Mark Borgetti Weblog

Brilliant Pastor Trip Update

Well, in less than eight hours the Brilliant Pastor Trip will come to an end and I will head back to Naperville. Let me just say that the caliber of pastors I met with exceeded all expectations. The level of intentional God honoring strategic leadership in the churches I visited was staggering. Let me just give you a quick run down of the Brilliant Pastor Trip Faculty:,

Dan McKnight - Kaw Prarie Community Church - Kaw Prarie, Kansas
Dan is an ELCA pastor leading this Mission Congregation. Like the other mainline Lutheran congregations on this tour, they are grounded in Lutheran theology and doctrine, but learning best practices from the non-denominational evangelical community. This four year old mission start worships just over 300. I would suggest that the denomination mother ship (aka ELCA World Headquarters) has taken note of Dan and his ministry. The ELCA went so far as to note Dan and Kaw Prairie's "outside of the box approach to ministry" on the new ELCA website. A great leader with a great heart.

Troy McMahon - Restore Community Church - Kansas City, MO
Troy picked up his family and moved from Naperville to Kansas City in the summer of 2007. Lyle Schaller, considered to be the "dean of church consultants," once suggested to me that I would be wise to watch Troy. And after meeting with him I can understand why. Following the Community Christian Church Model for planting churches, Restore ... which has only been worshiping for 19 weeks ... has crossed the 300 mark! As with all the people I met, their ability to grow the kingdom was not accidental. Every leader I met demonstrated a knowledge of leadership and team building that ultimately bore fruit in their churches.

What did I learn so far from Dan and Troy

• Remove Barriers - Do what it takes to have the right teams in place and the right systems in place so that the trip from the parking lot to the worship space for our visitors is a non-threatening journey. Personally I call this, "helping people to get or experience grace; making them feel welcomed and accepted and valued."
   
• On Sunday, It's About The Guests - Sunday morning is not the time for core and essential hospitality volunteers to catch up for the week. There role is to focus on the guests (which basically means everyone who walks through the door whether they know them or not). But, do not assume that your volunteers know this already.
   
• The Rest of the Week, It's About the Leadership -  Make sure to bring your core leaders together at others time to develop as leaders, develop community, and develop disciples. If you fail to be the pastor to your leaders, my guess is they will eventually feel disregarded.
   
• Followup Matters - If you stick to an attractional model of growth, it is very easy to get stuck in the "if we build it they will come" mentality. Have an intentional strategy to followup and respond to all guests who come. The church still needs to be "attractive," but the movement from visitor to attender to member is more likely to happen with an intentional strategy and plan.

Next post ... my incredible day at Hope Lutheran Church in Des Moines Iowa.

Sunday Morning (aka The Huddle)

I was just inspired by a message from John Ortberg of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California, probably one of the best communicators I have ever heard. He suggests and I agree that weekend worship services are similar to a huddle. And people take their huddles seriously! They worry about how much we sit and stand in the huddle. The type of music we sing in the huddle. How creative the huddle was. Whether or not the donuts were fresh and the coffee hot in the huddle. And before we know it ... we begin to create bigger and better and more creative huddles. Before we know it, the point of the huddle becomes, well .. the huddle.

But, a huddle is pointless without a game to play. And the church's game is to go out into the world and be the church God has in mind; caring for the under-resourced, being beacons of hope in our homes and the workplace, and executing the plays given to us by our coach; the Spirit. Today, Our Saviour's and Crossroads Community Church met to have a conversation about what it would look like if we got into the game together. Crossroads is exploring the possibility of helping us with our Celebration! Free Clinic in October and then watch and see what the next play the Spirit calls into the game. In short, I can say that the conversation at Colonial Restaurant was filled with Spirit inspired possibilities.

I thank God for "the huddle!" But even more so, I thank God that he calls us off the bench and into the game.