Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Washington, DC, United States for Wednesday, 27 May 2015 - Leading Ideas: "How to Make a Good Entrance | Check Your Website Immediately"
How to Make a Good Entrance by Hannah Adair Bonner
About this time each year, many clergy prepare to begin new work in new places with new people. Some of it will feel familiar. Some challenges will catch us off guard. There will be unexpected blessings. Nothing will feel as overwhelming as it does on the first day, but it will not be as easy as we might like either. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to enter many dramatically different places with a continually changing array of new faces. Here are some bits of wisdom I have picked up on how to make an entrance.
Enter as Yourself
You are like a cup of good coffee. People may or may not like you at first, but it is much easier for people to acquire a taste for you if you are honest. If you tell them that you are tea, and they find themselves with a mouth full of strong coffee, they will spit you out or choke you down with difficulty. None of us wants that. So be what you say you are. Be the same person at home and at church. The real you is a masterpiece of God. You will be most effective as a leader being exactly that person. It will set you free, and it will set others around you free as well.
Enter with Humility
As you enter a new place, do so understanding that things will be different and feel different with time. The things that may seem easy may become more difficult for you; and the things that are hard at first will become easier. You will adapt. Do not be afraid to ask for help; you do not need to have all the answers or do all the work. A good leader is one who knows what tasks necessitate their attention, and which tasks can be safely delayed or delegated. Listen to advice, but be wise about what advice you take. There are people in your congregation who know more than you do about some very important aspects of life and ministry. Be smart enough to figure out who those people are, and humble enough to listen and learn.
Enter to Listen
Do not just listen to advice. Listen to hopes and dreams, fears and joys. You may think “Oh, I know what they need.” You don’t, but they do, so listen. Listen for those places where the desires of their hearts overlap with what you are discerning to be God’s will for the church. Then lean into the dreams God has given to them and you. You cannot effectively listen if you already think you have all the answers; listen believing that others have something from which you can learn. In addition to the wisdom and direction you gain, you will also gain the respect of the people. They will be more likely to listen to someone who has been wholly devoted to listening to them.
Enter Fully
Jump in with both feet! When we make a transition, it is difficult because we have to say goodbye to people we love, and at the same time say hello to people that we know we will love. That’s life. Love them anyway. Don’t hold back. Give them everything you have got, and make the most of every moment you have, from the beginning to the end.
Enter to Love
It is inevitable that you are going to love these people. It is one of the symptoms of having a pastor’s heart. And you are going to be surprised by which ones take the biggest chunk of your heart, too. The grumpy older gentleman who refuses to call you pastor because you are young and a woman might just be the one you still think about and worry about years after you have left. Love them, but be careful. Loving people does not mean being stupid or being weak. Love them, even when you disagree. Oh, and while you are busy learning to love with this new group of people, let them love you. It goes both ways.
Hannah Bonner leads The Shout, a new worshipping community out of St. John’s Downtown in Houston, Texas. Her writing and photographs can be found at Soul Unbound. This article is adapted from a post that appeared on the UMC Lead Blog April 14, 2014.
Check Your Website Immediately by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.
Many people can remember when the telephone Yellow Pages or the sign outside your church were likely to be the first places people looked to find information about your church or other congregations in your community. No more. People of all ages go first to your website “to check you out.” This is one of the biggest changes for churches in the last 20 years, and yet most churches seem oblivious to this central fact.
As a group, churches may not have the poorest and most neglected websites of all organizations, but we are close. Believe me. Here are recent examples out of my experience. They come from various websites I have had reason to visit.
The “read our latest newsletter” led to an April 2011 issue.
The “pastor” had been replaced six months earlier.
There was no address or telephone number.
The worship times were not easily accessible.
Outdated announcements were still featured. There are, of course, exceptions to this claim regarding poor church websites. But, unfortunately, neglected sites appear to far outnumber those that are kept carefully up to date. What a wonderful opportunity this offers for a host of churches with no website or one that is poorly designed or maintained. Often these churches have few active younger people, but they may have several among those younger persons who would find updating the web site to be a welcome challenge. Bringing your website into the 21st century could be an exciting opportunity even if the younger people are only peripherally engaged now. Many church members and staff can help them with the content, but the younger people will need to identify well done church websites to discover clues about what they contain and how the information is presented.
Give your web team some freedom, but stress that two things are imperative for all their work: First, always view the website and its layout and content through the lens of someone who knows nothing about the church. There are many ways to communicate with existing members, but the website is your window to the world. It is primarily for others. In fact, having some of those less involved working on the site can be an advantage since they bring a more distant perspective. Second, the website needs to be updated at least once a week. Waiting any longer can easily lead to those long seasons of inattention that result in the examples shared above.
What messages is your web site sending to those who are seeking a vibrant and active congregation?
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. His most recent book (co-authored by Tom Berlin) is High Yield: Seven Practices of the Fruitful Leader available from Cokesbury and Amazon
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Quotable Leadership
The surest way to lose influence is to insist on it.[Tom Berlin and Lovett Weems]
Are you a pastor preparing to begin ministry in a new setting? With The Right Startvideo resource, you’ll learn how to end your current ministry well, develop a personal transition plan, and make the most of your first days, weeks, and months in your new congregation. The Right Start is available in both Pastor’s and Group Training Versions in DVD/CD and downloadable formats. Learn more.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
It is common to conduct an evaluation of an event or program. Research has shown that the most important number you need to know and compare across endeavors is the rating participants give to this question:
How likely is it that you would recommend this to a friend?
Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–3.”
Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.
4500 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016 United States
Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary
4500 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016 United States
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