In the weeks leading up to Easter we went spent four weeks talking about what it means to live contagiously for Christ.  I hope those thoughts haven’t left just because Easter is now behind us and life has gotten busy.  In the end, contagious living comes down to a mindset.  Below are several thoughts on what “makes up” the mindset of someone who lives contagiously for Jesus.

1. Sunday Mornings are a time to do ministry- Do you know that every single week at Harvest someone brings a friend our family member with the hope that they will connect with Jesus in a new and meaningful way.  That idea alone should change how we greet others, how we worship, and the words we use.  Andy Stanley, had a great teaching point when he said that the sermon begins in the parking lot.  In other words, everything we do on a Sunday impacts the life of one who is searching and seeking the truth.  As the church we need to make sure we are speaking the same language from the car to car experience.

The Sunday gathering is not merely a place to be ministered to, but a place to get in the game and participate. If we can’t do it on Sunday when we’re on our home turf, what chance do we have during the week out in the world?  In the end, this mostly comes down to mindset. And each of us needs to have a mindset ready to care for people, pray for people, and be a practical example of Jesus to them.

2. Be willing to show up early- If you want to impact the life of one of our guests…show up early (that means at least 10 minutes). At Harvest there are three types of people that show up early…Older attendees, workers, and new people. When guests arrive at the church- how great would it be if they walked onto the campus and saw a bunch of genuinely joyful people that were excited to connect with friends but were also excited to worship Jesus together?  Wouldn’t it be awesome if they were greeted by a number of Christ-filled people that wanted to say hello and get to know them?

If I was a guest, I know that is what I would want.

And I know, I know…it takes kids forever to get moving in the morning, especially when you want them to hurry ( I have two young kids myself). But every week kids do it for school and if we are honest, you do it for work. Why? Because showing up early to those things is important to you. Shouldn’t the opportunity to love on guests to our church (people who are likely exploring the faith) be just as important?

3. Be genuine- I often wonder how certain politicians have such a strong and passionate following.  And then it hit me…they are really, really good…and I would even go as far as saying they are masters at making people feel important. In other words, they make others feel like they are the only person in the room.  They have a genuine interest in the lives of others!

If a politician will do that, how much more should God’s people do that? Isn’t it simply the essence of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself”?

If you want to make a real impact in the life of another…take genuine interest in their life.  Ask them sincere questions, slow down, and listen!!!  Let them know they matter.

I have to admit that this is personally tough for me…especially on Sundays when I’m trying to meet lots of new people, care for those in our church family, and think through the elements of my sermon and the service. It’s tough. But I’m trying to get better.

I’d love it if we had 300 other people trying as well. I think the love of Jesus like that would turn our church and our community upside down!

Want to listen to the Harvest U- Leader Cast? Download the mp3.  You can also download this blog in pdf form to read or print: download pdf.

Increasing leadership is essential to increasing ministry reach.

According to John Maxwell “everything rises and falls on leadership.” While it’s easy to attack “everything”, “always”, and “never” statements; there’s truth behind the statement. The quality and the quantity of leaders in a church will limit the number of people God will reach and grow through its ministry.  If we believe that God is calling us to reach and disciple an increasing number of people through our ministry, then we must also understand that we need to increase the number and quality of leaders in our organization.

The question is where do those leaders come from? Our answer is that, by and large, leaders of a church should be raised up from within the church.  With this in mind we realize that our best pool of potential leaders are those that are already serving in a ministry at Harvest. Apprenticing leaders is a great solution to the need for expanding leadership.

Develop an apprentice for yourself.

Learn to spot a leader on your team.

• Leaders exhibit initiative.
• Leaders are self-sufficient in their role– the kind of person who takes things off your plate, not adds to it.
• Leaders have influence over others. If someone is a leader, people will follow. Spot those volunteers that are already a leader without the title. At Harvest we believe that leadership is recognized not appointed.
• Leaders need to be good followers too. It’s important that your apprentice have great buy-in to the vision.
• Leaders see ways things could work better. This is not the same as someone who grumbles about problems. Leaders have an ability to see how a problem might be remedied.

Apprentice your replacement by following three steps:  Show and Explain, Observe and Coach, Release and Evaluate

Show & Explain: In this step your apprentice observes what you do in your role and you teach them the ins and outs of your job.

By systematic in what you explain while avoiding information overload. You want to give your apprentice a thorough understanding of the job, but realize that he won’t be able to learn or understand it all until he gets time to try to practice doing the job as well.

Focus on the Values– the heart and the why of what you do.  Help your apprentice understand and connect to the WHY.  Strong leaders are driven by values. If your apprentice knows what your ministry team is trying to accomplish and why, they can begin to understand and properly place the specific tasks that they are supposed to fulfill.  Think of it like trying to organize a library of books.  The individual books are the tasks you do as the ministry team leader.  The first thing your apprentice needs before they try to organize all of the books (or tasks) of your ministry library is a way to organize them– like bookshelves.  The bookshelves are the goals and the values of your ministry.  The bookshelves are concepts like: on the tech team we value excellence because our goal is to help people connect with and worship God.  Anything less than our best isn’t cool. Or another bookshelf for a tech team might be We want to empower a tech team volunteer to own their role. These Bookshelves give the structure, or the why to tasks.  This way tasks are connected to a WHY.  So tasks like running through all videos prior to service, or running the slides with the band during practice, can be connected to the WHY bookshelf of our goal is to help people connect with and worship God.  Anything less than our best isn’t cool.

Observe & Coach: Now that you’ve explained the role you should give deliberate opportunities for your apprentice to wear your shoes with you. By allowing someone to practice your role with your help you provide a safe way for her to get her feet wet.  You’re like a coach in that your apprentice is on the court playing while you’re actively involved from the bench.  You can call a time out any time to offer advice or redirect.  Like a coach, however, you’re letting your apprentice take control of the ball.

• Help your apprentice remember the tasks that have to be completed, and reinforce the why along the way as well.
• After the “game”, evaluate the performance.  An important piece to the Observe & Coach step is providing immediate, constructive feedback to your apprentice.  Share what he did well, then areas that can be improved, and reinforce the positive again.  Be sure to allow for 2-way discussion so you can learn what you need to do different as a coach.  You shouldn’t do all the talking.

Release and Evaluate: When you and your apprentice are comfortable enough you should move on to step three: Release and Evaluate.  I say comfortable enough because no one’s every totally ready.  You need to know when it’s time to push your  apprentice-chick out of the nest and let her fly.  This step is different from the last in one main way.  You are gone.  Let your apprentice lead, alone. After each opportunity that your apprentice has had to run with your job on his own, help him evaluate and process his performance.

The Harvest U- Leader Cast is a resource to those that would like to grow in their ability to lead.  Some of the topics will relate to the specific skills needed by leaders of church ministry teams.  Many will have larger implications to leadership in any situation.  Those that are in leadership at Harvest will be encouraged to digest and apply the material from the Leader Cast, but our hope is that many others will find the material rewarding as well.  That said, enjoy episode 1 of the Harvest U- Leader Cast!   -Micah Hutchison, Executive Pastor

Want to listen to the Harvest U- Leader Cast? Download the mp3.  You can also download this blog in pdf form to read or print: download pdf

How to Quit Like a Winner (part 1)

The way you quit like a winner is by building a replacement culture. Regardless of the leadership or volunteer position you are serving in at Harvest, there’s at least one job description you share in common with everyone else: work yourself out of a job. If that statement seems a little off to you, good. In the next several minutes I’ll explain.

If you’ve served in a ministry position for any length of time you’ve probably noticed that there always seems to be more good that could be done if only there were more people involved. It makes sense why Jesus encouraged said to his disciples “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2 ESV). It’s natural for those serving in a ministry to assume that it is the job of their team leader to recruit new members. Likewise, it’s common for team leaders to look to the pastoral staff to fill their recruiting needs as well. I propose a different approach: every team member and leader should try to work him or herself out of a job by recruiting, mentoring, and training someone else to take their place.
This LeaderCast will give you a few keys to reproducing yourself as a leader and teaching your ministry team members to do the same.

Build a replacement culture:

Teach your team members to “shoulder tap.” Shoulder tapping means personally inviting someone you know to serve with you in your ministry. We are wired for ministry. God has gifted all Christians with assets to do ministry, and they and the Church miss out as long as those gifts are not put to use. Shoulder tapping acknowledges that people want to make a difference with their lives, and they want deep relational connections too. Serving in ministry allows opportunities for both. Help your team members see that they have connection with people that you and the pastoral staff do not, and it’s possible no one will invite them if they do not.

Empower your volunteers to be recruiters and trainers. In addition to inviting people into your ministry, do your team members feel empowered to train others in their positions? Have you ever had someone on your team tell you something like this: Hey, I’ll be out of town for a couple weeks this month, but it’s no problem. I’ve been working with John for the past few weeks. I’ve shown him everything I do, and let him run things on his own the past couple weeks. This week I’ve just been hanging back making sure he’s got it all down. He’ll be covering for me while I’m gone. In fact, I was thinking, since John has my job down and really likes it I wanted to see if there’s anything different that you need help with that I could take off your plate? Sound like a pipe dream? Maybe not once your team grasps how to quit like a winner.

Some Do’s for building a replacement culture on your ministry team:

• Take the initiative. Take the initiative to challenge your team members to shoulder tap. Take the initiative to recruit others yourself. I know, I just said it’s your goal to teach your team members to be recruiters, but you should be modeling this skill to your team.
• Challenge team members regularly and specifically to recruit. Maybe give a specific goal that is stated in their orientation and training that as a volunteer I will attempt to recruit one other volunteer to join me in this ministry.
• Redirect recruiting misconceptions. When your team members bring up the people needs on the team in a way that tags you as the leader, sensitively redirect them to keep ownership of the need. For example, when a volunteer trys to “tag” you with the need to recruit more help in a specific area, make it a team issue by bringing your teams attention to the need and encouraging them to think of people they know that they could invite to join the team.
• Think wide. Encourage your team members to be open to appropriate people outside of your church that they can tap the shoulders of as well.
• Celebrate! Be sure to celebrate the wins when team members follow through and shoulder tap someone new into your team.

Next Week:

Stay tuned for episode 2 of Harvest U-Leader Cast. I’ll take this discussion further for you as a leader.   Are you preparing to quit like a winner in your leadership role? Next week I’ll show you why every leader needs an apprentice.

Want to listen to the Harvest U- Leader Cast? Download the mp3.  Also, download this blog in pdf form to read or print: download pdf.