after night ONE

Last night we had our first night of the semester for our middle and high school ministries. We put hours and hours of work into publicity, planning, practice, and preparation. (that is a lot of P words!) We prayed and we wondered what God was going to do. Last night came and God honored our efforts and today we are excited about how everything went. Night one is very important but what you do the day and week after is also critical. Night one reveals so much that you can work on for the weeks to come. If we learn from night one and make adjustments we set the ministry we lead up for health for the year to come. Here are a few "after night one" areas every student and college ministry has to evaluate...

• Environment // what was the energy like in the venue? Were people connecting? What was the vibe in the hall and in your large group room pre-service? Was there proper signage and volunteers spaced through the facility? Make time to process how you did creating the environment you wanted to create. We learned we needed a few additions to our main hall and we are working on that this week.
• Parking and People Flow // our parking situation was terrible on night one and we had some issues moving people around. We worked on a new plan this morning. This is a big deal to parents so it has to be a priority.
• Band and Production Teams // we try to see where our band is at and where we need to go. Night one is always a challenge but we can also learn where we need to head as a worship and tech team form night one. Proud of our team last night but I am already excited to see how our team responds next week.
• Message // this is personal but you have to evaluate how the talk went. How was the length? Did the bottom line get communicated? Did teens engage with the series?
• Volunteer Team // we have to make sure our volunteers felt supported and make sure we get feedback from them. I promise, your volunteers saw aspects of last night you missed. Check on how they did and what they learned.

When you process all those areas you will have a better plan for week 2. Week 2 is the week where teens are checking to see if we are real. Make sure you use what you learned after night one!

5 moves to make when implementing CHANGE

Over the next few weeks student, kids, and college pastors all across the country will be beginning new semesters, reaching new students, and partnering with new volunteers. Many of us will be making changes and change always brings tension. For the new leaders and new students they have no idea anything is changing because of course it is new! For our veteran leaders change can be a little difficult. Change is healthy for every organization but it also brings pain. No matter how big or how small the changes you will be making your team will always want to know why and you need to be prepared to lead them through the change. There are a few things to remember when implementing change this semester...

1. Don't surprise key leaders // Make sure your key leadership know about changes before you hold your first meeting to introduce the changes. You know your key leaders, try not to surprise them. Connect with them and gain wisdom before you implement change.
2. Ask for permission to experiment // Cast vision and explain your idea but when making changes ask your team to give you permission to experiment (admit you might fail!). They give you permission by supporting you as you make changes. Never take that for granted no matter how long you lead in an organization.
3. Call people to a step of faith // "buy in" comes when the changes you make work. As a leader simply call your team to live by faith as you make changes. It's ok if your leadership team does not "buy in" 100% at first, call them to serve with faith!
4. Listen to feedback // make sure your team knows they have a voice and can email you or call you with ideas and feedback about the changes.
5. Lead strong but be flexible // If your changes work, great! If they don't lead strong by being willing to make changes and admit you might not have been correct

The best part about the Olympics...

The best part about the Olympics is that they only happen every four years. Seriously, what makes the Olympics great is that there is such a large gap in between the games. The gap in between games gives us time to actually look forward to these 2 weeks. The space in between games allows the host city to prepare for the games. The break in between games gives athletes time to prepare so they bring their best effort to the competition. The four year gap between the Olympic games is what makes the two weeks we are currently in so special for people all over the world. Here is a lesson all of us who lead in ministry could learn. Time between high impact events is perfectly fine and may even enhance your event. When we find something that works the first thing people ask is, when are we going to do that again? It takes courage to space high impact events apart because people always want more of a good thing. The problem is that people also can get burned out and tired of the great events create. If people are asking for more of something you are doing never automatically start doing it all the time. Make sure you space what you are doing out in a way that allows the people you are investing in to prepare, invite friends, and provide your team time to sure everything is done with excellence! Make sure everything you are doing through the ministry you lead is done with purpose, excellence, and spread out to best enhance your ministry goals.

So your ministry is growing...now what?

Growth is good. I have never met a leader who didn't want to see growth in their ministry. Growth means more people are discovering Christ, finding community, and serving others. Growth is also relative. Relative in that each year God gives us a new perspective, new goals, and new opportunities. The crazy thing about growth is sometimes it can lure us into playing it safe, getting comfortable, and settling for good over great. If your ministry is growing then you better work hard to... 

• Get smaller // a big crowd is great but life change happens through one on one relationships. Bigger just means you better have a plan to get people in small groups fast!
• Get personal // return phone calls, answer emails, write a note to a volunteer. Getting bigger just means you have to work harder to stay connected to those you lead!
• Be authentic // get over yourself. Be real, be you, be consistent, be transparent.
• Be bold // stay and do what God is calling you to do even if people walk away. People stopped following Jesus when He led. I bet some people stop following you.
• Get risky // go for it! Growth just means you next risk is going to be bigger. Faith leads to risk.

Guess what, in the Kingdom of God we can't settle. Glad the ministry you lead is growing...now get back at it and keep moving forward!

what do I value?

I know some of you get tired of me saying this but here goes once again...I love serving here at Grace Community. For anyone out there who goes to GCC you know Sunday was an amazing day and an amazing gathering to start 2009. Ron said a short statement in the middle of the message that really stuck in my mind yesterday. You can hear the entire message on our podcast at www.gcomchurch.com. The statement was simple and short but it is still bumping around in my head today. Ron said the our values shape our behavior. We "do" or "engage" or "support" things we value.

How we value health determines our work out plan for 2009.
The value we place on money determines how generous we will be in 2009.
How we value our wife determines how we communicate with her!
How I value the Titans determines if they will be Baltimore Saturday....oops that slipped out!

The incredible thing about this line of thinking is that we get to influence what we value. We can choose to place value on what we want and God allows us to choose. I can choose to value my time with God. I can choose to value other people. I can choose to value things that do not come naturally to me that God is calling me to value. Maybe instead of working on our 2009 goals we should first examine what we hope to give value to in our life first then make the goals. Just something to think about...