I was recently in a discussion with a pastor whose leader suggested hiring a technology consultant. After some banter back and forth, where it became clear the pastor wasn’t interested he finally responded with, “When was the last time technology led someone to Christ?”

You can imagine the conversation pretty much died at that point, but I had the opportunity to continue the discussion with this pastor behind the scenes, and I wanted to share some of our discussion. Having a core workout for swimmers will make you a better, stronger swimmer.

“When was the last time technology led someone to Christ?”
This question seems inherently flawed to me. That’s like asking “When is the last time your small group program led someone to Christ?” The easy answer to both questions is: NEVER.

Programs don’t lead people to Christ, but that doesn’t eliminate their value or effectiveness. Technology doesn’t lead people to Christ. People lead people toward Christ. Programs and technology are tools, methods, and environments that facilitate ministry. I’ve seen technology that does a better job than a lot of small group programs at facilitating genuine community. I’ve seen technology leverage Leadership Development better than most pastors. Technology is a tool for people to accomplish God’s mission. And the impact that technology has on our ability to engage the church’s mission is monumental!

Jesus Uses Revolutions in Communication Technology

The printed Bible is technology (though the technology is quite old). Gutenberg’s printing press at one time, was a cutting-edge technological tool that changed everything about how we communicate God’s word! How many people have come to know Christ because of how the church utilized that technology? How many Christian authors have been the catalyst for life transformation? Imagine if the church had refused to adopt printed materials. A lot of churches villanized the printing press and resisted it as a cultural change, yet it has done more for the church and we can begin to imagine.

We are on a similar crest of technological change. How we communicate as a culture and a people has changed, and continues to change at a rapid rate. If the church does not embrace cultural changes in how we communicate, it will quickly fall into missional impotence. Eventually it will be as if we never adopted the printing press – we lose the ability to communicate effectively with our world.

As a coach (and pastor) that helps leaders navigate through growth challenges with vision clarity, I serve churches with a lot of different perceived challenges. I can say fairly confidently, that any church (from new plant to Gigachurch) that’s not paying attention to their technology and communication is doomed to struggle continually with being less than their God-designed potential.

If an organization rises and falls on leadership, leadership rises and falls on communication. As Jenni Catron said in her book Just Lead – a vision is only as good as it is understood.

Jesus modeled this using parables, stories, and object lessons from an agrarian culture – because that’s to whom he was speaking. Being the God of the universe, He could have used far more accurate and detailed language. But He didn’t. Jesus communicated in concepts that were native to the Jewish cultural mindset.

So what does that mean for us?

If Jesus were walking personally in the flesh in the American culture, I am convinced that He would be using digital examples and object lessons that are native to the modern American mind to illustrate truth. Part of the responsibility of a consultant is to speak the cultural language of the churches we serve – and it is the church’s responsibility to speak the native language of the people it is their mission to reach and disciple. Because we live in a post-digital revolution, technology awareness and effectiveness is part of the praxis of ministry.

Maybe unfollowing is the modern equivalent of shaking the dust from your feet.

>> So what is your church’s biggest communication/technology challenge?

Check out Ed Stetzer’s article on getting started in social media HERE.

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time talking the Jenni Catron, Executive Director of Cross Point Church and co-author of Just Lead.

Jenni had some great insight about what it means to move your mission forward, and illuminated one of the lynchpins of forward movement as alignent. Even if you have a finely tuned engine with tons of horsepower, without alignment, the wheels can really fall off – arresting forward movement!

>>Alignment through vision clarity will multiply your staff capacity
Like most of us, Jenni talks about feeling like we never have enough staff to do the ministry we need to, and leaders tend to take that personally. But when the vision is clear to people, there is an increase in energy. As Jenni put it, “There is more spring in their step. I saw more energy and engagement in my staff when they had this bigger project in front of them than even in a normal ministry season. You start Breaking down the silos and the individual team mentality that can happen in ministry. And when you have one shared, unified goal everything else just kind of goes away and you’re left with this unified vision. Having that shared vision is critical for alignment!“

Jenni shared a story about how their church had drifted away from a volunteer development culture based on empowering volunteers to do ministry. She noticed a drift toward a culture of hiring people for any task that couldn’t be explained in a 5 minute overview. So Jenni initiated “an all-staff, all-campus initiative for a year to rally everyone around our core value of volunteer development.” She introduced the crisis as, “You will not get your job done unless you equip volunteers to do it!” Volunteer development became part of performance evaluations, they celebrated stories of success in weekly meetings, and kept that one focus in view for a whole year. Cross Point saw the whole staff become aligned around their core value and drastically increase their ministry capacity with volunteers.

>>Alignment increases health and leadership through clear communication
“If everything rises and falls on leadership, leadership rises and falls on communication.” Jenni identified communication clarity as the core center-point for good alignment. If people don’t have good information they are not going to be well-aligned, and that only gets more complicated as the organization gets bigger and the communication component becomes even more influential. A quote from Jenni’s book Just Lead, reminds us “A stellar vision is only as good as it is understood!” She gives several examples of how they maintain finely tuned communication habits by revisiting their communication system every 6 months to redo anything that’s not working. They ask if they have the right people in the room and if they’re having the right “structured communication times” (nobody likes the word meeting).

Additionally, the more intuitive and discerning part of that communication clarity is a leader’s discipline to pull back from the daily details to look at the big picture. Part of executive leadership is about looking out ahead. “When you see a point of caution, you’ve GOT to step into it! …as a leader you’ve got to be looking forward to see where you’re starting to come off the tracks before you derail. Part of being an executive level leader is about spotting problems and leaning in to them with preventative action, not just being great at solving problems after they come to light. A huge part of that is communicating well with your team. Listening with discernment is a big part of that. We have to detect changes in our people, and have conversations/take steps to address them – and not always personally. Jenni gives great advice about leveraging the relational and organizational connections with other staff to help shepherd and keep the organization healthy. These measures can help detect fragmentation, misalignment, and silos before they become a crisis.

Jenni provides a tremendous perspective on how alignment can throw-off everything we’re doing, or multiply our capacity and impact. I have so much respect for a person like Jenni who not only runs a 5 campus ministry, but empowers and equips her leaders to greater capacity and health through alignment, as their advocate and shepherd.

My time with Jenni concluded with a valuable insight that I want to pass on as a question. If you have a cat in your home you may be interesting in cat furniture, The Refined Feline, cat trees. 

“Your staff can’t be unified, aligned, and moving in the right direction if you’re scattered.”

>>What is one way that you can get less scattered and focus for greater impact?

>>do I embarrass God sometimes? A few days ago I read a post from Mashable about a pastor who left a note for a waitress that read, “I give God 10% why do you get 18?” I got miffed at the anecdote knowing from my days of waiting tables that “church people” have a reputation as low tippers. I didn’t think much about it until the teller at the bank this morning referenced the article, and then I heard a table at lunch talking about it. Clearly, the social media community finds something to chew on with this story.

>>strictly speaking, as a self-reflective question, I think it’s a great thing to ask. Why would I give someone who serves me in a luxury activity a higher percentage of the transaction than I would give to the one who provides everything to me? If I consider that God sovereignly provides all that I have, is the first 10% really so much to ask? Ideologically, I don’t think so, but it’s been a while since that percentage was consistently higher.

>>the problem here is that it wasn’t a self-challenging reflection between this pastor and God, it was a snarky quip to the server. Even that makes me cringe a little. Again, not because the food service industry doesn’t need some refinements, but because it brings God into the consideration – and not exactly in a positive light. This pastor went so far as to scratch out the tip and write in $0. Now, the reality for the server is that they got “stiffed” (that’s what we called it when I was a server) and somehow it’s God’s fault. What really burns me is that it paints the picture of those who spend their lives serving God and sharing the most valuable gift in the universe are cheap-ass jerks. The fact that the server posted this in the Atheism section on Reddit gives an indication of how this pastor’s actions are perceived to represent God.

>>adding injury to insult, when the pastor heard about this, she contacted the restaurant and allegedly demanded that the whole wait staff be fired. The following day, the server who posted the image of the receipt was fired. The store manager Dan Smith was reported to say that the picture violated the privacy rights of the pastor. While I agree that I wouldn’t want my signature posted on the web for everyone to see, I find it tough to agree with Dan’s decision.

>>having been a server in my younger days, I have always been an over-tipper unless service is absolutely horrible – and even then I’ve never tipped less than 10%. But now every time I sit down at a restaurant, because I always ask the server if there’s anything I can pray for when I pray for my meal, I’m almost embarrassed that I have just self-identified as a Christian, and I feel like I have to leave even more gratuity to tip the balance (pun intended) of how we represent the generosity of our father.

Most people waiting tables are in a transitional period of life facing tough issues. That’s one of the reasons that illegal drug use is well above the national average in the food service industry. I would like to suggest that it wouldn’t hurt if we decided as pastors to be aware of that and treat them like we know them and love them. If we do that, perhaps instead of leaving work farther from God than when she came in, the kingdom of God might advance and someone might find the love and support that draws them closer to a loving God who suffered for their redemption! …and we wouldn’t have another pastor losing credibility and having to apologize.

>>it seems sacrilegious to say that we might embarrass God, but I know that as a father, if one of my children had done this, despite my love for them, I would be embarrassed. As pastors, (particularly XP’s) we have to be frugal, and keep an eye on the money. We have a stronger concept than most, of how ministry and finance interact. So what do are your thoughts, do you disagree?

>>1. should the server have been fired?
>>2. what would you do if one of your staff had done this?

Next week on Jan 31, at 1pm [CST] I’ll be hosting the NavXP webinar for Executive Pastors. Our first one is how to grow ministry with less money.

We’ll hear stories, tips, and practices from two phenomenal thought leaders: Dr. David Fletcher and Dr. Joshua Whitehead.

>> Increase ownership among members & volunteers.
>> Raise staff awareness of resources.
>> Focus resources for impact.
>> Create a clear sense of missional priority.