The other day I met Jon for our weekly one-on-one at McDonald's. As we finished and got our stuff together to walk out I noticed a sign (on your left) at one of the exits that said "go for it all". The sign very succinctly laid out a seven step career path for someone to start as a part of the Crew behind the counter or making burgers and eventually become the Director of Operations that offers a "six-figure income" and "significant leadership" responsibility and oversight of "multiple markets". I'm lovin' it! This simple strategy could make McDonald's a leadership magnet. It gives every intrinsically motivated kid a quick guide for how they can move up the ranks in the McDonald's company.
This is a great lesson for all companies and churches! You need a career path or a leadership pipeline and leaders need to know about it! One of the most exciting things about successful reproducing churches is that they have put a high priority and intentionality on leadership development. In fact, research tells us that those churches that have a Campus Pastor track or pipeline experience an average annual growth of 25%. I'm lovin' it! And that same study tells us that the biggest mistake that multi-site churches make was "failure of attention to leadership development".
I would encourage every church to have a clearly thought out leadership development pipeline. For the last several years we have had a leadership development pipeline or career path that I could quickly draw on a napkin to explain to emerging leaders how they could continue to expand their influence. Here is quick glance at our 5-step leadership development pipeline:
- Apprentice Leader (leader in training)
- Leader (of ten people)
- Coach (leader of up to five leaders)
- Staff (leader of up to ten coaches)
- Campus Pastor /Church Planter (leader of staff)
Our career path does not promise a six-figure income, but it does promise significant leadership responsibility and a huge opportunity to change this planet and a way to make an impact that will be felt for all of eternity. I'm lovin' it!
Great analogy. Career paths are a must for any organization.
Take it one step further. The whole church experience can be overwhelming for new believers. How about a discipleship path?
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Posted by: kittu | June 22, 2007 at 01:15 AM
You had me at "six-figure income".
Posted by: Bryan Roberts | June 22, 2007 at 08:11 AM
Years ago I stumbled onto this McDonald's "Training Principle" that applies greatly to the church:
“We don’t ever train someone to make a hamburger. We train them to train others to make a hamburger. And in the process, they learn how to make a hamburger.”
Posted by: NOEL | June 22, 2007 at 08:56 AM
As a CCC atender for 14 years I remember the old days when we had a similar "pipeline" on the back of our programs to help us move from seeker to believer to small group attender to leader etc. I was so driven to move through the steps and conquer each stage of growth. It was a weekly reminder that we were about GROWTH not just church attendance. -Kathy
Posted by: Kathy J | June 22, 2007 at 09:13 AM
Obviously the McD's leadership model encourages upward mobility. I would love to hear some of your thoughts about Christ's leadership model. John the Baptist believed in downward mobility (John 3:30), Jesus led with a servant leadership, and as the church developed the Apostles assigned deacons as servant leaders in the mode of Christ.
How do the McD's model and the Biblical model compare and contrast?
As a passionate youth pastor, should I expect to give up my youth ministry and pursue a senior ministry or teaching ministry in order to expand my influence? Can I lead a church from a youth ministry position just as effectively?
If I stay in youth ministry is it right that a church continues to see me as second tier and financially compensate less, because I haven't "grow up" into a preaching pastor?
Some of this may be off topic to this post, but...
Anyways, thanks.
Posted by: Trevor H. | June 22, 2007 at 02:48 PM
We used to have a six-step model for growing a person up spiritually: 1. friend 2. seeker 3. believer 4. disiciple 5. servant 6. servant-leader. We ditched that because we thought it was too linear. We now have the 3C's of CELEBRATE (God:me), CONNECT (Church:me)and CONTRIBUTE (World:me). These are three relational experiences and you can start with any one of these experiences and become a 3C Christ Follower. Kathy and Scott, do you think this is better, worse or just different? Dave
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | June 24, 2007 at 09:39 AM
Trevor, let me briefly respond to a few of your questions. First, I don't know enough about McDonalds to comment on it's leadership model, however I do believe the most effective model of leadership for both church and business is throuhg servant leadership as lived out by Jesus and as explained by Robert Greeleaf in his classic Servant Leadership. Second, I think you should lead and serve out of your giftedness and passion. If your gifts and passion call you to serve students do that and expand your influence through using those gifts. I doubt you could lead an entire church as a youth pastor; only because your influence will be with only a slice of the existing demographic of most churches. No one should be seen as second tier if they are using thier gifts and should be compensated according to thier span of influence.
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | June 24, 2007 at 09:59 AM
You caught me reminiscing about the good old days (but not wanting to return to the old ways). In answer to your question about the linear growth model vs. the current 3C experiences... The linear was an excellent tool for vision casting of what it means to begin growing in Christ but is only a subset of what the 3C begins to unfold as one delves deeper. Understanding the 3C's may take the new attender/believer a little longer to unpack but once engaged, there is a myriad of ways God can speak to the believer in terms of growth. The merit of both models is they are tools for vision casting as reminders of what we're reaching for but...3C wins the grand prize for be an all encompassing, informing, challenging model for being a Christ-follower. One goes deeper...deeper into becoming as one gets drawn into the eddy's forces. - Kathy
Posted by: Kathy J | June 25, 2007 at 08:10 AM
"...as one gets drawn into the eddy's forces." Love it. Thanks Kathy.
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | June 25, 2007 at 09:58 AM
this makes me think about the book simple church. basically that mcdonalds is influencing future generations but the isn't.
this is based on a sample of 100 4-year olds that recognized the arches but not the supposed likeness of Christ.
Posted by: michael | June 27, 2007 at 06:59 AM