Willow Creek is Alive and Well

There are bloggers who exist (seemingly) to see churches fail. They love to headline scandals, and they sensationize their stories to support their bias that churches (especially big churches) are inherently evil. They will never write about restoration or healing or reconciliation -- all of which is happening at Willow. 

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Tim Stevens
The Value of Values: 8 Things You Need To Know

Having a well-defined set of staff values is an irreplaceable connector across your organization. These values shape your team's culture, help preserve what's working, and revise what is not. They promote unity and diversity, encourage consistent behavior and communication, and define the criteria for measuring performance

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Tim Stevens
Let Your Leaders Lead

Authority is the ability to make decisions without asking someone else’s permission. So often we give a leader responsibility without also giving him the authority. Their job is clear--but for just about every decision, they must get approval from their boss, or accounting for every expense, or HR for simple personnel approvals. Or, they actually have the authority to make all those decisions, at least on paper. But in reality, they know you are going to swoop in and make changes.

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Influence Comes and Goes: How to Make a Difference When You Have it and When You Don't

Have you ever been in a role in an organization where you used to have influence with those at the top, but for some reason, your influence has decreased? Perhaps someone new was hired whose voice now carries more weight than yours. Or maybe you are the new one, and although you have a higher position than others, you haven't been around long enough to gain influence. Sometimes it is more nefarious--someone planted the idea in your boss's head that you shouldn't be trusted.

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Tim Stevens
Ministry Is Hard: What I Did When I Wanted to Quit

Several years before the pandemic, the church team I was serving on went through a funk that lasted more than four years. Looking back, I would describe those years as a season of malaise. We had gone more than a decade with wind in our sails as everything we touched seemed to work without effort. But then we hit a season where it just stopped working. From the outside, it looked like business as usual. But it didn’t have the sense of “movement” and “revolution” as in the early days. 

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Tim Stevens
The Curse of Competence

You are gifted. You've been applauded your whole life for what you are able to accomplish. Maybe it is athletics. Maybe it is the arts. Perhaps, like Joseph of the Old Testament, you are good at everything you do. I meet some super competent leaders in the church all the time. They have fantastic communication abilities, they have effectively led teams, they are great at listening and shepherding a congregation, and they can design systems and solve problems. But sometimes this comes with a curse.

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Tim Stevens
A Leaders' Resolution: Stop Making Decisions

I would suggest the best leaders make very few decisions. They set direction. They paint a vision for the future. They look ahead for opportunities or threats. But great leaders make very few operational decisions. Healthy leaders are those who empower their team members, allowing them to make important decisions and welcome the resulting outcomes, even if it is a different decision than they personally would have made. They train their staff to make decisions by staying out of those decisions.

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Tim Stevens