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By Carey Nieuwhof
reposted with permission

Almost every leader I talk to acknowledges that our culture is shifting.

To reach a changing culture, the church needs to change. Rapidly.

Don't get me wrong, we don't need to change the message. Just the method. One is sacred. The other is not.

What isn't as clear is what the future church will look like, and what kind of characteristics will mark those churches.

However, I think a few trends are becoming clear. Not all of these might be correct, but I think the following eleven traits describe the kind of churches that will have a significant impact a decade from now.

The wise leader is taking steps today to position their church to respond to these things. I know that's what I'm trying to do at Connexus, where I have the privilege of serving.

After reading this list, I'd love your feedback and reaction. Leave a comment outlining what you see and any other trends you're noticing.

Here's what I see as hallmarks of the churches that will make an impact in the next decade:

1. The ability to say no. One of the reasons churches don't change is because leaders are unwilling to say no to current members who prefer things the way they were. When you learn to say no to the preferences of some current members, you learn to say yes to a community that is ready to be reached. (For more on learning to say no, see this post.)

2. Outsider focus. Churches that become passionate about people outside their walls will be far more effective than churches that are passionate about keeping the few people they have inside their walls. Better still, you will have a healthier church. We call individuals who are fixated on their wants and needs selfish and immature. Selfless and mature churches will have an impact because of their passion for people God cares about.

3. Quick decision making. Can your church or organizations make quick decisions? If not, amend your constitution so you can. If the congregation needs to vote on everything, just realize this is going to be your achilles heel when it comes to making the changes you need to make.

4. Flexibility. You don't need to change your mission (for the most part), but you do need to change your methods. Flexible and adaptable churches that can innovate around strategy and different initiatives will have the freedom to make the changes they need to make an impact moving forward.

5. A willingness to embrace smaller to become bigger. Mega-churches will continue to grow, but most of us won't lead mega-churches. When small churches stop trying to be mega-churches, good things can happen. In fact, more and more larger churches will start embracing smaller venues, locations and partnerships to keep growing. A greater number of smaller venues might be a hallmark of future churches making an impact.

6. A quicker, lighter footprint. I learned this phrase from my friend Rich Birch (you should read his blog). Churches need a quicker, lighter footprint to grow. If you're waiting for millions to build your building, you might wait forever. Get innovative and start looking at portable and non-traditional ways of growing your ministry. Quicker, lighter footprints will be necessary (see this Leadership Network article for more on innovate, inexpensive building alternatives).

Come back soon to read about the five other trends!

Carey is the lead and founding pastor of Connexus Community Church and has been serving in ministry since 1995.
Connexus Community Church
connexus: www.connexuscommunity.com
personal: www.careynieuwhof.com
twitter/cnieuwhof

The Church in the West is forced to ask questions like "What does it mean to be a minority group?" "How do we interact with a society that doesn't trust us?" Suddenly, the Anabaptist tradition seems relevant and vibrant. Answers are coming from leaders such as Stuart Murray, a member of a neo-Anabaptist network in the UK. They base their burgeoning movement in seven core convictions.

1. Jesus is the central reference for our understanding of church, and our engagement with society.

2. The Bible should be read together as a community, with an understanding that Jesus is the center of scripture.

3. Western Christendom culture has marginalized Jesus, leaving churches ill equipped for mission in a post-Christendom culture.

4. Associating the church with status, wealth, and force is inappropriate for followers of Jesus and damages our witness.

5. Churches are communities of discipleship and mission.

6. Spirituality and economics are connected.

7. Peace is at the heart of the gospel.

(Paraphrased from The Naked Anabaptist.)

With its commitments to discipleship, peace and living as a contrast community, this once obscure tradition seems positioned to redefine the Christian faith. If taken seriously, the decades to come could see a revival in traditional Anabaptist denominations, and a variety of strange and exciting new forms of church.

What influences have the Anabaptist tradition had on you and what things do you see emerging from new voice in that tradition?

Chris Morton is a Fuller Seminary Student, blogger and social media strategist. He writes on growth and mission at ChrisMorton.info.

The Church in the West is changing, and in the midst of that change, the 500 year old misunderstood tradition known as Anabaptism is gaining new traction. Who are these people, and why are they suddenly making their presence known?

To many, they are either a charming fringe group in riding in horse and buggy, or an odd footnote in the story of Luther's reformation. However, more and more, influential scholars like Scot McKnight, independant non-denominational churches like Woodland Hills, and other church leaders are identifying themselves as neo-Anabaptists.

I became familiar with the Anabaptists through the writings of Stanley Hauerwas, whose influential work owed much to the influence of Mennonite scholar John Howard Yoder. Hauerwas introduced me to the concept of Church as a Contrast Society. Around the same time I was reading this, the American Government was gearing up for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Using words like "crusades" made it clear that many saw these wars as a religious cause. In contrast, Hauerwas (here with Willimon) articulated a very Anabaptist role for the church:

"The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers."

Anabaptism emerged at the same time as modern Christendom. Emerging nationstates partnered with leaders like Luther and Calvin to create a new mixture of Church and State. One of the signs of this was their use of infant baptism, as entrance both into a religion and citizenry. The Anabaptist believed that following Christ was an individual adult choice, which could not be forced by the state. Re-baptism as an adult, was both an act of heresy to the church and treason to the state.

Since the beginning, Anabaptism has always proclaimed the church as an alternative to Christendom. Many now believe that we Western Culture is entering a new Post-Christendom era. The ties between church and state are fading. Cultural institutions who supported "Christian Values" and a general sense of Biblical literacy seem to be a thing of the past. A growing bulk of society is either skeptical or antagonsitic toward religion.

In Part II of this post, we will discover what is coming from emerging leaders in a Neo-Anabaptist network and get to that list of 7 core convictions.

Chris Morton is a Fuller Seminary Student, blogger and social media strategist. He writes on growth and mission at ChrisMorton.info.

Two Ways Leaders Can Begin to Reverse the "Silver Bullet" Syndrome

By Bill Fox
reposted with permission

While we can sympathize with leaders who may be dealing in complex domains ands may not have the insight and bandwidth to forge a successful approach or who are sold a "bill of goods", below are two insights that can help.

First, leaders can start by beginning to ask better questions. Ask great questions and you will yield the best answers. When we are captivated and hypnotized by the buzz of the latest industry "silver bullet", more often than not the great questions don't get answered, let alone asked.

Over the past 18 months, I had the opportunity to interview 26 top experts in the field of process and performance improvement. Interestingly, the number one main theme that I have identified across these interviews is that these experts ask great questions - yielding better answers and better outcomes.

What are those questions? I'm in the process of compiling a complete listing of all the stated and implied questions from the interviews that I will be publishing in a future blog post. In the meantime, here are several five minute interviews with great questions:

• Understand What Your Challenge Is and Where You Want to Go
• Three Key Questions to Ask at the Start of Any Process Improvement Initiative
• The Amazing Power of Asking Questions and Following the Energy

Focus on Values, Principles and Practices
A second approach can be found in a ground breaking book, High Performance Operations, where the author, Hillel Glazer, performs a bit of alchemy in describing how organizations can blend compliance into the value stream to lower costs, increase profits, and gain competitive advantage.

Hillel asserts that often times the "silver bullet" approach instills a focus on implementing the "silver bullet" itself rather than a focus on achieving the desired effects or outcomes. So what's the downside of that? It's probably a lot worse than you think. Think about it – focusing on a packaged solution usually results in just that and not the intended benefits.

Quoting from the book, Hillel states (in the context of best practices) where he believes leaders really need to focus:

"Organizations must focus on the purposes and outcomes the practices are designed to elicit. The reason the practices are in the body of work is why the practices are there, not the performance of the practices themselves."

What do you think? What are your ideas for solving the "silver bullet" problem?

Bill Fox is a plane-flying project management and performance improvement consultant. Frustrated with the way most organizations attempt to improve their operations, Bill created the 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success interview series, a work designed to uncover and leverage the best performance improvement strategies and tactics of top consultants from around the world. Bill combines his over 25 years of performance improvement work with his passion for flying and aerial photography to help organizations gain a higher perspective for advancing their organizations to higher levels of performance. Connect with Bill on his website, LinkedIn or Twitter @Bi11Fox.

By Bill Fox
reposted with permission

Over the past 20+ years I have witnessed a repeated and troubling pattern that occurs far too frequently. The recurring pattern I'm referring to is when organizations choose to settle for a "silver bullet" solution. With the hope of quickly getting rid of a problem, many organizations are blindly adopting a "cookie-cutter" approach without asking the hard questions first.

Given all the uncertainty in today's economy, can organizations afford to continue on this track?

I have witnessed countless scenarios like this, and I bet you have too -

• Enterprise wide resource systems are rolled out with a lot of fanfare and management promises that it will transform the way the organization does business. A year later everyone is still waiting for the transformation and the search for the guilty begins.
• Process improvement initiatives such as Agile, CMMI, Lean, Project Quality Offices and any number of other improvement initiatives are started and stopped often in one failed initiative after another.
• You can add your own example here. I'm sure that there have been many times where you have seen your organization or another organization in your industry opt for the "cookie-cutter" approach!

Unfortunately, organizations rarely gain any traction or produce any real business value when they look for the "silver bullet". Implementing these failed initiatives that aren't right for a particular organization's needs means that thousands of dollars are needlessly wasted on training, software, computer hardware, consultants, etc. Organizations lose even more money from the effects of loss of productivity and employee morale.

Come back May 8 to read the second part of this post!
"Two Ways Leaders Can Begin to Reverse the "Silver Bullet" Syndrome"

Bill Fox is a plane-flying project management and performance improvement consultant. Frustrated with the way most organizations attempt to improve their operations, Bill created the 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success interview series, a work designed to uncover and leverage the best performance improvement strategies and tactics of top consultants from around the world. Bill combines his over 25 years of performance improvement work with his passion for flying and aerial photography to help organizations gain a higher perspective for advancing their organizations to higher levels of performance. Connect with Bill on his website, LinkedIn or Twitter @Bi11Fox.