posts

Mothers’ Day Rap

May 9, 2013 by doug 1 Comment

A short, fun Mothers’ Day video rap.

I can hear my mom’s voice saying, “Oh Douglas… I can’t believe you’re going to show that in church.”

“I know mom… I’m sorry. Talk to Jesus about it. I’m going to talk highly of you this weekend when I speak on ‘Everything I needed to know about Jesus I learned from my mom’… you left me great memories and a great example.”

[If you can't see this in your RSS feed, click here]

Enjoy!

[Are you getting Doug's daily blog in your email inbox?] If not, it’s real easy–go here.

Filed Under: Humor, posts, Technology, Video Tagged With: allison hibbard, humor, Jeff Maguire, Mariners, mom, Mothers Day

10 ways to be a great team-player, part 3

May 2, 2013 by doug 1 Comment

Team work part 1

Team work part 2… ideas #1-5

6. “I’ve got your back!” A team player is someone who is willing to confront those who take verbal shots at the primary leader (the person in charge). I know students and other adults will occasionally talk negatively behind my back. But a committed volunteer, someone who is a team player, won’t listen to that verbal abuse. They’ll confront the person or they’ll walk away if they need to. You want to be a team leader? Support your leader.

7. Regular affirmation. Whether the primary leader hits a home run or strikes out, they need affirmation (especially when they’ve struggled). When you affirm others on your team, you’re a valuable team player.

8. Take initiative. Teamwork is about taking ownership and jumping in when needs arise. Don’t wait to be asked in order to serve. Any volunteer who takes initiative on my team is a blessed leader in our ministry.

9. Learn some new skills. Become a student. A team player will seek to learn and develop new skills that will make them more valuable and the team stronger.

10. Don’t compare yourself to other volunteers. You don’t have to be like others on your team. That’s one of the keys of a good team—variety. God loves variety, and he uses variety in His body to do great things. Allow God to strengthen the person He’s created you to be and don’t worry about being like someone else.

The Message paraphrase says, “A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. A body is all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.” (1 Corinthians 12)

Teamwork isn’t easy. It’s not easy on the sport’s field, and it’s not easy in the church. It takes work on everyone’s part to create a healthy youth ministry. God will get the glory for the living example of love your youth ministry team becomes.

Question: what’s missing from this list of 10 actions of a team-player? What do you want your team to express as part of your team. Share your thoughts here.

[Are you getting Doug's daily blog in your email inbox?] If not, it’s real easy–go here.

Filed Under: Leadership, Ministry (general), posts, youth ministry Tagged With: affirmation, comparison, confrontation, encouragment, initiate, support, team work

10 ways to be a great team-player, part 2

April 30, 2013 by doug 2 Comments

In part 1 of this series on being a team-player, I wrote about the need to support the primary leader within a youth ministry. In the next 2 posts, I’ll give 10 specific ways a volunteer might make that happen.

Here’s the first 5 ideas:

1. Positive attitude. I’d much rather have an emotionally positive volunteer than a skilled volunteer with a negative attitude. Youth ministry is fairly easy to teach. A negative person is difficult to change.

2. Flexibility. Youth ministry is hard to predict. I like for volunteers to not act stressed-out when things don’t go as planned—because they rarely do.

3. The ability to laugh off mistakes. Similar to flexible, but this is quality is more directed at mistakes or failure that are sure to happen within ministry. I appreciate hearing a volunteer say, “It was no big deal. I actually thought it was funny when the students showed up and no one thought thru transportation. No big deal.”

4. Speaking positive in front of students about tough situations. Every youth group has kids who complain… some actually are Varsity-type complainers. When an adult hears a kid complaining, it’s fairly easy to jump-in and join the chorus of complaints. But, a team-player will instead say, “This is nothing to complain about… we’re going to get there. So what? The van broke down. No big deal. We’re all alive.”

5. Servanthood. A team-player regularly asks the point person, “Can I do anything for you?” Or, “How can I help you right now?” Or, “Put me to work… allow me to relieve some of your stress.” This attitude of servanthood and willingness to lighten the load of others is a major factor in being a strong team player.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll give you the opportunity to add to my list of 10, but today I’m curious how you (as a primary leader) get this type of specific information into the mind/hearts of the leaders who follow you.

Question: how do you currently “paint a picture” of what team work looks like? Share your thoughts here.

[Are you getting Doug's daily blog in your email inbox?] If not, it’s real easy–go here.