CyberTsunami

Book Review: Getting Fired for the Glory of God

Yaconelli, Mike. Getting Fired for the Glory of God. El Cajon, CA: Youth Specialties (Zondervan). 2008.

Mike Yaconelli was one of the founders of Youth Specialties and one of the pioneers of youth ministry as a career calling. He died in 2003 in an auto accident. He is greatly missed by legions of aging youth workers like me.

Getting Fired is mostly a collection of columns that Mike wrote over the years for Youth Specialties (then) flagship publication, YouthWorker Journal. Most of the articles are short since they had to fit in one page. The book also contains a couple of longer presentations by Mike (2 videos and 4 audios) in front of 1,000s of youth workers usually at a National Youth Workers Convention (another flagship innovation by Youth Specialties).

I liked Mike's writing and speaking. Like most thinking people, he irritated me sometimes and scared me at others. But he always challenged me and made me think. Sometimes you didn't know if he was being satirical or using hyperbole, or if he really was that radical and just didn't care what others thought about what he was saying. I know that some of his ideas had no chance in the world of ever being useful or even possible, but Mike did live in the world of possibilities and he loved a God who can make all things possible, so who knows.

As one reads this, keep an open mind, try to understand the youth ministry world which spawned Mike in the late 60s and early 70s.

Over the top? Maybe. Radical? Definitely! Perhaps (on a very small scale) emulating? Possibly. Entertaining and thought provoking? Absolutely.

Book Review: Breakout Churches Part 2

Rainer, Thom & Sam Rainer. Breakout Churches. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2009, 252 pp

BV652.25.R365 2004                                 ISBN #0-310-25745-X

Continued from previous post

6.     The VIP Factor

This chapter is similar to the Hedgehog Concept in Good to Great. The VIP factor is the “Vision Intersection Profile.” Rainer opens with the shocking statement that breakout churches do not seek to discover their vision. The key phrase is “seek to discover.” These churches all have a clear, compelling vision, but in Rainer’s words, it “was a vision that discovered them.”

When the vision of the leader can be matched with the gifts and passions of the congregation, then the church can find what community needs it can adequately meet. Most often, the leader’s passion came first, then the people’s passions were molded to his.

Rainer states that of the 427 church’s his team looked at, only 6% of the pastors were passionate. The others were motivated by survival, conflict avoidance, self-promotion, tradition, or fear.

For the congregation passion, the church didn’t rely on spiritual gift inventories or surveys. They created an atmosphere were people’s passions bubbled to the top and gave the people permission to follow them. What isn’t clear is how they filtered out the passions that did not align with the leader’s.

7.     A Culture of Excellence

This chapter is patterned after Collin’s “Culture of Discipline.” Closely tied to the VIP Factor, breakout churches found the intersection of the leader, people, and community and demanded excellence in every ministry that fell within that intersection and usually let other ministries die. These churches also gave ministry leaders and workers, both staff and volunteer a high degree of freedom, but with a high degree of expectations. Rainer came up with a quadrant similar to Collins discipline/entrepreneur quadrant, but Rainer’s is expectation/freedom. The chart below shows the quadrant arrangement. All the breakout churches were in quadrant 2. The comparison churches in each of the other quadrants are listed in the quadrant.

1 High Freedom Low Expectation 7 Comparison Churches	2 High Freedom High Expectation 13 Breakout Churches
3 Low Freedom Low Expectation 25 Comparison Churches	4 Low Freedom High Expectation 7 Comparison Churches

The breakout churches also had a generally acknowledged “do not start” or “stop doing” list. They simply didn’t do things that didn’t fit their VIP Factor or that they could not do well.

8.     Innovation Accelerators

Patterned after “Technology Accelerators” in Good to Great, the key idea of the chapter is that breakout churches use innovation as aid to growth, not to cause growth. The concept seems a little subtle. Is it really possible to say that an innovation did or did not cause the growth? The real issue seems to be one of how the church filters innovation and how much it relies on innovation.

Rainer states that most churches are either Traditionalist/Resistors or Innovator/Embracers. The first is troubled by change and generally resists all change. Twenty four of the 39 comparison churches fit this category (69%). The latter see innovation as the “magic bullet” or panacea. They blindly follow the latest innovation. Fifteen comparison churches fit this category (31%). Like the little bear in Goldilocks, breakout churches had the “just right” approach to innovation. Again, the difference seems to be not on the speed of innovation, but on the wisdom and discernment of the leadership.

Rainer finally addresses this when he comes back to the VIP Factor. The church has to evaluate technology with regard to how well it fits within their vision intersection.

The book digresses into a discussion of how innovation could become “the tail wagging the dog.” True, but Rainer uses this section to drive home more importantly how that most of the comparison churches didn’t have a dog to wag. The dog, of course, would be the main mission/vision of the church and leaders. There’s the problem. It’s not the innovation.

The book also includes the old warning that innovation can be a trap. What you use to bring them is what you have to use to keep them. Rely on innovation and you could get stuck with the innovation long after it ceases to innovative.

9.     Big Mo or Blind Erosion?

This chapter is based on Collin’s chapter The Flywheel and the Doom Loop. The big mo is, of course, momentum. Rainer says that the momentum is caused by a variety of things including the longer tenure of breakout pastors. Other factors include, preaching, Biblical authority, and prayer.

Blind erosion, on the other hand, stems from lack of accountability, poor theology, and ignorance and resistance on the part of the leaders. In the comparison churches, the laypeople had little understanding of their doctrinal beliefs and little evangelistic zeal. Many concluded that there were alternate ways to heaven.

Rainer lists six types of leaders who have the resistance to change that leads to erosion.

Ø      The burned leader is demoralized and hurt. He is unwilling to try great things for God out of fear of conflict.

Ø      The ignorant leader lacks interpersonal skills and basic leadership abilities.

Ø      The lazy leader takes advantage of low accountability.

Ø      The theologically weak leader has doubts about some basic tenets.

Ø      The conflict avoider is like the burned leader except that conflict avoidance is a basic personality issue and not the result of previous conflict.

Ø      The accolade seeker lives for recognition. He spends time on pastoral care and things that will increase his value in the eyes of the people.

1o.        To Become a Breakout Church

The last chapter is Rainer’s wrap up to reinforce salient issues one more time. The most beneficial section is the final chart on page 200.

Some steps toward breaking out

Acts 6/7 Leadership

Ø      develop core biblical values.

Ø      Pray for Christlike Spirit in all areas.

Ø      Decide in God's power to love the people of the church no matter what.Seek to lead your church to an outward focus, beyond the walls of the congregation.

Ø      In God's will make a commitment to stay with the church long-term.

The ABC Moment

Ø      Seek outside counsel to help you see the church from an outsider's perspective.

Ø      Be a lifelong learner through numerous media.

Ø      Pray for your critics and maintain an attitude of love toward them.

Ø      Be prepared for the reality that most crises will be the result of conflict with Christians.

Ø      Pray that God will allow you to see beyond the crises and see His work in the difficult moments.

Who/What Simultrack

Ø      Deal quickly but compassionately with a major people problems.

Ø      Develop a high expectation culture in the church that will attract more of the right people.

Ø      Work on major structural needs in the church will simultaneously working on the people issues.

The VIP Factor

Ø      Discern your passions for ministry is a leader.

Ø      Discover the gifts and passions of the members of your congregation.

Ø      Discover the needs in the community.

Ø      See where the above three factors intersect, and focus many resources at this vision intersection.

Culture of Excellence

Ø      Attempt to do all things with excellence in God's power.

Ø      If the church cannot do something with excellence, consider discarding or discontinuing the effort.

Ø      See innovation as a means, not as an end.

Ø      Carefully evaluate each innovative opportunity; be open but cautious with innovations.

Big Mo

Ø      Learn that the success God gives is often a beginning point for another opportunity for success.

Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions

Most of the questions answered here have already been addressed in the body of the work.

Appendix B: Selection Process and Research Steps

1.      Determine the Criteria for Selection

Ø      26 conversions in at least one of the past five years.

Ø      Maximum of 20:1 evangelistic ratio in the past five years.

Ø      Five years of sustained growth.

Ø      No change in senior pastor during the decline, breakout and growth.

2.      Locate a Database of Churches

The team gathered data on 52,333 churches.

3.      Apply the Two Evangelistic Screens

The evangelistic screens reduced the number of churches to 1,936.

4.      Seek Other Screening Data from Remaining Churches

The team asked the 1,936 churches for more extensive data over the past 10 years. Only 881 churches responded.

5.      Apply Breakout Screen

This screen reduced the number of churches to 211.

6.      Apply Consistent Leadership Screen

The senior pastor stayed the same in only 17 churches.

7.      Begin Intensive Research on Screened Churches

Detailed scrutiny ruled out 4 more churches.

8.      Research the Breakout Churches

1.      Gathering internal and historical documents on the churches.

2.      Gathering published material on the churches where available.

3.      Conducting interviews with staff and laity.

4.      On site observation.

5.      Testing according to Good to Great.

6.      Testing against comparison churches.

Appendix C: Selection Process of Comparison Churches

This is a brief explanation of how Rainer’s team picked the comparison churches for each breakout church.

Ø      Size: the comparison church had to have an average attendance within 10% of the breakout church’s.

Ø      Geography: The comparison church had to be in the same state or a contiguous state.

Ø      Demographics: The two communities had to be with 20% in size.

Ø      Doctrine: If the breakout church was part of a denomination, the comparison church came from the same denomination.

Appendix D: Synopsis of Churches Selected

This section gives a short synopsis of the 13 breakout churches. Most of the information has already been anecdotally mentioned within the main body of the book. They are listed below for easy reference.

1. Bethel Temple Community Church, Evansville, IN

2. Calvary Memorial Church, Oak Park, IL

3. Central Christian Church, Beloit, WI

4. Fairfield New Liife Church, Farfield, CA (Nazarene)

5. First Gethsemane Baptist Church, Louisville, KY

6. Grace Church, Christians and Missionary Alliance, Middleburg Heights, OH
7. Grace Evangelical Free Church, Allen, TX

8. Grove City Church of the Nazarene, Grove City, OH

9. Korean Central Presbyterian Church, Vienna, VA

10. Lenexa Baptist Church, Leneza, KN

11. Southwest Baptis tChurch, Amarillo, TX
12. The Temple Church, Nashville, TN
13. Xenos Christian Fellowship, Columbus, OH

Appendix E: Church Readiness Inventory

This 50 question inventory is one that Rainer’s former organization, Church Central, uses in preparation for a consultation. It covers many areas of church life including prayer, strategy, evangelism, fellowship, staff, vision, leadership styles, relationships, and conflict. Permission is granted for the survey to be used in the book purchaser’s local church.