One thing I've not been doing that will destroy my team and our future.

I am a leader with a lot of goals and things I want to accomplish in life. If you are reading this I have no doubt that you are the same way.  

As leaders with strong vision and goals, we typically spend more time trying to get results than we do serving and developing people. I believe Zig Ziglar once said, "It is not our job to build a business, it is our job to build people". 

I like to think that I truly care about people, (I mean I am a Pastor for crying out loud), however, when I look at my schedule, what I talk about, and what I am aiming for, when I'm honest with myself I think I measure results more than I measure how my team members are doing. 

This is something I need to change.

Maybe it's something you need to work on as well. 

Because building people is our primary goal as leaders, might I suggest that we do something we may not have been doing ... slow down and take time to ASSESS how the individuals under our care are really doing. 

I recently finished reading "How successful people lead" by John Maxwell, in it he gives a list of questions that I am going to begin to ask myself before the training meetings that I do with my direct reports. 

Here are some questions to help us assess our team members: 

Where are thy doing incredibly well right now?

Where do they seem to be failing?

What are their blind spots?

What does my intuition tell me is off in their thinking right now?

What is holding them back from reaching or hitting their potential?

Who might be a negative influence in their life?

Where do they do well?

Where do they typically stumble?

I would love to hear from you! Comment below to add any questions you ask yourself about your team on a regular basis. 

What do you do when your service sucked?

We make sure everything looks great on our social media posts. The room looks full. The stage looks amazing. The people look like they are having a blast. But lets be honest. Every message isnt epic. Every gathering isn't packed. Every service isn't amazing. Sometimes the worship was flat, the message was off, people are bored, and something that sounded great in a creative meeting, just didn't work. 

You probably can't tell it by my Instagram photos, but I've had more, "that was horrible" moments in ministry than I care to remember. So after 25 years of great services, good services, and "what in the world world" just happened services. I thought I would talk about the 10 things we do when our service sucked. 

1. Remind ourself of the "win".

Every time we have a service that is subpar, we get together as a team and remind ourself of why we do services in the first place. We gather together on a weekly basis to "Bring people to Jesus and help them live like Him".  In order to do this our services need to be "remarkable" and "life altering". Our worship and message needs to be so good, powerful, or thought provoking that people will leave not only remarking to friends about what they experienced but most importantly begin to change the way they live. 

2. Be honest.

When we gather together as a team we have to trust each other enough to be completely honest about what happened. Nothing will change without an open and honest discussion about what we did that was not remarkable and life altering. 

3. Celebrate the wins. 

Some things did not work, but some things did. We don't want to focus only on the losses of the day. We want to take some time to celebrate the wins. Maybe someone came to the church that had not attended in a long time, accepted Jesus as their Savior, or starting serving behind the scenes. These are huge wins. They might not change the fact that our message was flat, but they did build momentum in some way and they deserve to be celebrated. 

4. Fix at least one thing before the next service. 

Some things that go wrong are going to take some time to get right. But most weeks can be fixed with small tweaks. We don't ever want to procrastinate, we want to be proactive. So we fix at least one thing before our next gathering. 

A few years ago we had an exceptionally bad weekend. The worship was flat. The message was subpar. The attendance was down and our offering was low. So I text a ministry friend to see if he had any advice on how to bounce back from a tough weekend. The following three points are some tips that he gave me. We have applied them ever since.  

5. Realize it wasn't as bad as you thought. 

Because we are so invested in what we do, we look at it way more critically than others. Sometimes we are much tougher on ourselves than we should be. When the service is off a bit, we want to be honest about it but also realize it probably wasn't as bad as it seemed. 

6. Know that one bad service will not kill you. 

Jesus said that he will build His church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. If Hell itself will not stop the Kingdom of God, I doubt that bad song selection in one church service will stop God from redeeming the world. One bad service will not kill us. 

7. Keep your head up. 

Don't pout. Don't sulk. Don't put your head down. We are leaders. We can't lead anyone anywhere with our head down. We need to keep our head up and lead our church, lead our people, and lead our team. 

Making Jesus known to the world is the most important work taking place on planet earth. Because of that ... 

8. Don't Quit. 

Don't quit striving for excellence. Jesus deserves your best. Your people deserve your best. Don't have a "poor me" mentality and quit when times get tough. 

9. Do better next time. 

Regroup. Be honest. Fix problems. Do better next time. It's just simple. 

10. Remember it's never about us. 

It's not about our guitar solo. It's not about our funny story. It's not about our chance to shine on stage. The reason for gathering together is to bring people to Jesus and help them begin to live like Him.  When we have a bad service, we need to remember it's not and never will be been us.  

I hope this has helped. Now go do something great this week for Jesus!

If you want to get more practical advice for you and your entire team check out Youth Ministry University . 

Four things great team members NEVER do.

I've had the honor of serving in ministry for more than 25 years. After serving on several teams with a multitude of leaders. Here are four things that I've observed that great team members never do. 

1. Never despise the days of small beginnings.

Big trees always start small. Great team members dig deep roots and continue to grow!

2. Never promote someone that has not proven themselves in small things.

The mission is too important. Teams don't need people, they need the right people.

3. Never try to do accomplish anything on their own.

Anyone who accomplished something of value, didn't do it alone. They had great partners. 

4. Never focus more on style than substance. 

Great teammates work more on how things actually are, than how they look. 

 

Three areas that are killing your leadership and mine.

I want to have significance in my life not just success. So the past few years I have been doing a lot of introspective thinking. Looking at areas I am strong, as well as being open and honest about areas that I am weak and need to improve.  

In this desire to take the lid off my leadership and make the most of the one life I have been given; I've discovered three areas where I have often dropped the ball throughout the years. My guess is, these are areas you struggle with as well. 

So I hope you will continue reading and maybe we can grow together. 

1 - EGO 

If we are honest with ourselves we know that we do not have all the answers. We know deep down that we are more successful when we get get input from and work together with other people. We know that winning is a team effort. But in order for this to happen we have to check out ego at that door. And that is not an easy thing to do. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself, to see if ego is a lid to your leadership. 

Do those around share their thoughts freely with you?

Do the best ideas in your organization come from other people?

When you give an idea, does the conversation quickly turn to running with your idea?

2 - CONTROL

Jack Welch once said, "A leader's role is not to control people or stay on top of things, but rather to guide, energize, and excite". 

This is hard to do when micromanaging or refusing to give authority to others so they can run. When we release those around us to run their race, it frees us up to forge ahead and lead into new areas. 
 

3 - TRUST 

People who say that it is easy to trust have not lead for very long. In leadership, people will drop the ball, they will backstab you, and maybe even leave you hanging high and dry. Because of this many leaders put up a wall around their heart and their to do list. Making the wall higher and higher and their personal to do list longer and longer. 

This is not good for you or your organization. Your heart will be empty because you are alone and your passion will run dry because you are worn out. 

Too many times through the years I would see someone who is gifted in some way and quickly put high expectations on them; thinking they would be able to partner with me and do what needed to be done. More often than not, I would be disappointed and they would be hurt in some way, because they did not live up to my expectations.

What I should have done (and am currently doing) is let people come into my organization (church) get established, get plugged in, and let their faithfulness in small things determine the expectations I place on them and the opportunities I give to them.  This allows them to grow at their own pace and me to build trust along the way. 

Ego. Control. Trust.

These are areas I am trying to improve in. I hope you are as well. 

 

A letter to my younger self.

Kevin, 

You are just starting out. You and Veronica have only been married two years and your first son Jordan has just been born. Before you begin your journey, growing into the man you want to become, I would like to give you some advice.  

You are very driven, and that is good thing, but don’t let your private desire to succeed for Him and make a difference in this world, be the driving force in your life. Even though your intentions are good, if you don’t run this race well, eventually your desire to make a difference could be replaced with a desire to be known… and that is where things could go dreadfully wrong. 

Let the pure pursuit of Jesus in your private life be the driving force of who you are and what you do for Him. You will find out in just a few short years, that success in the public eye will be temporary at best, but what happens in your private times of prayer will give you strength when you are weak and impact your family for years to come. 

Don't ever be afraid or ashamed of doing what others or even yourself may deem as small. You will find that it is the small things that make the biggest impact in you and those that will soon be around you. Simply do what God will call you to do and let Him take care of the size and results. 

As you grow in Christ, leadership, and position. Pay more attention to your father than you do the “rising stars” of the Christian world that you will know and rub shoulders with. 

Some of these men will achieve what most pastors and church leaders aspire to attain. They will all have large churches, nice salaries, and national book deals. Some will speak around the world and have a measure of Celebrity. However, you will soon discover that many will be absolutely miserable. Some will secretly struggle with pornography, others will be unfaithful in their marriage, succumb to addictions or have nervous break downs. These great men in the public eye will struggle greatly in their private life. They will fizzle out by the time they are in their mid 40’s, and begin by Gods grace, the struggle of putting their lives back together. 

Your father on the other hand will be totally different then these men. He will Pastor three churches throughout your life, none of which will ever grow to more than average size. Your Dad will shepherded well, preach the word, and steward money faithfully. 

Your father will never be in the public eye and no articles will ever be written about his ministry. However, when he retires, he will be happily married, in perfect health, run 2 to 4 miles per day, and have no need of medication for any sort of physical or emotional ailment. 

After faithfully serving for 30 years as a Senior Pastor, your father will have left a mark on everyone he had come in contact with. He will have run the race of faith and leadership the way it is supposed to be run. With a pure heart. 

Kevin, over the next several years many people are going to come and go in your life. During this time, watch your father closely. Follow his example, because he will soon be one of the happiest and most content men that you know. 

Never stop serving Veronica. 

Always put your children before your ministry. 

Do what God calls you to do, even when it hurts and you will experience more than you ever dreamed. 

Trust me. The best is yet to come! 

Kevin