Kids

Woo Hoo!

Last week, during one of our busiest Sundays ever, I overheard one of our coaches talking to her team of volunteers. She was telling them that one of their teammates, a high school student, was getting baptized next week during the 11:00 service. She wanted to make sure that everyone on the team knew about it and was there to celebrate!

Wow! That’s what I thought. Wow!

Here was a group of busy adults - going in a million directions - on a crazy Sunday morning - and yet, one of the most important things on that coaches mind was making sure that everyone knew that something amazing was happening in the life of a high school student on their team.

She was letting them know that it was time to celebrate!

Here’s what happens when we celebrate together with the teams we lead:

We communicate what we value. If you really want to know what is important to someone - or  better yet - WHO is important to someone - pay attention to who or what they celebrate.

We paint a clear picture of success. When the leader publicly celebrates a person or event, then they are holding up for all who are watching a very clear picture of what it looks to win. They are showing all of those who are following how they measure success.

We remind the team of what is most important. It is so easy to get caught up in the details and chaos of what is happening around us. It is easy for the daily responsibilities and that long “to do” list to drive what we care about everyday. When you celebrate - you lift people up out of the everyday and shine a light on what matters most.

Here are a few ways that we celebrate what matters most:

Share Stories: Every week in staff meeting we ask this question, “What did you do or experience this week that made you feel successful?” Success = “Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” By celebrating with these stories every week - we consistently define success - in a million different ways - for the entire team.

Baptism Videos: We capture both kid’s and adult’s salvation stories on video and share it on the big screen, right before they are baptized. Our children’s ministry staff always makes a point to be in the audience during Family Birthday Celebration - because these stories remind us of why we do what we do. Many times we bring these videos to staff meeting to share these powerful stories with the whole team. This is our way of holding up and shining a light on what matters most.

Emails: Many times we get some pretty incredible stories from parents and other volunteers through an email. Our staff knows that these kinds of emails are too good to keep to ourselves. Whenever we get them, we make sure that our entire team hears the story and forwards it on. Sometimes we have to be careful to protect the names of the families or ask permission to share their story. But we work hard to help each volunteer and staff member see the part that they play in stories that we get every week.

Celebration needs to be an intentional and systematic part of your DNA. If you wait until that really great story hits ya - you probably won’t have the mechanism in place to celebrate effectively OR you’ll decide that it’s not worth the trouble.

Celebrate what God is doing in you and through you everyday! It’s important to those you lead! It’s important to you!

How do you celebrate the win with your team?