Getting and Staying on the Same Page

If you are a student of Organizational Change like I am, you might have heard of the social activist and community organizer, Hildy Gottlieb.

Her organization, Help 4 Nonprofits is a leading voice in the Social Change movement.  In fact, she is a professor of Sociology at a secular university

and does a lot of work in the “non-profit” cause world.

Now, before you think I’ve lost it completely – I am not endorsing her or her organization!

I’m highlighting her as a warning to Christian ministries across the country.  You really can’t act like you aren’t battling for survival against those who would have you go out of business.

Her message for social change and the voices of many others are already well represented and loud.

Unfortunately, they are being heard – and we (the Christians) aren’t coming back with a better option.  We are losing the battle because we are so interested in being “nice.”  It’s as though we are also afraid of what might happen if we stand up for what it right.

Yesterday (8/12/15), an article on FoxNews.com was about a Prison Chaplain that was forced to quit his ministry because the state of Kentucky mandated that “telling people that homosexuality is a sin” would disqualify him from providing “religious services” to their inmates.

If you haven’t figured out by now, Evangelical Christianity is under attack and the other side is way ahead in forcing their agenda on society. 

As a proponent of the “Small Ministry Excellence” idea, I want to focus on how you can run your ministries with such attractiveness that the world concludes that Christians have something worth investigating.

The idea that during your Strategic Planning process you wrote a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement are simply part of doing the basics.  They are used to tell your audiences, both external and internal, what you stand for and what it would look like if you are able to pull off this “Strategic Plan” stuff.

Hopefully you even went so far as to craft a “Values” statement. 

Simply put, a Values Statement is a list of ideas that you hope will represent you as you go about your mission.  It is an announcement of Who You Will Be as you work on your Mission and they answer the question of what kind of people others should see as they watch you do your work. 

The Values Statement should be written during your strategic planning process and needs to be more than a simple list of labels (gentle, kind, caring).  As Franchise Partners with God, the Values need to reflect how God would want to be viewed as people watch you.

So, if you haven’t already, sit down and write out the Values that your ministry needs to be known for – not wants to be known for.

But how do you get everyone to live them?  That’s the hard part isn’t it?

Some well-intentioned Board Member will decide that this “Values Stuff” is nice for you or the staff, but “We have business to do.  We don’t have time to worry about those things.”

Here is how to overcome that thinking and actually live the Values.

In every Board Meeting or other type of planning process you go through, have a copy of the Mission, Vision and Values on the table for everyone to read.

As you discuss each agenda item, make sure that your discussion leads to a decision that aligns with all three statements – Mission, Vision and Values.

If it doesn’t, you need to ask yourself why not.  Don’t spend all the time it takes to plan for Excellence and forget to be the people God wants you to be. 

What Value would that express?