{"id":15359,"date":"2017-11-16T00:39:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T08:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15359"},"modified":"2017-11-16T00:39:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T08:39:57","slug":"5-take-aways-for-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/5-take-aways-for-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Take-Aways for Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open Leadership is a guidebook offering methods and techniques of how an organization can develop a relationship with the consumer, establish trust and gain their loyalty. If marketing is to be effective, a relationship with the organization and customer is required. “Without a relationship in place, the best marketing campaigns will fall on deaf ears, especially as people struggle to channel the real signal in the cacophony of today\u2019s media clutter.”[1]<\/a> Many of these strategies are relevant in creating a thriving church culture and emphasize the importance of developing an open relationship between the leaders and the congregation. Counting down from 5<\/strong>, I will address 5 key points<\/strong> applicable to church culture.<\/p>\n

The Engagement Pyramid and the 5 steps<\/strong> of watching, sharing, commenting, producing and curating are reminiscent of how every church starts with “the visitor”. Throughout the church culture evolution, it appears we have become savvier on how to treat visitors. Like the pyramid suggests, they usually want to remain a watcher, so to identify them by having them stand to introduce themselves is counter-intuitive. I cringe thinking about how many times we have interrupted this natural flow by coercing the watcher to become a display item for everyone else to watch and scrutinize. Faces come to mind in my church who have evolved from a watcher to a curator where they are now an active part of the shared of church culture. Psychologists say, it takes about 2 years to really know someone so to expect someone to move directly to the curating stage in 2 months could be unsafe for the leader or the participant. It seems healthy and appropriate to allow the natural evolution process to take place so trust and an authentic relationship can be developed on both sides, ensuring a more safe and predictable experience.<\/p>\n

When the author encouraged “…not to become overly focused on people at the highest, most engaged levels of the pyramid,”[2]<\/a> and to refocus your efforts at the base of the pyramid in order to establish a good foundation, I immediately resisted the concept. Although there is valuable truth to this, I often see church leaders poorly focused on for care, trainings, accountability, and mentoring. An organization is only as good as its leaders and I often see church leaders suffering from alexithymia which has a dramatic impact on the base of the pyramid. As a body, we need to function as a living organism, sustaining and caring for each other while dispelling the myth that church leaders are the sole sustainers of the body.<\/p>\n

The 4<\/strong> major open objectives<\/strong>: learn, dialogue, support and innovate are valuable concepts for church culture. In order to develop open leadership, learning is an essential element to growing and evolving. As a therapist, it is required to have 36 Continuing Education Units, CEU’s, every two years or I lose my license. What if church leaders had to have CEU’s to retain their position or ordination so as to insure learning is occurring? Learning also happens beautifully through dialoging and fosters relationship with church members. Often, the communication seems to go one way- from the top down- and voicing a difference of opinion can be viewed as oppositional. Dialoging would establish equity and cultivate a culture of mutuality. Finally, encouraging creativity in church through expression of arts does much do develop church identity and provoke inspiration.[3]<\/a> Fostering an ethos where innovative ideas can be expressed and applied needs to be intentional if a church wants to have open leadership.<\/p>\n

3 minutes <\/strong>used wisely can do much to create efficiency in an organization. Often, we misuse leadership resources to field reoccurring questions that deter leaders from leading. \u201cIndirect deflection\u201d[4]<\/a> can field commonly asked questions, conserve leadership resources, and give speedy service to the customer. One business was able to do an extensive indirect deflection plan that efficiently met the needs of the consumers in just 3 minutes. Saving valuable time for the church leaders and the parishioners is appreciated on both sides. Having practical information readily available on a website, social media, and answering machines alleviates frustration for the “watcher” and frees up the leaders to focus on leadership tasks and development.<\/p>\n

The 2<\/strong> main aspects<\/strong> of the Obama campaign: humbleness and respect. Really, this speaks for itself. It is profound and refreshing for politicians to have these core values and as their operating ideology in relating to their supporters and<\/em> opponents. These leadership characteristics have been regularly reflected in past readings as the attributes of great leaders. \u00a0I wonder if the general population would assign these two leadership characteristics to church leaders?<\/p>\n

Finally, the number 1<\/b>\u00a0key point<\/strong> so applicable to church leadership “is for everyone to understand that this is valued work\u2014valued by the company and valued by the customer or employee.”[5]<\/a> When we value what we do, others feel it and feel valued as well. Great leaders build valuable organizations because they teach others how valuable they are. This in turn, inspires them to produce valuable work. It would be an amazing feat for people to walk in to church feeling valuable and walk out inspired to produce something of value. Our world would be a more beautiful place.<\/p>\n

Open leadership produces relationships, and this is the heart of our very relational, innovative God. He waits patiently as we move from watcher to active participant, and dialogs with us throughout the journey, supporting our every step. He moves in 3 seconds what would take us 3 years, yet He humbly respects our pace. Finally, He values the work He’s done in us and through us so much, He has made our hearts His home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] Charlene Li, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead<\/em>, (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010), Kindle, 1095-1096.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Ibid., Kindle, 1183-1184.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3] William A. Dyrness, Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue Engaging Culture<\/em>, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 20-21.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [4] Charlene Li, Open Leadership<\/em>, Kindle, 1616.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [5] Ibid., Kindle, 2273-2274.<\/p>\n

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Open Leadership is a guidebook offering methods and techniques of how an organization can develop a relationship with the consumer, establish trust and gain their loyalty. If marketing is to be effective, a relationship with the organization and customer is required. “Without a relationship in place, the best marketing campaigns will fall on deaf ears, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[708],"class_list":["post-15359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charlene-li","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15360,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15359\/revisions\/15360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}