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

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

As an example, check out the blog entry below (originally written for Buckhead Church’s blog site - http://blog.buckheadchurch.org). This was written by one of our trip leaders (Carolyn Norton) who recently led a trip to a church we work with in Spain. Our trip leaders are essential to a successful trip. Many team members never even meet a staff person, but they trust and rely on their team leaders completely. We are so thankful for people like Carolyn, who choose to lead trip teams over and over again because they have such a passion for impacting people overseas and a desire for people to know what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Reasons to go on a mission trip to SPAIN:

When someone says they are going to Spain, thoughts of beaches, bullfights, ornate cathedrals, siestas and sangria often come to mind.  But the last thing people think of is doing a mission trip there!  So when I told people that I was going to be leading a mission trip to Vilanova, Spain for my third time in May, you can imagine the questions that followed.  “WHY SPAIN?” is often everyone’s top question.  So let me take a moment to answer that for you.

Many people choose places in Africa or South America for mission trips, and for good reason.  But you don’t typically think of Spain as a place that needs more “missionaries” or even churches.  In reality, Spain DOES need more people to be a part of God’s “bigger plan” for their country as much as any other country!  To give you a little background… Spain endured a long period of enforced Catholicism under the rule of General Franco. When Franco left power, faith had largely become a cultural issue for the population. The emergence of a strong post-Modernist culture in Western Europe did little to help the situation.  Now, there is a spiritual void in Spain, as religion and church are considered irrelevant to today’s culture, and less than 1% of the population are protestant Christians.  In addition, with the recent arrival of a large and thriving Muslim population in Spain, there is a strong sense of urgency for existing Christians to seize the opportunity to reach a very disenfranchised and passive culture.  So, yes, there are beautiful, ornate Catholic churches all over the country, just as you might imagine, but most of them are empty, especially void of those in my generation, many of whom no longer believe in anything because of what they’ve been told to believe in the past.  There is no praise or worship, and certainly the majority of Spaniards have never heard of what it means to have a “relationship” with Christ.

But that concept is changing, thanks to churches like Iglesia Cristiana del Garraf - the church we served in Vilanova (just outside of Barcelona).  Much like Buckhead Church, they too have a vision to help others “build a growing relationship with Jesus Christ” and present a church environment with relevant messages, where people will feel welcome and loved.  I believe the Lord is accomplishing that mission in this small church in Vilanova, Spain because I have seen it first hand!  In the past year, since my last trip there, their church has grown from 40 to about 60 consistent attendees, which makes it one of the largest Protestant churches in Spain!  That is a huge praise, but there are still over 80,000 “unreached” people in the surrounding area (and almost 42 million more around the country) who DON’T know Christ yet.  There’s more work to be done!

So that’s why I signed up this year to go to Spain for my third mission trip.  God blessed me with a team of 8 other committed people ready to encourage and support the church in Vilanova.  So from May 15-26, we worked with Iglesia Cristiana del Garraf, to help with some of their most immediate desires/needs including:
a.     Training “Starting Point” leaders
b.    Training small group leaders
c.    A service project with their church and our team (reaching out to help the local community)
d.    A RETREAT (weekend get-away with the whole church, to learn more about how to build community within their church and with outsiders)
e.    Prayer and Connections (building relationships, with each other and GOD)

It was an amazing experience, and I would love to talk to anyone considering a mission trip there or wondering how to get more involved.  We have a partner church in Sevilla as well, which is another great trip from what I hear.  Please continue to pray for the country of Spain and especially for these two special churches in Vilanova and Sevilla, who are trying to build a church community where people grow spiritually and come to know the love of Christ.  Specifically at ICG (Vilanova) they need prayers for God to bring forth a pastor for their church (they are currently without one) and funds for a new church building that they are trying to finish. ¡Gracias por tomar el tiempo para leer sobre y rezan para el movimiento de Dios en España!
To learn more about Iglesia Cristiana del Garraf or read about our mission trips to Spain, check out these links:  http://www.spainupdates.blogspot.com and http://www.iglesiadelgarraf.com