Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Annual Reviews Completed Today

Today I signed off on 18 different performance reviews of Crossroads' staff members.  This is a process that has been going on for an entire month; today was the deadline for completion.  My job was to complete the directors' reviews as well as those employees who report directly to me.  The other 3 directors reviewed the staff members in their respective departments.  Today I received all the reviews and personally signed off on each one of them, usually adding my own encouraging comments to the review.

The annual performance review is not what anyone looks forward to.  I think we would all skip them if we could.  However, having gone through this exercise for the first time in my capacity of executive pastor, I believe this has been a valuable experience for everyone involved. 

One reason the annual review is so important is because it causes everyone in the organization to communicate with each other.  Unspoken expectations from employers to employees or the other way around can cause great harm in the workplace.  At least once a year we put into writing what we expect of one another and whether the expectations have been met.

Another reason the annual review is crucial is because it causes us to stop and think about what we are doing and how we are doing it.  We are often so concerned about the next urgent task to be accomplished that we fail to think about the important issues of what we do, why we are doing it, and how we are doing.  The annual review forces all of us to stop and take stock of the important.

As I was reading the reviews this afternoon, several themes were repeated over many of the reviews.  We all need to be working hard to replace ourselves; we each need to be mentoring the next person to do our job.  Leadership is stewardship - we get to do this for a season, not forever.  Are we developing someone for the next season?

Another theme I read several times dealt with the topic of communication in one form or another.  We need to communicate better with each other.  We can't say something once and expect someone else to get it the first time, every time.  We have to say some things over and over again.  This is especially true whenever we are also talking about communication with our volunteers and non-staff ministry leaders. 

In several instances I read about the need for more up-to-date job descriptions.  We have updated about half of the job descriptions this year.  But several of our staffers have been working on the basis of verbal expectations that need to be locked down in writing, both for their sake and for the church's sake.

At the end of the afternoon, when I had read my last review, I sat in my chair for a good, long while.  I recognized just how fortunate we are at Crossroads to have the dedicated men and women, who are sold out for the cause of Christ.  It's clear that their motivation is not the salary or the benefits, but that they do their job out of a passion to serve Christ and his church.  Before I left today I thanked the Lord for the privilege to lead this great team.  I truly believe that working side by side with these men and women will yield rich rewards for His kingdom in 2009!

Going to "the sticks" Conference in November!

I'm going to "the sticks" conference on November 11th and 12th.  "The sticks" is all about building a great ministry in a small town.  Charles Hill is the lead pastor of New Hope Community Church in Loudenville, just south of us here in Mansfield, Ohio.  Charles and his church are hosting this conference of church leaders from small towns.  Charles and I actually worked together as volunteers here at Crossroads in the small groups department before either of us went full time into the pastorate.

There are quite a few people that are in my blogging world who are going.  I'm looking forward to hearing another executive pastor, Tim Stevens, from Granger Community Church. Tony Morgan is also talking it up (Tony is Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church), but I'm not certain whether he's going or not.  Also my new friend, Steve Caton from Church Community Builder will be there and I definitely want to connect with him!

Mansfield is only about 30 minutes or so north of Loudenville.  I'll be driving back and forth from home.  Any pastors who need to save some hotel dollars are welcome to stay for a couple nights with Mary Kay and me.  We are empty nesters now and have a couple empty bedrooms available.  Let me know if you need a place to stay.

Want to know more about the conference?  Check out what Charles has to say about it by watching the video below:

the Sticks conference from newhopewired on Vimeo

Why do we host the Harvest Party?

More than 5,000 people attended Harvest Party at Crossroads last night.  Each year we invite all the children of our community (and their parents) to come to Crossroads on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving.  And each year thousands come.   Tim and I stood in front of the entrance to the church, dressed as medieval kings, passing out candy to the kids as they entered.   Each of our staff members dressed in costume and served.  Almost 350 of our church members served as volunteers.  This takes a HUGE amount of work.  Why do we invest so much time, effort and resources each year into the Harvest Party?  I can think of four reasons:

1.  We leverage our society’s celebration of the holiday.  Halloween is one of the most celebrated days of the year.  We want to take advantage of that fact for the benefit of the kingdom of God.  We are criticized by some for celebrating the pagan holiday.  The fact is this: we offer a Halloween alternative.  None of our staff or volunteers dresses in scary costumes.  None of our games or settings are oriented toward Halloween.   Over the years parents have learned that Crossroads is a safe place to take their kids, for free, to have non-haunting fun.

2.  We invite the unchurched to give church another try.  Last night was pure outreach.  Other than those who volunteered, I saw very few of our own people last night.  The thousands who came were mostly people who have never been to a Crossroads service.  As they walked through the Town Square or auditorium or kids area, they saw our church.  I t’s our hope that some of them might have considered what it would be like for this to be their church.  Each child who came received a goodie bag to help them collect candy.  Inside each goodie bag was a brochure about our kids’ programs and an invite card announcing our next sermon series.  History tells us this works.  Last year our weekend attendance increased by 15% in a single week after the Harvest Party!

3.  We demonstrate God’s grace.  We gave away candy and prizes, offered dozens of games and event, and never charged a dime for people to come in.  (The only thing we charged for was food.)  Most of the people who came through our doors last night do not often associate the church with grace; rather, judgment comes to mind when thinking of the church.  Most who came through our doors have not personally experienced grace.  Rather they know the rule of survival – get what you can get while you can get it.  Tim and I experienced this first hand.  Early on we set the heavy candy bucket on the floor in front of us and offered children the option of getting their own candy.  After several double handfuls we realized that the idea of taking one or two pieces was not something they had ever been taught.  (We did decide to hold the candy bucket after that.)

4.  We remind ourselves of our calling.  Anyone who thinks the mission field is on foreign shores just hasn’t gotten outside the four walls of their church.  We are in the market place of Mansfield.  The mission field, for us, is all around us and inside us!  Each week people come to check out the claims of Crossroads.  Yes, I’d love to say the claims of Christ.  But that’s not where people start.  They’ve heard about Crossroads and they are curious.  They come to check out the place.  When they do come, we then tell them the good news of Jesus Christ, who desires to be not only their Savior, but also desires to be their Lord.  When I looked into the eyes of the hurting and the lost last night, I was reminded of why we do what we do.  We want to be the tool that Jesus uses to tell his story and his love to a world, who desperately needs to hear Christ’s story and to know Christ’s love.

Harvest Party, Here We Come!

It's just moments away before Harvest Party 2008 begins here at Crossroads.  We expect between 5,000 and 7,000 people from Mansfield to come tonight.  That's up to 14% of the population of our community will be IN CHURCH!  Our whole staff have dressed up for this alternative event to Halloween.  We also have 350 volunteers from our church serving the community tonight.  I thought you might like to see some of the pictures of our staff:

Here is Dan Fleming on the left, our worship leader. And on the right is Deering Dyer, our small groups pastor.

 

This is me on the left, playing King Henry VIII.  Lori Biddle, our Director of Magnification, is playing a flapper.  And Jonathan Pierce, our technology specialist is Dr. Ivan A. Brane.

   

Ron Biddle, on the left, is our Director of Membership playing the nerd in love.  Hippie girl in the middle is Kris Tomlinson, the administrative assistant for the Membership Department.  Hippie boy on the right is Milo Sgambellone; he's another one of our worship leaders.

 

Top left is our priest, Steve Browing, in charge of all weekend mag tech issues.  Center is Alissa Brokaw, our receptionist.  What's really cool about her costume is the M&M idea - her two sons are Marlin and Matthew.  And on the right above is Tabitha Caskie, in charge of Elementary ministries.

   

Pam Ervin, above left, is our administrative assistant for the Family Ministry Department.  Tonight she played the part of Dr. Pepper.  Julie Fike, above center, is the personal assistant to our senior pastor.  The far right picture above is Jeanette Chase, Director of Family Ministry Department and the one who is in charge of the whole Harvest Party.  Standing with her is Allison Litt, our Junior High pastor.

 

On the left above is our Senior High Pastor, Jesse Rider.  Above center is my hippie assistant, Deb Hammer.  Greg Crawfis is on the above right dressed as Builder Bob, appropriate since he is charge of facilities maintenance.

 

Beth Barnhill, above left, is in charge of our pre-school ministries.  Charlene McPeek is the leader of our four nurseries.  And Greg Rudrick, above right, is the leader of our volunteer teams.

Tim Armstrong, our senior pastor, played the medieval king of France as he passed out candy to all the kids who came through the doors.

Tim and I have put together a $40 prize for the staff member with the best costume.  Who do you think should win it?  Click on the comment link below and let me know what you think.  It could influence the judges!

UPDATE:  It's almost 9PM and I am exhausted.  I really have no idea how many people came through our doors tonight, but it was way in the thousands.  Now we begin preparing for what we hope is a big follow through in this weekend's services.

I am not my Job... or am I?

I LOVE to read Shane Duffy's blog, What Leadership Demands.  Shane is the chief production officer at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC.  His blog is visually appealing with rough cuts and earth tone colors.  His writing is crisp and, most importantly, causes me to think every time I read it!

Yesterday he wrote a post entitled, "This is who I am."  He writes about his former life in the insurance industry prior to joining the NewSpring team in 2005.  When people would ask him what he did for a living, he learned to develop a thick skin about his association with the insurance industry.  Everyone had a horror story experience.  So he learned to say and believe, "This is just my job.  It's not who I am."  But now that he works for a church, it's different.

Why? Because the church (both mine and the “C”hurch) is a physical representation of Jesus. The church is supposed to be to the world what Jesus is to the world. As a follower of Jesus, I am supposed to walk as He did and be a living representation of who Jesus is. Working as a pastor in a church means that “This is what I do for a living… AND it IS who I am.”

This struck a cord in my own life.  For 28 years I was a financial planner.  Now I'm serving as a pastor.  Granted, I am able to use many of the skill sets I have learned in my former career.  But this is no longer "just a job!"

Yesterday I met with an insurance professional, who knew me from my former life.  It was a fascinating discussion for me, because he seemed much more interested in talking to me about my change than about the details of health insurance policies.  "Why would you give us such a lucrative practice?"  "What do you like about what you're doing now?"  "Are you glad you got out before the stock market crashed?"

I had the opportunity to tell him about the difference between success and significance in my life.  Sure I made tons more money; even with the market's recent demise, my financial future would have been set for life.  But there is a difference between success and significance.  Now I get to do things every day that have significant eternal consequences.  Could I do that before? Yes.  Could I devote my entire life to it?  No.  Now I can... or at least I have NO EXCUSES for not doing so!  As Shane so eloquently wrote:  Working as a pastor in a church means that “This is what I do for a living… AND it IS who I am.”

Quoting Health Insurance

It's not exactly the most fun thing to do, but I spent my morning enmeshed within the world of health insurance quotes for our employees.  Today I learned several things.  First, if we do nothing but maintain our current health insurance plan, it is likely that our premiums will increase by 16%.  This is according to our current agency.  But, if we make a switch, it is likely that our quote will be much lower - possibly even flat.  This doesn't make a lot of sense to me since the result would be that every year every employer would be changing their plan.  "This is the world we now live in," explained my agent. 

We are not only considering different proposals, but we are also investigating a different agent.  There's nothing wrong at all with our current relationship.  But I believe in competition and I think I should investigate several proposals to achieve the best possible results for our staff.  This leads me to the second thing I learned today - it's now possible to offer our employees a choice between a $500 deductible, 80/20 PPO plan OR a higher deductible ($3,000) combined with an HSA plan.  The first plan will cost more per month than the second.  So why would any employee choice the second over the first?  Because this year we are going to tell our employees exactly what compensation number we have to work within.  We'll let them decide if they'd prefer to trade comp dollars for insurance benefits.  We also will give them the choice, again at their own expense, of choosing vision, dental, short term and long term disability, as well as larger life insurance benefits.

How did investigating a different agent lead me to learning about these choices?  Because the first agent didn't know these choices would be available.  The second one did.  Competition.  It's a really good thing!

How Do We Budget for Next Year?

I met with a friend tonight, who happens to be a financial expert as well as the treasurer for another church in my area.  He asked me, "How are you planning to budget for next year?  Seems to me any numbers we put together right now are just a crap shoot."  Since my friend is heavily involved in the financial services industry, I can understand his  quandary.  Every hour of every day seems like a crap shoot for him right now.  So how does he go about making plans for the next year for his church?  As executive pastor for Crossroads, how do I go about making plans for next year?

No one knows exactly what will happen next year.  But we can do some research that will help us make better decisions.  Each church should consider their own situation independently of what's going on around the country, because it appears that there is no uniform trend in giving decreases yet.  Topeka congregations are not yet affected by the global financial crisis.  On the other hand, Myrtle Beach today reported a crunch in collections.  Austin reports that tough times are bringing tithing troubles.  Norwich reports that the faithful still give in tough times.  Clarion, Mississippi notices a slight dip in giving. 

Probably the most comprehensive survey that I've found (more than 500 churches) is from the National Association of Church Business Administration, which reported in early October that 14% of U.S. congregations say they've been hurt by a decline in giving, while another 37% say giving has slowed.  If I do my math right, another way of saying this is that about half the churches in America are not affected by the global financial crisis.  Is the glass half full or half empty?

Here at Crossroads, we are still ahead (barely) of our budget plans for 2008.  We have been proactive in sending a letter to our congregation members, letting them know about the church finances and about our plans for next year.  (Would you like to see this letter?  Click here to download the PDF file.)
Our members have responded generously these past two weekends.  Each weekend we plan to spend some time sharing the most current information with our congregation.  After all, everyone knows there is a financial crisis going on and most want to know how it is affecting their church.

Probably the best articles I've read about planning for next year come from Paul Clark, the administrative pastor at Fairhaven Church, a growing church of 3,500 in Dayton, Ohio.  In the last two weeks, Paul has written twice about budgeting in tough economic times, once on October 13th and again today.  Both articles are excellent and I highly recommend them for anyone wondering about how to go about budgeting right now. 

One idea Paul talks about today is an idea I shared recently with our own management team.  Paul writes:

At Fairhaven, the budget process follows what we call our 6-month work plans (which we formulate in March and October), so I am confident that the staff has thought through their ministry goals and activities, and therefore can submit a budget reasonably based on action plans.

I love this idea, because our plans change so often anyway.  What are our action plans for the next six months?  Let's budget for that and then look at the budget again for the back half of 2009.  My fellow management team member Ron Biddle correctly points out that the majority of our budget is already preset by compensation and fixed occupancy expenses. 

Here's how we're going about the budget process.  For the past two weeks, our management team has been working on the 2009 calendar.  This next Friday morning we begin the work on the budget.  The elders will have their first look at the 2009 numbers in their November meeting.  They will come back and let the management team know of any changes they'd like to see.  Then the management team will work on it one more time. The budget plan should be finalized in early December.

We must remember that it is only a plan.  We do our best, but in the end we submit to the sovreignty of our Lord and to His plans for His church.

Homiletics... Or How NOT to Do It!

Tomorrow afternoon is my Homiletics class.  I've been putting off some work that I need to do tonight to be ready for tomorrow.  But this video is motivation enough.  Enjoy!

Thanks to Todd Rhoades for the link.

New Photo Album: A Sunday at Crossroads

Our new web design team, Synergema, has asked us for some pictures of what a typical weekend looks like at Crossroads.  (Go here and here if you want to know about our decision to partner with Synergema.)  So I got my trusty digital camera out and started taking pics.  I have set up a new photo album, named A Sunday at Crossroads.  Lori Biddle took pictures from the inside of the auditorium, but I don't have those yet.  I'll add them as soon as I receive them.  UPDATE: Lori's pictures are now posted.

The first few pictures in the album are from the outside.  I wanted to give Synergema the feeling for our church being located in the market place.  Our church is on "Miracle Mile," a string of shopping centers along Park Avenue West.  The next set of pictures shows the Town Square area, where the kiosks and cafe are located.  This is where people congregate before and after the services.  Then I took some pictures of the children's areas to show the bright, bold colors... however I didn't take pictures of children.  When we get them, I'll add the pictures of auditorium so one can see what the services at Crossroads look like.  This particular Sunday happened to be one in which 14 people were baptized during the service.  Cool!

Saturday Night at the Shoe!

I'm at the Ohio State Buckeye stadium to watch the Bucks play Penn State. It is a carnival atmosphere here in Columbus, Ohio. A sea of scarlet is beginning to fill the more than one hundred thousand person stadium one hour before kickoff. I've got just one thing to say: GO BUCKS!

UPDATE: It's now the next day and I'm still grieving over Ohio State's loss last night.  They played really well, but were defeated in the fourth quarter by a Penn State's final touchdown.

However, I had a GREAT time last night.  The first (top) picture is taken from our seats near the top of the stadium about an hour before kickoff.  The stadium rapidly filled with a record 105+ thousand fans.  The second picture is from below as we are entering the stadium.  Buckeye stadium does not have permanent lights, so whenever there is a night game they have to bring in these HUGE portable lights.

The final picture is my host for the night, my long time friend Bill Geiger.  Bill and I used to be neighbors back in the 1980s and early 1990s.   But then he and Lynn moved, first to Toledo and then to the Milwaukee area.  Even though he moved away, we have remained very good friends.  We talk to one another, encourage each other, and pray regularly for each other.  And, once every year, we go to an Ohio State Buckeyes football game.  Win or lose, we have fun together!

Just the Facts, Ma'am, Just the Facts

Sergent Joe Friday of the TV series Dragnet was famous for saying, "Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts."  I felt a little bit like Joe yesterday as I was working my way through an difficult mag-tech issue with our Director of Magnification, Lori Biddle.  (She writes about it in much greater detail in her blog article, "Meltdown.")  We have been experiencing some sound issues in the auditorium over the past year.  Apparently problems were experienced again during Thursday night rehearsal.  So Lori came to me to let me know what happened and to let me know what she thought we should do about it.

I have learned that this sort of thing happens all the time in ministry.  As the chief of staff I am supposed to be the guy that hears the problems and helps with the solutions.  While this particular problem was within the Mag department, and while it was a significant problem, it is only the latest problem in a long series of problems from many departments... and there will be many more. 

My dad taught me many decades ago that there were no such things as problems, just opportunities.  So yesterday we had just another opportunity.  How one deals with these "opportunities" is every bit as important as any ultimate solution.  So what are some of the things that I try to remember to solve problems in a the best possible way?

FIRST:  Don't let the fact of the problem get in the way.  As I already mentioned, problems will always be with us.  So take a deep breath, slow down, and remember that this is just the latest in a series of many.  This isn't the first problem and it won't be the last problem.

SECOND: Gather the facts.  Find out what is happening.  Why did it happen?  What led up to it?  Find out facts from as many different people as possible.  It's amazing the differences you will discover in perspective when you talk to different people with different points of view.

THIRD:  Take your time.  The first solution is not often the best.  It's merely the first.  If you control the agenda (and often you don't), don't be forced to make a decision until you know what the right choice is.

FOUR:  Make a decision.  My job is to make choices, and hopefully more of them are right than wrong.  But decide I must. 

FIVE:  Follow the plan.  Decisions have consequences.  If I decide to the right, I must walk that way.  If I decide to the left, I must walk that way.  But I must walk one way or the other.  I must put my decision into motion. Will Rogers is famous for saying, "Even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there!"

Extended Management Team Today

Fridays are Management Team day for me.  I join Senior Pastor Tim Armstrong, Director of Family Ministries Jeanette Chase, and Director of Membership Ron Biddle every week on Friday morning.  Usually we meet for two hours from 10AM until noon.  We usually try to keep the first hour focused on current ministry status, while we try to take the second hour to focus on one particular concept, vision or discussion.  Often we get away to Panera Bread together.

But for three weeks, we have given ourselves over entirely to the work of planning 2009.  Last week we spent the entire morning making plans for the calendar.  You can see the aftermath of last week's meeting in this picture.  This morning we will spend another four hours on the back half of our mission statement - the maturity of our members.  Are our members growing in Christ?  Are they becoming more mature?  What's working?  What's not working?  Our strategy for maturity currently is three-fold: Midweek, small groups, and CLASS.  Is this the same strategy we should use for next year or should we address the tough questions of what IS working and what ISN'T working?  Should we stop what doesn't work and instead focus on what does?  Is there something else that we SHOULD be doing?  This will be the subject of our meeting this morning.

Next Friday we meet for one more marathon session.  Given the calendar we planned last week, and given the maturity plans we set today, next week we will address the budget questions.  How do we fund our plans?

This is an exciting time to be a member of Crossroads.  If you are a member, you should know that your leaders take our charge very seriously.  This morning I got up extra early just so I could spend some time with our Lord:  reading His word, journaling, praying... making sure my heart is in the right place so I can be sensitive the Holy Spirit's leading in our meeting this morning.

Our First Meeting with Synergema

Today we began the long journey with Synergema to create our new website.  I must admit to being both surprised and impressed with the one-hour first discussion with our new website designer.  I was surprised because I expected them to ask us questions about how we wanted the front page to look, what colors did we want, what content?  And I'm sure all that will be coming. 

But today was all about the purpose of the website.  And for this I was pleasantly surprised.  Brandon Steiger, the big idea guy from Synergema, was on a conference call with Senior Pastor Tim Armstrong, Technology Specialist Jonathan Pierce, and me in my office.  He and another Synergema designer, Mark, asked us lots of questions about our church.  What was our church like?  How was it different from other churches in Mansfield?  Who would be the primary user of the website?  Would he be a man or would she be a woman?  How old would he be?  Would she have children?  How old would the children be? What would they do for fun?  How much money do they earn?  What kind of education do they have?  Why would he or she come to the website?  Why would she come back to the website?  These questions went on for a little over an hour.

I was impressed both with Synergema's questions as well as with Tim's answers.  One thing is for sure.  Tim knows the audience he wants to attract.  It was fun being in the same room with him and watch him describe our church, our audience, and the future as he sees it.  And I have to admit to being pretty jazzed about both this process and his vision.

At one point in the interview I jumped in and described how I saw the primary purpose.  I described the website as the front door to our church.  People, who might be interested in the church, will first go to the website to check out the place.  Is this church a safe place?  What will the services be like?  Would they want to bring their kids with them?  If they decide to walk through that front door, then the weekend service is like the living room.  They can come and sit and listen and learn.  If they keep coming back, they may even decide to hang out for a while longer in the kitchen by joining a small group.  But it all starts with the front door, the website.  When I finished Brandon asked me if I had this written down anywhere.  Now I do!

Crossroads Gearing Up for Best 4th Quarter Ever!

Crossroads' staff members are operating at full capacity these days.  Yesterday morning, I pulled into the parking lot at 7AM and pulled out last night about 9PM.  And when I arrived I wasn't the first one there.  Tim is a habitual early riser and an early worker.  His truck was already there when I pulled in.  And truth be told, I did escape to the gym yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours.  It's not good for anyone to have a chief of staff stressed or unhealthy!

Why all the work?  Crossroads is normally a high octane place, but these days are even busier than normal.  For one thing, Harvest Party is now less than a week away.  Last Friday Tim, Jesse, and I all went to the costume rental place to pick out our costumes.  As you can see I plan to attend as King Henry VIII.  I'd love to tell you what Tim and Jesse are planning, but I don't want to spoil their surprise.  Each year the staff really takes this event seriously.  We all dress up for it and we all try to be highly visible the entire evening.  We expect somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 people to come through our doors next Wednesday evening.  This is a great Halloween alternative for our community AND has proved in the past to be a great outreach event for Crossroads.  We typically see weekend attendance pick up by 10% to 20% after the Harvest Party.

So, of course, the Magnification Department is gearing up for a large audience in November.  We are putting together a series geared more to the person investigating the claims of Christ.  We will announce the new series this weekend (so I'm keeping mum for now).  Each person in the audience this weekend will receive an invitation card to give to a friend.  And, during Harvest Party next week, every goodie bag (7,000 goodie bags?) will leave with an invitation. 

In addition to all the ministry issues happening, my office calendar is filled with normal end of year 4th quarter activities.  But in my case nothing is normal since this "Executive Pastor" position is new to me as of July 1.  So I'm taking every aspect seriously and doing my best with it.  (Hence the 5AM wake ups.)  One area I have focused upon is the performance review of every staff member.  I have set a target of October 31 to have this completed.  This is a much bigger chore than I imagined it to be, but I'm already seeing great fruit as a result of the many conversations I've had this month.  This morning I complete my last evaluation; Jeanette Chase, our family ministries director and queen of the Harvest Party is on my radar screen.  I'm thinking she will be pleased with what we talk about today.

The reviews are important because we are also getting into our planning for next year.  This means budget proposals and calendaring.  The biggest item by far in our budget is the staff compensation.  So I'm gathering much information for our management team and for our elders to consider.  The evaluations are only one piece of the puzzle.  I've also joined the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) so that I might gather data on what our staff members might be earning for their jobs in churches similar to ours.  To make certain that I don't bias the numbers (since I'm a staff member too), we have a compensation committee of four non-staff people who select the criteria and match the job descriptions to the national averages.  This year we have based our comparatives on 3 factors: (1) churches with a similar weekend attendance, (2) churches with a similar annual budget, and (3) churches also in the Midwest.

Beyond the budget and performance reviews I have about 35 other projects that I am currently overseeing.  You read that right: 35!  It can be mind boggling if I let it.  To make sure I stay on top of everything I spent an hour Tuesday morning just writing everything down.  Then I thought through who the best staff person was to lead the charge on each particular project.  Using the Outlook task function, I then went through each task one at a time and entered it for myself and for the fellow staffer who would work it.  This way as they update their progress I'll be able to see it on my own computer as well.

Blogging about my days are fun, but my blogging time allocation has been reached for the day.  It's time to stop writing about the day and start living it.  If you are a Crossroads parishioner I want you to know how much I value your continued support and prayers for me and the rest of your staff.  We all know we do not work within our own power.  We trust fully in the mighty power of God through His Holy Spirit provided so richly to His children (Romans 8:9,16).  So pray that we continue to rely fully upon God and trust Him for the results!

Umpire or Coach?

USA Today yesterday carried an article titled, "Being a good boss is like being a good umpire."  The reporter spoke to Randy Marsh, major league umpire, who has umpired five world series games.  The article is about leadership:  "Over the last month more people may have come to realize how the best leaders are those who can make a quick decision, under pressure, without partisanship, and in the face of extreme unpopularity."  In other words, being a good boss is a lot like being a good umpire.  Here are some words of wisdom:

• Close calls are not as difficult as unexpected calls.
• Preparation is the backbone of quick decisions.
• When it's not covered by the rules, use fair play and common sense.
• Go with your gut. When you can, ask your crew.
• Be consistent and approachable. Stay professional when others get angry.
• Some errors are correctable. Live with those that are not.

The analogy is a good one, but not the best one by far.  Yes, a good boss should be able to make quick, but good, decisions based on common sense.  Keeping one's head when everyone else loses theirs is a must. 

However, I see my job at Crossroads much more like a coach than an umpire.  An umpire is supposed to be unbiased, while the coach is always biased towards his team.  The umpire's primary job begins and ends on the field of play.  The coach eats, sleeps, dreams, and lives his job 24/7.  The umpire doesn't have a vested interest in the results, but the coach loses his job if he loses too many games.  And while the umpire may never struggle with the agony of defeat, I've also never seen an umpire be showered with gatorade after a tremendous victory. 

I'll let someone else be the scorekeeper.  Personally, I prefer to coach, cheer, and cajole the Crossroads team to accomplish great things for the kingdom!

Perfect Weekend

Is it possible to have a perfect weekend?  This weekend has seemed that way to me.  The picture on the left are my four children: Jonathan, Jessica, Jennifer, and Jillian (from left to right).  The cool thing is that I hardly had to get them to pose!  They were just having a good time on their own and I snapped the picture.  The best way to do it!

But I get ahead of myself.  The weekend began early as my youngest daughter Jillian came home for Fall Break from Cedarville.  I've mentioned before how much she seems to appreciate home now.  Saturday morning I asked her if she wanted to have breakfast with me and she thought about it for about 2 nanoseconds and said yes.  We went to one of the local breakfast places and ran into fellow Crossroads' staffers, Ron and Lori Biddle, having breakfast with their daughter, Jocelyn, also home this weekend from college.  Jillian and I were having such a great conversation, we ran out of food to eat before we ran out of things to talk about.  So I suggested we go for a walk and keep the conversation flowing.  She readily agreed.  It was such a gorgeous fall day.  The leaves were all turning colors and there was a bit of crisp in the air.  Just perfect!

Saturday night and Sunday morning I was heavily involved with the Crossroads' services.  Once again we enjoyed record attendance and... praise God... record giving.  I'd been worrying a bit about the impact of the economy on our giving lately.  So I wrote an informational letter (download available) to our congregation and took four minutes at each of the services to explain positively where we are at.  Our people responded with such generosity!  I can't begin to tell you the relief I felt as we wrapped up the weekend services.  I didn't leave until after 1PM.

When I got home I found a party going on!  All four of my kids were there and all four of my grandchildren were there as well!  They were all eating and talking and laughing.  It was just a great experience!  Mary Kay had made my favorite soup and the home was filled with the aroma of food and good times.

And grandchildren everywhere!  My youngest grandson, Cohen (on the left) is not just walking.  He's running everywhere he goes.  My oldest two grandkids, Grayden and Sicily, have so much fun playing with each other that they can go for hours without us knowing what they're up to.  (That's not good.  We make it a point to check on them regularly!  But they do have fun playing together.)  Then, my youngest grandaughter, Violet, is sooooo close to being able to walk! Here's a picture of my oldest daughter, Jennifer, with my youngest grandchild, Violet.  Everytime I would go in or out of a room, Violet would just wave at me!  As if saying... "I see you and I know you are Grandpa Pierce!"

The other thing I loved about Sunday was that none of my family seemed to be in any hurry to leave.  It was as if everyone knew this was a great day and a moment to savor.  At 6PM, I knew that I only had about a half hour of sunlight left and I've been real committed to my exercise goals.  So, despite the whole family being there, I got my running shorts on and went for a jog.  Grayden and Sicily were playing outside at the time, so they decided to run with me.  We ran up and down our street several times together.  Finally, I left them to go for my jog.  When I came back, Grayden let me know he was not pleased I had gone on the run without him.  He made me come down to his eye level and made me promise to take him with me the next time I run. 

Now I ask you... does it get any better than this?  Thank you Father for this perfect weekend with my family!

Is Your Church a Babe's or a Denny's?

This past Friday morning our management team began the process of evaluating ministries and making plans for next year.  In preparation for that meeting I wrote here that we do a few things really well, but not everything.  We should not try to be all things to all people, but focus on those things that God has called us to do.

I was not the only one thinking this way.  Before the meeting another member of the management team, Jeanette Chase, our director of family ministries, passed along a copy of the Quench Newsletter written very well by Dean Hawk.  In the October 2008 edition (no cost, but registration required) he tells the story about eating at a "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant named Babe's Chicken Dinner House.  He describes in great detail two things.  First there were no menus.  The customer has two choices: fried chicken or chicken fried steak.  The second thing he describes is the result:

By the time we set down to eat, the place was packed. After enjoying an amazing meal I set there dumbfounded. Every day at lunch and dinner this place is packed out because they serve two things . . . very well.

The author, also a pastor, goes on to explain that his church does a few things well, but doesn't attempt to be Denny's of the church world.  What does he mean by Denny's?

Too often as churches we try to be the “restaurant” that serves everything excellent and we end up becoming a Denny’s that serves a lot of things just mediocre. We attempt to offer a 20 page menu of everything anyone would ever want to “order” at church and try to serve them all. We end up with frustrated “customers,” burned out employees, and a reputation of just being a mediocre church.

Is there a downside to this "limited menu," specialized, focused approach to church leadership?  You betcha!  Some people in the church will not be happy that "we don't do this or that."  "What's wrong with ...?"  "Didn't Jesus teach that we should ... ?"  But trying to be all things to all people actually reaches fewer people, not more for the kingdom.  Dean Hawk writes:

Just as in the restaurant business this small menu approach does have its downside. First off you won’t appeal to everyone. But that’s okay. As pastors with a heart and love for people we want to reach everyone. But in our attempts to reach everyone we end up reaching less. The more defined we become it actually opens the door to touch more people.

The four hours the management team invested Friday morning in planning and dreaming for next year was just the beginning of a long process.  We started by writing down all the possible things we could be doing.  Then, one by one, we began erasing things that were good ideas but not great ones.  Or possibly even great ideas for another church.  We then began asking the hard questions about things we're already doing, but not doing with excellence.  Is it possible that we could actually reach more people (do more) by attempting to do less? 

We have much more work to do, but I believe that Crossroads could look like a very different place one year from now, if God continues to bless our work, and if we continue to be focused on doing a few things really, really well.

Four Be's of Great Announcements

Announcements.  The bane of the worship service.  The worship service is going great, the momentum is building, there's excitement in the air.  Then the announcement guy walks out onto the platform.  Too often the momentum is killed and the teaching pastor has to work hard at bringing back the excitement.  For the most part this has not been true at Crossroads.  Lori Biddle has worked hard over the last 12 years to make the announcement part of our worship service a highlight instead of a lowlight.  Last month she wrote about what she's learned over the years about announcements.

I just walked off the platform this Saturday night after giving the announcements and have to make the announcements twice more tomorrow.  While Lori can do a lot in programming to make announcements great, there is a lot the announcement guy can do to make this time go great and fit right in to the worship service.  Here are 4 things to remember when making announcements.

1. Be excited.  Be enthusiastic.  Attitude matters!  Be happy about making the announcements, even if they aren't such great announcements.  One thing is true for certain.  If you are excited about what you're talking about, there's a good chance the audience will be excited as well.  But if you are not excited, enthusiastic, and positive, then there is no way the audience will be.
2. Be welcoming.  I always think about the person in the audience who is here for the first time.  What are they thinking?  What are they experiencing?  My first thought when I walk out onto the platform as the announcement guy is always for our new guests.  I ask myself, 'What if I were talking directly to him or her right now, what would I say?'
3. Be short.  Get to the point.  This is not a time for long stories.  But it is a time to weave in conversation into the announcement.  I never read from a sheet of paper.  I look at people and talk right to them.  If there's great news, tell it with joy.  If there's tough news, be straight.  Each minute of announcement time SEEMS like an eternity to a service programmer like Lori.
4. Be connected.  Be a part of the service.  There's something that has already happened before the announcement and something that is going to happen after it.  Don't ignore that.  Tonight there was a great opening musical piece.  The audience was clapping and so was I.  It was a cool moment and I didn't rush out of it.  I thanked the guitarists for their music.  Then I got into the announcements.  When they were over I turned to our worship leader, Milo, and asked him to take over and lead us into worship.  Lori Biddle is rather infamous around this place for saying, "Transitions, transitions, transitions!"  She's right.  Transition well from one segment to another.

Announcements don't have to be the bane of the service.  They shouldn't be a pain, tame, or lame.  You can actually reign in this game if you're willing to do the same!

Divine Focus

I'm getting ready for an all morning management team meeting this morning.  The focus of this morning's longer than usual session is to work on the calendar for next year.  The idea of this calendaring meeting came out of a budgeting discussion we had several weeks ago that went something like this:  "So exactly how do we go about the budget for next year?  What is the vision?  What are we wanting to accomplish?  Do we want to budget by simply taking this year's numbers and working from there?  Or do we want to budget to our vision and to our goals?"

We all agreed that we wanted to set the budget according to what we envision God wants us to do next year.  Thus the upcoming meeting.  In the back of my mind, though, is a recent reading from Craig Groeschel's new book, it: How Churches and Leaders Can Get it and Keep it.  Craig writes a chapter called, "Divine Focus," in which he makes a point that we at Crossroads have believed for years.  "Too many ministries are doing too little by doing too much."  He references another favorite book of mine, Jim Collins Good to Great, which points out that the enemy of the great is the good.  We can do many good things.  But what are we really great at doing?

Crossroads cannot be everyone's concept of the ultimate church.  God has not called us to be the only church or even the best church in Mansfield.  We do a few things really well.  We are known for our weekend services.  Each weekend more than 2,000 people come through our doors.  Our database tells us that at one point or another more than 5,000 people have been here.  That's pretty significant for a city of only 50,000 people.  We're getting great at small groups.  Since we brought Deering Dyer on board as our full time small groups pastor, we've seen our small group ministry grow steadily.  Now there are 700 people in our congregation involved in small groups ministry.  Our family ministries department is top notch.  There are more children here on any given weekend than in any single elementary school in the county!  Jeanette Chase is an awesome administrator and organizer.  She and her team are also responsible for the annual Harvest Party, in which more than 5,000 people show up on the last Wednesday night in October.

So, now I'm getting ready to go into a meeting to calendar for next year.  I've been asked to write down some good ideas for next year and I have done so.  I've put six ideas to paper.  I'm guessing the other 3 members of the management team have done the same thing.  That would be 24 possible good ideas.  But the REAL QUESTION in my mind is this:  Do these ideas represent us continuing our excellence in the GREAT things God now has us doing?  Does God want us to endeavor to become GREAT at one more thing?  Or will these good ideas become the enemy of the great things God has us doing? 

Mind Dump #4

Hard to believe I haven't done a mind dump since September 10th.  Hard to believe I haven't written here for 3 days!  Let's see what's rolling around up between those ears of mine!

• Church growing in attendance.  Current series working.  New people are coming.  We're up about 200 people this month over last month.  FANTASTIC!
• All of the newbies are coming at the 11 AM service.  In fact about half of everyone coming on the weekend comes at 11AM.  One 11AM service equals both Saturday at 7PM and Sunday at 9:30AM.
• Sent letter to all members this week.  The good news?  Giving is still up about 6.5% year over year.  Incredible for this city and this economy.  The bad news?  Giving has definitely been falling over the last 6 weeks.  After a great summer of record giving levels, September is now down.  So while we're still ahead for the year, we're losing ground every week.  So I sent letter to members letting them know the status.
• Included in the letter the great news about the new website and the new membership connection.  Told people that we would begin taking everyone's picture each weekend in November and collecting email and current phone and address information so our database is completely up to speed.
• Deb Hammer joined the team this week.  Deb, glad to have you on board.  She has been a GREAT HELP to me.  She has a servant's heart and is willing to learn anything.  I was talking about the financial downturn with one of the directors today and she was with us.  She said, "I'd be willing to volunteer this job if you couldn't pay me."  How do we find people like Deb?
• I have resisted making any comments here about the stock market.  I came really close to writing about it last weekend because I really felt it was WAY overextended on the downside.  Markets do not either go straight up or straight down.  Having said that, markets don't ever bottom as a V but always test and retest (think W instead of V).  Also the stock market anticipates the economy's recovery by about 6 months.  Most economists are saying this will be a long recession (one to two years I hear).  If that's true, this market hasn't bottomed yet.
• I'm not a financial planner any longer.  I don't have to follow the markets.  I don't have to comment.  I don't have to hold the hand of wealthy people worried about being somewhat less wealthy.  That's great!
• I can't escape what I have learned over the last 30 years.  Times might be tough for awhile.  I see financial and number relationships easily.  It causes me to worry and is now really testing MY faith.  Why?  Because for the first time in my life I cannot control my own financial future by working harder or making more calls.  I now work for God and am in His hands.  I will trust Him to care for me.  I am learning this is much easier to write or say than to experience. 
• Jillian is home for a long weekend.  I watched Indiana Jones with her last night.  It was fun to relax for a few hours and catch up with her.  She's gone tonight.  Out on a date.
• Jessica called me today about 10:30 all upset because her dog got loose and she was really worried about him.  I left everything to go help her find her dog.  Fortunately, he was found quickly and I could get back to work.  But I think Jessica really appreciated me coming over to help her.
• Watched the Browns beat the Giants Monday night.  Wow!  It won't get any better than that.
• Still working out at the YMCA.  Started strength training in July.  Can't believe how much better I feel as a result.
• Meeting with Management Team for four hours in the morning.  We are each supposed to bring ideas we want to see on the calendar next year.  This will be a GREAT meeting.  This is maybe the BEST part of my job.  I love dreaming about what next year might be like.
• Doing performance reviews at work.  This may be the hardest thing I do at work.  I want to be an encourager, a cheerleader.  I'm doing my best to see the best in everyone.  But I'm also insisting that we set goals for this time next year for each staff member.
• Elders met with Tim Tuesday night.  He told me they really liked the blogs.  They asked if the blogs could be linked off the front page of our current website.  Is that cool or what?  Lori, Deering, Jonathan, Ron and I have been writing these blogs for three months now without much fanfare.  But I'm pretty sure that traffic will pick up considerably if people can get to us from Crossroadswired.com!
• Can't wait for the election to be over already.
• Mary Kay is worried about NAMI with all the budget cuts from the State of Ohio.  She has been "called in" for an appointment with the powers that be tomorrow afternoon.  She's hoping she still has her job.  She does such a great job and meets such an incredible need for families with a mentally ill member. I can't imagine her not being able to do that.
• Our washing machine is going on the blink after about 18 years.  I actually told Mary Kay about 3 months ago that we should start looking for a new washer and dryer.  She thought I was "all washed out" then.  She doesn't think so anymore.
• I'm bummed.  My new ESV Study Bible is backordered from Amazon.com.  I got an email today saying it won't arrive now until October 31.  So much for preordering early.