At Catalyst Dallas, Scott Belsky of Behance discussed making ideas happen.

Most ideas never happen.

Ways to make ideas happen.

• Overcome reactionary workflow (i.e., emails, texts, social media messages, voicemails). Unplugging is becoming the competitive advantage of the digital age.
• Have a culture of capturing action steps. As leaders, we must have an action oriented nature.
• Reduce your amount of insecurity work (i.e., social media, analytics, actions that don’t push the ball forward, etc.).
• Never stop optimizing. Don’t be confined by the horizon of success.
• Spend energy on how you organize.
• Creativity x organization = impact
  You need both creativity and organization. You can have all the creativity in the world but zero organization equals zero impact.
• Share ideas liberally.
• Share ownership of ideas.
• Divided interests equal divided results.
• Seek competition.
• Overcome the stigma of self-marketing.
• Value the team’s immune system.
• Find and empower the hot spots.
• Incentivize innovation by tolerating failure. Many organizations wants innovation but only reward success. Innovation and failure go hand and hand. Allow pockets of failure.
• Push people into their intersection.
• Gain confidence from doubt. All remarkable people at one point did something great that others thought was crazy. When everybody keeps telling you’re crazy you’re either crazy or you’re onto something. Nothing extraordinary is ever achieved through ordinary means.

Creativity is not only an opportunity. It is a responsibility.

The people who make up your team are the most important part of your church after sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and obedience to God’s Word. Your leadership team molds the culture of your church and guides them for better or worse. And it is for this reason that you must create a great team before trying to create a great church.

Leaders of [organizations] that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline.
- Jim Collins

But we can’t look at filling church jobs with a strict corporate HR mindset. The right people for a church can often look quite different from the right people for a business.

Quality church leadership takes more than professional skills. According to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, a church elder should also be spiritually sound, a defender of the faith, wise, fair, reverent, well-thought-of, hospitable, accessible, gentle, not thin-skinned, not money-hungry, committed to his wife, a good father, and more. So staffing your church requires looking at the spiritual and personal conditions of a job candidate and not just the professional skill set.

And because heart attitude is far more important than brain power, sometimes God chooses unimpressive people to do great things. So we must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in order to recognize the occasions when the right person may also be the unlikely one.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (MSG)
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God.

It is better to be patient when hiring and get the right people than to quickly add manpower that leads your church in the wrong direction or slows it down as dead weight.

For extra help, there are church staffing organizations that can guide you through the process and scout out people who would be a good fit for your church’s job. Recently, Vanderbloemen Search Group (specializing in large church executive searches) partnered with Help Staff Me (specializing in mid-level staff) to combine resources and expand their networks of relationships. The partnership will likely boost the growing trend of more churches turning to staffing specialists to get the right people on the bus.

Of course, this only scratches the surface of how to fill church jobs with quality leadership. If you have some tips of your own, please share in the comments.

BONUS: Check out LifeChurch.tv’s rigorous interview process including testing, interview questions, and general philosophies from Craig Groechel and Jerry Hurley.

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During Catalyst Conference, Daniel Pink, author of Drive, discussed motivation.

Human beings respond very well to rewards and punishment within our environment. But we also do things for other reasons like purpose, faith, etc.

However, too often we stop at motivating people by only using rewards and punishment. The problem with this approach is it is wrong. It is simply not scientifically true. There have been hundreds of studies verifying this, but we will focus on two:

STUDY #1

A Duke University study separated people into three groups with varying levels of cognitive difficulty and assigned small, medium, and large financial rewards. What was discovered was:

As long as the task only required mechanical skills, financial bonuses were directly related to performance. A larger reward led to better performance.

But with higher cognitive skills, the larger the financial reward, the worse the performance.

STUDY #2

In another study, commissioned artwork was found to be rated less creative than noncommissioned work, yet they were not rated as different in technical quality.

SO HOW DO WE APPLY THIS?

Fact: money is a motivator.

You must pay people enough. Once you pay people enough, than additional units of money have very little effect on additional levels of satisfaction or performance. The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.

Once people are paid enough, three factors motivate them:

1. Autonomy
   Autonomy is our desire to control our own destiny. Management is a technology from the 1850s for organizing people that is designed to get compliance. But we don’t want compliance. We want engagement. And the only way we get engaged is if we get there under our own steam. Let people control when they do something, what they do, and who they do it with in order to get the desired results. Carve ut time for noncommissioned work.
2. Mastery
   Mastery is our desire to get better at stuff. The single most motivating thing at work is making progress. We have to start doing our own performance reviews.
3. Purpose
   People want to do things that matter.

So ask yourself, “Am I improving?”

During Catalyst Conference, Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) discussed the internal tension that we all carry because of our appetite for more.

God has designed us to be big bundles of appetites and desire. But each one of our appetites create a tension because each appetite demands more.

When it comes to leadership, I think there are some appetites that are heightened more than the average person. No matter how much your appetite is fed, you always want more.

Leaders have an appetite for:

• Progress
• Greater Responsibility
• Respect (recognition)
• Winning
• Growth
• Fame
• Achievement
• To Be Envied

There is something in all of us when it comes to our opportunities that want more.

3 Things You Need to Know About Appetites

1. God created them and sin distorted them.
2. Appetites are never fully and finally satisfied.
3. You appetites always whisper now and never later.

Your response to your appetites - you management of them - will determine the direction of your profession, your family, and your life.

People almost never lose their ministry because of bad theology. But many have lost their ministries because of their inability to manage their appetites.

The whole story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 is built around the birthright. A birthright was valuable for three reasons:

1. Financial
   The oldest son would get significantly more than the other siblings.
2. Authority
   The oldest son gained authority over the rest of the family.
3. God’s Blessing
   There was an association/belief that God would bless the oldest son because of the birthright.

So in Genesis 25, Esau gives into an appetite and trades his birthright for a bowl of stew.

Older brothers rarely need or want anything from the younger brother, but when they do the younger brother takes advantage of it. Who would trade a birthright for a bowl of stew? It happens all the time. Who would do that? You will if it feeds the right appetite.

When you have an out of proportion appetite, scientists have discovered that your brain chemically changes in two ways:

1. Impact Bias
   Takes a simple appetite and magnifies it out of proportion. Your brain lies to you and tells you that it will feel way better than it actually will. This is why we have buyer’s remorse.
2. Focalism
   Focuses our mind on one thing and blocks out everything else.

This happens every time an appetite gets blown up out of proportion. Esau did not have anyone to reframe his appetite. And we will not have anyone standing next to us to reframe our appetites.

Whatever you want, you will only want more. Your only hope is to reframe your appetite within the context of what God wants you to be.

There are opportunities that you should never take advantage of because they will pull you away from what God wants you to do. Appetites are valuable, but if you allow them to dictate your future, then you will one day sell it all for a bowl of stew.

So ask yourself…

What do I want to see God do 10 years from now?

Answering that question will reframe your appetites. The clearer your answer, the more control you will have over your appetites.

So what is your bowl of stew?

You have no idea what God wants to accomplish through you. You have no idea what God wants to accomplish through your children. You have no idea what God wants to accomplish through your grandchildren. But God knows.

So whatever you do, don’t trade your future for a bowl of stew.

Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church (Simi Valley, CA) discussed suffering during Verge Conference’s 6th session. Here is what he said:

Good ministry is full of suffering. Yet we are surprised when we suffer.

Do not be surprised when people persecute you (1 Peter 4:12). In fact, you should be concerned if people speak too well of you because that is how the false prophets were treated. At the end of the day, it is all about the Holy Spirit and what He has called you to do.

Jesus did not come to bring peace (Matthew 10 ). Blessed are you when people hate you because of Jesus (Luke 22). The world hated Jesus before it hated you (John 15). The apostles rejoiced at the opportunity to suffer for the cause of Christ (Acts 5). We are heirs of Christ provided that we suffer with Him (Romans 8). For the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him but suffer for Him (Philippians 1:29). Share in the suffering (2 Timothy 1:8). Let us bear the reproach that Christ endured (Hebrews 13:12).

If you are not suffering, there is a problem. Imagine how close you’d be with Jesus and how safe you would feel had you suffered alongside Him. Then you would know this is real.

You must learn to love people who betray you. The highest form of love is to love people who betray you.

If we really are serious about wanting Christ - to experience Christ, to know Him - we must be ready for suffering.

John Burke of Gateway Community Church (Austin, TX) discussed what is really missional during Verge Conference’s 5th session. Here is what he said:

If your unchurched friends are not finding faith and becoming the church, you are not missional. You aren’t really living on the mission of Jesus. If the world is not coming to Christ, can we really say that we are part of the Body of Christ? If we are being the Body of Christ, what would it look like? Very messy.

I think God could care less about our ministry efforts if we don’t have love for people.

3 Question to Ask Yourself

1. Am I serving the spiritual and physical needs of my neighbors?
   Everywhere Jesus went, He met people’s needs. So if we call ourselves missional leaders but do not meet our neighbors’ needs then we are not missional. If people think you are for them and not against them, they start to believe that God is for them not against them.
2. Do I point out God’s work in them?
3. Are my unchurched neighbors now leading the church?
   If you are on mission with Jesus then your friends will find Jesus and start leading the church. And that’s exciting!

In my book collection is The Class Leader. His Work and How to Do It. by John Atkinson. You can read it online or download a PDF. Originally written in 1874, it explains the methodology and importance of Methodist small group leaders. The ministry model it describes sets a challenging benchmark for effective small groups. Here are a few highlights:

The Structure

The pastor is the bishop or overseer of the entire membership of the charge to which he is appointed. It is his business to watch over their souls; to exercise discipline; to teach, reprove, rebuke, with all authority; to statedly preach the Gospel; to visit from house to house; and administer the sacraments.

The pastor, however, cannot exercise all the requisite personal oversight. The membership in many Churches is numerous, the demands made upon the pulpit are more and more stern, requiring a large amount of time to be given by the preacher to the studies and thinking necessary to the preparation of the Sabbath sermons; and with the numerous calls and interruptions inseparable from his office, it is impossible for him to give that thorough attention to all details of spiritual superintendance which the care of souls demand. The Church has made most wise and adequate provision for enabling the pastor to make his supervision complete by means of the services of Class Leaders.

All the members in full connection, and all on probation, are placed in classes, and each class is put in charge of a Leader. It is his office to see each person under his care once a week, that he may know the state of their souls. His office, therefore, is spiritual supervision.

Class Leaders in John Wesley’s Words

I called together all the Leaders of the classes, and desired that each would make a particular inquiry into the behavior of those whom he saw weekly. They did so. Many disorderly walkers were detected. Some turned from the evil of their ways. Some were put away from us. Many saw it with fear, and rejoiced unto God with reverence.
- John Wesley

Over time, the home-to-home Class Leader visits evolved into big group meetings of accountability.

How to Truly Lead a Small Group

Every Leader is in some degree a Gospel minister… The Leader, then, is to care not simply for his class collectively, but for all members separately.

If he simply hold class-meeting once a week, and look no further after his members, his knowledge of them will be very imperfect. He should know them, not simply in the class room, but in their daily life, their company, diversions, business; in their besetments, perplexities, discouragements; their temptations, falls, and uprisings. He should know their peculiarities of character, temperament, and condition, and so be able to rightly admonish, advise, and encourage them, and communicate to the pastor what it is needful for him to know concerning each.

Training Produces Results

The urgent need of the world is Christian workers who can accomplish results.

To ensure the largest success of Christian workers there must commonly be training.

These are just a fraction of the insights from The Class Leader. For more insights, read it online.