Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Leadership Lessons I've Learned, Number 2

2. Improve Continuously

The term kaizen is a Japanese word adopted into English referring to a philosophy or practices focusing on continuous improvement in manufacturing activities, business activities in general, and even life in general, depending on interpretation and usage. As I studied business in graduate school and then went on to work in consulting, I sat in meetings...and more meetings...and more meetings specifically around kaizen - continuous improvement.

These meetings and discussions were taken very seriously in these business organizations, mostly because the outcome of these meetings represented profitability, shareholder value, etc. And then their was church.

As a church, we don't create profit (although we LOVE margin), and we don't have any shareholders to appease. But, as a church, I believe we are leading THE most important organization in the world. And in my past church experiences, I was always amazed as I watched smart people walk into Elder and Deacon meetings and check their brain at the door. That may be too harsh (or it may be exactly correct). During the day they are pouring through every little nuance of their business, squeezing out every drop of profit, and then they walk into a church meeting and NOBODY seems to care about progress or success. We argue about what we should wear to serve communion and what volume the music should be run at as to not create permanent hearing damage. Meanwhile, there are people all over our communities completely lost - far from God - just trying to make it by as sin, sorrow, and death seem to not have answers. And here we are, at the church, sitting in a meeting, worried about what color the chairs should be.

I decided long ago that when it came to church, I was going to do all I could to never be satisfied with status quo. To never be just serve in a "pretty good" church. To never be fine with just getting by. As a church, we want to be passionately committed to God's leading and His desire for the world through His church. And every time I study His word or hear from Him, I continue to see how passionate He is about reconnecting people back to Himself. So, as a church, that is what we do, and we evaluate how successful we are every week. And we constantly change for the purpose of getting better.

Now, to evaluate, you need measurable goals and objectives. I hate it when church leaders say that they just want to be Spirit led, and so counting or measuring or anything goal related goes against the Spirit. That is just not correct. We count not to brag, but to evaluate success and look at how we are trending as an organization. The question is not "should we count." The real question is "what should we count," and "what do we do with what we find out."

Here's what we count:
- Total people in service (to measure growth, because if you aren't growing, your not doing something right and we need to know if our people are bring others far from God to Watermarke).
- People in groups (to measure progress towards our win, as a percentage of total adults)
- Baptisms (to help gauge spiritual growth and steps in their relationship with Christ)
- Giving Units and Serving (are people engaging in our vision and mission)
- Gospel (How often do we present the best news ever given? How often do we create opportunities for people to respond to the message?)

Here's what we can't totally count, but in the end, it is the most important: Life Change. Every meeting we hold begins with stories of life change. Every meeting begins with sharing stories of real people and real change. That's the goal, so that's what we celebrate. We measure numbers, but we don't celebrate full auditoriums. We celebrate life change.

So, here's the question: How are you measuring success, and how are you improving continuously? Do you have a target/win for which to create metrics?

Gavin Adams
Lead Pastor, Watermarke Church