Vick Green: All right, here we are moving up the vision plan. And we are going to talk today around distinctives. And so this is ultimately what are those beliefs that shape how we do anything and everything. But before we get to that, Jeremy, I have a trivia game for you to tee us up. And so it
Jeremy Smith: Uh-oh. Okay. And I do not know what this trivia game is, everybody. This is this is straight off the cuff.
Vick Green: That's exactly right. First off has nothing to do with wrestling. I think we've had that in the past. it definitely has nothing about predicting US soccer goal scores,
Jeremy Smith: man, how
Vick Green: cause that bombed terribly.
Jeremy Smith: Just so everybody knows, we almost went back and re-recorded that one. That's how bad that bomb that bomb was on.
Vick Green: my gosh. We were way off on our predictions. and so no, here we go. I'm I'm gonna tell you a list of values or distinctives that exist in other organizations. And I want
Jeremy Smith: man.
Vick Green: you to tell me if you can match it with that company. Now, to make
Jeremy Smith: Okay.
Vick Green: it easy, I'm gonna give you the three companies I'm gonna pull from here. All right. Yeah,
Jeremy Smith: Okay, thank you.
Vick Green: and so Chick-fil-A, gotta love them. Ali Sage's favorite. And so Chick-fil-A, Amazon, and Southwest Airlines. All right. Okay. I'm giving you, I'm
Jeremy Smith: okay. All right. You know, I I did go to business school, so I do know a little bit about Southwest Airlines. So let's see if I can get this one.
Vick Green: going to give you six. We're going to go quick here because nobody got on the show for these six. But
Jeremy Smith: Okay.
Vick Green: just curious, how many you think you're going to get?
Jeremy Smith: ha five. Yeah. All right.
Vick Green: Okay, five out of six. Here we go. All right. First one, we're here to serve.
Jeremy Smith: Mm. Southwest.
Vick Green: Ooh, Chick fil A Chick-fil-A It's my pleasure I mean come on
Jeremy Smith: I I I that was my first instinct. That was my first instinct, but like I don't know. I thought okay, all right. I gotta get all the
Vick Green: Okay, you said you're going five for six. I'm gonna be honest. I picked the easiest one to go first. So this is not looking
Jeremy Smith: Okay.
Vick Green: good. All right, here we go. fun, loving attitude.
Jeremy Smith: Southwest Airlines. Okay. All right.
Vick Green: That now you got it. All right. There you go. Southwest. We get it. The fun attitude fun loving attitude. Yes. Bias for action.
Jeremy Smith: Amazon.
Vick Green: Yes, there you go. Customer obsession.
Jeremy Smith: Southwest. Amazon. Okay. Gotcha. I'm already done.
Vick Green: Mm, Amazon. and so
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: there we go. We're better together.
Jeremy Smith: I'm gonna go check filet.
Vick Green: Nice, you got it. There it is. Invent and simplify.
Jeremy Smith: Amazon.
Vick Green: That is it. All right. Is that six? Did I get it all?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, that's five, I think.
Vick Green: That's five. And so customer obsession, bias fraction. We're better to you. No, I think that's all of them. We're gonna serve. Okay, I think you went there. You go. I think you went four for six. And
Jeremy Smith: Okay, all right. So I got four to six? Yeah.
Vick Green: so somebody's checking our work and we forgot it, but you did pretty good. And so, yeah, all right. So using that just fun, like these are just different organizations. And what's funny is like you have these and and you on the outside, like You didn't one, what I like is some of these none of these are like super I mean, some are pithy, but like some of them are just very basic. Also, you don't really even know all of those terms as the customer, as the recipient of of those companies. And so, but they're deeply ingrained into their leadership and deeply ingrained into the cultures of these places. So even when we name it and connect it with the place, like we're like, yeah, that makes sense. And so similarly, what does that look like in the church? That's what distinctives are about. And so that's kind of the conversation we're gonna have today is what does it look like to really name and leverage what can be some of the greatest strengths in our church? And so that's the conversation we're having today. So let's talk about distinctives. Jeremy, what are they and why are they so important?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, I think a lot of people might think of distinctives and name them values or something like that. And and there's some there's some value to that. yeah, see what I did there? Yeah.
Vick Green: I see what you did there.
Jeremy Smith: but I like the name distinctives for this reason. It's what sets us apart, what makes us unique
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: as an organization, or a big part of what makes us unique. The the way that I know we talk about this with replicate is i if you were to walk into a place, these are the things that you'd pick up on within the first. week or two weeks or the first month of being there. These are the things that everybody knows, but we just want to specifically name them for our church so that they can become a kind of a a lens through which we make decisions and think about how we go about the mission of making the unique disciples that God has called us to make. How how we go about doing anything and everything. That we're doing. So they're in that method level along with the pathway. and at first, you know, when we we went through the process, I didn't understand how distinctives were method. You know, I didn't know how quite
Vick Green: Mm. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: how they fit in all of that. But when you really get into it, like we're in a series right now on family discipleship called Family First and rolling out our whole next gen ministry road plan. And every week of the series, we're able to say one of our distinctives, the next generation is now. as the why behind everything we're doing
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: and the lens through which we we kind of we kind of view everything. and and here's and and here's a how to accomplish that. You know, so
Vick Green: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: it gives us a filter for decision making. It just names what everybody already knows about us. And so we can play on
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: that. And and what everybody, what every leader out there knows is the more you say something, the more it becomes real in the organization. Even if it's sort of aspirational at first, or or kind of something people kinda know or kinda see. Once you name it, people are gonna go, Yeah, that's right. That is us. And so I think that's an important part of distinctives and what they are.
Vick Green: Yeah. And and I think you you said a couple of things in there. That idea that it's it shapes how we do everything and being at the method level. I agree. Like I think for years, like when I thought about values, which again, if you have values in your organization, it like there's nothing wrong with that term to it. I think for us where we land in distinctives, was we wanted to focus on, man, what are the things that make that are distinct that make you unique? And how does it more propel behaviors? Than necessarily protect beliefs. What
Jeremy Smith: Mm.
Vick Green: I often see with churches when it comes to values is that they're using a set of beliefs that they have, and it's more of like protecting doctrine. It it's more of those core theologies that are really important for the church. And that's so important. I'm not trying to diminish that. And that actually is really foundational. It's to me, it is the foundation that that is underneath the vision plan. Like that is your theology. That's what we're making protecting. Where I often see is that churches use that and to protect their beliefs. And they miss this whole place of how are you actually teaching your leadership? How are you shaping your leaders on what does great leadership look like? What is it and and how is that influencing everything that you do? And so Just like in that game that we played earlier. I mean, you didn't get it you didn't get it right. Well, no, you got we'll go. Well
Jeremy Smith: I can't believe I missed Chic Filet.
Vick Green: I can't believe you missed the Chick-fil-A one. So let's go with one you did. Like the fun, loving attitude of
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: Southwest. You get that. Like it's and so if you've ever sat through one of their announcements, it's definitely the it's way more entertaining than when I go to Delta. And it and it and it shapes how they interact with you, how they do their announcements, their marketing. And so it's shaping how How they do anything, everything, they're gonna do it with a fun, loving spirit. And so similarly, their leadership at Chick-fil-A, they're always gonna lean into it's our, you know, that idea of it's my pleasure to serve. Like, and so you're gonna feel that with every interaction you have. And so the distinctives were really trying to not just protect, hey, got like I all these churches that I'll go to, you'll I'll see gospel centric, you know, or b you know. Biblically based are, you know, authentic relationships. And it's like totally think those are important. The question is, how are you, how is it shaping your leaders and how they lead? And so that's really where distinctives is leaning in, maybe a little bit different than how a lot of people typically apply values in their church.
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, that's a that's a great distinction. yeah, yeah. It's just full of them today. That's right.
Vick Green: I'll see what you did there again.
Jeremy Smith: so take that one step further. If that's sort of the difference between distinctives and values or or a way you can think about them differently. And and I think that's super important. I I just realized as you were talking about that, that you know, most of the time you don't have to help a church develop their theology. You have to help a church develop how you live out your theology in making disciples. And and so this is more kind of how we're living this out.
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: so how should churches come up with and then use their list of distinctives?
Vick Green: Yeah, I think it's something too, we just talked about that game and how you th those phrases, some of them, it's like if you look, some of them are like even their formatting, it's not as consistent. Like some is a phrase, some of it's a word. Like you don't as the outsider know all that language. or as like I mean, dude, I've been a prime customer of Amazon for a long time. Do you know how many Amazon packages are on my front door week? Like too
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: many. I am very much in the Amazon world and I don't know their core value or distinctives. I forget I don't even know what they name them. I forget. Like every church kind of or every organization has a little different, but their leaders know it. And so I think that's the thing too, is that a lot of times with churches, how they use whatever that set of beliefs for you is, one of the common ways that I see churches is that they lead with mission and they lead with values. And they lead it as their external messaging. And so and and what we really reposition is say, hey, values isn't doesn't need to be the lead thing that you communicate with. Because what that does is says, hey, here's what we're doing, and here is why why we do it. All of that says, this is us. It doesn't necessarily say, hey, this is what we want for you. And
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Vick Green: so where we flip is instead of leading with mission values, we lead with Mission disciples. Hey, here is who we are. Here's what we want for you. This is here who you will become if you step into it. And so when I think about messaging and how to use this, our distinctives, it's not the front door communication. It's not the thing like I drove into a church the other day, they had all their values on their light posts. I mean that that like What how much better could it look is saying, hey, here's our mission and like, hey, here's what we want for you? Leaning into communication that says, here's the transformation we're looking for. And so we really use this idea of distinctives as more internal language. So the way that I say it is that your distinctives should be felt before they're heard. They should be felt before they're heard. And so the moment I walk onto the campus, the moment I'm in your service, I should be feeling your distinctives at play because that's how your leaders are leading. And so an example of that is one of our distinctives at Long Hollow is like we jokingly say, keep it fun, keep it fresh. Like and so it we joking call it KIF KIF, you know. And so everything we do is fun and fresh. And so when you walk on to our campus, you're gonna feel a very casual feeling. You're gonna see us with signs. It's gonna be goofy. We're gonna use humor in the worship service. There's gonna probably there's gonna be baseball caps on the stage from worship leaders. Okay, that's not a vibe that's for everybody. Like,
Jeremy Smith: Right.
Vick Green: and so that's fine. This is who we are. And if you're looking for something that's more a suit and tie, then like you're probably gonna want to go to a different church. But that is just that's who we are. that's that's a strength of ours. And so whenever we say keep it fun, keep it fresh, people are like, I've I've felt that before. And so your distinctives are more internal. Like, I'm far more concerned about distinctives being listed in your church offices than your church lobby. Because your leaders need to know them, your people need to feel them. And so pushing it back or maybe dimming it a little more. And putting more of your disciples to the forefront, that's that's probably the biggest shift that I'm I'm coaching churches through on how do you use this language?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, because the distinctives I remember when we were trying to decide what goes on the walls talking and talking with you about that. And the distinctives feel so important. You know, like
Vick Green: They are.
Jeremy Smith: the they're they feel like, you know, this is this is a core part of us. And we've been this for a long time. And so it it it it's important to me. It's important to the leaders, and so we feel like it should be important to everybody else. But I love that the Amazon example of like Yeah, me too. I've been with Amazon Prime for a long, long time. Get get all the the packages
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: and stuff like that. have no idea what their values, their distinctives, or whatever they call are. But but definitely feel them. So I love that feel before you hear about
Vick Green: And and if you step in, if you become an Amazon employee, you then a hundred percent know it. And I think
Jeremy Smith: Well
Vick Green: that's where it's it is so important. And so pushing it from the church lobby to the church office, making it more internal is not diminishing its value. I mean, it's placing its value with who needs to champion it. who's start and and so your staff, your leadership, all those conversations, there's not an environment that you should create, an event you should create. That isn't revolved around, hey, here is how we do this thing. It's the personality in which you do anything and everything. And so if we're creative for long hollow, keep it fun, keep it fresh, if we're not leaning into that spirit in our starting point class, in our worship service, in our leadership, in our staff meetings, then we're not leading the long hollow way. And and so, and that also even allows in staff evaluation. You can hit all the goals and metrics you want. But if you're not living into our distinctives, how you're going about this, the way in which you're living out our culture, it's off. And so it doesn't diminish its value. It just places it and concentrates it at the leader level.
Jeremy Smith: That's what I was gonna ask you. What what what's the difference? Should you still have staff values if you have organization distinctives, you know? if the distinctives are naming what's already there for your whole church, does that necessarily translate to staff values in that way? You know, I I think there's a little bit of a a back and forth there that you can hire and fire on staff values. so but then also do you Do you put in your like we have Discover Crosspoint. What whatever your class or event is where people get to know you and your church and and before they join or before they really get involved, however your church does that. Is that a place where you put even for for people who are gonna be volunteering or members, that sort of thing?
Vick Green: Yeah. I've seen this done a lot of different ways. And I mean, maybe there's a more hard, fast line that I should take in it. What I often find is that there's there's a lot more nuance of of this, and there's often most churches have something that's either exactly like distinctives or adjacent to it. Now, are they using it? Is it effective? That's another question. And so I think some of this is just whatever you call these things values. Pl you know, plumb lines I've heard through JD Greer stuff, core beliefs, staff values. There's a set of beliefs that you're saying is this is how we do church, how we do ministry. And I think that's important as a starting line. I think a question to maybe ask there is, is using the familiarity of that language going forward helpful or hurtful? Sometimes it's a good thing and we need to build around, okay, we have these values, let's let's lean into them more or let's expand them to address what's missing. Sometimes we look and say, man, that ha isn't serving us well. And creating something fresh would be helpful. So I think that's the some of the nuance, the to the direct point of like staff value, church value, internal, external. What I've always found is that like church values are great, but there's always something at the staff level that feels missing. I mean, every church or so is like, I mean Yes, but we have these issues in our staff culture. And I and like, how do I address that? And so there just always was like when I would work with churches, the churches that had some version at the staff level of how we do this, I've heard it called culture code, staff values, distinctives, whatever it may be, they were seeing the greatest leadership and traction. And the churches that only had church values continued to fill that gap. And so where we really go is what does one list look like is what we we say is what does one list look like? And some of that, like, and it's gonna be a combination of like this works, this is expressed largely in the church and our people live into this. This is expressed largely by our staff. but I really go from a leader first mentality opposed to just saying, hey, what are what are the core doctrinal beliefs that we really want to elevate? And so That's that that's kind of the nuance there in it.
Jeremy Smith: So would you do it in that discover Crosspoint class? Yeah.
Vick Green: yeah, the second part of question. I think I think I think there I I put that in there, but I don't lead with it. And so, like, if you do it in a discovery, that may be a page of just like, hey, here's how we do ministry. This is and I've heard people call it the long hollow way, here's our culture code, and it's something that's referenced and but it's one of those like, hey, this is for our leadership, this is how we this is how we want to go about things. You've probably felt this, but I take off the pressure. to say, Hey, this is exactly for you and or like here's a a direct action step for you as a new person. It's more of just awareness of like, this is what you can expect from us and how we're gonna show up in everything that we do.
Jeremy Smith: We do it in we do it in Discover Crosspoint for us just 'cause exactly what you just said. We wanna we wanna go ahead and name it so they know it and we're all speaking the same language as you as you're diving in further. but it also helps helps them understand some of the some of like, here's why we're doing that or here's why we're pushing this so much, or here here's why this how happens. I know that sounds weird to say it like that.
Vick Green: Mm. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: And we we kinda some of them have been catchphrases in our church for a long time that we just sort of officially made distinctives in that way. But let me change happens at Crosspoint Yeah, yeah.
Vick Green: Change happens here at Crosspoint. I've I still remember it. But I but I think that's big in letting them know Long Hollow has a similar like plan, but let God call the shots. If you are not good with if you're not okay with being a little more agile and flexible, the Long Hollow is not the place for you. I mean, we change as quick as a mega any mega church I know. We're sensitive to the spirit if he moves on a Sunday morning. And I think that's that's one of the things that makes Long Hollow great. And it would be a point of frustration for somebody if they really don't like that. If they want very consistent stay in the same and and and and not seeing change, we're probably not the church for you. And to be able to just say this is who we are, and if that's not for you, that's okay. There's great churches that you could connect with. There's something really freeing about that and just beneficial for your new people coming in.
Making Disciples with Replicate: Hey church leader, I hope these podcast episodes and the Movement Ready Church book that Robbie and I have written are helping you get disciple making started in your church. What I'm excited for in the next season is that we're taking the Movement Ready Church book to your church. We're doing one day workshops where myself or one of the navigators on our replicate team come on site to your church and work with your staff and leaders to take the principles of this book and to put it into action. What I love about this workshop is that we're not going to do just trainings from the book, but we are actually going to help you create something personal for your church. We're going to give every one of your leaders some essential training to grow as disciple makers and to be a developer of leaders. Secondly, we're going to give you a personalized assessment of your disciple making culture. And then thirdly, we're going to create a one year focus and a first step to get started so that you can see your movement begin. So all you have to do is go to movementreadytraining.com to get more information and to get started. You'll see it's pretty simple. Let's jump on a call together. Let's create a personalized training day for your church and then let's our team take care of the rest and we will bring the Movement Ready Church to your church. So just go to MovementReadyChurchTraining.com and let's get your movement started. Now let's get back to our conversation together.
Jeremy Smith: I'm gonna, I know we need to move on, but I I feel like I need to nail you down a little bit on this.
Vick Green: Okay.
Jeremy Smith: For helpful for the pastor out there listening to this or the lay leader listening to this. when we were talking about staff values or culture codes versus distinctives,
Vick Green: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: I felt like I got kind of two answers. I know what
Vick Green: Okay.
Jeremy Smith: we say is, what you're saying we say is we we want one kind of list and some might be more staff, some might be. More church. Is that specifically what you're saying? Like don't have two separate lists, or you've seen it work both ways and you're really not taking a position on this or what?
Vick Green: I would say the ideal is one list. It when you get into two lists, it's just more language and it's more everywhere. There's nuance in it in that I've seen two lists work. and so but it's usually because we're we're adding there's something that's working at the church level, but there's a gap missing in the staff. And so what I guess I'm saying is there's multiple ways to get there. If I'm building from a blank slate, if I'm doing ideal, let's go one list of s let's go probably six to eight typically.
Jeremy Smith: I was gonna ask number, okay.
Vick Green: or four four to eight, you know, that gives you a little bit more range there. And so knowing that it's gonna have a mix of some that like, man, this has a ton of relevance for our staff for our congregation. Others, the relevance is gonna maybe be largely more on our staff. And so just finished with a church. One of theirs was like the last ten percent. They really talk about that from honesty and candidness. And when I'm w work d working their process right now, we are getting so much further because their staff owns that last 10%. That's not as that one is not as expressed at the congregational level as maybe some of their others. Like we you know, they have one that's all about welcoming the outsider. And and so that's something that's more lived out and and seen even down to the congregation. But ideally I go list of four to eight. that is gonna get you what you need for your all the way through your leadership level of your organization.
Jeremy Smith: Keep going on that then. What makes a great list of distinctives?
Vick Green: three things that your list is powerful, that the that you name the the beliefs in your organization that are powerful, planned, and present. Powerful, planned, present. Gotta be those three things. If you're missing one, this is where you see a set of beliefs start to mess like values or staff that really aren't doing anything for the organization. And so, meaning if ultimately if it's not powerful. What happens is they move from being distinctives to beliefs of admission. Like a lot of times I'll see something like you know, the guy, you know, gospel centric. That's an admission belief. Like, unless you can really show me how you do that so different than the next church, like it's admission in that, like, yeah, if you don't think the gospel is centric to everything, you can't be on our staff, period. Like what I call admission beliefs, it's like deodorant. It's one of those things that like everyone is expecting that you're wearing. And the only time that we're talking about it is if we realize you're not. You know? Like, and now a hundred percent. And
Jeremy Smith: That's good. All right. It's like an assumed it's assumed. Yeah. Yeah.
Vick Green: so, but here's here's the thing before people come and like blast me, I am not saying the gospel's not important. Like Vick did not say don't what I'm saying is we need to say what are the things that make us distinct, different than the church down the road that is powerfully shaping everything we do. And so if you're if you're using something that's present and it's planned, we love the gospel, let's throw it in there. And but it's really no different than every other church and how they leverage the gospel. That's not a distinctive. And so you just name something that's an admission belief. You have to have this to be on our team, but it's not what makes us great and or distinct from others. Other side of this is if it's not planned, then it's accidental. And this can go good and bad. There's plenty of times where certain things we just kind of stumble into them and they're good or there's things and habits that we do that drift us from what we should do and they're bad. And just naming some of those things of like, hey. This is powerfully shaping us. it's definitely true in our it's present, but man, we didn't plan for it. And you just need to ask the question, how what do we need to do with that? and then the last piece to it is there's aspirational beliefs. And so these are things that would be powerful. and we want to plan for them, but they're just not present in our culture today. What I would encourage with distinctives is that it's not wrong to have an aspirational belief in there. But you need to name it as aspirational with your staff. And I would keep your ratio no less that I would do no more than one or two in a list. And so you need to have, you need to be largely beliefs that are true today. And the aspirational can be what's needed to get us to our next season. But we want to name that and say, hey, this isn't who we are, but we know with our vision we'll never get there if we don't become these type of people. So powerful, planned, present.
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, that's good. I love the the idea like distinctives. Again, it goes back to this. Not just what every church is already doing. And I and I do think you're right. We we tend to default to like, okay, we have to have gospel centric or biblical worldview or whatever it is in there. But like ha what's the distinct way, unique way? And this is one of the things I love about replicate is it and and I'm able to go around and sort of when I talk about what we do, I think people love this part of it. It's like it's not cookie cutter, it's unique. It's trying to
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: help you find the unique way that you live out all of this. so that's great. I love that.
Vick Green: That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a and it's it's so just that idea to like w come back to that the deodorant admission belief idea. Like another one that I always hear is like we're Bible based or you know,
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: Bible focused. and so what I'll often do, I'll push back on that one, there's always somebody who thinks that like I don't love Jesus because I won't let them.
Jeremy Smith: Right.
Vick Green: But if they'll fight for it and show to me how they elevate the Bible differently and distinctly from everyone else, if the and and if they will get behind it, I I'm happy to believe like I'm I'm like, you've changed my mind. Like it really you really do elevate it differently. But if we're just putting it there because it's just a doctrinal belief, that's different than the conversation we're having. And so All right, that's a great list. Let's finish up the episode with just a couple of practical ep practical examples of this. And so Jeremy, you've got yours. I can share a couple of replicated well, but like let's what are some of those Crosspoint distinctives and how is that shaping what you guys are doing?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, we we already named one of them. Change happens at Crosspoint. That's been w something that we put out there since we changed our name twice in five years back in twenty ten and twenty fifteen. as just things were shifting and and what we talk about, you know, is what everybody says. It's not the the it's not the message just changing, but the the method. and really but so we kind of talk about that in two ways. Hey, if you don't like change in the method. This is probably not the place for you. Like we're gonna keep changing to reach more people. And but also life change happens through the people of Crosspoint. And so that's that's the one people really get excited about. Change happens at Crosspoint. Next generation is now. it's about others. We're we're just all in the community all the time at our campuses. And then come as you are. That's been a big
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: part of who we are for, you know, a couple of decades now. And so that we I remember when we were working through the process, we're like, where does come as you are, where do these things fit in here? We wanted to put it in the mission. We wanted to put it in, you know, a couple of different places. But it it's a distinctive, so come as you are, it's about others. Next generation is now, change happens at Crosspoint. and they are like kind of catchy slogans that that people get excited about, when we talk about But they're they're also
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: the ones that people go, yeah, totally get that. And then we can also utilize that when we're saying, hey, we're rolling out this next generation roadmap. This is where that comes from. You know, this is this is the heartbeat behind that. This
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: is a a something that sets us apart. and then so so I think those are the the come as you are is definitely more of an internal thing. Like we used
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: to say it a lot. But now what we talk about now is we want to become as you are people. That's not just about shorts and and hats and whatever. We can't
Vick Green: Mm. Mm. Mm.
Jeremy Smith: wear hats where we are because we're in a military community. Like people don't like the hats indoors sort of thing. So we don't
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: we don't do that. But so come as you are, except if you're on the stage, you can't wear a hat. But that was
Vick Green: There you go. I like that the
Jeremy Smith: that's more of an internal thing. We have to become as you are people, and then
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: come as you are people. create come as you are environments where people
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: feel free because you can't come to God any other way than as you are. So there's a theological aspect to it there as well.
Vick Green: That's right. Yeah. What I love too is like you can see some of these connections with your dream disciple. Like this idea of others first, like your dream disciple of also is helpful neighbor. And that's actually what you're known in the community because your staff is all is always making a decision through like what is others first, and your people are being called into a helpful neighbor. The the other piece of that that I don't think I named earlier that would have been helpful is like When you name your dream disciple, it often is carrying a lot of the theological weight that church values historically have been done on. And so it frees you up knowing like if we're calling people to be a helpful neighbor and it means this theologically for our people, it allows us to tailor our distinctives and not feel a pressure of like, are we giving the theological foundation for people? And so I think that's that's another connection that I would add in it. I'd also say you're to just say just feeling it before I hear it. Like change happens here at Crosspoint. You guys went and started a new site or you were a capital campaign launching a new church. And then like something, you know, God brought this opportunity of adopting a church. And so you adopted a church and are like building a new site all at the same time. And it was a decision that really kind of just like unfolded in a matter of months. And it's like
Jeremy Smith: And we were changing denominations. At the s all at the same time. Yeah.
Vick Green: And you change denominations. I mean, and it was just a ton of change. And it and but your staff, everybody, like they're rolling with it because that's part of the culture that you the that and the expectations you've set up. just just a a couple two from us, just so you can hear a different one. Ours responsive creativity is one. We believe that the breakthrough you need is received, not achieved. That's why you'll hear us and see in our processes. We really lean into prayer. And and s and talk about being a spiritual process before a strategic process. we also the collective genius, the idea of all of us are better than any one of us, you always see us doing it collaboratively. You hear us talk about that a lot. and you hear that term, the idea of collective genius, be I've heard you say that before, or I've felt that before. And so all of those, they are different distinctives in it. And so, any final words before we we wrap up? Distinctives.
Jeremy Smith: I I I think one of the things I want to highlight is that present part of the powerful present and planned. 'Cause I like even collective genius, I say it all the time now. When we're when
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: we're doing huddles, if we're going and talking to churches or whatever, it's in every part of what replicate does. And so that that present part of it, and the aspirational thing I think was a great clarification.
Vick Green: Yeah. And so I think if you don't have that list of man, what makes us distinct, begin to have that conversation. I would say this is one of the funnest conversations I get to have with teams because it's basically like, Hey, can you tell me why you're awesome? Like and
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: everybody loves to do that. But name it, when you name it, you can leverage it and you can begin to really see your culture really shape into what you're what what it needs to be for your movement to come to reality. So That's distinctives. That wraps up the method level. And so just the recap: pathway is the system side of our method. Distinctives is the spirit side of our method. It is how we accomplish our movement. And so that is the vision plan. Next week, we are up with where are we going? Our map as we look at how your church can get a dream dashboard. If you want any more around distinctives or how to create your vision plan, you can get the Movement Ready Church book. Make sure if this has been helpful, subscribe, share it with other teammates, and we look forward to seeing you next week.
Jeremy Smith: Uh-oh. Okay. And I do not know what this trivia game is, everybody. This is this is straight off the cuff.
Vick Green: That's exactly right. First off has nothing to do with wrestling. I think we've had that in the past. it definitely has nothing about predicting US soccer goal scores,
Jeremy Smith: man, how
Vick Green: cause that bombed terribly.
Jeremy Smith: Just so everybody knows, we almost went back and re-recorded that one. That's how bad that bomb that bomb was on.
Vick Green: my gosh. We were way off on our predictions. and so no, here we go. I'm I'm gonna tell you a list of values or distinctives that exist in other organizations. And I want
Jeremy Smith: man.
Vick Green: you to tell me if you can match it with that company. Now, to make
Jeremy Smith: Okay.
Vick Green: it easy, I'm gonna give you the three companies I'm gonna pull from here. All right. Yeah,
Jeremy Smith: Okay, thank you.
Vick Green: and so Chick-fil-A, gotta love them. Ali Sage's favorite. And so Chick-fil-A, Amazon, and Southwest Airlines. All right. Okay. I'm giving you, I'm
Jeremy Smith: okay. All right. You know, I I did go to business school, so I do know a little bit about Southwest Airlines. So let's see if I can get this one.
Vick Green: going to give you six. We're going to go quick here because nobody got on the show for these six. But
Jeremy Smith: Okay.
Vick Green: just curious, how many you think you're going to get?
Jeremy Smith: ha five. Yeah. All right.
Vick Green: Okay, five out of six. Here we go. All right. First one, we're here to serve.
Jeremy Smith: Mm. Southwest.
Vick Green: Ooh, Chick fil A Chick-fil-A It's my pleasure I mean come on
Jeremy Smith: I I I that was my first instinct. That was my first instinct, but like I don't know. I thought okay, all right. I gotta get all the
Vick Green: Okay, you said you're going five for six. I'm gonna be honest. I picked the easiest one to go first. So this is not looking
Jeremy Smith: Okay.
Vick Green: good. All right, here we go. fun, loving attitude.
Jeremy Smith: Southwest Airlines. Okay. All right.
Vick Green: That now you got it. All right. There you go. Southwest. We get it. The fun attitude fun loving attitude. Yes. Bias for action.
Jeremy Smith: Amazon.
Vick Green: Yes, there you go. Customer obsession.
Jeremy Smith: Southwest. Amazon. Okay. Gotcha. I'm already done.
Vick Green: Mm, Amazon. and so
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: there we go. We're better together.
Jeremy Smith: I'm gonna go check filet.
Vick Green: Nice, you got it. There it is. Invent and simplify.
Jeremy Smith: Amazon.
Vick Green: That is it. All right. Is that six? Did I get it all?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, that's five, I think.
Vick Green: That's five. And so customer obsession, bias fraction. We're better to you. No, I think that's all of them. We're gonna serve. Okay, I think you went there. You go. I think you went four for six. And
Jeremy Smith: Okay, all right. So I got four to six? Yeah.
Vick Green: so somebody's checking our work and we forgot it, but you did pretty good. And so, yeah, all right. So using that just fun, like these are just different organizations. And what's funny is like you have these and and you on the outside, like You didn't one, what I like is some of these none of these are like super I mean, some are pithy, but like some of them are just very basic. Also, you don't really even know all of those terms as the customer, as the recipient of of those companies. And so, but they're deeply ingrained into their leadership and deeply ingrained into the cultures of these places. So even when we name it and connect it with the place, like we're like, yeah, that makes sense. And so similarly, what does that look like in the church? That's what distinctives are about. And so that's kind of the conversation we're gonna have today is what does it look like to really name and leverage what can be some of the greatest strengths in our church? And so that's the conversation we're having today. So let's talk about distinctives. Jeremy, what are they and why are they so important?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, I think a lot of people might think of distinctives and name them values or something like that. And and there's some there's some value to that. yeah, see what I did there? Yeah.
Vick Green: I see what you did there.
Jeremy Smith: but I like the name distinctives for this reason. It's what sets us apart, what makes us unique
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: as an organization, or a big part of what makes us unique. The the way that I know we talk about this with replicate is i if you were to walk into a place, these are the things that you'd pick up on within the first. week or two weeks or the first month of being there. These are the things that everybody knows, but we just want to specifically name them for our church so that they can become a kind of a a lens through which we make decisions and think about how we go about the mission of making the unique disciples that God has called us to make. How how we go about doing anything and everything. That we're doing. So they're in that method level along with the pathway. and at first, you know, when we we went through the process, I didn't understand how distinctives were method. You know, I didn't know how quite
Vick Green: Mm. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: how they fit in all of that. But when you really get into it, like we're in a series right now on family discipleship called Family First and rolling out our whole next gen ministry road plan. And every week of the series, we're able to say one of our distinctives, the next generation is now. as the why behind everything we're doing
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: and the lens through which we we kind of we kind of view everything. and and here's and and here's a how to accomplish that. You know, so
Vick Green: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: it gives us a filter for decision making. It just names what everybody already knows about us. And so we can play on
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: that. And and what everybody, what every leader out there knows is the more you say something, the more it becomes real in the organization. Even if it's sort of aspirational at first, or or kind of something people kinda know or kinda see. Once you name it, people are gonna go, Yeah, that's right. That is us. And so I think that's an important part of distinctives and what they are.
Vick Green: Yeah. And and I think you you said a couple of things in there. That idea that it's it shapes how we do everything and being at the method level. I agree. Like I think for years, like when I thought about values, which again, if you have values in your organization, it like there's nothing wrong with that term to it. I think for us where we land in distinctives, was we wanted to focus on, man, what are the things that make that are distinct that make you unique? And how does it more propel behaviors? Than necessarily protect beliefs. What
Jeremy Smith: Mm.
Vick Green: I often see with churches when it comes to values is that they're using a set of beliefs that they have, and it's more of like protecting doctrine. It it's more of those core theologies that are really important for the church. And that's so important. I'm not trying to diminish that. And that actually is really foundational. It's to me, it is the foundation that that is underneath the vision plan. Like that is your theology. That's what we're making protecting. Where I often see is that churches use that and to protect their beliefs. And they miss this whole place of how are you actually teaching your leadership? How are you shaping your leaders on what does great leadership look like? What is it and and how is that influencing everything that you do? And so Just like in that game that we played earlier. I mean, you didn't get it you didn't get it right. Well, no, you got we'll go. Well
Jeremy Smith: I can't believe I missed Chic Filet.
Vick Green: I can't believe you missed the Chick-fil-A one. So let's go with one you did. Like the fun, loving attitude of
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: Southwest. You get that. Like it's and so if you've ever sat through one of their announcements, it's definitely the it's way more entertaining than when I go to Delta. And it and it and it shapes how they interact with you, how they do their announcements, their marketing. And so it's shaping how How they do anything, everything, they're gonna do it with a fun, loving spirit. And so similarly, their leadership at Chick-fil-A, they're always gonna lean into it's our, you know, that idea of it's my pleasure to serve. Like, and so you're gonna feel that with every interaction you have. And so the distinctives were really trying to not just protect, hey, got like I all these churches that I'll go to, you'll I'll see gospel centric, you know, or b you know. Biblically based are, you know, authentic relationships. And it's like totally think those are important. The question is, how are you, how is it shaping your leaders and how they lead? And so that's really where distinctives is leaning in, maybe a little bit different than how a lot of people typically apply values in their church.
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, that's a that's a great distinction. yeah, yeah. It's just full of them today. That's right.
Vick Green: I'll see what you did there again.
Jeremy Smith: so take that one step further. If that's sort of the difference between distinctives and values or or a way you can think about them differently. And and I think that's super important. I I just realized as you were talking about that, that you know, most of the time you don't have to help a church develop their theology. You have to help a church develop how you live out your theology in making disciples. And and so this is more kind of how we're living this out.
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: so how should churches come up with and then use their list of distinctives?
Vick Green: Yeah, I think it's something too, we just talked about that game and how you th those phrases, some of them, it's like if you look, some of them are like even their formatting, it's not as consistent. Like some is a phrase, some of it's a word. Like you don't as the outsider know all that language. or as like I mean, dude, I've been a prime customer of Amazon for a long time. Do you know how many Amazon packages are on my front door week? Like too
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: many. I am very much in the Amazon world and I don't know their core value or distinctives. I forget I don't even know what they name them. I forget. Like every church kind of or every organization has a little different, but their leaders know it. And so I think that's the thing too, is that a lot of times with churches, how they use whatever that set of beliefs for you is, one of the common ways that I see churches is that they lead with mission and they lead with values. And they lead it as their external messaging. And so and and what we really reposition is say, hey, values isn't doesn't need to be the lead thing that you communicate with. Because what that does is says, hey, here's what we're doing, and here is why why we do it. All of that says, this is us. It doesn't necessarily say, hey, this is what we want for you. And
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Vick Green: so where we flip is instead of leading with mission values, we lead with Mission disciples. Hey, here is who we are. Here's what we want for you. This is here who you will become if you step into it. And so when I think about messaging and how to use this, our distinctives, it's not the front door communication. It's not the thing like I drove into a church the other day, they had all their values on their light posts. I mean that that like What how much better could it look is saying, hey, here's our mission and like, hey, here's what we want for you? Leaning into communication that says, here's the transformation we're looking for. And so we really use this idea of distinctives as more internal language. So the way that I say it is that your distinctives should be felt before they're heard. They should be felt before they're heard. And so the moment I walk onto the campus, the moment I'm in your service, I should be feeling your distinctives at play because that's how your leaders are leading. And so an example of that is one of our distinctives at Long Hollow is like we jokingly say, keep it fun, keep it fresh. Like and so it we joking call it KIF KIF, you know. And so everything we do is fun and fresh. And so when you walk on to our campus, you're gonna feel a very casual feeling. You're gonna see us with signs. It's gonna be goofy. We're gonna use humor in the worship service. There's gonna probably there's gonna be baseball caps on the stage from worship leaders. Okay, that's not a vibe that's for everybody. Like,
Jeremy Smith: Right.
Vick Green: and so that's fine. This is who we are. And if you're looking for something that's more a suit and tie, then like you're probably gonna want to go to a different church. But that is just that's who we are. that's that's a strength of ours. And so whenever we say keep it fun, keep it fresh, people are like, I've I've felt that before. And so your distinctives are more internal. Like, I'm far more concerned about distinctives being listed in your church offices than your church lobby. Because your leaders need to know them, your people need to feel them. And so pushing it back or maybe dimming it a little more. And putting more of your disciples to the forefront, that's that's probably the biggest shift that I'm I'm coaching churches through on how do you use this language?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, because the distinctives I remember when we were trying to decide what goes on the walls talking and talking with you about that. And the distinctives feel so important. You know, like
Vick Green: They are.
Jeremy Smith: the they're they feel like, you know, this is this is a core part of us. And we've been this for a long time. And so it it it it's important to me. It's important to the leaders, and so we feel like it should be important to everybody else. But I love that the Amazon example of like Yeah, me too. I've been with Amazon Prime for a long, long time. Get get all the the packages
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: and stuff like that. have no idea what their values, their distinctives, or whatever they call are. But but definitely feel them. So I love that feel before you hear about
Vick Green: And and if you step in, if you become an Amazon employee, you then a hundred percent know it. And I think
Jeremy Smith: Well
Vick Green: that's where it's it is so important. And so pushing it from the church lobby to the church office, making it more internal is not diminishing its value. I mean, it's placing its value with who needs to champion it. who's start and and so your staff, your leadership, all those conversations, there's not an environment that you should create, an event you should create. That isn't revolved around, hey, here is how we do this thing. It's the personality in which you do anything and everything. And so if we're creative for long hollow, keep it fun, keep it fresh, if we're not leaning into that spirit in our starting point class, in our worship service, in our leadership, in our staff meetings, then we're not leading the long hollow way. And and so, and that also even allows in staff evaluation. You can hit all the goals and metrics you want. But if you're not living into our distinctives, how you're going about this, the way in which you're living out our culture, it's off. And so it doesn't diminish its value. It just places it and concentrates it at the leader level.
Jeremy Smith: That's what I was gonna ask you. What what what's the difference? Should you still have staff values if you have organization distinctives, you know? if the distinctives are naming what's already there for your whole church, does that necessarily translate to staff values in that way? You know, I I think there's a little bit of a a back and forth there that you can hire and fire on staff values. so but then also do you Do you put in your like we have Discover Crosspoint. What whatever your class or event is where people get to know you and your church and and before they join or before they really get involved, however your church does that. Is that a place where you put even for for people who are gonna be volunteering or members, that sort of thing?
Vick Green: Yeah. I've seen this done a lot of different ways. And I mean, maybe there's a more hard, fast line that I should take in it. What I often find is that there's there's a lot more nuance of of this, and there's often most churches have something that's either exactly like distinctives or adjacent to it. Now, are they using it? Is it effective? That's another question. And so I think some of this is just whatever you call these things values. Pl you know, plumb lines I've heard through JD Greer stuff, core beliefs, staff values. There's a set of beliefs that you're saying is this is how we do church, how we do ministry. And I think that's important as a starting line. I think a question to maybe ask there is, is using the familiarity of that language going forward helpful or hurtful? Sometimes it's a good thing and we need to build around, okay, we have these values, let's let's lean into them more or let's expand them to address what's missing. Sometimes we look and say, man, that ha isn't serving us well. And creating something fresh would be helpful. So I think that's the some of the nuance, the to the direct point of like staff value, church value, internal, external. What I've always found is that like church values are great, but there's always something at the staff level that feels missing. I mean, every church or so is like, I mean Yes, but we have these issues in our staff culture. And I and like, how do I address that? And so there just always was like when I would work with churches, the churches that had some version at the staff level of how we do this, I've heard it called culture code, staff values, distinctives, whatever it may be, they were seeing the greatest leadership and traction. And the churches that only had church values continued to fill that gap. And so where we really go is what does one list look like is what we we say is what does one list look like? And some of that, like, and it's gonna be a combination of like this works, this is expressed largely in the church and our people live into this. This is expressed largely by our staff. but I really go from a leader first mentality opposed to just saying, hey, what are what are the core doctrinal beliefs that we really want to elevate? And so That's that that's kind of the nuance there in it.
Jeremy Smith: So would you do it in that discover Crosspoint class? Yeah.
Vick Green: yeah, the second part of question. I think I think I think there I I put that in there, but I don't lead with it. And so, like, if you do it in a discovery, that may be a page of just like, hey, here's how we do ministry. This is and I've heard people call it the long hollow way, here's our culture code, and it's something that's referenced and but it's one of those like, hey, this is for our leadership, this is how we this is how we want to go about things. You've probably felt this, but I take off the pressure. to say, Hey, this is exactly for you and or like here's a a direct action step for you as a new person. It's more of just awareness of like, this is what you can expect from us and how we're gonna show up in everything that we do.
Jeremy Smith: We do it in we do it in Discover Crosspoint for us just 'cause exactly what you just said. We wanna we wanna go ahead and name it so they know it and we're all speaking the same language as you as you're diving in further. but it also helps helps them understand some of the some of like, here's why we're doing that or here's why we're pushing this so much, or here here's why this how happens. I know that sounds weird to say it like that.
Vick Green: Mm. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: And we we kinda some of them have been catchphrases in our church for a long time that we just sort of officially made distinctives in that way. But let me change happens at Crosspoint Yeah, yeah.
Vick Green: Change happens here at Crosspoint. I've I still remember it. But I but I think that's big in letting them know Long Hollow has a similar like plan, but let God call the shots. If you are not good with if you're not okay with being a little more agile and flexible, the Long Hollow is not the place for you. I mean, we change as quick as a mega any mega church I know. We're sensitive to the spirit if he moves on a Sunday morning. And I think that's that's one of the things that makes Long Hollow great. And it would be a point of frustration for somebody if they really don't like that. If they want very consistent stay in the same and and and and not seeing change, we're probably not the church for you. And to be able to just say this is who we are, and if that's not for you, that's okay. There's great churches that you could connect with. There's something really freeing about that and just beneficial for your new people coming in.
Making Disciples with Replicate: Hey church leader, I hope these podcast episodes and the Movement Ready Church book that Robbie and I have written are helping you get disciple making started in your church. What I'm excited for in the next season is that we're taking the Movement Ready Church book to your church. We're doing one day workshops where myself or one of the navigators on our replicate team come on site to your church and work with your staff and leaders to take the principles of this book and to put it into action. What I love about this workshop is that we're not going to do just trainings from the book, but we are actually going to help you create something personal for your church. We're going to give every one of your leaders some essential training to grow as disciple makers and to be a developer of leaders. Secondly, we're going to give you a personalized assessment of your disciple making culture. And then thirdly, we're going to create a one year focus and a first step to get started so that you can see your movement begin. So all you have to do is go to movementreadytraining.com to get more information and to get started. You'll see it's pretty simple. Let's jump on a call together. Let's create a personalized training day for your church and then let's our team take care of the rest and we will bring the Movement Ready Church to your church. So just go to MovementReadyChurchTraining.com and let's get your movement started. Now let's get back to our conversation together.
Jeremy Smith: I'm gonna, I know we need to move on, but I I feel like I need to nail you down a little bit on this.
Vick Green: Okay.
Jeremy Smith: For helpful for the pastor out there listening to this or the lay leader listening to this. when we were talking about staff values or culture codes versus distinctives,
Vick Green: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: I felt like I got kind of two answers. I know what
Vick Green: Okay.
Jeremy Smith: we say is, what you're saying we say is we we want one kind of list and some might be more staff, some might be. More church. Is that specifically what you're saying? Like don't have two separate lists, or you've seen it work both ways and you're really not taking a position on this or what?
Vick Green: I would say the ideal is one list. It when you get into two lists, it's just more language and it's more everywhere. There's nuance in it in that I've seen two lists work. and so but it's usually because we're we're adding there's something that's working at the church level, but there's a gap missing in the staff. And so what I guess I'm saying is there's multiple ways to get there. If I'm building from a blank slate, if I'm doing ideal, let's go one list of s let's go probably six to eight typically.
Jeremy Smith: I was gonna ask number, okay.
Vick Green: or four four to eight, you know, that gives you a little bit more range there. And so knowing that it's gonna have a mix of some that like, man, this has a ton of relevance for our staff for our congregation. Others, the relevance is gonna maybe be largely more on our staff. And so just finished with a church. One of theirs was like the last ten percent. They really talk about that from honesty and candidness. And when I'm w work d working their process right now, we are getting so much further because their staff owns that last 10%. That's not as that one is not as expressed at the congregational level as maybe some of their others. Like we you know, they have one that's all about welcoming the outsider. And and so that's something that's more lived out and and seen even down to the congregation. But ideally I go list of four to eight. that is gonna get you what you need for your all the way through your leadership level of your organization.
Jeremy Smith: Keep going on that then. What makes a great list of distinctives?
Vick Green: three things that your list is powerful, that the that you name the the beliefs in your organization that are powerful, planned, and present. Powerful, planned, present. Gotta be those three things. If you're missing one, this is where you see a set of beliefs start to mess like values or staff that really aren't doing anything for the organization. And so, meaning if ultimately if it's not powerful. What happens is they move from being distinctives to beliefs of admission. Like a lot of times I'll see something like you know, the guy, you know, gospel centric. That's an admission belief. Like, unless you can really show me how you do that so different than the next church, like it's admission in that, like, yeah, if you don't think the gospel is centric to everything, you can't be on our staff, period. Like what I call admission beliefs, it's like deodorant. It's one of those things that like everyone is expecting that you're wearing. And the only time that we're talking about it is if we realize you're not. You know? Like, and now a hundred percent. And
Jeremy Smith: That's good. All right. It's like an assumed it's assumed. Yeah. Yeah.
Vick Green: so, but here's here's the thing before people come and like blast me, I am not saying the gospel's not important. Like Vick did not say don't what I'm saying is we need to say what are the things that make us distinct, different than the church down the road that is powerfully shaping everything we do. And so if you're if you're using something that's present and it's planned, we love the gospel, let's throw it in there. And but it's really no different than every other church and how they leverage the gospel. That's not a distinctive. And so you just name something that's an admission belief. You have to have this to be on our team, but it's not what makes us great and or distinct from others. Other side of this is if it's not planned, then it's accidental. And this can go good and bad. There's plenty of times where certain things we just kind of stumble into them and they're good or there's things and habits that we do that drift us from what we should do and they're bad. And just naming some of those things of like, hey. This is powerfully shaping us. it's definitely true in our it's present, but man, we didn't plan for it. And you just need to ask the question, how what do we need to do with that? and then the last piece to it is there's aspirational beliefs. And so these are things that would be powerful. and we want to plan for them, but they're just not present in our culture today. What I would encourage with distinctives is that it's not wrong to have an aspirational belief in there. But you need to name it as aspirational with your staff. And I would keep your ratio no less that I would do no more than one or two in a list. And so you need to have, you need to be largely beliefs that are true today. And the aspirational can be what's needed to get us to our next season. But we want to name that and say, hey, this isn't who we are, but we know with our vision we'll never get there if we don't become these type of people. So powerful, planned, present.
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, that's good. I love the the idea like distinctives. Again, it goes back to this. Not just what every church is already doing. And I and I do think you're right. We we tend to default to like, okay, we have to have gospel centric or biblical worldview or whatever it is in there. But like ha what's the distinct way, unique way? And this is one of the things I love about replicate is it and and I'm able to go around and sort of when I talk about what we do, I think people love this part of it. It's like it's not cookie cutter, it's unique. It's trying to
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: help you find the unique way that you live out all of this. so that's great. I love that.
Vick Green: That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a and it's it's so just that idea to like w come back to that the deodorant admission belief idea. Like another one that I always hear is like we're Bible based or you know,
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: Bible focused. and so what I'll often do, I'll push back on that one, there's always somebody who thinks that like I don't love Jesus because I won't let them.
Jeremy Smith: Right.
Vick Green: But if they'll fight for it and show to me how they elevate the Bible differently and distinctly from everyone else, if the and and if they will get behind it, I I'm happy to believe like I'm I'm like, you've changed my mind. Like it really you really do elevate it differently. But if we're just putting it there because it's just a doctrinal belief, that's different than the conversation we're having. And so All right, that's a great list. Let's finish up the episode with just a couple of practical ep practical examples of this. And so Jeremy, you've got yours. I can share a couple of replicated well, but like let's what are some of those Crosspoint distinctives and how is that shaping what you guys are doing?
Jeremy Smith: Yeah, we we already named one of them. Change happens at Crosspoint. That's been w something that we put out there since we changed our name twice in five years back in twenty ten and twenty fifteen. as just things were shifting and and what we talk about, you know, is what everybody says. It's not the the it's not the message just changing, but the the method. and really but so we kind of talk about that in two ways. Hey, if you don't like change in the method. This is probably not the place for you. Like we're gonna keep changing to reach more people. And but also life change happens through the people of Crosspoint. And so that's that's the one people really get excited about. Change happens at Crosspoint. Next generation is now. it's about others. We're we're just all in the community all the time at our campuses. And then come as you are. That's been a big
Vick Green: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Smith: part of who we are for, you know, a couple of decades now. And so that we I remember when we were working through the process, we're like, where does come as you are, where do these things fit in here? We wanted to put it in the mission. We wanted to put it in, you know, a couple of different places. But it it's a distinctive, so come as you are, it's about others. Next generation is now, change happens at Crosspoint. and they are like kind of catchy slogans that that people get excited about, when we talk about But they're they're also
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: the ones that people go, yeah, totally get that. And then we can also utilize that when we're saying, hey, we're rolling out this next generation roadmap. This is where that comes from. You know, this is this is the heartbeat behind that. This
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: is a a something that sets us apart. and then so so I think those are the the come as you are is definitely more of an internal thing. Like we used
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: to say it a lot. But now what we talk about now is we want to become as you are people. That's not just about shorts and and hats and whatever. We can't
Vick Green: Mm. Mm. Mm.
Jeremy Smith: wear hats where we are because we're in a military community. Like people don't like the hats indoors sort of thing. So we don't
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: we don't do that. But so come as you are, except if you're on the stage, you can't wear a hat. But that was
Vick Green: There you go. I like that the
Jeremy Smith: that's more of an internal thing. We have to become as you are people, and then
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: come as you are people. create come as you are environments where people
Vick Green: Yeah.
Jeremy Smith: feel free because you can't come to God any other way than as you are. So there's a theological aspect to it there as well.
Vick Green: That's right. Yeah. What I love too is like you can see some of these connections with your dream disciple. Like this idea of others first, like your dream disciple of also is helpful neighbor. And that's actually what you're known in the community because your staff is all is always making a decision through like what is others first, and your people are being called into a helpful neighbor. The the other piece of that that I don't think I named earlier that would have been helpful is like When you name your dream disciple, it often is carrying a lot of the theological weight that church values historically have been done on. And so it frees you up knowing like if we're calling people to be a helpful neighbor and it means this theologically for our people, it allows us to tailor our distinctives and not feel a pressure of like, are we giving the theological foundation for people? And so I think that's that's another connection that I would add in it. I'd also say you're to just say just feeling it before I hear it. Like change happens here at Crosspoint. You guys went and started a new site or you were a capital campaign launching a new church. And then like something, you know, God brought this opportunity of adopting a church. And so you adopted a church and are like building a new site all at the same time. And it was a decision that really kind of just like unfolded in a matter of months. And it's like
Jeremy Smith: And we were changing denominations. At the s all at the same time. Yeah.
Vick Green: And you change denominations. I mean, and it was just a ton of change. And it and but your staff, everybody, like they're rolling with it because that's part of the culture that you the that and the expectations you've set up. just just a a couple two from us, just so you can hear a different one. Ours responsive creativity is one. We believe that the breakthrough you need is received, not achieved. That's why you'll hear us and see in our processes. We really lean into prayer. And and s and talk about being a spiritual process before a strategic process. we also the collective genius, the idea of all of us are better than any one of us, you always see us doing it collaboratively. You hear us talk about that a lot. and you hear that term, the idea of collective genius, be I've heard you say that before, or I've felt that before. And so all of those, they are different distinctives in it. And so, any final words before we we wrap up? Distinctives.
Jeremy Smith: I I I think one of the things I want to highlight is that present part of the powerful present and planned. 'Cause I like even collective genius, I say it all the time now. When we're when
Vick Green: Mm.
Jeremy Smith: we're doing huddles, if we're going and talking to churches or whatever, it's in every part of what replicate does. And so that that present part of it, and the aspirational thing I think was a great clarification.
Vick Green: Yeah. And so I think if you don't have that list of man, what makes us distinct, begin to have that conversation. I would say this is one of the funnest conversations I get to have with teams because it's basically like, Hey, can you tell me why you're awesome? Like and
Jeremy Smith: Yeah.
Vick Green: everybody loves to do that. But name it, when you name it, you can leverage it and you can begin to really see your culture really shape into what you're what what it needs to be for your movement to come to reality. So That's distinctives. That wraps up the method level. And so just the recap: pathway is the system side of our method. Distinctives is the spirit side of our method. It is how we accomplish our movement. And so that is the vision plan. Next week, we are up with where are we going? Our map as we look at how your church can get a dream dashboard. If you want any more around distinctives or how to create your vision plan, you can get the Movement Ready Church book. Make sure if this has been helpful, subscribe, share it with other teammates, and we look forward to seeing you next week.
