Wayne Hedlund

Category: LEADERSHIP

Leadership Articles prior to 2016

  • 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.”

  • 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. 

    what to read

    What Do We Do With Church Announcements by Gary Molander
    When I was a creative arts pastor, we’d have this ongoing weekly discussion about service announcements. We’d talk about the best delivery method, the best location in the service, and the best people for the job. During that time, I admit that I had quite the adversarial relationship with church announcements. They felt, to me, a bit like an exploratory colonoscopy. I knew how important the procedure was, but I’d rather not endure it. And while that’s too much information about me, you get the idea. Love. Hate. I did both. You’re probably like me. In my latter years, I’ve discovered that the foundational issue has nothing to do with the best delivery method, the best location, or the best people. The foundational answer has to do with David. Read More…

    The Epic-Fail of Church Announcements by Adam Stadtmiller
    Picture this scene. You’re in your pew. The worship is amazing, almost transcendent. The song ends in a moment of awe-filled silence. It’s just you and God. And then—train wreck; you are catapulted from a state of ethereal wonder to an awkward announcement about the church cookie bake-off or a video that never seems to have the sound start until seven seconds after it begins. Nothing in the history of Christendom, save perhaps the Second Crusade, rivals the ineffectiveness of the church’s ability to accomplish an intended purpose more than the medium of in-service announcements. Read More…

    Sunday Morning Announcements by Wayne Hedlund
    Remember our friend, Charlie Brown from the Peanuts comic strips and cartoons? You probably do, and you probably remember how realistic the sound of the school teacher was during those old fashioned episodes . . . “Wah, wa, wha, wha, wah, waah, wa, wah, whaa, wha, whah, wah.” Wow. Just quoting it reminds me of Jr. High History Class all over again. Question. Is that what your congregation hears during the Sunday Morning Announcements? I hope not. The announcements usually get a bum rap. Just for kicks, check off how many of the following are true at your church. Read More…

    Preventing Slips & Falls In Your Place Of Worship by Church Mutual
    Slips and falls occur regularly at worship centers across the country and follow the national trend of adults over the age of 65 accounting for the majority of those injured or killed. Preventing slips and falls is a serious issue for all worship centers and a concern that should be addressed for employees, members and guests of all ages and abilities. Read More…

    3 Steps To A Godly Church Tech Attitude by Phil Schneider
    If I’ve learned anything about being a “church techie,” it’s that the biggest tech-related problem in the Church just might be the tech guys’ attitudes. We see Church from behind the curtain, and sometimes that means that we look at our worship services, our graphics, our (insert your tech-related pet peeve here) with a bit of cynicism that the average congregant doesn’t have. Read More…

    A New Kind of Gospel Tract by Brian Alexander
    I dislike the traditional Church tract. I have never been a fan of handing out tracts, fake million dollar bills or funny little mind games as a statement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, these little papers, booklets, etc have made me less motivated to actually witness to strangers because the way that these tracts have been poorly thought out. Would somebody really want to listen to you explain the gospel on a fake dollar bill? The answer, more often than not is, “No” – they could care less! However, I have recently discovered a new type of tract called The Story from Spread Truth Ministries. Read More…

    Getting People from Point A to Point B by Tony Morgan
    A few months ago, I was the visitor. Being on leadership at a church myself, I wasn’t seeking regular attendance there. I was simply attending an event they hosted so my 3 year old could have a new, fun summer experience. Unfortunately, an obvious lack of organization made the event awkward and uncomfortable. I didn’t know where to take him in the building. It was chaotic and…I didn’t feel welcomed. Read More…

    Church Tech for Mortals by Eric Dye
    (Note: You have to subscribe to the ChurchMag newsletter to get this e-book. It’s easy to unsubscribe afterwards if you don’t want the newsletter, but the e-book is worth getting.)

    The goal of ChurchMag is to resource the Church through the most effective technology available. Many churches are already understaffed, especially when it comes to developing a well-conceived I.T. strategy. As a result, some may feel uncertain about what technology options are available, or nervous about investing money in products that may not prove useful. We’ve compiled this guide as a resource for the mortals among us who don’t have an exhaustive knowledge of the market. If you find yourself answering questions about Church Tech on a regular basis, we hope that this will serve as a valuable resource for you and your team. This book contains an overview of a variety of related topics across four themes: web, hardware, software, and networking. The appendix includes a list of recommendations found in the text to serve as a quick reference guide. Enjoy. Read More…

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  • Strategy Kickstart – Asking the Question, ‘Why?’

    strategy kickstart logo3A Strategy Kickstart is a short 3-5 minute video clip which can be used to ‘kickstart’ a strategic discussion in your church or ministry. Simply show the video clip to your team and use the ideas and question posed to stimulate a valuable and hopefully relevant discussion on how you can better fulfill your ministry mission.

    In this Strategy Kickstart, Wayne Hedlund challenges us to identify events and activities in our church and challenge them as a team by asking the question, “Why do we do this?”

     

  • What to Read

    Following are some great articles I recently read and recommend to you for your continued growth as a leader. Enjoy.

    what-to-read

    5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get Things Done by Allen Schowengerdt
    We all do it. We put off that dreaded task for five more minutes, then for thirty minutes, then for another hour, until it doesn’t get done at all. And the worst part is we still weren’t able to enjoy our day. We spend so much time stressing over that looming task that it deprives us from actually being able to focus on other tasks. Read More.

    Good Versus Great Leader (10 Things To Consider) by Perry Noble
    A good leader makes assumptions…A GREAT leader asks questions! A good leader waits for feedback…A GREAT leader solicits feedback! Read More

    Tattoo Thinking by Seth Godin

    A tattoo is basically forever. You should think pretty hard before you get one, because it’s largely an irreversible decision. Just about every choice you make with your project and your career, though, doesn’t last forever. Read More. 

    Developing a Reading Strategy by Loren Pinilis

    We’ve looked at how to find time to read. But that’s only part of the battle. It’s good to read more, but we also want to read well. We want to think about what we read and how we read it. And a reading strategy is an invaluable tool to maximizing the benefit we receive from reading. Read More.

    5 Ways to Think Like a Champion by Jon Gordon

    I meet and learn from Champions every day. Not just in locker rooms but in classrooms, hospitals, homeless shelters, homes and office buildings. I’ve learned that to be a champion you must Think Like a Champion. Champions think differently than everyone else. They approach their life and work with a different mindset and belief system that separates them from the pack. Read More.

     

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  • Critical Thinking Series – Introduction

    The articles in this series are from my e-book, “Thinking for a Change: a fresh look at critical thinking”. The e-book is available for download at a price of $2.99 at the Transforming Leader Online Store.

    critical-thinkingYears ago I heard a story about a man who tried to steal an ATM machine. His plan was to rip the ATM out of the wall of a store-front by chaining it to the back bumper of his pick-up truck. After securing the chain, the incompetent thief got in his truck and hit the gas. A few seconds later, he heard a terribly loud noise and the truck suddenly lurched ahead. Frantic and scared he would soon be caught, he quickly hit the brakes and ran around to claim his prize. Appalled, he discovered the ATM machine was still secured to the building. Lying on the ground in front of him was the truck’s back bumper which had been ripped off. Scared and frustrated, the man got in the truck and went home. Hours later, the police showed up at his door and arrested him for attempted robbery. He was easy to find. The police just checked the license plate on the bumper left chained to the ATM. I don’t know how true the story is, but it makes me chuckle and I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually happened.

    It is incredibly easy to make daily choices without a good and proper dose of critical thinking. Something happens to us and we either react (which can barely be define as thinking at all) or we do the first thing that comes to mind that seems halfway reasonable. Often, it’s a shot in the dark whether our half-baked decision will come back and bite us or not. In fact, the old saying “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” has its roots in Scriptures. Psalm 7:15 says, “He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.” Humanity has made a lot of holes throughout history and, unfortunately, we don’t always learn from our mistakes! Check out some of these quotes that so aptly capture our propensity for doing or saying something prematurely.

    • “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein
    • “I like to think of my behavior in the sixties as a ‘learning experience.’ Then again, I like to think of anything stupid I’ve done as a ‘learning experience.’ It makes me feel less stupid.” -P.J. O’Rourke
    • If you don’t do stupid things while you’re young, you’ll have nothing to smile about when you’re old. –Author Unknown
    • When you’re thirsty, it’s too late to begin thinking about digging a well. –Japanese Proverb
    • Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once. –Author Unknown

    Consider the Children’s Ministry Director who is faced with a dilemma. A Sunday School volunteer calls to explain that she won’t be able to teach her preschool class (which is starting in 15 minutes!). The director is now in a quandary. There will be several families showing up in a matter of minutes and something needs to be done quickly. He may react and grab the first warm body he sees to fill in; or perhaps he quickly decides to let the teen assistant teach the class alone. Either way, with an extra minute or two, he could have come up with more viable options. Of course, the old saying “Hind sight is 20/20.” is only quoted when we discover our hasty decision created bigger problems. In this example, what if the ‘last minute’ sub ended up yelling at the children and left them alone for several minutes for a bathroom break. The quick decision might end up with new families who are angry and unsure if they want to continue attending church or not.

    One reason we are OK with this way of thinking is that it usually gets us by. Anyone with a head on their shoulders, a little experience, and some common sense can make a halfway decent decision that saves the day . . . most of the time. So this way of thinking becomes the standard simply because it often works!

    In the above example, the quick thinking of that director could have saved the day if nothing went wrong. In hind-sight he might also wished he had thought things through more thoroughly. An extra 4 minutes would have sufficed!

    There’s a better way. I believe we can learn to think with perspective. It’s my personal goal to be a ‘critical thinker’ (not a critical person!) as often as possible; and I’m beginning to see that my goal can and is being realized in my day to day life.

    To read more, check out the next article in this series or purchase the e-book at my online store today!

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  • The Power of Criticism in Meetings

    meetingsHere’s the deal. If all you have are a bunch of head nodding people in your team meetings, you will have a hard time coming up with new and fresh ideas. I know. I’ve been there. There have been times when it’s been really important for my team to find a creative solution to a problem, but when we tried to discuss it, nothing happened. Often, I would end up standing up and pacing around while people talked until I was able to come up with a viable solution myself for us to consider. After watching this video, I’m realizing the problem was probably related to how willing my team was in pushing and prodding one another’s ideas.

    The main problem with this comes back to the first dysfunction of teams found in Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” – Lack of Trust. If you haven’t read that yet, put it up high on your list of books to get and read.

    So check out this short (2 1/2 minute) RSA video with Journalist & author Jonah Lehrer talking about this problem. 

    [su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/RgPIkx2JyQU” width=”320″ height=”200″]

    Application: Why not show this video at your next team meeting and ask the question, “Do we trust one another enough to engage in this kind of constructive criticism when we brainstorm together?”

    Image by Caitlin Applegate.

  • How To Draft Your Core Values

    draft-core-valuesI’m a firm believer in core values for your church or organization. So in today’s post I’d like to outline some ideas on how your strategic team might go about drafting your ministry Core Values.

     

    HOW TO DRAFT YOUR CORE VALUES
     
     
    • Set Your Expectations
      In my experience, the process of defining and clarifying your core values is both time consuming AND rewarding as a team. It is definitely a team sport though. Don’t go about drafting your core values alone. It’s meant to be accomplished in a team environment. So make sure you have set aside several hours to work on this project. You may want to consider two or three 3-hour sessions right away. Side-Note: Be sure to keep your meetings close together on the calendar. The more days/weeks between meetings, the less momentum you will build towards completing the project successfully.
       
    • Get On The Same Page
      It’s important that everyone on your team has a basic understanding of why developing your core values is important as well as what core values are and are not. The aforementioned articles (above) would be a great place to begin. Be sure you spend time talking about these things as a foundation first, so you don’t end up doing so half-way through the process.
       
    • Assign Homework
      Next, I recommend you ask each person on the team to take an hour by themselves to personally brainstorm what they believe the core values of your organization are. Be sure they are armed with the “What Core Values Aren’t” document when they do so! I suggest they either keep their list until you return together as a team or submit the list to one individual on your team. I don’t recommend each team member sending out emails to the rest of the team with their list. You want to have conversation about this stuff, but live, not digitally.
       
    • Combine, Discuss, and Condense
      Now is when the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Be sure you have a good chunk of uninterrupted time to talk and have each team member share each value on their list as well as “why” they believe it’s a value that should be considered. As each team member shares, write the list down on a white board so everyone can see the list developing. This one meeting is probably one of the most important. If you don’t have a good degree of trust and openness on your team, people may find it difficult to challenge or question some of the thoughts and ideas being presented – which is an important part of the process.After everyone has shared and the list is developed, begin working on condensing the list down to as few primary core values as possible. Resist the temptation to have a ton of values. You’ll find that, with some effort, many of the values can be combined into a bigger category. For example, “caring” and “responsive to needs” can both potentially fall under the umbrella of ‘caring’. You’ll also want to test each value against my list of what a core value is NOT. Keep in mind, as well, that choosing to not keep a value doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not important to you or the ministry – but that it doesn’t fall into the primary DNA listing of values for your church. Ideally, you’ll be left with a handful of values – preferably less than ten.
       
    • Rephrase Your Values For This Culture
      Unless you’re target audience is boomers on up, you probably don’t want to keep your list of values as is. I recommend you engage in another strategy session or two and rephrase each value in such a way that it will capture the attention of your ministry guests and attendees. For example, at Elevation Church they hold a value that in it’s simplest form could be phrased: ‘Teachable’. However, the way they explain it on their website is much more interesting, catches my attention, and draws me in. They say: ‘We eat the fish and leave the bones’. Or in Granger Community Church’s recently revamped core values they define ‘Team’ this way: ‘We Value Team: We is Better than Me’.
       
    • Share Them and Live Them
      Finally, you need to discover ways to regularly communicate your values to your congregation, leaders, and even your guests. I suggest you post them on your website and literature about your church, preach a series about them and package it up and give it away to everyone who takes your members class, add them to your strategic dipstick list (the list of things you check on strategically on an annual or semi-annual basis), blog about them, talk about them, and do so regularly.Most importantly, make your values so important that they are non-negotiable. A negotiable value isn’t really a value, it’s an idea. If you have a value of integrity, make sure you and your team consistently think up ways to lead your ministry with integrity. If it’s about teamwork, don’t just talk about teams, build in your very structure standards that prevent people from running ministry all by themselves.
     

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  • Leading Within The Law of Gravity

    leadership-gravity

    Last week I introduced the idea of Leadership Gravity. This phrase was originally explained to me by Kevin Myers at a seminar I attended a few weeks ago.

    Kevin expounded on the idea that every leader is going to be pulled down by something. We live within the law of leadership gravity, and just like the physical law of gravity, we should accept it and work with it. Again, I talked a little more about this right here. However, he also noted that it seems there are some small few who seem to live ABOVE the law of leadership gravity. That is, there are those that seem to be able to defy the natural pull of resources, people, finances, etc.

    As an example, Kevin suggested that Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel operate somewhere in outer space. Whatever they do seems to turn to gold. He said, “They do things in leaps that we who are under the law do in layers.”

    It can be so easy for us to see these people’s amazing success and want to emulate everything they do – with the mild hope that perhaps we can find relief from the pull of leadership gravity in our respective ministries. This is where we could get ourselves in trouble. Every seminar, workshop, conference, video, and lesson we hear from individuals who seem to accomplish things in one fell swoop that we may never accomplish in 30 faithful, hard-working years, is an opportunity for us to set ourselves up for failure or success.

    It’s quite simple, and again I’m quoting Kevin Myers: “You can learn from those who lead in leaps, but you can’t lead like them.” Let’s remember to focus more on ideas and principles and less on methods and specific strategies when we listen to successful pastors and leaders. Ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to grasp from others’ success, and set the rest on the shelf for another day.

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  • Procrastination Inception

    procrastinationI ran across this great little video about the science of procrastination on churchm.ag the other day and just had to spread the wealth. Great stuff. Enjoy!

     

    photo credit: splitbrain via photopin cc

  • Leadership Gravity

    medium_5311787942

    A couple of weeks ago I got to attend a seminar hosted by Northeastern Seminary. The keynote speakers were Kevin Myers and Dan Reiland, pastors at 12 Stone Church in Atlanta, GA. Needless to say, it was one of the better workshops I’ve attended over the years. In today’s post I’d like to talk about a principle Kevin shared in his first session of the day.

    He called it “Leadership Gravity”.

    We all know what gravity does – simply put, it pulls us down. Gravity is a fact of life. We don’t argue with it or try to defy it. It can’t be done. What we can do is cooperate with it. We build machines that work within the laws of gravity. We discover how gravity works and apply that knowledge in our everyday lives. For instance, when I go out and throw the football around with my son, I use my very limited knowledge of gravity to determine how high and hard to throw the ball. Most of the time, I’m close to the mark. I never think to myself, “Man, if I didn’t have to deal with this gravity, it’d be so much easier to throw this ball that distance!”

    Leadership Gravity can be defined similarly – “When you lead, something will pull you down.” It’s not something we can change, fix, or remove from our lives. It’s meant to be accepted, just like we accept the fact that we are bound by the laws of physics in the natural. 

    Here is just a few examples of things that will exert ‘leadership gravity’ on us over time: resource challenges, financial challenges, people challenges, mission & vision slippage, culture shifts . . . you get the idea.

    The wise leader won’t complain, get angry, resentful or frustrated about leadership gravity. He’ll accept it, and find ways to work with it. Remembering that we will always be bound by ‘leadership gravity’ could very possibly play a big role in relieving the stress and burden you’ve been carrying. It’s OK for you to have limitations, challenges and setbacks. It’s part of what it means to lead. Rather than fret over it, let’s work on figuring out how to throw the ball better.  

     

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