Church Leaders: Imitate the Process, Not the Product

Are you making the mistake of imitating the product and not the process?

Aaron Buer

Digital giving apps and tools

If you could be world-class at something, what would it be?

Maybe your goal is to become an exceptional worship leader, a sought-after speaker, or the kind of leader that gets called for consulting.

Perhaps you want to be a writer, podcaster, or thought leader.

What do you want to be really good at?  

For me, it’s preaching. I want to be an exceptional communicator.

But, back when I was a kid, it was basketball.

I wanted to be a highlight-reel point guard.

basket-ball


My favorite player was Isaiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons, who back in the late 80s and early 90s were known as the “Bad Boys.”

If you remember those days and weren’t from Michigan, you probably hated that team.

Or, perhaps you saw their antics in The Last Dance, the Netflix documentary on the Chicago Bulls. 

Anyway, I wanted to be like Isaiah Thomas, so I mimicked how he played on the court.

To this day, I remember his exact routine for free throws, how he spun and then dribbled the ball, wiped each eyebrow with his forearm, and then shot the ball.

I wanted to be exactly like Isaiah Thomas, and I could imitate his movements and mannerisms on the court.

However, I never made it to the NBA. I didn’t even play in college…or high school.

The truth is, the highlight of my career on the hardwood was the 7th grade B team.
 

Process, Not Product

What happened?!?

The answer is very important to the question I began with. What do you want to be really good at?

I made a mistake in my imitation of Isaiah Thomas that many of us make in our attempt to get good at something.

We imitate the product instead of the process.

I was attempting to imitate his performance when I should have been trying to imitate his workout regimen.

practice

I was trying to imitate game day rather than practice day.  

If you want to be a dynamic preacher, don’t imitate what other preachers like Andy Stanley do on Sunday mornings; imitate what they do on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday mornings.

Imitate the process, not the product. 

If you want to be an engaging worship leader, don’t imitate how other worship leaders do things while on the stage; imitate what they do off the stage in preparation for leading worship.  

If you want to be an exceptional thought leader, don’t attempt to tweet like Simon Sinek; read the kinds of books Simon Sinek reads.  

If you want to be an influential writer, don’t copy the tone of your favorite author; get up early and write 1,000 words a day, whether you feel like it or not.  

You get the idea.

Wrap Up

By imitating the process and not the product, you’ll be on your way toward developing the skills to excel at whatever it is you strive to be excellent at.

So, what do you want to be good at?

Whose process and practice can you imitate? 

Discover how our Groups tool can help you organize and manage one-on-one meetings effectively.

Explore Groups Tool

Looking for an easy-to-use software to help manage your church?

We'd love to show you what we built!

Join 10,000+ happy churches using Breeze ChMS™.

Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
David P.
loves Breeze
St. Pauls United Methodist Church

Breeze has been incredible. Their customer service, commitment to innovation, and their product are top-notch. I love the features, the ease of use and the mobile applications.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Karen M.
loves Breeze
Hillcrest Church

All of our database needs have been more than met, it's easier to use than the last database we had, and the price is amazing - what a value this has been to our church! All of our staff can use this software and they do regularly. We use it to track…literally anything a church could possibly need to track regarding it's attenders.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Chris K.
loves Breeze
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Breeze has been a great asset to our church and congregation. Especially from an administrative standpoint, it has been the most adaptable and easiest church database I have ever used. The features from blast emails to giving on-line, and texting have been one of our greatest assets. Thank you!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ed R.
loves Breeze
Church Admin

We switched from a major, web-based ChMS to Breeze and our decision is confirmed every day. We are a medium size church and we use Breeze for contributions, member management, event checkin and a few other applications custom to our church. I had trouble getting any staff to use our previous ChMS but almost all staff are using Breeze. The product is very well designed, extremely easy to learn and use and customer service is incredible.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ellen G.
loves Breeze
Grace Church

Breeze has opened the communication highway for our congregation and staff, with very little training. Because members can update their own records and search easily for other members - and map their locations, send emails and text right from Breeze, they love it and our data is more real-time accurate. Our ministries are stronger, because they can trust the data in Breeze, which is easily accessed anywhere, anytime.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Steve H.
loves Breeze
First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey

Breeze is the first ChMS my volunteers have actually embraced. That's because it's so easy to use. The software is very flexible and gives us the opportunity to make decisions based on actual data we've collected and not just hunches or stories we believe to be true.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Allicia B.
loves Breeze
Ellel Ministries Canada

I cannot say enough about Breeze. Their customer service is so friendly, you feel like you have friends and family helping you get started, they're prompt to reply and will do whatever they can to help you get things sorted out. It's been so easy to learn, our staff is loving it and best of all even our staff who are not computer savvy find it a breeze (pun intended). We are just thrilled by our choice.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Kevin D.
loves Breeze
Central Baptist Church

From the start of our process looking for an online solution, Breeze has exceeded all our expectations. Fast data import, fast and friendly customer support, and we can’t say enough about how much we like the program itself. Very well designed and user friendly. On a scale of 1-10, Breeze gets a 15 from us!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!

Rated 4.9 stars – 700+ reviews