The battery was dead!
Taking control of schedules, creating task lists, and breaking tasks into manageable chunks, we discuss how these skills are critical in improving focus, efficiency, and dealing with student ministries.
Zac and Chad wrap up their discussion by exploring the significance of organization in student ministry. Learn from our experiences on how to stay ahead of deadlines, manage stress, and plan effectively.
0:00 Organizational Tips and Car Troubles
7:39 Strategic Planning and Bigger Calendar
13:07 Time Management in Student Ministry
21:13 Developing Leadership in Student Ministry
33:23 Effective Leadership and Delegation for Tasks
37:00 Importance of Organization in Student Ministry
We are here to stress the importance of anticipating tasks, creating oversight, and providing guidance and support to leaders. Get ready for an episode filled with practical insights, intriguing stories, and plenty of laughs!
The battery was dead!
Taking control of schedules, creating task lists, and breaking tasks into manageable chunks, we discuss how these skills are critical in improving focus, efficiency, and dealing with student ministries.
Zac and Chad wrap up their discussion by exploring the significance of organization in student ministry. Learn from our experiences on how to stay ahead of deadlines, manage stress, and plan effectively.
0:00 Organizational Tips and Car Troubles
7:39 Strategic Planning and Bigger Calendar
13:07 Time Management in Student Ministry
21:13 Developing Leadership in Student Ministry
33:23 Effective Leadership and Delegation for Tasks
37:00 Importance of Organization in Student Ministry
We are here to stress the importance of anticipating tasks, creating oversight, and providing guidance and support to leaders. Get ready for an episode filled with practical insights, intriguing stories, and plenty of laughs!
Snack. Hey, and we're back with another episode of the Youth Ministry Booster podcast. My name is Zach Workin' hanging out in the auto garage with my best friend Chad O'Reilly. We actually had a little bit of work to do between episodes. So, Chad Higgins, how are you bud? Well, I'm better now.
Speaker 2:Better now. Normally we make some like lots happen since the last episode and for us we're just recording back to back a couple of episodes, so the peak behind the curtain.
Speaker 1:usually we pick a day and we line up and try to. You know, we batch task, which is one of the things that we'll talk about in today's episode, but if there's something that's of a similar nature, could you do multiples of it in one setting, and I own more than one shirt.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I typically wear hats in different styles, but we just pick one for the day and we go with it.
Speaker 2:But since the last episode to this one, which hasn't been a lot of time, but a lot of hapiness happened For you two weeks For us, normally right back to back, but Like moments after, like hey, we'll see you next time, zach's wife and kids were about to travel to grandparents' house and we got a text. Yeah, Cardi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the card didn't work.
Speaker 2:And so Zach and I being, I mean, the most manly men ever of auto.
Speaker 1:Handsome, savvy and mechanical.
Speaker 2:Repair. We went to work and we figured out, we diagnosed the problem, we did, we did. There wasn't a current, we didn't even need the YouTubes, we don't need you. We did realize that it was a dead battery and we were able to jump that Well an almost dead battery.
Speaker 1:That was a little bit of the red herring is that you could hit the button, Everything would light up, but it's a newer car, electronic, and so it wouldn't turn over. So it was odd, because it was like all the systems are lit up but nothing would happen.
Speaker 2:The other feature of it was because there were still, like safety mechanisms working. It wouldn't let us back it out to be able to get another car in.
Speaker 1:Couldn't neutral it yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, we figured it out, we got it, and then there was a strange happening that happened in the midst of it all OK.
Speaker 1:So we pulled the car down the driveway. I'll try to put a schematic on the screen, but pulled the car down the driveway, pulled my car around, so we just wait, are you going to make a drawing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to do a little hand-match and drawing.
Speaker 1:So both of my cars which had to be green Subaru's because we like to buy things in pairs were blocking off the whole street. So we live in a neighborhood where kids often will play, and Toby, I think I don't know, he's a kid on the street. You said you've never seen the kid, or you've seen the kid before. I've never seen him ride a bike before I've seen him out at that house. I don't know why today.
Speaker 2:Well, he was very curious.
Speaker 1:Like he comes zipping down the street and banks left hard up my driveway, like he's about to go into my house and he like looks at us. He's just watching us from the top. He's just seeing these two handsome mechanically inclined men trying to solve a Subaru problem. I still have my shirt on. Yeah. He's like what's going on? They got no tools and they're going to fix this. And I'm like, yeah, everybody we are. So why is Zach's moving stuff around?
Speaker 2:getting ready.
Speaker 1:He's hoping to have jumper cables to figure stuff out. Toby's trying to figure out from Shed. Well, he's just like what's happening here, right Cars in the street.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. And because Zach has two of the identical cars, rightfully so this young man goes. Why do you have the same car? And I said first of all, I didn't say it. I have a great question, you know. So my response is I guess they like them. They like them, which makes sense, right, like I mean, you're not buying two cars that you don't like.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, you didn't buy them at the same time, so they actually are four years apart. They're siblings. They're siblings older and younger, so we started Subaru Outback buying in 2011.
Speaker 2:Not a lot has changed in four years of the external Nope. It's the same car.
Speaker 1:So at 2011, we bought one, 2016, we bought another one, and 2020, we traded in the 2011 to get the 2020. The 2020 we got was a demo car, so it had lots of bells and whistles at used prices, even though it had new mileage. But we were locked into the color that it was, which happened to be the same color as the 2016.
Speaker 2:So this young man is trying to figure out the situation, the puzzle.
Speaker 1:Right, he's like there's two green cars blocking off his road.
Speaker 2:He's never seen somebody that has the exact same car. You get different cars. You buy different cars.
Speaker 1:Mom has a car, dad has a car, they have the same car, yeah, so which one's mom?
Speaker 2:He's like he's trying to figure out, and then he's like what is the relationship between these two guys? Right, right, right. So he's like, he asked me is this your house?
Speaker 1:Two similar looking dudes with two similar looking cars. Am I on TV? Yeah, I think he thought he was on TV.
Speaker 2:He's like is this your house? And I'm like, no, it's his house. So this kid is trying to figure out what belongs to what right.
Speaker 1:Well, Harriet the spy here trying to sort it out.
Speaker 2:He's we're trying to fix this stuff. He's asking me a barrage of questions Whose house is this? Whose car is this? He's pointing at my truck. He's like is that your truck? I'm waiting for him to ask the squirrel yeah who's squirrel?
Speaker 1:Is this a squirrel of yours?
Speaker 2:And so I asked him what.
Speaker 1:Is that your bike?
Speaker 2:Is that your bike? Is that your bike?
Speaker 1:Fair question. This kid he's barefooted shorts, in a backwards ball cap with his bike to his name Like is that your bike? Is that your ski? Is that your ski? Both of them, wow. Needless to say, he was a little stunned and after that question I think you scared him off. I did tell him to move. You did tell him if he skidded away.
Speaker 2:He blayed his bike down in the middle of the road. I'm like we got enough vehicles blocking traffic that we don't need the.
Speaker 1:We're just trying to dam the road up in case. Anybody else is washing through.
Speaker 2:I need you to take that old BMX Mongoose somewhere else.
Speaker 1:He was hoping he was going to get to jump the cars. He's like we build a ramp, we're going to jump both of them. God, what a legend if he was the kid in his class going back this fall that on a Mongoose jump two Subaru's. Everybody else is like dude. I jumped a mailbox. He's like uh-uh, two Subis, two Subis.
Speaker 2:Toby.
Speaker 1:They're blocking the road. They're blocking the road. Built a ramp, jumped them.
Speaker 2:Two bearded gentlemen out there owned all of the block.
Speaker 1:All of the Subaru's on the block belong to these guys.
Speaker 2:So anyways we've had quite the hour. How have your two weeks been, but we're back at it. We're going to be talking about some more organization.
Speaker 1:We're going to be diving into it Trying to help you.
Speaker 2:Here's the deal. I want to start in the middle of this because you may have tuned in last week for some that are not organized or you're starting from scratch. I know that it can feel all overwhelming. It feels like you've got to do everything at once. The thing that I want you to do is.
Speaker 2:You eat an elephant one bite at a time. That's right, and you are trying to prepare for longevity in ministry and so, and a better, healthier year, yeah, and so just do a few of these things. But I think and what I'm excited about in this episode because we talked about big picture stuff last time we're going to really hopefully get into some practical things, the nitty gritty that you can think about implementing, that are maybe a little bit easier to implement, or some small step things that can help with some smaller things or some bigger picture items.
Speaker 1:So quick recap Last time we talked about you've got to develop a bigger view. You take a week or two weeks. This is not something you can just squeeze in between two meetings or a coffee. It is at least an afternoon or a day to lay out the big calendar in front of you to start with the dates, goals and why's. That will help lead to what the wins are of your year, both the wins W-H-E-N-S and the W-I-N-S.
Speaker 2:So the example that we give them now.
Speaker 1:Speller. So the example we gave was camp. You know maybe when it is, but can you articulate the win of what it is? And then can you get that stuff in front of your folks as soon as possible and then begin to think through what are the things that build around it that don't just make it a standalone one off thing but connected to the other plans you have again, what are the anchors? And then what's the chain that threads or runs them together? And then, on top of that, what are the things that happen every year? And are there elements of what happens every year that you can template so you have more brain power for the things that you're going to be working on, that are new, and other things that you have already done before?
Speaker 1:The example that we gave is stop writing the graduation email fresh every year. Just adopt and adapt a template. I know it sounds like so cheesy and corny to say, but if you know what's happening every year, if there's a welcome back letter used into parents every fall, or even a design brochure, if they're only getting it once a year, it doesn't have to be brand new every time. So build the big picture to find the goals laid out in front of you, even if it's your teaching series. You don't have to have all the elements of the lesson, but if you know that September, october is about healthy relationships, that might be enough. It just helps you to know where you're going next, because the hardest thing to plan is the first step of the next step. So doing all that hard work upfront will give you the clarity and the focus and the increased capacity to minister at a different level.
Speaker 2:So one of the things to build off of that really quick is when you start developing a high level plan, you also get to all your long work like layer by layer, so once you like, to chip away.
Speaker 2:Once you lay out like a teaching plan for the year or the semester, my encouragement to you is, instead of each week writing a brand new talk, that you start going okay, I know my themes for the semester of the year. Now what if I took another day and I just broke down? I'm not trying to write a talk, I'm just wanting to know where are my primary scriptures at, and then you're able to build out okay, my primary scriptures, because what that's going to do, instead of feeling like you got to teach all the Bible every week, you can then look at all of your scriptures across the year or the semester and you start to get to ask oh man, because I know what my primary scriptures are, I start to realize, man, I'm not giving them much exposure into Old Testament, right?
Speaker 1:We're all Paul's letters and no gospel, All scripture God breathed. But I think sometimes that again the bigger plan, the exposure of, are we just picking our favorites or are we trying to give them the full, real, rounded picture or some ways to do that?
Speaker 2:Because when you start looking at a bigger picture, you start to realize that you're teaching them more than just that thematic thing.
Speaker 2:Right, when you can start to go okay, we have a good balance of some evangelistic talks in here, some diving into discipleship talks, some obedient talks, and you're able to look at them at a bigger scale, then you don't feel overwhelmed in the week to week of feeling like you got to cover everything and then, right, you get lower in that and then maybe you've got all of that laid out. And then you start thinking, because you have bandwidth and you're seeing bigger picture, then you start to get to add in those like added spice elements, but then you don't feel like you have time for on the week to week because you're just thinking about that week when you can think through. Okay, we're going to talk about being in scripture more in five weeks from now. Now you've got time to think through. Okay, I want every kid to go home with a Bible reading plan for the next 30 days and you've got plenty of time to find a good one or make your own.
Speaker 2:Adapt one yep that you can build out. One of the things that I want to talk about is, as you start thinking through a bigger calendar, when you have the big picture and you get into the day by day. One of the things that I utilize is block planning and my day. So the Monday of every week I will look at my overall week and in the same way that I would look at a year and say what are my?
Speaker 2:biggest things. I ask myself what are the biggest things this week that I have to get done, and I will place those in block time periods in my schedule to do.
Speaker 1:As opposed to like a task list Instead of task list.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because here's the deal we, by nature, people will accomplish things in the task and the time that they're given. When you have a deadline to hit, to make something happen, you are much more likely to do it than to procrastinate it. If I know that I just got to get this form done by the end of the week because I've got to get it to parents, then you'll wait till Friday.
Speaker 1:I will wait until the very end.
Speaker 2:But if I put a block in my schedule and here's the encouragement I want to give you If you know the task is only going to take you 30 minutes, give yourself an hour. Give yourself an hour and a half. Build in because you're controlling your schedule and you're organized. Build in time that you don't feel rushed, because it comes back to that understanding that what we're talking about goes beyond just knowing the tools to use, because I think for most people, when it comes to organization, they know what they should do.
Speaker 1:They don't have enough time to do it.
Speaker 2:And there's these mental blocks of feeling overwhelmed and all that kind of stuff. When you can start to control your schedule and you can start to place things that you give yourself bandwidth to do it, then you're going to get it done. The other piece, too, of it all is realization, and I will speak for myself. Okay, but I think, if we're honest, that this is actually true for all of us. Okay, I actually have a lot more time in my schedule than I'm willing to admit.
Speaker 1:Okay, we waste time all the time, right, and if we're not 10 minute video here, phone call that we let it run as long as we want it to Right, or just like procrastinating dude Starting.
Speaker 2:I don't know how many times I've looked at a Word document and just watched that thing wait until I start typing Just because your mind's somewhere else.
Speaker 1:you're trying to figure it out. It's really hard to get work done if your laptop stays closed. Yep.
Speaker 2:But the other thing, too, is, the longer you give yourself four things, break them up. Yeah, instead of feeling like I've gotta get this entire talk done in two hours, we function better in short bursts with newness, exciting all of these kind of things, and so break that talk up that you're planning to write. I just wanna look at scripture right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're just reading the scripture. We're reading the scripture, we know that these are the scriptures.
Speaker 2:We're gonna mull it over.
Speaker 2:We're not even really writing anything down, we're just making notes. Now I'm gonna come back 30 minutes. You know what 30 minutes? All I'm trying to do is I'm trying to think of what is the big takeaway. You may have multiple points in this, you may have applications in it. The number one thing If I want a seventh grade boy to walk away and be able, when their parent asks, hey, what was tonight about? I wanna give that kid a doggie bag that he may not remember all the scriptures and all that, but he's able to say tonight we talked about that we can trust God because God is trustworthy whatever right, then that is the takeaway.
Speaker 2:There may be points to that, but that's the takeaway, and so I'm able to think through that plan. That that gives me again the why those kind of things. Now I'm able to build it. Okay, the scripture this is what the scripture teaches. That's where I came up with that. That's why I start with the scripture. We start with the most important things and then we build on that and so, knowing what's valuable, important in the same way, a talk you don't just start with a talk of this is my idea.
Speaker 1:I've got some idea. What can we make work?
Speaker 2:How do I make scripture back up my idea or dude? I got this great story. I'm gonna crush it with this story and then that that is flipped upside down in boom, this is what we're teaching.
Speaker 2:This is what a bigger thing that we're teaching. We want students to understand scripture as a whole. Maybe that you think through that for yourself, Maybe that's really important for you, and so you wanna build in in every single one of your talk Not all of the background of scripture, but one bite-sized takeaway of hey, we're in the book of Philippians, written to this church. You know what I mean Like, and you're able we wanna explain that to all these places so they have an understanding of the historical whatever right, and so you're able to build on that when you have a bigger plan. That's good.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things I think related to the planning of the things that we do and this is one of the notes that we made for this is the involvement of the leaders that we need. One of the most important ways to increase your capacity we talk about capacity related to growth Like we want more students there. Sometimes we don't have the students there, not because there aren't students to be had there, but we don't have the support structure. For if they did show up, if you had 40% increase in your student ministry gathering next week, what would you even do with it? And so, for a lot of us, that's the volunteers that we have, it's the adult teams, it's our student leader teams, it's the folks that are bought in and know how to help. And I think this is an area that some of that larger perspective, in the same way that we're mapping out the big things, the win and the win, and then also chain together help in getting adult leader involved Instead of recruiting hey, come to youth group every midweek or Sunday and be an adult presence, come, drop in here.
Speaker 1:For this reason, that helps connect this to that. That's a big picture. Talk that's not week over week. Talk, literally, not to be like the guy that's doing all the homophones or whatever, but that's W-E-A-K talk when we really wanna have this like man. It's not just about you being here every week. Being here every week builds the trust that we need to have to connect in relationships with students, because it's the thing that they're not getting anywhere. Else is consistency. That's a different invite. Instead of hey, will you be at youth every Wednesday?
Speaker 2:So we talked a little bit in the last episode about the larger student ministry is, I think, the more organized that you have to be the reality and I don't know the exact numbers this is like Chad Higgins' assumption and view of how student ministry works. I think there are natural break points inside.
Speaker 1:For community gatherings, yeah, inside of student ministry.
Speaker 2:I think that the way student ministry at 15 to 20 below it starts to change after 20. I think the student ministry for the most part between 20 really to 60 is something like that Some similar. I think 60 to probably 100 is done in a certain way above 100. I would say the next break point felt like it was 175. Was different, and then post 250. You're just replicating things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so 250 to 500 felt fairly similar. I never led student ministry above that point but knowing guys that do I see some difference above. Not even Probably, even maybe even 400.
Speaker 1:Ok, but shelves man again. It's not that one is preferred over the other.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah.
Speaker 1:There are certain things that happen at each level that have to be noted.
Speaker 2:Yeah, specifically with organization, one of those, and I think that this is that 60, it's definitely true, breaking that 100 point. That's why I think you see a lot of student ministries that are at that spot of between 60 to 100. They always do this thing.
Speaker 1:They do 100 in the summer, and then by October they may even bump up to 110, 120, and then they're back to 75, 80.
Speaker 2:And they'll continue to do that A lot of the times is because for that leader you never make some structural shifts that have to be different.
Speaker 1:You're adding more leaders, adding more structure, which I think is a key difference. Just having more students doesn't just mean you need more leaders in ratio.
Speaker 2:There's actually some layers of leadership that you also need to add, you start to really have completely different types of leaders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Not everybody's a small group leader. I think when you have 15 to 20 to 35 kids, you have mentors. You have small group leaders. You have a buddy Rush called them lifeguards. You've got folks that are just doing life on life. You've got middle school guys. I've got high school guys. She's got all the girls. But then what happens after that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you start to build and even it becomes part of your leadership application when you start recruiting leaders. It's at that point too, I would even say that once you hit over 20, you need to start to develop some sort of form or application, because you need to start doing I mean, at all levels, you need to be doing background checks that's kind of thing, the safety protocols.
Speaker 2:But to be able it's another template thing to be able to hand to a leader and say here are expectations, all of those kind of things, just so you're on the same page. Expectations are really valuable, not only for yourself but for the leader. But the thing that I want to get at is because I think for a lot of our listeners they are at that 25 to 100, which a lot of student ministries are and I think for you it's developing out other areas for adults to serve, because for most people I mean adults that are volunteers, for most people in the church when they hear come and be student ministry volunteer, they have an expectation of what that looks like.
Speaker 1:Teacher, life group leader, Sunday school. It's me in a room full of seven to nine kids that maybe I know or I don't know.
Speaker 2:And there are people in your church that may not fit that mold but could be great leaders for you in other areas, and so, I think, building out different key volunteer areas where that's all they do and you even understand the structure of that. So, understanding that man, some of these folks, they're not ready to actually lead a group. These are people that I would identify a lot of time as high energy, great relationally or a specific skill set.
Speaker 1:Can I talk about Jennifer for a minute? So Jennifer was one that she, a small business owner, loved our church would help out in a variety of ways and a variety of places. She found her spot. She was always our camp cook and this never occurred to me until she was always our camp cook. That would help plan and do because she loved overseeing the staff. She was in the kitchen and she was great, but she loved putting together the menu and leading the team. She became our Sunday morning cafe team leader.
Speaker 1:We went from having like coffee sometimes and donuts to like a full smoothie bar and she involved other adults and students. She had no small group. That was her traditional like here's the scripture, here's the questions but she definitely was a mentor to the students and then the other adults that were making great coffee and smoothies behind the bar every morning, cause she was like I want kids to have better snacks than donuts and so she had a vision, something that made a lot of sense and took care of it in a way that like it was a lack of imagination on my part, but an openness to what she saw that I did. She got to use her gifts, got to use her gifts and she was there every week without fail. All I had to do was buy frozen fruit. It was the easiest, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, as you get larger, being able to identify what are those areas and, specifically, as we get larger, cause you start talking about hiring staff and those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:Well, this, I think everybody's desire for an intern is that inkling right, like I want a little more help. I don't know what I do with them, but I want a little more help. But I think it's in there. You're feeling it. I want to be simple, that you're feeling that feeling of like I need a little more help. But the imagination for how is that help going to be utilized? That's what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Well, and here's the thing that I want everyone to hear is some of these tasks that we give you. If you're just like that is not me, I've tried, I've tried, I've tried Then my encouragement to you is be relational, be who you are and go recruit leaders. Then, Like you, can find areas in your student ministry right now that are weaknesses of yours, that are strengths of other people, and I think sometimes we hang on to well, I'm the youth passers it's my job. I need to be doing budgeting or whatever.
Speaker 1:But the reality is this is my job. This is my work. No man like you can reimagine all of it.
Speaker 2:You probably have a financial advisor in your church that would love to use their gifts in a way to where you're like hey man, I'd love you to serve in our student ministry. It's not a week to week thing, it's actually once a year. I need you to look over our budget to help us figure out what needs to be our costs for things next year, what needs to be our benchmarks, all those kinds of things. And you walk alongside that person and really you're sitting there in their office and you're like show me the spreadsheet.
Speaker 1:Adam's scared of teenagers, but he's not scared of numbers.
Speaker 2:He's really good at it, and here's the deal. He's so much better at it than you, he just is. He is, and he'll be always, better than you, but the thing that you're better at was you were able to release it to him, yeah and so things like that that are that may take up a week, right For you to be able to present to your elders or your pastor. He's able to come through, knock it out. And a day Very easy, because he's like yeah, dude, I can spend your $10,000.
Speaker 1:And it was an easy way for him to use his skill sets to make you feel confident about what you were doing. And again it's those big picture asks Like you can't ask him on Tuesday to help on Wednesday. But if you're like, hey, man, it's the last week of August, we're still good for our day together and you buy the coffee, you lay out the books, you talk through it, he gets to look at everything. You're still the leader of the ministry but you've now outsourced to someone who loves what you're about in the church. And the win on top of the win is that when Cam rolls around he's cheering for you because he was a part of the process.
Speaker 2:Well, and here's the thing too is all of these areas? You can find leaders in your church that can help you If you don't feel like man. I continue to hear from parents that they don't feel communicated too well. Okay, instead of anyICE, here's okay, let me back up. I'm getting fired up about this.
Speaker 1:I like it when you get fired up. This may be a good one and a little extra bonus for y'all today.
Speaker 2:The thing is sometimes, I think, in areas where we feel weak, we become insecure and, like animals who feel insecure and scared, we become defensive. And so when we hear from the parent of I didn't know about that, I did, you weren't organized and it wasn't communicated. Well, oftentimes what happens we go into two modes Depressed, yeah, where we're just like dude, we'm horrible at this, they call me out.
Speaker 1:I can't do it. Yeah, I can't.
Speaker 2:Nobody will help me right, nobody will help me, and then just spiral or become defensive and Then it's like Do they know how much I do? I've been in all their kids games and all, and you may be feeling that right, I had the time they had, yeah, all of these kind of things, and it's like I'm doing all this.
Speaker 2:I can't get all this and the reality is We've got to step back, one step at a time, and start building teams around us. It can help, yeah, start realizing that people have other gifts than just teaching when we're asking them to serve in student ministry.
Speaker 1:And some of that can't be imagined until you imagine the scope of your work. If you are doing All of it every week without fail, you are not leading at the level you should be leading to see which things could be handed over. It is, I Love y'all, but it is a leadership question on you. For who, even if you're like? Well, I have two volunteers. The two of them, given 60% of their energy, is still 120 to your hundred, and the three of y'all together and the other person or two that you may begin to add. This is not small church, large church talk. This is leadership talk at every level.
Speaker 2:Well, and because all of these things have it, they have a different look and it's a it's a different amount of like, time and effort, of bandwidth that people can put into it. Yeah, if you, if you have a group of 20, it doesn't mean that you don't need to communicate and organize in a way.
Speaker 2:Yeah it just may look different than a group of 200. You may not be able to do all the big bells and whistles and create an app and all that kind of stuff, but here's the thing Sometimes communication is just sending a text email.
Speaker 1:Everybody know. These are the dates Yep.
Speaker 2:That's right and and so walking alongside of somebody, if you're like man communication is a rub that I continue to hear from people then what you need to see is, instead of being downtrodden or frustrated, look for opportunity. That's an opportunity for people to serve, yeah, and honestly. Sometimes and this is maybe a little backhand it sometimes the people that are complaining maybe some of the best people that that well, because they don't know how to weigh in sure, the gift that you have is the relationship you could build with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and their complaint is their unwillingness or Unseemliness of like, how can I invest myself? They see it, because they might be good at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, so when Kathy comes into your office and she often does, yeah and she's mad because they didn't get the form until the week before.
Speaker 2:Right, then I think it's opportunity be like hey, I hear you, when is a good time to form here? Let's, let's walk through this. Will you help me do this? You're so connected, yeah, to these other, these other parents, yeah, and I would love your help. Help me timeline this, yeah. Or do you know somebody that could be really good At helping us communicate better to parents? Those are ways that we start to recruit and bring people into it that can really help Hand those things over. It's okay, it's good leadership, especially when you're able to lay out and go here's what our year looks like. Yeah, yeah, okay, here's where we're going. We've got a goal of hitting we want 100 kids to go to camp this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's it going to take, what's it going to take to do that and what are the markers of communication beforehand? Okay, we think to get 100 kids to camp then we need to give out 150 forms. That's a remarkable goal for us. How are we going to do that? That's not just hoping 50 kids lose their form, right, okay, that means we've got to host something, yeah.
Speaker 1:That we're going to get Put forms in hands, right, those kind of things we're going to mail to some families that wouldn't have come by to pick it up anyway, yep, and we're going to plan out our communication of that.
Speaker 2:You're going to work with that team and challenge them. Hey, like, here's our big goal. Here's some markers that I want to see happen. How do we do that effectively? And here's the deal Some of that you can bring even students into. Yeah, that you can provide leadership of it and go hey, hope you're so good at Instagram. We want everybody to know about camp and I want to give you the freedom. Will you create for us 15 different Instagram graphics that talk about camp and the excitement of camp and all that kind of stuff Run with it? That's complete. All you had was the idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need Instagram graphics. I was going to take you a while, yeah. You've given it to this kid You're going to tinker around on Canva and get frustrated.
Speaker 1:Yep, she's not, and she's going to love it. And she didn't know she had the chance to until you gave her the chance, which, again, it's not that you have less work to do, right, it's just different work it's just different work.
Speaker 1:You're now juggling her to get it done instead of juggling the task. One of the things you've said to me always that I think is a marker of health in my life and I think for many of our listeners, is the mindset shift to go from juggling all of my task to juggling the people that are helping with task. It's not that I have to get all of the things done the work needs to get done but whether or not it's specifically on me to get every little stinking thing done or create enough oversight that she's working on that he's working on, that we're all working on this next week is a really helpful marker for, like, how we're structuring not just our plans but structuring our work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's what I want to say to you Okay, and I'm going to be very real and I'm going to look directly at you. They're not going to do it as good as you could. Maybe some of them will, but here's the deal. And leadership and delegation done well. Your job is not just to hand it off and forget it. Your job is to care for them, work with them, encourage them along the way. Remember you're developing yourself as a leader.
Speaker 2:Think about the frustration that you may have with a senior pastor or a leader over you that you want more tasks and you want bigger tasks. You have people that are looking at you, that are frustrated with you as well, and so it's not just think up an idea, hand it off to them and then get mad when they don't turn it in on time. It's the opportunity to shepherd and care for them and lead and encourage them and help them use the gifts and the tasks that God has given them and you as the shepherd, because that's the role that he's put you in. He hasn't put you in this place of leadership to do everything. It's to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, and that often means helping them see the gifts that God's given them and utilize them. We don't have these expectations that we hand people out to dry, because the first year that you give away tasks that you've been doing and you know how to do it and all of these kind of things, they may struggle and they may do things different than you, but just because they do things different than you doesn't mean that they're wrong, because sometimes to do leadership at a higher level, we have to let them lead and run and grow, and you're going to have a period of time where that happens for you, that you get to encourage and shape and mold, but then some of these folks they're going to do it in a different way that you're like I wish I would have thought about that. That's so much better, but that's leadership at a higher level for you, and so owning that, letting them have some leeway to mess up and fail and all those kind of things. But the more that you can get time on your side, the better you are going to be at this. And so don't wait until the week of my encouragement to you.
Speaker 2:Of everything that you do is that you should not be working on the things that are due this week or that you have to perform this week. If you're working on the things this week that are due, you're too late Now, I know, to get there. You're going to have to do it. You got to start somewhere, but you should be working on talks further out that your work this week on your Wednesday night talk is just pulling it up, review and it re getting to know it because you're going to walk in and lead it.
Speaker 2:The game that you have planned yeah, you may still need to go pick up the like frozen strawberries for the game this week I get that, but that game has been planned, that's graphics been made, all of those kind of things because we're further out to where we don't feel the time crunch. Because here's the deal If you miss a deadline that you've set for yourself with a buffer, if you miss that deadline, that's okay, we're just a little bit behind. If you miss the deadline for the thing that you have due Wednesday because it's Wednesday, then now you just feel stressed and all of it feels like it's on top of you and so get out in front of it, start to build teams around yourself that you can pour into, love and encourage, and you're going to see your student ministry go to all new levels when it comes to organization.
Speaker 1:These friends, we'll see you back on another episode of your booster, where we talk about not just the ways to get organized but the places that organization matters the most.