Issue No. 35 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting is another book and a bucket for the management library at your organization. To read back issues (and reviews of 34 books), go to my Buckets Blog at www.JohnPearsonAssociates.com.
Whoa! Scott Rodin, president of the Christian Stewardship Association, has written a short, but powerful book that turns Christian fundraising upside down. Don’t make another donor presentation until you read The 7 Deadly Sins of Christian Fundraising. (The book is available only from Christian Stewardship Association.)
Rodin’s compelling message (just 59 pages) argues that the devoted follower of Christ must move from being a “Two-Kingdom” person (loyalties split between God and the world) to a “One-Kingdom” person. God owns it all; I’m just his money manager, as Randy Alcorn teaches in his book, The Treasure Principle.
Scott writes, “The Christian development office and the local church too often help accommodate this false two-kingdom view. We do it by allowing people to live in this two-kingdom world and never challenging it as unbiblical and soul-destroying. Even worse, we too often develop stewardship programs that operate on these same two-kingdom principles, which means we are not only passively accommodating this distorted view but we are actually supporting it.”
You must read this book.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. On our flipchart today is a list of our fundraising programs and events. Put a checkmark only by the programs that are driven by God-honoring biblical stewardship principles.
2. Scott Rodin suggests that fundraising campaigns have two thermometers. The first one is obvious, but the second one would show how many people “acknowledged that they became more committed in their walk with Jesus Christ” as a result of the campaign. Wow. What do you think about that?
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Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
Jim was a graduate student at the time and he gave me an MBA-level lesson one day. He poked his head into my office and asked, “John, do you still need that monthly report?”
“What report was that, Jim?” I asked him.
“You don’t remember?” he responded. Upon hearing that I couldn’t even recall asking for it—much less remembering why it was so important—Jim made a hasty exit from my office with a mischievous smile and a simple, “OK.” Jim never mentioned the report again. I never got it again and to this date, I still don’t remember why it was so important!
Here’s the obvious point. Create a master list of your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports. Add columns to show the point person who creates the report, the time it takes that person to generate the report, and the person who needs the report and why. The goal: eliminate reports that are extraneous, burdensome and rarely read.
Yikes! I just encouraged you to create yet another report to report on the reports!
Effective leaders and managers must battle the bureaucrats and the paper-pushers every day or the balls in The Operations Bucket will overwhelm you and your team. If you’d enjoy help with The Operations Bucket and the 19 other management buckets, join us May 9-10 at our Management Buckets Workshop Experience. Email me to check on available space.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1.The Operations Bucket. What are your ideas for eliminating unnecessary reports around here?
2. What is the most helpful report you receive from another team member? Make a note to thank that report writer this week.
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