What Lyle Schaller Told Me In The Library

I was reviewing my own blog this morning and I realized that in Friday's post I didn't pass along any of the good stuff that Schaller and I talked about in the Naperville Public Library.  So here are a few the highlights from my ninety minute conversation with my friend, Lyle Schaller: 

Schaller on teaching / preaching: 

"People can hear in 15 seconds what it takes us 2 minutes to say.  So, if we want to effectively communicate to our audience our preaching and teaching needs to always use multiple channels of communications."

Schaller on the multi-site church: 

"My observations has been that in some very large churches with regional off-sites the people attending are coming because they want two things: great preaching and low commitment.  Beware of this because Community Christian Church is a high commitment church."

Schaller on the migration of ex-Catholics to independent churches like CCC:

"The reason that people leave the Catholic Church and the reason that they start coming to a new church are two different sets of reasons.  They may leave the Catholic Church because of hierarchy or the sexual abuse scandal, that is one reason.  They begin and continue attending a new church for another reason; perhaps because, 'they never knew you could have this level of community' or 'they never knew the preaching/teaching could be this good'.  Lyle went on to compare it to when he was a kid and they first got air conditioning in their house - he didn't know what he was missing until he experienced it.

Schaller on DO's and DON'Ts of leading a network (like NewThing):   

• "DO repeatedly emphasize, congratulate and reward reproduction.  The question should always be, 'Denver, when do you plan on starting your second site or next new church?'" 
• "DO have a national event every year only for the participants of the network and rotate it from location to location". 
• "DO make mutual accountability the number one reason for communication.  The auestion you should be asking is:  ''What are your top 4 goals for this year?  How are you doing accomplishing those goals?'"
• "DO give advice and counsel, DON'T give money". 
• "DON'T let the network revolve around one personality" 
• "DON'T let the critics say this is a passing fad; instead you are a part of a new movement that is not based on perpetuating the old." 
• "DON'T act like you are the headquarters of a denomination; your calling is to help all the network churches succeed." 
• "DON'T charge the network churches a percentage, that penalizes growth; instead charge a flat amount."

Lyle told me his last book will be coming out in July, From Cooperation To Compeition.

Comments

[dr]

"Denver, when are you launching your next site?"

We are in discussions now, about at least adding a celebration experience, new site is coming next!

"DO give advice and counsel, DON'T give money".

Even Lyle Schaller can be wrong. Ha!!!

It is fun reading your blog, Dave, and more importantly, it is good being your friend.

[TiffIdeomoGom]

I read some of the posts and I think it is a great blog. Tell me about my uncomfortable laser Good joke :) What do you call a nun who walks in her sleep? A roaming Catholic.

[David Hudson]

I'm looking for something Lyle Schaller said once at a church in New York: "You are now what you were then" (talking about how people never 'outgrow' their formative years). Can anyone point me to something he wrote on that idea?

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