Rich Kao

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.

In this interview, Dan talks about things I've been saying for several years regarding non-profits, except with much more eloquence, -- how to view them, how they should operate, and how donors need to change their mindset. (Only quible: not sure his analysis of Puritans and Calvinism is accurate).  His articles over at Harvard Business are excellent.

By Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson.

As a leader, how do you become a better leader? If you’re like me, you probably read a lot of books, listen to podcasts, and attend a few conferences. But one of the best ways to grow is to ask other leaders questions.

A few weeks ago, Michael Smith ^[1] called and asked if he could interview me. Michael is on the staff of ClearView Baptist Church ^[2] in Franklin, Tennessee. We follow each other on Twitter ^[3], but we have only met one time previously. He said that he wanted to interview me on the topic of leadership. I happily agreed.

Michael began our meeting by sharing with me that he is on a sabbatical. One of his goals is to grow as a leader and one of his sabbatical projects is to interview leaders in various professions. I was honored that he choose me as someone worth interviewing.

What really impressed me was how thoroughly prepared he was. Michael asked great, thoughtful questions. In fact, the questions were so good that I asked him for permission to post them here. I have printed this list out and put it in my Moleskine notebook. The next time I am with a leader I respect, I can pop out this list and start interviewing.

1. Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe some one who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?
2. What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization?
3. As an organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?
4. How do you encourage creative thinking within your organization?
5. Where do the great ideas come from in your organization?
6. Which is most important to your organization—mission, core values or vision?
7. How do you or other leaders in your organization communicate the “core values”?
8. How do you encourage others in your organization to communicate the “core values”?
9. Do you set aside specific times to cast vision to your employees and other leaders?
10. How do you ensure the your organization and its activities are aligned with your “core values”?
11. How do you help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?
12. When faced with two equally-qualified candidates, how do you determine whom to hire?
13. What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
14. What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?
15. What is one mistake you witness leaders making more frequently than others?
16. What is the one behavior or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?
17. Can you explain the impact, if any, that social networking and Web 2.0 has made on your organization or you personally?
18. What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader?
19. What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
20. What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

You might start by asking yourself these questions. Better yet, ask them and then blog about them. This will give you some basis of comparison as you begin to learn from the leaders around you.

1. Google - the world is our library; instant search for anything; helps with my sermon researching.

2. Facebook / Twitter - the world is connected; staying in touch with friends by the trivial, and sometimes something substantial! It's great.  One does feel closer.

3. INGDirect, etc  - the world of finance is at our fingertips; I love paying bills, saving, investing and managing money online, 24/7 (it's relaxing at 1am in the morning!); gotta love being able to auto-pay, save or invest.

4. Amazon - the world is our bookstore; stack up books in shopping cart over a few weeks, ship right to your door.  gotta love the free shipping.  (also reading recommendations on any book gives you a great overview without having to buy the book)

5. RSS - Helps me keep up with a world of news, ideas, info at a glance and helps me decide whether to drill down for more detail.

6. Blogs - the world is our publishing house; typepad, wordpress, blogger, squarespace, homestead, wix, posterous, I've tried them all; they all have their strengths and weaknesses.   Currently using SS, typepad and posterous.

7. Google maps - the world can be located - switched from Mapquest a while back.  I don't even use my GPS.

8. Foxmarks - my info world unified - syncs all my websites and passwords between desktops and laptops.  Beautiful.

9. TinyURL - the world wide web can be referenced; great little URL character reducer.

10. Wikipedia - a primer for nearly any subject in the world - great starting point.

11. NWA, Expedia - traveling the world has never been easier.

12. KeepVid - download the youtube video's for sermon clips. 

13. YouTube - the world's video respository.  Great cultural resource.

14. Bookmarks - helps organize all my websites.

15. Roberts Bible Reading Plan - best bible reading program I've used; use it side by side with ESV study bible online.

Applicable to so many things, from organization leadership to how you dress.  http://tinyurl.com/rdulev