leadership to make informed decisions.
[WM] Can you give me an example of how
you’d approach Pastor Randy like that?
[Rick] It starts by the pastor knowing I’m
on his side. This is part of my covenant with
him. He can ask me to do anything. I will build
Rome for him, run through drywall for him.
All I ask is that I can share with him the cost.
Sometimes it’s nothing more than, “O.K. I’ll
order the equipment for that and it will cost
$X.” But say he comes in on Saturday with a
great idea asking if we can totally flip the set
around. That may mean that the work invested
by volunteers A and B will be lost. It may mean
that I have to call volunteers C and D so that we
can come in and spend all night here. If I share
the cost and leadership still feels that God is
telling them to do it, we’ll be on our way to get
it done. No more questions. What I find is that
most of the time when I'm allowed to share the
cost, leadership begins processing their asks
differently. They often had no idea of the cost -
especially the people cost - of what they were
asking. Once we start going down that road,
I find that they begin processing costs before
they even ask. Part of my job is to enable my
leadership to make decisions that include
factors they may not have considered.
Otherwise they’re forced to make decisions
somewhat blindly. That’s why when pastors get
together you may hear conversation like, “Hey,
Steve, we’re doing a build similar to the one you
did last year; who’d you use?” And then when
meeting with that contractor, the conversation
is, “We like what you did with Steve’s church;
could you do that for us, except at a budget
for the best answers. Sometimes they’re not to dictate, but to explain the resource cost in of $X?” If the contractor either doesn’t take
aware of the human cost that an idea could difficulty, time, money, volunteers, or whatever the time to really understand your distinctives
incur. Making informed decisions is complicated that a choice will bring. And they have to or is more concerned about their bottom line
for leadership when the church has tech people communicate in a way so that the leadership (consider that they are a business), choices
fresh out of Full Sail University or another tech is able to understand and determine the best will be made that may work great for Steve’s
school or has a volunteer who grew up in the choice. Unless there is a trusting relationship, church or for the contractor, but not for you.
church pushing faders; these people may love a back and forth, a common response to a So, you need everything spelled out on paper,
the church, they may know the church DNA, senior pastor’s “Hey, I'm wondering about...” beginning with your mission, vision, and values.
but often they lack the earned experience to may simply be for the staff to just agree without really be able to speak back to leadership, not providing the information that will really help
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[WM] That’s wise. Then you can go back and
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