Pest Control - Part 1

I just finished reading Tony Morgan's book entitled Killing Cockroaches...and Other Scattered Musings on Leadership. I underlined and highlighted about half the things in the book. Tony is one of the most sought-after "experts" on church leadership in the country today. And, after reading this little ditty, I can see why.

Over the next couple weeks, I plan to post several insights from Morgan's book that struck a nerve with me. These are not my insights, unfortunately...but I am smart enough to read them and share them!

I hope you will get something out of them.

• Success, whether in the marketplace or in ministry, breeds contempt. People say we're not "deep" enough. We don't offer this program or that program. We don't use the right music. It's amazing the grief you get when your sole purpose is simply to point people to Jesus. (p. 10-11)
• We learned a long time ago that to try to make everyone happy, you have to be comfortable with mediocrity. (p. 11)
• The more we become passionate about something, and move towards becoming an expert on that topic, we begin to develop our own lexicon with specialized words. And, when it's pilots talking to pilots, that's OK. When it's snowboarders talking to snowboarders, that's OK. When it's musicians talking to other musicians, that's OK. But when it's pastors or other Christ-followers talking to people who are normal folks just beginning to check out the claims of Christ, that's not OK. When we speak our foreign Christian language, normal people don't understand. (p. 20)
• 80 percent of first-time church visitors come because they are personally invited (this was discovered by CedarCreek Church in Ohio, and is likely reflective of most modern churches) (p. 23)
• Many companies and churches suffer from a condition called "complexity creep." Complexity creep is a situation when companies keep plugging in new things but never unplug old things, resulting in confusion with customers and employees. (p. 28)
• One of the best ways to combat complexity creep is to develop a not-to-do list for your ministry. (p. 28)
• It's important to remember your competition. If you are a church, your competition isn't other churches. Instead, it's everything that's competing for someone's time and attention. It needs to be something "new and different. When something is the same, it doesn't make headlines. (p. 37)
• A few things to consider when creating buzz: (1) Figure out who you are trying to reach, (2) If you're different, some people won't like it, and (3) Different doesn't have to be big., and (4) Being different involves risk. (p. 38-39)

More to come in the days ahead!