Peer Leadership

I meet once a quarter with a group of other pastors leading churches with a similar vision/approach as Connections. We meet this morning and after the usual catching up got to the business at hand. Here are some reflections I'm processing...

Slip and Scramble Vs. Envision and Build:
When a church starts to "slip" in any given area, there is a natural reaction to pull things together, do what needs to be done, and get things back together. This is the "scramble." But "Slip and Scramble" never leads to actual growth and development as a church.
So what's it gonna take to get past the S&S mentality, and move on to Envisioning and Building?
Because until you do, your stuck only bringing things back up to where they were before.
So what is Connections going to do to keep us building and growing? More on that later...

Second Service:
Some of the other churches are now where we are at- when do we add another service. You don't want to jump the gun, but neither can you wait too long. I'm glad that I've had a lot of other people at Connections talking to me about adding a service because the toughest thing in this move is buy in.
Thankfully Connections is full of forward minded, kingdom building people. So it's already other people stepping up to say, "How can we reach more people and impact more lives?" I love it! I'm so blessed that I already have people in this court- working, watching, praying for this move to happen.

Creating Buzz:
We just have to come to terms with the fact that creating buzz is good. Enough crap gets buzz in our communities and in our world. We want the church to get good buzz in the community. So what to do?
One thing to consider is internal and external buzz. Internal buzz gets people already involved excited about the church and motivated to keep involved, step up involvement, and invite and bring others.
External buzz gets the community to notice you exist.
I've seen too many churches just trying to get external buzz through media, marketing, etc.
We have birthed and grown this past year almost entirely through internal excitement.
Perhaps I've even resisted external buzz.
I have serious issues with wanting to do something just for the sake of doing it.
I also have issues with churches trying to create a program for everything.
But I also feel now that Connections is really offering something in our community that is impacting lives.
Perhaps it's time to think more intentionally about offering Connections TO the community. IN other words, letting them know we exist, we are open to new and growing relationships, and we want to be a part of the life of the community around us.

That's enough for now. I have way too much to process.