Lyle Schaller, a church consultant who passed away last week, was the most well-known and most-traveled church consultants of the 20th century. He was a master of understanding church vision and leadership. He wrote or cowrote over 94 books, and brought a prolific diagnostic ability to his work. I cannot express my gratitude enough for his life model and the rich learning that he passed on; especially helping guys like me practice in the arena of church consulting.
To celebrate his legacy, the Auxano team is inviting church leaders and church consultants everywhere to join in a simple social media tribute today. Share powerful quotes or insights or just shout out that he visited your church.
Use the hashtag #LyleLearnings.
QUOTES THAT MOVE ME AND MAKE ME FROM LYLE SCHALLER
On Vision
- The safe assumption today is that no two churches are alike; each congregation has its own unique culture.
- One of the most widely neglected facets of new church development is the value of a distinctive identity for every new mission.
- The key variables in new church development are not location, location, and location, but visionary leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, and long-tenured leadership.
- You can’t really effectively provide fully informed decisions on any kind of action or strategy, such as a ministry plan for a congregation, unless you first have a diagnosis.
- Church leaders operate in a longer time frame than most realize. What you do this week will not be significant for three to four years.
- A vision for a new tomorrow usually is based on a high degree of discontinuity with the past.
- Planned change always begins with discontent with the status quo.
- The most serious shortage in our society is for skilled transformational leaders who possess the capability to initiate planned change from within an organization.
On Diagnosis (Lyle's Learning and Listening Approach)
- Too many congregations try to establish a ministry plan out of thin air.
- Change is the name of the game, and questions are the heart of that game.
One of the most important dimensions of a change agent’s job may be to foster creativity by asking questions rather than by suggesting answers.
- You can’t really effectively provide fully informed decisions on any kind of action or strategy, such as a ministry plan for a congregation, unless you first have a diagnosis.
- It is appropriate, productive, and good for congregational leaders periodically to engage themselves in the process of appraising the role, ministry, internal dynamics, outreach, and life of that congregation.
- The small congregation is to the megachurch what the village is to the large central city. They are different orders of God’s creation.
On Volunteers
- Make a distinction between hiring staff to do ministry and choosing staff who focus on challenging, motivating, enlisting, training, placing, nurturing, and supporting volunteers.
- In well over 95 percent of all American Protestant congregations, the driving force in assigning volunteers is to fill vacant slots. In the other 3 or 4 or 5 percent the number-one criterion is, ‘Will accepting this volunteer role enhance the spiritual and personal growth of this individual?'
- Do not expect long-established groups to attract new members!
What would you add and what have you learned? Please share if you have had any exposure too or experience with Lyle Schaller as a church consultant. Remember to use #LyleLearnings
For more on Lyle Schaller's life, my friends at Learning Network wrote this tribute. Here is an article from Christianity Today.