Video Interviews for Pastors

February 21, 2012 in Church IT, Church Staff, Productivity, Web, Internet, & IT with 5 Comments

Face to face interviews are great … if you can afford them and have the time.

Think about this … what if you could interview candidates via video … and see their responses … BEFORE you actually had your personal interview(s) with them?

Here’s a list of service companies that MAG has evaluated to speed up and streamline our interview system (and protect our time and money) during the hiring process.

1.  Take the Interview
2.  HireVue
3.  Green JobInterview
4.  JobOn

Know of any other service providers we missed in our list? We’d like to hear from you – if you know a provider like this – that is not on the list above.

Go on. Get your interview(s) on! At your pace and budget. Ain’t technology great?!

Bryan

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Babies & Toddlers in Worship?

February 20, 2012 in Church Culture, Church Design & Architecture, Miscellaneous with 22 Comments

Interested in your opinion today … like always.

What do you think about the image above? Reasonable to hand this out if you are a certain type of church? Too much of a request?

Should babies & toddlers stay in a worship (big church) environment to be with the family … OR … would they potentially distract from a person who may be a first-time visitor (or, recently started attending) and on the cusp of deciding to have a personal relationship with Jesus? Or, what if you were a first-time visitor with a baby … and were handed one of these cards … would you come back?

Terrible idea? Great idea? What are your comments?

Bryan

 

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Unreasonable Idea: Clean Water

February 17, 2012 in Church Giving, MAG News, MAG Relationships with 1 Comment

Did you wake up this morning and brush your teeth with clean drinking water? Did you need to boil your water first before you put in the coffeemaker? Did you start your day without thanking God for your clean drinking water? I did. I am not alone. There are so many of us who just take for granted the clean drinking water we have.

Here’s the deal … I am trying to help a good friend of mine … raise money for a SOLUTION to clean drinking water. Not a handout … and SOLUTION. You can give $1 to $500 … your call. Give it HERE.

For the past several years, my friend has been involved with a number of efforts in the developing world focused on helping people get larger, more reliable and safer water supplies. The culmination of those efforts is a partnership between him and Philip Wilson, an entrepreneur based in Guatemala, to build the first commercial-scale ceramic pot water filter production facility in the world. The business is called Ecofiltro. There’s information available at www.creategood.org. There’s LOTS of info in Spanish at www.ecofiltro.org and www.ecofiltro.com.

Below an aerial photo of the factory in Guatemala (blue roof) and the offices and employee housing areas (red roof). I’m thrilled to report that the factory is finished and the first batch of filters are being fired in the kiln!

   

The SOLUTION is this ………

The nearly TEN TIMES increase in production over the current facility will enable Ecofiltro to provide the filters to many more families and communities, and improve lives. They’ve conducted several studies and found that even the poorest families spend upwards of $15 to $20 per month for firewood. Once they have a filter, the money saved as a result of not having to burn firewood to boil water is primarily spent on food. This positively impacts their health both in combating chronic malnutrition and limiting the open flame in their huts to cooking.

Their goal is to expand annual production to 5 million filters and distribution to over 100 countries by the year 2020. To do so, I am asking you (our MAG readers) to get their story out. And if YOU are interested, this is where YOU could help. Ecofiltro have been sponsored and have the opportunity to become a Fellow in the Unreasonable Institute, which will result in international exposure for their effort. Here’s the cool part … the Unreasonable Institute has a “no rich Uncle” rule, so no one person can guarantee full funding. It takes a “village” to raise the money. More information about the Unreasonable Institute and how to sponsor (meaning, give your money away) Ecofiltro can be found here: Ecofiltro – The Unreasonable Marketplace.

Please give to this SOLUTION for clean drinking water … and please spread the word.

Grateful,


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Church’s Forgotten Chores

February 16, 2012 in Church Bookkeeping, Church Finance, Church HR, Church Outsourcing with 0 Comments

At MAG, we work with churches in various church outsourcing capacities. One is the church’s finances tied to bookkeeping and financial reporting.

Below are seven church-finance chores that we see … are commonly overlooked by church leaders … tied to managing/controlling your finances.

  1. Re-read your lease or rental agreement. Are you paying more than you should? Do you know the terms of your lease/rent?
  2. Know your employer-related requirements tied to benefits? Do you have an HR professional to help you guide this effort? Negotiating health insurance and other insurances are just one of many benefits of working with a knowledgeable HR professional.
  3. Review your insurance(s). Check your deductibles. Can you raise them to save some cost? How many policies are you carrying? For what?
  4. Check your service payments. Are you using that membership like you did before? Go through your monthly bills and cancel services you don’t need or use any more.
  5. Read credit card Agreements. Call customer service and get a better rate. If they don’t … cancel. Great rates are out there with minimal effort. You can save tons of money doing this – especially if you carry a balance.
  6. Consolidate bank accounts. Do you have 89 checking accounts for every single, tiny ministry in your church? If you pay access/service fees on those accounts … you could be just burning money for no good reason.
  7. Check investment accounts. Are you getting the rate of return you should? Savings accounts and CDs not performing – even a little? Are your being a good steward with your church’s investments? Get to the bottom of your ROI. Or, find someone qualified to help you.

Spending a couple of days a year looking at your Agreements and making calls to clarify will pay off. Terms and conditions can change often with your Agreements so be prepared to adjust.

I know these tasks are sometimes boring and can be cumbersome. However, they are important … and saving money is AWESOME!

Bryan

 

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Christian Criticism

February 15, 2012 in Church Culture, Church Staff, Leadership with 11 Comments

Christian Criticism.

It starts like this.

  1. First, I am going to say some really nice things about you, to affirm you …
  2. Then, when I am done doing that … I am going to tear you a new one … in Jesus’ name.

Seriously … for some reason … I have witnessed this a lot lately when I am on-site with other church leaders … and I watch them interact with their teams. Call it what you want … “building them up before you bring the down” or “buttering them up in love” or whatever … it is just terrible leadership. What’s worse … if you do this … you teach your team the cue of your butt-handing. So, if you pay someone a real/genuine compliment – they’ll expect the bottom to fall out after they hear it. Is that the way you want your team to really react to you?

Be direct with your Team! Tell them the truth right out of the gate. Don’t mask your real words … that’s phony. Your team (and you) needs to hear the plain, simple, direct truth. Skip the silly haiku before you appropriately criticize someone.

That’s it. That’s all I got on this subject. Stop teasing your team with your criticisms good or bad … just get after it … be direct.

Bryan

 

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A Rolling Budget … Gathers No Moss

February 14, 2012 in Church Bookkeeping, Church Finance, Churchplanting, Leadership with 4 Comments

I know. Old Church Business Administrators will not like this post.

Here’s what I hear already:

A rolling budget? What?! You can’t do that. We’ve never done it that way before. Our church giving is too unpredictable.

Well, actually … it is called a Rolling Forecast. Welcome to how to better predict the next 90 days in your Church – in terms of revenue and expenses. Sound intriguing? Read on …

Church planters, church leaders, lead pastors, & campus pastors need to be quick on their feet. Cash flow in a church is nuts! There’s ups and downs. A rolling forecast enables church leaders to plan … 90 days at a time (in quarters). Sounds too business like for you? Too bad. A good church leader worth following KNOWS where the money is … or, has a valued staff member who does.

Here are nine thoughts on Rolling Forecasts vs. Annual Budgets:

  1. Church leaders need to respond quickly to cash flow. Rolling Forecasts help predict this … by trending and looking at the history of your giving … looking back every 90 days … not 365 days.
  2. I think the traditional annual budgeting process is outdated and too reactive to obvious cost and income realities. Leaders in your church should be expected to know their area P&L and the XP should know the roll-up impact.
  3. Another reason why annual budgeting is outdated … a) staffers are forced to buy stuff to protect their budgets, AND b) many church leaders have no skin-in-the-game tied to their pay of hitting or beating their budget.
  4. Many staffers are more interested in meeting their annual budget THAN the missional goals of the church. Yes, I said it. What’s important to them is to protect the dollars they have for whatever reason … and much less to do with the overall goals of the church.
  5. Rolling Forecasts kill the restrictions tied to annual budgets. Meaning, by establishing goals and priorities in three-month windows … a rolling forecast can provide church leaders with a more up-to-date financial snapshot.
  6. Rolling Forecasts forces your church staff to think proactively about what will go bad … and what will go good.
  7. Rolling Forecasts don’t lock you in to a year-long endeavor. You and your church can be more agile. Amen!
  8. Rolling Forecasts helps the whole church staff work together (if you have a good roll-up view in place) vs. hitting a fixed number once a year.
  9. Rolling Forecasts teach your church staff to appropriately ask “What if” questions.

Don’t know how this would play out in real life in your church? What to ask us questions about this? We serve churches all over the US … helping them think through budgeting/forecasting all the time. Contact us at MAG if you want to chat.

A rolling budget (forecast) gathers no moss … unless of course … you like moss, and your attendees who give to your church … are OK with moss.

Bryan

 

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Encouragement for the Next Generation of Pastors

February 13, 2012 in Leadership, Pastors & Church Leaders with 8 Comments

As a current church leader, are you doing all that you can do to equip the next generation of pastors that will lead?

Chances are, they will face pressures that you have never faced, and some others that you’ve faced. Regardless, they need your encouragement and investment in them. Stop seeing them as your competition and start seeing them as leaders who will lead your kids one day. The church innovators of the future are roaming the streets of your community and likely the halls of your church.

Do you see a church innovator, one who gives you a sense of hope for the Church, and you pause because you are intimidated as the older, more established leader? Stop it! Start encouraging that young man or woman for the future God is preparing for them.

Stuck? Unsure HOW you would encourage a young/aspiring leader? Here are some idea(s) for you.

1)  Give them a book. Write something encouraging in it … that demonstrates your hope for them. Paint a vibrant picture of what can happen if they work hard and lean into God’s promptings.

2)  Get them out of town. Pay for a trip or conference for a young leader. Allow them to break free of their current environment … and enable them to experience new insights from their trip.

3)  Build something with them. Start a ministry from scratch. Show them how you kill a ministry effectively. Show them how you measure success. Model for them the hard things about your job as a Pastor … they can figure out how to press the “print” button on the copier on their own.

4)  Help them find a Mentor worth following. As a church leader yourself … you may not have the time to heavily invest in others as a mentor. But, there are business leaders in your church who can and want the opportunity. Help set out a good mentoring program … and let business leaders teach them invaluable skills on communication, time management, financials, and etc.

A final note. If you undervalue someone because of their youth … you suck as a leader. Same goes for younger people who devalue & disrespect older leaders … you suck too. This life … this profession … this pursuit of leading others to develop a personal relationship with Jesus is not easy. Partnering in a multi-generational way should not. Start encouraging each other. Spur each other on. We need all church leaders developing … at every stage of life.

Bryan

 

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eMail eTiQuEtTe

February 9, 2012 in Productivity, Web, Internet, & IT with 6 Comments

I’m guilty of the below. I confess. But, I also have stopped too. Repentance means a 180-degree turn from your wrongs. And, I have “wronged” it up with eMail. So, forgive me … and see if you are an eMail offender like me. Here are 15 simple thoughts on eMail etiquette.

  1. If you message is less than 6 or 7 words … put it is the subject line.
  2. Stop putting silly quotes in your signature line … remember your image … your signature is not your platform.
  3. CC: are you just trying to cover your buttocks?
  4. BCC: are you bragging or showing off?
  5. ALL CAPS … NO! Are you yelling at me?
  6. small caps … stop that too. Use some punctuation.
  7. !!!!!!! Exclamation Points !!!!! Who’s dying here in your eMail?! Where’s the fire?!
  8. Stupid fonts. Go Arial or Tahoma. Express yourself in some other way besides your font.
  9. Before you hit “send” … ask yourself … “Am I (and everyone else) OK with reading this in eternity?” If not, delete or re-craft.
  10. Out of Office Auto-Responder … is a chance to manage expectations of your reply … not to tell them how awesome you are … or your exotic vacation.
  11. tHiS iS jUsT aNnOyInG … stop it!
  12. Use IM to chat not eMail … eMails with “Sup?” in it only … are just dumb.
  13. Stop putting “re:” in your subject line … we already know what it is regarding. Memos are dead. eMail like it.
  14. Fancy eMail signatures in your hand-writing … C’mon! It’s obvious you didn’t hand-write the eMail.

  15. Normal size font … please!

Get your eMail on! But, please … stop the eMail antics!

Bryan

 

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Street Grace

February 8, 2012 in MAG Relationships with 0 Comments

Recently we held a dinner with several couples to lobby for and ultimately vote for a charity where all the money would go. Each couple did a great job with their presentation for their charity.

Ours (Shannon & Bryan) … didn’t win … but I have been so disturbed by a video my wife showed to the group … about child/human trafficking. This video (below) so shook me. I suspect it will rock your world as well. The organization is Street Grace. Consider them in your giving efforts. They do great work to fight a very bad thing.

 

The Candy Shop Trailer

Note: Street GRACE is an alliance of Christian churches, community partners and volunteers that supports and collaborates with individuals and organizations dedicated to eradicating the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC).

 

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Silent But Deadly

February 7, 2012 in Leadership with 0 Comments

 

I’ve discovered a new thing … that really works … in getting across my points. I’d seen this before in other leaders … but I watched this play out before my very eyes last week in a very vivid way.

Silence ………………………………………………..

Sometimes as a leader you just need to be quiet. Pause. Reflect. Make strong eye contact. Keep your pie hole shut. I’m not talking about letting others necessarily speak. I am talking about your mid-sentence pause. Or pausing longer than normal for your answer to escape your mouth.

The most amazing thing happens when you do this. Something happens in the silence. Whether you are in a heated debate, on stage, being put on the spot, or something in between … a pause of silence enables the people in the room to take that experience all in. Their senses become heightened and true emotions start to show up on people’s faces. It can be epic in the most subtle of ways.

Miles Davis once said … “Not to play all the notes you could play, but to wait, hesitate and let space become part of the configuration.”

Here’s something else amazing about silence … you gain new perspectives too … as the leader … often in that very moment of quietness.

There’s power in pause. Try it today.

Bryan

 

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