LEADERS LEAD
In the book GO BIG the author suggests as goes the pastor so goes the church. In the GRANITE CONTEXT I would put it this way, AS GOES THE MINISTRY LEAD SO GOES THAT MINISTRY. We are a team oriented, team driven church, meaning, as LEAD PASTOR allot of sharing has been given out in our ministry, with the PRIVILEGE comes incredible RESPONSIBILITY. One of the things I have been encouraging our MINISTRY LEADS in 2011 is to GET YOUR HANDS OFF THE MINISTRY AND ONTO THE MINISTERS. As a HIGH LEVEL LEADER you cannot afford to get bogged down in programs and must stayed focused on people, your ministry people.
Eph. 4:11-12, encourages us to EQUIP SAINTS, not to run programs. Programs are important but they do not warrant our attention tot he point of neglecting our teams. It will be our team members who will provide healthy programs, as we pour our lives in maintaining healthy leaders.
So lets make this post a little more interactive than usual and throw out some ideas on how to LOVE ON and INVEST in our teams. So what have you done in the past, or what are you thinking of doing in the future, to LEAD YOUR LEADERS? I want to hear some of your ideas.
It took awhile for it to sink in....but any one of us is not enough to go around. Any ministry we lead is only as strong as the people serving with us! If we care more for the spiritual well being of those on the team, it strengthens the team ability exponentially!
ReplyDeleteFirst, it is our priviledge to come beside people and help them grow closer with the Lord! It is a huge part of Granites mission and the Christ like thing to do.
Second, it keeps things in perspective for us. It is a constant reminder to ourselves if we are showing others and reminding others of how great God is and how important it is to grow deeper in love and understanding of Him
Thirdly, as our team develops a deeper relationship and grows in faith, they in turn can bring along new believers.Now the ministry doubles with the core having rock solid faith! what more could your ministry need?!? How about a couple years later when it doubles again!
The tasks must get done...but the care for the people doing the tasks is a much better use of time and resources.
I look forward to seeing the suggestions that come from this blog. I am hoping to get some great ideas from this
I recently took a step in this area by sharing some thoughts from my daily reading. It applies to every person who serves and hopefully refocused my team. It also is an area I struggle in some times. I try to do things on my own and need to remember that God wants us to lean on Him!
below is the email I sent my team and I plan to do this more going forward...
Hey Team!
I wanted to share something I came across in my reading this morning. Please feel free to comment on it or share any readings that strike you today or any other day. I love you guys and I love that we get to grow together!
1Peter 1:5-8 5In view of all this,make every effort to respond to Gods promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence,and moral excellence with knowledge 6and knowledge with self control, and self control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness 7and godlinesswith brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8The more you grow like this,themore productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
I love Peters use of the word "useful". Useful to who?
Peter tells us that faith is a starting point.When we press on, and strive to get closer to God, our growth does something amazing....it makes us more useful to the One who saved us! It will make us more productive. Productive at what? I don't think it means at my job...He will make us more productive in carrying out His work! How amazing that not only will we be better people but we can become better and better at getting Gods work done!
I don't know about you, but I feel a desire to be the most for Him that I can. I am challenging myself to be more deliberate about my spiritual disciplines. Through more consistent reading of the Word, more prayers asking God to work in and through me, and more accountability to be the person i was created to be, I can maximize my potential for Him! nothing is of more importance
I encourage each of you to stay consistent in these areas. We can accomplish little on our own. But through Christ, we can accomplish more than we can imagine!
Phil 3:14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us
Stay strong team!
In Christ,
Joe Garon
Great stuff Joe. How often do you send emails like that out to your team? Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteGreat challenge Pastor. Love that response Joe. Showing what God is doing IN YOU and sharing that with YOUR TEAM.
ReplyDeleteINVESTMENT- I try to share ammo for them, to share with the teams about VISION. I do this via email, almost every week. Also every rally time before service. We have a "stump speech" we say every time we get together. We lead people to be fully devoted followers of Christ thru growing church, multiplying services/campuses, & starting network churches. VISION would be - salvation decisions, guests, stories from Kids ministries, baptisms, new volunteers, record attendance.
LOVE ON - Candy Bars or favorite drink or something. Getting to know what people like, getting to know their family, etc. moves it from "USING SOMEONE" to "SERVING WITH SOMEONE". Without getting to know people, loving on 'em, investing spiritually.
Great stuff Court. Thinking about peoples hearts before their hands is always good.
ReplyDeletethat's what I meant to say "heart" before "hands" Much catchier phrase than "using someone" to "serving with someone" HA
ReplyDeleteYes it is, haha
ReplyDeleteWhat a challenge...I love what Court said with investment - sharing wins, vision, stoking the fires with what God's done and what He's going to do. For me like Pastor indicated - the tough part is staying consistent with those recharging emails and conversations.
ReplyDeleteFor a couple of my leaders I have scheduled times to meet with them each week - but even that is not enough as it's easy just to get bogged down in TASK MODE and knock items off the to-do list and realize that they need that time of encouragement, of vision, etc. I am going to make sure that I have a portion of each of those meetings dedicated to that.
Also I have found that sharing out some vision emails (maybe a blog, or passage of scripture, etc.) with the whole worship ministry and challenging them to respond has been a great way to keep the vision hot DURING the week when you're not meeting together. BUT I need to schedule a non-negotiable time each week to do that or it is just too sporadic.
Dropping them a personal message on Facebook following the weekend works great too.
For me the biggest next step is scheduling time with my HLL Team to just grow relationally and even get fired up for the ministry more - but do it not by another meeting, but grabbing dinner or going out to see something that inspires, etc. That's my biggest challenge.
Good stuff Gregg, two words came to my mind while reading your response, they are INTENTIONAL and CONSISTENT. These are tow words we all as leaders should strive for. Our Teams deserve the effort. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWow what a blogg! I loved everyones comments and think its great that we can feed off each others gifts and experience.
ReplyDeleteI think the number one thing I thought of when reading this and probably now for a while is what does the word TEAM mean to me! The thing I remember most about when I look back at organized sports in my life isnt always the highlights of what I did but the coach and the fun with all the players. I remember if the coach was hard on us or really didnt care, because if he was hard it meant he really wanted us to get better. I see you Pastor as the coach of many amazing ministry teams that you have either raised up and sent out on the traveling team or the ministry teams who are in training now for the big day when they will be the starting team.
I'm learning "slowly" that if a coach doesnt have a strategy to build his team up then when gameday comes there will be problems. I'm learning that the coach may get on the field, court, ice, to show you how to execute a play and how he would do it he gives you the tools you need to get the job done but its up to you to execute what you have been taught.
I think I'm with Gregg I need to become more intentional on spending time with my team and looking for ways to build them up consistantly so they can be all that God intended them to be. I dont want to be the bottleneck in what God has planned for my team or Granite. Thanks for the encouragement Pastor and everyone who responded.
John
Amazing stuff John and i love the sports analogy. So what steps would you suggest to our team leaders that would be good to take in order to build INTENTIONALITY and CONSISTENCY into our teams?
ReplyDelete