One of the most common questions that we hear is “how do I get started” with a local city movement and it would be highly overreaching to say there is a specific formula or even strategy because every city and every catalytic leader is different. To look at the variety of ideas around different cities, look at this blog page listing several examples. But I want to credit our friends at Movement.org for sharing a basic 4 part framework at their October Movement Day which is a great way to frame the big ideas connected to movements.

Seems like “C” words work well to describe movements, so here are 4 key ideas to frame a start-up:

Convene

Collaborate

Catalyze

Celebrate

—————————————–

Convene

At the very core of any movement is the fundamental value of building trust which comes by creating connections and building community among stakeholders. Movements happen at the speed of trust and that takes small, medium, and large gatherings to build connections. A key value that we take from David John Seel’s book on Network Power is that it is easier to add “cause” to “community” than to add “community to cause”.

But one of the consistent learnings is that it is better to go from small to large than to go from large to small.

Almost every experienced movement leader we have talked to has started with one on one or small group breakfasts, lunches, or coffee-type gatherings to facilitate listening, discovery, dialogue, and connections. The best startup is a casual conversation where you ask more questions than you give answers and truly connect to the passions and dreams of a diverse group of catalytic leaders. Those early conversations and relationships will seed future larger gatherings with a core of like-minded movement leaders. You cannot rush these early connections and conversations.

Collaborate

From convening a diverse group of leaders, you have the opportunity to listen to what is already happening and what is broken in your city. This comes in various forms, but often there are a few “centered sets” that surface in the dialogue. A “centered set” is something that everybody cares about and ultimately crosses into multiple sectors of the city and potentially unites churches, businesses, government, and nonprofits to collaborate. 

Some examples of “centered sets” might be housing, foster care, a school(s) or maybe even specific neighborhoods. As these areas surface it is very important for the discussion to include existing work that’s happening around the issue. For example, housing might be your centered set, but understanding what the city government and other nonprofits are already doing to address the need is essential. Some communities build multiple networks around multiple centered sets and others address a couple of big ideas city-wide.

Catalyze

How can you pour fuel on the fire of movement? That is an area that is maturing across the country with many of the local movements. One of the developing areas is metrics and data. Some great examples are Charlotte and Evansville where they publish “State of the City” reports. It is important to note that the idea is not to paint a negative picture of the city, but as titled in the Evansville report: “Five Areas to Help Your Neighbors Flourish”. It is about taking cities from good to great and deepening the real numbers and data.

Another area that is growing is city-wide surveys around ‘the dreams of the city” to help frame responses from real people to what they see as assets and improvements. And lastly, we are seeing some great examples of platforms that can be used to mobilize local people to serve the city through annual city serve events and “love your neighbor” campaigns. Platforms are a powerful tool to facilitate movement. Eric Swanson frames this platform idea in his article: Platforms and city transformation

Celebrate

The best catalytic leaders in movements tell stories and celebrate what is happening. Whether it is in videos, through social media, in churches, in newsletters, in large gatherings, and in small moments of gratitude, the wind behind any movement is celebrating progress. In fact, the test of movement is when the results overpower the visibility of the catalytic leaders. Alan Platt says in his book “City Changers”, that it is not just about “common activities, but about a common vision” that propels a movement forward in a city. Celebrating examples of the common vision can create a multiplying effect on progress.

So…

City movement work is not a quick fix. And in fact, we often prefer relief work that generates quick projects and big numbers. But the reality of every city is there are issues that have taken years to become embedded in the ecosystem and it will take long-term effort and major collaboration to move the needle.

You can do it.

Community, Cause and Corporation…. Healthy nonprofits and churches

There was a point in my career that I made a change from the corporate-profit world to the church and non-profit world. I knew there were some distinct differences, but I also knew that part of why I was hired was to bring some of my business background to the daily operations of the nonprofit environment I was about to enter. During that journey and transition I ran into some insight from a pastor and consultant that has provided a framework of balance for the last 25 plus years.

The idea comes from a passage in Philippians 2:25 where Paul is commending one of his associates and says… “I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier.…”. The idea is that these three primary metaphors in a church or nonprofit organization describe relationships and ultimately primary functions and all three must exist in some reasonable balance for effectiveness.

Community….Metaphor: Brother or the idea of a family relational connection

Cause…Metaphor: Soldier or the idea of an army with a strategic battle to win.

Corporation...Metaphor: Co-Worker or the idea of a business or employee environment.

Community : In a healthy church or non-profit there is a relational chemistry among the board, the staff and the volunteers that not only makes it a pleasure to serve, but it creates an environment of trust and relationship that functions like a “healthy” family. We laugh together, we cry together, we celebrate wins and we comfort and encourage during losses. We eat together, we do retreats, we serve side by side and we generally do “life” together. And just like a family, in a healthy non-profit I not only care about your work, but I care about your kids, you family and your needs beyond the office. There is a healthy community component to a non-profit world that becomes a magnet to recruit volunteers and engage people in the mission. It can be infectious. And although relationships are huge in every endeavor, nonprofits live in a world where people volunteer without a paycheck to serve for two major reasons…they believe in the cause and they enjoy the journey in community with others that believe in the same mission.

Cause: There has never been a nonprofit entity started that didn’t begin with a cause. That’s a bold statement, but while the profit world is ultimately about “profits”, the nonprofit world is about a “cause”. And that cause is about a hill to climb and a battle to win to impact the world in some way. Here are some intense causes reflected in mission and vision statements:

Feeding America: A hunger-free America

National Multiple Sclerosis Society: A world free of MS

Alzheimer’s Association: Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s

Habitat for Humanity: A world where everyone has a decent place to live.

 Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever.

 Teach for America: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

The cause is the target and in a nonprofit you are joining the army committed to win the battle. And in it’s purest form it is the ultimate motivating reason that people give their time, talent and resources to the nonprofit world without any self serving return on the investment.

Corporation: While people serve in community to pursue the cause, there is a need to do things with excellence and to efficiently allocate the finite resources to the critical growth path of the nonprofit to accomplish the mission. Systems and structures that properly manage money, facilities, people and resources are essential to every church and nonprofit. By laws, articles of incorporation, budgets, performance reviews, worker discipline, cash flow, accounting, org charts, job descriptions… there is a corporation or business side to the nonprofit world that is essential for sustainability.

These three ideas-community, cause and corporation exist in a dynamic tension. Conflict is normal

The best way I know to expand on the idea to address imbalance in the three areas. Technically you can’t have too much of any of the three areas unless one is disproportionate to the others.

Too much Community….not enough Cause or Corporation– This often happens in the nonprofit or church world when leadership is highly relational, but lacks focus and attention to logistics of the organization. The leader can be a magnet to draw and connect people and they love to serve together, but 5 or 10 years down the road it’s hard to tell what has been accomplished. Supercharged relational leaders must surround themselves with strategic, logistical types to be sure that the “family” is moving the ball down the field and effectively in pursuit of the cause. This happens a lot in churches where over the years they are relationally connected and “like family”, but have lost perspective on their mission and are seeing decline in attendance, income and any semblance of forward movement. If the most significant activities of your organization in a year are the board meetings or pot luck dinners, you might have imbalance in community.

Too much Cause…not enough Community or Corporation-This happens with driven leadership. Passion for the cause is very important, but there can be a point where driven leaders use and abuse staff and volunteers. People love to be useful, but they do not want to be used. An imbalance in cause can destroy community and the healthy relationships that sustain the organization. When leaders push so hard that people start to live in guilt mode, the cause will eventually lack support. That also extends to the loss of good corporate practices when the cause gets ahead of resources and accountability of leaders is lacking at dangerous levels. It all has a diminishing effect. A “cause” imbalance is is often happening in organizations where there is a perpetual lack of volunteers and a severe shortage of financial resources.

Too much Coporation…not enough Community or Cause-Often as organizations mature they get more organized. It would be hard to argue with a highly organized nonprofit entity. But if you attend a board meeting of a nonprofit and it is filled with the smallest details of financial discussions with little or no discussion about volunteers and the future vision of the cause, there is a good possibility that the corporation component is out of balance. Organizations that are imbalanced in this area tend to stay focused on keeping things afloat. Growth is not the highest value, preservation is. The leadership is consumed with raising money, cutting costs and funding a budget that keeps the doors open, but does not fuel a vision to ignite progress towards the cause. Volunteers exist in limited numbers, but they are mostly used to raise money and rarely engage in the activities of the mission that created the nonprofit. As a volunteer it’s no fun to be a part of this organization anymore because it’s about survival. This shift often happens as an organization matures and some of the early stakeholders that brought passion and zeal start to yield leadership to logistical organizers and managers. The organization becomes overmanaged and underled.

So there it is.

Community, Cause and Corporation

What if we selected board members with personalities that balance these three ideas? What if we hired staff with attention to all three areas? What if we surrounded the CEO or pastor with people that enhanced any of these characteristics that he or she might be weak in?

A healthy organization is a community of great relationships that march strategically and with focus towards the powerful vision of a worthy cause leveraging accountability to manage resources and people with the excellence of a well led corporation.

The good news is that there is no magic pill that immediately prepares you to launch your Global Leadership Summit site towards a larger city movement and there are as many ways to proceed with the idea as there are sites. But there are some learnings and health markers that will strengthen your success in the journey.

Here are some questions to process:

1. Are you currently leveraging the Global Leadership Summit to serve your church’s mission, vision and/or values? 

This is all about your foundation. Truthfully the healthiest host sites “own” the Summit in their calendar, with their staff, with their leaders and in their local and global outreach(Own It’s) …but the idea that the Summit is a clear win in the mission and vision of the host church takes it from being just an event to a resource that is an integral part of the church’s forward movement. It becomes even more strategic if the heart of the host church is turned towards local impact in the city. At our home church we value the whole idea of “building a great city” and training leaders and the GLS becomes a major resource in that pursuit of our values as a church. It is vital that the GLS is a clear resource to the mission and vision of the host church before you can cast a vision for a larger city wide movement. 

       2. As a GLS Host Site have you connected to other local church partners? 

The reality of a city movement is it demands a lot of connections and collaborations. It is essential that you build some muscle with the GLS church partner program before you launch into a city wide collaboration. Church partners are a vital part of expanding influence and they can help you to launch into the city with a clear and experienced partnership. And when you get ready for a larger city wide effort, it is vital that you make sure your partner churches are on board and committed before you launch. Go together.

      3. Are you connected to what’s moving in your city? 

Think about this one. When we talk about a city movement, the goal is not “another” movement. The goal is to add value to what is already moving and to create more of it. What is already happening in your city that is addressing some of the most important issues at hand? What gatherings and networks are already wrestling with some of the cities greatest needs? And most importantly, where can the Global Leadership Summit add value to the people impacting those needs? One of the greatest opportunities of the Summit is to gather every sector in the city to receive “fresh, actionable leadership content” and to mobilize the Summit attenders into a “Grander Vision” for your city. Figure out what’s already moving in your city and connect to it.

       4. Is your venue a lid?

Be careful not to stereotype this idea. Some churches have a natural bent towards community engagement and even host various city wide events. It may be that your church has the seating and “neutrality” to be a tremendous community location for a city wide movement driven by GLS. But other cities discover that a specific church location is a barrier for other churches to invite their people and even more importantly it is a barrier to business leaders sending their employees to a religious setting.  A city movement demands the engagement of every sector. If you hosted GLS at a neutral location like a convention center or university would more businesses be open to sending their staff? Would more churches respond and bring their leaders to a neutral site rather than another church? Without question, the GLS has a growing business audience and they are an essential part of a city wide movement. You will need to evaluate whether your venue is a lid.

       5. Do you have a funding source ready to fuel a movement? 

Once you determine your venue and create a budget to promote and engage every sector of the city in the Global Leadership Summit, you need to be sure you have a funding source. The three major expenses that tend to accelerate with a city wide movement include promotion, venue logistics and scholarships. Again there are as many different ways to do this as there are sites, but common sources include business sponsorships and even foundations committed to building capacity in local organizations. WCA provides certain reimbursements proportionate to the number of attenders in every host church contract which is helpful with venue and tech expenses, but you will need a primary funder to make sure your site expenses are covered, especially in an outside venue. A big vision will draw proportionate funding. If you have been a host site and can demonstrate experience and growth you can attract local support.

There are sites that have launched from the beginning as city movement sites, but the more common experience is GLS host sites that start at local churches with a vision to bring in partners and grow into a full city movement experience. If your vision is a movement, start praying and preparing because GLS is a resource to be leveraged for city wide impact. 

Some examples of GLS City Movements:

Ft Wayne, Indiana

Wichita, Kansas

Evansville, Indiana

The Global Leadership Summit is a great resource for you as a leader, your team, your organization and ultimately for your community. But to make the GLS a catalytic resource for a city movement, we are learning that there are some things that you can do to be intentional about creating movement prior to the GLS.

What is moving?

First, determine what is already moving your city. What organizations are changing the narrative?

What non-profit, what church, what governmental group or what businesses are moving initiatives forward to improve key issues in your city? Or are there some collaborative efforts that are addressing some of the underinvested neighborhoods? We have an opportunity at the GLS to add value to movement. 

One of the best national resources available around city movements is the map at City Gospel Movements. This map includes over 600 links to groups and nonprofits around the country that are attached in some form to city movements.
Names like City Unite, For Charlotte, For Evansville, Restore Strategies, For Philly, Transform Minnesota, Toledo Together, Jesus loves Kalamazoo, Unite my City, City Unite Boulder, Treasure the Valley, One City, One Church-Louisville, Engage Chicago, Together Chicago, Light the City, Serve Syracuse and the list goes on and on.

I have no illusion that everybody on this list is a perfect collaborator, but this certainly is a vast list of potential partners that are looking to move things in cities across the country. City Movements are about collaborative muscle and GLS can add value to those movements. Ask yourself and your team, what’s moving in our city?

What needs to move?

Second, What needs to move in your city? This is about the process of data mapping the city narrative.

Everybody has thoughts about the needs of a city, but often one of the best ways to create focused movement is real data. We are starting to see some great examples of data mapping, but one of the best comes from For Charlotte. They have done a great job of evaluating and assimilating the narrative in Charlotte. The Executive Director explains the process here. You can see the full report here.

Another resource for data mapping comes from an organization called Seeds to Oaks. They have a 360-degree tool that is designed to assess and provide data on the opportunities in the city, especially in specific neighborhoods. Often you can pull data from your local government, community surveys and online resources, but data is vital to move from opinion to reality and the more formal it is presented, the more it drives the synergy of efforts.

The Intercession Group in Warsaw Indiana is a GLS site and they just recently completed their data mapping project. Click here to read it.

Whether you use formal processes or just do some of your own research and assessment, data brings a united and validated focus to city movement efforts.

Who is moving things?

In every city, there are men and women who are known for making things happen. Sometimes they are prominent positions like the Mayor or top business leaders, but sometimes the movers and shakers in a city are less about position and more about focus. Who are those people in your city?

Eric Swanson is his book “To Transform a City”, presents the idea of connecting the dreams of the city and the callings and capacity of the church. I am taking a little liberty with Eric’s model, but the essence of the idea is conversations with key movers and shakers and working to figure out where things that want to happen in the city intersect. A city leader might have a dream to build a new highway through town, but that would rarely connect to the capacity and calling of the church. But the restoration of disinvested neighborhoods where justice issues are elevated could be a bullseye for all.

So what does this all have to do with the GLS?

As we gather every sector in the community and we provide fresh, actionable leadership content and cast a grander vision to a large group of influencers in your city, what if you could expose them to the top issue(s) that you find threaded through what is moving, what the data says is needed and what matches the dreams of top community leaders? Maybe it is crime, foster care, education, housing, poverty…. the GLS has the potential to add value to some of the highest priorities of your city. That is the foundation of serving a city movement.

Next: What to do during the Summit.

We have been looking at the concept of catalyzing City Movements by being intentional before, during and after the GLS. Before the GLS we were focused on identifying what was moving, what needed to move and who was moving things. Now as we enter into the actual days of the Global Leadership Summit, we want to take that pre-Summit information and connect the dots.

Unity-Connect people at your site

There are some priorities in connecting the people that attend the GLS around catalyzing City Movements. The first priority is connecting sectors. What can you do to recognize the churches, the nonprofits, the businesses and the government leaders in the room? Maybe it’s interaction during the breaks, or recognition from the stage, but look for ways to create connections before during and after the GLS. Second, how can you recognize leaders specific to City Movement priorities? Maybe it is as simple as having a key leader come up and welcome the crowd or a 3-minute interview on their vision for the city, but strategic and brief connects throughout the GLS that connect City Movement priorities and people are important.

Throw out some lunch topics for interaction or even better have a lunch panel discussion around strategic City Movement topics. Connect people at your venue strategically.

Community-Share stories of the narrative in your city

We have some real heroes with this idea. The following are links to videos from GLS sites and cities that have been used in various settings including during GLS. Here is a great example from Danville, Illinois…

Other videos that describe the narratives os cities:

Intercession Group-Warsaw Indiana

Danville, Illinois

Evansville Indiana-Left Turn 1, Left Turn 2

Teeside

Brief videos or even stories about the narrative in the city or even local grander vision type videos are a great way to catalyze movement. A couple of cautions-Make sure they are brief and make sure they are high quality. The time is short during the GLS, but you can communicate a lot in a 5-minute video. And with the broadcast quality of GLS and your video gear, any video needs to be high quality which is not that hard to accomplish.

A brief testimony or story supporting City Movement topics can also be a strategic way to be intentional.

Opportunity-Provide on Ramps

During the Summit, leaders are learning fresh, actionable content that will help them in their everyday work, but they are also getting a Grander Vision for how everyday leaders are making an impact at higher levels. It would be highly appropriate to provide an outlet for the people at your site to connect to strategic opportunities that push forward movement in your city. It is important to note, this is not a “ministry fair”.  Do not fill the lobby with everybody’s displays, this is about strategic opportunities to connect to what has been identified as significant in your city.

Here is an example of our city. You can see in the back of the room, “To Love Your City”. After we ran a clip on the city narrative, we pointed people to this booth where we had literature and resources from leaders of the local City Movement. An immediate on-ramp connection in the GLS.

I love this example of an early on-ramp in Jonesboro, Arkansas. They built a display for the lobby at GLS with chicken wire and metal roofing and used the hashtag “For Jonesboro”. The challenged attendees to write down their prayers for the city on a card provided at GLS and stick those prayers in the chicken wire in the display. A tangible next step in the journey of engaging in the city.

You can make your lobby, your venue and your relational moments during GLS to be strategic moments to move what matters in your city. Stay away from commercials, make these local opportunities to describe and move forward the narrative in your city.

Next: What to do after the Summit

Finally, we have acknowledged what to do Before the Summit, During the Summit and now some thoughts about what to do After the Summit. 

Debrief-Application of GLS Content

Top 10 Card… Throughout the Summit, we encourage attendees to make a list of their top 10 actionable ideas and we even provide a “Top 10” card and a short video on best practices to make sure they apply what they have learned. We challenge immediate debriefs with this language:

“We want to challenge you over the next 7 days to debrief your top 10 with your staff, coworkers or trusted friends. Let them help you process what implementing these ideas looks like. Share what speakers and ideas influenced you and if you came with your team, let them share what they took away. The potential for leadership conversations could have a significant impact on organizations all over our city.” 

Here is our low budget whiteboard video that we play each day near the beginning of the Summit…

Leadership Learning Communities

This idea of Leadership Learning Communities has taken on a variety of approaches, but the big idea is ongoing learning and growth as leaders that has been sparked through the GLS experience.

Here is how we say it:

“Over the next 60 days, we want to invite you to build your own Leadership Learning Community. Or in other words, take the actionable ideas from your GLS experience combined with ongoing content from the Global Leadership Network and use it to connect with other leaders who want to progress on their Leadership development journey. It might be as simple as a breakfast group reading a speaker’s book together or adding a GLSNext video lip to your staff meetings or it might be a group of Pastors, CEOs or other local leaders gathering regularly around leadership topics.” 

Our GLS friends in Omaha Nebraska at Omaha Leaders have regular learning gatherings of business, pastors and other community leaders. They even did some Master Mind groups with GLS content and provide coaching support for participants.

In Ft Wayne, they started a prayer gathering that now exceeds 200 leaders. They also provide some coaching with individuals and groups to help deepen the lessons learned from GLS.

In Boca Raton Florida, they have started something called BocaLead. It is a gathering every month for 1 hour that includes a great lunch and 30 minutes of leadership teaching and lots of networking. Business teams and groups from all over the community come and buy a table and it is now selling out with 450 leaders monthly. Here is a brief video on BocaLead…

What does Leadership Learning Community look like for you? Maybe it is just breakfast or lunch with 6 to 8 leaders working through a leadership book or maybe it is just adding a GLSNext video to your staff meeting, but keeping leadership learning active year-round is a win for all.  Learning communities create great bridges to the community in every sector.

City Serve-City Wide Events

What larger impact events can you connect to that mobilize the community into city movement priorities? It is always a win to support themes, days and activities to serve the city and inspire movement. One of the common activities is an annual City Serve. For some City Serve is a few hours. For others, it is a week of activities or a weekend. There is an organization that help you build city serve days called Love Our Cities. 

Here is an example of a video we show to promote a citywide City Serve Days to the GLS attendees:

There are lots of things that you can do as a community to inspire a larger City Movement, but the most important thing to do is to make sure the Global Leadership Summit is about adding value. Adding value to leaders, to organizations, and to the city.

Using the Global Leadership Summit as a strategic and catalytic component for a City Movement is about connecting dots. It is about connecting people and organizations and movement.

There is a growing field of resources and organizations designed to inspire engagement of churches and Christian leaders in their communities.

Let me tell you about my church... This is a very short video from the churches of Teesside. This is a great story of unity in a community!

City Movement Resources

What is a Gospel City Movement– Some definitions and resources for city movements

Gospel City Movements– The City Gospel Movement Team helps to celebrate and accelerate collaborative gospel work in cities around the world.

Movement Day– There is a unique opportunity and urgency to unite and empower Christian leaders to change cities through gospel movement and impact today’s urban issues of fatherlessness, education, poverty, and unemployment.

Marketplace Resources

Made to Flourish– Equip your church to integrate faith, work, and economic wisdom

Atworkonpurpose.org– Mobilizing the work world for Christ 

Regional work

For Charlotte– The For Charlotte Mission Network is a gospel-centered network of churches in the Greater Charlotte area working together to seek the peace of the Queen City. We do this with the shared conviction that when the church operates in unity, it can make the greatest possible impact for the good of the city.

Intercession Group-Intercession Group is a team of men and women, motivating and encouraging leaders to facilitate Hope in the marketplace. There is no formal membership or fee.  Their goal is to impact the community, businesses, and relationships around them to be Christ-like leaders and grow in Him.

For Evansville– By listening, convening, and cultivating, For Evansville wants to see a city where people experience love and give love; where people prioritize the holistic well-being of all people; and where people’s work provides community value and individual purpose. We believe that kind of citywide flourishing happens when each person achieves the fruitfulness for which they were made.

City Shelf- The Tristate community around Evansville Indiana has been in learning mode for a couple of years and this is their website sharing speakers and resources around what they have been learning.

Abide-Omaha– Abide is an inner city, non-profit organization with a dream, that one day, Omaha, Nebraska would have no inner city.

City Movement Canada– Our purpose is to connect churches, ministries, agencies, and marketplace leaders into leadership networks that leverage trust, forward-thinking, shared data, and strategic partnerships to engage a new generation and serve our cities

Danville Illinois-This is the story of a small town in Illinois that is making a big difference.

City Gene– Some amazing video and media that captures the stories and theology of a city movement in the San Francisco Bay area.