Planning and Leading a CPM

Introduction
There are seven stages to leading a team toward an effective CPM.
1. Credibility You need to establish your credibility in the eyes of those who can
become your potential team members.
2. Composition You need to select carefully those who will become part of your
team.
3. Clarity You need to walk through a process of clarifying your vision and your
vision frame.
4. Consensus You need to engage with this vision and vision frame until you can
have mutual consensus or ownership.
5. Cooperation You need to work out a strategy that would lead to the fulfillment of
your vision.
6. Crucial Conversations You need have crucial conversations along the way to
assure that you are all aligned toward the same goals.
7. Celebration You need to affirm as well as learn from your experiences as a team.
Establishing your Credibility
Your credibility is how others, especially those whom you want to follow you, perceive you.
Their perception of you determines whether they will trust you and follow you. Your
influence in their lives also depends on your credibility in their eyes.
Your credibility is based on the following considerations:
1. Character Your character is your persistent habit of thought and behavior as
perceived by those around you.

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2. Competence Your competence is your ability or skill as perceived by those around
you.
3. Commitment Your commitment is your investment of time, talents and treasure
as perceived by those around you.
4. Chemistry Your chemistry is your relational, emotional and social intelligence as
perceived by those around you.
5. Capacity Your capacity is your ability to handle complexities as perceived by those
around you.
The Composition of your CPM Team
A CPM Team is by its calling a task-oriented group. But this does not mean that
relationships are not important in a CPM Team. On the contrary it is vital. Nevertheless it is
not the main priority. The main priority is the fulfillment of the task, which is initiating and
fueling a church planting movement. In other words it is a sodality group.
A well-balanced CPM Team should have the balance of five ministry callings, which includes
their passion or burden as well as their skills set.
1. Apostolic Apostolic members have the burden of expanding the kingdom of God
to new territories and forming new communities of faith.
2. Prophetic Prophetic members have the burden of maintaining integrity and purity
before, during and after the process.
3. Evangelistic Evangelistic members have the burden of bringing people to the
established communities of faith.
4. Pastoral Pastoral members have the burden of taking care of the flock in
established communities so that they may be nurtured in the faith.
5. Educational Educational members have the burden of increasing and deepening
the knowledge of those who are in established communities of faith.
At the same time, it would be advantageous for any team to have the right balance of
personalities to provide the creative tension within the team.
1. Dominant These are members who are task oriented and change oriented.
2. Influential These are members who are change oriented but people oriented.
3. Steady These are members who are people oriented and stability oriented.

4. Compliant These are members who are task oriented as well as stability oriented.
In addition to these, team members must have the necessary skills, both tangible and
intangible, as well as hard and soft skills, so that they can help the team as a whole to
succeed in its goals.
The Team must have Clarity of Purpose
For a team to be successful, it must have both a Vision as well as a Vision Frame. Both
comprises the overall purpose of the team.
Vision is what the team hopes to accomplish in a general sense. Its a statement that does
not necessarily have all the particulars or specifics, but it is powerful enough to inspire
everyone.
The Vision Frame is composed of boundaries that keep the vision from being sidetracked
as well as protects the vision from unnecessary dilution. In other words it protects the
vision from disintegrating.
The Vision is a short statement, sentence or phrase that captures the essence of what the
team is trying to accomplish.
Example: The youth of today passionate for the glory of God!
The Vision Frame is composed of four statements that serve as boundaries surrounding the
Vision, to protect it and to give it white-hot focus.
1. Mission States specifically what the team will be doing day by day.
2. Method States how the team will generally accomplish the mission.
3. Motivation States the main principles or values that will guide the team.
4. Marks of success States what success would look like in the end.
To develop a Vision Statement as well as its corresponding Vision Frame Statements, the
team should go through a Visioneering exercise.
1. State the Ideal Describe what should be based on your understanding of truth or
of Gods word.
2. Describe what is Real Analyze what is currently going on, as well as its strengths
and weaknesses, including threats and opportunities (SWOT)
3. See and feel the Ordeal See the gap between the Ideal and the Real, and let the
Spirit of God move your hearts toward response and action.

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4. Craft the New Deal Begin planning what needs to happen to fill the gap and to
honor God.
Aiming for Consensus
Going through the Visioneering exercise can be very exciting, but it can also be filled with
tension. Disagreements can easily arise. But this is healthy. Effective teams must be
comfortable with tensions, in order to do the best job possible.
There are different kinds of decision making strategies are available for teams.
1. Executive decision making The leader makes the decision
2. Majority vote the team makes the vote to decide
3. Expert decision making one member who is more capable decides
4. Laissez-faire each one is free to decide on his or her own
5. Consensus decision making everyone listens to each one and comes to a decision
that everyone can support
Obviously, there is no best way to decide. Each situation would require a different kind of
decision making, or a combination of these approaches. However, consensus-building is
not a one-time affair. The team goes through various stages of disagreement and each time
the team must come together to decide. Sometimes, the leader must make an executive
decision for the sake of untangling a stalemate or a lack of decision by the team.
Cooperation is the key!
A team will not succeed unless it is willing to work together to accomplish certain goals.
After stating its Vision as well as its Vision Frame, a team must now set goals that it will
work together to accomplish.
To set goals, follow these steps.
1. Generate Ideas start brainstorming of what needs to be done based on the
Visioneering Process (New Deal), and then prioritize them
2. Objective(s) state the change that you would like to see using this formula: action
verb + change area + parameters (from ___ to ___) + time table (by ____). Example:
Increase the attendance from 100 to 200 by end of June.
3. Action Steps state the action steps that need to be taken to accomplish the
objectives

4. List of resources state the resources that will be needed, whether financial or
personnel to fulfill the action steps
5. Scheduling agree on the schedules regarding meetings and deadlines
Crucial Conversations are a must
Sooner or later there will be situations that will be important to address as well as involving
strong emotions. These would demand crucial conservations. Crucial conversations are
those conversations that can make or break the team, depending on how the parties
involved will handle them.
There are two types of crucial conversations:
1. Differences
2. Offenses
Differences can be handled simply through the following steps:
1. Assess the value of the concern
2. Determine the value of the relationship
3. Choose the best course of action (dismiss, assert, give in, compromise, discuss)
In times of offenses, we cannot follow a logical approach. Emotions are not logical; they are
emotional and psychological. Therefore we need to follow a conflict-resolution approach.
One approach is through the PEACE process. This involves discussing the following matters
one at a time, and in sequence.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Problem behavior what was said or done that was offensive

Emotions involved what the offended party felt
Assessment of motives what motivated the offender
Confession and forgiveness recognition of guilt and asking for forgiveness
Encouragement for the future agreement to prevent future offenses

Celebrate the wins!

An effective team knows how to celebrate its wins. But this must be done with continuous
learning and improvement in mind. Each time a goal is accomplished, the team must pause
to do the following:
1. Affirm each ones contribution
2. Highlight good practices
3. Take note of future improvements