This week we have been brainstorming the content for a new website for our Strategic Partners. We want to offer helpful content. We don’t want to waste time giving them stuff that they don’t need.
During these meetings, we really tried to put ourselves in their shoes. You know those “I don’t have a building”, “money is tight”, “we’re starting from scratch,” kinda shoes.
The truth is that several of us have been in those shoes at one time or another. We know that those are exciting, exhausting, and rewarding days.
If we were starting from scratch tomorrow, here is the first thing we would focus on:
1. Leaders
You and I both know that when an amazing team surrounds you, you can accomplish more than you imagined. Obstacles don’t seem quite as overwhelming. Heavy workloads seem more doable.
Finding leaders is a discipline that takes time. We have found that whenever we are starting anything new we always start by finding the key leaders that will be a part of the team.
I wish I could give you a magical method for finding these leaders. But, our best leaders are found one by one. We meet them for lunch. We hang out. We have fun. We talk. We shop. We work on something together with them. We invest in a relationship.
Practical Tip: Decide on your leadership needs and place a 3×5 card on a large foam board with each position, job title and your name. The truth is that until you find that person…it’s you! Every time you find and place a new leader, replace the old card with their name.
This will motivate you to find new leaders…one at a time. This will also help you visually see progress. Before you know it, you will have a team!
There are two other major areas that we focus on when starting from scratch. We’ll talk about those in part 2.
Many of you are in the thick of it right now! You are building a new ministry from the ground up. We would love to learn from your experience, so share the knowledge!
What do you focus on when you are starting from scratch?
June 25th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
I would say we also focused on leaders. Structure (roles and such) and curriculum took a lot of focus then as well.
We just tried something to help recruit more existing volunteers into serving in a bigger leadership role, specifically as Coaches. Our Coach level leadership has been weak for a while.
Something that was posted on here a few months ago gave me the idea. We had a 6 week group designed to help people figure out what dream/purpose God may have for their life. That can sound cheesy, but the main thing was helping people discover their giftedness, personality, past experiences, values, and other things to get a clearer picture of what God may be calling them to. We mostly used the Chazown book as our guide.
So far 2 of the people from the group have stepped up to be Coaches, and they’ll be great ones. I’m hoping we’ll get 1-2 more, but really the group was great for them and that’s what was most important. I was actually a little surprised at how well received it was. It was all children’s ministry volunteers we hand picked and wrote individual invitations to. I think they really enjoyed the process, and also enjoyed getting to know each other more.
Thanks for the inspiration!
July 7th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Nick,
This is a great idea! We were just talking as a team about this idea of hosting a leadership dinner with the purpose of sharing content that would develop them. AND ask them to bring a friend/leader that they think would benefit. Our hope was to begin developing and finding a few more key leaders.
I like your idea even better! Thanks for sharing.
K