Not all declining churches are dysfunctional, but all dysfunctional churches are declining. Is your church dysfunctional?  Are you assisting in the dysfunction of your church? Let me list a few ways dysfunction shows up in churches then give some aid.

Dysfunctional means not operating in a normal or proper fashion. Therefore, in the church, if we are not going out and attempting to make Disciples, speaking to people about Jesus in an attempt to allow the Holy Spirit to convict them, we could be part of the dysfunction of the church. The function of the church is our mission – The Great Commission. If we are not growing in our personal walk with God through Jesus, becoming more like Christ, are we not dysfunctional according to Christ’s own teaching?

In the church personal dysfunctional often leads to congregational dysfunction, or organizational dysfunction. Congregational dysfunction can occur when a church’s priorities and significances get overturned or out of order. This can manifest in the way a church views its programs, practices, budget, staff, even time restraints.

Refusing to let go of obsolete programs (programs no longer fulfilling The Great Commission) is an outward manifestation of congregational dysfunction. Refusal to change worship times or wanting to change times for our own pleasure are outward manifestations of congregational dysfunction. Cutting the missions giving and ministry budget to maintain a certain quality of staff can also be a sign of congregational dysfunctional. The flip side of that, cutting staff compensation, insurance, or other benefits can also be manifestations of congregational dysfunction.

How can you tell? Ask this question: “Are you keeping the main thing, the main thing.?” If the purpose (function) of the church is fulfilling The Great Commission, will this decision move us toward being like the New Testament church in Acts or will it send us down a path of our own desire?

Lyle Schaller in The Interventionist wrote, “In the healthy congregation the decision-making processes are influenced by (1) obedience to the gospel, (2) a sincere search to learn the will of the Lord, (3) prayer and cooperation, (4) listening rather than screaming, (5) the call to be faithful rather than the urge to prevail, and (6) reason rather than exclusion.”

With a broken and contrite heart pouring your heart and soul into these six attributes any dysfunctional congregation can become a healthy and more effective Great Commission functioning New Testament church. The requirement falls on the shoulders of each one individually. What will be your first step today and through this week in moving your personal life and your church family away from any sign of dysfunction to be more like the bride of Christ?

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.

Bill left his supervisors office somewhat depressed. After all Bill thought he was a pretty good communicator and a friendly supervisor. Yet, the scores from his direct reports’ evaluations shared that his interactions were always brief, uncaring and most often negative. His reports wanted feedback. They desired to know that Bill cared more than just keeping his job. In their opinion, Bill had never carried on a conversation with any of them.

Are you aware there are three tiers to a healthy conversation? How effective are you at guiding your conversations through all three tiers?

The first or lower tier of all conversations is sort of the foundation, what the conversation is built on. This first tier is based on facts, feelings, and fears. Isn’t this where your conversations begin? “How are you today?” Response: “I’m fine.” (feelings). Or another Response: “Not good, my dog ran away last night.” (fact and fear) or “How’s the weather where you are today?” Response: “It’s raining.” (fact) The entry tier of conversation usually begins with fact, fear, or feelings, or any combination of the three.

The second tier of a conversation can be thought of as the exploratory or speculative tier. On this tier the conversation turns to exploring the facts, feelings or fears in the lower tier. In the church world this tier might be peppered with questions as; “In your opinion, what have been the causes of the slow decline over the past fifteen years?” or “What types of outreach have you implemented recently?”

In response to a couple scenarios above, “How are you capitalizing on the rainy weather?” or “Has your dog run away before? Where did you find him that time?” In tier two you want to help the other individual explore and unpack the possibilities related to his/her facts, fears, or feelings. Asking the right types of questions will bring your conversation out of tier one and into tier two. Tier two can also endear others to you because through these “right” questions the other person will sense that he/she is considered worthy of your time. Therefore, they will sense that you care.

Moving to the third tier of a healthy conversation might be more difficult, but it does not have to be. Tier three might be considered the tenets tier. Tenets reveal a person’s beliefs, principles, and ideals. You can move any conversation to tier three by again, asking the correct type of questions. Rather than exploring the facts, fears, and feelings as in tier two, in tier three you lead the other person in discovering a path of rescue or accomplishment.

Questions in tier three can be as, “How important is it that you find your dog today?” or in the church, “What are you willing to sacrifice to see your church turn around?” or “What must you do to prepare yourself to lead your church up that long arduous hill ahead?” Tier three questions should never be accusatory or worded in a negative manner (neither should tier two questions). Instead word your questions to lead the person to optimism and a positive outcome or accomplishment.

Do your conversations move through the FET – Foundation, Exploration, and Tenet tiers? What can you work on this week to be a better conversationalist?

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.

Kevin was recruited to teach in the youth department of his church. Not given any formal training, Basically, Kevin was handed a set of curriculum materials and told, “Go get ‘em.” After a couple of years in the youth department, Kevin was frustrated, burned-out and left his teaching position.

Unfortunately, this scenario plays out in too many churches. More on Kevin’s story in a moment. The dictionary gives a description for the word learning as: To gain knowledge, comprehension, or mastery of; to acquire through experience.

The last part of that definition is “to acquire through experience.” Acquiring is the action of taking something on that is new and different making it part of your being. We absorb the new into our being. It becomes part of us, who we are. “Through experience” cannot be accomplished without action. Our actions are the means through which we display our behavior. A changed life is visible through the actions of the learner. Behavioral change is life change.

True learning occurs when an alteration of lifestyle or behavior pattern of the learner is evidenced in accordance with our teaching. One key factor: You and I are not the teacher. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. We are His instruments. Listening to the Holy Spirit causes life change.

Some months later, I asked Kevin to sit in on our adult class teachers’ meetings. He began attending the meetings and after a few weeks I needed someone to teach one of our young adult classes that I was temporarily teaching. I asked Kevin if he would fill in for me. A month later, I asked Kevin to fill in again for the same class. Afterward Kevin came to me and asked about teaching the class until I could find a permanent teacher. Kevin ended up taking the class and for the next few years it was one of the best growing classes in the church. The class birthed four or five other classes, produced numerous teachers and Sunday School workers and eventually birthed a new church in a neighboring county.

Kevin is not from Missouri but he is a “show me” kind of guy. Kevin was not easily convinced by word of mouth of his potential or the potential of the class to flourish. The principles and practices of teaching/learning and class growth had to be proven to him. As the class grew, Kevin would come to me and say, “I learned this from you…” or “You are the one that taught me to…” or “You said this would happen…” Kevin has grown eminently in his God-given abilities to teach and lead his class. What made the change? Was it because he had a good mentor? No, not at all!

Kevin attended training conferences, read books, and studied other material on improving his abilities. He knows the Holy Spirit is his teacher. He has learned to take the knowledge presented him, gain a deserving understanding, then place it in proper perspective. Kevin has utilized God-given wisdom to put into action the application of learned knowledge. Kevin has experienced an alteration of behavior patterns for teaching/leading. He has experienced change and he teaches for life-change.

The Holy Spirit is our teacher. We are His instruments. Listening to the Holy Spirit causes life change. Whether you are a classroom teacher, parent or business leader, how will you adapt your learning/teaching procedure today?

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 a recent discussion with a couple of leaders the conversation turned to how to elicit a good response when inquiring about how another leader is doing. Not only leaders, this is applicable to any person that you want to check on or inquire about – as long as you truly care about the individual. Both men stated a couple possibilities. 1) How are you doing? Or 2) How can I pray for you?

My mind kicked into gear, and I asked, “Is there a better question?” That’s the way my mind is wired, always looking for the better question. Both men looked at me with an inquiring facial expression and one asked, “Like what?…”

“Well, if you really want to find out how they’re doing or how to pray for them why not ask something like, “What is the biggest hurdle you are facing right now?” You could see the light bulb go off in their head by the expression on each face.

When you ask one of the two questions in the first paragraph, you will get a response. However, it may or may not be the reality of what is needed in his life. When you ask, the biggest hurdle question, that hurdle will guide you to understanding the need in his life. You, then can suggest and develop a line of prayer. The following is what I later wrote and sent to the men I was meeting with.

Instead of How can I pray for you? Or What can I do for you? Why not ask questions as…

What do you see as your biggest hurdle right now? (in ministry, personal life)

What occupies the majority of your time these days?

In all of our lives (jobs) there is stress. What are your two top stress causers?

It is important to use deeper listening skills to their answers. Listen to what is being said and to what is not being said. The following demonstrates a funnel of questions for each of the above.

1 What do you see as your biggest hurdle right now? (in ministry, personal life)

In your opinion, what could you use to help you over this (these) hurdles?

Thinking of those responses, how can I assist you in overcoming that (those) hurdle(s)?

2 What occupies the majority of your time these days?

Which of these are time thieves (stealing time that you reserved for study or other works)?

Can you list two things you could use to guard against and reduce some of these time thieves?

What would need to happen to bring these two to reality in your life?

How can I be of assistance to you with your time thieves?

3 In all of our lives (jobs) there is stress. What are your two top stress causers?

How/what have you learned to do to relieve you of the stress of these factors?

What do you believe to be within your power to avoid or reduce the stress caused by these?

Are you willing and capable to enact either of those? (those= answer to question above)

Can I assist you by calling you in two weeks to see how you are coping with these stress factors?

At the close of each of these is the built-in opportunity to pray for that person. These questions should give you a much better & more accurate idea of what is going on in this person’s life and a greater opportunity to understand what his/her needs are. Asking these questions also will engender a greater sense, on the other person, that you truly care.

Do you have a better question? Are the responses you get from others expressions of true heartfelt needs or superficial, spur of the moment responses? Try one or more of the three listed above to show you really care and see if your prayer life increases as well.

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.

Did you know that you can use a question to make almost any statement you desire? I just did it, didn’t I? Well now that was two in a row, wasn’t it? And that was the third one, don’t you see? I could go on all day, right? Each of the first five sentences in this paragraph are questions that make a statement. I refer to these as “statement questions”. However, they go farther than making a statement.

A statement question is one that causes the listener to think. Reading the first sentence in this article your brain automatically kicked into thought processing. Your likely first response was, “You can?” Notice your response is a question. Then you read the second question, brain still engaged, you realize, “He really did”. Then as you read the next three sentences, you begin to see the pattern and a slight smile came across your face.

When people read or hear a statement their mind continues on to what is coming next. However, when a question is posed, verbally or in writing, your mind kicks into thought processing. When used properly, questions will produce great lasting learning. Unfortunately, most of our questions today are not engaging the mind for learning. We’re asking the wrong questions. Properly formulated questions will not only cause the listener to pause but will engage his/her higher lever thought processes.

As a forty plus year student of the question and one who has written numerous articles and several book chapters on questions, I receive calls frequently to assist in developing questions for situations or projects. I enjoy this as it is a challenge to me and causes my higher order thought processes to engage for the assistance of the organization or individual. Yet, I am still a student of the question, desiring to learn more. I believe the question is one of God’s greatest gifts to us as leaders.

Back to the statement question. Jesus used statement questions in his ministry. In Matthew 18:33 in His parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus says, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had on you?” Is there a statement inside that question? Certainly. He is invoking something greater than a yes or no answer.

Earlier in the same chapter of Matthew, Jesus shares the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus first sets the stage with a question, then forms the parable into a question.  “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hill and go to look for the one that wandered off?”

Do not miss the impact on the learning process of Jesus’ delivery. His opening question is much more than a question. “What do you think?” Is it a question or a decree? Is He not verbally directing his listeners to think? Jesus is telling His listeners that to fully understand what I am about to say you must go beyond surface level thinking. You must engage deeper level thinking. He knew His listeners could have given a superficial surface answer. His intent was a learning experience, not a rote yes or no.

What will you do this week to engage your brain to lead with higher quality questions?

Resources: Teaching That Bears Fruit, chapter 4, The Art of the Question. Coaching: A Way of Leadership, A Way of Life, chapters 7-10.

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.

It is said that Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company, once fire a manager for not helping one of his employees improve performance. Take note he did not terminate the under performing employee. The person terminated was the manager. Personally, I believe that shows higher level leadership. Too often in today’s world we have bought in to the concept of “look out for number 1” – take care of yourself at the expense of others.

I would venture to say that Ridge’s actions spoke volumes to all levels of employees at WD-40. The company had implemented one of Ken Blanchard’s concepts titled, “Don’t Mark my paper, Help Me get an A”. In the incident mentioned above, Ridge terminated the manager rather than the poor performer when he realized the manager did nothing to help the employee improve performance (get an A).

What if more businesses, churches, and other organizations operated with a similar philosophy? Help the people under your direction, your direct reports improve their skillsets, or you will be looking for another job. Sounds rough does it not? Yet, if I as a leader am not improving myself and not assisting everyone around me in improving, am I not hurting the organization – keeping it from its full potential?

Hang with me here, I realize some leaders/managers have already turned me off. Others who may not like their leader want to read on to find ways to get their leader dismissed. That is not what this is about. It is about growing as individuals, as a team and effectively affecting the organization’s bottom line – be it money, people, or other bottom line.

I believe what CEO Ridge understands is that as people increase their skillsets, they become not only more beneficial to the organization, they also become more endeared to the organizational cause. Whether that is water displacement products (WD-40), better pancakes, or engaged church members. Passion is increased in people growing in their skillset and that passion is revealed through organizational action. It is hard to beat against passion. When my passion level is being raised, it is not likely that I will slow progress down.

In the church I have often said, “People will serve out of their passion.” The leadership role in the church should be to assist all members and attenders in discovering their God-given passion and match that to a passion-driven, gift-oriented ministry. There are resources available to help any church or organization in endeavor.

The most popular leadership style practiced today is Top-down leadership. Believe it or not most top-down leadership organizations operate as fault-finding, critical models. Moving your organization away from a fault-finding rebuking manner of leadership requires commitment and some hard work. Breaking an old habit is never easy.

For more information on Blanchard’s philosophy, “Don’t Mark My Paper, Hep Me get an A”, contact The Blanchard group, or contact me and I will help you find the right resources for your church or organization. Don’t procrastinate, set your mind and heart to begin today to help every member of your organization or church to get an A!

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.

Resources

Blanchard Group | Master Plan Architecture

Leading at a Higher Level – Pearson Education, Inc.

Have you ever heard an employer say, “We need to hire a few more slackers.” Or “We need a few more quitters to replace the ones who left during the pandemic never to return.”? Of course not. Businesses do not intentionally recruit slackers or quitters. As a recruiter or business owner you always want to find prospective winners. You want people with capacity to “do the job” needed. Your desire is for people passionate about the work to be done.

In the church we should be following a similar pattern, though often times we don’t. When filling a position in the church (especially volunteer position) we generally look for the first person who will say yes to the position. We’re not looking for potential, passion or giftedness. What we’re looking for, and I’ve had many people tell me the same, is a warm body to fill an empty slot.

My friend Allan Taylor has said, “We recruit most of our failures.” In other words, one reason our ministries do not flourish and produce desired fruit is often due to our own negligence in properly recruiting the best people for a given position.

People will serve out of their passion. As leaders we must assist church members and attenders in finding their God-given passion and link that passion to service in His kingdom. A person’s passion will always have correlation to their giftedness (spiritual gifts) and natural God-given abilities. Every person wants to utilize his/her talents and gifts. Using them for God’s glory in His service is what we were created for and where we will find our greatest satisfaction.

When it comes to recruiting for new members and attenders, we do not go hunting like the corporate world, although that brings up some interesting thoughts for future discussions. While we do not recruit like the business world, our best recruiting is done by word of mouth from existing members. Therefore, every member serving out of his/her passion will likely share with others. Why? Because serving this way brings joy and satisfaction that cannot be found any other place.

If you are passionate about something you enjoy sharing about it. You desire to tell others. Why do we have so many sourpuss Christians today? Hmm! Perhaps, we need to implement passion driven, gift-oriented ministry in our churches. What will you undertake this week, beginning today, to implement passion-driven ministry in your church?

Contact George Yates today for complimentary surveys, assessments and other information on moving to a passion driven, gift-oriented ministry in 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.

One portion of Webster’s definition of learn is “to master”, or “mastery of.” To have mastery of is to have full command of a subject. It is to have a consummate skill or knowledge of the subject. In the Asian arts of self defense such as karate, the lead teacher has earned the title of Master. This title signifies he knows more of and about the skills of the art being practiced than any other person in his dojo (school).

One who has mastery over something is considered an artist of great and exemplary skill. It is no accident the word skill keeps appearing in the exegesis of this definition. Skill is an applied ability. The only way to know your level of skill is to apply it or put it into practice, to apply what you have learned. Application not only brings about behavioral or life change. Application is life-change.

Think about that statement. If someone is applying a truth or principle that he has learned, he is changing the way he practices or perceives it. The first time you sat in the driver’s seat of a car and drove away you were actually applying what you had learned about driving. You were no longer confined to being a passenger. You had taken the necessary steps to bring about change.

Someone had to show you how to drive. Your first time out may not have been the most graceful, yet you were willing to apply what you had learned. From that point forward, you practiced those skills increasing your ability and improving those learned skills.

Though we have a supernatural edge, Christian education must follow the same natural laws of learning. We must not only give our learners facts, information, and material, we must equip them with wisdom to transform and mature them. You do not learn to drive a car by listening to a lecture on facts, figures, and history of cars. Facts, figures, and history do not teach you how to drive.

The “how to” presents the skills you need to drive. In the how to process you acquire the wisdom for transformation from passenger to driver. Second, there must be some physical action that allows you to interact with the car (practice) and demonstrate your newly acquired knowledge, wisdom, and skills. This is application.

Often in churches we teach the facts, figures, and history of scripture yet never move to the ever-important life-changing how to. The definition for teach and for the Greek word didasko includes “The act of causing someone to learn. to learn is to gain mastery of. When we fail to give someone the how to, opportunities to apply, what are we causing them to master? Are we perhaps creating masters of trivia? Unfortunately, many people walk out of churches each week without any true learning. There is no life-change.

Whether you are a pastor, teacher, congregant, or parent will you, right now, identify your next step to creating application of scripture learned for you and those in your circle of influence? Write me and tell me of your decision to apply.

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.

Over the years I have written a few posts about Empowering Leadership. Today, I want to address a topic often left out of the empowering leadership conversation. Successful organizations draw and develop self-initiators, people who do not need to be told what, when, or how to accomplish tasks. One reason fruitful organizations attract good talent, including self-initiators is often these organizations engage an empowering leadership structure.

High level leaders understand the role of hiring self-initiators with the skillset to build others inside the workforce. Self-initiators with this mindset will 1) attract other likeminded self-initiators and 2) tend to instill in others a similar mindset. Thus, you are building an empowered organization.

A much better facet is to build self-initiators from within the current workforce. This is the main option for the church. People need to be trained and equipped to take on this type of leadership – self-initiative. Fruitful organizations, including churches, understand the value of building self-initiators.

How do you train people to be self-initiators? Ask yourself. “What causes you to do the things that you do without having to be told that it needs to be done?” People who make their beds each morning before leaving the house are self-initiators. Pastors, bosses, CEO’s who bend over to pick up a candy wrapper are self-initiators – or OCD.

Here are three ideas to assist in training all the people in your organization to become self-initiators.

1. One by one or in small groups take a tour of your facilities asking these types of questions: a) What do you see in this area that could use some improvements? B) What would be your first suggestion to make that improvement? c) If you were empowered to make those adjustments, what timeframe do you think you would need? d) Great, then you have my blessing. I stand ready to assist you in making those adjustments.

Not all conversations are going to go that easy or so quickly. Neither are you going to be ready to empower people to make major changes which could be costly – financially or to personnel. However, many people in your organization will have some ideas for improvement of their own performance if they were empowered to be self-initiators.

2. Leaders are learners. Leaders are readers. One of the best ways to equip self-initiators is to encourage self-learning. Offer special incentives or greater encouragement for people to read books and periodicals that may focus on self-initiative leadership. Volunteer organizations such as the church can offer group studies on certain books or study courses where individuals read a chapter and come together regularly to discuss and encourage one another in the virtues of each chapter.

Even in corporate America fruitful organizations offer these type of study groups, often at lunch or other times, during work or after hours. Those organizations realize the added value to the organization by allowing time “on the clock” for such self-improvement.

3. Formal training is always available. This can be classroom training or a mentor-apprentice type environment. Why not plan for some type of structured training for building self-initiators? Twice each year have a one-day event for training or a series of short courses to build these leaders.

Will you take the initiative to build self-initiators in your 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.

God’s Word is truth – the only truth. Today, society will tell you that you make your own truth. “What you believe to be truth is truth.” This is so far removed from actual truth that it is more than sorrowful. A read through history will show other societies that went the same path. Not one of those societies lasted. False truths always lead to destruction of a society.

For decades, the church has not done very well at instilling truth into churchgoers. Ours has become a Christianity of comfort and relativity. This relativity is determined by each individual’s own comfort level. Not that we have taught this relativity in the church, but the world has had a stronger influence over our teaching in the lives of our members than has the church. More than truth, religion today is dependent on whether it feels good or is within our comfort zone.

We live as, “If I am not comfortable with any part of the Bible, then I need not adhere to that portion.” This is not living the truth, neither is it the Christianity of the New Testament book of Acts. Heartfelt deep prayer is needed! God’s Word is truth – the only truth.

Jesus, nor the church brow beat people into understanding truth, but it was taught in the temple and in homes daily. It was demonstrated daily in the lives of believers. Apparently, we are not living the same type lives today. After all God was “adding to their number daily.” That happens not in the temple (church) but in the market, in the workplace, in the neighborhood. Why is God not adding to our number daily? I believe it is due to the fact that we are living a different Christianity. It is what I call the westernization of Christianity.

Without a repentant heart from our Pastors, teachers, and other leaders we will not see the return of the true church in our nation. Not only a repentant heart, but also a rejuvenated committed drive to bring back into our churches the level of commitment found in the book of Acts.

This will take time, and it must begin with prayer, a concerted prayer effort in each church and from church to church, praying earnestly for one another. Our prayer lives must accelerate beyond our normal practice. We must learn again to pray not from the head, but from the heart. When was the last time you poured out your heart and soul to God in prayer? This type of prayer often is accompanied by weeping and trembling. Can you remember your last prayer time like this?

Out of this prayer effort must follow a transformed Spirit filled preaching and teaching in our churches of God’s whole truth, bringing people to their knees in repentant forgiveness producing a new generation of biblical Christianity – The Truth, The Way. This will only happen as we; the leaders – and members – of the church fall on our faces before the Lord Almighty allowing His Holy Spirit to transform us and our teaching, preaching, our own lifestyle into His full truth.

God’s Word is truth, and we must return to a Christ-like delivery and life. When did you last pour your heart out with weeping and trembling before God? Praying for a congregation living Truth Activated!

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.