4.02.2009

Never Practice on a Guest and other thoughts.

For my next few posts I will be borrowing some wisdom from my idol in the retail/restaurant world, Jim Sullivan. Jim is a genius when it comes to training/empowering your employees and increasing your ticket sales/customer traffic. I am going to merge some of his thoughts with how they correspond in the ministry world. Here are a few of his gems:

  • Never Practice on a Customer (Or in our Case, the Guest) - Know your volunteer teams’ strengths and weaknesses. Make sure you have fully communicated any changes in advance so there are no misunderstandings on Sunday morning that may reflect to the guests. Make sure you have strategic trainings, practices, and team gatherings (ministry meetings, fellowship, or discipleship related) weekly, monthly or quarterly. Our team leaders and ministry volunteers need to have significant knowledge of our processes, vision, mission and goals so the guests will catch a glimpse of what our church is about in one encounter.
  • Bring Enthusiasm, Energy and Excitement to Every Shift – Be positive, focused and jazzed about your ministry and why you are doing it. Passion Persuades. Be selective with which of your team leaders you voice any frustrations or burdens with, if any. After all, if you are not in love with your ministry, why should your volunteers be and why are you still doing it?
  • The More You Know, The Faster You Go – Teach every volunteer or guest you come in contact with something new every Sunday. Empower an up and coming volunteer to take ownership of the Sunday school class that day, coach a ministry leader through what you would do in a circumstance they are confronted with, be the example of greeting guests and being Christ to all people. Be someone your volunteers look forward to seeing everyday. Every volunteer should have a mentor as well as a staff ministry leader.

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