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What Church Leaders Can Learn From Uber and Lyft

March 24, 2015 By Daniel Im

How long have you been driving for?

Anytime I’m in a Taxi, this is typically one of my go-to questions. It also inevitably turns into an opportunity for the cab driver to share their personal story with me (this is one of the 5 BLESS steps in missional living). Last time I asked this question, the driver opened up the internal world of the taxi industry, and gave me insight into how and why companies like Uber and Lyft are gaining so much ground.

It costs $300,000 to buy a permit to drive a cab in this city…

I couldn’t believe my ears when the cab driver told me how it cost to drive a cab in Edmonton (Canada). As I continued to pry into the industry, he continued…

A limited number of permits are issued once every few years, and when they are, it’s a complete lottery. Here’s the catch though, in order to enter that lottery, you need to have already been driving a cab for a couple of years, which is why I’m leasing this cab from someone else. If you’re lucky enough to have your name drawn, then it’ll cost you less than a $1000 to buy the license through the city. Once you get that license, you can either use it yourself, lease it out to someone else, or you can sell it for $300,000 – that’s the going rate these days.

If I was talking to a lawyer, doctor or a dentist and they told me that it was going to cost them $300,000 to buy someone else’s practice, I wouldn’t even blink. All you would have to do is crunch the numbers and it would make sense. However, how does it make sense for a cab driver to dish out $300,000 to buy a permit, when they might only make a couple hundred dollars a day, plus the cost of maintenance and fuel?

I was beginning to understand why companies like Uber and Lyft were gaining so much ground in the transportation industry and why taxi drivers and unions were trying so hard to prevent them from coming into their cities.

4 Ways to “Flip the Classroom” in your Church

March 17, 2015 By Daniel Im

*You can watch a video of me explaining this concept here

Common leadership dilemmas:

When’s the last time 100% of your leaders showed up at a training event?
Do you ever find yourself summarizing training for those who missed it?
How frequently do you hold orientation training for new leaders?

You wouldn’t have these problems if everyone just cleared their schedule for your training events (like they should!!), but sadly this just isn’t the case. So what’s the solution? Is it to hold additional training events? Or is there a smarter way to train all of your leaders?

The purpose of this post is to introduce the concept of “flipping the classroom,” as well as provide you with ways to use this in your church leadership.

Have you ever heard of “flipping the classroom?”

This is a hot topic in the educational world that is rapidly gaining ground as the new standard amongst educators. Let me explain it for you.

In the traditional classroom…

The teacher is the sage on the stage.
The classroom time consists of the teacher lecturing, possibly answering questions, and then assigning homework.
The teacher needs to standardize the lesson, so she can’t possibly engage both the lowest common denominator, and the overachiever.
Homework is completed at home. So, if the student doesn’t understand something, they have to either ask a parent, tutor, friend, or go back to class with their homework incomplete.

In the “flipped classroom”…

The teacher is the guide on the side.
The student watches the lecture at home via video, and then completes their homework in class. So, if the student doesn’t understand something, they can ask their teacher.
Since the classroom time consists of homework, case studies, discussion, projects, and processing, every level of learner can be engaged.
The teacher is able to customize learning to every student – spending more time with those who don’t get it, and in turn, catalyzing forward the students who do get it.

——- There’s an infographic at the end of this post for more information ——-

What does “flipping the classroom” have to do with leadership development in my church?

How to Develop a Church Planting Farm System

March 10, 2015 By Daniel Im

spruce grove community garden — My kids and an MSC harvesting their community garden

How do you feel about these statements?

Being excited about becoming a church that plants churches is not the same thing as doing it.
Picking the low hanging fruit (the already developed seminary student) and sending them out to plant is not the same thing as having a process to develop a new believer into a church planter.
Setting aside a percentage of your budget for church planting is not the same thing as developing future planters.

What would it look like if God answered Matthew 9:37-38 through your church? How would you feel if God raised up harvest workers and church planters through your church?

Now I know many of you might be thinking, “Yeah, yeah, I get it. I need to start a residency program or an internship program.” But that’s not what I’m talking about here.

This post is about developing a church planting farm system that starts before any type of internship or residency program. This is ultimately about developing the type of leader that you would want to accept into an internship or residency program.

Every church planting farm system requires three things.

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–> Enter: Mid-Size Communities (MSC)

When I started the mid-size community movement at my previous church (you can watch the MSC intro movie here), I said that it was going to be a way to get more people connected into community (which it totally did – 700 more people into community in three years at three campuses). However, the underlying reason I was so passionate about MSCs was because I saw them as a farm system to raise up future church planters. This pervaded the way that I developed the MSC leadership development curriculum, training strategy, roll-out plan, and everything else that accompanied it.

In fact, when you consider what makes up a healthy farm system, there seems to be three common factors:

Four Church Planting Tips with Lesslie Newbigin

March 3, 2015 By Daniel Im

Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), while being best known for his work in missiology and ecclesiology, actually has a lot of advice for church planters. In fact, each of them is an extension of his quote in the picture above, or of my paraphrase below:

The church – a healthy church – is the hermeneutic of the gospel. It’s the way that the gospel comes to life. It’s the way that people can taste and smell the gospel.

When planting a church, it’s easy to go the way of the herd and get so caught up with the details, that you forget the values or the underlying ecclesiology that you’re trying to develop in the life of your church. After all, without those details getting done, you wouldn’t be able to plant a church. But what if, for a moment, you put those details aside and re-examined the type of ecclesiology that you’re developing in light of these four church planting tips that were inspired by Lesslie Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society?

After all, Jesus did not write a book, but formed a community – Lesslie Newbigin

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1. Cultivate gratitude, not entitlement.

Newbigin suggests that churches need to be communities of praise and thanksgiving and that this, perhaps, is the church’s most distinctive character. So how are you cultivating a culture of praise and thanksgiving in your church? Are you being intentional with your preaching/teaching and the rest of your ministries? If you cultivate that culture of praise and thanksgiving in your church, you’ll actually see that translate into a heart of gratitude – and with gratitude, you’ll be slaying the idol of entitlement. If that happens, you’ll see your church’s “me” culture translate into a “we” culture, where the focus will be less on personal comfort and wellbeing, and more towards the wellbeing of your city and the salvation of those who are far from God.

2. Share truth, not gossip.

The fuel that drives pop culture seems to be gossip and scandals. This isn’t just true for entertainment shows, late night shows and sitcoms, but this pervades the news as well. If this is the MO (mode of operation) of our culture, this will naturally seep into the life of your church. So instead of calling your church to reject pop culture outrightly and burn all their “secular” CDs and DVDs, what if you cultivated a sense of skepticism towards it? After all, this skepticism would enable your congregation to, in the words of Newbigin, “take part in the life of society without being bemused and deluded by its own beliefs about itself.” This sense of skepticism would allow your church to be aware of pop culture, so that they could speak truth into it by being an alternate community of truth apart from it.

3. Be for your community, not just in your community.

5 Things to Ask Before Getting a Masters, Doctorate or Ph.D

February 23, 2015 By Daniel Im

Alan Levine from flickr — Alan Levine – Flickr

Education and degrees tend to open new doors and opportunities. They’re most effective at qualifying you for a particular line of work, but once you’re in and have experience in that industry, you better think twice before going back to school. In fact, you should ask these 5 questions before sending in your tuition deposit.

Now just to get something clear. I love school. In fact, I’ve studied at five different graduate schools in three separate countries. And no, I didn’t flunk out of any of them, nor was I expelled. (You can read about my story here, “Why I ditched the M.Div…and am still a pastor.”) So I’m not writing this post as a manifesto against higher education, nor am I trying to sway you away from getting a masters, doctorate or Ph.D.

I’m writing this post because I want to help you make a wise decision.

That’s it. No agenda at all.

So here are the 5 questions that you need to ask before going back to school:

1. Will this additional degree open doors that further years of experience wouldn’t?

There are two ways to advance your career – further experience or additional education (formal, informal and/or nonformal).

If you somehow made it into your industry without the minimum education requirements, then my suggestion is for you to go get your degree (part time via online education), while you’re still working. For example, if you completed a residency or internship program at your church and were offered a staff position, but you didn’t have the right degree that would’ve traditionally qualified you for that position, then go get that degree part-time via online education or through a local school. If you don’t, then your lack of education will eventually catch up to you and be a lid on your leadership.

Your Multisite Content Wish List

February 17, 2015 By Daniel Im

I’ve been on staff with 3 multisite churches (you can read more in my bio), and there’s one thing that I’ve experienced. No one does it the same. While there are several principles that seem to be universally true across the board, the way they’re applied is unique to the context.

So here is where I need your input.

I’m the Church Multiplication Specialist at LifeWay. What that means is that I’m leading the initiative to develop resources for all things related to church multiplication – that means everything to do with church planting and multisite.

So what’s your wish list? What are your most pressing questions regarding multisite ministry? What do you want to learn about? And who do you want to learn from?

–> Please leave your comments below, or tweet them to @danielsangi

If you’re interested in what we already have to offer for multisite ministry via our leading online learning platform, Ministry Grid, read this list.

3 Ways to Avoid Losing Your Job

February 15, 2015 By Daniel Im

This is Part 4/4 of my popular Desert Experience in Ministry series.

There seems to be a universal rule out there that goes something like this,

If thou wantest something, thou shalt put a wack-load-of-effortitis into getting it

But what happens to most of us when we finally get that thing? Think about it for a moment. What happened to that Bow-Flex you bought? That machine that was going to revolutionize your life? Or what about that Juicer that was going to make you so healthy? It went from being on the counter, to being under the counter, to being in a box in your garage. Am I right?

It’s funny, most of us don’t mind putting the effort into getting something that we want, but once we get it, it’s easy to put it aside and focus on that next big thing that’s on the horizon.

If you’re not careful, the same will happen with your job.

Do you remember the amount of energy and mind space that you put into getting that job of yours? You prayed about it. You researched it. You weighed the options. You candidated. You name it, you know you did it. But since getting that job, where has your energy and mind space gone? Is it in the work that you know you were called to do? Or do you find yourself drifting?

It’s one thing to lose your job because of laziness and lack of performance. (The only advice that I can give you on that point is that a worker deserves their wages. Buckle up your bootstraps and get your work done). However, it’s a whole other thing to lose it unexpectedly. And that’s what I want to help you with today!

It’s one thing to lose your job because of laziness. It’s another to lose it unexpectedly.

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Here are 3 ways to prevent unexpected transition (a.k.a. 3 ways to avoid losing your job):

1. Set Expectations and Record Progress

Job descriptions are fluid – especially in ministry. I can guarantee you that your job description will change multiple times over in your first year, so don’t work off of a static document. Get a clear picture as to what’s expected of you from your boss, your peers and those you’re leading. Don’t assume that you know what they expect of you, and also don’t assume that they know what you’ve done. So set 30, 60 and 90 day goals after those conversations and report on your progress. This iterative process will allow you to adjust your goals as you work and create an environment where everyone is happy with the working relationship.

2. Communicate Clearly and Regularly

Tuesday’s Thought – Roosevelt and Tenacity

February 10, 2015 By Daniel Im

What amazes me about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was his incessant desire to learn and push the envelope. He didn’t let his physical weaknesses hold him down. Circumstances were more of an afterthought, than something that would influence his movement forward. He truly embodied the word, “tenacity.”

Hence, this quote:

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.

Hiring for Potential or Past Performance?

February 5, 2015 By Daniel Im

Credit - Garrett Coakley — Garrett Coakley – Flickr

What do you do when your church is growing and your responsibilities are increasing?

The first thing that you should always do is to delegate the peripheral aspects of your role – those things that others can easily do. You then need to build up teams of volunteers to do the work of ministry. As you do this, there will come a point where your responsibilities of leading and delegating will max you out, it’s then that you need to hire another staff member, assuming that your weekly offering can support it.

The point of this post isn’t to tell you what role to hire next, how much to pay them, or how many hours to hire them for. Those are details for another time.

The point of this post is to determine whether or not you should hire for potential or for past performance.

Should you hire for past performance?
Hiring for past performance seems like the wiser and easier thing to do. After all, you can see if they have direct experience in what you need them to do, and how they performed. The flaw with this is that you are hiring that individual, not their previous context nor their team. This is the problem when organizations lure superstars from other organizations – it’s a gamble. Even if you were to give that person the same job as they had in their previous organization, they wouldn’t perform the same.

A different culture and context affect job performance significantly.

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Tuesday’s Thought – Leonardo da Vinci and Simplicity

February 3, 2015 By Daniel Im

Leonardo da Vinci is arguably one of the most talented artists that has ever lived. Among his works are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. In addition to his ability to create art, did you know that he had a stellar vision for what did not yet exist? He conceptualized solar power, armored vehicles and even flying machines! Now that’s impressive.

Consider how this quote relates to your leadership:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

How are you making your leadership simple? Is your vision for your church or your organization simple? Or is it so complex that you find yourself continually having to clarify it to those you are leading?

Complex ideas aren’t necessarily better ideas. It actually requires genius and a lot of hard work to make complex concepts into simple ones. When you do that, your idea becomes scalable – which then can enlarge your leadership influence like none other.

Simplicity leads to scalability. Simplicity really is the ultimate sophistication.

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