The Necessary Things

What Shapes a Movement Funnel?

I've been working with my student interns on understanding the dynamics of a movement from an executive perspective.

The main distinction being to think and make decision in light of the whole rather than a part of the movement.

We have used this diagram as a means to talk specifically about how to evaluate the movement and develop people in a way that expands our student and staff leader base.

It seems often in ministry when someone is selected for leadership and someone is not, it instantly creates tension/gossip over why that person was selected, especially if they are not perfect (which so far is 100%).

Adding the piece of the diagram that connects the narrowing funnel with the degree to which people are able to integrate the mission, vision, and values into their life proved extremely helpful for a few reasons:

• It helped our interns understand why a person who "gets it" intellectually but has yet to demonstrate it in their life does not move down the funnel as quickly as someone who is living it out. Sometimes "potentially great" students can get in the way of selecting students who are ready right now to live out the mission, vision, and values.

• It allows for those students who catch the vision later on in their college career. A common complaint about student leadership groups in CCC is that "you have to jump through specific hoops (summer project, evangelism, etc)" in order to be a leader. If a person has not jumped through specific hoops but does catch the vision and is willing to live them out, then there is room for them to participate in leadership.

• It protects from selecting charismatic (personality, not denomination) people who have outstanding social skills or even spiritual aptitude but use those things for their own glory. Unless they are willing to progressively integrate the mission, vision, and values, they do not move down the funnel. 

Curious to hear if you use a funnel and how you break up the different parts of it. Sometimes just getting one down on paper is helpful as it reveals the process by which someone goes from a new student to a leader in the movement.

Refining Your Ministry's Viral Loop

          Making your loop as user-aligned as possible

Building a pleasant user experience and removing unnecessary flows or page elements

Refactoring the code to move it from prototype to production

Integrating it into your core product in a way that makes sense

Andrew Chen shared these four steps as it relates to optimizing a viral loop. I tried to think of ways these optimization steps could be applied to ministry.

• User-Aligned: what part of the process is more about getting them to do what I want before they trust me or the ministry enough to take that next step?

• Unnecessary flows: Are there any "hoops" that students are required to jump that are not mission-critical or perhaps a reflection of a modern paradigm rather than a post-modern paradigm? "Additional training times for non-leaders" seem to be a big one.

• Anyone have thoughts on what "refactoring the code" could look like? I'm stuck.

• Integrating into your CORE product: How many events/activities are being done that are loosely-aligned with your mission, vision, and values? Frequently partnering with other ministries on minor things such as socials instead of major things like evangelism and prayer, sacred cow events that were era or leader-specific.

Have you made any changes recently that have streamlined or made it easier for a new student to become relationally connected and aligned to the mission, vision and values?

photo courtesy of kurafire

Viral Loops For Campus Ministry

So I'm mildly obsessed with understanding the systems behind viral marketing. Andrew Chen expertly blogs on this topic in relation to online gaming, but the parallels abound.

In my ministry context two realities keep my attention focused on this:

1. An extremely scarce amount of new people that come to check out the ministry
2. The tremendous challenge/reward of seeing a new person go from attending an event to becoming a central part of our ministry (turning lost-students into Christ-centered laborers is extremely compelling for me)

His recent post contained some great insights:

"This requires the viral loop designer to think through, step-by-step, how a user will come to find their product and how they will ultimately pass it along to their friends."

While I was on staff at UCLA we excelled at integrating new students into the ministry. Based on my experiences there and now at Chico State, here's my first pass at what a campus ministry viral loop looks like:

• New Student becomes exposed to ministry through three primary channels: 1--Direct advertising, 2-Personal Invitation, 3-Peer-to-Peer Interactions

• New Student attends a ministry event (weekly meeting, bible study, social event)

• Current Student and/or staff meet New Student and establish a relational connection between the ministry and the New Student.

• New Student then gets invited to other events as well as initiated to either meet with someone to get to them better or introduced to more people, facilitating the sense that they "belong" or "are a part of" the ministry.

• New Student continues to be challenged to experiences that integrate the ministry's mission, vision, and values into the person, the central one being the desire to "reach out to others."

• New Student becomes current student and begins inviting friends and creating experiences to reach out to New Students. 

A couple of reflections on this viral loop:

1. Those in blue happen right away for a New Student, while those in grey take much longer.
2. At least at Chico State, although our students go through these stages frequently, it seems students are much more distrustful/suspicious of not only our ministry but of the leaders (students and staff alike). Thus the steps of the loop happen but the viral process is often slowed down.

This is my first time taking a shot at defining a viral loop for ministry. Any changes you would make or elements you would add?

photo courtesy of twenty_questions

Using Facebook Group Pages & Fan Pages Effectively

I've been fortunate enough to meet Jeff Widman, a solid believer with a tremendous amounts of gifts, skills, and abilities in relation to lean manufacturing and leveraging social media for all its worth.

From his insights I've been able to glean some key skills/tactics for using Facebook effectively for minsitry, specifically within Campus Crusade.

Jeff's Blog

Jeff on Twitter

Here's a screencast I just did on how to use both Group Pages and Fan Pages effectively within your ministry. Hope it's encouraging.

Innovation and CCC's Organizational Structure

I thought I'd follow up my two recent posts (scroll down) on innovation and Campus Crusade for Christ with a diagram to further clarify my strong opinions about lacking in innovation.

Diagram Key:

• Present/Future: The orientation towards maintenance vs change. The light blue line represents the 50% mark
• National/Global Level: From my perspective it seems like they are oriented 80/20 or 70/30 towards the FUTURE.
• Regional Level: They seem to be oriented 80/20 or 70/30 towards the PRESENT.
• Field Level: I'm calling it a draw because the field represents such a broad range of people/contexts/etc. It also seems the field is much more swayed by an individual, while the levels "above" represent larger chunks of people.

Reflections based on this diagram:

• Those on the national/global level are often frustrated/surprised/curious/suspicious of those on the field who are frustrated with the lack of innovation because by and large they are oriented and lead out of the same future-oriented paradigm, but do not experience the weight of being under two organizational layers. 

• Those on the regional level identify with both the national and field level, but often have so many responsibilities and roles related to the PRESENT that they simply cannot invest the time needed to identify and grow field innovations. It has LITTLE or NOTHING to do with their personal orientation or even desire to see things changed. 

• Those on the field who are oriented towards the present have no reason rarely experience organizational frustration as it relates to change. 

• Those on the field oriented towards the FUTURE have difficulty understanding the true organizational value towards innovation because they rarely if ever interact personally with global/national leaders AND are heavily exposed towards the regional realities which are PRESENT-oriented. ---this has definitely been my experience on staff.

Since there are many staff reading this blog from the various levels, I'm curious as to whether you agree/disagree with my assessment and what you would add/subtract as it relates to any of the levels.

Let Your "B's" Go Fallow

I've had a season where the Lord has let my "B's" go fallow: by this I mean those roles and responsibilities that I'm good but not great or best at. These roles usually comprise a portion of my strengths, giftings, and passions, but rarely enough to energize me or result in significant fruit for the kingdom.

For me the biggest is public speaking; I enjoy it, I see decent spiritual fruit from it, but overall it's not what I'm best at and if I'm honest my time would be better spent on other things. Thankfully the Lord provided four student interns who are in need of development, and have taken on much of the speaking responsibilities this Fall.

In the past I've noticed I can respond negatively to these kind of seasons by:

• Fighting for control over these roles and throwing more of my resources at these "B's," which only leaves me tired and eventually burned-out.

• Preventing the development of others by holding on to these roles when it's clear the Lord wants to see others around me grow in these things. 

The fruit that I have seen in this season in allowing these "B's" to go fallow has been:

• Suddenly having more time and energy to spend on that which I'm best at: this has involved not only "pouring out" types of activities but also time for "pouring in" types of activities such as reading and meeting with people that encourage my development. 

• Allowing those around me to develop their capacity in areas where I've already maxed out so to speak. Our interns are all considering full-time ministry, and public speaking capability is a must. I'm not only growing but I'm also facilitating the growth of others by surrendering to the Lord's process.  

Have you ever had one of these seasons? Or I'm wondering how you respond to the "B's" in your life. I know sometimes I cannot avoid spending time on them, but I have also seen times when I could have been more proactive in allowing them to go fallow for the sake of developing my strengths and those around me.

photo courtesy of pandiyan

How Do You Measure and Foster Innovation in Ministry?

The last post created quite a debate over how well Campus Crusade and college ministries in general innovate.

Apologies to Ryan, Eric, Russ and Benson in advance as I try to summarize. I'm hoping to capture key bits of information that represent you guys well.

Two general observations:

1. Quantifying innovation proves extremely challenging considering the many tangible/intangible & direct/indirect factors that factor into the innovation process,
2. The fragmented nature of CCC also makes understanding how well we do at innovating difficult, as on some levels we are doing REALLY AMAZING stuff, but on other levels not much is happening.

Here were some key quotes in the discussion:

• Innovation passes through Campus Crusade the way a bill passes through congress: coalitions built on shared needs and goals...Believe me, if your innovation (for example) is effective at helping students move toward Jesus, and you can demonstrate this with proven results, you won't need "identifying and empowering" from someone with a title. --Ryan McReynolds

• I meet so many staff at the local level who have great ideas, are innovating and coming up with better ways of doing things and helping students discover Jesus. They are challenging existing models and really engaging the problems and current realities. However, like you've identified, we're not good at seeing those great ideas out to the masses (at least quickly). We are not good at collaborating.--Russ Martin

• We are a top-down organization, but "The Way Forward" is an attempt to move us more away from that. Hopefully it will continue to happen. But for now we're still a permissions-based culture.--Eric
  

• But I would wonder if in a healthy "profession," we should be seeing lots of "medium-level" innovations, too - ones that don't ever become as huge as I Agree with Dave, but still impact a number of campuses. If all college ministry has are local innovations (that nobody hears about) and the occasional innovation that EVERYBODY hears about, I bet we're missing something.--Benson Hines

Since this discussion can go so many ways still, I'll throw out a couple questions that may keep the conversation going:

• If you're on the field in any capacity (full-time ministry or marketplace), what are some key elements to seeing your innovations get noticed by those above you, and/or spread beyond your role for the greater good?

• If you are in an executive role, what sorts of principles or practices work well for seeing that ideas and innovations are not only seeded with resources to help them grow but championed in the greater scope to benefit a larger audience?

Where Is Innovation Happening In College Ministry?

"I've been meaning to comment on this since it was posted. I have a question. Which Campus Ministry other than Campus Crusade would you point to as a model of innovation?"--from Ryan McReynolds, CCC Staff in the Northeast.

A post on The CORE of Campus Crusade for Christ prompted this question. In it new staff Dan Birch shared three principles that defined CCC in its infancy:

1. Initiative
2. Innovation
3. Spirit-filled

I commented that we excel at initiative, battle to stay spirit-filled, and suck at innovation.

I would change my statement now that I've had a few significant experiences in seeing CCC from a different viewpoint: we excel at initiative, battle to stay spirit-filled, and suck at identifying and empowering innovations from the field. There seems to be a massive wall between the field and the national level that keeps innovations from making it to the top.

I've seen that many field staff excel at innovation; the problem is getting noticed and channeling the appropriate resources needed to develop their innovations to the point where they can be integrated and adopted on a greater scale. 

Benson Hines might be able to give specific examples. He's been doing an outstanding job visiting college ministries across the country and showing the need to collaborate and work together for the greater good. 

Campus Crusade Needs More Pre-Missionaries

I wrote a couple days ago about how one of Campus Crusade's role is to be a  "missionary funnel" that sends students to the world to fulfill the Great Commission.

I filled out the top of the funnel by adding more specific categories:

• Masses: In the campus ministry, it's every student that walks on campus.
• Laborers: Involved in a Campus Crusade movement, serves sporadically, partially aligned to mission, vision, and values.
• Leaders: Exercising authority and influence over other students primarily through spiritual multiplication, and demonstrate to some degree a grasp of eternal perspective and the Great Commission.

So what do you call that space between a leader and a full-time staff member?

I believe if we asked many field staff about this section, many would not even know it exists. I believe that's also why we have a sending crisis on our hands. 

I venture to call that group Pre-Missionaries. I believe the wording is important because:

• It assumes their FIRST choice upon graduation is to join staff. It also assumes inequality between the marketplace and the missionary order.

• It underscores to the movement, both directly and indirectly, that THIS CATEGORY is what we are trying to produce and reproduce. Again, widen the funnel and allow for anyone and everyone to consider themselves SENT by CCC, and we lose the power of this category altogether. 

• It causes those leading these students to develop them as a missionary, not just a student leader. If you've been in campus ministry you know exactly what I'm talking about here. It's the difference between training them how to apostolically lead and training them on how to be the best bible study leader they can be or give the best possible evangelistic presentation.

Would love your thoughts on how your ministry or organization funnel works and what kind of person you would ideally want to see reproduced.

The Expanding Ministry Blogosphere

So I'm excited to welcome and highlight some friends in ministry who have recently started blogging or have renovated their blog.

I can only see more of this coming, and it's really exciting to think about extending the conversation about ministry and spiritual leadership online.

Renovations:

• Brian Virtue: on staff with CCC in Epic; just went the Thesis/Wordpress route
• Ken Cochrum: on staff with CCC; also went the Thesis/Wordpress route

New Blogs:

• Chris Zaugg: on staff with CCC in Keynote; Wordpress self-hosted
• Bob Fuhs: CCC staff in Los Angeles; keeping it real with Typepad
• Matt McComas: CCC staff in Montana; Wordpress.com
• CRUBlogging: a blog I started with Jayson Whelpley to give advice to ministry bloggers
• Barbara Francis: great Wordpress blog highlighting the themes of forgiveness and grace
• Paul Nunez: CCC staff at San Jose State in Northern California

Have you thought about upgrading your blog? If so I suggest Typepad Pro or the Thesis Theme that runs on Wordpress. Here's what I posted on why Typepad Pro.