A Common Question I get asked when teaching Leadership Teams centers around what books a Leadership Team should be reading together. So I've compiled a list of my top 5 here:
1. The Up the Middle Church by, well, me.
I know it sounds self-promoting, and you can judge me if you want to, but I really believe that if a church or church planting leadership team will go through this book chapter by chapter, they'll be better for it. Dozens of teams have said so over the past few years.
2. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.
This is a leadership textbook and every leadership team needs to have it in their psyche as a common language. I fear the young leader who has not read this staple.
3. Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Although its 10 years old and some of the data is outdated, it still introduces a vocabulary that is essential for any leadership team to have.
4. The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.
This book is the backbone for how teams actually make healthy decisions in an organization. I don't know where our leadership decision making abilities would be without this book.
5. Rework by Jason Fried and David Hannson.
I really didn't want to like this book. As an author this book has everything wrong with it, but as a leader of a team and the primary shaper of our organization's culture, this book has everything right with it. Get it. Read it. Digest it. It's worth it. (Minor Vulgarity Warning though)
I hope you noticed the repetition of the idea of introducing vocabulary terms to your team. Words shape culture in an organization like little else does. So reading the right books together to have a common language is essential.
Happy reading,
#AddingValue
@MatthewKeller
Monday, April 30, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Bonus Content on Buzz & Marketing for #Exponential12 Attenders
Hey everyone, because we're always looking for ways to #AddValue to pastors, church planters, & leaders, I wanted to give you a link to a Session I did on Buzz & Marketing in a Church Planting / Local Church Context.
I have also heard many leaders in the secular / business arena use these concepts too...
http://www.mediafire.com/?9e67hcy1cf3bh6u
Enjoy,
#AddingValue
@MatthewKeller
I have also heard many leaders in the secular / business arena use these concepts too...
http://www.mediafire.com/?9e67hcy1cf3bh6u
Enjoy,
#AddingValue
@MatthewKeller
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Audios from #Exponential12 Pre-Conference w/ @BobFranquiz, @ShawnLovejoy & @MatthewKeller
Here are all of the audios from the Pre-Conference Intensive entitled "Church Plant Killers" we did on Monday & Tuesday with @ShawnLovejoy, @BobFranquiz & @MatthewKeller.
What a great 2 days together.
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure Nobody Knows about your Church"
Marketing and Buzz:
http://www.mediafire.com/?p5pe2mjmb3rcur7
Unfortunately, we did not get the audio for Matt's 1st Session on Vision... (So Sorry!)
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure you Never Talk about Money"
Money
http://www.mediafire.com/?2v6js77qk255htz
Shawn Lovejoy - Opening Session - Church Plant Killer: "Try and Copy Somebody Else"
http://www.mediafire.com/?9fi0vch4k7pus5a
What a great 2 days together.
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure Nobody Knows about your Church"
Marketing and Buzz:
http://www.mediafire.com/?p5pe2mjmb3rcur7
Unfortunately, we did not get the audio for Matt's 1st Session on Vision... (So Sorry!)
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure you Never Talk about Money"
Money
http://www.mediafire.com/?2v6js77qk255htz
Shawn Lovejoy - Opening Session - Church Plant Killer: "Try and Copy Somebody Else"
http://www.mediafire.com/?9fi0vch4k7pus5a
Matt Keller - Church Plant Killer: "Do it all Alone" - Developing Leaders
Coming Soon...
Shawn Lovejoy - Church Plant Killer: "Don't Take Care of Yourself"
Also, be sure to listen to the Q&A at the end of Shawn's Session with @TriciaLovejoy & @SarahKeller. Great stuff!!!
By the way, Shawn's new book just released TODAY at the Conference! You can either get it at the ChurchPlanters.com Booth in Faith Hall, or at Amazon.com here:
Monday, April 23, 2012
Exponential 2012 "Church Plant Killers" Pre-Conference Audios
Here are the audios from the Pre-Conference Intensive entitled "Church Plant Killers" with @ShawnLovejoy, @BobFranquiz & @MatthewKeller.
What a great 2 days together.
Enjoy...
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure Nobody Knows about your Church"
Marketing and Buzz:
http://www.mediafire.com/?p5pe2mjmb3rcur7
Unfortunately, we did not get the audio for Matt's 1st Session on Vision... (So Sorry!)
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure you Never Talk about Money"
Money
http://www.mediafire.com/?2v6js77qk255htz
Shawn Lovejoy - Opening Session - Church Plant Killer: "Try and Copy Somebody Else"
http://www.mediafire.com/?9fi0vch4k7pus5a
What a great 2 days together.
Enjoy...
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure Nobody Knows about your Church"
Marketing and Buzz:
http://www.mediafire.com/?p5pe2mjmb3rcur7
Unfortunately, we did not get the audio for Matt's 1st Session on Vision... (So Sorry!)
Bob Franquiz - Church Plant Killer: "Make Sure you Never Talk about Money"
Money
http://www.mediafire.com/?2v6js77qk255htz
Shawn Lovejoy - Opening Session - Church Plant Killer: "Try and Copy Somebody Else"
http://www.mediafire.com/?9fi0vch4k7pus5a
Tribes & Adding Value are the Future of Marketing! (Video)
I've been doing a lot of speaking & teaching on the idea of "Building Buzz" recently & many have been asking where they can learn more, get more & interact with these ideas more. So here you go...
This 7 minute clip of Seth Godin is full of pure gold in terms of Tribal thinking, etc.
If you've not read his book Tribes, get it here.
#AddingValue...
@MatthewKeller
This 7 minute clip of Seth Godin is full of pure gold in terms of Tribal thinking, etc.
If you've not read his book Tribes, get it here.
#AddingValue...
@MatthewKeller
Monday, April 16, 2012
The Power of Saying "NO" :: A Leadership Article to #ADDVALUE (Repost)
I was recently reminded of the power of saying "NO" in a book I'm reading called, Rework. In it, the authors, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson make the statement:
"It's easy to say yes. Yes to another feature, yes to an overly optimistic deadline,
yes to a mediocre design. Soon the stack of things you've said yes to grows so
tall you can't even see the things you should really be doing."
When I read this, I couldn't help but think of so many leaders of church plants and churches. In our desire to build a great church and win people to our cause, too often we find ourselves saying "YES" to things we really should be saying "NO" too.
1. Saying NO is never easy.
I'm not going to deceive you into thinking that telling people no is fun or easy or a flippant thing in any way. Just the opposite, it's actually really hard! Especially when your church or organization is small! The last thing in the world you want is for someone to leave because you wouldn't care for their legitimately "good" idea.
However, if we don't protect and fight for the purity of the culture we're trying to create in our churches, we'll end up watering down who we are to such a degree that in the end it does more harm than good.
2. Saying NO won't make people happy.
Inevitably, when we say no to someone's "good" idea, someone's feelings will get hurt. People won't always understand why we're making the decision we're making and some will leave mad. This is just a function of the leadership journey. As a leader, making the right decision for your organization is what you get paid to do, and it times it will come with a price.
However, I have found that most people are pretty understanding when they know the why behind our decision. Not always, but a lot of the time. When we share our logic and heart, people can accept that and move on. It has been my experience that people don't want to be right as much as they simply want to be heard. As leaders, it's our job to listen sincerely, explain our perspective and then make the wise decision for the organization that we ultimately lead.
3. Saying NO protects you, your family and your organization.
As our organization has grown, my responsibility to say NO has increased significantly. Because let's face it, in a bigger organization, there's money, facilities and the perception that we could accommodate more "good" things.
But I have had to learn the art of saying NO in order to protect my family, my schedule, my time, and my energy. Yes I'm a leader, but I'm also still a human being. And I must be wise enough to understand that I'm the only guy who can care for my wife (well, there are others, but we'd all agree, we don't want that!!!) I'm the only guy who can be dad to my 2 boys, and I'm the only guy who can show up every weekend and share life-giving, vision oriented, engaging messages that allow the Holy Spirit to change lives.
If I'm not prioritizing those things, then I'm not doing my job. That IS my #1 Priority.
4. Saying NO allows you to stay focused on what you do best.
At the end of the day, when you say NO to something "good" you position your organization, your staff and your teams to focus on the best.
There's something freeing about the word NO. Unfortunately, far too many leaders use it far too infrequently.
Application:
If you HAD to identify 3 things that you MUST say no to, what would they be? In the next 24 hours, do the hard but right thing and say NO to them. In the end, you know you'll feel better about it!
#AddingValue...
@MatthewKeller
"It's easy to say yes. Yes to another feature, yes to an overly optimistic deadline,
yes to a mediocre design. Soon the stack of things you've said yes to grows so
tall you can't even see the things you should really be doing."
When I read this, I couldn't help but think of so many leaders of church plants and churches. In our desire to build a great church and win people to our cause, too often we find ourselves saying "YES" to things we really should be saying "NO" too.
1. Saying NO is never easy.
I'm not going to deceive you into thinking that telling people no is fun or easy or a flippant thing in any way. Just the opposite, it's actually really hard! Especially when your church or organization is small! The last thing in the world you want is for someone to leave because you wouldn't care for their legitimately "good" idea.
However, if we don't protect and fight for the purity of the culture we're trying to create in our churches, we'll end up watering down who we are to such a degree that in the end it does more harm than good.
2. Saying NO won't make people happy.
Inevitably, when we say no to someone's "good" idea, someone's feelings will get hurt. People won't always understand why we're making the decision we're making and some will leave mad. This is just a function of the leadership journey. As a leader, making the right decision for your organization is what you get paid to do, and it times it will come with a price.
However, I have found that most people are pretty understanding when they know the why behind our decision. Not always, but a lot of the time. When we share our logic and heart, people can accept that and move on. It has been my experience that people don't want to be right as much as they simply want to be heard. As leaders, it's our job to listen sincerely, explain our perspective and then make the wise decision for the organization that we ultimately lead.
3. Saying NO protects you, your family and your organization.
As our organization has grown, my responsibility to say NO has increased significantly. Because let's face it, in a bigger organization, there's money, facilities and the perception that we could accommodate more "good" things.
But I have had to learn the art of saying NO in order to protect my family, my schedule, my time, and my energy. Yes I'm a leader, but I'm also still a human being. And I must be wise enough to understand that I'm the only guy who can care for my wife (well, there are others, but we'd all agree, we don't want that!!!) I'm the only guy who can be dad to my 2 boys, and I'm the only guy who can show up every weekend and share life-giving, vision oriented, engaging messages that allow the Holy Spirit to change lives.
If I'm not prioritizing those things, then I'm not doing my job. That IS my #1 Priority.
4. Saying NO allows you to stay focused on what you do best.
At the end of the day, when you say NO to something "good" you position your organization, your staff and your teams to focus on the best.
There's something freeing about the word NO. Unfortunately, far too many leaders use it far too infrequently.
Application:
If you HAD to identify 3 things that you MUST say no to, what would they be? In the next 24 hours, do the hard but right thing and say NO to them. In the end, you know you'll feel better about it!
#AddingValue...
@MatthewKeller
Monday, April 9, 2012
How Doing Less actually creates More Energy, Momentum and Power in your Organization! (Repost)
In a meeting I was in recently, a leader was talking about the core values of his organization. His concern was that he wanted to make sure they didn't lose their grip on those things that have made their organization great over the past several years. But his dilemma was that all of the programs, events and services were wearing he and his team out. How can an organization keep the potency of what matters most without wearing out the teams who have to create the events and services that communicate those core values?
The answer is: Do Less, not More.
In simple terms: "Decreasing Frequency, Increases Potency."
As leaders, we often think just the opposite. If something is important, we think we need to do it more, to really let people know how important it is to our organization. However, what often happens is the potency actually goes down the more frequently we do something, rather than having it go up. Let me give you an over-simplified illustration of what I mean.
As a corn-fed, midwest raised boy, I enjoy a good steak now and then. So when my wife, Sarah and I are on vacation we will go out to a nice steakhouse and eat some good ole' fashioned red meat. At the end of the night, I'm tempted to think, "That steak was amazing, I should eat steak again tomorrow night." But here's what we all know to be true: If I eat steak every night, eventually I will get tired of it. And, if I eat it for too many weeks or months in a row, I will probably end up with a nervous twitch at the very mention of a cow.
Too much of a good thing is never a good thing. We know this to be true when it comes to lifestyle things like eating steak, but far too many of us, as leaders, miss this when it comes to the organizations we lead.
We think, "If it works, then we need to do it more!" If a service works, if an event was a success, then what we need to do to keep the momentum going is do that more frequently. We think, "Let's have an event like that every month... or we need time like that every week..." When in reality, by increasing the frequency, we are actually decreasing the potency.
If our quarterly team meeting was powerful, we think, "We should move that to monthly..." If the time of prayer at the end of a service was impactful, we think, "We should start doing that every week..." We think that greater frequency will increase potency, but in reality, the opposite is actually true. The more we do something the less impact it will have.
At Next Level Church, the organization I lead, we try to infiltrate this thinking into everything we do.
1) 75 minute services. Could we preach longer, or worship longer in our weekend services? Sure, but we don't. We would rather leave people wanting more than leave them thinking, "Are we done yet?"
2) Communion. We do corporate communion every 6 to 8 weeks, because many of our attenders have come from a church background where communion was served so frequently that it lost it's potency. We would rather do it less frequently but have it be a powerful, memorable experience than do it every week and have it just become a religious exercise.
3) Water Baptism. We only do water baptism twice a year, because we want it to be a powerful, impact-making experience for those being baptized and for those attending the services as well.Last weekend, we baptized 175 people... now that's impactful!!!
4) Prayer and Fasting. At NLC, we believe in the power of prayer meetings and fasting, individually and corporately. We designate the first Monday of every month to prayer and fasting. We have resisted the urge to make it a weekly thing, because we know that it would kill the momentum and decrease the potency of the experience of prayer and fasting once a month.
5) SOAP. S.O.A.P. is how we read and study the Bible at Next Level Church. Each quarter we create a SOAP Guide that gives people one chapter of the Bible to read everyday. Some comments we hear occasionally about SOAP are, "Why do we only read 1 chapter?" "Wouldn't we grow people faster by encouraging them to read the entire Bible in a year? or to read 3 or 4 chapters a day?"
Our logic is this: SOAP has never been meant to be the end all, be all of Bible Study. It's an on-ramp that is doable for everyone. For the more experienced believer, they can study the Bible with way more depth then just one chapter a day. We are convinced that more does not necessarily increase the potency of what someone is reading in Scripture. We believe if someone can receive one verse every day that is a timely God-word for them, it has the power to change their life.
When it comes to building momentum, energy and power in your organization, think less, not more. Decreasing Frequency will Increase Potency every time.
So, leaders, what events, services or programs are you doing too frequently? What in your organization or department could become insanely more powerful or potent if you just ratcheted down the frequency of it?
The answer is: Do Less, not More.
In simple terms: "Decreasing Frequency, Increases Potency."
As leaders, we often think just the opposite. If something is important, we think we need to do it more, to really let people know how important it is to our organization. However, what often happens is the potency actually goes down the more frequently we do something, rather than having it go up. Let me give you an over-simplified illustration of what I mean.
As a corn-fed, midwest raised boy, I enjoy a good steak now and then. So when my wife, Sarah and I are on vacation we will go out to a nice steakhouse and eat some good ole' fashioned red meat. At the end of the night, I'm tempted to think, "That steak was amazing, I should eat steak again tomorrow night." But here's what we all know to be true: If I eat steak every night, eventually I will get tired of it. And, if I eat it for too many weeks or months in a row, I will probably end up with a nervous twitch at the very mention of a cow.
Too much of a good thing is never a good thing. We know this to be true when it comes to lifestyle things like eating steak, but far too many of us, as leaders, miss this when it comes to the organizations we lead.
We think, "If it works, then we need to do it more!" If a service works, if an event was a success, then what we need to do to keep the momentum going is do that more frequently. We think, "Let's have an event like that every month... or we need time like that every week..." When in reality, by increasing the frequency, we are actually decreasing the potency.
If our quarterly team meeting was powerful, we think, "We should move that to monthly..." If the time of prayer at the end of a service was impactful, we think, "We should start doing that every week..." We think that greater frequency will increase potency, but in reality, the opposite is actually true. The more we do something the less impact it will have.
At Next Level Church, the organization I lead, we try to infiltrate this thinking into everything we do.
1) 75 minute services. Could we preach longer, or worship longer in our weekend services? Sure, but we don't. We would rather leave people wanting more than leave them thinking, "Are we done yet?"
2) Communion. We do corporate communion every 6 to 8 weeks, because many of our attenders have come from a church background where communion was served so frequently that it lost it's potency. We would rather do it less frequently but have it be a powerful, memorable experience than do it every week and have it just become a religious exercise.
3) Water Baptism. We only do water baptism twice a year, because we want it to be a powerful, impact-making experience for those being baptized and for those attending the services as well.Last weekend, we baptized 175 people... now that's impactful!!!
4) Prayer and Fasting. At NLC, we believe in the power of prayer meetings and fasting, individually and corporately. We designate the first Monday of every month to prayer and fasting. We have resisted the urge to make it a weekly thing, because we know that it would kill the momentum and decrease the potency of the experience of prayer and fasting once a month.
5) SOAP. S.O.A.P. is how we read and study the Bible at Next Level Church. Each quarter we create a SOAP Guide that gives people one chapter of the Bible to read everyday. Some comments we hear occasionally about SOAP are, "Why do we only read 1 chapter?" "Wouldn't we grow people faster by encouraging them to read the entire Bible in a year? or to read 3 or 4 chapters a day?"
Our logic is this: SOAP has never been meant to be the end all, be all of Bible Study. It's an on-ramp that is doable for everyone. For the more experienced believer, they can study the Bible with way more depth then just one chapter a day. We are convinced that more does not necessarily increase the potency of what someone is reading in Scripture. We believe if someone can receive one verse every day that is a timely God-word for them, it has the power to change their life.
When it comes to building momentum, energy and power in your organization, think less, not more. Decreasing Frequency will Increase Potency every time.
So, leaders, what events, services or programs are you doing too frequently? What in your organization or department could become insanely more powerful or potent if you just ratcheted down the frequency of it?
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Up the Middle Church, my 1st Book :: Available Here
If you're a pastor, leader, church planter or young leader, I would love to spend some time with you, & one of the ways we can do that is through my 1st book that I released 3 years ago called the Up the Middle Church.
It's a collection of stories, principles & real-time leadership learnings that we learned through our journey of planting Next Level Church in 2002 in Southwest Florida.
I would be honored to tell my story to you and/or the leaders around you...
It's available here:
The Up the Middle Church
#ADDINGvalue...
@MatthewKeller
It's a collection of stories, principles & real-time leadership learnings that we learned through our journey of planting Next Level Church in 2002 in Southwest Florida.
I would be honored to tell my story to you and/or the leaders around you...
It's available here:
The Up the Middle Church
#ADDINGvalue...
@MatthewKeller
