Small Groups | There's Greatness On Your Team

1 Relational Ninjas

Relationships matter. People matter to God, and it’s our mission in church life to let them know it. For many people in business, networking is the name of the game. A new lead can mean new sales, and income for the business and your family.

For some people, being relational comes easy. For others, it’s a challenge. The great news is it is something we can all do. We can all be relational ninjas.

Here are a few tricks I’ve adopted recently that have helped me organize my time, and focus my strength on networking in just a few minutes per day.

1. Schedule time every day to network. This will look different if you’re in ministry vs. business. Develop a system, and stick to it. Do something every day to reach out to another person. It is the most important appointment on your calendar.

2. Social media is a gift…use it. You have some of the greatest tools available to you of our lifetime, in the way of facebook, twitter, and all other social networks. You can easily stay up to speed with what is going on in people’s lives in just a few minutes a day. Schedule time every day to scan your news feeds, comment on people’s pages and interact. A little here goes a long way.

Support Pastors & church staff – this point should be mandatory. We need to be connected to our churches, on behalf of our lead pastors.

3. Do things you don’t have to do. Why send a thank you note? Because you don’t have to. No one does anymore. So, if you do, you’ll stand out in a big way. The same goes for making a personal phone call, etc. There’s a great, short blog on this by Ben Stroup you’ll love.

4. Return phone calls promptly. Procrastination is a growing trend in our generation, and I’m going to admit I don’t always get it right in this area. This is a symptom of a busy, or out of order, life. But returning communication quickly speaks of your excellence. The same goes with e-mail.

5. Walk slowly through a crowd. In ministry, don’t be so last minute or unprepared, that you spend the whole weekend walking around quickly, accomplishing tasks. Stop and talk with people. In business, add relationships into the pace of your day. Walk slowly through the office, and take time with people.

Let someone know today that they matter to you, and ultimately to God. People are hungrier for this than you may realize.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing to be a relational ninja. How are you building relationships at work or at church?

0 Gas Stations and New Beginnings

I was at a gas station at 6:45 am on new years day (I was washing my car and fueling up for the drive to our Bellevue campus, since I had found out the night before I would be driving our guest speaker to church). As I was paying for my car wash, I asked the lady behind the counter if she had a good new year’s eve. Her response: “What’s the big deal? It’s just another day.” I smiled, and wished her a happy new year all the same. But I left with a strong observation about the power of a new day.

As I grow-up and see more new years roll around, I notice that it’s easy to become immune to the opportunity that a new beginning presents. Sure, we have a new day every day, which provides a sort of new beginning. But only at certain times of the year do we get the benefit of a new season. And that is the opportunity of a new year…the chance to jump into a new season, and really make changes that moves your life forward.

Here are my main focuses for developing my spiritual life in 2012. This is just my list…it’s nothing sacred. But I thought that, by sharing my own list, you might be inspired to write your own (and walk it out).

1. Daily faith declarations. Personally, I love the list from Steven Furtick’s book Sun Stand Still. I’m speaking these over my life. (Contact me if you don’t have this list, and I’ll send it to you).

2. Fasting. Honestly, I never used to consider this in my list. But I completed two 21 day Daniel’s Fasts in 2011, and believe it was the single greatest catalyst in my spiritual life. I’m going to fast a day every month, as well as at least one 21 day Daniel’s fast again (You’ll find some great fast resources by Jentezen Franklin and Awakening 21).

3. Personal small group. The more I’m travelling and working with other churches, the more I’m realizing I need to stay grounded relationally. I’m going to have a personal small group that will be a non-negotiable on my schedule.

4. Giving big. My goal is to add grease to the wheels of my spiritual life, by constantly giving bigger this year than I have before – finances, encouragement, time and talent. My life will be marked by generosity.

5. Study spiritual disciplines. For years now, I’ve been pretty comfortable in my spiritual walk. It’s time to shake it up a bit. I’m going to be reading Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, and implementing a new one in my life every week or so (once I get the previous one down).

I’m not writing this post in order to sound really spiritual. That’s not the point, and it’s far from the truth. I just want to be healthy…because healthy things grow. The goal of all of this is to be sharp, and live a big life for God.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing to develop yourself this year!

1 Collaboration – Our Team’s Perspective

The picture above is from a recent creative meeting – one of the many times our team collaborates throughout the week (please ignore my daughter’s toys in the foreground…she joined us that day!).

One of the strongest buzz words around the Champions Centre staff team is Collaboration. We live and breathe it. It’s more than just a good idea – it’s the way this team functions. We don’t make decisions in isolation, we make them as a team. We believe we are stronger together than we are a part.

Collaboration is the name of our game.

In the spirit of collaboration, I asked our staff and volunteer team to help me write this blog. Here’s what they came up with:

Collaboration is when two (or more) great things/people/ideas collide and mesh beautifully to create a new, even more beautiful object or idea. (@JonathanO)
Collaboration is talk, listen, interact, agree, disagree, brainstorm, dream, problem solve, expand, decide, and create. (@jod1gc)
Collaboration is working together as a team to create the best ideas and outcomes. (@carchambault)
Collaboration to me defines people working together on a project with a desired end result/goal in mind. (@Mary_Anderson)
Collaboration: Invite/include/listen/learn/laugh/lead/launch! (@VantageWon)
Collaboration is all about building partnerships with others to
achieve common goals and progress that you couldn’t accomplish as
effectively on your own. (@juliewashburn)
Everyone needs to have the same goals in mind, or any amount of collaboration will never work. (@tinianelson)
A team that is committed to working together to achieve a desired result. (Chris Dunayski)
Collaboration brings more creativity, fresh ideas, a new perspective and moves you forward at a much more rapid pace than if you were trying to get things done on your own. Collaboration provides clarity and direction (@RobinRMccoy)
Collaboration to me is when a group of people who have different thoughts, ideas and personalities come together as a team to achieve a vision or a goal. During that process everyones strengths are united and utilized to make the vision or goal a success. (@lauriegshelton)
Working together on the bigger vision using gifts, talents, and resources. (Tanya Lewis)
Everything is better with collaboration. The phrase “two are better then one” is so true! With any project I’m working on, the more opinions I get, the more feedback, the better the project gets! (@jen_mueller)

So, what do you think about collaboration? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

0 Why Small Groups?

It is not good for man to be alone.

I love small groups. And not just because it is my job! I love small groups because of what it means to people, and their growth in the church. I love small groups because of the “sticky factor” it brings to the church. I love small groups because my life is different because of certain people along the way, who reached out to me and mentored me.

So, let’s take some time to unpack some of the compelling reasons behind small groups at Champions Centre:

1. Small groups constantly expose people to the mission statement of the church.That is, if they are built on the mission of the church. It can be too tempting to see small groups thriving in another church, and simply want to take their model and implement it in your own church exactly as you saw it. The challenge with this is that their model was built on their mission, not yours. The healthiest small groups network will exactly match the mission and DNA of the church and pastor.

2. Small groups provide an optimal environment for transformation. True retention and grasp of material is high in a small group setting. And, to make a stronger case, people are usually motivated to join groups because of what they’ll learn, rather than the people they’ll meet (another very important concept to grasp). So, use groups to expose people to material and topics you desire to see in their lives.

3. Small groups are the new mid-week service. If you come from our church background, a mid-week service is probably not all that distant in your history. However, in 2005, we cancelled our mid-week Wednesday service in order to pave the way for healthy small groups. We went all in. Instead of wanting people to come to us on one night of the week, at a time we set, we decided we wanted to take church to them, on a night and time that worked for them…in their local community. Church without walls!

We’ll continue this conversation over the next few weeks…. As it’s one that is so important to get right.

For information in the Spring Quarter of CLG that starts on Monday, April 4 – head hereand find a group!

Tag: Small Groups

1 Relational Ninjas

0 Gas Stations and New Beginnings

1 Collaboration – Our Team’s Perspective

0 Why Small Groups?

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