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Spring Ministry Wrap-up April 27, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching, Leadership, Student Ownership.
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If you are like me, you probably have a fairly long list of things to do to wrap up the semester before heading into the summer.  Our Student LINC team sat down last week to talk about the types of things we are doing to finish up.  We came up with some typical things that we all do and a few things out of the ordinary.   The more I thought about some of those items, they seemed to fall into a few categories.  Though not exhaustive, hopefully this will spur some of your thinking as you transition from Spring into Summer.

Know what you need to do to hit the ground running in August.

  • Possibly have a leadership retreat, but in any case, make sure leaders plan for the fall.
  • Find out the earliest possible time to connect with Freshmen.
    • One of Eric’ Dellaire’s schools is allowing them to send an email to incoming freshmen two weeks before they arrive on campus.

Celebrate what God has done this year.

  • Ben Rivera encourages his ministries to have an end of the year party.
  • Gets stats from your student leaders.  This is a tangible way to see how God has worked.

Send the students off to the summer on a solid footing.

  • There is a Summer Survival Guide on GodSquad with various components from which you can choose.
  • Encourage students to get summer phone numbers to stay in touch.
  • As you think about graduating seniors, request the “Next” booklet from the Every Student Sent team to help coach them well.
    • Eric set himself up as a team on AllCallings.com.  He is encouraging his seniors to join his team as a way of staying connected.

For any students doing high school ministry, there are three articles for leaders on http://www.gocampus.org/

Collaborative leadership April 21, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Leadership.
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I have known Lorna Johnson, Regional Team Leader, The Impact Movement, for many years. She sent me an email this week telling about their Impact Leadership Institutes. These institutes prepare students for their leadership responsibilities for the fall and give them an opportunity to plan their semester start up. Lorna has a passion to instill in others the confidence that they can make a difference for Christ. That really comes out in her email.

These last two weeks, we have had our leadership training and I wanted to let you see some of what we did with our students. We did five trainings this year and they went over extremely well again this year. This was a small taste and as we broke up into the various roles and responsibilities students gleaned from one another. At one point we had a representative from each role to stand up front. When each team gave a report of their plans, if they rolled over into another’s responsibility, they had to go and stand in front of the person with that outside role. It was great for the students to pick up on the crossing into an others’ role and not trusting their team mates.

Oh, this was also very enlightening for the Liaisons to begin to really understand their role in asking the right questions, giving direction in light of criteria set by the team for the first six weeks. It was good for the six week planning for the Fall.

By the way, the Liaison communicates with their Impact coach weekly, leads prayer, and facilitates and shepherds the servant team. Other roles on their servant team deal with Evangelism/Outreach, Follow-up, Discipleship and Conference & Events.

As Lorna painted a picture of what collaborative leadership looked like, she asked these questions:

  • Does everyone on the team know the mission and vision of the Impact Movement?…And how your chapter will actively work in seeing this come to pass on your campus?
  • Does everyone on the Servant Team have a clearly identified role? Are they all operating in their roles?
  • Are all team members aware of and familiar with all of the Impact Movement’s resources: the Passage, the Grill, Notyourmamasreligion.com, The Journey?

As we think about setting up our own student leaders for next fall, we want to consider, both, how each leader can make a significant difference and how they need to work together in teams. That way we minimize overlapping in some responsibilities and ignoring others.

Five Components of Healthy Teams April 13, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Leadership, Personal Growth.
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Are you setting up your leadership team for one of your campuses next year?
Are you putting in place a team that would lead a summer ministry on a campus?
Are you commissioning a new missional team to launch in another community on campus or on a new campus?
In every situation there are critical components necessary for the proper functioning of that team in order to realize the vision.

I happen to ride recently with Barry Rush, Global Leadership Development Team, and we were talking about training and the skills needed to lead and develop teams.  Certainly there are things to be said about

  • team function (purpose, roles, etc.),
  • team processes (strategic planning, effective meetings, problem solving, decision making processes), and
  • team communication (communication skills, conflict resolution).

But very often the success or failure of a team depends upon the relational aspects of leading.  That is the focus of today’s tip.  Barry and his team unpack Ephesians 4:1-32, identifying five components of healthy teams.  I asked if I could pass this on to you.

Five Components of Healthy Teams

1.  Individuals growing in character.

  • Ephesians 4:1-2
  • How would it be if each person on our teams were characterized by humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and love?

2.  Commitment to unity.

  • Ephesians 4:3-6, 16
  • Consider ways that each person can contribute to the unity of the team.

3.  Valuing gifts and appreciating differences.

  • Ephesians 4:7,11-13
  • Every team member needs to be known as a person, to be needed, to be involved and give input, and to know their role in the mission.

4.  Speaking the truth in love.

  • Ephesians 4:15
  • If members of a team consistently practiced ‘speaking the truth in love”, how would that change the team?

5.  Using the language of kindness.

  • Ephesians 4:32
  • Do we use sarcasm?  Do we withdraw?  Do we use passive-aggressive humor to attack others?  Does our body language communicate something other than kindness?

It turns out there is one more component, forgiveness!

  • Forgiveness is foundational to healthy teams and helps members move beyond mistakes or problems in relationships.

In a world where jockeying for position, blame shifting and cottage industries of hostility are the norm of the day, such healthy teams will take work.  But there is something very attractive about such teams.  Jesus said that we would be a powerful witness to others.  “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:32 NIV

“One polite person living his life right” April 6, 2009

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Evangelism.
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You may have seen the YouTube video, “Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible.”

Penn is one half of the rather colorful comedic duo, Penn and Teller.  Much has been made about Penn’s atheistic beliefs and he is still convinced that God does not exist.  But in this five minute clip, he tells about someone who came up to him after a show and gave him a Bible.  He relates how impressed he was with the fellow’s kind and authentic manner.  But he also shares how he does not respect Christians who do not “proselytize” others (Proselytize is his word).  He wonders how much a person must hate others not to share with them about heaven and hell.  Thought-provoking for us Christians.

Easter is coming up this week and with it the opportunity to share how the hope that we have is rooted in the historical event of the resurrection.  No one is reached if we are attempting to win the argument.  But as Penn says, “One polite person living his life right” can make a difference.  Right for Penn is being authentic and kind as we share our faith.

Last fall, our team read and discussed the book, unChristian, by David Kinnaman.    One of the staff on my team said that Penn’s comments reminded him about many of the themes in that book.  Just like Penn, the “outsider”, is looking for Christians to stand up for their beliefs, but in such a way that is Christ-like.  The power of a kind word will not go unnoticed.