By Andy Williams
Microsoft and America's teaching churches have something in common. Really.

Without a doubt, Bill Gates' software company has a fundamentally different mission than U.S. congregations with something to teach other churches.

Where the two intersect is in their emphasis on intellectual capital and knowledge transfer.

Like Microsoft, teaching churches are knowledge resources. Consider them another "arrow" in the life-long-learning "quiver" of equipping for service. They contribute practical ministry knowledge in the form of cutting-edge information, resources, coaching, customized consultations and peer networks.
Joy Leadership Center staff chart the future

In a pilot project over the past five years, Leadership Network brought together a group of nine innovative U.S. teaching church leadership teams to learn from each other, stoke passions and hone skills for equipping the body of Christ.
New Hope International plans ahead for its teaching ministry
Covering the map from Ohio to Hawaii and Dallas to Minneapolis, these teaching churches focus on everything from leadership development and church planting to video production, community service, preaching, counseling and worship graphics.

With a shared heart to advance the Kingdom, this group produced jaw-dropping results from 2000 to 2004--serving nearly 17,000 churches and sharing their ideas with more than 61,000 people. When you toss in 2005 projections and multiply attendance through Christian Communication Network satellite broadcasts, numbers reach into the millions.

For these churches--and others on the front lines--knowledge capital comes in the form of proven and practical ministry expertise developed over time. Much like software, "upgrades" often require re-learning along the way to capitalize on helpful new tools and techniques.

Best practices that have developed within the pilot group can apply to any
church looking to dispense valuable information, infuse new ideas or develop ministry skills. What principles have these innovators learned that can build up the internal and external teaching ministries of other churches?
Don't rest on your ministry laurels. Teaching churches constantly update knowledge by gaining practical experience and gathering feedback from other practitioners. "We're probably more of a learning church," says Brian Kim of Irvine, CA-based NewSong Church, which hosts a national leadership conference and a one-year internship. "We're trying to learn what God is doing and pass it on to other people."
Learn from the learners. Sometimes, bugs in the system need to be worked out in the field to improve the product. America's leading teaching churches establish long-term, reciprocal relationships so that knowledge is shared on both sides of the table. They not only host conferences; they are collaborative learners.

"Ministry always flows out of relationship," states Chris Mavity, Director of the North Coast Training Network, a ministry of North Coast Church in Vista, CA. North Coast offers a national conference, workshops and consulting. "We want to create environments to build long-term relationships and have influence."
Keep track or lose track. Effective teaching churches constantly evaluate outcomes by devising as many tangible metrics as possible. They track how many people are implementing their new ideas and create measurable outcomes. It's how they know their teaching is making a difference.
Bigger is not always better. This is perhaps the biggest lesson learned by the teaching churches when it comes to impactful teaching and life-altering learning--and this can be attached to any teaching venue in any church: Deep may be more important than wide.

While many of these churches still host some type of big event to "cropdust" participants with their unique ideas or ministry philosophies, many are shifting their primary focus from packed auditoriums to smaller, more focused, hands-on learning labs.

During the course of the pilot project, an evolution occurred as large-group presentations morphed into immersion workshops, roundtables, practicums, team consultations, coaching networks, in-house residencies, weekend retreats and distance learning.

"Church leaders today are not going to just flip through a notebook at a conference, get a few ideas, go home and be OK," said Walt Kallestad, senior pastor of Community Church of Joy in Glendale, AZ and a board member of Joy Leadership Center. "They are looking for a discipling relationship and someone who will walk with them through the process--of implementing new ideas."

Bill Gates couldn't have said it better.

To learn more about the teaching churches in the pilot group--who they are, what they teach and what they learned in the process--watch for a new concept paper, "Exploration to Deep Drilling: How Teaching Churches Add Influence to Information," to be released in two weeks. It will be available as a free download, and will be announced in the Nov. 22 edition of Advance.