Several years ago, our church founded The Oaks School of Leadership, a discipleship program for college-age students. We had a gifted faculty and a great program, but we hit a brick wall because parents didn’t want their kids to attend a school without getting academic credit. As we searched for a solution, we realized an excellent and accredited school, Southwestern Assemblies of God University, was only a few miles down the road. I approached them about partnership, and a year later we had a fully accredited leadership school. In three years, our enrollment has almost tripled because of our partnership.

The second example also demonstrates the power of a partnership. I had the pleasure of connecting with William Vanderbloemen in August of 2009. It was a classic email introduction from Sam Chand that simply said, “You two should connect…Synergize.”

At the time Help Staff Me was only a couple of months old, but we were growing fast. I was eager to talk to William and learn the best practices of staff search. Our two companies were competitors, but William and I instantly developed a relationship of trust and friendship. From the beginning, I could tell God was up to something with this new connection.

After a year, it became clear that William and I were offering two very different products. Help Staff Me had found its niche in doing search for mid-level church staff positions (youth, children’s, worship, etc.), and Vanderbloemen Search Group was primarily high-level church staff positions (senior/lead pastor, executive pastor). When we begin to realize our uniqueness, we began to talk about how we could maximize our efforts. Those talks led us to what we are excited to announce today.

Help Staff Me will be joining forces with Vanderbloemen Search Group. This means that we will be combining the vast network of the Vanderbloemen Search Group and Help Staff Me. This gives us an even greater ability to meet every staffing need a church may have.

We’re excited about the plans God has unfolded for us so far, and we look forward to a powerful partnership in the future. There are many more details to come but we wanted to let everyone know the exciting news in the meanwhile.

5.) Connect more than you meet

I first met Mark Brewer in the gym of a church that I was staying at for a stateside missions trip. There were about 60 people in the room from 10 different churches/colleges. I remember him walking up to me and introducing himself. He then proceeded to introduce the 4 or 5 other people that were in his circle. Although he talked about these people like they were his best friends, I soon discovered that he had just met them as well. A couple minutes later Mark walked to another group of people. I continued to talk with the group I was with but I watched as Mark repeated the process of introducing himself, getting to know people, then introducing these people to new people. I studied Mark as he did this. Within 20 minutes the entire gym had met each other and was full of friends and not strangers. Mark has a way of making it a smaller world. It is a true gift.

Learn more than you teach

Listen more than you talk

Add more than you take

Care more than you are cared for

Connecting is more than a technique. As I reflect on this list I see a pattern of looking beyond myself and putting the focus on others. The amazing thing is that the result makes me stronger.

LifeChurch.tv opened an exciting new campus in Yukon on Easter 2010. West of Oklahoma City in a community where many young families call home, you will find an incredible opportunity. Step into the role as the first youth pastor of this campus, which is running an average of 2300 on weekends. “It’s a blank canvass, we have a lot to work with, and the new youth pastor will have a chance to form the ministry and make it their own,” says campus pastor Scott Cornelius.

LifeChurch.tv is leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. They are one of the largest, fastest growing and most innovative churches in the country—one church in multiple locations, with campuses all over the United States and the Internet.

If you are a person who can:

• Oversee weekly student worship experiences that include a live band, multi-media and extensive technical components
• Be involved with a relational team of leaders that share the load in this fast-paced, evolving ministry
• Recruit, train and lead volunteers, youth leaders and student leaders
• Build and lead a purpose-driven, relational model of youth ministry
• Lead with enthusiasm and energy
• Relate and communicate well with students
• Engage with an audience with a strong up-front presence
• Take this new group of 300+ students to the next level

…then apply here.

1. Learn more than you teach
I remember hosting the great mentor, Earl Creps, at The Oaks. A couple of us took him to IHOP after the service to spend some time with the wise one and learn from his vast knowledge. Instead, we found ourselves answering his questions and teaching him about technology. Earl learned how to send a text message. He later went onto write “Reverse Mentoring”. The best leaders learn all they can from others.

2. Listen more than you talk
Nate Ruch is one of my spiritual fathers. As I was about to finish my sophomore year at NCU, I was planned on leaving my role as a small group leader to travel the country with an evangelist. Nate met with me in the school cafeteria and I will never forget this meeting. I spent 30 minutes spilling my guts and it took him 5 minutes to speak deep wisdom into my life. Nate, a great leader, knew the importance of listening.

3. Add more than you take
Over the years Dr. Sam Chand has become a great friend. The most important thing he has taught me is that the connections God has given you are for sharing, not hoarding. Earlier this year Sam introduced me to William Vanderbloemen, a fellow church staff consultant, in a simple email and then let the connection grow from there. Today William is a great friend and incredible resource for HelpStaff Me.

4. Care more than you are cared for
Scott Wilson has been The Oaks’ senior pastor for nine years. Every time I bring a visiting leader by, Scott makes them feel welcome and makes his every possible resource available to them. I love watching this. From the Chief of Staff for Saddleback Church to the youth pastor of a small congregation, Scott brings them into his office and gives them everything he can. Leaders care for others above and beyond what is expected.

The business of connecting isn’t as difficult as we make it. Reach out. Look beyond yourself. You’ll be surprised how much can happen.

To be continued…

EastLake is a dynamic, high-impact church in the shorts and flip-flop wearing culture of Southern California. This church, led by Pastor Mike Meeks, desires that people come as they are, grow spiritually, build friendships, and make a difference locally and globally. They like to hire smart, self-motivated people. The leadership style is goal driven. Amongst teams, there are two attributes that describe their staff, trustworthy and loyal. EastLake is experiencing exponential growth leading to the launch of their second site last year along with an online campus. A third physical campus will be launched in the fall of 2011.

The Worship Department is looking for a worship leader who is proficient both vocally and on guitar to lead the congregation and band. This role will encompass worship leadership at various campuses, both live and in broadcast venues. Other needs include the ability to recruit, train and pastor teams of volunteers and to execute technical and musical aspects of the services. This worship leader will serve as a member of the broader Worship Ministry team, contributing to the creative development and planning of unforgettable and creative weekend services.

Check out eastlakechurch.com for more info about the church. To get an idea of what worship is like there, check out this video of the current worship pastor, Marcus Jones, leading a song he wrote called “You Reign”

You Reign from EastLake Church on Vimeo.

You also can see other videos that the church has done on their Vimeo site: vimeo.com/eastlakechurch

Interested applicants can apply for a position at www.helpstaff.me. All correspondence is treated with the highest confidentiality.

Help Staff Me is a retained executive search firm that helps churches and ministries find their key staff. Finding the right fit for your organization is what we do best. Should your church need assistance with the search for a new staff member, feel free to contact us.

Why You? Isn’t this the point of the interview? Isn’t the answer to this question what the interviewer and interviewee really want to know. The problem is answering this question can be difficult when you don’t know what value you have brought and can bring to any organization. It’s one thing to tell the head of the HR Department why you would be a good hire. But imagine the CEO of a large company, unexpectedly, interrupting your interview and asking you that question. The great part of this is if you know your value, the question will be easy. I once offered to do some work for free for someone I considered to be a “Big Wig”. I thought, “Well, if I hook him up, he could be a great reference for me.” His response to me was, “If you don’t value yourself, no one else will. Charge me. Something.”

If you’re the interviewee, aim for one goal: Walk away knowing exactly why they should or shouldn’t hire you. If you’re the interviewer… cut them some slack.

P.s. The one interview the Senior Pastor interrupted included the candidate the church hired.

It was wonderful to be able to sit down with Ed Young Jr. and talk about creativity in the church, reaching the lost, and something Fellowship Church has come to know as Spontaneous Baptism.

Ed Young Jr. is the pastor of Fellowship Church mainly located in Grapevine, TX. It’s one church. Six locations. Over the last decade Ed Young Jr. has mastered the craft of creative communication in the church world. As stated in this interview by Ed, being yourself is one the keys to effective creative communication anywhere. Often times, we are tempted to mimic what somebody else has already done. Watch and listen as Ed shares with us some of his keys to success.

The first time I saw this video I laughed my head off. (I love this kind of humor)

Do you use models for the creation/tweaking/developing of your ministry? Models are key to any organization or company’s success anywhere. There are thousands of models out there that work for specific communities/churches. The question is, which model is best for your organization? Or do you need to create your own model? One that has never been seen before.

Here are some tips:

Know why you use models

They can be easy to change

They make complex ideas simple

They help you and your team see the vision

They can display all the possibilities of growth

Know the dangers of models

People can get the wrong assumptions

They can portray perfection

People can get stuck doing things one way

Know how to implement models

When creating models allow for team input

Build a culture that gives permission to make mistakes

Find an organization that is already doing something similar to what you want to accomplish and pick their brain.

I would love to hear from you on how you have used a model to help create your existing paradigm in ministry.

“Stuff Your Sorries In a Sack”
It is a classic line from the TV show Seinfeld where George has a hard time accepting an apology from Jerry. Really what George is saying to Jerry when he says, “You can stuff your sorries in a sack,” is your sorry means nothing to me without action.

This weekend I took my family to see the musical, Mary Poppins. While the actual experience of watching that musical was great, the getting there and leaving was horrendous. What we didn’t realize when we booked the tickets was the musical was going on the same time as the UT/OU Red River Shootout just one block away on the fairgrounds. As you can imagine with an extra 100,000 people there it made for a traffic nightmare. Because of that we decided to take the DART train into the musical. Well, so did 85,000 other people so it was the worst transportation experience of my life. I ended up not even taking the train back to my car but finding a cab to take me.

When I got in the car this morning, talk radio was on and the person in charge of the DART rail system was on the show. The host asked him this question, “What are you going to do to regain the trust of the people you failed this past weekend? Are you giving them a refund? What is your plan.” This guys response was, “Really, all we can do is say sorry…” That is when I immediately thought of those wonderful words of George Costanza, “You can stuff your sorries in a sack, mister.”

No matter how many times we say, “Sorry”, to the people we connect with on a daily basis, “Sorry”, doesn’t change the fact that a trust was broken or that respect was lost. Any motivational speaker will tell you that if you fail or if you fall, you have got to get back up. I don’t think the hard part is getting back up or returning from a failure. I think the real question comes after we’ve returned. How do you follow up failure? In essence, saying, “Sorry”, is just the beginning of actually doing the action of changing the behavior. However, there are some situations both in personal and professional relationships here you may be able to regain the trust you have lost due to a poor decision or action. So, how can you regain broken trust?

Here are some strategy tips that can help:
1. Why did it go wrong?

One of your first steps will be to learn why you lost the trust of the person in the first place. You can then take the proper steps to prevent this from happening again. Don’t waste time trying to over explain or justify why you did what you did to lose the trust.
Personnel – Were the wrong people on the job?

It’s pivotal for the right people to perform the right job. The portfolio of the job has to match the skill-set of the person performing. What adjustments do you need to make to fix past mistake?

Vision – Was the project not communicated properly?

For the people doing the job, do they know what you are expecting from them? Do they know what to expect from you? Is the task that they are working on clear and concise? When you reach a point where your employees are suppose to read your mind, you cannot and must not assume that they have that ability. Everyone wants room to be innovative, but the clearer you are, the less room there is for mistakes. There is a big difference between needing to make changes and making complete mistakes.

Game plan – Was there an execution break-down somewhere?

Perhaps the execution of the job was miscommunicated. In other words you communicated clearly what the job entailed. But the break-down is how the job is performed. Is it possible that an employee thought they could perform a job, but in the middle of the process they realized they were incapable? Figure out where the break-down was.

2. How will it be different – Action plan for change?

What plan can you put in place to make sure that everyone is ready in the event this mistake happens again? What plan can you put in place to prevent the mistake from happening altogether? Make a plan. Make it plain. Make it visible.

3. What did I learn?

Don’t let failure set you back. Learn from it, and let those under you let you know what you learned because the lessons you learn from failure will become some of the most valuable assets you can offer to someone who hasn’t worn your shoes yet.