Don’t Do Your Own Thing, part 2

I posted the simple opinion that it isn’t the best use of resources for ministries to “do their own thing.”

For example, if there are 4 organizations in a community that would like to do a canned food drive to help alleviate hunger in their space, that’s great. Most likely, each group will invest its time, energy and money and pull off a food drive.

My thought is, instead of four organizations investing four times the resources into the same kind of event, what if one invested its time, energy and money and the other three just joined in with that one? It would result in a more focused effort and it would free up the other three organizations to invest that time, energy and money in other places of need.

Here is an example of how we have done this. Just this last week I noticed a flier on a campus bulletin board promoting a drive to collect necessary items for the local women and family shelter. We have worked with this shelter before and love serving them. We could have just copied this organization and done our own necessity drive.

However, we simply asked our students to donated the needed items and then we took them to the organization running the drive. No need for a separate drive. This provides us with a couple of benefits:

• We get to bless the efforts of another group.
• We don’t waste our valuable resources by doing something another group is already doing.
• We have to be present on campus. We need to keep our eyes open for opportunities, and that means having our eyes and ears on campus.
• We have the opportunity to meet and serve alongside students we may never have had the chance to meet. We don’t just want to jump in with what other campus ministries are doing…we want to jump in and serve alongside groups like the Feminist Majority or the LGBT Alliances on campus.

This last point is extremely important to us and is worthy of its own post later this week.

Don’t Do Your Own Thing

Ministry leaders have been guilty, I think, of re-creating the wheel. We always insist on doing our own thing, even if that thing is the exact same thing someone else is already doing and doing well!

For example, let’s say some students involved in my campus ministry get the idea to do a food drive over the holidays. And so, we invest tons of time and energy in brainstorming for our food drive, promoting and publicizing our food drive, and then executing our food drive.

And this is a good thing…but is it the best use of our resources?

Let’s say that while we are doing all of this, there is another organization on campus doing their own food drive. And they are investing tons of time and energy as well.

My question is this: instead of our organizations investing twice as much energy and time and resources into the same thing, why shouldn’t our campus ministry simply jump in with what other organizations are already making happen on campus?

This is the model we are adopting at the Christian Campus House. Instead of constantly attempting to do our own thing, we are always on the lookout for what other organizations are already doing on campus. And then we join in the effort.

In the next few days, I hope to elaborate on what this could look like and how we are doing it. There are benefits and pitfalls, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

Stick around…would love for you to join in the conversation.

Your MyNameIsBrandon.com Catalyst Survival Guide

A few weeks ago, in anticipation of Catalyst, I stumbled across this very funny, very helpful “Officially-Unofficial Catalyst Conference Survival Guide.”

As I will be covering Catalyst here on MyNameIsBrandon.com for those few, unfortunate people not in Atlanta at the end of this week, I thought it might be fun to offer the Official MyNameIsBrandon Catalyst Survival Guide.

Tuesday, The Day Before:

• Make sure you have a computer and a good internet connection. I would be willing to bet that if you are reading this, you are already good in this department.
• Grab your journal (I love Moleskines) or a legal pad or a roll of toilet paper. While you are at it, grab something to write with.
• Bookmark www.mynameisbrandon.com/catalyst for quick and easy finding when the pre-conference goodies start on Wednesday and the conference itself goes full steam ahead on Thursday.
• Follow me on Twitter. This is the best way to keep track of what is going on, where I am, and where the live-blogging will be going on. If you don’t have Twitter, now would be a good time to join the 593 billion other people there already.
• Program your coffeepot to make your joe for you for Wednesday. Things get started around here around 8:30am EST.

Wednesday, Pre-Conference Lab Day

• Stumble and find that coffee you wisely programmed your coffeepot to make for you.
• Leave a note for your spouse on the fridge or bathroom mirror saying you are going to be MIA for the next couple of days.
• Pack a sack lunch. Eat a banana. They are healthy and help prevent cramps.
• Head over to mynameisbrandon.com/catalyst. For each Pre-Conference Lab and each main session of the conference, I will be posting a link where you can join me as I live-blog through the experience. It’s interactive, so you can chime in as well with your thoughts and comments.
• Spend the day with me.
• But not the night…go home and be with your spouse. (That’s one perk of NOT being at Catalyst.)

Thursday & Friday, Main Conference Days

• Do all the things listed above for Wednesday.
• Be prepared to drink from a fire hydrant. With the likes of Chan, Bell, Chandler, Dungy, Swindoll, Ramsey, Stanley, and so forth…it’s going to be a lot of good information coming at you fast.

After the Conference:

• Check back to MyNameIsBrandon.com as I will be posting all of our live-blogging sessions for you to look back over. Remember that fire hydrant thing? This is so you can come back for more and drink in what you may have missed the first time around.
• Post more comments with your thoughts and contributions to the conversation.
• Apply what God is teaching you to your life situation.
• Thank the Christian Standard for partnering with me in this endeavor. Read their magazine. Make sure your church is getting lots of copies each week to give to folks.

There you have it. I’m looking forward to experiencing Catalyst with you!

Welcome Christian Standard Readers!

Welcome to those of you who have found your way to MyNameIsBrandon.com from the Christian Standard.

We are just a few days away from kicking off our live coverage of The Catalyst Conference! I am excited and hope you are, too.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Things will officially kick-off on Wednesday morning, October 7th with pre-labs with Perry Noble and Reggie Joiner at 8:30am Eastern.

(I will be updating this blog and my Twitter though, prior to this. You can read about my travels to Atlanta and other impressions as we get started!)

The pre-conference Labs will continue all day on Wednesday. There is an amazing line-up of Labs. I would love your input on who you would like to hear. Click here to see a list of the speakers and leave a comment letting me know who you would like me to cover for you. Hey, this is a project for the people! (Of course, no promises…but I will try my darndest.)

Also, I am in the process of getting a schedule up of the main session speakers and times. I will be live blogging through each session. What this means is that you can jump in and interact with me live as I sit in on the sessions and share my thoughts as well as the sights and smells and sounds of Catalyst. At the end of the sessions, I will post the live blogging notes on the main blog here at MyNameIsBrandon.com

If you are on Twitter, I will be “tweeting” throughout the whole conference as well. Follow me!

I hope you’ll plan on “joining” me. If you plan on popping in to MyNameIsBrandon.com and joining the conversation with me during the Catalyst conference, leave a comment below. Would love to get to know you before we get the fun rolling!

Ministry Playbook — Small Group Right After Big Group

I think small groups are a vital key to any healthy ministry, especially those who have more than 30 folks attending. It’s possible to know 15 or 20 people fairly well, but once your group grows beyond 30 people, small groups need to be in place.

There are lots of ways to do small groups and each has its benefits and drawbacks. For today’s installment of Ministry Playbook, I thought I might share how we do the majority of our small groups at the Christian Campus House (CCH).

We have a total of 5 small groups. 3 of them meet at the same time on the same night at the same place. We call them Family Groups and they take place after TNT (Tuesday Nite Thing), which is our weekly large group gathering. At the end of TNT we open our “cookie table” up for business and allow folks the chance to mingle. Then, after about 15 minutes, the students will either head home or head to their Family Group.

These have been one of the most successful facets of our ministry here. We have right around 60% of our students involved at CCH connected to a Family Group. This is, I feel, a high percentage and we are excited about that.

Here are a few reasons why I think this approach to Family Groups works:

• Students know that one night a week (in our case, Tuesdays) is going to be completely dedicated to God and CCH. Instead of having to make time on two (or three) different nights for large group meetings and then small group meetings, they reserve one night per week.
• Family Groups right after TNT help us to compliment the main teaching for the night. For example, this semester we are studying through the book of Nehemiah. After I teach on a passage in Nehemiah at TNT, our Family Groups split up and talk about that passage, the ideas conveyed, the relevance to their lives, and so forth. This provides for continuity, uniformity, and deeper study. This would be, I think, more difficult if all of our small groups met on different nights. The passage and teaching would not be as fresh.
• It’s easier to get students plugged into a Family Group if it meets right after TNT. After all, they are there already. It’s easier to stay then to come back.

Ministry Playbook — Leaders for a Calendar Year

You can read my first two Ministry Playbook entries here and here; both highlight some leadership ideas.

Here is something new we are tying this year. Most campus ministries have their student leaders in place for the academic year, from August until May. This seems to be the most natural choice.

However, this year we are doing our Leadership Coaching Sessions for 7 weeks in the fall semester, and then choosing our next batch of servant-leaders. We will then bring these new servant-leaders on board in January and have them serve until next December; the calendar year.

One of the greatest advantages to this set-up is that we will have our servant-leadership team in place over the summer months leading into next fall. Usually, under the academic year model, we would be scrambling to get our new leaders up and running and assimilated during this time. Not so under the calendar year model; they are already in place.

This also gives us a chance to put some of our newly chosen servant-leaders under the apprenticeship of older leaders. For example, let’s say we choose Michael to be a Family Group leader for next year. We have all of this spring to partner him up with an existing Family Group leader to be apprenticed. And then, next fall, Michael will lead his own Family Group…and he will have a semester of experience and training to help him.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a new thing for us. But I am having a hard time coming up with any negatives to this approach. I would love to hear from other college ministers.

Update on My LIVE Catalyst Coverage

I made this huge announcement the other day. I’m jazzed.

At first, I had planned on only attending and covering the actual conference part of the conference. That means, no pre-conference coverage.

Well, I wasn’t happy with that. So, I made some calls…got my people on it…and after much haggling and frustration, I was able to get my flight, hotel, and rental car reservations all changed so that I will be able to be in Atlanta a day earlier to cover the pre-conference Labs at Catalyst.

That’s right.

And so, officially I will be covering Catalyst all 3 days…October 7 through October 9. October 7 is all the Labs and October 8 and 9 is the main conference.

There are some amazing folks bringing the Lab offerings. Here’s the list:

• Perry Noble — Senior Pastor, NewSpring Church
• Reggie Joiner — Founder, The reThink Group and Author, Think Orange
  Session: Pre-Lab Lab

• Jessica Jackley — Founder, KIVA
  Session: Microfinance: Ending Poverty
  
• Shane Hipps — Pastor and former ad exec for Porsche
  Session: Flickering Pixels
  
• Jon Tyson — Lead Pastor, Trinity Grace Church, NYC
• Darren Whitehead — Willow Creek Community Church
  Session: In the City. In the Suburbs.
• Carlos Whittaker — RagamuffinSoul.com
• Anne Jackson — Flowerdust.net, Author of “Mad Church Disease”
• Jon Acuff — StuffChristiansLike.net, Author and Speaker
  Session: Off the Blogs
  
• Nicole Fulgham — VP, Teach for America, Faith Community Relations
  Session: Mobilizing Faith Communities
  
• Herbert Cooper — Founder and Senior Pastor, People’s Church
  Session: Leading from the Start
  
• Matthew Sleeth — Executive Director, Blessed Earth
  Session: Creation Care
  
• David Kuo — Deputy Director, Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
  Session: Tempting Faith
  
• Jamie Tworkowski — Founder, To Write Love on Her Arms
  Session: Hope to the Hurting
  
• Stacy Spencer — Founder and Senior Pastor, New Direction Christian Church, Memphis
  Session: The Inward Journey
  
• Margaret Feinberg — Author, The Sacred Echo and The Organic God
  Session: Scouting the Divine
  
• Aaron Keyes — Worship Pastor, Grace Fellowship
• Miriam Webster — Singer, Composer, Worship Leader, Hillsong Church, Sydney
• Gerrit Gustafson — Founder, WholeHearted Worship and Worship Schools
  Session: Leadership in Worship
  
• Andy Crouch — Director, Christian Vision Project and Author, Culture Making
  Session: Our Role in Culture
  
• Dave Gibbons — Lead Pastor, New Song Church and Author, The Monkey and the Fish
  Session: The Monkey and the Fish
  
• Chris Seay — Pastor, Ecclesia, Houston and Author and Director, The Voice Project
• Matt Chandler — Lead Pastor, Village Church
• Bishop John Rucyahana — Founder, Sonrise School
  Session: Evening Unplugged
  
• Ian Cron — Teaching Pastor, Trinity Church and Author, Chasing Francis
  Session: Chasing Francis
  
• Nancy Ortberg — Founding Partner, Teamworx2
  Session: The Power of Rubber Bands
  
• Mark Batterson — Pastor, National Community Church, DC
  Session: Primal–Getting Back What Matters Most
  
• Scott Belsky — Founder and CEO, Behance and Author and Strategist
  Session: Making Ideas Happen
  
• Reggie McNeal — Mission Specialist, Leadership Network
  Session: Missional Renaissance
• Jeff Shinabarger — Founder, Rwanda Clean Water and GiftCardGiver.com
• Charles Lee — Pastor and Founding Member, Just One and Creator, Idea Camp
• Lisa Sharon Harper — CoFounder and Executive Director, NY Faith and Justice
• Leroy Barber — Pastor, Community Fellowship Church and President, Mission Year
  Session: Doing Good
• Ed Stetzer — Director, Lifeway Research and Author, Lost and Found
  Session: The Essence of Planting
  
• Alan Hirsch — Founding Director, Forge Mission Training Network
  Session: The Forgotten Ways
  
• Dale Dawson — CoFounder and CEO, Bridge2Rwanda
• Bishop John Rucyahana — Founder, Sonrise School
  Session: A Bridge to Rwanda

I am open to suggestions of folks you may like to hear from. There are (basically) 7 Lab slots, so feel free to offer more than one suggestion!

So excited!

Ministry Playbook — Training Potential Leaders

I posted my first Ministry Playbook idea a few days ago. It focused on finding potential leaders.

Today is all about what we do with those potential leaders. We are doing something new and different this year. We are beta-testing it, so to speak. So this post won’t necessarily be about the destination, but the journey.

We have our potential leaders. There are about 20 of them. We will meet each Sunday night for the next 6 weeks. We did an introductory week last Sunday, for a grand total of 7 Sundays. Each meeting lasts one hour and features some of my wife’s amazing desserts.

As I mentioned, the first meeting was introductory. I cast my vision for our servant-leader team and for our ministry as a whole. And then I laid out my expectations of our leaders. We basically expect our servant-leaders to give 10 to 12 hours per week of unpaid service. That’s a tall order! We expect them to stay on board for the entire year. We expect them to be involved in on-going discipleship with one of our staff. And we expect them to, obviously, lead their ministry. All of this is on top of nurturing a growing, healthy relationship with God and living a life worthy of their calling.

As I mentioned, we are asking for a lot. I know that. I’m OK with that. And I would rather be up front about our expectations than surprise people down the road.

I also laid out our expectations for the Leadership Coaching Sessions. They are expected to attend each meeting on time and prepared. No lame excuses for not showing up. Also, each week we give them a packet of exercises for them to do during the week. This involves passage of Scripture to memorize, a Bible study to do, a lengthier reading to finish, and a practical leadership exercise to do.

Each week, and each packet, is centered on a theme.

Week #1 — Holy; Developing a vision of Christlike character.
Week #2 — Habitual; Cultivating spiritual disciplines to sustain our leadership.
Week #3 — Humble; Keeping watch over our souls.
Week #4 — Kneeling; Embracing servant love as our primary model.
Week #5 — Stewarding; Stewarding our gifts, passions, and personality.
Week #6 — Helping Others See; Lifting people out of lethargy and inertia

These packets are taken from Greg Ogden’s great book, “Leadership Essentials.” A must have. (And, you should also check out his “Discipleship Essentials” book.)

These sessions are designed to help begin the training process for our potential leaders. In no way do I think that you have leaders “trained” after 6 1-hour sessions. But this is a good way to begin the process.

The students who make the commitment and do the work will land in our potential leader pool. From this pool we will, with God’s direction, choose our leaders. Not everyone who completes the LCS will automatically become a leader in our ministry. We will avoid those with blatant character issues, maturity issues, sin issues and so on.

But, this provides us with a natural selection process. Those who can make and follow through with a 7-week commitment are good candidates for leadership. Those who bail halfway through are not. Those do the hard work of the soul each week may be prepared to help lead our ministry. Those who don’t have the time or the discipline to do this hard work are not.

This, for us, is exciting. For the first time, I feel as though we have a valid, workable process for helping us identify and train our leaders.

What do you think?
What do you do that works for you to identify and train your next leaders?

LIVE Coverage of Catalyst

Well, the cat is out of the bag.

I am thrilled to have the chance to attend The Catalyst Conference this year.

I am even more excited to have the opportunity to bring The Catalyst Conference to you!

I have partnered with the Christian Standard to bring Catalyst live to you. I am going to be live blogging each of the 10 main sessions. You will have the chance to see what I see, hear what I hear, and experience what I experience through this blog. What is really cool about this is…it’s entirely interactive. You can post comments and share ideas with me (and everyone else participating) while I share Catalyst with you.

I am also going to be Tweeting throughout the entire conference, as well as updating this blog with posts highlighting each day. I may even bust out some video or audio segments to take you there!

Read more details here.

I hope you will plan on joining me here October 7-9.

(As of right now, I will arrive in Atlanta on the 7th for the main conference on the 8th and 9th. I am hoping to get into some of the Catalyst Labs, which take place on the 7th and bring those live to you as well. We’ll see!)

Ministry Playbook — Finding Potential Leaders

I am hoping to make several posts over the next months in regards to how we “do” ministry…in my case, campus ministry. We will call this the Ministry Playbook. I hope to highlight several things that are working well for us as well as share some of the things we have done that have fallen flat on their face.

This post is piggy-backing off of yesterday’s question. Ever since I have been in campus ministry, I have struggled with the process of choosing student leaders for our ministry. Specifically, I have wrestled one question:

What is more advantageous: students with natural leadership abilities or students with a desire to serve?

Naturally, finding students with both of these qualities would be ideal. But they are often a rare find.

And so, do I just focus my attention on those who already have the natural ability to lead others? Or, do I focus my energies on those students who are willing to serve, but perhaps lack the natural ability to lead?

I want both. And so, we have kicked off  Leadership Coaching Sessions.

Our LCS are designed to connect with both type of student. We personally invited those students we feel have a natural bent towards leadership to join LCS. And then, we put out an open invitation for the rest. If they have a willingness, they will come. And this way, we connect with both kinds of potential leaders.

Many folks are uncomfortable with an open invitation to be involved with leadership. I think this has a few benefits. First of all, you can see which students you may have missed who have a desire to lead. Secondly, simply because they show up for the LCS does not guarantee that they will become leaders within the ministry. But it does provide for weeks of discipleship and teaching. There are more that I will discuss in the coming days.

Tomorrow, I will highlight the details of how we train these potential leaders through our Leadership Coaching Sessions.