Wayne Hedlund

Author: Wayne Hedlund

  • Check out Dan Stevers Mini-Movies and Free Stuff!

    I stumbled across another great video resource for the local church today. Hopefully, you’re already aware of the growing list of great video resource sites like www.sermonspice.com and www.worshiphousemedia.com. This new site includes some great clips which would be particularly relevant this Easter. Additionally, the owner is offering a page full of some free video’s as well! Finally, if you have any ‘up and coming’ video experts in your church (like some of those teens/young adults), you will find several well made tutorials meant to help the aspiring video experts excel in what they do.

    Where could you use these short 2-4 minute clips?
    These clips are worth watching more than once. You might consider showing them pre-service, post-service, during the offering, or just prior to the Sunday message.

    Check out Dan Stevers at www.danstevers.com!  
    (and look over his free ‘Sermon Graphics Bundle’ right here)

  • Church Stage Designs Made Simple

    Dippin-DotsEvery once in a while I get asked about what it takes to create great stage designs to support sermon series or to just spruce up how things look during different seasons of the year. I’ve been meaning to share this AWESOME resource with you for a long time, and am finally getting around to it.

    Years ago, we would sit in our creative team meeting and bang our heads against the table to come up with some fresh, cool looking creative themes for the stage. We did a pretty good job. But half the problem was in trying to figure out how to implement our ideas after we got them, without breaking the bank.

    Things changed drastically when we discovered this website. I remember soon after finding the website we were able to create a cool new look for less than $100 using paper plates (the above image uses paper plates and cost that church $95)! Of course, it helped that we had already invested thousands of dollars in lighting over the years. That said, whether you’ve invested in your stage and lighting designs or not, this website is sure to give you a head start in thinking outside the box. Enjoy.

    Check out ‘Church Stage Design Ideas’ at www.churchstagedesignideas.com!

     

  • Horstman’s Laws

    My boss, Joe Jansen, recently shared these laws with me which he found at a website both he and I have frequented: www.manager-tools.com. I thought they were very practical and helpful, so I asked permission from Mark Horstman, Co-Founder of that website. They gladly gave me permission, so here they are! Enjoy.

    Horstman’s Laws

    1. It’s All About People
    This is actually a hard-nosed, scientific and financial reality. Any hour you spend on people is a better investment than an hour spent on systems, processes, or policies. Great people can overcome average systems; average people won’t live up to great systems.

    action ›› Spend time with your folks every week. Learn their strengths and weaknesses. Learn their projects. Learn their children’s names.


    2. More Communication is Better
    No matter what the situation: work or home, professional or personal, boss or subordinate, it is always more communication that solves the problem or clinches the deal. And think about this: communication is what the listener does.

    action ›› Pick up the phone. Provide an update. Admit you’re behind. Over communicate, and you’re halfway there.


    3. You’re Not that Smart; They’re Not that Dumb
    You can’t fool people. Ever.The fact is, people know when you mislead them. Yes, they might go along with you, but they know that it doesn’t feel right. That you don’t feel right. After all, didn’t you used to be “them?”

    action ›› Tell the whole truth. Don’t leave anything out. When in doubt, tell everyone. Use candor as advantage, rather than seeing it as weakness.


    4. Control is an Illusion
    There is not a single person whom you think you “control” who would agree with you. If you really think you’re so good as to control another, then who in your organization thinks that way about you? Stop trying to control. You’re wasting your time. Build relationships that allow you to influence.

    action ›› Build relationships based on trust. Say, “I trust you.” Let your team choose their path at times, even when you disagree.


    5. The River is Wide, the Currents are Messy, but all the Water Ends up in the Ocean
    Watch water flow down river sometime. It doesn’t march in nice straight lines.It meanders.It’s messy. Scientists say 20% of it is actually going up river. Your organization is organic–it’s made up of people–just like a river. Your projects and timelines are going to be messy and defy control. Stop fighting it.

    action ›› Don’t worry about or punish every missed deadline–wait for a pattern. Think about a chinese finger puzzle. Sometimes a light touch is the way out. Let go–flow–to get ahead.


    6. There are No Secrets
    If you think you can keep something quiet in your organization, you’re kidding yourself. What everybody is talking about is what’s not being said. Everybody knows already. The one associate or friend that you felt you could tell has probably told someone else whom they trusted… and so on. If you try to keep secrets, others lose respect for you because you show you don’t trust them.

    action ›› Tell everybody everything. Forward every e-mail you get to all of your team…automatically. Don’t go off the record.


    7. How You Feel is Your Fault
    If you find yourself saying, “that guy/situation/boss makes me mad,” you’re wrong. They did something, and then you decided how to respond. Think about the word responsibility. (Response-ability) You’re able to choose your response.

    action ›› Choose the right response. Choose not to get angry. Choose to understand why they behave the the way they do. Your response will be more powerful.


    8. The “Other” Way Often Works Just Fine
    There’s someone else out there who has succeeded to the same level you have with exactly the opposite intuitions you have. (They wonder how you got where you are too.) Your idea that your way is the right way is routinely controverted. You just think it’s right because it’s yours.

    action ›› Try the opposite every once in a while. After your first thought, wait for a second–different–one.

    If you’d like your own copy of Horstman’s Laws, you can get them by clicking this link. To take receive more great resources, bookmark their website at www.manager-tools.com or subscribe to their weekly podcast here.

    Image compliments of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee on freedigitalphotos.net.

  • The Formula for United Change

    united-changeRecently I was talking to one of my mentors, Mike Cavanaugh, and we were discussing the overwhelmingly successful transition our church experienced when he resigned as the founding and senior pastor for more than 20 years and handed it off to a young eagle, Joshua Finley. During that year of transition, our church of about 800 fully embraced every step of the transition. When we finally got together to vote in Pastor Josh, we were mildly shocked to receive a unanimous vote. Now, if you’ve been around the church world for any length of time, you’ll know that’s a veritable miracle all by itself.

    During our discussion, Pastor Mike shared with me a formula that I’ve heard for a few years and which he has consistently used as a guiding principle whenever he has had to initiate change with his congregation. It’s a formula that will help facilitate united change.

    Here’s the formula: Communication + Time = United Change

    That’s it. Lots of communication, combined with lots of time, maximizes your chances for united change. Check out this excerpt from a book I read recently by Tim Stevens, called Vision: Lost and Found. He outlines how his church implemented a vision for a huge change, note how this formula so perfectly fits their strategy.

    I started by identifying four groups that we believed we had to have represented if our vision process was going to be complete and inclusive.

    Influencers – This included our entire staff and every volunteer leader in the church….

    Participants – Additionally, we wanted to hear from all the volunteers and those in small groups, Bible studies, etc….

    Attendees – We then wanted to catch everyone else who attended the weekend service….

    Community – And, if possible, we wanted to hear from people in the community who did not attend our church….

    I then recommended breaking our process into four distinct phases:

    Listening – it would take us a few months, but we wanted to make sure we had enough time to hear from everyone who wanted to participate. This required enough focus so people knew we were serious when we asked the questions.

    Drafting – It was going to be daunting, but we wanted to consolidate the dreams and visions of thousands of people and write an initial vision document that capture the heart of the {whole} church.

    Finalizing – Then, we would have a few cycles where we would send the written draft back out to gain feedback. This would help us refine the next version so it was more concise and clear.

    Communicating – And finally, we would agree on a final vision that would become our guiding document for years to come. We would then begin to communicate that vision to everyone who would listen.

    With these four groups and four phases as our guiding template, we began a process that would result in bringing energy and momentum back to the church like we hadn’t felt in years.

    How might this formula, and Tim Steven’s strategic plan, serve you in the new initiatives you are working on this year?

  • Elevation Church Core Values

    Elevation ChurchI’m a firm believer that defining your core values is a foundational strategic necessity for any church or organization. I’ve already discussed this in-depth in my Core Value series. That said, I thought it’d be cool to share the core values that Elevation Church has defined for themselves. These have got to be some of the most unique, well written, values I’ve ever seen. They are interesting, inspiring and instructive. When I read them, I find myself pulled towards them and that church. It makes me want to learn more about them.

    Understand, I’m not suggesting you copy these values and make them your own. I do suggest you develop your own values and consider modeling the style of how you write and communicate them after Elevation. Enjoy.

    Elevation Church Core Values

    • We Are Known For What We Are For 
      We will speak vision and life over our people. We will lift up the salvation of Jesus rather than using our platform to condemn.
    • We Will Not Take This For Granted
      What we are experiencing is not normal. This is the highest calling, and we will remain grateful for God’s hand of favor.
    • We Are All About The Numbers
      Tracking metrics measures effectiveness. We unapologetically set goals and measure progress through all available quantitative means.
    • We Act In Audacious Faith
      In order to dominate a city with the gospel of Jesus, we can’t think small. We will set impossible goals, take bold steps of faith and watch God move.
    • We Need Your Seat
      We will not cater to personal preference in our mission to reach this city. We are more concerned with the people we are trying to reach than the people we are trying to keep.
    • We Are United Under One Vision
      Elevation is built on the vision God gave us. We will aggressively defend our unity
      and that vision.
    • We Dress For The Wedding
      We will continually increase our capacity by structuring for where we want to go. Not where we are. We will remain on the edge of our momentum by overreacting to harness strategic momentum initiatives.
    • We Are A Generation Of Honor
      We freely give honor to those above us, beside us and under us because of the calling and potential God has placed inside of them.
    • We Are Ruth’s Chris, Not Golden Corral
      Simplicity enables excellence. We place a disproportionate value on creating a worship experience that boldly celebrates Jesus and attracts people far from God.
    • We Lead The Way In Generosity
      Our staff and church will go above and beyond to give sacrificially to the work of God
      in our city.
    • We Think Inside The Box
      We will embrace our limitations. They will inspire our greatest creativity and innovation.
    • We Eat The Fish And Leave The Bones
      We will always maintain a posture of learning. We seek to learn from everyone and incorporate a variety of influences into our methodology.

  • Elevation Creative: Who Am I?

    Pastors and church leaders. Bookmark this great video from the team at Elevation Church for your Sunday service. Hold it for a timely message. Show it pre-service, during the offering, or post-service. Put it on your website. Show it to your kids and teens. Let your people watch it over and over this coming year. It certainly isn’t going to hurt – we all need to be reminded who we are!

     

  • Healthy Church, Healthy Systems

    This article was originally posted on Transforming Leader on April 24, 2011. Enjoy!


    Question: How healthy is your current lifestyle?     Do you exercise regularly? Eat healthy? Drink lots of water? Spend time outdoors? Don’t answer those questions. At least, not here. You can answer this one instead.

    “How important are systems in creating and maintaining a healthy body?”

    Obvious, right? You want good muscle tone? It’s going to include some system of exercise that includes lifting weights in a repetitive manner (whether it’s lifting boxes out of a truck or weights in a weight room). Less visits to the doctor? That will most likely result from a regular & healthy diet. Lots of energy? All of the above and a whole lot more. Systems are a prerequisite for consistent health in our bodies.

    The same is true of our church’s. Whether we like it or not, the similarities between how we manage our bodies and how we manage our church’s can be just too close for comfort (guilty pause here to contemplate the systems you have not setup for your body). A healthy church is going to have a ton of systems in place. Most of these systems will serve to maintain the ministry activities, environments and events the church regularly hosts. Systems will play a vital role in building new muscles (facilitating church growth), maintaining appropriate weight gain or loss (setting & keeping ministry goals), keeping stress levels to a minimum (maintaining ministry focus), and assuring all bodily vitals are healthy (unity in the church, engaging ministry culture, growing believers, transformed lives, etc.).

    A healthy church must have healthy systems. Please don’t confuse “systems” with “healthy systems”. Big difference. It seems to me that there are four kinds of systems in which we may choose to engage in:

    • No Systems
      OK. That’s not actually a system. But it counts simply because sometimes we just don’t setup systems. As a result, those particular areas of ministry may be effective for a time, but eventually the lack of systems will catch up to the leaders and it (that ministry) will either get behind, overwhelmed, or shut down.

    Real example from my church: At one point in time, there were no systems in place to ensure the sanctuary and hallways were actually clean on Sunday morning. They WERE cleaned regularly late in the week, but often they would get dirty between when they were cleaned last and the Sunday morning services.

    • Declining Systems
      These are the systems that used to work, but are irrelevant now. We still do it this way because that’s how we’ve always done it. (check out my sacred cow series) We keep declining systems in place because they DO usually keep things running – to a degree. They have the general appearance of effectiveness, but in the long run they will lead you to ruin.

    Real example from my church: A few years ago we held our worship team rehearsals on Saturday nights. It worked great for a season, especially for our young adults. However, over time it became more and more difficult for those with families and children to make practices at this time. We finally read the writing on the wall when some key worship team members let us know they would have to step down from the worship ministry.

    • Maintaining Systems
      These systems keep things running at the status quo. Many church systems will be maintaining systems, are perfect for their role and shouldn’t be changed. They do what they are designed to do. However, over time maintaining systems may eventually turn into declining systems if not evaluated and updated.

    Real example from my church: A faithful and consistent volunteer comes into the office every Saturday to fold and stuff the bulletins for Sunday morning. The system is working great and the volunteer loves to do it. A regular evaluation, however, will ensure that the job doesn’t turn bigger than she originally planned (perhaps through numerical growth and an increase in demand for bulletins).

    • Producing Systems
      These systems don’t just maintain, they create momentum and encourage growth. It can be very difficult to create a producing system. You might end up spending three, four, perhaps even ten times more time, energy and resources creating one than you did for a maintaining system before it is operational. However, once it’s up and running your ministry will experience a great boost in it’s overall effectiveness without taxing your key leaders and volunteers.  Like all systems, these should regularly be evaluated to ensure they don’t turn into managing or declining systems.

    Real example from my church: At our ‘Discover Class’, a class we encourage guests to attend to learn more about the church, we take about 10 minutes to teach on water baptism. As a result, we will often receive requests by the attendees of that class to become water baptized. This short teaching encourages spiritual growth in the believer, motivates them to make our church their home church and ultimately creates excitement in our Sunday Services as we regularly celebrate water baptisms. Water baptisms can often be a perfect opportunity to share the good news of Christ, which in turn builds momentum as people receive Christ.

    How healthy are the systems at your church?

  • Why People Don’t Do


    thoughts-that-stop-creativity-entrepreneur

  • What to Read

    Following are some more great articles I recently read and recommend to help your church succeed in fulfilling it’s mission. Enjoy.

    Pastor Wayne Cordeiro on Family interview by his son, Aaron Cordeiro
    In this 8 minute video interview (by his son), Pastor Wayne Cordeiro shares key principles with pastors about how ministry and family fit together. Watch Now.

    5 Things You Should Know About Communicating With Millenials by Maurilio Amorim
    They are the most educated and studied generation on earth. Parents, teachers, marketers and communicators want to figure out how to successfully reach millennials. As a parent as well as employer of Gen Yers, I’m always glad to find new, helpful research. Recently, I read in Advertising Age an excellent article by Thomas Pardee on marketing to millennials that I want to share with you. After all, if you’re reading this, your life is and will be impacted by Generation Y. Read More…

    How To Create The Kind Of Team Unity That Drives Results by Michael Hyatt
    Unity is the state of many acting as one. It is an attribute of highly effective teams, whether in marriage, business, church, or government. Without it, progress stops. That’s why creating it—and preserving it—is so important. It is one of the most fundamental functions of leadership. But too often leaders are unclear in their understanding of unity. Read More…

    What Did You Do Wrong? by Perry Noble
    That is the question I most often get from church planters and other pastors when we are having lunch conversations in regards to beginning NewSpring Church. My answer is usually something like, “wow, we don’t have time in this lunch to cover everything;” however, I can hit some of the main things in this post today. Read More…

    Senior Leadership Teams: Are you avoiding these mistakes with your team? by Tony Morgan
    Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with over 50 churches. There are many, many healthy situations when it comes to senior leadership teams. Healthy leaders are, of course, in the best position to lead healthy churches. Along the way, though, I’ve identified some traps that can create challenges for both leaders and the ministries they lead. Read More…

    How To Create A Life-Changing Presentation by John Richardson
    The side lights dim in the auditorium and the speaker walks on stage. As they are introduced you notice something different about them. The way they are dressed commands your attention. They start to speak and you are quickly drawn into a powerful story. There is drama, tension, and intrigue. Soon you are tracking with them. You can relate to their struggles and you marvel at their tenacity. Soon they share how they overcame obstacles and found a way to prosper. And then they do something amazing. They offer to share their secret with you. You want to know more. You’ve been where they are, you’ve fought the battle, but you haven’t found a solution. As the speaker goes on, they mention they have a book and a step by step course of action you can take to change your own life. In your mind, you know one thing. You’re not leaving until you have the answer. You pick up the book, follow the instructions, and your life changes. Read More…

  • Nancy Ortberg and Finding Great Leaders in the Church

    Last year I had the amazing opportunity to interview several leaders on behalf of Elim Fellowship and Transforming Leader. One such leader included author, speaker and leader, Nancy Ortberg. Check out these motivating words from Nancy Ortberg for pastors and church leaders on the topic of leadership in the pew!

    To learn more about Nancy’s book or order it through my
    Amazon Affiliates Bookstore, click this link.


    Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”