Today is May 21, 2012

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How To Prioritize Your Church Improvement Projects

As a general rule of thumb, most people attack those problems that give them the best “bang for the buck.”  The challenge comes in identifying what exactly is the bang and what to expect for the buck.

There are three criteria by which a church can ascertain which projects to tackle and which ones can wait:

  1. Strategically critical:  The senior leadership team feels the project is important to the success of the church (aligns with the church vision and mission).
  2. Tactically necessary:  The customer (congregation, crowd and community) has a stated need that requires the church to take action to satisfy it.
  3. Methodically determined:  A business team within the church decides which projects to action based on a structured review and prioritization process.

A good combination of longer and more strategic projects, in addition to some short-term and tactical projects, is preferred because you are capitalizing on critical opportunities today while still working on the keys to success for tomorrow.

The third criteria is often overlooked in church organizations.  Sometimes this is due to lack of time, resources, or even lack of knowledge.  In an upcoming article I’m going to give a tool called a “Prioritization Matrix” that will help you in this area.  Until that time, I suggest you make a list of all of the strategically critical and tactically necessary issues that you have identified in your church.  You will need these for your Prioritization Matrix.

Finish Strong.

Filed Under Church Metrics, Sample Articles Tagged With business team, church vision, prioritization matrix

Process can be an ugly word

The term process is defined as “a series of actions directed toward a specific goal:. In an organization (such as a church), a process may be described by the process owner/users (staff, volunteers, etc.) as something very different. It may be to be “too complex”, “chaotic”, “informal”, “broken”, or even “non-existent”. They may very well be right. Identifying and documenting a process takes time (to do it properly), but it’s not a difficult exercise to perform.

If you want to improve the way you run your church, your job, or even your personal life, (which is something I think we all really want to happen – given the right guidance) you will need to look at this ugly word called process. We all have a process for getting something done, and in that process there is always room for improvement. But where do you start? If you recall from a previous article, Lean strives to eliminate anything that is not absolutely required to deliver a service on time to our congregation, crowd, and community. The goal is to eliminate the waste or non valued added activities, in that process.

If you already have a good idea of the steps involved in completing a task/service/process, you then need to apply some Lean principles to improve it. Document the process on paper. Gather input from a group of people involved in that process. This will allow you to think about what’s involved in each step and why you need to do it (or why you don’t – which is the goal). It will also allow you to identify the root cause of the waste. For example, perhaps the excess motion is due to the layout of church office, or the excess processing is due to poor work methods. Eliminating the root cause will allow you to eliminate the waste and improve the process.

In the next issue of TLC Lean Lessons, I’ll cover the steps of process mapping in more detail.

Finish Strong.

Filed Under Introduction To Lean, Sample Articles Tagged With lean, non value added, process, Process Mapping, root cause, waste, work methods

Eliminate The W.E.E.D.S. In Your Church

Lean Thinking focuses on a relentless elimination of waste in an effort to deliver greater value to the customer.  It’s important to understand how to identify the waste in Church operations.  In this article we will cover the 5 main categories of waste as defined by TheLeanChurch.com (there are actually 7 categories as per the Lean Enterprise Institute – but we have consolidated these categories to simplify things and to better reflect the common waste that exists in a Church).

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…thorns had come up everywhere,the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.
Proverbs 24:31
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We use the acronym W.E.E.D.S. to represent the 5 categories of waste in a church.  Here they are with some examples.

1.Waiting –  Program delays, waiting in registration lines or sign-in lines, waiting to get out of a busy parking lot

2.Excess Motion – unnecessary motion, travel from location to location, searching for misplaced information/equipment

3.Extra Processing – multiple sign-offs, most meetings, multiple systems, basically anything that overlaps for no particular reason

4.Defect Correction - incorrect data entry, wrong processing of forms, wrong execution of a (poorly communicated) process

5.Surplus Production – preparing extra reports, reports not acted upon, excess inventory of study guides and handouts etc.

Waste is common in every environment and a church is no exception.  The waste may actually be different but it exists nonetheless.  The challenge is to identify the waste and eliminate it from the process.  Herein lies the power of Lean.  By equiping Change Apostles with the right tools and training Lean can become a very useful approach to streamine church operations and deliver greater value to the congregation, crowd, and community.

Andrew Hunter

Filed Under Introduction To Lean, Sample Articles Tagged With church operations, defect, lean enterprise institute, W.E.E.D.S, waiting, waste, weeds

Webinar: Churches With Lean Staff Budgets

The Leadership Network invites people to join The Spotlight, a monthly webinar series that highlights their best learning, research and resources in a one-hour, online experience.  Each webinar gives participants direct access to leading church practitioners through an interactive Q&A format. Guest presenters include pastors, authors, thought leaders and experts in various ministry fields.

The next webinar is scheduled for May 12, 3:00 pm (Central), and is entitled “Churches with Lean Staff Budgets”

This Spotlight is on Churches with Lean Staff Budgets, presented by Director of Research Warren Bird. During this webinar they will take a closer look at the study Lean Staffing: Churches That Handle Staff Costs in Under 35% of Budget (download it free here), delving into some of the strategies behind a lean staff budget (where less than 35% of the total budget is spent on staff costs). They will be joined by some special guests to share their stories from the front lines of ministry, of how they are keeping costs down.

I think this webinar will be very informative and I suggest you try to participate.  You can register by first subscribing to their newsletter. 

Mark you calendars for May 12th – you won’t want to miss it!

Filed Under News & Events, Sample Articles Tagged With leadership network, lean staff budgets, warren bird

How To Build A Church Website For Free

I have just published a complete training tutorial to teach you how to build a professional church website using WordPress.  This tutorial is 1 hour long and will take you through the entire process from purchasing a domain name to launching the completed site.  There is also a manual and checklist below the video.  It is pretty much a church website in a box!

Would you like a sneak peak at the actual website we constructed in the video?  Click Here.

Members can access this training system HERE.

If you are not a member but would like to purchase this training package, you can do so by clicking HERE.

Filed Under Assimiliation, Sample Articles, Training Series Tagged With church website, church website in a box, wordpres

Using Technology As “First Contact”

I've been working with a church on improving the front end "assimilation process".  One area in particular that required our attention was the proper use of the church website.

This particular church had a decent website; quality graphics, lots of relevant content, and regular updates.  The question that was raised within the improvement project team was "Who are we really trying to reach and respond to with our website… and, how successful are we at achieving it?".

I believe there are really two primary groups that every church should target with their website.

The first group represents the "Locators".  This group can be defined as those members of the community that seek information on church fit – who they are, what they do, what they offer, and where they are.  This is considered first contact, and as such, this group has very different needs and expectations than the next group.

The second group represents the "Learners".  This group can be defined as those members of the congregation and crowd that seek information on church functions – programs, courses, special events, registrations, and ministry contact details based on facts they already know.  These are people that already attend the church (even if it was just a couple of visits).  They are taking the next step to getting connected within the church body.  They already know where the church is and what it's all about.  They want to know what's new and what's going on in the church right now.

A church website needs to focus on both of these groups.  The content for the Learners needs to be fresh and interactive.  The content for the Locators needs to be detailed and motivating.  The objective of using your website for first contact should be on communicating a solid understanding about your culture, mission and vision… and make it as clear as possible for this group to understand how to get into the front door of your church.  From their perspective they are asking the two questions;

  1. What is this church like (culture set by the mission and vision)?
  2. How do I find it and how convenient is it for me to get there?

The best way to answer these questions for a large segment of the locators is through the church website.  If you properly answer these questions (through the use of perhaps some audio, video, Google Maps, etc.) you should be able to adequately satisfy this group and help them make that decision to visit your church for the first time.

Be Blessed,

Andrew

Filed Under Assimiliation, Sample Articles Tagged With assimilation, church website, communication, learners, locators
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