years, and underestimate what they can accomplish in 20 years.  

We love to see instant, explosive growth, and that's what we celebrate, and we should.  Most magazine covers are about these stories.  But realiistically, statistically, and historically, this is not the trajectory of most church plants.  So, pray for explosion, but plan for incremental scenarios.

#2 - Most pastors exhibit their greatest years of fruitfulness after their 7th year. 

With so many church plants folding within five years, this is a shame, because if they could hang in there just a bit longer, traction could really take place and the planters ministry could really take off.  This is also true of pastors taking over a church, and leaving "too soon."

Put these two stats together, and you have a compelling reason to look at and plan differently for church plants.  At 5 Stones, we've divided our 20 year plan into four, five-year chunks. 

1st phase (first five years) = start-up phase (establish core values, vision, team, ministries).

2nd phase (second five years) = scale up phase (establishing systems, rails that anticipates and provides for growth - from accounting to HR policies to ministry processes and more.  This is the blow-up, experiment, renovate and hone stage).

3rd phase (third five years) = growth phase (seeing membership increase and take off after the net's been set and carpet's been laid).

4th phase (last five years) = multiplication phase (go plant other churches!).

If anyone is interested in my powerpoint on this, please go to "Downloadable Stuff" section (left hand column).   Cheers.

Dr. Ralph Winter passed away last week at the age of 84.  He was truly a missionary giant and strategist, and I / we are living downstream from how God used Dr. Winter to deepen, expand and at times detonate new activities of the Great Commission.    For those that have never heard or know of Dr. Winter, take a moment to watch this tribute to him.

Ralph D. Winter Tribute from U.S. Center for World Mission on Vimeo.

Over the years, I've probably read 15-20 explanations of the difference between a mission and vision statement, and this is the best one I've read.  Clear and well explained.

By Elizabeth Simpson: Apr 1, 2008

This is an excellent and important question. Think of the words 'visionary' and 'missionary'. A visionary is someone who imagines possible futures. A missionary is someone who does work under the guidance of a larger objective. Similarly, the vision statement describes how the world will be different because of the existence of the group, while the mission statement provides the 'vehicle' for the vision; it describes the means that will be used to achieve the desired future. Because of their nature, the vision statement generally lasts for the life of the organization, while a mission statement should be revisited every two to three years to make sure that the means being used to attain the vision are still relevant.

Me:  Vision statement = what you want the world to look like; Mission statement = how you intend to get there.

Like so many others, I'm a fan of Seth Godin.  In this TED talk (Feb '09), he makes the case for social connections (tribes), leadership (starting a tribe), and starting a revolution (tribes as the ultimate change agent).  It's great stuff, by a master speaker, with fantastic visuals (some of them amazingly funny).  There's ideas here we can use to change the world.