We have a problem at our Browns Bridge church. It’s the kind of problem that can turn a guest’s great experience into a bad experience. Mom and dad can love our worship service. Little Johnny can love UpStreet. Little Suzy can love Waumba Land. And that positive feeling can go away by what happens next.

Traffic. When we built Browns Bridge, we only built one exit off the campus. Trying to move guests off the campus in a safe and timely manner is not easy. We have had traffic engineers, traffic experts, Parking Team volunteers, and many others give us feedback and ideas. The bottom line is we’re doing the best we can with what we have. Traffic is a “combustion point” we deal with every Sunday.

Combustion point is a term Disney uses to define…

“spots where even a finely tuned process can break down and, instead of contributing to a positive customer experience, begin to turn a guest’s good day into a bad one. It’s impossible to completely eliminate combustion points, but the goal is to stop them from turning into explosion points.” (*page 24)

Can you guess Disney’s combustion points? One are the long lines guests stand in waiting for a ride or attraction. Another is a guest remembering where they parked their vehicle at the end of a long day. Good experiences can turn bad at these points.

It is important that your church identifies your combustion points. Disney says look for those places where guests…

• complain consistently
• get stuck in your systems
• have common issues and problems

Traffic is not Browns Bridge’s only combustion point. Another example is the time it takes to join a small group. We officially only have four times each year when people can join a small group (two GroupLinks and two Access Group seasons.) This means people often have to wait to get into a small group. Combustion point.

If you’re still having trouble determining what your church’s combustion points are, Disney has found that combustion points are commonly found in four areas:

1. guest flow
2. staff/volunteer-to-guest communication
3. guests with special needs
4. poor process design

A combustion point in your church could be how guests register for your kid’s environments or how you communicate with guests who want to volunteer. It could be any number of things. It’s important that you identify them. Maybe you can eliminate the problem. Maybe you can soften the combustion point by making the experience less painful.

People lead your church. And people attend your church. It will never be perfect. There are systems and processes that frustrate your guests. Your guests are aware of them. Are you? What can you do to create a better experience for them?

* For more information and discussion on combustion points and other Guest Services topics, see the Disney Institute’s book Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service.

1.     Which gauges should we be watching?

At a glance, the right set of gauges can tell you a lot about the health of your organization. Knowing the right three or four to watch is critical. Your mission and vision should help narrow your focus to the numbers that matter. For us, attendance is an obvious one. But if we focus only on attendance, we won’t get a complete picture. If your church’s strategy requires small group involvement, then the ratio of small group participation to Sunday attendance is a gauge. If personal ministry is critical in your model, then your “leader to attendee” ratio is critical. A regular glance at the right gauges can keep your organization on track for the long haul.

2.     Where are we manufacturing energy?

Is there a ministry area where you have to pretend a little bit-an area that once generated results and excitement but now requires you to manufacture energy?

This question quickly exposes those areas that need to be retooled or replaced altogether. Often this will free up much needed time and money for truly effective ministry.

3.     Who needs to be sitting at the table?

Good decisions require good input. Ask yourself, “Whose input do I need to make the best decision possible?” Then cut through the red tape and ignore the org chart to make sure those people have seats at the table.

We all have different skills and talents. There are people you’ll want to brainstorm with, but who would be horrible in the “get it done” meeting, while others will shine while implementing. Understand who on your team fits where and make sure they are at the right table at the right time.

4.     Who is not keeping up?

No one likes to ask this question. It’s painful. But it’s inevitable that as your organization hits 60 mph, there will be some still moving at 45 mph.

As painful as this question is, the truth is that other people already know the answer. They are wondering if you know. Accommodating people who are falling behind hurts the organization, dishonors those people, and will ultimately keep them from finding their areas of success.

5.     Where do I make the greatest contribution to the organization?

As leaders, we are often tempted to try to do everything. Generally this leads to widespread failure. We must ask ourselves where we add the most value. In other words, “What do you do that only you can do?” There may be more than one thing that you do well.

Once you’ve answered this question, your goal should be to spend the majority of your time doing the things that make the greatest contribution. Young leaders, this takes time. Usually years. Sometimes decades. But when the time comes and you are in a position to control your time, will you know where to invest it?

6.     What should I stop doing?

Once you’ve answered question five, this answer should be clear. You have to make the tough decision to stop doing some things, even things you enjoy doing, if they don’t add value.

Regularly asking these six questions will help keep your organization healthy and on track.

To hear more from Andy on this topic, subscribe to the free Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, available on iTunes.

Leaders are always looking for energizing leadership principles to apply in their contexts. It gives them something to focus on, teach their teams, and further their missions. However, the leadership principle discussed in this post is not one of these principles. This one is not motivating and is extremely difficult to apply. When not applied, however, it can be deadly to your organization.

In part one of this post, we said it’s always easier to work around someone or hire around someone than it is to remove him or her. Personnel changes can be messy and painful, but they are a necessary part of a healthy organization. There is a leadership principle that applies to these situations, but it is not for the faint of heart.

The principle: Always sacrifice the one for the many, never the many for the one.

The objections are obvious. “But isn’t that insensitive? It sounds heartless.” And while it may seem that way at first glance, it is actually insensitive to the many to refuse to deal with the one. Everyone benefits when everyone contributes. And everyone suffers when one person is not fully contributing. Refusing to apply this principle will negatively impact the morale and health of your organization.

“Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people.”

- Good to Great by Jim Collins

It is also insensitive to the one to keep him or her in a position that hinders the progress of the organization. To work around the one is dishonoring to the one. Everyone knows what is happening. Eventually, the one knows it as well. Intentionally or unintentionally, we should be careful to never embarrass or frustrate someone. To work around the one also robs him or her of future opportunities. Freeing their futures allows them to move on to a better job fit.

When you sacrifice the many for the one, nobody wins-ultimately.

When you sacrifice the one for the many, everybody wins-eventually.

Individuals who negatively influence the organization must be removed or reassigned. This principle stands at the center of all we believe as Christians. God sacrificed the one, Jesus, for the many, humanity. As is always the case, the decision turned out to be in the best interests of the one and the many.

Either way, someone is going to be disappointed.

Will it be one or many?

Either way, someone is going to be mad.

Will it be the people you can least afford to have mad at you?

Either way, only a few will understand exactly why you did what you did.

Will you bear the burden that, with time, will become clear?

In the last post, we talked about what to do with guests who arrive late to your worship service. It is more of a tension to manage than a problem to solve. In response to that post, Deni from LCBC in Pennsylvania asked,

“Our question is why do we have the crowd that leaves early, during the last song or after the message? It is such a distraction to many and can really break an individual’s personal connection to the moment.”

We wrestle with the same issue. Guests leave early for a variety of reasons:

• They want to beat the traffic.
• They want to get to lunch.
• They need to get somewhere by a certain time.
• They are not engaged during the end of the service.

We don’t do a closing song every Sunday. Oftentimes, the communicator will end the sermon with a prayer and dismiss everyone. At times, someone will add a brief announcement after the prayer then dismiss everyone. On these Sundays, we may have a very small number of guests leave the service early.

But on the Sundays we do have a closing song, we do have an issue with guests leaving early. From time to time, our communicator will simply ask people to not leave early. Even when we do that, we still have some guests who leave. It can be frustrating. Those guests are missing out on the complete worship experience that was created for them. They may be distracting other guests as they leave. They may even be distracting or discouraging the musicians.

From a Guest Services perspective, there may not be much you can do to prevent them from leaving early. It’s important that you treat them like you would all other guests who stay for the entire service. Give them the same good-bye you give all of your guests. Don’t assume they know they are being a distraction. They may have a very good reason to leave early that particular Sunday.

Most likely, the team that can do the most about this tension is the team in charge of planning the worship service. While it may not be a solvable problem for them, they may have the most influence in trying to keep the guests at their seats. They are doing all they can to make sure the end of the service is so engaging that guests do not want to miss it. The reality, though, is there will always be some guests who leave early.

Guests don’t always behave exactly like we want them to. It can be irritating. It can cause challenges. But when you make your guests feel valued regardless of what time they arrive or leave, everyone wins! You are accomplishing your church’s mission in the lives of more people. People tell their friends about the places that make them feel valued. As a result, others will come to experience your church and its mission.

That’s right, North Point Media is looking for found a junior summer design intern!

Are you a gifted young designer looking to get a little real world experience? Do you desire to have your work critiqued in a way that pushes you to be a better designer than you are? If so, this is for you. You’ll be clicking, dragging, learning, growing and if nothing else, walking away a better designer with a better portfolio. It’s a chance to be a part of the process of creating irresistible environments.

➤ Responsibilities

You will be getting to create a plethora of versions of current artwork—maintain artwork and our branding integrity. You will be a part of designing everything from print, screen, web, and e-mail design. Your responsibility will grow as you show growth in your capability and successes.

➤ Internship Details

• Proficiency in Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign
• Motion & 3D a plus but not required.
• Submission Deadline: May 1, 2012
• Internship Duration: 8-Weeks
• Submit your résumé & portfolio of work to: media@northpointministries.net

Update: We’ve found our intern and are excited about what lies ahead! Thank you all for your interest , retweets, and recommendations.

I’m sure everyone who works in the church world understands the unique, all-hands-on-deck, pull-out-all-the-stops scramble that comes with Easter preparation. This one Sunday is by far the highest-attended, most consistent day of the year for us. We know we’ll have more guests than usual, we know generally what the message will be about, and we know the emotion associated with this day for Christians. Around here we refer to it as our Super Bowl, and it certainly feels that way.

This year, as our programming team began brainstorming what we would do for this special service, the thing we kept coming back to was that we wanted people to feel welcome. Even if this is the first and only time they set foot in a church this year, we wanted each of our attendees to feel at ease and accepted from the very beginning of the service.

In the end, we decided on a concept that followed a family through a rushed Sunday morning getting ready for church. We thought this was a fairly universal experience that people could relate to and connect with—some people may have even experienced it that very morning (probably not to this extent). We struggled back and forth through several versions with the ending—trying to convey the right emotions without making it feel too cheesy—but what we ended up with seemed to balance the extremes well.

All five of our campuses used the video a little bit differently, but across the board we felt like it accomplished our goal of engaging people at the start of the service, having a little fun, and communicating that everyone is welcome as they are.

A big shout out to David Roberston for his leadership on this project. He saw it through to the finish, but so many people on our team were involved in make this idea a reality. From shooting, to editing, to graphics, to sound design, it was a huge team effort to bring a little something to special to such an important day. Hope you enjoy it!

What about your church? How did you approach the big day?

What’s best for your organization is not always what’s easiest for you, the leader. Instead of making difficult changes, we often put them off or avoid them all together. One such change is a personnel change. It’s always easier to work around or hire around people than it is to remove them. Personnel changes can be messy and painful, but they are a necessary part of a healthy organization.

Any number of factors can lead to a personnel change:

• An individual fails morally or ethically.
• A financial downturn forces broad reevaluation of personnel.
• A position outgrows an employee.
• An individual doesn’t fit the culture of the organization.
• An individual demonstrates a poor work ethic.

Situations like these oftentimes make it easy to determine when a personnel change needs to happen. Although the change itself will present a challenge, it will be clear that a change needs to be made.

What about those not-so-clear situations? How do you determine when a personnel change needs to happen when the situation is not black and white? These gray situations often begin with an ongoing, nagging suspicion about a person. Pay attention to those feelings. In Good To Great, Jim Collins suggests asking two questions when these nagging suspicions begin:

• Would I hire this person again?
• If he or she quit, would I secretly be relieved?

Your honest answers to these questions can help you determine if a change is needed. Your answers will bring clarity. They may also help you realize a change is not needed. Maybe the person just needs coaching through a situation or there is just a difference in personalities.

Personnel changes are difficult. There is always tension leading up to the change and there is always an aftermath. But leaders who want to create a healthy work culture must deal with personnel changes from time to time. Knowing when to do so is critical.

In part two we will share a principle that will help you when it’s time to make a personnel change. It is very difficult to apply, but not applying it can prove deadly to your organization.

A few weeks ago we met with all of our KidMin staff and brainstormed for 30 minutes on free or nearly free ways we can appreciate our volunteers. Our goal was to come up with 100 ideas!

After I took out the duplicate ideas or ideas that did not meet our “nearly free” criteria we didn’t quite reach 100. But I’m thinking with your help we will reach it easily.

Leave your idea in the comments below!

100 Ways to Appreciate Volunteers:

1.    Volunteer Picnic

2.    Andy Stanley does your voicemail greeting “This is ___’s voicemail and he’s an awesome volunteer.”

3.    CG in the Main Service recognizing this volunteer

4.    Flash Mob

5.    Button to wear

6.    Backstage Pass for Main Service

7.    ”The Kelsey” award (Our Waumba Host is Kelsey & she would recognize in large group.)

8.    Decorate classroom or doorway for birthdays

9.    Lake Potluck Cookout

10.  Sunday Morning Starbucks run for a volunteer

11.  Facebook updates

12.  Wall of fame - post pics

13.  Walk of fame - they walk through a tunnel of high fives and cheers

14.  Free T-Shirt

15.  Wow Trophy - you make a great crazy trophy award and present on Sunday

16.  Phone Call Appreciation

17.  Personal Shuttle Service to and from car

18.  Acknowledge Anniversaries (both volunteer anniversaries & personal)

19.  Volunteer crown of honor

20.  Volunteer Team Picture

21.  Personal Delivery (of something they love)

22.  Furniture on a Sunday for small group (Our small groups sit on the floor. Furniture for a group or group leader would stand out.)

23.  Serenade from worship

24.  iTunes gift card

25.  Text Messages (Pics from Sunday)

26.  Bulletin Board

27.  Write a song about them

28.  Homemade goodies

29.  Public recognition

30.  Sunday off

31.  Free car wash during service

32.  Impromptu Treats

33.  Their own segway (we must know someone to borrow this from?)

34.  Personal visit (bring coffee to their house our office)

35.  Connections gift card (Our bookstore)

36.  Surprise Mariachi Band (sombreros required)

37.  One-on-one meetings/time

38.  Invite them out to spend time away from church

39.  Meet volunteers and kids at a park

40.  Play and cookout

41.  Birthday hat

42.  Reed Porter “awesome volunteer” report (Reed Porter is a KidStuf character. We shoot video of him almost every month so we would shoot a quick shout out to a volunteer while doing that.)

43.  Team thank you note

44.  Redbox code

45.  Favorite drink

46.  Tweets

47.  Somehow serve them

48.  Homemade cookies

49.  Social at your house

50.  Reed Porter “voicemails”

51.  Pray for volunteer

52.  Valentines with pictures of kids from their small group

53.  Game night

54.  Record rest of the team praising them & email them that week.

55.  Lunch with Lead Pastor

56.  Personalize monogram notebook (hand drawn)

57.  Celebrating people in Sunday’s meetings

58.  High 5

59.  Flair (buttons they wear on their lanyards)

60.  Prayer requests

61.  Jibjab Volunteer appreciation using staff

62.  Written words of affirmation

63.  Hugs

64.  Balloons on Sunday

65.  Letter magnets on fridge in Volunteer Central celebrating a volunteer

66.  Highlight on chalkboard in Volunteer Central

67.  ”Secret Service” escort throughout a Sunday morning

68.  Singing telegram

69.  Intentional help with a move or something like that

70.  Favorite Candy

71.  Email Bible verse

72.  Hallmark E-Card

73.  Recorded iPhone Video

74.  Individual breakfast

75.  Candy Gram

76.  Picture (of them serving their small group or in their roll)

77.  Double ply Charmin in dressing room (apparently this is a problem in the KidStuf greenroom)

78.  Conversation

79.  $5 Starbucks card

80.  Evite Cards

81.  Flowers

82.  Visit from Andy/Lead Pastor

83.  Trivia posted about that person

84.  Waumba Wish (Grant a wish)

85.  Favorite things (Gather a list of their favorite things and bring one of them in)

86.  Birthday cupcakes

87.  Give them colorful shoe laces.

88.  Take a picture of them with their kids and post on Facebook.

89.  Tell parents what a GREAT volunteer they are as parents arrive to pick up their child.

90.   Ask parents to write notes to this volunteer & present them in a gift bag.

91.  Call their spouse and thank them for supporting this volunteer as they serve. Tell them about all of the great volunteer qualitites you see in their spouse.

92.  Take volunteer’s picture with your mascot and post it. (Grizzle Dizzle from KidStuf.)

93.  Write a cheer for this volunteer. Send it home with kids to learn. Let kids perform it on the stage for their volunteer leader.

94.  Write a “You Rock” song (simple and silly with motions), record it simply in house and send it out to all of the kids. Let them perform it on the stage for their volunteer leader.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with some leaders from different states about Guest Services in their churches. During the conversation, I learned something very interesting. We’re not the only church to which people come very late. Apparently, people all over the United States arrive late to church every Sunday. Do you have this “problem” in your church? We do.

How do you handle the people who arrive late to your church? Before we answer that question, maybe we should ask ourselves a different question. Anytime you are trying to determine if there is a problem to solve or a tension to manage, it’s important you see the big picture. There is a question that can help you see the situation through the eyes of the guest: Why are they late?

This is an important question to ask because it helps you see each latecomer as a story and not just a person who walked in late. Maybe they were late because…

• it was their first time coming to your church. They didn’t know there would be traffic or that it would take so long to check-in to your children’s environments.
• they are always late. Some people just naturally run late.
• something specific made them late that morning. Maybe their car wouldn’t start or one of their kids didn’t cooperate.
• they wanted to be late. They were intentionally late because they don’t love your music, but they do love your preaching.
• they didn’t know what time you started. You don’t communicate your service times as well as you think you do.

The truth is you don’t know why they were late. But it’s important we see them as a story and not as a problem.

So, this Sunday when the service has already started and in walk the latecomers, what are you going to do? Admit it. A little part of you wants to drop a hint what time the service started and make them feel a little guilty for not being on time. But when you remember they are a story and not a problem, you will respond differently.

No matter what time a guest walks into your church on Sunday, treat them the same way you treated every guest who came before them. Welcome them as if they arrived 10 minutes before the service started. Help them feel valued by assisting them. If they mention they were late, respond, “You’re not late. You’re right on time.” Treat them as a story not a problem.

Last week we gathered all of the KidMin staff from each campus together for a two-day retreat. We learned, listened, planned, created, laughed, and played. It was a great couple of days!

The purpose of this retreat was to help our teams across campuses build relationships and share ideas. We know that collectively we have the potential to accomplish a lot more. We also know that if there are not strong relationships across campuses, there will be friction and frustration.

We can’t eliminate all frustration, but we can build healthy teams that are capable of working through the differences to get the best end result.

Ultimately…we are better together!

Here’s what it looked like:

DAY 1

Session 1: Welcome & Quiet Time

During this session we talked about the power of working together. We introduced the 5-1 concept, and we discussed how our own spiritual health will influence the health of our team.

We gave out the book Enemies of the Heart, and wrote a personal quiet time for everyone to get alone, and do some “heart” work.

Session 2: Strength Finders

Every director met with their team and played a game to learn more about their teammate’s strengths. We give this test to everyone who works on our teams.

Lunch and Learn

We placed our staff in groups of two or three people from other campuses that they might not normally get to talk to. We gave them three questions to discuss, and sent them around town to have lunch together.

Session 3: Fall Kick Off Breakouts

Every fall we “kick off” the new school year with a big event. We mixed up all of our teams and broke into several smaller groups to talk about specific topics related to this event. We discussed things like: break outs for small group leaders, how we should train new worship leaders, what we should give the new volunteers, and what production elements to include.

Session 4: Grief and Kids

We invited a counselor who works primarily with children to talk to our staff about helping kids who are grieving. Grief happens when there is any loss. It could be a move to new city, a new school, a death, a divorce, or the loss of a pet. Great practical advice!

Drive to Gwinnett Church

At 4:30pm we all jumped in our cars and drove 30 miles to our newest campus. This is a building we are sharing with another church. Many of our staff hadn’t seen it yet. It was a great field trip. We ate dinner and toured around the building together.

UpStreet Large Group @ Gwinnett Church

Fun Surprise!

The team that plays together stays together! We had everyone bring workout clothes, and we surprised them with a fun night at Sky Zone. The pictures say it all.

DAY 2

Session 5: Difficult Conversations

One of our staff walked our teams through the importance of having difficult conversations. He gave us a great step-by-step guide for handling these kinds of discussions with integrity and hope for growth. He gave great examples and really challenged our team to lead through difficult conversations well. (I’ll post more on that later!)

Session 6: 100 Ways to Appreciate Volunteers

During this session, we had every table brainstorm as many free or almost free ways to appreciate volunteers. We did this quickly and placed them all on a creative board. It was great and got our brains rolling for the next session. (I’ll post these ideas later this week.)

Session 7: Breakouts

During this session, we broke our team up into small groups and began planning together for the following: Volunteer Appreciation Plan 2012-2013, Volunteer Training Plan 2012-2013, Look & Feel for Summer in Waumba Land & UpStreet, and KidStuf Fall Changes.

Session 8: Family Ministry Covenant & Volunteer Website

We wrapped up the retreat talking about two things:

Family Ministry Covenant: This is the covenant we give to new volunteers who want to serve with us. We did some coaching on how to communicate this during orientations, and took questions concerning how to handle any conversations that might arise from this.

Volunteer Website: We are launching a new website for all of our volunteers this month. We showed everyone the site, answered questions, and heard feedback.

Then we all said “Good Bye”!

We had fun together, got to know each other better, got some planning done, and learned a whole bunch in the process!

I wish you could know this team like I do! They are the best!