Reflection Questions

1. Write a list of your top 15-20 relationships. ( You can use your phone contact list, office contact list…etc.). By each name, write if you are in the box or out of the box with each person.
2. What is one or two ways you can treat others more like people and less like objects?
3. Respond to this statement, “…success in an organization is a function of whether we’re in the box or not, and that our influence as leaders depends on the same thing.” (p.64)
4. What are some ways you have provoked others to “be in their box” (Chapter 14)
5. What are some simple ways we can proactively work to move forward “out of our box”? (Chapter 21 & 22)
6. In what ways is our staff an “in the box organization” and in what ways are we an “out of the box organization”
7. What are some things our staff can do to be more like an out of the box team? (Chapter 24)

Say Thank You

Saying thanks is almost a lost art in today’s world. Here’s are some secrets to saying thank you:

• Do it in person. Granted it’s a lot easier to say thank you to everyone at the same time by sending out a bulk email or when you have everyone gathered together, but a personal thank you will go a lot further.
• Try different methods. You can do this by sending a personal email, writing a thank you note or have a one to one conversation with that person.
• Be specific. When you say thanks, be sure to mention a specific example of how this person has contributed to the team.

Help Them to See the Big Picture

When you’re volunteering in a specific area of the church it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. Changing diapers or cleaning off tables can seem disconnected from the church’s mission. If you have volunteers who are doing a labor related task, then it is even more important to help connect the dots for them. Here are some simple things you can do to help with this:

• Review the vision. When you’re together, read the church’s vision statement.  Volunteers need to hear the church’s vision and mission. The more they hear it, the more they will represent the big picture in your ministry areas.
• Show examples. Remind your volunteers frequently that they are contributing to the church’s mission and give them specific examples. For instance, our sound techs need to hear that they help people hear the gospel.
• Share big wins. Share stories that relate to the church’s mission or to the Great Commission. If someone on your volunteer team is getting baptized, celebrate it together. If someone invited a friend to church or is starting a small group, let others know so you can celebrate that too.

Treat Them With Respect

This is something leaders can do every single day with volunteers. Volunteers will light up with energy and commitment when they know they’re respected. The more they are respected, the more their confidence will rise. Here are some simple ways to show respect and honor to your volunteers.

• Listen first. When your volunteers show up to help, make sure you’re not giving out the day’s list of duties as soon as they arrive. Instead, give them a chance to update you on how things are going. If you feel like you don’t have time to do this with your volunteers, consider adding more time on the front side of your serving opportunities.
• Ask them their opinions. One of the best ways to show respect is to ask your volunteers what they think about their role. You’ll be surprised to find out that they are thinking of ways to make things work better.
• Trust their abilities. In other words, don’t micro-manage. Give them enough space to make the job their own. If needed debrief afterword if you see room for improvement.

Make Them Rock Stars

Your volunteers, the people that show up week after week and help move the church forward, are your rock stars, but they might not feel like it. Try some of these things that will help them recognize their value.

• Train and develop your volunteers. Help them to become better at what they do. If your volunteers aren’t receiving regular feedback from you on how they are doing then they most likely feel like they are failing.
• Praise people publicly. Tell others how awesome they are when others are around. Send out a monthly email to your team letting others know how another volunteer is killing it.
• Give them VIP time with you. Your volunteers will feel like they have more value if you are available to them. More time = more value.

There are lots of ways to make your volunteers feel appreciated. What are some ways you have appreciated volunteers?

The Harvard Business Review Journal is not in my tribe. The advertisements in their magazine are directed towards people who make 5-10 times what I make. Most of the articles are written by people who were in school twice as long as I was.

The Harvard Business Review Journal gives me priceless insight into how to lead and manage my church. The articles written in the HBR give me cutting edge information about how brilliant leaders are leading ahead of the curve. Not everything in HBR is gold, but there is gold in every issue.

If I’ve learned anything, it is that connecting to those outside my tribe will give me an advantage that I would never have if I was only looking from within for examples of great leadership.

Recently, I spent the good part of the day with a few pastors from EGC to talk about the health of our church. This wasn’t a theoretical conversation. It was a conversation about how we have improved our health over the past year and how to dramatically raise the health of the church in the next twelve months.

In this case, EGC had an advantage. We knew which area needed the most help last year and we knew exactly how we did in affecting that area. That area was gift based ministry. Since we knew we needed to improve this area, we focused an entire teaching series, reviewed and updated our volunteer systems and retrained our staff on best practices for volunteer care. The result? We moved the needle and now have a new area to focus on.

This year, we know that if we apply laser focus to the area of Holistic Small Groups, we will have the GREATEST chance of bringing the GREATEST amount of health and vitality to our church family.

Natural Church Development helps us see where to focus our efforts so we don’t have a shotgun approach to improving the health of our church. I believe every church should be armed with this kind of information. The challenge? Do we really want to know our current reality, and are we willing to do something about it?

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I have a busy January ahead of me. Everything that is on my list to do needs to start with prayer. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the importance to take a pause and surround the big things in our life with prayer. I don’t know if you’re like me, but often, I tend to go as far as I can on my own strength and then when I’m all tired out or out of options.. I start asking God for help.

This year, I’m starting with prayer for these projects:

1. Upgrade of our First Impressions Ministry

2. Launching of our 20/20 vision for the church

3. Automated check in for our children’s ministry

I have some other things on the docket too, but these are the big three. Would you join me in praying for God to help with good planning and well run projects?

EGC is hosting a spectacular event June 25th & 26th. We have three great men who have an incredible amount of ministry experience who operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. Each one of them would be worth the trip to hear, and we’re going to have the privilege of being with all three of them!

And, it’s free. What?!  Take a look at our guests…

R.T. Kendall
R.T. Kendall is a man of great authority and leadership. He has an amazing knowledge of the Scriptures and a willingness to deal with any verse in the passage preached, however difficult it might be. I can never remember hearing a sermon which did not bless me. He truly practiced what he has preached. He has sought to reach every type of person and shown increasing patience and love to difficult people. Sometimes too patient! He has always shown himself to be open and honest.

This week I would like to give you some examples of companies taking advantage of this strategy.

First, my church, Elim Gospel Church is just getting started with this, but we’ve already added a couple of real easy upgrades.

Here is an example of an Athletic Store on Facebook

This tire company has a cool Facebook page, complete with web cams in their store you can watch.

Here is a restaurant promoting their menu and features in Facebook.

As you can see there are several applications of regular churches and businesses using Facebook as a way to link their web content inside the Facebook world.

This isn’t true anymore.

Of the six previews I watched, five of them didn’t have a dedicated webpage.  Instead, they offered a Facebook page as a way to connect to their content.

I thought this was really fascinating.  It felt like I was watching a shift in how companies promote and interact with the public right in front of my eyes!  I know that movies and other companies have been using Facebook for a while now to interact with people and this is part of their “social media strategy”.

It now appears that social media is the strategy.

I talked with a marketing executive this week at Show Case Marketing and she told me that some companies are dumping their entire websites and they are moving their products, information and sales to a dedicated Facebook page. There is a trend of organizations and events landing on facebook vs. dot com address.

This has got me thinking. Should our churches make it so that their first online connection with the public is through their Facebook page instead of through the traditional website? This is something that we are going to be trying out.  Right after Easter we are going to be doing a church-wide teaching series that is going to have a big push for people to visit or invite their friends to EGC.  We’re going to have a billboard up and it won’t have our web address on it.  Instead, it will direct people to our Facebook page.

Let me add a couple of more thoughts here.

First, this is most likely not a permanent strategy for connecting with people online.  Digital and social media trends are changing rapidly.  What works today might not work three months from now.  But the point is, it seems to be working right now.  Second, using Facebook to interact with people is not as simple as putting up the link to your Facebook page.  It’s important to think about with that experience will be like when they get there.  Having content on the page for them to interact with, posting discussion questions and investing into having our page designed professionally are important to utilizing this as a strategy to connect people to your event or organization.

Sharon and I have been leading a family prayer session in the Oasis Prayer room on Wednesday’s.  Tonight is our last night and we’ve really liked involving our kids in a corporate prayer time with other families.  This is something we hope to do again soon!

Everything is ending with a HUGE 24-hour finale.  This will be non-stop, powerhouse prayer in the oasis prayer room.  Different pastors and leaders will be leading 2-hour sessions, each with a different focus.

Here’s the line up:

Friday 7pm:                 Prayer for Healing
Friday 9pm:                 Prayer for the Nations
Friday 11pm:               Prayer for Creativity and the Worship Culture

Saturday 1am:             Prayer for Area Youth and Education
Saturday 3am:             Prayer for Young Adults and Colleges
Saturday 5am:             Worship & the Word
Saturday 7am:             Prayer for Area Transformation
Saturday 9am:             Prayer for Area Children and Education
Saturday 11am:           Worship & the Word
Saturday 1pm:             Prayer for Care Needs
Saturday 3pm:             Prayer for Healing
Saturday 5pm:             Prayer for Spiritual Transformation

Which one of these sessions will you go to?

That being said, feedback is an important part of leadership.  We all have blindspots, and we need other people to be able to see them.  The most courageous leaders will ask for feedback.  Not because they love being criticized, but because they know they need it in order to grow.  Here are 3 ways to get feedback from the people you lead.

Ask for it.
This is probably my favorite way to get feedback. It builds relational capital between you and the people you lead.  It shows that you are vulnerable and that you want to hear from them.  This type of feedback might not get you the most honest responses right away, but it will build the relationships you need to get the best feedback.

Give permission.
Most people assume they shouldn’t criticize their leaders methods, character or practices.  I recommend at the very least to give two or three people who are close to you permission to speak into your life.  These people should be people that you are leading and not people who already have permission to speak into your life (like people who lead you).  If you’re really brave, give a wider circle of people permission to give you feedback.

Do something with it.
What do you do when you get feedback?  I’d like to suggest that you have a system to process feedback.  When you get feedback here are some basic steps to consider:

1. Take it to prayer – dont react, don’t just brush it off; take it to God.
2. Take it to a trusted person – ask someone who knows you well about the feedback and get their perspective.
3. Action step – if the feedback was accurate, then take action and take a step that can be accomplished in the next 2-4 weeks
4. Follow-up – If you had an action step; go back to the person and let them know what you  have done – this is very honoring

Feedback can be an incredible way to advance your personal leadership gift.  If feedback is avoided it can become a serious lid to growth.