Follow The Leader, originally uploaded by Richard Martin..

We took our Leading from our Strengths assessment in March and have been working through them as a team. A couple things that I really solidified about myself.

• I’m a leader (lion)
• I’m an introvert (weird considering my strength on stage)
• My adapted style is a team player (otter)

Anyway if you want to know more about this jibberish I’m spewing on you then check out this awesome resource. Great idea for couples as well

But it got me thinking. I have heard a few times in my life that Leaders are the best followers… After going through this survey and then looking at my life I can’t help but wonder is that true?

Let me know what you think…

Are all Great Leaders also Great Followers?

(6/365) The Source of Strength, originally uploaded by Inspiration + Passion.

So I’m reading through Practicing Greatness by Reggie McNeal awesome book by the way.

He talks about finding and developing your strengths. On page 71 he talks about Donald Clifton who is the former CEO and chairman of The Gallup Organization. He wanted to help people discover and build on their talent. One of the things that we are passionate for @BrookwoodKiDs. He said that:

“People are more fulfilled when they are working from their strengths. He observed that people had fairly complete vocabularies for weaknesses, thanks to our culture. Even though we may not have any medical training or background in psychology, we are fairly well acquainted with neuroses and various psychological conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, ADD, various syndromes, paranoia, and schizophrenia.”

It seems as most people discover their strengths by taking a count of their weaknesses. Not only that but listen to this:

“The result of our culture’s obsession with weakness is that each of us is very well acquainted with what we are not good at” -Reggie McNeal

So how can we help kids discover and develop their strengths?

There are 5 that Reggie gives but you’ll have to buy the book for 4 of them! I’ll give you one that is most important for someone trying to help others find their strengths.

Feedback

Alot of times when we ask for honest feedback we assume the negative will come. What if you took the time to give meaningful truthful positive feedback on some awesome strength that you see a kid possess.

It’s time that we develop kids’ strengths instead of pointing out their weaknesses.

So help me out.

Give me one practical way for kids/students to find their strengths:

K5-

Elementary-

Middle School And High School Students-

ABC Blocks, originally uploaded by michaelgoodin.

So this week at BrookwoodKiDs we are in wk 6 of Zooplosion or Gospel presentation week. I love this week (even though the Bible Story is from Adam & Eve to Jesus’ death and ressurection ) that I get to present the gospel.

We do things different at Brookwood. But Ned Gable, my CP said something in passing today that I told him he should write a blog about since he hasn’t in awhile. But I chose to instead. He said “We want to be about the Believe more than the commit”

I really want to know what you think about this. Especially after my friend @tberry86 shared this with me:
“commitment is a lot harder. You can Believe anything, but putting your commitment into play takes a lot more faith.”

Hmmmm what do you think?
Are you on the Belief or Commitment side? (not that they are against one another) Do you teach different than what you feel is more important? After Orange I’m thinking alot more about what I communicate!

That’s Right I’ve been Swamped hahaha! But in the meantime of not updating the blog we’ve sold out our Adventure Week program. That’s right 450 kids and over 150 preschoolers will be at Swamp Stomp from June 15-19 at Brookwood Church. BrookwoodKiDs is about to set it off in a few weeks.

So I wanted to do this post for some people that I work with and will be posting a Getting started with WordPress blog soon as well. I am using iShowU HD for the video tutorial.

Send it to your friends that are antsy about starting a twitter account so they don’t have a “I don’t know how” excuse. And follow me once you start the account.

I’ve realized that in the church, Motion Graphics is quickly becoming as popular as the Overhead Projector was in the good ole days. So I want to give you my go to guy for FCP stuff everywhere. Especially his Motion 3 stuff.

Here is his Youtube page where I discovered him online.

And here is his website. Get over the look and feel and go straight for the content.

If you do anything video related or are interested in getting involved with some Motion Graphics software, I really recommend that you check him out, He rocks! But don’t tell him that you use a PC

i ♥ flickr, originally uploaded by *Sherry*.

Most of us hate the Process… I am the opposite. It’s probably one of my favorite parts. God has gifted me to be a teacher/trainer. It’s in my DNA, heart, mind, soul. I love it.

For Volunteers you need to get your 3 process in line. For simple purposes we’ll call them:

• Pre-Process
• Process
• Post-Process

It is imperative to have all three in line with your purpose and vision.

Pre-Process involves things like Background Checks, Reference Checks, and Personal Interviews.

Process involves things like how are new volunteers introduced to the ministry, observation, and on-the job training.

And last but not least one of the more overlooked areas is the Post Process. If someone leaves your ministry as a volunteer you should want to know why. People have exit interviews all the time at corporations with the hope that they can fix problems or tweak the process. That seems like a necessary piece of the puzzle to me.
Again, how confident are you in the process. At Brookwood Kids our process is exactly that, a process. Nothing is sacred when it comes to this so make sure that you are flexible and it helps to collaborate with others.

So do just that and feel free to let me know about your process for Volunteers

Batdog & Superpuppy Keeping a Watchful Eye over El Cerrito 1 of 3, originally uploaded by aar0n5150.

Selecting your Volunteers

Some of you might have raised your eyebrows. I look at recruiting like basketball and football coaches do. Find a talented prospect with potential and develop them

But just like coaches you must find the balance between five star talent (superstar, incredible, awesome for those not so into athletics)

and

Those with gobs of potential who need some training.

And yes you can have both!

First ask yourself these three questions:

1. Who am I looking for? (role, skills, traits, etc.)
2. What am I looking for?
3. Who fits that?

And guess what don’t limit yourself to the church…. (gasp) If you find someone in your hometown that waits tables at a restaurant and is awesome with you and your kids give em an application…

But JC how could you say such a thing someone not in the church to volunteer (roll eyes here)

Take a second and go over the 12 disciples and give me their church or religious background… And yet Jesus picked them. They were willing.

But know this your process must be killer in order to protect yourself as well. And I will talk about that in my next post.

Chaunte Howard | Women’s High Jump, originally uploaded by oregonianphoto.

Where is your bar?

Jim Wideman wisely says that ” People need to be needed way more than you and I need their help”

(by the way if you don’t have “Volunteers that Stick” buy it now)

That seems like a simple enough process but look at your vision and ask yourself this question “What makes my Kidmin Volunteers feel significant?”

And raise the bar for your ministry. As my CP always says people will respond to the minimum bar. What if instead of your minimum bar looking like this:

• show up
• smile
• take attendance

it looked like this:

• show up every week

• build a relationship with the kids in your group

• call or send them a card once a month

• be prepared

Not only will this eliminate those that you probably don’t want serving in kidmin (even though you want them to serve somewhere) it will also let people know that there are expectations that need to be met. And more importantly makes them feel needed!

Tell me about the bars that you set for your Volunteers…

Businessman, originally uploaded by ScanSnap.

I am going to begin to write a few posts on some keys to recruiting volunteers. I’m going to begin by going over what I believe to be the core of recruiting. It’s the mission. What do you feel a volunteers looks like…

For us at BrookwoodKiDs we feel like if you are in a relationship with God these three things apply to you…

You are called to serve
You are equipped to serve
You have an opportunity to serve

These three things allow us to frame the bulk of our recruiting and give us a framework to work with. Again these posts will be alot of strategy, but without the mission and beliefs about service then the strategy is misguided and thus not as effective. So to get you started off on the right foot get your mission straight!