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Our Canada Our Time – Declarations

January 30, 2012 By 2 Comments

God is up to something in Canada, and you are a part of it!

Last September at The Global Leadership Summit 2011, God stirred up the hearts of hundreds of Canadians from coast to coast. Thousands of people were motivated by the growing realization that God was about to spark a spiritual renewal across the country, and hundreds responded to this stirring by submitting a declaration about the call God had placed in their heart.

Yours was one of those declarations.

Now, we want to follow up and see what has transpired since then. Is God still stirring in the same way? Has the sense of call shifted in any way, or intensified? Have you taken any steps towards seeing this call result in action?

Please share your story with us below! We’d love to know how God’s vision for Canada is taking root in your life.


Name:
Email Address:
Your Declaration:

Filed Under: Action, Results Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ever Been So Mad You Felt Like Leaving Your Church?

January 17, 2012 By 4 Comments

In the past 24 months I’ve switched my home cable provider three times.

A grocery store opened closer to our house last year, so we’ve switched to that store.

I discovered that a different credit card would help me accumulate travel points quicker, so I switched to that card a few months ago.

All of us are so accustomed to moving our business from one place to another that perhaps it’s inevitable that we sometimes bring the same thinking to our local church.

As a church elder, people will seek me out from time to time to have one of those “I’m thinking of leaving our church” conversations. I had one this week.

My response is always the same. I ask, “Are you angry at the community or the company?”

communityThe baffled look on their face prompts me to explain. “Look, the church is really the community; you know, it’s you and me. It’s all of us. It’s all the ‘one another’ stuff in the New Testament.

“The company is different. That’s my term for the staff, the budget, the facility, the utility bills, the governance structure; all the stuff the community puts in place to help us along the way.”

Then I add, “It sounds to me like you’re really mad at the company, not the community.”

You see, almost always when someone is mad at “the church”, they’re really mad at the company; that organized part that makes decisions, distributes resources, and so on.

Once people see that distinction I ask, “So, if it’s the company you’re mad at, why would you want to respond by punishing the community?”

Then I take them right back to 1 Corinthians 12 and hit them with verse 18: “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

Let’s face it. Life in the local church can be a bumpy ride, and along the way you may indeed find yourself pretty upset at decisions, directions and policies.

However you choose to respond, remember that when you’re mad at the company, don’t take it out on the community.

Because “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”

What do you do when you’re mad at “the church”? What is an appropriate way to respond when we’re angry at church decisions?

Filed Under: Church Tagged With: , , ,

How Leaders Know When to Cash-in “Change Chips”

November 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Just before you pull the trigger on that change you want to introduce, ask yourself, “Is this worth cashing in my chips?”

Leaders know that they possess a certain number of “change chips”. These chips are made up of credibility, respect, authority, good will and other essential intangible ingredients.

cashing in my chipsLeaders carry these chips around in their pocket knowing that at the moment when they must introduce change they will have to cash-in some of these chips.

But if you cash these chips in at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons it can make introducing real, meaningful change that much more difficult.

I learned this lesson in a painful way during my first weeks on the job when I served as executive pastor of a large Canadian church.

I led a staff of about 35 people, and soon after I was hired I saw that the office configuration was not optimal. Almost before I had settled into my chair I was moving staff around the facility from one office to another. Because I was the new sheriff in town, the staff dutifully followed my edict. And within a couple of weeks most staff were in new offices which, to me, was a marginal improvement over the previous set up.

But I had cashed in several credibility chips with only a marginal “win” for the organization. I had introduced irritation, confusion and distraction, and the only upside was a slight increase in the ergonomics of the office.

In hindsight I wish I had saved those chips for later on when I needed to call for significant change that could generate meaningful, positive results.

What might this mean for you?

Take a few minutes to actually make a list of the potential changes you’re contemplating. Perhaps it looks something like this…

  • Changing the day of the weekly staff meeting,
  • Dropping a well-established, but tired, program,
  • Introducing new ways for expense reports to be submitted,
  • Launching a new product or service.

For each item on your own list, carefully consider the change chips required to be cashed in.

To make lasting, significant change, you may find that you need to keep a few more chips in your pocket!

Filed Under: Change, Leadership Tagged With: , ,

Leadership Lessons from Toy Story; Communicate Change Openly and Directly

August 11, 2010 By 6 Comments

One of my favourite scenes from the original Toy Story movie is when Woody assembles the toys for a “staff meeting”, where he intends to inform them that their owner, Andy, has had the date for his birthday party changed.

Knowing that this news is likely to evoke a strong reaction, Woody starts by bringing them a couple of fairly innocuous pieces of information (eg, “Does everyone have a moving buddy?”) before delivering the real news.

Almost under his breath, Woody nonchalantly looks on the second page of his agenda and mumbles, “Oh, and one minor note, the date for Andy’s birthday party has changed…to today.”

Watching Mr. Potatohead, Rex, Ham and the others totally freaking out is pretty hilarious.

The leadership lesson for Woody? How you deliver this kind of news is as important as what the news itself actually is. In this case, news of this importance required clear, open, up-front communication.

Similarly, at the close of this year’s Global Leadership Summit we delivered some fairly significant news; that starting in 2011 the Canadian Summit is moving to the end of September. And while we had no reactions nearly as intense as those of Woody’s friends, this news is worthy of open discussion.

Here then, is the background to this move.

At the start of June we met with our Summit host pastors, along with Bill Hybels, and asked them how we could extend the impact of the Summit. I was surprised to hear them say that we should move the dates.

After getting feedback from church leaders across Canada, two vital themes emerged. The first was that the single greatest factor which limits the impact of the Summit is the time of year.

Secondly, Canadian church leaders want the Summit to more fully reflect our own country’s leadership issues. This move will allow us to not only capture the entire U.S. Summit experience, but also enhance it with new content.

Moving forward there’s another Toy Story leadership lesson to be gleaned. Woody made the mistake of simply announcing this change and then moving on. We want to engage in dialogue. So here are a couple of questions I’d love to get your input on:

  • How can we leverage the Summit to impact more church leaders in Canada?
  • What are the most pressing leadership issues facing the Canadian church that could be addressed in the Summit?

Filed Under: Canadian, Leadership, Leadership Summit, Missional Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leading Through a Turnaround: Part 1

October 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Leading Through a Turnaround: Part 1

On two separate occasions, and in two organizations, God has positioned me to contribute my leadership towards ‘turnarounds’; applying new energy to steer an organization into a significantly different direction.

I’m often asked what I’ve learned. In both organizations I tackled the turnaround in three stages; which I would call Prepping the Patient, Surgery, and Post-Op. Today I’ll focus on a few ‘do’s’ I learned from Prepping the Patient. I’ll follow later with a few ‘Don’ts’, as well as insights from the latter stages.

Prepping the Patient

DO

  • Recognize that the work you do before you implement change is critical and will set the stage for later success.
  • Analyze why the organization requires significant change. Remember, the finances are not the problem; they’re a symptom of the problem. In our current turnaround we identified three specific issues that were driving revenues down.
  • Spend time talking with stakeholders. Get as many perspectives as possible and look for common threads. You’re not looking for ‘a-ha!’ moments, you’re looking for patterns. In my previous organization one such pattern that emerged was that ‘vision’ and direction was bottle-necked near the top of the organization, and not filtering down through the ranks.
  • Listen to voices that may have previously gone unheard. Some of the most profound insights I gathered in both organizations I learned from those with the least influence.
  • Listen first and foremost to God’s voice. James 3:17 became a vital bible verse for me during both turnarounds.

Next time: Turnaround ‘Don’ts’ from the Prepping the Patient stage!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,