Writer's Block is a Lack of Learning

As you may have realized, I have not posted for awhile. I could tell you that I've had a busy summer...which is true. But that's not the entire truth. It's mostly due to the fact that I have not read much this summer. If I wanted to sound spiritual, I could say that I was fasting from books, but that's not really true (and would actually be kind of stupid).

The truth is I just was not engaged in any learning experiences (until the Willowcreek Leadership Summit last week). Having no new ideas is just due to not stretching yourself. Having no new ideas is not having relationships that are stretching you. Having no new ideas being too comfortable in your routine. One new idea could change your church. One new idea could inspire a book. One new idea could transform someone's life. Here are some suggestions that could inspire new ideas in your life:

1. Read a book that you might disagree with.
2. Drive a completely different way to work.
3. Ask someone with a different viewpoint from you what they believe.

How Do You Become a Great Leader?

My son, Kaden, and I have been in Tae Kwon Do for over a year now. We just received our brown belt today. It's been a positive journey for us. It is a great opportunity for Kaden and I to spend quality time together while staying fit and learning martial arts. Not only have we been learning martial arts, but the instructor reinforces character and leadership principles. Here are some questions from Kaden's Brown Belt curriculum:

1. What is a leader? Someone who guides others towards a goal.

2. How do you become a great leader? Put others first, respect others, and have courage for what is right.

3. What does courage mean? To not give up even if something is difficult or uncomfortable.

I love the simplicity and profoundness of the answers. I've struggled with putting others first as my leadership influence has increased at work and church. It's easy for leadership confidence to turn into condescending leadership.

"The Best Advice I Ever Got"

Learning something from people I respect has impacted my life significantly. In the May 12, 2008 issue of Fortune Magazine, 19 accomplished people tell us the best advice they ever got. Think of ways you can apply this to your church and your personal life.

Indra Nooyi (Chairman and CEO of Pepsico) – “Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different.”

Michael Bloomberg (Mayor of New York City and Founder of Bloomberg) – “The worst advice that people can take is to react before they’ve had a chance to think. I think we all say things and wish we hadn’t said them.”

Sam Palmisano (Chairman and CEO of IBM) – I’ve noticed that some of the most effective leaders don’t make themselves the center of attention. They are respectful. They listen. This is an appealing personal quality, but it’s also an effective leadership attribute. Their selflessness makes the people around them comfortable. People open up, speak up, and contribute. They give those leaders their very best.”

Thomas S. Murphy (Former CEO of Captial Cities/ABC) – “Benjamin Selekman [Harvard Business School Professor] told me ‘Don’t spend your time on things you can’t control. Instead, spend your time thinking about what you can.’”

Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist) – “Aside from my technical knowledge, my sense of humor was my saving grace.”

Peter G. Peterson (Co-founder of Blackstone Group) – “Focus on those things you do better than others.”

What was the best advice that you ever got? It would be great if you could post that in the comments section.

A Built to Last Marriage

After reading “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, I was amazed how long it takes to build a great company. Kroger, one of the companies that analyzed in the book, was around 100 years old. It often took at least 5 to 10 years of doing the right things in companies before the results were realized. Greatness takes time. Greatness takes patience.

The same principle also applies to marriage. A marriage grows greater by doing rights things over a long period of time. Karol and I are celebrating our 10th Anniversary on Friday. Ten years sounds like a long time but it has gone too quickly. We truly enjoy ourselves and our relationship (plus we’re madly in love with each other). A great marriage is enjoyable. A terrible marriage is miserable. Making improvements in your relationship and investing towards a better marriage over 10 years pays dividends.

Here are some recent purchases I made to make my wife’s life easier and more enjoyable:

A 2004 Honda Odyssey minivan with easy entry for 3 kids: $12,000

Playground which provides endless hours of entertainment for the kids: $1,600

Gym membership for Karol and kids to have fun during the day: $130 per month


Blackberry phone with Bluetooth for hands-free talking when you’re herding 3 kids: $80


A happy wife: priceless.

Door-to-Door Evangelism Exposed

Do you think that Christians can be hypocritical in their evangelism methods? If you do not understand what I’m getting at, here’s a true story to help explain. As you know, I work for a Fortune 500 company that sells and services products for businesses. I noticed we lost a product opportunity at a large church in the Kansas City area. The explanation intrigued me so I asked the sales rep what the story was. He half-smiled with a touch of disgust as he recounted the experience with this church. This is what I found out:

Our customer contact at the church is frequently involved in door-to-door evangelism. On one occasion, he knocked on the door of one of our team members at work. This ended in our team member asking the church staff member to leave - followed by a cuss word. When that church was experiencing some problems with the product they bought from us, we called in a specialist to fix the problem. This is when two worlds collide. The specialist was the cussing neighbor. The customer contact was the door-to-door evangelist. The customer contact at the church became very difficult to work with and ended up asking us to never come back. He paid tens of thousands of dollars to end the church’s contract with us.

Is door-to-door evangelism a one way street? Do you think this made a positive impression of Christians on my team members? When the church staff member became difficult to deal with, did that just reaffirm the others feelings about church people? If the church staff member would have joked with the specialist about their previous encounter at his doorstep, would that have disarmed any hard feelings and opened him up a little more to the gospel? What would you do in that situation?

The Hidden Struggle of Young Leaders

As a young leader in the business world and the church, I can get frustrated easily. I see things that are broken and I rush to fix them. When I see too many broken things, I want to give up. This is a common. Many people struggle with this feeling and some people give up. Why does this happen?

As I was listening to an interview with Dave Ramsey on the Catalyst podcast, he answered this question for me. God has probably been trying to tell me this for years though! Here’s a paraphrase of what Dave said:

“Young leaders don’t lack energy, talent, motivation, focus or skills. The number 1 thing they lack is patience. They lack the mentality that ‘this too shall pass.’ This will work itself out. We don’t have to fix everything right now. We will get to our goals, but not immediately. I would tell them it took us 15 years to get where we are now so we won’t fix all our problems overnight. We’ve seen a lot of team members come and go. Young leaders would come to me all frazzled that a key member of their team just quit and they didn’t know how their team would survive. I would tell them to give it a couple weeks and it would work itself out. Churches will also deal with drama around church members and volunteers. It will work itself out. Have patience.”

The hidden struggle of young leaders is patience. That was eye opening to me. I don’t have patience. I want everything to be amazing today. I want a 20% pay increase every year. I want our church to experience the same growth pattern as Rob Bell’s church. However, what I need to do is slow down and experience God’s patience in my life.

Good to Great companies were not built in a day or a year or a decade. The “get-rich-quick” mentality glamorized by dot com, network marketing and real estate are just bubbles and eventually crater. God has seen it all and he is not shaken. “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Click here for some other bible verses on patience. How have you learned to have patience in leadership?

The Right Way to Get Engaged

How many of you experienced mind mush when you got engaged? I know I did. I barely got the blanket down on the ground for our picnic before I dropped to a knee and blurted out "will you marry me?" It was a wonderful experience none the less and I will cherish that moment more each day.

Last night my sister, Angelee, said "yes" to the man of her dreams. She barely remembers what Jon was asking before she said "yes, yes, yes." The world was spinning. She had found her "forever" friend.

Jon is one of the most sincere and caring guys I have met. He did not take this lightly. He carefully sought God's wisdom in choosing the right mate for many years. He diligently planned and prepared for this life event. He rehearsed his speeches over and over again to avoid any communication blunders. In the end, everything went flawlessly.

This morning I received a phone call from Angelee at 6:30am her time. She hadn't slept all night. She was excited. Yesterday was the day she said "yes" to the life-altering question. How could she sleep? What an exciting time in their life! I'm so proud of them and I'm honored to have this man in the family. Jongelee, as they are affectionately known as by their friends, couldn't be a better match. I hope they cherish this moment forever.

The Answer is in the Question

"It is much harder to ask the right question than it is to find the right answer to the wrong question." - E.E. Morison of MIT

What things are making you pull your hair out? Are you asking the wrong question?

My One Year Anniversery

As of today, I have been blogging for 1 year. Yes, I’m still in diapers…figuratively. It’s been a great experience so far. It takes a small amount of time to post once a week and it validates all of the day dreaming I do. If my wife catches me in a blank stare, I can say that I’m just thinking about my next blog post. Here are some interesting facts about my blog over the past year.

My top 3 most popular posts are:
o Dave's Secrets for Great Team-Based Leadership
o From Apathetic Bystanders to Passionate Participants
o Garmin nuvifone vs. Apple iPhone

• I’ve had a total of 1,576 clicks to my blog in the past year
• I’ve written 62 posts
• Average viewing visit is 1 minute and 36 seconds (so short posts are good).
• Half of my visitors find my blog through a Google search.
• One third of my visitors directly type in www.innovationatchurch.com.
• The www.timmygibson.com blog is the number 1 referrer of people to my site.
• Most people read my blog in English. Some read my blog in French and Spanish.

My top 2 posts with the highest number of comments are:
o Do You Have a Cool Church Website?
o Mapping the Future of Conferences

Here is a list of the cities where people are reading my blog:

Atlanta Belle Plaine Bellevue Bloomington Boston Calgary Clarksville Clearwater Dagenham Dayton Denver Detroit Durban Erie Everett Harlan Hephzibah Hickory Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Kissimmee Knapp Los Angeles Madison Nashville New Orleans New York Northgate O Fallon Oakville Olathe Olympia Overland Park Palm Dale Paris Phoenix Pomona Riyadh Salem Schaumburg Scituate Three Rivers Tinley Park Vinton Virginia Beach Waco Warren Washington West Point

It’s fun to look back over previous posts and read my thoughts on various topics. (It’s easier than remembering all of my thoughts and ideas.) Don’t forget you can add your thoughts, ideas and questions in the comments. It’s enjoyable for me to get feedback and other people might benefit from your note on the topic. Cheers!

Willowcreek Stops Mid-week Service

Willowcreek Community Church is known for their “seeker-sensitive” approach to church services and evangelism. In recent years, Willowcreek felt it was time to take a hard look at this strategy. They surveyed over 57,000 church goers in 200 churches by asking them questions on their satisfaction with church. Most people responded that they are leaving the church because they’re not challenged enough. Wow! I thought they were leaving because they didn't like the Folgers coffee.

Greg Hawkins, who has spearheaded this massive research effort called REVEAL, is working to turn this “seeker-sensitive” ship in a new direction. This is not a small change. This is a major shift. This is like going from hymns to contemporary songs in a worship service. Click here to read the article in Christianity Today. (Tony Morgan also posted some thoughts on the REVEAL study here.) Here are some points from the article that I am still pondering:

• Their “strategy to reach seekers is now about focusing on the mature believers.”
• “Anonymity is not the driving value for seeker services anymore.”
• It was previously assumed that seekers didn’t want large doses of the Bible or deep worship music. This is not correct anymore.
• Willowcreek has loaded their services with worship music, prayer, Scripture readings, and more challenging teaching from the Bible.
• Willowcreek is ending their mid-week service in June and adding bible and theological classes in it’s place.
• Willowcreek has revamped everything from their services to their seeker strategy.
• Greg states “It would be malpractice for us to not do something with what we’re learning.”

In the larger REVEAL survey taken by 200 churches, people were asked what they want most from their church. The top three responses were:
1. Help me understand the Bible in greater depth
2. Help me develop a closer personal relationship with Christ
3. Challenge me to grow and take the next step in my faith

Think of this in terms of school. How do you teach 1st graders and high school students in the same classroom for only 1 hour per week? I don’t have the answer to this. What are your thoughts?

Does Your Church Have Style?

It is so easy to compare yourself to other churches. You hear an amazing success story about a church and you start making plans on implementing their programs and style in your church. Let me help you out. Don't do it! Copying other churches usually will come across as unauthentic. You are you...and the only you. Find out your strengths and focus to those. Be yourself.

Here's some good advice from Allen Ratta of Connection Power:

Celebrate Your Style
Once you have settled on your style, rejoice in it and embrace it. There are almost always some aspects of a church's style that give it a particular positive distinctive. Discover your strengths and celebrate them. This will increase congregational morale and help provide a consistency of message to visitors and the community.

Market Your Style
Take the time, resources and energy to define a compelling message that accurately reflects your style. It will do you no good to advertise in such a way that the wrong crowd comes to visit you. You are wasting their time and your resources. Drive the people who relate to your style to come and visit.

Each church will have it's unique personality. Find out what makes your unique personality attractive. Find out what you do best. Then be the best you can be. Life's too short to live someone else's dream.

Breakfast with Bill Hybels

Exciting news! On May 15, I’m having breakfast with Bill Hybels. He’s flying into Kansas City because he wants to talk about:

• Developing the leadership in church
• The inside scoop on the Leadership Summit
• How I can be an effective leader in the marketplace and the church

I feel really fortunate to be afforded this opportunity. The good news for you is that I’m allowed to extend the invitation to other people.

So the answer to your next question…yes, there will be many other KC church leaders there. Probably around 200. And no, Bill Hybels may not know I’m there, but I’m going to treat this opportunity as if he was coming to KC just for me. The breakfast will be at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS from 8am to 9:30am. Breakfast is $10. Hearing Bill Hybels speak…priceless. Click here to register.

Church Website Effectiveness

Put yourself in the shoes of someone that just moved to your city. They do not know anyone and they do not know their way around the city. They miss their friends at their home church or they have a crisis which puts church in the forefront of their mind. They then decide to look for a church. They turn on their computer and type in www.google.com. Then they type in the only 2 words that makes sense to search on.

1. The city they live in
2. The word “church”

The question is will your church’s website show up on the first page of results? Since I’m greeting every Sunday, I get the chance to find out how people found our church. A majority of them say they found us by a Google search on the Internet. Our church, Olathe Life Fellowship, shows up in the number 1 spot when you type in “Olathe Church” into Google. Try this exercise on your website. If you don’t show up, ask your webmaster to work on your page ranking.

Do You Have a Cool Church Website?

About a year and a half ago, our church changed the logo and the website. After some advice from our logo designer (Andrew Fortner) and our website designer (Kyle Kutter), we stepped away from a rural, Kansas looking website and logo to an urban, clean and hip look. I'm sure artistic people could describe the new look better than I could so you can click here to see the website. Our attendance grew by 30% after that. Even though there could be other factors that contributed to our church growing, this change to our website seems to have significantly helped our church to grow. After reading the book “Blink” by Malcom Gladwell, I now understand a little bit better why our new look helped our church to grow. Malcom Gladwell explained the concept through this example:

A well-known consulting group, Cheskin, was posed with the problem of why consumers preferred E&J Brandy over Christian Brothers Brandy. Here’s what they found out:

• During a blind taste test: The two brandies came out about the same. Therefore, the product is not the problem.
• During a taste test when people were told the brand name for each glass of brandy: Christian Brothers came out on top. Therefore, the branding is not the problem.
• During a taste test with the actual brandy bottles in the background: E&J came out on top. Therefore, the packing is the problem.
• Just to make sure the problem was the packaging, they served Christian Brothers Brandy out of an E&J Brandy bottle and vice versa. Christian Brothers Brandy in an E&J bottle won by a large margin.

Your church logo and church website are your church’s “packaging.” For many potential visitors to your church, your website is the first impression they will have. Will people want to visit your church based on your packaging?

Church Mission Statement Problems

This past weekend I was visiting a church and the pastor felt their mission statement had a deficiency. Can you spot the deficiency? Here was their mission statement: “Living for Christ and serving the community through love.”

It is really easy to get confused on what to put in your church’s mission statement. Fortunately, Jesus gave the church their mission statement. In Matthew 29:19 (NIV) Jesus states: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” There should only be 2 things in a church mission statement:

1. Evangelism
2. Discipleship

Anything less is a parachurch ministry mission statement and not a church mission statement. Here are some examples of good mission statements:

Turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. – Willowcreek Church
Helping People Take Their Next Step Toward Christ…Together – Granger Community Church
Reaching Seekers. Building Believers. – Forest Hill Community Church
To Lead People to a Healthy Relationship with Jesus Christ. – Olathe Life Fellowship

A mission statement should be:

- Timeless – You shouldn’t ever have to change it
- Short – It should fit on a T-shirt
- Action oriented
- Memorable
- Easy to understand
- Publicly repeated until everyone is sick of hearing it
- Reflect the culture of the church

Some additional great resources on this topic are Visioneering by Andy Stanley and Advanced Strategic Planning by Aubrey Malpurs.