Can I Ask a Favor?

QUESTION: When you think about your leadership, church, or organization, what are your greatest challenges?

I have loved working with ministry and marketplace leaders over these past few months. Few things bring me more excitement than watching others overcome obstacles, implement new strategies, and improve as a leader.

As I continue working with leaders, several common principles continue rising to the surface. I’ve compiled a list of topics (SEE POST) that I believe will serve leaders and support a flexible yet structured coaching partnership.

My experience indicates that these topics are great options for individual or group cohort coaching.

Can I ask you a favor?

I would appreciate any feedback you can give me on this list. Here are the questions I’m pondering?

1. What topics are missing?
2. What topics seem most useful?

Helping me answers those two questions will help leaders everywhere. You can give me feedback in the comments section of this post, send me an email (gavin@mytransformationsolutions.com), or DM me on a social platform.

Thank you in advance for helping me as I attempt to support leaders just like you.

6 Questions to Determine if Your Strategy is Old or Obsolete

KEY QUESTION for this NEW POST: How do you know if the changes surrounding your organization dictate a strategy change in your organization?

At times, it’s easy to spot. A global pandemic is an easy example. Every strategy became immediately obsolete in March 2020.

But most community evolutions are subtle, making it much more difficult to decipher between an old model and an obsolete strategy.

As an organizational leadership coach, I could sit down with you to help determine if your model is in need of a makeover. But, since we aren’t together right now, in this NEW POST I’m giving you 6 key questions I would ask you and your team.

Of course, if you want to sit down, just reach out…

7 Actions to Take When Leading Toward a Future You Can’t Predict

NEW POST: 7 Actions to Take When Leading Toward a Future You Can’t Predict

QUESTION ANSWERED IN THIS POST: As a leader, what should you do when you need to lead forward into a future you can’t predict?

Some context:
Anyone else exhausted by bold leaders and their convincing statements about a future they can’t actually predict?

Of course, I get it. A leader’s calling is to LEAD. Leaders consider present situations to inspire future direction.

We are not called, however, to pretend we know what the future holds.

We are leaders, not fortune tellers.

I refuse to be bold enough to prescribe a strategy. I will tell you what I believe great leaders do when looking at the future.

In this post, I give you 7 leadership actions to take when you are unsure about the future.

Your Entire Church is Basically Dechurched. Now What?

When we think about the dechurched people in our community, we don’t think about our current congregation. But the pandemic made virtually everyone dechurched. And they’re behaving as such.

That means we need to adjust our expectations and approach.

No longer should we assume that people will join a small group, invite a friend, volunteer, or provide financial support.

We are all church planting now.

In this NEW POST, I outline the 4 specific areas of engagement churches need to rethink in light of the pandemic.

And as always, I love helping leaders make things better and make better things. Go to my site today and to sign up for a 15-minute conversation to see if working together works for you.

The REAL Story: Why I Left Woodstock City Church

In this NEW POST on leadership trust and transparency, I give you 10 things trustworthy leaders always do.

I’ve wanted to write it for some time, primarily because of how many times people have asked me or those around me for the “real” reason for leaving Woodstock City Church.

There is no “real” or hidden reason.

So why did so many assume there is? Or believe I wasn’t being honest?

I believe it’s because we live in a world where most leaders aren’t trustworthy. We don’t believe we can believe what they say. Therefore, we struggle to trust leadership.

I get it.

And I think we should do something about it.

If you’ve got 10 minutes, I encourage you to give this a read. It might explain some things you’ve experienced. It may give you and your team something to discuss. Or, perhaps you’ll invite others to help you see what you might not see.

Thanks, Gavin

8 Terrible Reasons People Leave Churches

Perhaps more than ever before, people are leaving (or changing) churches en masse.

There are some good reasons to leave a church. What I’m seeing of late, though, doesn’t fit in the “good reason” category. The pandemic launched several more pandemics — fear pandemic, anger pandemic, political pandemic, racial pandemic, and a church pandemic.

The recent climate has given way to a mass exodus from churches, mostly for terrible reasons.

In this post, I outline 8 terrible reasons people leave churches.

If you’re a pastor, this may explain some of what you’re seeing. If you’re a church attendee, pay attention to these tensions!

3 Temptations Pastors Experience as People Leave Their Church

Right now, people are leaving your church, and it hurts.

I’m guessing every pastor in every church has experienced some amount of congregational exodus during the pandemic. 

I get it. I’ve been there. Several years ago, I took the position of lead pastor at a struggling church. And almost immediately, a handful of families decided to leave the church.

And they all felt the need to tell me they were leaving the church. And why they were leaving the church.

Guess what? It hurt.

Even though I didn’t yet know these people, it still hurt.

When people leave your church, it’s a form of rejection, and rejection is painful.

This pain has a name: Loss. When a person leaves the church, they take something with them AND create a temptation inside of us.

In this NEW POST, I outline three specific temptations every pastor must reject when people leave the church.

This is a 5 – 6 minute read. In a season like this, I think it’s worth the time.

7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church

Some of you are on the verge of destroying the future of your church.

I realize that sounds like one of those silly, bold statements people make to get your attention. Perhaps it is. Possibly restarting the ministry of your past is exactly what your community needs today.

I doubt it.

I’m skeptical because:

1. The pandemic changed things in our world and our communities. 
2. Much of what we were doing in 2019 wasn’t working in 2019. 

The fastest way to destroy a church is to build a ministry on an outdated model. And that’s what too many church leaders are doing today. Taking old methods and deploying them in this new time.

The reason: We remember our 2019 ministry models with rose-colored glasses. It’s human nature to romanticize the past, but in the case of church leadership, attempting to implement a ministry model that wasn’t working in 2019 in 2021 is a death wish.

In this NEW POST, I give leaders 7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church.

Answering these questions will help you more accurately remember the past while making decisions in your present.

Three Tactics for Personal Renewal (You Need Them All!)

If you struggle to experience rest even when you’re resting, this post is for you.

I’m exactly two weeks removed from leaving my role at Woodstock City Church.

Yes, it’s a bit weird.

I knew taking a little time off to rest and reset would best position me for my next adventure. I committed to take two weeks off and do nothing related to work — no meetings, writing, content development, preaching, and the like. It sounded like a glorious plan. Leave Woodstock City Church on Sunday, August 1, and ride off into the two-week staycation sunset.

Outside of an afternoon massage and dinner with friends, I awoke Monday morning with an empty calendar. I walked downtown for some coffee. I sat outside under a tree. I looked at Instagram … And I wondered what was happening at church.

That was the single thought that I couldn’t shake. “I wonder what’s happening at church this morning?” “I wonder what meetings I’m missing?” “I wonder what decisions they are making without me?”

I literally had previous work FOMO. I felt I was missing out. And that emotion wasn’t that relaxing. I was trying to rest and reset, but my mind was still back at my old job.

Your current circumstances are different than mine. But, let me ask you a question: Have you ever physically been on vacation but emotionally remained at work? Have you ever taken time off but not felt “off” at all? Have you ever needed a break from your vacation?

It took me a full 3.5 days to start emotionally feeling “off.” That’s a long time. Think about it: If you take a week-long summer vacation and it takes you half the week to begin vacationing, that’s not a great use of a vacation week.

Here’s what my last two weeks taught me (or reminded me): If we want to refresh well, we need to practice resting well.

In this NEW POST, I give you the three tactics to ensure you remain refreshed.

I dare you to give them a try!

5 Leadership Methods to Start Preparing for an Eventual Ending

My last Sunday at Woodstock City Church was August 1.

I’ve had that date circled on my calendar for several months.

It can feel that the race to end well begins when an ending date is defined. The ending date sets a public finish line, giving you a target to run strong through the tape.

Unfortunately, and to stick with the race analogy, finishing well is more about race preparation than the race itself. The finish line may mark the end of your time in the organization, but your race success is determined long before the race even begins.

You probably aren’t leaving your church or company soon, but you will one day. If you want to end well, you need to prepare now. Your leadership race to end well begins today.

In this NEW POST, I outline 5 leadership methods to start preparing for an eventual ending.

I realize it doesn’t feel urgent, but it’s extremely important. When you do eventually transition, you’ll be so grateful you began preparing now.

How can I help?

Coaching ministry and marketplace leaders through change, transition, and transformation is why I created Transformation Solutions. Let me know if I can serve you and your team as you work to make things better and make better things.