Our road, Faith Promise Lane, joins Horseshoe Bend Lane, which only had one lane to turn in and one lane to turn out (on to a major highway with speeds of 70mph + in a posted 55mph). It created a mess each week.

We hired a firm to study our traffic problems (~$2,000) and make recommendations. They found a couple of major problems:

• We had to be able to “queue” more cars at one time
• We had to have multiple lanes from the entrance all the way to our property
• We had to change our level of service from poor to good

Two weeks ago, the proposed construction was completed. The result: unload time was 10 minutes at the largest service time. That’s a major improvement!

Don’t let anything hold you back from accomplishing all that God wants to do in your church! Study every problem and follow His leading to the solution.

What’s holding your church back?

• 2004-2005 – Student worship & staff office building
• 2006 – One year of peace
• 2007 – Parking Lot Expansion & Balcony Addition
• 2008 – Lobby renovation, Preschool Modulars & Purchased 35 acres
• 2009 – Office Renovations & Entrance Expansion (see some PDF’s here: FPC – Roadway Improvements 10-07-09 & Faith Promise One Way Entrance – for the nerds that like to see this stuff)

Confession: I love building projects. They are challenging and time consuming but give some amazing feelings of accomplishment. If your church plans on building something, let me know if I can help. Or, at least make sure that you find an architect that builds to church standards, not to code standards (the two are very different).

• Our Worship Team and Volunteers – 1000′s of hours that were put in writing, practicing and producing the weekend.
• Our Children’s Ministry Team and Volunteers – over 1400 preschoolers, children and volunteers were a part of Pirates and Princesses!
• Our First Impressions Volunteers – who took care of parking, greeting, information and ushering throughout the weekend.
• Our Staff Team – who can accomplish anything placed before them.

If you missed the production, get a copy from our FPResources team. It was a moving drama that challenged every aspect of faith and life.

Thanks to each of you for making this an awesome weekend!

The card will be die-cut like a house – really cool! Get ready to invite your friends.

Our church is so blessed to have a leader that is willing to listen. Chris Stephens, the Senior Pastor of Faith Promise Church, is a great guy to work with. If your pastor needs a mentor or coach, you should have them reach out to Chris – it will be a learning experience.

As a leader, you should strive to stay ahead of two people or groups of people: your boss and the people you are leading. Recently, I heard the dreaded words that I work not to hear from our Pastor: “I wish you would have told me that 4 weeks ago.” My mind began to race, my stomach hurt a little and I felt horrible – but all I could say was, “I’m sorry.” He was frustrated with me because I had not given feedback on a particular topic — sooner!

If you are a leader, do you desire to have feedback? Do you want others to speak into your life? If you do not, then you are probably not very humble and you are likely not going to be very effective. In an effort to help people feel valued, LISTEN. Seek out what they are thinking and allow them to have access into your life.

Has your boss challenged you recently? What did they say and what did you learn?

• Construction: I am currently looking on two projects. First, the next phase of our campus is under revision. We are looking at some cool ways to save money but not compromise the integrity of the facility. It’s going to be awesome – can’t wait for the staff and church to see this. Second, we are going to change our entrance and egress patterns in and out of the campus. I’m meeting with county to fast-track this tomorrow.

• 15th Anniversary: Our leadership team is considering how to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the church which comes in February 2010. That’s going to be an exciting month!

• Senior Team Retreat: We get away for our major retreat in September to make preparations for 2010. This year there is so much happening that it is difficult to make an agenda that we can cover in 3 days!

• 2010 Growth Challenges: Although we will launch our first multi-site venue in 201o, we have some major growth challenges to continue to reach people next year. We are considering some creative solutions to keep reaching people for Christ. It’s really making us think because we are moving past capacity during our optimal hours!

Seriously, I love my job! Our Pastor makes doing ministry more fun than I could ever imagine. At the same time, he makes us face the challenges head-on and overcome there. He’s a great leader!

What are you working on in your job or ministry?

This weekend at Faith Promise we begin the series, “Gro-Up,” a challenge to understand how God wants you to grow in your faith and our strategy for accomplishing that – groups. Pastor Chris will begin the series looking at the reasons that people do not want to grow or engage others to help them grow.

Also, remember that this weekend our on-campus worship venue, Satellite I, will be open during the 10am and 11:45am services. It’s a great way to experience live worship in a more intimate environment and view the message on a larger than life screen. Don’t miss the chance to make room for the new people continuing to come to FPC – it’s a simple way that you can show the love of Christ!

If you missed the trailer for Gro-Up, here it is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. Step 1 – Creating Objectives. Our ministry changes so quickly, sometimes setting firm 3-year goals seems a little pointless. This year we are creating objectives for our ministry areas that will be used for growth and accountability. You’ll want to look at this: Ministry Objectives 2010
2. Step 2 – Strategic Steps. Each objective needs strategic steps to be accomplished. We are looking for 2 key steps for each objective. Here’s the form we are using for this: Strategic Step 2010
3. Step 3 – Evaluation Form. Each team leader will place the results of Step 1 and Step 2 into the Evaluation Form: Eval Form 2010 They will be able to track results, struggles, etc on this form.
4. Step 4 – Budgets. The Strategic Steps form links to the budget. Knowing your objectives and steps will make budgeting easier.

As a Senior Leadership Team, we will review these areas to ensure that we are headed in the right direction and set goals for the entire church. It’s all working together. Now, we just need something web-based to track it all!

What do you see that we have missed? What can we do better or who do you know that has a better process?

Dan Novak of Leadership Strategies Group is going to be our navigator for the next few months. We are going to have fun and create an environment that is similar to The Apprentice with teams working on projects to improve areas of our ministry and develop trust across ministries. They will each have a budget, make a presentation and the best solution will be rewarded. I can’t wait!

Teams require maintenance. Even the best team needs to practice together and spend time in training camp. If your team is not spending some time focusing on specific needs, you are going to hit the wall. Build into your team – they are God’s people that He has entrusted to you!

We’re working on trust right now. What is your team working on?

Structure really matters.

I’ve written about it before, but if you are a church planter, you need to seriously consider the structure of your ministry. Everyone has a different view of church structure, but my personal preference is a structure that is lean and created to make decisions quickly.

At Faith Promise, the Pastor is the final authority for decision-making. He is a very strong leader. However, he leads with our Senior Leadership team because he sees the value of the team. We have two groups for accountability: the Elders (non-staff members) hold the pastor accountable and the Leadership Team (non-staff members) add financial and structural accountability. Neither group makes decision but both are a part of the decision-making process. We labor over who should be on those teams so that we get people who are committed to the vision and values of the church and ministry.

If things ever go “south,” we have a plan on how to make decisions. If the Pastor falls, he publicly says that the Executive Pastor will meet with the Elders to lead the church.

People who attend your church need to know the structure and how decisions will be made in the future. If you are starting a church, focus on the structure. In the event that something bad happens, it may change the future of your ministry – in a good way!

How does your structure help or hurt your church?