General

I love seeing people win. This morning I had the chance to walk around the church and observe so many of our volunteers at Harrah Church. We had a new volunteer running our environmental screens today. He was up and ready to go after about 5 minutes of training and totally ripped it. He was in the zone. One of our Worship leaders, Amanda Coffee seemed to be singing from a different place in her heart yesterday. She is an amazing singer but I heard things in her voice yesterday that just seemed so authentic as she sang the words. Powerful stuff. Our Men’s Ministry luncheon went incredible. The food tasted great and they had so many people show up that they had to cook more.

It is tempting sometimes to focus on ourselves and our chase afte glory, but if you are going to lead a dynamic ministry you have got to learn to share the wins of those around you with people. God is doing stuff in and through your volunteers and you have got to discover those stories, share them and celebrate what is happening. If you are just telling your story them you are missing the bigger picture, which is what God is doing through the CHURCH. Your grandma was right when she called you something special, but when you join in the collaborative effort of the CHURCH we create something that is hard to put into words. Share the win.

You also must learn to allow others to get the win. Think of our race as a relay. If you are lusting after being the person who crosses the finish line every time you may be stealing from your teammates. Allow others to cross the finish line and reap some of that win. Sure everybody contributes to the success, but some roles attract more attention. Are you hogging all the attention roles? Share the win.

Find a way to help someone in your organization share the win and watch how the joy of helping others win becomes the win for you.

As I write this post I am sitting at home on the couch watching a NOVA program on OETA about the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble has captured some of the most incredible images of space and has vastly increased our knowledge about the universe. This program deals with the repair mission that took place several years ago. It took thousands of people years to prepare for a mission that entailed six. 6.5 hour space walks. They were doing repairs that no one has ever done before. Every motion that took place on this mission was choreographed. New tools had to be invented and developed to even make this mission possible.

I am watching this and thinking about the mission of the church and what takes place during the week. I am a total list guy. I sit down several times each week to write down the tasks that I need to accomplish that day, that week and that month. I use programs like Things and Action Method to help me chart these tasks, delegate them to others, and keep a record of the tasks that I frequently have to do. A few times a year I will sit down to make a detailed record of the steps that I go through each week so that I can really see not just the tasks, but each step that goes into each task and how much time goes into each.

Too many times we approach Sunday morning and church work without thinking about the processes that are taking place. Many times we are just trying to get through the morning without dealing with a missing volunteer or encountering a technology problem. The arts and worship team spend time working on execution and everybody knows if the person running the words on the screen is behind. Those are jobs that are right in front of us. But how many important tasks get left out of the process or are entirely absent because we haven’t set down to map out what we want to happen on Sunday morning? I am not just talking about making sure there is someone greeting people at the door, but making sure that everything that greeter does helps accomplish your mission.

How many connections are missed because there was no one actively thinking, “it’s my job to shake that guys hand”? How do you know that you are not wasting volunteer hours each week doing things that have little to no impact in your mission? How is everything that is happening at your church contributing to your mission?

Can you even imagine sitting down with your team to write out every detail that takes place within your church? The Hubble team not only scripts out every task, but exactly how each tasks should be performed. Analyzing each step shows them how to shave hours off of each space walk and ensures success. Do you need to develop new tools to make better connections with visitors on Sunday mornings? Do you need to develop new tools in order to help people develop in Christ?

Mastering the process will give you the freedom and time to make deeper connections with the people that matter most to your mission.

My new favorite show is Top Gear on BBCA. I just discovered this show a few months ago. I am not sure how these guys got the job but I definitely want in. What I find most appealing about the show is not so much the cars as it is the friendship and bonds that these 3 guys have…ok… that and they usually end up blowing something up or trashing a car for fun. If you compare this original draft of Top Gear with the new American version on the History Channel you can really tell the difference that the right chemistry can make within a team. I am not sure how you cast for a show like Top Gear and to be honest I am completely at a loss for how you cast for a person like James May, but these guys create a buddy show that you completely enjoy. How do they do it? I am not for sure, but I do think that there is tremendous value in your team trying to work at finding a sweet spot between performance and fun. That is certainly one of the things that Top Gear has found and I believe one of the things that many environments are missing. I have worked in so many environments that were dull and stale because the people working within them never found an outlet for them to let loose. Harrah Church is a lot like Top Gear in the sense that we are able to let loose with our services, with the way we do ministry, with just about our whole approach to anything we are doing. It is isn’t illegal or unbiblical…let’s give it a try. I love to see Justin and the band try to take the worship somewhere they haven’t been before. There is just something magical about that. You love it when the singer goes for a note at the top of their range. Even if they just barely get there it can be incredibly inspiring to everyone. That in a sense is a worshipper giving everything he has and leaving nothing on the field. Do we fail sometimes? Heck yeah! But we had a heck of a time getting there.

How important do you think chemistry is to your teams that you work with? How are you trying to make it happen? Do you take chances? Do you let others watch and do you laugh at your mistakes? So much to think about when trying to get the chemistry right, but trust me, when you get it right, the littlest acts can have the best reactions.

It has been just about 8 months since Kevin Daniels came to Harrah Church and took the reigns as pastor and my boss. Kevin is not the traditional pastor type. I have worked in several church over the past years and Kevin just does it different…and I like it. He is challenging me in the concept of the HERO and pushing me to become more of facilitator. I have this tendency to create a space where I work that becomes very hard for just one person to take on once I leave. I am a work-a-holic and I love the atta-boys and cuddos that come from that kind of work. Everyone wants to feel needed. What I haven’t understood until Kevin are the things that come from a more balanced lifestyle of work, family, home, play, etc. He models it and does a great job of defending it.

Is Kevin a great communicator? YES. Is he a great pastor? YES. Is he a great leader? YES. But, every person in your church is looking to him for a different reason and he is bringing so many different sides to the table and stretching Harrah Church in many new ways that will increase our ministry potential in the future, because he is unwilling to let guys like me HOG the work, steal the glory, and destroy ourselves. Some are being challenged to get more involved. Some are being asked to delegate. Some are being asked to STOP. Some are being asked for better, some for more, others for less.

What are you looking to your pastor or boss for? If you work in the church, how is your boss pastoring you?

I few insights that have helped me this past 8 months are to look to your new boss to find out what are his goals. What are people, especially those in leadership over him, asking for? What are his deliverables? Help him succeed and he will help you succeed. How does he like to work? Kevin hates meetings so we try to avoid table talks when a lunch conversation or quick couple of questions get the job done. What kind of work does he appreciate? What does he do for fun? This isn’t about sucking up to the boss. Working the relationship can be like fine tuning your car’s engine. That thing is never going to run right if the parts aren’t working together.

Just a couple of thoughts about the last 8 months and how things are going here in Harrah, which is totally awesome.

I feel compelled to continue this “BE” series with a post about making decisions. I was ready in Harvard Business Review about the decision making process that some CEOs want their people to go through and wanted to expand upon it. I have redrafted the quote to read the following:

The church is a social entity charged with a mission to create everlasting benefits for society.

The original quote was pulled out of an article dealing with making decisions that were good for society and not just good for the company. The “church” IS a social entity created by God and our mission will provide everlasting benefits for society. The questions becomes, “Do your actions reflect this belief?” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states,

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Now here is what I would like for you to focus on while reading this passage. The word “You” in these verse is plural and to use an Okie phrase would read’ “You All.” This changes the reading for us. Now we are charged with honoring our community with our actions and not just ourselves.

How are you honoring our community of faith? How are you protecting it?

Thoughts.

I just got the new issue of Harvard Business Review in the mail today. The theme of the issue is “How to Get More Done.” Love it. There is a quote in the issue on page 79 that reads”

“Effective managers establish themselves as resources, making sure to check in on employees while never seeming to check up on them.”

As a pastor I want to be a resource for all the people in my care. My office is full of books, my computer full of bookmarks, my mind full of experience, etc. I am not saying I have every answer, but I can certainly point people in the general direction.

I am sitting here dreaming about what it would be like if more people in out church become resources for each other. Not just loaning books, but loaning their time, their treasure, and their talent to each other. We need each other so much, but the sin in our lives keeps us from giving ourselves away. Fight the urge and begin ministering to each other.

As for checking in on “employees” I hope that we can find a way to check in on each other and keep each other from falling into lifestyles that can so easily entangled us.

When was the last time you easily gave of yourself?

How are you doing at “checking in” on the small group of people that you have surrounded yourself with?