The Power of Collaboration....

Elevation is not afraid to try something new, it's actually something that's part of our DNA. But there are times when you look up and realize that some of the things you are doing are not the best way to do them. You can fall into the trap of "that's the way we've always done it". You can forget to ask "is this the best way to do it" and rely on "that's how we do it". A practical example from the life of Elevation is the way in which we approached events. In the past we've have a separate event for signing people up for small groups, a separate event for meeting Pastor Steven and a separate event for plugging people into volunteering.

One day our Ministries Pastor John Bishop said "why don't we do one big event strategically calendared combining all three elements." He was the driving force behind "The meet Pastor Steven, join a Community Group, sign up for a volunteer team and otherwise get involved in a church you really want to be a part of but don't know how Event". We had the event last night and it was a great event for several reasons:

1. We plugged almost 500 people into small groups and almost 200 people onto a volunteer team.

2. My Event Planning Team knocked it out of the park....the place look amazing, the food was incredible and the people who showed up walked away feeling honored.

3. We tried something new. Some things were great and some things we'll change, but we tried something new!!!

4. But the most important thing was the spirit of collaboration that it fostered in our staff. It forced people to work together to pray and plan....it forced us to think about the whole rather than our own piece of the pie.

John has been pushing the ministries department to truly see ourselves as a department rather than a collection of individual areas. He has been making great strides in developing that cohesion in recent months and last night was a giant step forward toward harnessing the Power of Collaboration.

In your church, work environment or organization who can you include in your world? Who can you work collaboratively with the enhance the whole vision and not just your piece of the pie? Who do you need to ask to help with what's on your plate because their strengths compliment your weaknesses? Who do you need to offer your services to because you can enhance what they are doing? There is nothing more powerful than the local church working arm in arm toward the common goal of "seeing people far from God filled with life in Christ."