Prior to the pandemic of 2020 more than eighty percent of churches in North America were plateaued or declining. Since then less than one percent are running similar attendance numbers as prior to 2020. It is a worthy concept for every church to assess the reality of her current situation. While attendance is not a tell-all, it can be used as an indicator of health issues within the body.

One of the major areas to begin assessing the reality of your situation is to take a vigorous look at the truth. Most people do not like confrontation. However, confronting is a good term to use because to reverse decline, you must be willing to meet head on the things that may be detrimental and causing decline in your church. A vigorous look at all the truth of the reality of your ministry situation will be essential in reversing or avoiding decline.

I use the term A Vigorous Face to Face Summit with Reality, speaking of a completely open and honest assessment – a vigorous face to face meeting with reality at the results of an intense investigation of who we are and how we arrived where we are today. For this reason, it is my belief that a church cannot conduct this assessment without the assistance of an objective experienced and qualified person from outside the church. If you are serious about turning your church around or even avoiding decline, you should seek a church consultant and coach with experience in assisting churches in growth and reversing declining trends.

You want someone guiding your turn around team who does not have the biases that you and your church members have, yet someone with a passion to see the church thrive in building God’s kingdom. This experienced outsider can bring a perspective that no one in your church can. He/she can aid in approaching difficult topics as well as obstacles unseen by staff and members. In the Reaching the Summit process and book we lead the church in looking at not only historical data, but also at behavior patterns, trends, and character traits found in the church. Some may be good and built upon. Others may be detrimental to the church’s health and kingdom growth.

We also assist the church and members within the church in determining the church’s true core values. Searching the internet and copying someone’s core values does not make them yours. Every action you make and every word you speak are outward manifestations of your core values – as an individual and as a church.

One would believe that an essential core value of a New Testament church would be evangelism. After all this is the theme of the New Testament. Yet, I have contended for several years that evangelism is no longer a core value of most “New Testament” churches in North America. If it were a true core value, would we have eighty plus percent of our churches in decline? No, we would not. Those are opposite ends of the spectrum – leading people into a personal relationship with Christ, and declining attendance and spirituality.

How will you begin today, praying for and assisting your church in a self-assessment and discovering the church’s true core values?

For more on assessing your church and discovering your true core values contact George Yates or your state convention office.

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.

When I moved to Georgia, I first stayed for about 4 weeks with John and Mary Rakestraw. They became good close friends during my time in Georgia. Outside of church John and I golfed and did many things together. One evening we were in a grocery store together and I took note of something I had observed in John very frequently. As we walked up to the register, John called the cashier by her first name.

John had lived many years in this part of Cobb County. Yet, I was thinking, “How could he know so many people by their first name?” Everywhere we went, John always called whoever was waiting on us by their first name. There is no way he could know that many people by name – and remember them all.

My curiosity got the best of me. On the way to the truck, I asked John how he knew so many people and a learning conversation ensued. It turns out I was right. He did not know all of those people. His secret was no secret at all. As he approached the register that night and always John automatically looked for the cashier’s name badge. If she wasn’t wearing one he immediately looked at her register screen, where her name was often displayed.

John had trained himself to look first not at the line of people or groceries on the conveyor belt. John’s mind went immediately seeking to know the name of the person who would be waiting on him. Not only at the checkout counter, at restaurants, auto parts stores, golf courses, everywhere John went, he wanted to call that person by name. John had developed a very beneficial behavior pattern.

Behavior patterns are just what the name implies. Pattern is the regular, repetitive form or order of someone or something. Behavior is the way in which we act or respond. Therefore, our behavioral pattern is the regular and repetitive way in which we act and respond to life’s situations. Every person uses a behavior pattern to answer a question, produce an outcome, organize a confusing experience, or minimize stress in his/her life.

Just as individuals have behavior patterns, organizations do as well. In most cases an organization will take on much of the behavior pattern of the leader setting the pace for the organization.\: i.e. in a church if the pastor is passive and non-confrontational, the church will likely reflect this behavior pattern as well. When you see a church that is actively involved in causes outside the church, you will likely find that is a behavior trait/pattern of the pastor.

Every organization has behavior patterns that both positively affect and some that negatively affect the organization and its mission. Identifying behavior patterns of an organization is tremendously helpful in determining strategy planning approaches. In the church it is essential to identify organizational behavior patterns. Some we may need to capitalize on, using these to accomplish our mission, The Great Commission. Conversely, behavior patterns with negative affects on our organization or our mission may need to be altered or eliminated.

Begin this week, seek input from others, observe for yourself, question practices of your church/organization. What behavior patterns can you identify. How can you improve your mission effectiveness by improving your behavior patterns?

Can you guess what the first thing I always do at a checkout line or in a restaurant?

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.

Working in retail management you see a lot of turn-over of employees. One organization I worked for was no different. In certain areas the turnover rate was higher than others. Our store however, had a lower turnover rate in those areas than other stores. People asked why? How could our store have higher retention rates than other stores within the organization sharing the same structure, policies, pay-scale, upline management, and corporate mandates?

I believe at least part of the answer resided in the management team. Not that we were better than other store management teams, but some of our team simply practiced better relational skills. Doug Josenhans and I worked in the same store together for six years. Doug was the Sales Manager and I the Operations Manager. We knew each other’s job so well we could do either one in our sleep. Yet, this was not the key to the organizational culture we developed within our store personnel.

I believe our main key to retention was relational skills. We built a Relational Organization culture. Yes, there were corporate regulations, policies, and mandates to follow. But where there was room for leniency, we gave it. Where there was a need for firmness, we issued it. When discipline needed to be doled out, we faced it. We worked to build relationships with the ninety plus employees at our store. We promoted from within. When we saw potential for advancement, we took the time to invest in an employee.

Continually watching for growth opportunities in our employees, we worked with each one and encouraged them to reach beyond themselves. Cross training between the different departments was as natural as clocking in and out for each shift. Every employee learned how to work different areas of the hardlines store, learning the product, how to use products, materials, and tools. Gaining knowledge and skill in the use of our merchandise for our customers and personal use was significant.

Not only the labor involved inside the store, we also showed personal interest in the lives of our employees. Not that we buddied around with them after hours on a regular basis. But we showed genuine interest in their families and personal struggles, hardships, and celebrations. Employees, younger and older came to us for life advice. I had people come to me for spiritual advice, biblical understanding, and prayer.

During that six years Doug and I had four different General Managers whom we served under. If the General Manager had a similar mindset as ours, and believed in relational culture of leadership, things were great, the store thrived and the manager was generally promoted to a larger volume store in a larger market. When the manager was looking to climb the corporate ladder or had low people skills, the morale of store employees and management dropped. Those managers were moved out fairly quickly.

Were Doug and I perfect? No, not even close. Were we great leaders? Probably not. Yet one thing we had was a drive for building a relational culture within the organization. And we liked to have fun too. Building a relational culture is more than personal relationships. It includes helping others grow toward his/her potential, providing opportunities for others to grow out of their job into another.

Creating a relational culture in a church, like other organizations, is critical to being effective and fruitful in fulfilling our mandate from God to fulfill the Great Commission. Building an effective culture within your church or organization is based on shared values, behaviors, policies and regulations (written and unwritten), vision, values, and assumptions.

What can you do this week to build a better organizational culture withing your organization/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.

We celebrated Easter this past weekend. How did you spend the weekend? Was there eggs and candy in your weekend? Perhaps a church service with family? Did you enjoy a cookout, or perhaps a weekend getaway? We live in a blessed nation at a blessed time in history. We have more freedoms and more lucrative time and finances than most anytime in history. There is a plethora of things to do and places to go any weekend.

Of all the things you could have done and all the places you could have traveled, did you take time to thank the one who made it all possible? There is only one God, the God of all creation, the God who created you, who knit you together in your mother’s womb. This same God sent His only Son to die a very cruel death to pay the penalty for your sins and mine. Who would do that – sacrifice his only son for someone else?

But, His Son was divinely special. He did live in a human body. He did suffer the pain of a whip ripping his flesh thirty-nine times. Then He suffered a cruel death hanging, nailed to a wooden beam, hanging in he desert sun. After His death he was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed tomb. But, less than three days later that tomb was empty. Not because someone had taken the body, not because He really was not dead. No, Jesus Christ overcame death and the grave to complete God’s redemption plan for you and for me.

We are blessed even in the tough times of life. I trust that you have found that turning to God and Christ Jesus in the good and the tough times brings a joy that cannot be matched on this earth.

Three women got up early one morning to prepare the body for a proper burial of one they dearly loved. Before they left the house that morning they were on the darkest road of their life. The one person they had committed themselves to; the most dearly loved person in their lives had been tragically taken away from them.

But when their road was darkest, an angel showed up and resurrected their hopes. Today if your road seems long and dark, don’t get discouraged and don’t quit, the answer is found in scripture. God honors faithfulness. And He has Resurrection Power.

Death and the grave could not keep Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Jesus is alive and well with Resurrection power. He wants to share that power. He wants a relationship with you.

Today, we can have joy unspeakable because of what happened with Jesus on that Resurrection morning so long ago. Have you entered into that relationship with Him that He desires? Will you read the gospel of John in the New Testament and allow the God of the universe to speak to you?

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.

Sir Francis Bacon is credited for coining the phrase, “Knowledge is power.” Many in today’s world have latched on to this illusion – get knowledge, knowledge brings power, and with power comes leadership. This is taught in universities and many organizations in the western hemisphere. Yet is it true? I believe that depends on what you consider power. You can find teachers, professors, scientists and other scholars whose knowledge will bury the needle on any educational scale of knowledge, yet these same people would fail to register any movement on a leadership scale.

Knowledge is good and I do not condemn anyone for their knowledge. My point is knowledge and leadership are two varying realities. It is true knowledge may give a person an advantage over others with less knowledge and this knowledge could bring a sense of power. But this power does not bring leadership. It could result in what is considered leadership through a position or a title. Yet, it is not leadership because a title does not one a leader make. Leadership is not found in a title. “True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned.” John Maxwell.

Leadership is having the ability to influence others. The influence of a well-rounded leader is bringing others along to accomplish tasks, grow individually and as a team, and to better the organization by reaching its goals. To accomplish these elements requires the ability to inspire others to participate. A person leading by title only cannot achieve this feat. Coercion is not leadership.

You’ve likely heard the statement, He who thinks he leads yet has no one following is not a leader but is only out for a walk. The ability to influence others for the greater good is where leadership begins. If they’d rather listen to someone else in the organization, you are not the true leader.

Learn to build your leadership ability by building your influence with others. Influence is not granted by a position or education. Influence is not something granted by higher-ups. Influence is granted only by those you are attempting to lead. Without their promoting you to leader you remain a pusher or at most a manager.

Become a student of true leadership influencing qualities. Study the leadership lessons of Jesus. Read of great leaders who took mediocre organizations and led them to extraordinary ones. Find a person of successful organizational leadership whom people seem to enjoy following due to his/her ability to help others grow. What makes those men and women persons of influence? Why not speak to those people you are charged with leading – those people in your sphere of influence – asking them what qualities they desire in a leader? Then determine what is your first step to take today in becoming a better leader?

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 waiting in line for a ride at the airport a cab pulled up. Noticeably this taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me. He handed me a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wasu, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.’

Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Wasu’s Mission Statement: “To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.”

This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wasu said, ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.’

I said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’

Wasu smiled and said, ‘No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, lassi, water, and orange juice.’

Almost stuttering, I said, ‘I’ll take a lassi since I’ve never had one before.’

Handing me my drink, Wasu said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have Good Housekeeping magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Bible, and a Travel magazine.’

As we were pulling away, Wasu handed me another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.’

Wasu told me that he had the heater on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for me.

Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day. He also let me know that he’d be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

‘Tell me, Wasu,’ I was amazed and asked him, ‘have you always served customers like this?’

Wasu smiled into the rear view mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about power of choice one day.’ ‘Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle.’ ‘If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. Stop complaining!’

‘Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’

‘That hit me right,’ said Wasu. He continued and said, ‘It is about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes.

Wasu made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

Will you  decide today to soar like an eagle and not quack like a duck? What is your first adjustment to make choosing to be an eagle today?

Adapted

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.

Who Is Your Pitcher Pouring Into?

“Hey Kentucky!” A voice called out from behind. Being from Kentucky, Willie spun around quickly to see who was calling out. His eyes locked on Randolph, one of Willie’s former pastors and mentors. Almost 25 years had passed since the two served together on church staff, Randolph the Senior pastor and Willie in his first full-time associate pastor role.

On this day though, it was Randolph who was attending to hear and to learn from the experience of Willie. The two embraced and shared the break together making plans to get together for supper that evening. For Willie it was a joy to be in the presence of his former leader and mentor. He soaked in all that he could from their conversations and time together, just like he had 25 years earlier.

For Randolph, who was nearing retirement at 70 years of age, this would be not only a learning experience, but also a heartwarming homecoming of sorts, a reunion with his friend and former colleague. Randolph drove away from that two day conference with more than a learning experience.  His former pupil and colleague, was now passing on life lessons to many others around the country.

There is no greater joy or success in life than to help others attain the fullness of what life has to offer them. Each time you do this you are depositing in God’s grand investing system. There is no superior satisfaction in life than helping someone else succeed, even if it allows them to surpass your achievements.

Investing in others our time, experience and love will bring a return on investment beyond anything the stock market could ever deliver. There is no amount of fishing, golfing, quilting, or any other hobby that can ever be compared to that of investing in another person’s growth toward his/her successful accomplishments. You cannot put a label, price or amount of happiness on it.

I sometimes refer to this as pouring into others. The more I pour into others, the more God seems to bless me. Blessings and joy always come on the other side of obedience. When I am obedient to God’s calling and pouring into someone else, blessings of joy and self-growth are always awarded to me. I am not where I could be, but praise God I am not where I once was. My desire is to continue, as long as God allows, to share with others, pouring into others what God has allowed me to learn and experience from life and the many mentors He has placed throughout my life.

Who are you pouring into for their success? When you look at others coming along behind you, do you see them as a threat or as an opportunity from God to pour into them from your life’s experiences? If you want true satisfaction, get your pitchers of experience and learning together and begin pouring into someone this week. The only question is who has God placed in your life this week for you to build up, to pour into?

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.

When you want to be successful in a new venture or making a change, it is wise to get those traveling your journey with you to understand and agree with your goal and the plan to reach that goal. This is what I call the buy-in. I have come to the belief that people are not necessarily afraid of change. Fears of change, however, do appear when change appears to be forced on them. In other words, people accept change as it grows on them, as they become comfortable with it. In implementing change in a church, you will normally find that a small percent (three to five) will grab hold of the vision of the change when you first introduce the idea of change. Some of these are the people you need on your strategy planning and implementation team.

As you work through the planning process, a few more will grow comfortable with the idea of the coming change—as long as you keep them informed. Uninformed people are ill-informed people. You do not need to give every detail, but give a steady progression of the planning and implementation strategy. Once you roll out the change, the majority of people will follow along, some with skepticism, others with willing acceptance.

Even after the change has been implemented, there will be yet another three-to-five percent who may be the holdouts. Though they can see the change and perhaps its benefits, these are the unfluctuating few. For some it may appear to be too drastic of a move out of their comfort zone. For others it may be a style or culture change, and for others still it could be a venture away from tradition in the church. Most of these members will in time join the change.

While you do not wish anyone to leave your congregation, change will be too great for a few and you may lose them. As a leader you must be ready for this. You want to minimize this, and the more you can inform the congregation to alleviate their fears and doubts as you move through the planning and implementation phases, the more “buy-in” you will receive from a larger number of members and attendees. As people buy-in to the impending change, they will become agents of change for you. They will also carry the beacon of needed change and adjustment.

Providing the change you are making is God centered and Holy Spirit driven, buy-in will be greater and fallout will be lessened. Many pastors and church leaders attempt to implement changes based on their desires and what they have seen or heard of other churches doing. This is dangerous and will cause disruptions and fallout. Principle to utilize: Don’t copy models, capture principles. What were the biblical principles that brought about the success at the other church. Use the principle found with your church’s gift mix matched to meeting the needs in your community. Don’t copy the model of what someone else did, capture the principle. After all, if it is not God’s desired plan of action for the church, it will likely not succeed regardless of how well it has worked elsewhere.

Who are your early adopters, your visionaries who can see where you’re leading under God’s direction? How will you include these in your planning process?

Adapted from Turnaround Journey, pg 35-36

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.

Often in the church – and other organizations – we recruit to fill an empty slot with any warm body, the first warm body to say yes. That is all we are looking for. Slot filled – we move on. This can be detrimental to the individual recruited and is almost always detrimental to the church (organization). Every person has natural abilities and special giftings when put to use in the proper settings, will produce quality results and effective production of effort.

Believers in Christ – those who come to a point in their life to accept Jesus as personal Lord and Savior over their entire being receive what is known as spiritual gifts. Before you were born God knitted you together so that your spiritual gifts, natural abilities and giftings all work together with your personality to accomplish great things. Along with these God also gives each person a passion. Your passion will always compliment your other gifting attributes. Your God-given passion will always point to the areas in which you are gifted.

Your gift mix, as described above, can be used in the church to build up the kingdom of God. It will also have an component to be used outside the walls of the church for the betterment of others. Being used inside or outside the walls of the church building, this gifting is always to be used to bring glory to God and to bring others into the awareness of who God is.

Oftentimes, churches fall short of assisting members in discovering and connecting their gift mix and applying that mix in ministry – serving others for God’s glory. I’ve known many churches over the years who have led their people to take “Spiritual Gift Inventories” to help discover their Spiritual Gifts. However, some churches never assist the members in moving forward with how to put those spiritual gifts to work serving others, building up the body of Christ.

Still other churches only use the spiritual gift inventories to help fill positions inside the church programs and committees. God’s giftings are much more valuable and have a greater intent than serving on committees or in some other capacity on Sunday morning inside the church building. Your gift mix is given to serve others seven days a week whether you find yourself in the nation’s capital or in Possum Trot, Kentucky.

As a born again believer your gift mix is not about you, but about the Savior you represent. Every person’s gift mix is to be used shining the light on the Creator of the universe. When properly utilized the way God knit you together in your mother’s womb, your gifting will draw people to understanding who God is and to be drawn to him.

Have you made the connection between your personality, spiritual gifts, and your natural God-given abilities? Have you attempted to connect them to your passions? What is your next step in discovering how God expects you to use your special gift mix for His glory?

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.

We use the terms, “I’m at my lowest point. I’m broken,” or “He’s simply broken.” Have you ever pondered the question, “What is brokenness?” In the dictionary for a person, it is described as “having given up all hope, despairing.” True brokenness is that place a person comes to where he is not necessarily giving up all hope, but the realization that he/she must empty himself of self. His misery or desolation is realizing he is not capable of accomplishing in his own power what needs to be accomplished.

Brokenness is not a feeling; it is a choice, an action of the will. Brokenness is not a popular, abstracted word we apply to excuse our inadequacies. It is not a word we should use to seek sympathy or benevolence. Brokenness is not a word to be carried as a badge of honor or humility. Those uses of the word are all self-centered and are the antithesis of true brokenness.

The undeniable reality is at times brokenness can be blindingly brutal, stripping a person of human dignity. Yet it has an inherent beauty, and a place in God’s heart. In his second letter to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul writes, “For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death. 11 For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:10-11

Paul is speaking of brokenness. He says a heart broken by “godly sorrow” is delightful in God’s sight. It is a thing not to be regretted and leads to salvation. To experience this brokenness, to admit without God your life is headed for destruction, is pleasing to God because this is when He can move in and lead you to accomplish great things. The great things God will lead you to is what you were designed and purposed for. No matter your level of success, you cannot accomplish all that God created you for without first coming to this point of brokenness.

True brokenness is rooted in humility. Brokenness is coming to the point of emptying self of self, every action, thought and practice that is entrenched in “me.” God pours out His Spirit in fullness as we empty ourselves of our wants, desires, and presuppositions.

We should not run from being broken. Even though it is not pleasant, through brokenness God will produce a better life. Brokenness is a blessing because it puts you on the pathway to fulfill your God-designed purpose. As you awaken more and more to his presence and His working in your life, you can find hope in knowing your brokenness is not meaningless. Quite the opposite, your brokenness is worth something of infinite value. It will propel you deeper into the heart of the One who makes us whole.

Do you see that brokenness God’s essential prerequisite for the release of His power in your life? “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.” Psalm 51:17

Is life not where you want it to be? Where is your heart, your spirit? Where are you on the path to true brokenness?

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.