History Being Made

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Today, in all likelihood, the Southern Baptist Convention will elect an African-American as its first president in its 167 year history.

That says a lot about a group that has its roots in the politics of slavery.

The Southern Baptist Convention began in 1845 largely due to the refusal of Northern Baptists to recognize slave owners as missionaries. For over 150 years, the Convention remained silent on the issue. Over the past two decades, though, the Convention has taken steps to recant its past. At its 150th anniversary meeting in 1995, it passes a resolution of apology and reconciliation for its racist past.

Fred Luter helped write it.

Today, Fred Luter Jr., pastor of New Orleans’ Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, is unopposed for election as president. Perhaps the most eloquent description of Luter was given by Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay – read it here.

I’ve always loved history – but it’s really exciting being a part of it.

How to Grow a Large Church – Elmer Towns style

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Dr. Elmer Towns, Co-founder of Liberty University and now Dean of the School of Religion, stopped by the Auxano booth this afternoon. In a fascinating conversation spanning only a few minutes but covering decades of church growth and health, one comment stands out. When asked about the founding of Liberty along with Jerry Falwell, he said:

Everybody wanted to know how to grow a big church. The answer is simple:

Go where the pulpit was hot!

He went on to explain that it meant preaching about the Gospel and how it changed lives. Chapel speakers weren’t faculty members – they were local pastors who came in and preached on what they did in ministry last week. He would give the same advice today to pastors and church planters – learn by doing from people who are doing it.

-from the SBC floor

30 Years Ago…

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30 years ago this week I was just finishing up the first year of my master’s program at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. I was also employed by SBTS as an audiovisual technician, and I was working the convention in two roles: running the multimedia program for the Seminary’s alumni luncheon, and serving as a photographer for the Seminary’s new President, Roy Honeycutt, who had just been named the Seminary’s 8th president.

I was also a part-time staff member of one of the largest SBC churches in the state, serving as Minister of Media for Highview Baptist Church in Louisville. The pastor did a live radio show every afternoon during drive time, and using that connection, I was able to do live radio news reports throughout the convention.

1982 was still the “early years” of the controversy in SBC life, so there was a lot going on at the convention. I love history but am not a historian; I wrestle with theology but am not a theologian. This post is not about what happened in SBC life during the early 80’s – history records it.

This is about today.

I am in New Orleans this week, once again attending the Southern Baptist Convention. A lot has happened in 30 years…

This time around, I am attending the SBC Pastor’s Conference and the Convention as an Auxano team member. My role at Auxano includes that of convention manager, coordinating our team at convention events. I will also be working in the Exhibit Hall area, in the LifeWay exhibit where Auxano has a white board conversation space.

Last night I served as host of the Green Room for the Pastor’s Conference. The Green Room is like a speaker’s lounge, where the speakers and family can relax before and after an event. As it was father’s day, the opening lineup consisted of father and son teams: Bailey Smith and J. Josh Smith; Don Wilton and Rob Wilton; Ronnie Floyd and Nick Floyd; and Tony Evans and Anthony Evans. It was great meeting these men, and since several of them were Auxano clients, we caught up on where they’ve been – and where they’re headed next. Exciting stuff!

I will be Tweeting as time allows (@auxano) and also trying to make notes for later reflection. I would love to hear any comments you might have about the SBC, the past 30 years, and where you are today.

Celebrating Father’s Day

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With the passing of my father earlier this year, each day in 2012 brings a new perspective. This Father’s Day, the first one in which I can’t tell him how much I appreciate him and thank him for all he did for me, is a good example.

Upon reflection, though, I can tell him: by my actions to my children and their children. Though it may not be verbal, my dad knows now, as he knew before, that he left a huge impact on me, my family, my children, our extended family, and our community. So today, I celebrate Father’s Day as a:

Son

This eulogy pretty much says it all. But I will keep saying it, and telling my kids and grandkids about my Dad, and they will hopefully see in me some of the things I learned from my dad.

Father

As the father of four terrific kids (and I still think they are terrific even after hearing childhood stories for the first time from them as young adults), now increased by two beautiful and wonderful young women who are the delight of my older two sons’ lives, I am simply blessed. I enjoyed watching these kids grow up from newborns to children to teenagers to now young adults. It has not always been easy (my mistakes more than theirs), but it has been quite a ride. Now those kids are 19, 23, 27, and 31 – and I am totally humbled by their lives’ trajectory. I simply say my legacy is being fulfilled in front of me through my kids, and I am so proud of them.

GrandBob

I literally grew up in the presence of grandparents; first, my paternal grandmother who lived in a small house right next to ours, then my maternal grandparents who lived there until I was off to college. As we began our family, both my parents and my wife’s parents, though not physically as close, were involved in our kids’ early lives. I had some good role models when my oldest son announced that he was going to be a dad. So now I am GrandBob to Jack (4) and Lucy (21 months) and Jellybean (due to arrive in late November). What a gig! Though my grandkids are separated by distance, I am glad that they know me and recognize me (joy is your granddaughter playing peek-a-boo on Skype). That makes time when I can be with them (Lucy and her mom spent a week with us recently; we spent the day with Jack yesterday) even all the more special.

On this Father’s Day, although I can’t celebrate with my father in person, I celebrate him through what he gave me, what I am passing on to my kids, and what they, in turn are passing along to their kids (and of course what “spoiling” I get in as GrandBob!).

An Apple a Day

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While doing some research recently, I came across a back issue of “Fast Company” magazine and a great article on Apple entitled “Apple Nation.” It’s one observer’s version of what “the Apple playbook” might look like. It may be dated, but it’s fascinating – and it has some implications for your organization.

  • Go into your cave – Apple is fanatic about secrecy when it comes to their development process. Behind it’s often closed doors, Apple can ignore the clamor of the world and create its own unique brand of “magic.”
  • It’s okay to be king – Apple’s engineers spend 100% of their time making products planned by a small club of senior managers – and while he was CEO, sometimes entirely by the late Steve Jobs himself. It may seem dictatorial, but it works. The hyper focus lets everyone know exactly what is needed.
  • Transcend orthodoxy – despite all the noise about Apple’s closed ideology, the company adopts positions based on whether they make for good products and good business. Results are the driving philosophy.
  • Just say no – CEO Steve Job’s primary role at Apple was to turn things down. “I’m as proud of the products that we have not done as the ones we have done,” Jobs once told an interviewer.
  • Serve your customer. No, really – however great your product or service, something will go wrong – and only then will the customer/client take the true measure of your organization.
  • Everything is marketing – Apple understands the lasting power of sensory cues, and goes out its way to infuse everything it make with memorable ideas that scream its brand.
  • Kill the past – no other company re imagines the fundamental parts of its business as frequently, and with as much gusto, as Apple does. Nothing holds it back, so it can always stay on the edge of what’s technologically possible.
  • Turn feedback into inspiration – Apple doesn’t exactly ignore the many customer requests for improvements in its products. They simply use their ideas as inspiration, not direction; as a means, not an end.
  • Don’t invent, reinvent – revolutionary is one of Jobs’ favorite words. It curates the best ideas bubbling up around the tech world and makes them its own.
  • Play by your own clock – Apple doesn’t get caught up in the competitive frenzy of the industry; it plays by its own clock. Apple’s product release schedule is designed around its own strategy and its own determination of what products will advance the company’s long-term goals.

Everyone wants to be like Steve Jobs and the powerhouse company he created and led. It’s not easy. But the lessons of Apple above may just help move your own organization forward.

 

Have you had your “Apple” today?

 

Clarity Solves the Visionary’s Dilemma

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The problem with most visionaries is that they see a world that doesn’t exist.

It’s not so much of a problem until they try to explain their vision to the rest of us mere mortals. They can imagine products or services not yet invented. They can envision a way of living different to the way we live now.

Yet they can’t always get it out in a way that anyone can understand.

Simon Sinek, author of the book “Start With Why,” has a great post here on the visionary’s dilemma.

Here’s a quote that pretty much sums it up:

A vision, no matter how brilliant, will only ever see the light of day if others, those less visionary, are able to also see the potential. It is a person’s ability to paint a picture of something that doesn’t exist in words so clear that others can clearly picture it themselves without any confusion or uncertainty that matters most. It is at that point that an idea can inspire people to act. To share the idea and to help bring it to reality.

His formula for explaining the vision in words everyone can understand is pure gold:

  1. Words that require thinking should be avoided, words like “convergence,” for example. When someone says that in a sentence, I have to furl my brow and really pay attention.
  2. Explain why it matters, not what you’re doing. Who cares if you’re “developing applications for mobile devices…blah blah blah,” why should I care?
  3. And most importantly, always, always speak as if you’re describing an image. A picture. A scene.

And finally: And, after all, it is why you have your vision, not how you intend to create it, that inspires.

Leaders in ChurchWorld ought to be visionaries – and many are. Just make sure you are able to speak to that vision, and communicate it to others with clarity.

 

The Power of a Word

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The immediate reaction is the only reaction that matters.

When we meet someone new, when we introduce a new thought into a conversation, when we send a text, we are making a first impression.

As soon as we do that, people begin to make judgments about us – the same way we are making judgments about them. We may not intend to and they are mostly subconscious, but we are making them nevertheless.

You’ve probably heard the saying – “you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression”.

It’s right.

What will your “first impression” be today? To your spouse, children, or other family members? To your boss, employees, or co-workers? To the neighbors walking the dog? To the barista at the coffee shop? To the checkout person in a long line at the store? And so on…

Make your first impression your best impression.

It may be the only one you will ever make with that person – and it may be a life-changing one.

Facts Are Facts…

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…stories are how we learn.

Facts are facts, but stories are who we are, how we learn, and what it all means.

-Alan Webber

Why are stories so much more powerful than plain old facts or boring PowerPoint presentations?

  • Stories are about people
  • Stories are about people doing things
  • Stories create meaning
  • Stories are how we learn
  • Stories have always been at the heart of starting and leading organizations
  • Organizations celebrate their great successes and even their heroic failures through stories

The work of leading a great organization is the work of telling stories.

What story will you tell today?

 

Part of the BookNotes Series – brief excerpts from books I have read, or am currently reading

Rules of Thumb, by Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company magazine. A list of rules for the new game we’re in today – a complex, fast-changing, and confusing world.

Excuse Me, Can I See the Manager?

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The best place to start thinking about process is at the end; in this case, where a customer or guest didn’t have a great time/meal/service/whatever.

The customer/guest usually takes it out on the person who was most involved in the transaction – a clerk or waiter or flight attendant – a front-line person.

But is it really their fault?

Seth Godin wrote a great post entitled “Who’s responsible for service design?” which provides an excellent starting point for a better understanding of the “process” that must go into your Guest Services Team. Here are a few highlights, but be sure to read the entire post:

Too often, we blame bad service on the people who actually deliver the service. Sometimes (often) it’s not their fault. Sadly, the complaints rarely make it as far as the overpaid (and possibly overworked) executive who made the bad design decision in the first place. It’s the architecture of service that makes the phone ring and the customers leave.

Three quick tips for anyone who cares about this:

  • Require service designers to sign their work
  • Run a customer service audit. Walk through the building or the event or the phone tree with all the designers in the room and call out what’s not right.
  • Make it easy for complaints (and compliments) about each decision to reach the designer (and her boss).

That’s powerful.

  • What are the processes behind the scenes that make your Guest Services work?
  • What are the processes you have in place when something unexpected pops up?
  • What are the processes you have in place when something needs to be changed?
  • How do you even know that something needs to be changed?

A closing quote from Seth Godin:

In my experience, most of the problems are caused by ignorance and isolation, not incompetence or a lack of concern.

Are you ready to be a process engineer for your Guest Services Team?

One Word Makes the Difference

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Guest Services in the church is a passion of mine. I want churches to realize that they have a chance – usually a single chance – to make a WOW! first impression on Guests coming to their facility this weekend.

Here’s a challenge for you: a single word will change your mind-set on this topic:

When it comes to ChurchWorld, more often than not we have visitors.

It may be a little thing to you, just a word, but I think it’s actually a powerful first impression that needs to change.

Do you have Visitor parking? Visitor packets? A Visitor’s Center? Do you welcome your visitors during the worship experience? And on and on…

The first step in creating a WOW! Guest Services experience is to remove the word visitor from your vocabulary, never to be used again.

It’s a little thing to be sure. But it’s a mindset change that will really impact how you create the rest of the experience at your church.

You are expecting Guests this weekend.

Guests come to your place, looking for a warm greeting, a smiling face, and an experience designed to make them feel like, well, Guests. Nothing phony, manipulative, or in-your-face; just welcome them as guests with the most sincere, energizing, and loving experiences you can.

Can we agree to start with a simple change that conveys a powerful image, one that will be reflected through your church?

Over the past several years, in conversations with hundreds of church leaders on the topic of Guest Services, that one word has been like a light bulb being turned on – it’s like “Wow – I get it!”

Now that you’ve got it, I want to stretch you a little bit more and plant a seed for future posts:

The magic formula for Guest Services in your church can be broken down into 4 categories:

Product

What business is your church in?

Only you and your leadership team can answer that, but I am suggesting your church is in the people business. Your church doesn’t manufacture and sell an object, but you do seek to produce something: changed lives.

The “raw materials” you start with are the pinnacle of God’s creation – after all, we are made in His image. But even so, we are all in process. Somewhere between birth and death, all of us are on a journey. Your church needs to balance the frailty and possibility of everyone you encounter, and create experiences that accept them where they are, challenge them to move toward where they need to be, and walk with them along the way.

Churches that understand their “product” and create vital, life-changing experiences – those are the churches that are making a difference in our world today.

What are you creating at your church?

Place

Think like a designer – be an environmental architect

Just as an architect asks a number of questions before designing a building, church leaders who want to be environmental architects must ask questions to reveal the function of the space, which in turn determine its design.

If you were to own the architectural responsibility for every environment in your church, you should be asking questions like:

  • What’s the purpose of this environment?
  • Who will use this environment?
  • What do we want people to experience?
  • What do we want people to leave with?
  • Who’s responsible for quality control?

Now just in case you were wondering, this concept of space is not limited to physical place. Environments (the physical kind) matter very much. But a good environmental architect is also creating psychological space in much the same way.

You’re on a journey to create experiences that keep people coming back.

Process

Guest Service leaders need to understand design thinking.

Design has the power to enrich our lives by engaging our emotions through image, form, texture, color, sound and smell. The intrinsically human-centered nature of design thinking points to the next step: we can use our empathy and understanding of people to design experiences that create opportunities for active engagement and participation.

Just as a product begins with an engineering blueprint and a building with an architectural blueprint, an experience blueprint provides the framework for working out the details of a human interaction, including emotive elements, from beginning to end.

It captures how people travel through an experience in time. Rather than trying to choreograph that journey, its function is to identify the most meaningful points and turn them into opportunities that positively impact the individual. What might be a source of discomfort or pain is now an opportunity for an experience that is distinctive, emotionally gratifying, and memorable.

The experience blueprint is at one and the same time a high-level strategy document and a fine-grained process analysis of the details that matter.

It’s time to create an Experience Blueprint for your Guest Services!

People

You have to have a great team in place first before you can begin to deliver excellent experiences.

In the equation Creating Experiences = Product + Place + Process + People, the most important part, the starting place, the foundation which all else is built on – it’s people.

The experiences that you are attempting to create, the places and spaces in which they are housed – both literally and figuratively – are important. But you don’t get anywhere without the people.

When an organization helps its team members bring pride, excellence, and playfulness to every aspect of their task, those team members literally have the chance to change the lives of those around them.

People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be a part of something that touches their hearts.

Everything matters – but everyone matters more.

 

Intrigued about Guest Services at your church? Look for more information in upcoming posts here, and drop me a quick note and tell me more about what your church does in the Guest Services area.