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A diverse legacy church who has experienced lots of change
TCP in Indianapolis, Indiana is a legacy church who will celebrate their 75th anniversary next year. The church has had four locations and have been in their current location for the past 47 years. When they chose this location, it was in a booming part of town with a large military base just down the street and one of the largest government facilities in the country nearby. Jobs, and people, were abundant. The church grew quickly in the thriving community.
A few decades later, the rise of the internet and digitization caused a large portion of the neighborhood, and congregation, to lose their jobs. The military facility closed not long after. A booming part of the city became a stagnant part of the city, quickly changing the congregation itself and their needs.
TCP realized they had become an urban, inner-city church with a congregation consisting of mostly lower income members. They embraced their new identity and now call themselves a “Global In-Our-City Church.” They have a quickly growing Spanish, Haitan, and Tanzanian population. The congregation is extremely diverse, with over 40 different nations represented at TCP.
Mission and values not fulfilled by a healthy culture
Twelve years ago, TCP’s pastor and multiple staff members had a moral failure. There was pain and discouragement for many years, and it took the church eight years to heal enough to be ready for restoration. Once the church was ready, Jamie Bell was brought on as Executive Pastor to rebuild the culture, particularly in regards to the staff. In 2017, Jamie was put in charge of leading the staff, developing the culture, and managing the systems they use to communicate.
After a few years, a mission and vision for the church was well-developed, but Jamie still felt like a culture distinguished by behavior was missing.
Jamie said, “I’ve always heard that if you go to a church and the people can name their mission and vision statement, that’s a healthy church. At The Caring Place, everyone knows the mission and the vision... It was a super healthy church in that sense: the staff knew the objective. But, culture is more than just knowing the mission and vision; culture is actually how we behave.”
Behavior (or culture) was not yet defined at TCP. The church mission was known but not effectively accomplished day to day. Rather, TCP was still saying “yes” to too many initiatives that weren’t directly supporting their mission. Recognizing this disconnect encouraged TCP to come together and establish eight core values that would outline behavioral expectations. However, establishing values is only the beginning. TCP has spent months repeating these eight values and holding each other accountable to ensure their mission stays front-of-mind. Finally, TCP is seeing these elements as a part of their church DNA.
While this was a huge step in the right direction, it wasn’t enough to directly lead to a culture transformation, so TCP didn’t want to stop there. Jamie wanted the staff to have their own set of values that would inform their behavior to accomplish the larger mission of the church.
Jamie asked, “What do we do as a staff?” The answer: our job as leaders and ministers is to equip the body of Christ and to help people discover their gifts so that they can use those gifts to build the church. This was a wonderful vision for the team at TCP, but they needed a tool to remind them of these values and help emphasize the strengths of each member of their team so that behavior could be changed at a systems-level.
After trying tools like Basecamp, WhatsAp, and numerous communication tools, TCP still felt a need for an all-in-one platform that helped staff stay on target with their goals.
At this point, TCP sought out Leadr’s help.
Leadr emphasizes what is central to TCP’s mission--the development of people
The TCP leadership team chose Leadr to strengthen and energize their culture.
“Leadr has been a game changer for us because it is helping us to really focus on what our goals are and how to achieve those goals. It makes our team meetings more effective because we’re coming in with a plan.” - Jamie Bell, Executive Pastor, The Caring Place
TCP had tried many programs before Leadr, but all of them were too task-based and limiting in regards to identifying personal strengths and development opportunities. Staff meetings had become strictly task-based versus mission-based, which was leaving their efforts less effective. TCP needed something mission-based - a way to motivate, encourage, and develop their staff. Jamie said, “If your mission is around telling your staff that they are equippers, builders, and developers, but your daily pursuits are task-oriented only, it really works against you.”
A friend of the church mentioned Leadr to the staff, and the TCP team reached out. After a phone call and some consideration, TCP decided to jump into the Leadr process. “
"Throughout the process of implementation, the Leadr staff was responsive and helpful, which I appreciate so much as a question-asker,” shared Jamie.
After becoming acclimated to the software, TCP team meetings became much more effective because everyone is prepared and can better prioritize their time. They are now talking about objectives and goals, not just tasks.
Equipping, building, and developing is the new day-to-day
Post-Leadr, the TCP staff has become more efficient and more prepared in their daily communication. Staff is asked to utilize Leadr’s meeting module in every meeting to guide the agenda and streamline communication. The important agenda items are now prioritized at the right time and in the right way. The less important or unnecessary agenda items are reprioritized, saving the team time and energy for their critical efforts. This ability to collaborate and prioritize shows TCP where they need to say “no” to certain initiatives and why. While this wasn’t an overnight adoption by the staff, and some team members took awhile to get on board, utilizing Leadr is now the norm, and everything planned, discussed, and prioritized now ties back to the mission.
Using Leadr to equip and develop staff
While the efficiency and communication benefits of Leadr are widely appreciated amongst the staff, TCP really appreciates how the software helps them accomplish their mission to “equip the body of Christ and to help people discover their gifts so that they can use those gifts to build the church.“
“If you’re considering Leadr...don’t adopt it as another tool to add to your belt, approach it with the mindset that you’ll use it to communicate with your team and develop people. With that mindset, it really will be a game-changer.” shares Jamie. “If you’re looking for a task management tool, you’re not going to be able to take advantage of what Leadr has to offer. It’s a great communication tool and great way to facilitate organization...but at the end of the day it stands apart because you use it to develop your team, and then your team is equipped to develop people.”
Jamie shared how the team loves Leadr’s personality types feature within each staff member’s profile because it enables them to accomplish their mission of developing each other's strengths. And developing someone’s strengths starts with knowing someone’s strengths. Here’s a sneak peak of the Leadr profile card, which allows team members to quickly remember how different team members communicate, prefer feedback, and where they thrive before you enter a conversation with them. These insights are key to developing others, so why not have them front and center in every interaction?
Leadr’s feedback feature has also been a helpful asset for TCP. It allows staff members to request feedback from leadership and their peers on their performance, ask for guidance on a goal, and offer feedback on presentations, meetings, or projects. This tool allows leadership to easily send reminders to their team about their mission and values of equipping, building, and developing the Body of Christ. It also heightens team engagement by providing a space where providing and requesting feedback is the norm, and that’s where real coaching and developing can begin.
Mission accomplished because of the culture shift
With Leadr, The Caring Place can achieve the mission of their church to the full extent because their culture is being developed with every meeting they have. The staff is saving time by preparing and communicating better for meetings, growing closer and more efficient by learning each other’s strengths, and setting an example for the larger church culture with their own behavior.
Jamie Bell says, “[Leadr] is a great communication tool; it’s a great system to help organize meetings and tasks. But developing people is what it is really about.”
If you’re passionate about engaging and developing every member of your team at every level of your organization, request a demo of Leadr to see the software in action.
