Missions

We recently hosted seven of our globalx Partners and had a few guests for a two day conference called OverDrive immediately following North Point’s Drive Conference. I learned when you have some Moldovans, Macedonians, Estonians, Brazilians, South Africans, Philippinos, Venezuelans and a touch of France and Germany, look out! Things are going to get a little crazy!

We started our two days together with an Amazing Race adventure game on the North Point Community Church campus. It was so much fun to watch each group of five, comprised of people from different countries with different personalities, work together to try to win the race. We had some of the ladies running in high heels faster than some of the guys in tennis shoes! This game was a great way to get them connected with each other right off the bat.

We then dove into what their impressions were of the Drive Conference. Drive was put on by North Point Ministries for more than 2,000 leaders from around the country and world. We spent most of our debriefing time discussing the major points from Andy’s talks in the main sessions. Our partners got to hear how the messages impacted each leader from different parts of the world.

After spending the late morning and early afternoon debriefing Drive, we all headed off for an International Whirly Ball Championship with all of our globalx partners as the participants. It was quite a tournament. Whirly Ball is basically croquet in bumper cars. We had two courts and the teams would finish the game and run to the next game. After some fantastic goals and obnoxious penalties, a champion was crowned and we headed to an evening picnic together. When we have all of our partners in one place, we feel it is so important to have connection time socially as well as time to dive into what’s happening in their ministries and churches.

Friday we got into some new subjects and had people gather in groups related to the area of the church they work in. We split up into communicators, service programming, and people that work in family ministry or administration. We finished up our time hearing about the export tool that some of our staff members at North Point are working on. The tool will be online and will help all of our partnerships, foreign and domestic, to implement different environments in their own churches. It will be a great “How-to” guide.

The globalX team did a great job working together as one to make a great event for our international family. I recently got comments from some of our partners and guests and thought I’d share those with you:

“It was so great to get to know other partners and their team members better.”

“I was encouraged to see and hear some new faces on the block who seem to have really caught the vision, like Lorenzo [France] and Theo [Germany].”

“We really enjoyed having the time to process the DRIVE messages and it was great to interact with other teams as we processed.”

“Our guys really loved the time together at OverDrive. It was great to spend more time with our international partners. It doesn’t feel like they are NP partners, it feels like they are also our own partners.”

“I also loved the way your team seemed to be united and behind the same vision. You could sense it.”

“I guess the best way I can put it , once again we were able to feel how you care and love us as people. That means so much and is the biggest encouragement of all.”

Rod Brown

Like many of you, in the spirit of continual improvement, we at globalX are striving to tweak what we do in order to create a more organized, understandable, and simple system. One of our main strategies in globalX is encouraging and equipping international church leaders who have seen North Point and think this kind of church can work in their country.

We have four stages in our approach to partner development:

1. Prospect

2. Apprentice partner

3. Strategic partner

4. Mobilizing partner

As we have been focusing on these four stages we realized that alignment is crucial as we go forward toward a partner relationship. We’ve discovered that the earlier we can determine alignment, the better it will be not only for us but for the potential partner as well.

In order to determine alignment, we have developed a tool called “The 33 Weeks” that consists of DVDs, MP3s, and books that outline our vision, mission, core values, and practices. We believe these are core to understanding who we are and what we do as a ministry. Many times people visit NP and see the bells, whistles, lights, and more, and think they know what we are about. It’s easy for leaders to get excited when they walk through the doors of NP, but we know that there is more to it than what people see. When international leaders see the “whys” behind the “whats,” they are more equipped to contextualize it in their country. “The 33 Weeks” has been an important tool in determining who to move forward with and who not to move forward with.

What “The 33 Weeks” is intended to do:

1. Inform a prospect about our vision, mission, core values, and practices.

2. Help their core leadership team determine common ground and clarify who they want to be as a church.

Some leaders have realized the direction the church wants to go is not the direction they want to go. Even though this can be difficult, it surfaces misalignment within their team, which is ultimately a positive step.

3. Helps us (globalX and prospect) verify alignment with the North Point model allowing us to move ahead confidently in our relationship.

As this is a new tool we are encouraging our current partners to go through “The 33 Weeks” as well. As Andy has often said to our staff, “Vision leaks.” So it’s important to continue to cast the vision to your core team and the next tier of leadership in order to stay aligned with the direction you’d like to go.

We’ve been using this tool for about a year now and have already seen it be a positive addition to our partner process. If you are interested in going through this tool, we have included the exact steps (the-33-weeks) and encourage you to complete it with your core leadership team.

Last week North Point hosted 2000 people at our Drive Conference. As part of this, globalX had the privilege of hosting many of our international partners throughout the week. We love when they are able to gather together and connect relationally with us as well as with each other. After Drive ended we took two days for OVERDRIVE, a time of processing and connection with church leaders from eight different countries. We debriefed together about what they heard at Drive, had fun with their competitive spirits, socialized, and talked about what the future looks like. It was great to see these 40 people from different countries sharing and praying together, knowing that they all have a similar vision and passion. Here a re a few pictures of their time together.

Trip leaders are a non-negotiable for us. We have to place someone we trust in charge of each team. These leaders deal with logistics, of course, but our desire is that they share our vision of connecting their team members relationally. We believe that this relational connection is the key to a successful team and trip! Recently we asked one of our team leaders to share what he does with his teams. We hope his thoughts below give you some new things to think about. We are certainly gonna take his advice and pass it on to our other leaders.

Relationships are incredibly important to me.  That’s why I’m involved in so many ministries at Buckhead Church.  I feel that God has gifted me with the ability to interact with people for the purpose of encouraging them, motivating them, connecting them, inspiring them, and investing in them.  My focus on globalX trips is first and foremost to create a unified team that is connected emotionally, spiritually, and relationally.  I make sure that the team has already connected and is firing on all cylinders before we even start planning for the trip.  I always reserve the first 3 or 4 meetings for team building, ice breakers, spiritual development (using the field guide), and personality tests.  Testimonies are something that I believe are incredibly important.  In my past experience, I believe that the team really gets to know each other when each team member is able to have space to share their personal story of coming to know Christ.  One of my favorite ice breakers involves play-doh.  I have each team member craft something about themselves or something they enjoy in play-doh and then share it with the group.  It creates a very loose environment at the first meeting.  That’s the other key.  Creating a fun and welcoming environment for the team members.  I also use the team retreat as a way for team members to connect.  I try to do very little trip planning at the retreat.  The weekend consists of team building activities, down time, prayer time, worship time, and testimonies.  One of my favorite team building activities is based on a Food Network show called “Chopped.”  I have the team members split into groups of two.  Each team gets a basket of the same ingredients and then they have 30 minutes to create a meal that will be judged on a number of categories.  This is a fun activity that my past teams have enjoyed.  Other than the retreat, I also build in at least one, if not two, socials for the team prior to the trip.  It’s usually something fun like bowling or a Braves game.

The last thing I will share with you is my reason for leading a trip this year.  It was a tough decision to lead again this year.  I was pretty burned out and felt like I needed at least a year off to recharge my batteries.  I started asking God to provide guidance on whether or not I should lead again this year, but instead of praying selfishly, I asked God to let me know if He wanted me to go and why.  Because a number of guys from my small group were interested in going and because of my desire to continue to pour into them as their small group leader, I felt God showed me the reason that I needed to go: to continue to pour into and disciple a group of younger men who have the potential to be rock stars for Jesus.  I feel incredibly blessed to have 6 younger guys on this trip that are fairly new to faith and are all excited about this experience and what it might mean for their spiritual growth.  I also plan on developing a true apprentice this year.  That’s another reason why I feel like I’m supposed to lead this trip.

If I were to encourage other leaders on how to keep this year’s relational goal in the forefront of their mind, I would focus on the following:

1. For the first few meetings, focus on team building and ice breakers.  Do very little trip planning.  It’s okay to talk about the trip and get everyone started on support, but really focus on the team members getting comfortable with each other.  Going through the globalX field guide helps this as well.

2. Plan socials outside of team meetings.

3. Use the team retreat as just that, a retreat.  That time should be focused on team building, testimonies, and really getting a chance to develop that connection and unity that will be so critical when you go overseas.

4. Communication is key.  Friends have told me that they have gone weeks without hearing from their trip leader.  Communication needs to be there from the leader.  That will keep team members informed and make them feel like they are in the loop.

5.  Meet regularly (at least every other week).  This is important.  In order for team members to connect with each other, they need to meet often.  I’ve had friends tell me that their leaders only schedule meetings once a month.  In my experience, that’s not enough.

6. Invest in those that you feel might be seeking to grow spiritually and keep an eye out for opportunities to disciple your team members.  This includes keeping an eye out for a potential apprentice.

At my team’s debrief last year, I remember sitting around a table at lunch and asking the question:  “What will you remember most from this experience?”  Every team member expressed how much they grew individually in their faith and how they all felt incredibly encouraged and loved by each team member.  That’s a big win in my book.

Jeff

If your church sends people on missions trip then I have no doubt you get this question a lot? Do I have to raise support to go? So what do you say when people ask that? Why do we raise support? If someone wants to go on a trip shouldn’t it be up to them to pay for it? And if someone has a heart for another country or a certain people group and a passionate desire to go and serve, but can’t afford to pay for the trip, then isn’t that just too bad, so sad? Hmm, that doesn’t feel quite right, does it?

Check out our latest blog at www.GOglobalX.org for one way to look at it. Click on Stories/Read our Blog.