Women Who Lead

Innovation Infusion

Wow, had a GREAT TIME at the Orange Conference in Atlanta, GA this past week. I met SO many passionate Family Ministry leaders, wholly committed to helping moms, dads, kids and teens grow in their relationship with God and with each other. The overarching theme of this conference was Collide, and stirred my thinking big-time about my interactions with others. You know when there's a collision, it causes change, so...are people different because they see Christ in me? Have I left the imprint of Christ in every one of my conversations? Am I just about helping people, or has my collision with Christ caused me to be radically consumed with loving them like He would? Wow, gonna take me some time to process those.

I had the tremendous fun of sharing a process we've developed at Leadership Network to help infuse new into areas of ministry that may have grown old, in this case Family Ministry. Here were some of the things I talked about, which can be applied to ANY ministry area:

Innovation is hard. There are 5 big roadblocks to Innovation:

• Working on the wrong problem: Did you know researchers say we diagnose the problem wrong 80% of the time?
• Judging ideas too quickly: Convergence follows divergence, but to land on that great idea, you have to consider more than one and look at ALL the options
• A sloggy climate that discourages new ideas: Most organizations don't have creative spaces designed for collaboration and playing that encourages outside the box thinking
• Getting stuck in the weeds: When obstacles loom large, we usually just quit.
• Delayed traction: The lag time between ideation and implementation can kill even the greatest idea

 

So what can we do about it? At Leadership Network, through our Innovation Labs, we're helping churches with a 5 step E-process we've designed that kicks the above roadblocks to the curb. Each is designed to give church teams the time, space and tools to look at the effectiveness of their ministry area and evaluate their effectiveness and see where new ideas are needed. Around this process we've designed a Think!Pack that gives questions to stimulate your team's discussions, great book suggestions to stir your thinking and stuff for you team to actually DO to get innovation going. Our Think!Pack is an internal tool for church teams that participate in our Innovation Labs, but shh, I leaked a few of the good ideas and reads here:

Examine the Now and the Next: Here's where your team starts, by looking closely at what you're doing now

To Do: Take your team on a field trip to expore popular related environments and compare them to yours (Children's Min: Visit your area most popular play place) Why do kids come? What are the most popular attractions? Do we offer anything like this/

To Read: It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden

Engage Your Creative Spirit: This is GREEN LIGHT Thinking

To Do: Create your own Ministry Thinkubator (Check out this one)

To Read: Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas by Jordan Avan

Explore Your Best Options: How do you find which idea is best?

To Do: Rate your ideas on an X/Y axis, with X representing effort and Y representing reward

To Read: Smart Questions; Learn to ask the Right Questions for Powerful Results by Nadler, Chandon

Establish Your Path: Now formulate your plan!

To Do: Spend a few minutes playing the game Chutes & Ladders. List your ladders (next steps) to carry out your idea. List your chutes (your obstacles). Note that in the game EVERY chute can be overcome.

To Read: Strategic Thinking by Wooten, Horne

Evaluate Your Progress: How are you doing?

To Do: Develop a traffic light indicator to use color to represent your progress on each of your steps you outlined in Establish

       red: we're stalled!; yellow: we've hit a delay; green: we're on target;

To Read: Our Iceburg is melting by John Kotter

 

If your ministry area is looking for help to infuse new ideas into a ministry area or getting fast traction in starting a ministry area, check out our Innovation Labs at Leadership Network

http://innovationlab.leadnet.org

WomenLeading Webinar with Nancy Ortberg

Hey ladies, plan on joining us now for an Upcoming Webinar with Nancy Ortberg, teaching pastor and leadership expert. It's free, you'll be able to ask Nancy questions live and we'll be

giving away a free copy of each of her books to two lucky listeners. Just click on the link below to register and reserve your spot!

Here's the scoop: Tension in leadership is something we often want to eliminate as quickly as we can, but it can sometimes be right where God wants us

to live. Join us as Nancy Ortberg, teaching pastor and author of Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands and Looking for God, shares on how learning to

manage leadership tensions can help you grow to be the leader God designed you to be.

Title: WomenLeading Webinar featuring Nancy Ortberg

Date: Thursday, May 27, 2010

Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/486939947

Who couldn't use a fresh idea?

Ever wonder where your next new idea is going to come from? Ever desperately need to hear fresh insight from great leaders? How about if there were 40 of them gathered in one place at one time, and it was all free? Well, it's happening tomorrow (March 3) at 11am central (that's 12pm et/ 10am mt/9am pt) and there are SO many ways you can use this as a leader: Gather your staff and watch online together or have your staff register and join from wherever they are. Have your staff rank the ideas as to which could be most helpful to YOUR church. You can even take advantage of the discussion Q's provided in the additional download (for a small fee) that's available to further the experience with your team. The premise? 40 great leaders, each sharing their one 'Aha! moment' that has changed their ministry. And these are leaders that may not be on your radar. Yet.

You don't want to miss it!

It's FREE, all ONLINE, but you have to register. Here's the link http://aha.leadnet.org. What are you waiting for?

Do Small Groups Really Work?

It's an interesting discussion my pastor husband Geoff Surratt and I are having about small groups. Or as we like to call it, 'loving,intense fellowship'. He (my saucy husband) recently started a blog series entitled Why Small Groups Don't Work.  At the same time, I've been researching small group ministries in churches across the country for our upcoming Leadership Network Innovation Lab, putting together churches with the strongest, most intriguing models. Do you already see the rub?

Actually, we're both long-time small group leaders and attenders and totally sold on the small group concept. But in my research I've uncovered some interesting simmering questions that churches across the nation are pondering:

• Churches are taking a good look at their leadership training, saying they know training/equipping needs to happen but what and how? does it happen best in large groups or individually? online or in person?
• What's the role of the coach? does it work to have lay coaches who don't lead groups themselves?
• What's the real purpose of small groups? Is it community, connection, spiritual growth, mission or all of the above?
• What are we tracking and why? Is it just numbers? How do you measure life change?

These are questions the 8 churches in the RadicalFuture Innovation Lab for Groups Ministry will be wrestling with, but how about you? Are you asking different questions? I'd love to hear what you think is working in small groups and what's not.

Here's a question I'd love to ask our women leaders, do you think women's leadership development should be separate from men? Why?

If you tuned in to the Leadership Network webinar yesterday on Women in Leadership, we had lots of questions we didn't get to answer and I'll tackle some of them here tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Are you setting the leadership bar?

Seth Godin, in a recent post What's expected vs What's amazing, raised a provoking thought: 'you can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it's getting raised regardless'.

Indeed. With tools like google, mobile internet devices, the new cyborg gadgets that someone's dreaming up, being information-less is unheard of in the business realm. And this bar is begin raised at an alarming rate. You're expected to know the background of your customers before you meet them, go the extra mile in figuring out what your customer or business partners need before they even realize it themselves. And as Godin points out, new tactics become old pretty quick, the bar-setters flex their muscles and the bar-catcher-uppers get scrambling.

But how about in the leadership arena? Sometimes the bar seems to move slowly. A completely different post by my friend Mac Lake caught my eye entitled Helping Others Win. Here Mac talks about a unique aspect of leadership that takes the limelight off you as leader as you invest in the win of others. He gives several great ways to do this; listening to their dreams, resourcing their ideas, helping them to network, developing their strengths. Mac's point here is great. How often do we look beyond the expected to-do's of leadership, or even the way we were led, to joyfully delight and ignite those following us by spotlighting their talents, being a catalyst in making their dreams a reality, putting their work before our own? A remarkable bar for leadership.

I'm drawn back again and again to Nancy Ortbergs's words at Leadership Network's Innovation3 conference, rebroadcast on Leadership Network's  THE SHOW, as she talked about truly innovative leaders are ones who put the younger leaders up on their shoulders, giving them the better view, and then cheering them on.

Truly this is a different way to lead, not always from the front, but sometimes from the middle or even from the back. Sometimes to not be seen at all. A leadership bar at a whole new level.

FYI, there's still time to register for the Upcoming Spotlight on Women's Leadership webinar. It's free. It's convenient. It's Feb 10th at 3pm central. Register here

Women's Leadership Webinar Series

Because we know there are great women leaders out there, willing to do what it takes to grow in their leadership, Leadership Network has designed a Women in Leadership Webinar series. The first is being offered under a great monthly series called THE SPOTLIGHT, which will focus on different ministry thought leaders, authors and experts each month. The other 3 this year will be offered under the WomenLeading series at Leadership Network.

 

The Spotlight: Women in Leadership

The Spotlight is a monthly series presented by Leadership Network. Each one-hour, online webinar will highlight a specific aspect of our best learning, research and resources. 
The first in the Spotlight Series will focus on Women in Leadership issues and great information on trends in leadership affecting women in our church today. Would you like to hear stories from other women serving as Executive Pastors, Women's Ministry Directors and other ministry positions? You'll hear from Warren Bird, Research Director at Leadership Network and myself, as we share insights from several hundred conversations with women leaders across the country.

It's February 10th @ 3pm central, it's free and you can register here

 

Here are the upcoming dates for additional Women's Leadership Webinars:

       May 27   Living in Leadership Tension

Tension is something we often want to eliminate as quickly as we can, but it can often be right where God wants us to live. Join us as Nancy Ortberg, pastor and author of Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands and Looking For God shares her view on how learning to manage leadership tensions can help you grow to be the leader God designed you to be.

       Aug 25    Lead Real

Perhaps the greatest asset we each bring into the leadership arena is ourselves - who God has uniquely created us to be and what we each uniquely offer. However, offering this asset is a challenge. Eliza Morgan, author and publisher of Fulfill Magazine will speak to leading with your real self, holding nothing back.

       Nov 8    Dealing with Ministry Burnout

Anne Jackson, author of Mad Church Disease and most recent release, Permission to Speak Freely, knows what it’s like to feel the burnout of a busy ministry schedule. Join us as Anne addresses the symptoms of burnout and what you can do to prevent it.

*Registration information to follow

Pack a lunch, we're going on the road

Yes, I know that one of these authors happens to be my husband, but this book is REAllY good. Putting their vast knowledge of multi-site models around the world to work, authors Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird invite you to travel with them as they take a deeper look into what's working and why in churches across the country. Kind of like a big family vacation, but on this one, dad actually lets you stop and go to the bathroom. Since the book primarily focuses on U.S. multisite, I thought I'd try to stump them with a Q about multisite in Europe. Feel free to throw them a question yourself, as they'll be stopping by today.

Here's the big question:

You mention in your book that the multisite revolution is happening all over the country, as well as other parts of the world. What innovations in multisite are you seeing in Europe and other continents?

Their answer:

We are seeing several very exciting developments in Europe and beyond in multi-site. I (Geoff) just came back from visiting multi-site churches in Holland, England and India. In Holland, Thousand Hills, a church planted outside of Amsterdam three years ago, is now preparing to launch their first offsite campus in The Hague sometime early next year. They see multi-site as a way to share resources and reach one of the most unchurched areas of Europe.

In Sheffield, England, St Thomas Philadelphia has grown by 25% in the last six months in a town where only 2.5% of the people have any church connection. Unable to keep up with the growth and with a vision to reach all of Northern England, they are going to launch sites in areas where they already have mid-size groups meeting on a weekly basis. They have a vision to reach 20,000 people across England.

In Chennai, India New Life Assembly of God draws 25,000 people to their original site, located on 1 acre of land, every weekend. Four years ago they launched their first offsite campus with video teaching. They now have a total of five campuses around Chennai with a vision to ring the city with campuses.

For further dialog, see more Q&A at the authors' blog www.multisiteroadtrip.com or contact them via Twitter: @geoffsurratt, @gregligon or @warrenbird. To order Multi-Site Church Roadtrip, click here http://bit.ly/7pmFZQ, and to order Multi-Site Church Revolution, click here http://bit.ly/5q5AaD.

Velocity 2010 and women in leadership

What say you? Does your church use women in leadership roles that fit their calling and gifts? Are women free to teach, lead ministry teams and give directional input as well as lead in 

children's and women's ministry? This is a topic I hear everywhere I go. Is the church moving forward or backward in the way they use women? Is the church paying attention to the fact that over 50% of its congregation are women? Ed Stetzer, author, church planter and LifeWay Research guru has stated that how churches use women in leadership will be one of the top 5 issues they will grapple with in the next decade.

This is a topic I'll be diving into at the upcoming ChurchPlanters.com  Velocity Conference coming February 22-23, 2010 in Atlanta, GA. Whether or not your church takes a complementarian or egalitarian theological stand, this IS an issue you'll want to give ears to. I'll share my conversations I've had with over 200 women authors, leaders, pastors and directors over the past year, and the lastest  trends I've seen in using women in leadership roles.

Haven't registered yet? Do it here.

If you're a women church leader and you'll be at the conference, email me. Let's hook up!

 

 

Seriously, women's ministry could be doing something fresh and new?

Could there be revolutionary change moving through the world of women’s ministry? That’s exactly the question addressed by 9 church teams participating in the newest Leadership  Network Innnovation Lab. At the start of the lab, each team moved through the unique Innovation Lab process:

  Last week the teams reconvened for an online meeting, sharing their progress on the plans they’ve implemented over the last 6 months. With authentic candor, each team reported on their successes, their frustrations, their biggest surprises and their questions going forward. Their results are proof that women all over the country are engaging in service and ministry opportunities uniquely designed to engage their passion and leadership. At Irving Bible Church, the women’s leadership team recognized that traditional bible studies don’t always address the questions and concerns that women are engaged in. That’s why they designed a unique curriculum and hosted an international discussion forum addressing the issues of female sexuality from a biblical perspective, engaging women from 4 different countries. At Mariner’s Church in Irvine, CA, they’ve blown away the concept of traditional inside-the-church-walls ministry with a mobile model, weekly sending their women out into needy areas of the community for hands-on ministry and conversations. The women at Concord Church in Dallas, Tx are connecting via social media tools, using meetup.com and Facebook, moving toward a Digital Community, inviting women outside their women's ministry to join them in community and outreach events. After hosting a ‘listening forum’ for 20-something’s, Fellowship Bible in Little Rock, AR engaged the talents of this younger generation in creative arts and video production to redesign their gatherings and add unique events for younger working women. We'll conclude our lab experience with 'The Big Reveal' in May '10, but believe me, the revolution is just beginning.

Leadership Network is currently forming Innovation Labs around other ministry areas. For topics, meeting dates and details, check out Innovation Labs 2010.

Do you live in leadership tension?

I have a bit of an E.F.Hutton-type inner head buzzer that goes off every time I come across words of wisdom from Nancy Ortberg. Lean in, Sherry, lean in. She often describes good leadership as not putting out fires or solving the problem, but continually balancing and managing the tensions you encounter. Do you live in leadership tension? Sounds like something we'd want to avoid at all costs, but maybe it's not. Listen as Nancy Ortberg shares her reflections on Bill Hybels' videocast interview with President Jimmy Carter at a past Leadership Summit.

 

Here's my question for you: What are the 2 or 3 things that YOU would fight to the death for?