[Kid Inspiration]

I have given myself a challenge for the next 26 days – post the complete A-Z of Ministry to Children.

D… Doctrine, dynamic, Donald Duck, delusion, darts…

D is for Delegate – I have seen it over and over in our team and in myself. You find yourself with a new volunteer who has a lot of potential to carry great responsibility. But after a few weeks they have faded into the background and either settled or possibly disappeared. Not every leader is going to hop on your ‘bus’, but I find to often brilliant leaders are sitting in the back row when they could be helping you navigate!

The missing ingredient is often authority. You have been great in delegating responsibility, but like a lot of leaders cling onto the authority either because you like to ‘be the boss’ or you don’t trust anyone to ‘do it’ as good as you!

Hey – it used to be that you weren’t as good as you are now and the only reason you are where you are today is because someone took a chance on you.

Heres a simple little procedure to help someone reach their maximum potential:

1. Give them a simple task (very time specific) and follow up on it extremely diligently knowing that in the future you won’t have to be so thorough
2. Thank the person in a big way and ask if there is any way they think we (the team) could do it better.
3. Repeat a few times adding in the important ingredient - authority.
4. If they rise to the challenge they become a leader – simple as that.

(There is a lot more to it than this but you get the idea… simple right?)

Final thoughts from Jim Wideman and his blog series Delegate or die:

Delegation is not an option for those who want to succeed in ministry. But to succeed you must take inventory of where you are. Start small and go from there. I try to recruit my team one worker at a time. Ask yourself and your volunteers, “What do I need to do differently?” What volunteers do you see potential in? Commit to coach volunteers and let them learn by doing. What are you waiting on? Delegate or Die!

So we have just launched new ministry tees this weekend at Hillsong Church.

So to all Hillsong Kids Leaders don’t forget to bring in your old tees leaders and trade them in, along with ten bucks if you can!

discount cialis online alt=”New Tees” width=”440″ height=”330″ />

Photo courtesy of @K4Kieran from our Hills Campus!

I am really happy with the design – and the three colours are just options for our leaders to choose from. If you look in the top right of the design you can see our name tags that are printed out from our Biometric (fingerprint) ESI (Electronic Sign In) kiosks. So there is actually a spot to put the name tag now — looks smart!

Thanks to Ricky on our communications staff who hooked us up and pointed us in the right direction for suppliers!

NOTE: If you are wondering why we get our leaders to bring in old tees, its mainly because we don’t them showing up in second hand clothing stores and we hope to recycle the old ones for some purpose like tee shirt games for kids and even giving them to one of our new campuses in Europe.

So you want to work for Hillsong Church, perhaps serve with Hillsong Kids at a high level?

I got this idea while reading Beat the Clock by Jim Wideman who filtered out speaking invitations to get rid of tyre kickers.

What kind of person am I looking for to be part of the team?

1. You better bleed/love/fight for the local church – Sure there are plenty of worthy causes out there, but our focus is Church, the one thing Jesus said he would build!
2. Your second mile better be well travelled – Above and beyond should be your local cafe, over-delivery should be your courier company.
3. I love great ideas, I hate great ideas poorly executed! – That is all.
4. You need to understand the devil is in the details – the comma in 1,000 is important! My first question might be “how did the event go?”, my second will be one of the following; “did the church van get returned clean?”, “did our volunteers feel appreciated?”, “how many kids exactly were there?”, “did it grow from last year?”, “what can we improve next time?” etc.
5. Are you committed to the vision of this house? – What’s in your hand right now at this moment in time is as important than what is in your heart for the future.
6. Sure you work hard, but can you holiday hard? – When you take a break… take a break… 8 months of leave owing is not a good sign.
7. I hope you believe that you are more important than the role you perform – Your well being matters, no workaholics/martyrs need apply.
8. Tell me HOW you manage your time – If you can’t clearly explain/define it we gotta problem.
9. The only way you can hope to survive and thrive is with God – Your job/role/task/mission will be more than you can handle, don’t come on expecting your talent/gifting is enough. Forget it, you will need God! (Although you will be a person who wouldn’t have it any other way).
10. Everyday will require you being creative – Everyone is creative, just because your 3rd grade teacher didn’t give you a gold star on your painting of your dog Pedro, and gives it to Tommy Wilkinson instead — doesn’t define your life. You are creative.
11. Expect to be inspected – Hey, if you’re not growing your volunteers probably aren’t.
12. You will have to pay the price – I’m not sure exactly what that will be, but on regular occasions there will come something that will touch your treasure (that’s where your heart is).
13. God will give you the desire of your heart – Tommy Barnett says hold on to a dream for five years, whatever you do — please dream big.
14. Please have a sense of humour diovan no prescription – At some point I will make fun of your name or Funny Man Dan will live up to his name. The team that laughs together… will probably laugh at your expense.

I could go on… really I could.

Setting the bar high is very important in ministry. Don’t just accept warm bodies both on Church staff and volunteer teams – sell a vision, one that will require work, the kind of vision YOU would want to be part of.

Sure some of these will seem contradictory – that’s the point. Welcome to life (and life abundant)!

There are a number of phrases you don’t want to hear as a leader. I heard one of them last weekend.

“My friend put in a new leaders application and she hasn’t heard anything”.

Ouch.

If there is one thing you want to get right is making a process of becoming one of our team easy. One of your goals as a leader is too eliminate these utterances through a process known as communication — Don’t say much, but say it often!

Some other deadly sentences include, but are not limited to:

“No I didn’t get into a service this weekend, dilantin price I just served”

“But this has been happening for ages”

“I didn’t have my team leaders phone number”

“My tee-shirt is in the wash”

“There was a team meeting this week?”

“Yes there was a lot of blood, but it didn’t look too serious” (okay, that one has never happened to me)

Are there any phrases you don’t like to hear as a leader?

There are two things I have negated to do here on this blog:

1. Talk about what my parents are doing in India (building an orphanage).

2. Brag on my awesome team.

Allow me to rectify cialis generic cheapest the second… I will fix the first soon!

How to be a great volunteer: Sarah Petchell

I cannot remember when Sarah started on our team. But for a number of years now I have watched and have been a part of her growth as a person and leader. Despite challenges she rises up and continues to amaze me by taking on what she really believes in!

She currently is one of the Primary Age four key team members overseeing two Sunday night services! This is a team very heavy with young leaders and she has moved from be put into a position to really building trust, respect and relationship with them all!

My lesson for leaders from Sarah is: Be Honest.

Let your yes be yes, and if you have to say no, say it! I am never in doubt about how Sarah is feeling or coping with life and ministry – can your pastor/leader/oversight say the same about you?

Rock on Sarah!