Leader + Team = Impact
Monday, July 6, 2009 6:00
Discover What Only You Can Do
Each of us have certain gifts, talents & passions in our ministry. There are some things as the leader of a ministry that can best be accomplished by only you. Too often we allow the tyranny of the urgent or the volume of the squeaky wheel drain our time. A few of the things that are best done by the point person: Cast Vision, Train Leaders, Handle Upset Parents, and Build Team Unity. When we focus on the things that only we can do it magnifies our impact and increases the potential of the ministry.
Delegate Don’t Dump
As we recruit and train our teams we should be looking to for unique individuals to help compensate for our weaknesses. This requires first that we understand our own weaknesses and we’re willing to share both the responsibility and the
authority. One of the dangers is to dump everything we don’t enjoy and move on. Big Mistake! Delegation often requires more work on the front end but can pay huge dividends down the road. Delegate – to entrust or transfer (as power, authority, or responsibility) to another. To truly delegate requires transferring, training & follow-up.
Failure can be Fun
I’ve been blessed to always serve with Pastors that gave me the freedom to fail. Having been a Youth Pastor for several years, living on the edge and taking chances was just part of the DNA. One of my favorite and most appealing Summer Series led to one of our greatest blunders. When “Survivor” was at it’s peak we wrote a “Surviving Your Faith” series which included creating Tribes that competed each week. We also tried to duplicate the previous week’s TV competitions. It was a huge success with astounding numerical growth and dynamic buzz for the ministry. One week our game included breaking plates hung on our softball backstop using slingshots. The only problem was the church parking lot was directly behind the backstop! After unknowingly shooting out two car windows and dinging the pastor’s suburban someone realized what was happening and had the wisdom to stop us. Point is, we as leaders have to be willing to give our staff the same freedom to fail. When we have a volunteer who is working within the defined parameters of our ministry we should give them the freedom to try new things and follow-up with good evaluation.
Self Evaluation
Where are you on the trail to discovering your strengths and weaknesses?
Do you delegate or dump?
Do you encourage your team to take chances?
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The Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol (July 2009) « Dad In The Middle says:
August 4th, 2009 at 3:19 am
[...] Leader + Team = Impact [...]