Leading Your Ministry To Financial Health

A Focus On The Future

Each December, I try to take time away to pray and plan for the coming year. But this year I received no clue about 2016. Sure, there was the normal stuff - losing weight, getting more exercise, and spending more time with family and friends – but I was getting no vision or goals for the coming year. 

Then, on New Year’s Day it hit me.

Your purpose in life - and mine - is to be used by our Creator to do His will here on earth. He will use our past experiences as preparation for our divine role. [Everybody has a divine role.] My dilemma this year was choosing between two or three opportunities.

So I began to look back on my life for a clue of what God prepared me for. The first half was spent in a purely secular environment, striving to climb the corporate ladder, and manipulating people and situations to my own advantage. While deemed successful in the eyes of the world, something in my life was missing. It was then that the Lord came into my life through the efforts of my wife Rita and a loving church family on Mississippi’s gulf coast. As my devotion to God increased, my business success also increased and we moved to San Diego and built a successful international consulting business. At the top of the business mountain, the Lord called me to make a decision. I could continue in my present life dividing time between business and ministry, or enter fully into His service. We chose the latter.

A number of divine encounters caused us to move to the Seattle area and accept a part time secular position - to pay bills - while entering the ministry. Soon I entered seminary and held three unpaid ministry positions. As a regional director for a renewal ministry, we consulted with churches and their leaders. As part of an evangelistic ministry, we helped lead conferences in around the country. All the while we continued to minister in a local church. One day while driving to work, I felt the Lord ask me if I was enjoying all of this. My answer to Him was a resounding, “Yes!” My heart fell when He told me I had to choose one and get rid of the others. I 

responded, “Okay, but can I wait for a while?” Soon we let go of the secular position, the regional director position and began to plant and lead churches where we could minister to all of God’s people.

As the year 2016 begins, the Lord told me again that I have been too scattered and trying to do too many different things all at once. But this time, He did not give me a choice. My role has been to encourage and equip the church and its leaders to become all that God created them to be. God prepared me for this throughout my entire life. In the first half, He taught me to plan, motivate, and lead people to accomplish a common purpose. In the second half, He showed me the difficulties that ministry leaders face and has given me the tools and the heart to encourage and equip God's people and their leaders. Therefore, that is to be our focus for the foreseeable future, and the it is the specific focus for 2016.

This is not a change in direction, but a refocus on our true purpose. Our websites, blog, and five books, all are focused on equipping God's people, ministers, and leaders to be the best they can be. While these resources are also useful to leaders of secular organizations, our focus will continue to be on those who minister in the name of God. 

In 2016, we plan to develop additional resources to better use social media to reach out to our target audience and provide the resources they need in a form that will best suit their busy schedules.

Please provide any comments or suggestions you might have for us at this time.

 Bill Johnson

Psalm 71:17-18

If anyone is confused about their God-given purpose, please read our book "Destiny."

Problem Solving Made Easy

Solving the problem is easy - once you understand the problem!

We are all looking for solutions to our many problems.

"Read the Question." Those words were emblazoned at the top of the first page of my chemistry test. Unfortunately I failed to heed the warning. Instead I jumped in and tried to solve each problem as quickly as possible. After all isn't that what many of us do?

Turning in the exam and walking out of the room, I smiled at how easy it had been. When I got the test back, I did not smile. The problem was that I had not read each question carefully and there were a number of trick questions which were placed on the test to measure the our knowledge of the subject and also to train us to think clearly.

In problem solving we often fail to read the question carefully, listen clearly to what others say, or take the time to fully consider all aspects of the problem. Our problems in technology, business, religion, government, and personal relationships fail to be solved because we do not read the questions properly.

As a result we try to solve problems by treating symptoms without ever facing up to the real problem. We are often like the child who finds a hammer and believes everything in the house needs to be hammered. We look for a solution before we understand the problem. Then when we find one solution we run around using it to solve every problem whether or not it is appropriate.

We need to first read the question and understand the real problem. Once we are able to define the problem clearly, the solution or solutions become obvious.

It is not solving problems that is hard; it is in understanding the true problem.

The biggest example can be seen in bureaucracies. There are some in governments that believe the solution to every problem is regulation. So they want to regulate technology, business, healthcare, the economy, and relationships. Government regulation is the hammer and everything must be hammered.

But, in our own businesses, churches, and personal relationships we have a similar practice. We keep looking around for that magic hammer that will solve our problems. We attend webinars, conferences, and read every new book looking for the thing that worked for someone else, then try to apply it to our particular problem. We do this without a careful understanding of our individual problem.

Before we buy that new course or apply that hot program, we must be introspective and look at ourselves and understand our specific issues. Then we can pick the proper solution that applies to our situation.

You cannot solve a problem if you do not understand the problem. But if you fully understand it and can clearly state the issues, the solution or solutions will usually become obvious. Then we can pick the one best suited for the issues we face.

When we truly understand the problem, the solution or solutions become obvious.

Do You See the People?

Jim was a veteran of World War II -a member of the "Greatest Generation." He was a colleague and a personal friend.  As a B-24 bombardier, Jim flew many bombing missions over Germany. We were having lunch at a Mexican restaurant one day when I asked "the" question, "What were you feeling and what was it like to be the one dropping bombs on people below that could be wounded or killed?" 

His reply was very telling and has wide implications, “When I looked through the bombsight, from altitude, I never saw people, I only saw buildings and weapons factories.”

I never saw people!

Jim’s answer provides an interesting insight not only about war, but also about our business and personal lives. War is hell and there will always be innocent lives lost and threatened. But there is another concern that hits much closer to home. 

Leaders are often gifted with the ability to focus on long-range issues. In focusing on the goal/vision/purpose, there is a tendency to lose sight of immediate surroundings. Looking to the future, leaders can fall into the trap of never seeing the people. 

In this TGIF world (Twitter, Google, I-Phone, & Facebook) there is so much technology at our disposal that we have a tendency to rely on these modern forms of communication without interacting with real, live people.  We need to have face to face meetings between people, without phones, texts, or Skype. The most effective communication is still one on one. Studies have shown that what we say is not half as important as how we say it. A text can be misinterpreted. People interpret our communications in three different ways; 

• 55% of what they hear is based on facial expression & body language, 
• 37% percent is based upon the tone of our voice, 
• and only 8% on the words that we say.

In the church, we tend to sit in our comfortable pew and send money for someone else to go into the poor neighborhoods of our cities, go overseas to minister in the developing countries, or to just share our faith with our next door neighbor. We will never receive the blessing of touching lives until we serve others face to face. That is a life changing event, not for those touched, but for those who touch.So often we think we are doing our duty by sending a donation to the Salvation Army, overseas missionaries, or disaster relief. But without interacting directly with people, we are never doing enough. Something of our message is lost without our presence. It is the difference between being and doing. You can do good stuff, but being good is more effective. 

In the business world, it is easier to sit in a padded chair behind our plush desk than it is to go out among the employees, customers, and the community. The view from the office is a distorted image of the needs of the organization. There has to be a time to get away from all the hustle and bustle and to think and plan, but it is just as important to see the people and listen to what they are saying and become known to them.

When taking an automobile trip with my wife, Rita, I usually do all of the driving. Her driving makes me very nervous while its relaxing for me to drive. It has taken years to understand why this is so. It is not about being in control. There are others, worse drivers than Rita, with whom I am not nervous. We finally figured it out. Rita is a detail oriented person with shorter range vision. I, on the other hand, am a long range viewer. She sees everything around her but does not see the things I see - way ahead down the road. While I am focusing on the road ahead, I often ignore, or do not always see, the things that are close up on either side. 

I never want to get to the point where I do not see people!

Renewal: Step One - Think!

On Monday morning a friend was driving me to the Seattle -Tacoma airport after a long weekend of teaching and leading. On the way, he asked me, “What do you feel is the best thing about your new situation?”

The question caught me by surprise. I didn’t have a ready answer. My life had always been a busy and exciting journey. My early career years were spent as a corporate executive in the electronics industry, starting and growing business organizations. Then leaving that behind we transitioned into full-time ministry - planting and growing churches and teaching and leading seminars and workshops. My new situation was semi-retirement. We had left our church, moved to Mississippi, and started Aslan Ministries - a non-profit organization to encourage and equip churches and other organizations.

After about thirty seconds of thought, I blurted out the answer that had suddenly hit me, “Now I have time to think.” The answer seemed to stun me, and also my friend. But it was true. My life had become far more productive.

Too often, we get caught up with daily activities and do not take the time to reflect. Our lives have become too organized.

Today this starts in early childhood as parents begin to organize their children's lives. They fill the child’s life with organized activities - sports, dancing classes, and church groups. These are all worthy and teach, but they keep children, and the parents, so busy they have no time to think and reflect.

I grew up in a time when there was no television. We would sit on the floor in front of the radio and listen to the Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, and other programs. You could shut your eyes and picture the great white stallion, Silver, and trusted Indian friend Tonto. When these programs came to television something was lost. No television set could equal the imagination pictured in a listener’s mind.

For many years I have been struck by an interesting fact. The state of Mississippi, which is often near the bottom of positive statistics, stands out above all other states in the number of creative people per capita. Was there something in the water? I have since come to the conclusion, that because of the poverty and slower lifestyle, people have time to think. When people have time to think, they can use their creativity.

When starting a company from scratch, there are few customers to serve. There will be a lot of marketing activities, getting out and meeting new people, and setting up your products or services. It is the same way planting a church. This leaves time for thinking and soul searching - sometimes wondering why you ever tried this.

As the organization grows, you have to get organized, because that is what everyone does. You start with the vision of the future, a significant purpose that will motivate the leadership to spend their lives for that purpose. Concerns for any difficulty are subjugated by the sheer power of the vision. The rewards will be greater than the risks. The family, employees, or members of the organization are able to foresee the significance of what they are trying to accomplish.

As the organization grows, the exciting adventure of achieving the vision dims, even in the best of situations. Somewhere along the way, the organization itself changes. Instead of being the instrument for fulfilling the vision, it now has become a consumer of valuable resources. Like an overindulged, spoiled child, the organization itself demands everyone’s attention. The vision is subjugated to the demands of maintaining the organization. Resources intended to serve the greater purpose are now consumed maintaining the organization.

Renewal can only come when the original vision is restored. If you feel that your life, your job, or your organization has become a drudgery, it is time to stop, get to a quiet place and spend time reflecting upon whatever happened to your dream. Several years ago we were teaching a group of missionaries, pastors, and evangelists in Costa Rica. It was obvious that many of them had lost their God-given vision. My advice to them was if their vision has dimmed, they should stop what they were doing, go up on a mountaintop, and pray for their vision to be restored. They should not go back into ministry until that vision was clear again.

If you are a leader of an organization, do not let the organization lead you. You should be led by your vision. If that vision is unclear, take time to think, reflect, and pray.

What Happened to The Dream

(Excerpt from "Disorganize or Bust") 

When a baby is born, the family gathers around and are struck with the wonder of what the child will accomplish. It is a time of joy, looking to the future and dreaming big dreams. There is the potential for greatness. Parents also feel the burden of responsibility to provide the child everything needed to reach its full potential. As the child grows into adulthood, there will be many trials passing through different age levels – the terrible twos, teenage years, and leaving the nest. Later in life choices are made, good and bad.

So also is an organization. There is the vision of what the organization can become. There will be a significant purpose that motivates the organizers to expend their lives for the good of the purpose. The future trials are subjugated by the sheer power of the vision. The rewards are seen as greater than the risks. The family, employees, or members of the organization can see the significance of what they are all about.

Then trials begin to show up and the vision of the future is dimmed in light of immediate circumstances. The exciting adventure has become a drudgery. This can happen even in the best of situations. Somewhere along the way the organization itself has changed. Instead of fulfilling the vision for which it was created, it now has become a consumer of valuable resources. Like a spoiled child, the organization demands everyone’s attention and the vision is subjugated to the demands of the organization. The organization which was started to fulfill a need has become the entity in need. Resources intended to serve the greater purpose are now consumed to maintain the organization.

The organization has become institutionalized. It acts like Audry Jr., the crossbreed of a Butterwort and a Venus Fly Trap in the movie Little Shop of Horrors. Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American rock musical horror comedy film directed by Frank Oz. It is a film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical comedy of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman about a nerdy florist shop worker who raises a vicious, raunchy plant that feeds on human blood. As the plant keeps growing, it became more demanding, and commands its owner, “Feed me Seymour!”

Organizations can grow into bureaucracies and become more demanding, consuming more and more time and resources, just to continue to exist. The leaders, employees, or members become so consumed with keeping the organization fed that they forget the original purpose. 

Imagine the “Borg Collective.” The Borg are a fictional alien race that appears as recurring antagonists in the Star Trek franchise. Aside from being the main threat in First Contact, the Borg play major roles in The Next Generation and Voyager television series, primarily as an invasion threat to the United Federation of Planets, and serve as the way home to the Alpha Quadrant for isolated Federation starship Voyager. from the Star Trek television series.

The Borg was an alien race that was a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones in a hive mind called the Collective, or the hive. The fictional Borg, whose ultimate goal is "achieving perfection," resembles a large organization trying to achieve ultimate institutionalization.

Any organization, large or small, can fall into the trap of losing sight of the original significant purpose for which it was created. Governments, major corporations, labor unions, service organizations, religious entities and individuals all are vulnerable to losing the vision. 

The obvious examples of this bureaucratic process are government agencies. But, we see it in the banking industry where a bank becomes “too large to fail.” Some corporations have grown out of control through merger and acquisition in an attempt to control an industry. Labor unions which came into life to protect the workers have become institutions which have lost sight of their original purpose and exploit workers as the industrial barons once did. Education systems have become large bureaucracies which must be maintained while the education of students continues to fail. In the old one room country school, the expenditures for education were spent mostly in the classroom. Now the majority of funds are spent on maintaining a hierarchal bureaucracy. The bureaucracy of some charitable organizations has grown to the point where only a small fraction (as little as five percent in some well-known cases) of their income is actually spent helping people while the majority of income feeds the organizational beast. Our religious institutions are not immune to this structural obesity. Many local churches spend the majority of their budgets on maintaining facilities and infrastructure. As a result little is left to feed the poor and minister to those in need.

While this situation is pandemic throughout the world, there are solutions that can renew these organizations. Renewal infers that there was a significant vision which has been lost but can still be realized, but it will require taking drastic steps. The alternative is to continue on the path of growing budgets while providing less and less significant work.

John 15:2 (NIV) He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Where is Your Organization In its Life Cycle?

If an organization were a well-oiled machine it would never change. It would keep working as long as its parts did not wear out and if it did not lose its power source. But organizations are made up of imperfect people who have a limitations and capabilities. Their working life varies with the individual. Empirically, we have observed that organizations go through a process of initial startup, improving, and growing until they reach their peak performance. Then most tend to decline and finally cease to exist or become ineffective. This is true of social business organizations, churches, denominations, government agencies, and nations.

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that less than fifty percent of business start-ups will survive beyond five years. Even when an organization makes it through the initial five years, after seventeen years only one-fourth of businesses are still alive. 

As Egypt declined in power in the eighth century BCE, the Assyrians, under Tiglath-Pileser III, became the power in the Middle East. Assyria then went into decline as subsequent kings were weak. Assyria was conquered by Babylon which later rose to great power under King Nebuchadnezzar. After his death Babylon declined and was conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire without even a fight. Then the Greeks rose to power when Alexander, The Great, conquered the Medo-Persians and all of the Middle East. Greece declined in power after Alexander’s death and the Roman Empire rose up until it too lost its way. Since then we have seen nations rise to power and then fall into decline. Most organizations follow this same path with a limited life.

For simplicity, we have chosen to divide the life cycle of an organization into five phases. Any business, church, or nation will go through this cycle and only strong intervention will bring renewal.

These are not the only phases one could identify, but they illustrate the point we are making that organizations are fluid and move from phase to phase. There is not a specific time frame for moving through the phases and initiating change can reverse the movement towards disintegration.

There can be hope for an organization that is in decline if it returns to its initial vision and purpose.

Initial Structuring

At the starting point of a new organization, there is a sense of destiny among the leader and his initial team of followers. There will be a strong commitment to the mission. The visionary leader communicates his vision and many are attracted to that vision. The leader’s positive enthusiasm attracts others with positive and supportive attitudes. The future is still unclear, but it does not dampen the enthusiasm of the followers. There is a mutual dependency as each – leader and followers – are willing to work long hours. In this phase, decision making is spontaneous, plans are being formulated and there is very little organizational structure. Because of this, people are receptive to change and it is easy to make course corrections. Everyone involved feels ownership. Morale and self-esteem in the organization is high. Innovation and creativity thrive in newer organizations.

Formal Organization

After the initial start up, a more formal organization is normally established. This heightens the sense of mission and purpose among every member. They are now more able to see the vision of the organization coming to fruition. This results in a high level of goal "ownership." People begin to give a high percentage of their time and identity to the organization. It is easy to get volunteers and hire new employees.

The organization’s structural “form” is governed by “function.” That means that the form of the structure is only created in response to the corporate functional needs. It is at this point that traditions begin to form, but it is still reasonably easy to incorporate changes and integrate them into the whole organization. Morale is still high and leaders consider suggestions from all levels. Self-esteem is easily affected by circumstances, short-term successes, and failures.

Maximum Efficiency, 

When the business has reached or is approaching “maximum efficiency,” the mission and purpose are still highly visible and well understood by everyone within the organization. 

All participants or employees realize the common purpose and work together for its achievement. Even new people quickly find their place and participate enthusiastically. New programs are created to respond to new needs. Leaders freely delegate responsibility and authority and new roles are created. New proposals are given serious consideration. Morale and self-esteem are at their highest levels and confidence has become contagious.

Institutionalization, 

When the organization reaches the institutionalization phase, there is a lowering of members understanding of purpose. People begin to look only at their own small areas of responsibility and not extend themselves. The attitude has become, “I have done my thing, now there are enough others to do the job.”

Older participants or employees feel they have done their part and do not need to take on new responsibilities. Few, if any, new programs are added. Now the organizational structure itself creates needs, rather than responding to needs. Changes, when proposed are not considered if they radically depart from the status quo. Morale becomes polarized into two groups; high and low. Self-esteem develops uncertainties.

Institutionalized organizations are commonly referred to as bureaucracies. The following quote comes from a “Tongue in Cheek” article by historian C. Northcote Parkinson. It appeared in the November 1955 edition of The Economist. Parkinson typifies an organization in the institutionalized phase.

Parkinson’s Law roughly states, "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

This is a good definition of “Institutionalization.” Parkinson based his theory on studies of the British Admiralty over fourteen years from 1914 to 1928. In that period the number of capital ships in the fleet was reduced by sixty percent while the staff at headquarters increased seventy-five percent. Parkinson actually created a mathematical formula predicting an institutional growth of between five and seven percent per year, regardless of the amount of work required.

Where: “x” is the number of new staff needed each year; “k” is the number of current staff seeking promotion through hiring new subordinates; “p” represents the difference between the age of appointment and retirement age; “m” is the number of man-hours devoted to responding to memos within the department; and “n” is the number of units overseen.

The cost involved in this institutional expansion cannot be sustained and will ultimately lead to disintegration.

Disintegration

In the disintegration phase the organizational purpose is lost and mission not understood. Programs are eliminated for lack of participation. It is difficult to recruit new participants and/or employees. Ten percent of the workers are doing ninety percent of the work. Funding has become difficult and services are being reduced or eliminated. The primary focus is on preservation and survival. At one board meeting, I attended, the president made an announcement that the companies largest customer was undergoing a slowdown and their purchases would be reduced by ten percent. His solution was to raise his prices ten percent to compensate for the reduction in the number of parts the customer ordered. That same company had never produced a five year plan. When they were encouraged to plan ahead, the response was, "We've never done it that way before. We do not even know whether we will be here in five years."

In the disintegration phase, Leaders rationalize why goals cannot be achieved. Morale is at an all-time low. Leaders do not know how to stop the decline resulting in frustration and despair among workers whose self -esteem suffers.

For free E-Book "Motivation" go to aslanministries.org