Leverage what you have....

As we've grown as a church I've had the privilege of learning from Pastor Steven, one of the best leaders in the church today. I am constantly amazed at how he is always thinking about the next thing before the current thing is complete. He is continually pressing us to leverage every opportunity to develop leaders and improve systems. Let me give you a few practical examples of how I've been able to implement this principle in my area of ministry:

1. Lunch - If I'm going to a lunch where I'll be communicating vision/culture, meeting with someone who wants to know more about the church or pitching a leadership role to a volunteer I ask myself who can I bring along. This is an easy opportunity to help key volunteers/other leaders to learn how to speak the voice of the church. Let them know why you're taking them along, define your expectations and debrief afterward. Leverage this valuable opportunity to help high level people learn how communicate your heart. It's a great way to develop leaders that doesn't take any more time out of your schedule and only costs you a lunch.
2. Event Volunteers - When you need a short term event driven volunteer force you have an gold in your hands. Go out of your way to recruit people who are not currently volunteering and give them the chance to get a front row opportunity to see your vision in action. We just finished putting on two weeks of spontaneous baptisms. A significant portion of those volunteers were new volunteers we recruited for the event. Most of those newbies will end up on a volunteer team because they have been so captivated by being part of the life transformation process.
3. Systems - figure out what you want to do and empower others to drive the system. Here's an example from the spontaneous baptisms. I developed the plan for how I wanted the system to flow for getting people out of their seats, changed, baptized and back into their street clothes. I identified high capacity put them in leadership roles. I gathered those leaders together and empowered them to lead their teams and drive the process. They were empowered to make decisions to improve the system on the fly. The short term role will give you future leaders who will be ready for the next thing you need them to do.

Why don't we leverage these and other opportunities more often: 1) We're too busy checking things off our list to stop and ask "how can I utilize what I am currently doing to develop someone." 2) We rely on the same people over and over again rather than seeking out new people to bring into the mix and 3) We get too caught up in the details rather than giving leadership away through empowering others to drive the details.