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Session 2: Effective and Consistent Communication

estimated time to watch video and think about questions: 15 minutes

Effective and Consistent Communication

We chose to cover communication first because it works its way into EVERYTHING else!  Not everything has to be communicated, but communication has to be everything. Sometimes you have to encourage, sometimes you have to change things, sometimes you have to confront, but it all must be done well. 

  • Create an attractive culture

    • DON’T: “we never have enough volunteers”

    • DO: “we’re always looking for passionate people!”

    • DON’T: “please, please, please come work in kids ministry...i’ll owe you one!”

    • DO: “we have awesome opportunities to serve the most important people!”

    • Don’t go around telling your horror stories, tell your success stories!

    • This generation will only respond to “let me tell you WHY you should be involved”, not HELP WANTED signs.

  • Weave vision into EVERYTHING

  • Always communicate the WHY not just the what.

    • Empowers people to make decisions when it’s outside the normal request.

    • Gives meaning to even small tasks

  • “Every man in our church knows that for one hour a week, they’re staring eyeball to eyeball with a kid that MAY not have a father figure.”

  • When you get sick and tired of saying vision, that’s when people are getting it.

  • For Kids Min: building up kids to be warriors, changing lives, easier to build kids than change adults…

  • For Ushers: Ushering is an extremely important job!  “Our ushers provide the service with a distraction free, organized, and professional feel, so that givers feel like their gifts are handled properly and with care, our attenders feel well-cared for, and all communication from stage happens in the most clear way possible.” 

  • What is the win?

  • Choose your audience wisely

    • Think carefully through this decision! It could have disastrous consequences if you choose wrongly, depending on the subject matter.

    • One-on-one

    • Targeted group

    • Whole team

    • Remember Matthew 18

  • Choose HOW to communciate wisely as well

    • Meet people where they’re at

    • Know how they prefer to be contacted

  • Encouragement 

    • Everyone wants to feel appreciated, but when someone gives their time & energy  freely, they especially want to feel appreciated.  

    • Don’t think a good thing without saying it!

    • SAY thank you, WRITE thank you, SMILE thank you

  • Communicating Change

    • Change is one of those things you have to balance.  You shouldn’t change things CONSTANTLY, but also not never!  To keep momentum going, and excitement about your ministry, you should be constantly making improvements. “Growing people change”--growing churches/ministries change too!

  • Job Descriptions

    • Let your volunteers know what you need up front, talk about specific duties, and GET IT ON PAPER!

  • Confrontation will be necessary

    • Matthew 18

    • Sandwich approach

    • Speak the truth IN LOVE (Ephesians 4:15, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” NLT)

  • Practical Tips:

    • Don’t let your language get bossy...use words like “we”, “the team”, etc…”Hey would you mind helping me with…?” NOT “I need you to..”

    • Compliment when you can

    • Ask questions, don’t assume.  

Questions To Think About:

  • Have you ever used Matthew 18 to confront someone? How did it go?

  • What do you think is an attractive volunteer/employee culture?

  • If you volunteer now, write down your job description (without looking) and see if it matches the one you already have, or the one your supervisor would write for you.

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Session 1: Being A Spirit-Led Leader

time to watch video: approx. 10 minutes

Serve Team Training 1: Being a Spirit-led Leader

We believe that God wants relationship with us. It’s His goal to know us, and for us to know Him, so when we talk about leadership at Freedom Valley, the first thing we want to cover is how to have a thriving, growing relationship with our creator God.  It’s through His spirit that we should gauge everything we do.  We can learn principles, and strategies, and scripture for the rest of our lives and never know it all, but if we’re not putting God first, all of those things are meaningless.  

  • It’s not easier as a pastor/leader.

    • Don’t buy into the lie that pastors get more time to focus on God.  We have to build it in too, just like everyone else.  

    • Priority on the things that matter.  You’ll find time for what’s important to you.

  • But it is more important!

    • Pg 25 of Lead So Others Can Follow: 

      • “...the landscape of religious leadership in Jesus’ time and noted that…

        • The Pharisees had externalized religion.

        • The Scribes had professionalized religion.

        • The Sadducees has secularized religion.

        • The Zealots had nationalized religion. 

      • “If we’re not careful, that is exactly what public ministry could do to us as well--externalize us, professionalize us, disillusion us, and make us far too political.”

    • Cover Page 26 of Lead So Others Can Follow.

    • We can’t lead people somewhere we’re not going ourselves.  If you want to lead people into spiritual maturity, you have to be headed there yourself!

    • As leaders, we’re held to a higher standard...

      • By people

        • People will assume you have it all together...you don’t.

        • People will assume your kids are perfect….they’re not.

        • People will assume all your time is JUST for them….it’s not. 

        • People will assume you remember everything...you don’t.

        • Get the picture?  This is where authenticity comes in, which we’ll cover later.

      • But also by God!  

        • “Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.” James 3:1

        • “Above reproach1 Tim 3:1-13 lays out requirements for church leaders.  Faithful in marriage, self-controlled, wise living, good reputation, enjoy having guests over, able to teach, not a heavy drinker or violent, must be gentle, not quarrelsome, not love money.  Must manage his family well.  Not a new believer, etc. Many of these requirements are laid out in Titus 1:5-9 as well.

        • 1 Corinthians 8 says that you shouldn’t cause another believer to stumble.  Example: I know that drinking alcohol isn’t bad, but getting drunk is.  A new believer sees me drinking one beer, and thinks that because I’m doing it, they can too...they get drunk, make bad decisions, and justify it by saying that they saw the Pastor drinking a beer once, so they thought it was okay.

  • It’s the only way to get things done.

    • Jesus said in John 15:4, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”

    • We NEED the wisdom of God to get through the decisions in ministry, the confrontation, the whining, the failure.  But also, the success!  The compliments! 

    • Jesus never dwelt in the praise of the people for very long.  He often withdrew to be alone with God in prayer.  And on his most stressful night, even though he desperately didn’t want to go through what he went through, he spent the night with God.  And was ultimately able to face it all blamelessly.

    • Countless times in the OT, people tried to do things on their own, but failed (It was only when GOD went with them, they were victorious.  Even when it seemed weird or counter-intuitive (Jericho, Red Sea).

  • The Holy Spirit can cover us when we fall short.

    • We all fall short of the glory of God, (says Romans 3:23) and so can’t do everything ourselves!  The Holy Spirit is there to comfort us (John 14:27), remind us (John 14:26), counsel us (John 16:8), correct us (Romans 8:26), encourage us, convict us, and produce fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23)!  

    • When you are short on patience, for example, stop trying to produce it naturally!  Go to God, get in the Word, pursue Jesus, and the Spirit of God will produce that fruit from within you!

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