Whose voice are the people in your ministry listening to? The voice of the Holy Spirit, or yours? I came to conclude early on that I actually have the powers of persuasion. I have the ability to speak and act in such a way that I can get people to do things that I would [...]
When I first started in Children’s Ministry, I decided to change the way that we did Sunday school. I inherited an old school way of doing Sunday school, with two teachers for 45 students in a classic classroom style setting. It was very teacher centered with these two teachers being the only adults in the [...]
All of us in ministry desire to please the people that we shepherd. Part of pleasing them involves letting them know what we want to do, our future vision, and future ideas. As these ideas and visions are shared, people begin to attach and latch on to those things that you bring to the table. [...]
As a leader it is important to understand that gaining input from those you lead helps them to feel as if they are part of the vision. By giving their input they feel as though they are taking a part in the shaping the future of the ministry. Giving people a say will give them [...]
If you think you are leading and yet no one is following, you are just taking a walk. Emotional intelligence is a key characteristic in any leadership role. Understanding people and understanding the nuanced ways to see whether or not people are following your leadership is a critical role in the ministry. A leader needs [...]
St. Augustine said to “Know Thyself” What type of a leader are you? One of the most important things you can do for the health and benefit of the ministry that you lead is to know yourself. Do you understand your SHAPE for ministry? SHAPE is a wonderful acronym that stands for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, [...]
Identify the faithful few in your ministry and invite them to greater involvement. There are many categories of people that you serve with in your ministry area. Can you identify individuals that you could call to greater levels of involvement? Before you identify the faithful few in your ministry ready to be called for greater [...]
How are you spending your one and only life? Eternity is a long time. Years ago, our country was split into two parts, the North and the South. Imagine an individual living in the south knew for a fact that the south was going to lose the war. He knew that a new era was [...]
When recruiting, don’t oversell the sacrifice. Share the opportunity to make an impact on the Kingdom of God. So many leaders walk into the recruiting conversation apologetic and sheepish. They come to the conversation feeling like they are a bad person that is taking something away from this potential volunteer. As they present their ideas, [...]
Ministry leaders can easily fall prey to shiny, silver objects. It is all too easy to be taken off track and derailed from a very critical strategy simply because a shiny object has appeared in the periphery. When you begin to pursue this peripheral opportunity, you get yanked off track. Think of your strategy as [...]