unSeminary Mobile MP4

By Rich Birch & GuestsBusiness Religion & Spirituality Christianity Non-Profit

unSeminary Mobile MP4 episodes

June 29, 2017Scott Bixby on How a 127 Year Old Church Grew to Over 90% in Groups and 2,000+ People
Welcome to this week’s podcast and thank you for joining us today. We’re talking with Scott Bixby of Northridge Church in Rochester.
We’ve highlighted Northridge Church in the past in this article about theater churches, and we’re happy to be talking with them again. Northridge Church has been around for 127 years and was a typical Baptist church when Scott first came there. Since then, it has transitioned to a multisite church with three campuses in the Rochester area that better reaches people in the community. The team pared down a lot of the things they had done and began to use a simpler approach to church. Part of that process was removing the adult Sunday School classes and using a group structure instead.
Scott is with us today to talk about how they transitioned into a groups model and the impact it’s had for Northridge.
Be a church OF groups, not a church WITH groups. // Typically the first point of contact with a visitor and a local church happens during the Sunday morning service. Create an environment where the newcomer feels welcome and then invite them to take their next step in joining a group. At Northridge the groups are a constant topic within the church, as well as part of the assimilation process. As Scott notes, “There’s no way we could have grown from a few hundred to 2,200 without our groups formed and functioning well.” Keeping groups in the forefront on Sundays exposes visitors to the group culture, plus reminds people in existing groups why their group is important in their lives and spiritual growth.
Create a clear method for joining and sharing groups. // Northridge uses a method of trimesters to have people transition into and out of groups. Three times a year everyone has the chance to join or leave a current group. There are feedback forms so that the leaders can be aware of anything they need to change or continue to do in their groups. Each group has its own plan, but there are churchwide topics that are given to the groups to be discussed. The trimester method Northridge uses has groups starting fresh in September and meeting for 10 weeks. They then take a break for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and kick off again in January. After another 10 weeks they take a break for Easter, and then reboot for 10 weeks in late spring/early summer, taking a break before the September kickoff. While people can join a group in the middle of a trimester, most of the time people are joining and changing groups during the break periods.
Train and coach group leaders. // Training and coaching community group leaders is of utmost importance at Northridge. To train group leaders, Northridge will have a large training event twice a year in which the group leaders from all of the campuses come together. There are a number of breakouts at that event and the leaders get to choose which ones they want to attend. In addition to the training event, Northridge helps develop their groups by having coaches visit the groups a couple of times a year. Scott notes that the group leaders are so key that Northridge staffs so that they can support their leaders well. As a result, staff members—such as a campus pastor—are the ones that coach group leaders. New groups will be visited more often by the coaches to see how they’re coming along. Older groups that have been around for a while and are comfortable in their progress may not be visited as often.
Multiply groups to encourage growth. // Each group has a set “capacity” so when they reach a certain number of members, usually around 20, they multiply. Some members will branch off and start a new group from the original one. The basis for this new group can be a missionary mindset, where a couple of people are sent off on a mission to start and grow a new group. Or the new group can be based on something like geography. When Northridge starts a new campus, members who are closer to the new campus go to start new groups. The advantage to multiplying into new groups is that it keeps the groups small and open to new people. After a while, new people may feel that the original members of the group have been together so long it’s kind of a clique, making them less open to talking during discussions. Starting a new group allows new people the chance to start from the ground up and be an involved member of that group.
Learn more about Northridge at www.northridgerochester.com.
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Pocket Casts
Ministries Following // Northpoint, 12Stone Church, LCBC
Influential Book //Axiom by Bill Hybels and Larry Black; Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less – and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined by by Scott Sonenshein and Mike Chamberlain, The Volunteer Project: Stop Recruiting. Start Retaining. by Darren Kizer and Christine Kreisher
Inspiring Leader // Bill Hybels
What does he do for fun // Get outdoors and do projects in his yard
Contact // www.northridgerochester.com
29 min
June 22, 2017Brian Dennert on Collaboration Within a Growing Multisite Church
Hey, everyone! Thanks so much for joining us today for this week’s unSeminary podcast. In this episode we’re excited to have Brian Dennert with us from Faith Church.
Faith Church was founded in 1963 in South Holland, Illinois. Today they have eight campuses within Illinois and Indiana. Like many others, the church was on the decline until they examined what they were doing and how to make changes to grow from being inward-focused to connecting with the population around them. Brian Dennert is executive pastor at Faith Church and is here today to talk with us about connecting within and outside the church.
Connect beyond the walls. // A big part of Faith Church’s mission is to connect with their community. There are a lot of different ways this can happen. For example during Christmas and Easter, Faith Church does a “Reach Your Neighbors” mission in which congregants write down the name of one person they’re praying will come to the church during these services when they offer an invitation. But in addition to bringing people to the church, Faith Church’s mission is to connect outside their walls. Take a look at events that are taking place within your community and create a plan for how your church can get involved and live out the gospel message. Make it clear that the sole mission of the church is not to bring people to a building, but to bring people to Christ, wherever that leads them.
Balance the meetings among staff. // An important part of keeping staff connected within the church is through meetings. It’s a tough balance to find the right number of meetings that will satisfy the workings of the church without leaving people out of the loop, or drained from too many meetings! Especially important in a multisite church, you must work with your staff to strike that balance without wasting people’s time. Identifying the meeting’s purpose and laying out an agenda ahead of time is a good way to do that. Within Faith Church, they have meetings that may just be for information only. Or a meeting could be for collaboration, in which someone proposes an idea and is looking for feedback and help in brainstorming. Others may be for decision-making, after the collaboration process has been completed. Each time the purpose is identified ahead of time so people have appropriate expectations.
Balance the meetings among multisite campuses. // Managing the operations among multisites often requires bringing staff members from different locations together, so it’s important to have a clear expectation of who is driving the agenda and who is making decisions. For example, once a week Faith Church has an hour and a half campus pastors meeting. An hour of that is discussing campus issues, with the multisite director setting the agenda after receiving feedback from campus pastors. If there is something a campus pastor wants to talk about, it is first given to the multisite director to present to everyone. That allows all of the campus pastors to be in the loop with what the others are doing. The last half hour is for collaboration, in which everyone gives suggestions and feedback to each other regarding the implementation of strategies within their campus.
You can learn more about Faith Church at www.wearefaith.org. You can connect with Brian at [email protected].
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Slack & Google Docs
Ministries Following // Village Church with Matt Chandler in Texas
Influential Book // Thriving in the Second Chair by Mike Bonem
Inspiring Leader // Tim Keller
What does he do for fun // Reading presidential biographies
Contact // website: www.wearefaith.org, email: [email protected]
20 min
June 15, 2017Ryan Visconti on Being Inside a Church Succession While Seeing it Grow from 300 to 1,300!
Thank you so much for joining us for today’s unSeminary podcast. I’m honored to have Lead Pastor Ryan Visconti from Generation Church in Arizona with us today.
Ryan’s dad became pastor of Generation Church in 1989, and at that time there were about 70-80 people attending. The church began to grow and move into bigger facilities, but then peaked at 400-500 attendees and began a slow decline in members. Meanwhile Ryan entered the army and never intended to go into ministry, but when he felt the call he couldn’t deny God’s urging. Ryan started serving as a right-hand man to his dad in Generation Church with about 300 members at that time. Together, they began to break down the church departments and ministries and took a more simple approach, focusing primarily on the Sunday service experience. Today Ryan shares some of their learnings with us.
Consider rebranding in your strategy. // Generation was not the original name for the church. The church that existed in place of what is now Generation Church had a different reputation within the community, attended primarily by older generations. So when Ryan came on board, he worked with his dad and the rest of the staff to relaunch the church. Changing the name was part of that process and served to give the church a fresh start, causing a buzz in the community. Branding and social media was a huge part of their strategy in order to reach the younger generation with a more up-to-date church.
Learn by trial and error. // Finding the best strategy for your church is partially based on trial and error—figuring out what works best in your situation. For Generation Church, the changes they made included creating an engaging and easy-to-navigate website which served as the “front door” to the church—a big part of reaching the younger generation. Having a presence on social media is also important for sharing stories and small bits of what the church is doing. Be aware of every piece of what you do in order to create the culture you want your church to have.
Pair vision with wisdom. // A lot of older pastors are at the point that they’re thinking about passing the responsibilities of the church onto the next person, but they’re not quite ready to release everything, or they can’t afford to retire. What Generation Church did in this regard is keep the previous lead pastor, Ryan’s father, involved and on staff, and yet pass the baton to the next generation to drive vision. So in this case, Ryan took over the lead pastor position under his father’s guidance. This allows the church to have someone who is driving hard with new vision and ideas, but still have the older staff with their years of experience to give advice and speak wisdom into situations. Ryan found it created a really potent dynamic to have these two strengths balancing each other at Generation.
Make the most of your resources. // Increased income doesn’t always come immediately with growth. One thing Ryan found with growth is that the giving can be a year behind. At the beginning of the rebranding process it was really tough because Generation didn’t have a lot of resources due to the membership decline from the previous years. There may be many months in which your church is coming out in the red just as Generation was, but there are still many free services that a church can take advantage of to encourage growth. Remember that simple is better when you don’t have a lot of resources. But when God’s call leads you to something that may cost money, such as an additional service or more staff, step out in faith that this will lead to the growth you’re looking for.
You can learn more about Generation Church at www.generation.church.
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Grammarly
Ministries Following // Elevation Church
Influential Book // Money Matters by Aubrey Malphurs and Steve Stroope
Inspiring Leader // Craig Groeschel
What does he do for fun // Netflix, read, golf, time with wife
Contact // Website www.generationaz.org Twitter @ryanvisconti
22 min
June 08, 2017Mike Bellanti on Turning Around a Stuck Church
Thanks so much for joining us for another episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have with us today Mike Bellanti, the lead pastor of Northbrook Church outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Northbrook is a nondenominational church about 30 miles outside of Milwaukee, made up of upper middle class families who mostly work in the city but don’t want to live there. Located in a rural area, Northbrook is multi-generational, but really reaching families with kids still at home. When Mike arrived, Northbrook was stuck in their development. It had grown fast, going from 12 to 1,000. But then Northbrook began to decline and the pastor left. By the time Mike arrived, they had been without a pastor for over a year, finances were in trouble, and over 600 people had left. Mike was hesitant to come at first, but felt God’s calling and now is working to revive and change Northbrook.
Give people a voice. // When Mike arrived, Northbrook had very siloed thinking among the staff, which then flowed into the congregation. It was challenging to change that and get the leaders to work together and speak out with their ideas and input. Mike’s first goal was to encourage that change and get the leaders to realize that they did have a voice and he was interested in hearing what they had to say. He spent a year bringing health and cohesiveness to the team, creating an environment where the staff felt comfortable being open and honest.
Examine what you’re communicating. // The church had a lot of print material, and so they taped it all up on the wall. Seeing so many different materials highlighted the siloed nature of the church and how complex ministry had become. As Mike noted, the materials looked like they could have been from twelve different churches instead of just one! Staff didn’t know what other ministries were working on and the team wasn’t working as a unified front. They knew they needed to revision the whole church so Mike and the core leaders met every other week at 6am for a year. They would pray, talk, argue, cry and laugh as they pursued God’s plan for what Northbrook should do and be. It was tough, but that time together was a catalyst for the change that was needed.
Simplify the strategy. // Once they had clarity on what the vision of the church was, they realized that they needed a simple strategy. The entire staff talked about what they were going to do as well as what they were going to stop doing. That led to some complications for a while because no one likes getting rid of things, especially things that had been their pet projects and passions. But it was necessary, and it gave the church room to try new things. Having everyone’s buy-in meant that the success rate of new initiatives increased because everyone had a voice in developing it.
Honor your team. // Making changes within a church can lead to a large turnover due to conflicting ideas. Mike worked to avoid that by really honoring his staff. He listened to their ideas and made them feel like they did have a part in the church and the new direction. Only one person left because he realized that Mike’s hope for him and his department was not the same as his hope for those areas. It was a graceful leaving, and the member spent six months working on the transition to another leader within his department, so there was no turmoil caused by a sudden departure.
You can learn more about Northbrook at their website http://www.northbrookchurch.org or email Mike at [email protected].
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Evernote, Basecamp, Toggle
Ministries Following // Andy Stanley & Northpoint Church
Influential Book // Befriend: Create Belonging in an Age of Judgment, Isolation, and Fear by Scott Sauls
Inspiring Leader // Brené Brown and Richard Stearns
What does he do for fun // mountain biking, shoot clay pigeons, read cheap novels, run
Contact // northbrookchurch.org, or email Mike [email protected]
23 min
June 01, 2017Jon Morrison on Being a Millennial Reaching Millennials
Welcome back to this week’s unSeminary podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today as we talk with a friend of mine, Jon Morrison, who is an author and a blogger. He is a different kind of guest from our usual visitors and he is here today to talk with us about his journey as a millennial church leader and the things he has learned along the way.
Follow where God leads. // The rags to riches stories in churches are great to hear and give others hope. It seemed that the 100 year old church Jon was working in had that story coming along too when they experienced great growth. But then the executive pastor received a promotion to another place, which left a huge hole in the leadership of the church. At the time, there was a co-leadership model within the church in which Jon was the other co-leader, so he recommended going to a single lead pastor model instead. The church agreed to change leadership and Jon thought he would be chosen as the lead pastor, but that idea quickly crumbled with the words “search committee.” Though the board thought Jon did a great job in a co-leader role with someone else leading and helping him, the board thought that Jon was too young to have the single leadership role. At that point, Jon and his wife thought that maybe God had other plans in another area for them, and so they left friends to find what God had next.
Take a chance on passing the baton. // 1Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” The Millennial generation is now the largest generation, but are grossly underrepresented in church leadership. One in three people in the workforce is a millennial, but only one in seven pastors is under 40 in the church. If pastors are serious about passing the baton onto the next generation, churches have to take that chance on younger leaders and allow them to learn and grow in leadership.
Embrace new technologies. // Many churches are hesitant about social media and aren’t willing to use Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, or else don’t know how to use them in their church. But these platforms are vital in reaching the millennial generation and pulling them into church attendance and leadership. The older generations may be comfortable using these technologies in their personal life, but aren’t sure how to incorporate them within church. It can be a great launching point when churches are open to learning how to use social media within Christianity and getting their word out to other audiences.
Be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have. // Both inside and outside the church millennials are asking tough questions. Jon stresses how important it is to be ready to address the skeptic or doubter with grace and love while sharing the truth. In Jon’s own experience working with youth, he was being asked a lot of philosophical questions and found that exposing himself to apologetics equipped him to have difficult conversations about topics like science and scripture, suffering, or creation, which could be deal-breakers for the younger generation.
You can learn more about Jon’s books and get in touch with him at his website www.jonmorrison.ca.
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Church OS, Garage Band, CreateSpace
Ministries Following // Ask Pat Podcast; Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast; Pro Church Tools
Influential Book // Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud; #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness by Gary Vaynerchuk
What does he do for fun // play hockey, yardwork, spend time with kids
Contact // www.jonmorrison.ca; on Twitter @JonMorrison_
37 min
May 25, 2017Carl George & Warren Bird on How Your Church Can Break Growth Barriers
Hey, everybody, and thank you for joining us for another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today I’m talking with Warren Bird and Carl George.
Warren works for ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Carl was a professor for years at Fuller. The two of them collaborated to write the highly successful book How to Break Growth Barriers: Revise Your Role, Release Your People, and Capture Overlooked Opportunities for Your Church and today they are here to share about the caps we can place on our own church growth.
Ask questions to break growth caps. // There comes a point in every church growth where you find yourself spinning your wheels. One of the most important parts of breaking through those barriers is to pay attention to what is between the church leaders’ ears. What caps do they have on their vision? What voices are they listening to? How strong is their bias towards growth? How do they perceive their role? Are they the minister or the minister maker? Realizing they cannot be adequate enough to all people to take their church to the next level, how will they call people alongside to help them?
Guide apprentices in ministry. // The shift for the pastor from shepherd and caregiver to coach of shepherds and caregivers is a critical one. The simplest way to make this shift is through the apprentice model. Look at Jesus and the twelve, for example. Jesus appointed these men to be with Him and gave them authority to do ministry (Mark 3:13-19). Follow Jesus’ model and have someone shadowing you as you work and lead. If you do a hospital visit, bring an apprentice with you to learn ministry from you.
Encourage gifts within your church. // How are you encouraging and affirming the people in your congregation as they exercise their unique giftings? There are people in your church who have a gift of ministry from God, but may not be sure that they are “doing it right” when they reach out to others, especially if this person is not part of the leadership or staff. When you see evidence of these gifts among your congregation or apprentices, be sure to encourage that gift. Offer some guidance, but encourage the way that God is using them to reach out to others. If you don’t fan the evidence of the micro flame, you won’t see the macro coming into play.
Use technology in ministry. // The time in which we live is changing quickly among technology and communications. Use the latest gadgets, apps, and other forms of communication to minister to and reach others. Pastors are now using Facebook and Twitter to spread their ministry outside their church, or even Facetiming with the people they want to reach.
You can purchase How to Break Growth Barriers: Revise Your Role, Release Your People, and Capture Overlooked Opportunities for Your Church to read more about breaking through the barriers in your church. You can get in touch with Carl through his website www.consultingforgrowth.org. You can connect with Warren through Twitter @WarrenBird or email [email protected].
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Google, Blogging
Ministries Following // Todd Wilson and his work with Exponential
Influential Book // Healing the Shattered Soul by by James L. Hanley ThD and C. Tracy Kayser JD
Inspiring Leader // Bono
What does he do for fun // Playing with his grandchildren or wife’s labradoodles
Contact // Carl George at consultingforgrowth.org; Warren Bird on Twitter: @warrenbird, email: [email protected], newsletter: leadnet.org/update
29 min
May 18, 2017Tony Morgan on Helping Churches Get Unstuck
Hey, everybody, welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. I’m excited have with us Tony Morgan, lead strategist and founder of the Unstuck Group.
Tony has been helping churches for years, but he started the Unstuck Group after hearing from other pastors about the struggles and roadblocks they were facing within their churches and ministries. Many of them kept telling Tony that they were stuck and didn’t know where to go next. The Unstuck Group works with churches to help them break through those blocks to find their next steps.
Tony is with us today to talk about two of the ways churches often feel stuck, and how they can begin to break through those roadblocks to a place of sustained health.
Gain clarity about who God has called you to reach. // One of the things that can cause a church to get stuck is that over time they become more inwardly focused, even though it may not be intentional. To break through this, the leaders need to ask themselves, “Who has God called us to reach?” Gaining clarity around that mission and goal will help the church focus on the people outside the church that they want to bring closer to God. Ask yourself what steps you can take to develop ministry strategies or services that will reach that person.
Simplify your ministries. // Another problem among churches is complexity. Over the years they add on more and more programs and ministries which at first are effective in their reach. However if a church is only ever adding ministries, and never assessing and pruning, the church’s structure can become complex and a drain on resources. The result is churches aren’t using their limited resources, time, leadership, etc. as well as they could, and eventually become less effective at reaching people outside of the church. Tony underscores that consistent pruning is necessary for the sustained health of the church.
Focus on reaching inside and outside the church. // The Unstuck Group teaches that church leaders should take a good look at what percentage of time and resources is being spent investing in helping people inside the church move closer to Christ, and how much is invested in reaching people outside the faith. One suggestion Tony gives is for the church leaders to make a list of everything they do—every ministry, event, service—and put a check in one of two columns: is this ministry’s primary focus on people inside the church or is it primarily to reach people outside the church? Over time it’s natural for churches to drift toward having a focus that’s more on people already connected to the church and already believing in Christ as Lord and Savior. This is a good thing, but in order to maintain health and growth, it’s important to also focus on reaching people outside the faith. There should be a healthy balance between building up people inside the church and reaching people outside.
Determine impact of life change and risks. // One of the methods used in determining what parts in the church are important is by using a four box matrix that considers two factors. At the top of the chart is the opportunity for life change, and on the left is the investment and risks that are included, whether that’s space, finances, time. Each group is plotted on the chart according to the risk vs reward involves. Is one ministry high on impact while associated with lower risk? The goal is to focus on the ministries that have significant impact on bringing people closer to Christ with less risk in finances, space, time. Some ministries require a high investment, maybe in finances, but it isn’t having an effect on people. (See chart below.)
You can take the church assessment Tony spoke of at theunstuckchurch.com and learn more about the Unstuck Group at theunstuckgroup.com.

Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Asana
Ministries Following // RockPointe Church in Leander, TX
Influential Book // Four Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney and Jim Huling; Presidential biographies – recently one on Andrew Jackson
Inspiring Leader // Elon Musk
What does he do for fun // hang out with wife, play the piano along with his Billy Joel albums
Contact // theunstuckgroup.com; Take the church assessment at theunstuckchurch.com
26 min
May 11, 2017Dan Zimbardi on Defining and Deploying A Unified Team Culture
Hey, everyone, it’s great to have you join us today for this week’s episode of the unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have with us today Dan Zimbardi, the executive pastor of Sandals Church.
Sandals Church started 20 years ago in Riverside, California, in Pastor Matt Brown’s living room with eight people. Since then the church has moved from location to location many times, even using the gym at a local university for several years. Six years ago they moved to their permanent location in their main campus, Hunter Park, and now they also have three additional campuses. Through God’s grace the church now has about 8400 hundred people coming to their services.
It can be difficult to sustain and keep the culture alive during growth and changes, and so Dan is with us today to talk about how to keep your team pushing in the same direction.
Define your culture, not just your vision. // Dan heard a great quote once that says, “Culture eats vision for lunch.” You can create a vision and put the statement on every wall and document within the church, but it’s the culture that makes the church. Culture, as Dan explains, is how people react and respond. Culture is the outward expression of what’s happening inside the church. Sandals Church has spent the last few years defining their culture. Without a definitive culture within the church, it can become just a byproduct of personalities and things that have happened in the church over the years. In defining your culture, you should make sure your values are clear and define the attributes of your staff which can create success and value in the community.
Use feedback to drive culture. // One of the things Sandals Church does in order to evaluate their culture is an anual anonymous survey among the staff. The survey asks the staff how the church is doing with their values and culture, and then the leadership compares the results to previous years to see whether they are going up or down. Action plans are built around the things that aren’t going well in order to boost the culture in those areas.
Create steps to examine and define the DNA of the church. // One of the first steps Sandals Church used in defining culture was to examine what values and traits among staff were really important in their fields, and also important to the DNA of the church. Dan wrote out a list of key attributes that are important in people who are thriving in their environment. The next step in defining culture was to really hone in on the organizational values in the church. What things are important to the church and have been important for years? Dan worked with the pastor to create an ethos document that is used in how they review staff and the orientation with new hires.
Develop leaders within your church. // There are barriers in the growth and development of a church—often times finances and process within the church. But you can work through these barriers by having a well-defined financial model and standard consistent processes that define the church. The biggest barrier is usually having leaders across the church and campuses that can step into key roles. You need campus pastors and worship leaders and leaders in the children ministry who understand your culture. In order to meet this need, Sandals created a 12-month leadership development system that is focused on learning leadership by doing. Everyone is given a mentor and a ministry pathway. They are then given real leadership roles and assignments along that pathway. Dan advises churches to create a leadership development system to train your leaders who will step into the roles needed within your church.
Measure your success. // Businesses measure their success through results and impact on their target audience. Even churches can measure their success through their results and impact. It’s key for the entire staff to think about what they want to measure in order to track success and then start tracking and measuring things that are important to them. Some ways that Sandals does this is by using top level scorecards which go out to the board and a scorecard for the executive team. Each department has developed their scorecards and measures. Once you’ve determined what you want to measure, set goals against them and track those goals. Then analyze what drove those results, whether you are failing in that area or soaring. Identify what is the key push behind those results.
You can learn more about Sandals Church by visiting their website www.sandalschurch.com and download their ethos document here. You can also reach Dan at [email protected].
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Organizations Following // Apple, Google, Uber
Influential Book // Becoming an Agile Leader Know What to Do … When You Don’t Know What to Do by Victoria Swisher, leadership resources by Korn Ferry
Inspiring Leader // Bono, Jonathan Ive from Apple
What does he do for fun // hanging with his wife
Contact // Sandals Church, email Dan
34 min
May 04, 2017Kevin Lloyd Offers Help in Starting a Leadership Pipeline At Your Church
Thanks so much for joining us for this week’s unSeminary podcast. We have Kevin Lloyd, executive pastor at Stevens Creek Church in Augusta, Georgia with us today.
Stevens Creek is thirty years old this year and has 2 campuses with 2500 people. It’s a church that is focused on connecting with people who are not used to church. The messages are really relational, with a vibe communicating that people matter. Kevin is with us today to talk about how Stevens Creek has worked to develop leaders within the church.
Combine leadership and discipleship. // Stevens Creek Church has created a system that marries discipleship and leadership. As Kevin points out, those two parts are often separated, which makes it difficult for people to be discipled and become leaders. This is the first step in developing leaders at Stevens Creek, and there is a class every other Sunday called “The Next Step” class that is the only way to become connected at the church. If someone wants to lead a group or create a new group, they must attend this class. If someone wants to serve on a team, they have to attend the class. The constant question at Stevens Creek is, “What’s your next step?” This class helps guide all individuals, regardless of their spiritual maturity, toward growth as they serve and live out their faith.
Take the next step. // The staff at the Next Step class takes a survey every so often to see who in the class has been at the church a while and has taken a step to become involved. The sweet spot seems to be 6 weeks, which gives people a good opportunity to decide if they are ready to move on and get connected to the church and others on more than a surface letter. After taking the class at Stevens Creek, the next step is to join a small group and/or a serving team. At the end of the class, the small group volunteers are brought in to share who they are and tell a bit about their group. Individuals taking the class can then connect with these leaders to ask any questions they may have, or go on a tour of that group. It’s at this time that a “First Serve” is also scheduled for those looking to join a team. There is a member of each volunteer team that is focused on working directly with these people serving for the first time.
Volunteer to work within the ministry. // After a First Serve experience, the next step is to become a part of a team as a volunteer. This area focuses on giving people a place to belong, no matter where they are in their walk with Christ. During this step of the process, the person is observed by the leadership team to determine how they are growing and where they fit into the team. If someone shows a little bit of leadership potential, the staff will approach that person and offer them the chance to move on to the next step of becoming a leader on that team.
Develop leaders with further teaching. // The Launch class is attended by those who have been invited to learn more about leadership. It is invite-only and these classes take place about 4 times a year. The Launch class is focused on the leadership covenant and what self leadership looks like from a faith perspective. From that moment on, every leader is trained on five skills: self leadership, communication, people skills, conflict management, and how to communicate vision. Some of it is done classroom style and some on teams, but most is done individually. Individuals are immediately taught to guard the unity of the church and the perception of leadership in the church. They must understand that when people see them, they see Jesus.
Develop skills within leaders. // The next step for those who show more skill and leadership is further development of those skills. First they are approached to become a team leader of a smaller group, perhaps five to ten people. Team leaders do all the scheduling, run the huddles, and other services. From there, they can become a ministry team coordinator, who leads the overall system for the team. And then the leader can become a director. That person is really pastoring the team. At every level, the church is training on those five skills taught in the Launch class, but it drives deeper into understanding these skills and using them in service.
You can learn more about leadership at www.leadbravely.org, which includes resources to develop leadership skills. You can also connect with Stevens Creek at their website www.stevenscreekchurch.com.
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Zoom, RightNow Media
Ministries Following // Guinnett Church in Georgia, Redrocks Church in Colorado
Influential Book // Breaking Busy: How to Find Peace and Purpose in a World of Crazy by Alli Worthington; Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t by Verne Harnish
Inspiring Leader // George W. Bush
What does he do for fun // Anything adventurous; surfing, rockclimbing, skiing
Contact // leadbravely.org; stevenscreekchurch.com
27 min
April 27, 2017Phill Christiansen gives practical insights from a turn around church that went from 500 to 2900!
Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us for today’s unSeminary podcast. We’re excited to have our guest Phill Christiansen from Canvas Church in Montana.
Phill has been at Canvas Church for about four years and he has seen it grow quickly and thrive during that time. The church was on decline when Phill arrived, but a new lead pastor, Kevin Geer, had recently come on. Together their team helped shake up the church and introduce new things that enabled people to experience God in a life-changing way.
Phill joins us today to talk about the changes Canvas Church made to connect with their Montana community and ultimately grow the church.
Create a vision. // Phill arrived at Canvas Church not long after the lead pastor did. The church membership was on the decline and the leadership knew things had to change. Pastor Kevin came to the table with a vision for what needed to be done and so the rest of the team used that vision to create a plan to put it into motion, ultimately helping people to experience God in a life-changing way. There were no side projects that didn’t correlate with that vision; everything fell under the umbrella of that plan. Phill explains that the clarity in that vision helped them make decisions about what needed to be done. Everything became a mission to reach people.
Create strategic tension. // The church was once called Kalispell Christian Center and had been known by that name for a long time within the community. But that name represented the old way of doing things, so it was decided that the church needed a new name to represent the new identity and changes they were implementing. The church was already called by different names—the children’s church was known as Kal CC while adults referred to it as just Christian Center. The tension between the varying names was relieved once the name change was introduced – finally everything fell under one new identity.
Become a “we” church. // One of the values at Canvas Church is to be a “we” church instead of a “me” church. Everyone from the leaders down work in teams so that it isn’t thought of as “Pastor’s Kevin’s church” or someone else’s church. The lead pastor does have the final say, but everything is collaborative. Phill notes that when they succeed, they succeed as a team, and when they fail, they work as a team to look into the situation and learn and grow. As one example of collaboration, every Tuesday the pastoral team gets together and everyone contributes to the agenda.
Nothing is too big or too small to be evaluated. // If something within the church makes someone cringe, it deserves to be evaluated. This, Phill explains, can be something as seemingly minor as the coat rack in the lobby. Another example is that a team evaluates Pastor Kevin’s message on Thursdays so it can be tweaked as necessary prior to the weekend. Phill explains that evaluations are immediate and allows for course corrections right away.
Celebrate wins. // “Celebrating wins is the fuel for the vision,” Phill says. The leadership team gathers together to share wins within the church, such as someone came to the church for the first time or someone got baptized for the first time. The team doesn’t just work at the church, but they are the church, and celebrating wins is a core part of that mission. Every win that is celebrated has to be attached to the vision of the church.
You can learn more about Canvas Church at www.canvaschurch.com.
Thank You for Tuning In!
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!
Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
Lightning Round
Helpful Tech Tools // Slack, Google Docs, Wunderlist
Ministries Following // Saddleback Church, Mariners Church; New Life Church in Renton, Washington
Influential Book // Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne, Generational IQ by Haydn Shaw and Ginger Kolbaba, Teams that Thrive by Ryan T. Hartwig Ph.D. and Warren Bird, Great by Choice by Jim Collins
Inspiring Leader // Craig Groeschel
What does he do for fun // Family time, restoring a ’49 Ford Pick-up, Motorcycles, Glacier National Park
Contact // www.canvaschurch.com
24 min

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