Throughout scripture we see a pattern in the lives of those God desires to use. There are five elements in every life of the people God summons. One such example is written in Matthew 14:22-33. In this passage Jesus comes to His Disciples at 3:00 in the morning. They are in a boat being tossed around on the angry waves of the sea. Jesus is walking on the water.

1. God has a Call-, a purpose on the life of every born-again believer. Every day we begin a new leg of our journey. Each day is but another passage of our voyage called life. Every day, as Christians, we must be ready to get out of the boat and walk on water as God calls.

In the storms of life, it sometimes takes eyes of faith to recognize when Jesus is passing by. If you are not looking for Him, you might just miss Him. This is the detriment in the lives of many church-goers. We don’t look for Jesus in the storm or the good times.

Jesus used a familiar term to the disciples. It was a Hebrew term found in the Old Testament. He said, “Do not be afraid, It is I.” or “It is I AM.” A term used for God.

2. There is always a fear – As I read and recall, when God appeared to one of His servants and “called” them to a special work, there is always one emotion present – fear.

However, each time that person or people group said yes to God’s calling, they experienced God’s power in their lives. But they first had to overcome their own fear.

3. There is always a reassurance – As Christians we find ourselves in similar situations as Peter on this night. We must ask ourselves, “Is this really what God is calling me to?”

Jesus gave Peter the reassurance. He said, “Come.” Peter, through his faith and trust in Jesus had to step out and do something beyond his comfort level resting on the reassurance of Christ.

4. There is always a decision – This is not a story of risk taking. It is a story of obedience. Peter had enough faith to be part of this miraculous event. Peter was ready for his extreme adventure in discipleship.

On this particular night 91% of Jesus’ closest followers chose fear over faith. Only one was ready to be a water-walker. Which camp are you in, fear or faith?

5. There is always a changed life – You either get out of the boat, join God in His work, allow the Holy Spirit to change you to be more like Christ,

Or you stay in the boat, and let your fears and presuppositions change you into a calloused and hardened person – a boat sitter.

Every time you get out of the boat you become a little more like Christ. With every act of obedience, you become a water-walker.

When we think of this passage, we think of Peter. We do not think of the other eleven disciples. But you and I are either like Peter or we are like the other eleven. Faith or fear?

If today were judgment day and it was your turn to stand before God, and God showed you a video of your life, would your video show a boat sitter or a water walker?

Only you can change that video. I pray that you choose to be a water-walker.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Peter Drucker, one of the greatest minds of executive leadership of the twentieth century identified five practices essential to business effectiveness that can improve anyone’s effectiveness.

1. Management of time – While this one seems like common sense, it seems to be a difficult one for most people to tame. Having written a short self-study on time management years ago, I now realize at that young age in my late twenty’s, I had no clue about the demands on an executive’s time. It was good information and still would be effective, yet I was young and naive about the world of business and the demands on your time.

Effective leaders know the busier you get, the higher in corporate or church leadership you rise, the more time management is necessary.

2. Choosing what to contribute to the practical organization – Perhaps like me you have known managers and executives on both sides of this see-saw. Some want a hands-on approach to the extent they can hinder the work of their team or organization. They’re usually always looking for the reason their team is not functioning effectively. On the other side, we see managers or executives who are so hands off, they haven’t a clue what is going on and leave their organization to flounder, only to blame the team members.

Effective leaders learn to step back to view the organization from a broader perspective or as some would say from the 3,000 foot overhead view.

3. Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect – Many organizations only want to fill an open position or task with any warm body,

Effective leaders observe and seek out a person with passion and capacity to get the job done. This person(s) will be effective in accomplishing the task. Fill positions with the right people.

4. Setting up the right priorities – It is easy in our society to treat the urgent as the emergency basing our priorities on the nature of urgency.

Effective leaders realize prioritizing the important rather than the so-called urgent will render much more effectiveness. The story of Jesus raising Lazarus is one example. Martha, Mary, and His Disciples were about the urgent. Jesus on the other hand was focused on the more important issue. He said this will not end in death. He did not say Lazarus would not die.

5. Knitting all of the above four together with effective decision making – Working on each of the four is a challenge. No one has all the components needed to carry these out effortlessly.

Effective leaders have learned to weave together the necessities required for each of these. They will bring others along who have complementary strengths in the areas the leader is weakest.

What will you do this week to begin working on at least two of these five practices for effectiveness in your life and organization?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

While knowledge and creativity are important in leadership, both flounder without the key of effectiveness. I have known many knowledgeable men and women in leadership positions. Fewer were effective at moving his/her organization forward than those who were unable to. Knowledge does not equate to effective leadership. Knowledge does not move some person or organization forward. Likewise, I have known some brilliantly creative minds, who were not able to effectively implement their creativity into positive, forward moving action.

You can have all the degrees possible to attain in your lifetime and gain all the knowledge of each degree. Yet, without the skills to produce effective results in moving your church (organization) forward in fulfilling its mission, your knowledge will be found floundering. In the same manner, you can have the greatest creative brain that God ever designed, but without the leaned skills of effective implementation your creativity will be nothing more than post-it notes stuck on a wall.

Too often people with knowledge are considered to be great leaders. I contend, knowledge does not a leader make. Also in our culture today, we have all known people promoted to leadership positions due to their ability to be creative thinkers and designers. There is a place in leadership for all of these yet often the person with these (knowledge and creativity) traits is not also gifted with effectiveness in fulfillment to move the organization forward. Believe it or not, we see this often in the church.

Churches do a disservice to their pastor and congregation when they assume their pastor is an effective implementor. Not one of us (no-one in your congregation) has all the gifts and skills for the church to be successful. God has placed in the church each person for a specific reason and purpose. While the pastor may be the key creative mind, there is likely another person(s) on staff or in the congregation whom God has gifted to be the effective implementor(s).

A truly gifted creative mind will seek other creative minds to produce the best (God’s) plan of moving the organization to fulfilling its purpose. As a man with knowledge seeks to surround himself with others knowledgeable in the areas of need. After all ideas have been fleshed out and God’s will is revealed then it is time to engage those who are gifted in effective implementation. The pastor or leader does not turn lose of his/her creative ideas but joins in with promoting and implementing the plans for positive, effective forward movement of the organization to fulfill its God-given purpose.

Who in your church or organization has been gifted with the abilities of effectiveness? Remember, if you consider yourself to always be the most knowledgeable and capable person in the room – you’re probably not. Find those complementary personalities whom God has placed around you and your organization will move forward.

Next week, we’ll look at five practices that anyone can use to improve your effectiveness. These five practices come from one of the twentieth century’s greatest leadership minds.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

I have been asked, “How do we measure progress as leaders?” My question is, “Doesn’t it vary with each organization and within each organization?” What and where are the evidences of progress?

I believe we must first have an understanding of what we are trying to measure. A sales manager is interested in how many sales of product his sales team can generate. A produce farmer is interested in the best way to be efficient in getting the most fruit to market. A prosecuting attorney understands the convincing that needs to take place for a conviction. In your church or organization what is it that needs to be measured to aid in progress?

In every walk of life we need to have an understanding of what we are trying to measure. The church is no different. Whether you are a teacher, secretary, deacon, or in any leadership position you must have an understanding of what you are in need of measuring.

In order to have an understanding of what you are trying to measure, you must have a knowledge of where you are attempting to go. It will do you no good to have a map of Oregon if you want to vacation in San Diego, agreed?

In your leadership position, what are you trying to accomplish (where are you going)? The term lead or leader implies that you are going on a journey and that you are taking others with you, correct? In your leadership position do you know what you are attempting to accomplish, where you are going? Ex: Reaching a lost community, growing disciples who will grow disciples.

Once you know where you are attempting to go you need to develop a strategy to get there. A strategy is a visionary, systematic combination of elements leading from now (point A) to point B. For your vacation you need to determine certain things i.e. drive or fly and rent a car. In the church if your objective is to reach the lost community, it could be determining the true needs in the community.

Next, you need to create a plan of action. This plan of action differs from your strategy in that the purpose of the plan of action is to carry out your strategy of accomplishing your task. Your plan of action will include multiple arteries for intentionally attacking your strategy. For your vacation to San Diego your plan of action will include: Making reservations, plan activities in San Diego, check venues.

For the church you may want to see where the strengths of your church align with the needs of the community. Ex. If you have good cooks in the church (I know you do) and you find out there are children in the community with no food on weekends, I trust you see a connection to begin meeting that need.

Once you know your direction and have your strategy and plan of action lined out you can work on establishing a diagnosis for progress. This is the tool you develop for measuring evidence of progress. When driving a car you do this by watching road signs and points of interest that communicate that you are headed in the correct direction.

What are you waiting for? Why not begin right now? Determine what needs to be measured, what are you trying to accomplish? Then carry on from there. Let me know how it goes for you and your church.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Several years ago, I wrote that I believe multiplication is God’s preferred math formula. Every living thing that God created, He created to grow and to reproduce (multiply). None of God’s living creations will grow indefinitely. But all are designed to reproduce themselves. These are natural growth tendencies of all things living. One more of the biotic – natural growth principles is Multiplication.

Multiplication: Interestingly, every definition I looked up of the word multiplication, used the word multiply in its definition. Now, I was always taught in school to never use a word in its own definition. So, let’s take another angle. Addition is adding to what is existing. Multiplication is reproducing at higher rates than simply adding. Every living organism that God created He created to reproduce (multiply).

Healthy organisms do not grow endlessly, but reproduce themselves. The church is a living organism therefore it should be considered a living, growing, reproducing creation of God Almighty. Classes reproduce classes, churches reproduce more churches, and a Christian reproduces more Christians. Successful leaders reproduce more leaders.

In everything you do, a basic question to ask each day is, “What am I doing today to reproduce – multiply – what I have and know, in other people?” If you are a teacher, are you reproducing or simply teaching facts? If you are a pastor, how are you reproducing multiple ministers? As a leader, how are you gifting others to produce successful leaders?

Whatever God has given you, He has given to you, not to hold and hoard, but to share to and build others. We are to pour into others what we have gained in knowledge and experience. Then we are to go further and assist others in becoming even greater than ourselves. This was even a practice of Jesus Christ. He said, The Father will do even greater things than these through you (George Yates translation).

Don’t teach to show how much you know. Teach to show how much more someone can grow. Teach them how to go out and find even more than you can give.

And while you’re at it, don’t just choose one person to pour into. That’s addition. God prefers multiplication. Resolve today to multiply yourself. Then go out and get started!

This article was first posted November 2018.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

“Our community is so tough. They just won’t come.” This is a common statement among churches today. But is it valid? After all, The Great Commission does not say wait for them to come to church. Jesus’ command to us in The Great Commission is to “GO”. As we are walking through life, wherever we find ourselves we are to watch for God’s opportunities to share His Love and His story.

Here are ten different arenas right in your community in which every church can embark.

1, Recreation – what recreation can your church sponsor, participate in, or host in your community. It might be something that is ongoing like a soccer or little league, any children’s sport. It could be an adult bowling or golf event or league. How about fishing tournaments, checkers in the park, marathons, wherever your imagination can take you. It might be simply providing meals for a local high school team or event.

2, Emotional Support – Providing emotional support groups for grief, divorce, addiction recovery, wounded veterans, or others.

3, Arts – Like sports, what are the possibilities of sponsoring art exhibits, clinics, or ongoing classes for music, painting or any of the arts. Why not a music or arts camp in the summer for children?

4, Parental Support – Providing evening seminars or support groups for parenting in general or single parenting is a need in every city, town, and rural community in America. Perhaps a weekly bulletin.

5, Financial Support – Offering budgeting seminars or financial information support for younger or struggling families is a great blessing. Even a monthly newsletter on financial issues families deal with.

6, Education – After school tutoring is needed in every generation. Some cultures insist on after school instruction. Adult education is also a need, as well as English as a second language. Do you have people in your church who could teach basic auto mechanics or carpentry? Education is not only the three Rs.

7, Mental health – Your church can be God’s blessing to the family with a member living with mental health issues. Even a 3 hour time slot each week as a break is a small sacrifice, but a most generous gift to the caregivers.

8, Wellness – What wellness outreach events can you host/sponsor? Do you have medical professionals in your church? What are possible health and wellness evening seminars you can host. Healthy cooking?

9, Fostering Relationships – Peer relationships are an easy way to share Jesus’ story with others, first through your living and then verbally.

10, Hobbies – How many different hobbies are held by members of your church? Some we’ve listed above, but they range from cooking, to recipes books, to reading, quilting, hunting, boating, walking, biking, motorcycling, shade-tree mechanics, gardening, bird watching, collecting, the list goes on and on.

Each one of these ten has numerous possibilities for your church. More importantly is to equip and expect members to use these as a means to share the gospel of Christ. An atheist group can do any of these, but as Christ followers we are called to share the Good News of God’s love as we go. What can you do to encourage church members to get engaged in sharing their testimony to others through any of these ten? What other arenas can you come up with?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Artwork by Deandre’ Burns

Like many of you, I like to garden. Every year I till the ground plant seed, fertilize, water, and cultivate the garden area. Yet, I cannot produce any amount of growth in my garden. This year’s garden did not produce the best crops I’ve seen, yet God blessed and gave the increase.  There is a scripture passage from the Apostle Paul as he is writing to the church in Corinth that reads, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (ESV)

Whether in a garden, in your personal life, in a church or any other organization, God is the giver and sustainer of life. You can eat well live right, get proper amount of exercise, yet it is God who produces growth. In the midst I adhere to the belief that God has certain biotic principles at work in our lives enabling the growth process, both in our bodies and in the health of the church.

There are biotic principles working around you and me every day of our lives. Biotic refers to actions caused by living organisms. Biotic principles are the underlying causes which produce ongoing operative life.

Every living thing that God has created, person, animal, plant, has been created to grow and reproduce. Even the smallest blade of grass. These biotic principles are constantly working behind the scenes to produce this on-going growth and reproduction.

Let me share six biotic principles identified by Christian Schwarz in relation to your spiritual growth and the health of your church. As you read these can you identify how each one is at work in your church? Also identify how you could better employ these in your life to advance the health of your church.

1. Interdependence: God created us to be interdependent with other believers to grow individually and corporately as a church.
2. Multiplication: Like every tree, God created us not for endless growth, but to reproduce. A tree does not endlessly grow but drops seeds year after year to produce more trees.
3. Energy transformation: Rather than force or coercion God’s ecological system uses the transformation of energy to bring about growth, even from unlike beings. While nourishing on the nectar of flowers and plants, bees and butterflies transfer pollens from one plant to another.
4. Multi-usage: Trees gather nutrients through its root system and produces leaves each year to provide shade, nesting, and other necessities for bugs, animals, and people around the trees. After a season the leaves die, fall to the ground and decay, producing more nutrients to be absorbed by the roots.
5. Symbiosis: The interconnected co-existing of two dissimilar beings for the shared benefits. We are not created to live alone in a silo, but to live in symbiosis with one another for the mutual benefit of being used by God in His kingdom work.
6. Functionality: Every living thing God has created, has two great attributes; to bear fruit and to reproduce. This is their function.

What can you garner from understanding these biotic (not bionic) principles of healthy growth? What will you take to your church as you improve your usage of God’s biotic principles?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

The quick, simple answer to the title of this article is, “You cannot.” Only God can grow His church. However, there are features you can undertake to improve The Holy Spirit’s work in and through your church. Using what Gene Mims termed as the 1-5-4 Principle, let me attempt to briefly address how church health leads to healthy growth.

God’s directive to us is the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). We carry this out through five functions of our ministries – Evangelism, Discipleship, Fellowship, Ministry, and Worship. When we have the Great Commission as our sole driving force and we work through the five functions of the church, we will see four areas of kingdom results.

Spiritual Maturation

At the time of rebirth or spiritual salvation, we receive a complete transformation. However, at that point we also begin a life-long process of transformation: A transformation to Christ likeness – being like Christ. In Sunday School and other small group Bible study classes, we study to learn the attributes and characteristics of living a Christ-like life. Studying in small groups with other believers helps us in the assimilation of Christ-like characteristics and assists us in processing and understanding Christian values through the support and testimony of one another. Through small groups, spiritual maturation comes to the individual and to the body as a whole.

Ministry Expansion

As we grow spiritually, individuals and corporately, (as mentioned above) we realize the need for ministry expansion. As we study and grow deeper in Christ-like characteristics, God reveals to us missing ministry opportunities – new doors to ministry openings. Things like ministering to shut-ins, the need for more Bible study classes, better relationship building opportunities within the church family, etc. As we grow and spiritually mature, we not only see the needs, but people have a tendency to gravitate to the ministry opportunities where they have a passion to see improvement or to assist.

Missions Awareness

The next supernatural progression as we grow spiritually and we are expanding our ministries is people become aware of the need to be mission oriented. Missions is ministry outside the walls and family of the church. Ministries of the church endorse and support missions through the promotion of missions giving and providing opportunities for mission engagement on one or all three levels of missions – local, national, and international.

Numerical Growth­

I believe if a church is healthy and actively pursuing the natural progression of the first three areas of results, numerical growth will be an automatic bi-product. However, that does not say that we should leave it to happen automatically. Numerical growth will happen because of the 1) spiritual growth, the more I learn about and experience God’s love, the more I want to tell others 2) ministry expansion, as God provides more ministry opportunities, the more I realize I know people who could benefit from these opportunities, and 3) mission’s awareness, as we share outside the confines of the church walls people come to Christ through our expression of God’s love.

How can you assist in improving the health of your church? In each of these four areas, how can you improve your act of service to God Almighty?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

In an earlier post I wrote about the movement of a steam locomotive beginning to move. It is a slow but deliberate process. While there may be others working behind the scenes, it is the engineer who makes the maneuvers to get the train started moving. Unlike the train where the engineer is primarily responsible for moving the locomotive forward, there are different ministries of the church.

Therefore, there are varying avenues in moving the church forward and creating forward momentum. The pastor should lead the effort, but ministry leaders and members share in the responsibility of forward progress of the church. It now becomes essential for proper equipping of the members of the church which begins with those in leadership positions. Without proper equipping of leaders, it is not so likely that all ministries will be part of the forward momentum building process of the church.

An important decision for church leaders at this juncture is to determine how each ministry can benefit the forward moving progress of the church. This too, is not a decision that will automatically come to pass overnight. Creating forward momentum will require some time, teamwork, and a lot of prayer and higher level thought processes to ensure all ministries are considered equally and unequivocally.

One critical factor is that each team leader must 1) buy into the process of reversing decline and assisting in moving the church forward. A ministry/team leader that is not helping create forward momentum is like a set of wheels on the train with its brakes locked, that ministry will keep the church from reaching its potential momentum.

2) Each ministry team leader must be willing to be properly equipped and trained. Regardless of age or tenure in a position, new, revised training must be sought out and competed. The type of training or equipping sought should align with the current goals and vision of the church. Use caution and set parameters for the equipping being sought after.

3) Each ministry leader should be the cheerleader, team captain, and equipper of the members of his/her ministry. If a ministry leader is not excited and energetic about the new forward momentum of the church, members of his/her team will likely not be excited, nor will they reach the full potential as a team.

When a church even in deep decline reaches this point and leaders and members are willing to make these adjustments and acquire necessary equipping, spending quality time in higher levels of prayer, seeking God’s face in new, deeper, stronger behaviors, God will begin to show up and show out in supernatural ways – changing hearts, changing lives. Now the varying ministries are pulling together to make God’s forward progress.

Be certain you are helping get all the wheels on the same track and moving all in one direction.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

What is the one thing in your personal life and as a church you can do to be the very best at fulfilling your purpose? Every church should answer this question and review it every three years. What is the one thing you can do better than anyone else? Your church does have something, one particular feature, which it can do better than the government, the school system, neighborhood organizations, better than any other church.

There is a line near the beginning of the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance in which Bagger says to the young golfer, “You’ve lost your swing. We’ve got to go find it.” This is such a great picture of the church today! Are you willing to walk with your church in finding that one feature, that one thing that you can do better than anyone else? Only then will you get your swing back personally and as a church. The following questions will assist you in searching out the special God-given feature of your church.

• What are the strengths of our church? People have strengths and weaknesses. Strengths are things that a person is good at and enjoys participating in. Cumulatively as a church body, you also have certain strengths. Seek out those strengths. Your strengths will align with your special God-given feature that as a church you can do better than anyone. Because people of the church believe something is a strength, does not make it a strength.

Set some guidelines for identifying strengths including outward and inward focal points. Example: If this is a strength, how will it help fulfill the Great Commission by bringing people to Christ and growing disciples? Another good criteria can be the five functions of the church: Evangelism, Discipleship, Fellowship, Ministry, Worship. A study of Acts chapter 2:41-47 reveals each of these as functions of the New Testament church. Does each identified strength match up with one or more of these functions of the church?

• What are the local needs? The church today has become good at telling the community our perception of what they need. If you want to know the needs of the community, go ask the people living in the community. Don’t assume and waste God’s resources on anything less.

Use a simple three question survey, go and ask for specific needs. People will talk with you today. Until you know the true needs of the community, you cannot help them or show them that you care. Until you can show them that you care, you cannot win them to Christ. If you cannot win them, you cannot disciple them.

• How can we utilize the strengths within our church to impact for God the community around our church? Here is where you start putting together the answers to the first two questions. This can be an exhilarating exercise identifying the connections between the strengths of the church and the needs of the community.

Members begin to see that there is something already in their possession, some skill, ability, or talent that can be used to meet the needs of others – a great motivator for ministry.

God has placed in every church all that is needed to carry out the ministry for the needs of its community. Before your church plunges through the phases of decline, I pray you will right the course using the gifts and talents God has placed at your disposal. You have what it takes. Find your one specific feature, your niche to the community; go and fulfill your purpose doing what you can do best – This is where you will find your swing.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.