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A lot of organizations struggle with limiting their own growth. There is always a lid on growth and often leaders can create their own lids. One self-imposed lid is when a leader is unable to let go of details and rise to the next level of leadership.

I think this is definite problem in the local church but we recently went through a season where we swung the other direction. Here’s the quick rundown. We always set Elevation up for our Pastor to be able to lead out front. We’ve intentionally set up everything to keep him out of as much detail possible so he can spend time hearing from God, studying for sermons, and casting vision.

With each shift we’ve made with grown, we’ve removed Pastor from more and more detail. This is a good thing. But what we found was that he was continuing to lead our “department head” meeting and everyone was so focused on not bringing up detail that we began to see things slip. It was not intentional nor was it a flawed system; we just needed to add another meeting.

So we added what I now call the “bored meeting”. It is in this meeting that we drill down on every detail necessary to ensure we are not allowing things to slip through the cracks. Hence the term “bored” because the details are not the most exciting parts of a meeting. It includes the same department heads but I lead this meeting and when we have our meeting with Pastor ideas are fleshed out and the details have been worked through.

Here are several things that I think all churches can apply from what we learned through this:

· Have a Pre-Meeting- Most churches have a meeting that the Lead Pastor is a part of with his leadership team. Don’t frustrate the leader by coming in with half-cocked stuff. Meet before hand (everyone except the Lead Pastor) and hash out details and protect your Pastor from the things that will only complicate his day. If he oversees the agenda then get it early and go through things first. He’s got a sermon to plan and you’ll be amazed how freeing it will be for him to stay out of the details.

· Change your meeting structure often- As soon as you think that you’ve got the perfect meeting structure it’s probably time to rock the boat. If your church has doubled in size in the last year and your meeting schedule hasn’t changed then you are probably not going to be ready for the next wave of growth. We always think through ways to change our meetings up to better utilize people’s gifts. You’ll know when it is time to change the meeting up when the leader is unsettled with the current structure.

So there is a brief rundown on a recent shift in meetings. This post will likely be outdated sooner than later because this structure seems to be working well for us right now.

Chunks Corbett, Executive Pastor

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One of the things I’ve learned from my short tenure at Elevation Church as the Guest Services Director is that volunteers want to know what part they play in the big picture. Volunteers are most willing to do whatever is needed of them, as long as they know the role they play in the big picture.

So what part are you talking about, you may ask?

Let’s start here… When John and Kim are invited to Elevation Church for the first time with their two infants, they drive into our parking lot to a team of friendly and happy parking guys. Once they have parked, they come toward the building and they are welcomed by a group of Greeters and our First Time Guest team. They truly feel welcomed, and somewhat surprised at how easy it has been so far. They had imagined church to be a place where they would feel like outsiders.

John and Kim are then escorted to the E-Kidz check-in to drop their children off. They are instantly at ease because the E-kidz volunteer tells them what their children will be doing while they are in the service.

Next, they are seated by a knowledgeable Usher that happily answers their questions as they are seated. The worship team then comes up to lead John and Kim into worship. John and Kim feel so relaxed because they were able to find a good parking spot, their kids are safely being taken care of, and they hearts have been softened by worship.

It’s then that Pastor Furtick is able to walk on stage and have John and Kim’s full attention—because they had a distraction-free, smooth experience coming in.

It’s this… we communicate to our volunteers. We communicate the vision of the church (to see those that are far from God be filled with life in Christ) and the importance of the first 15 minutes after a guest arrives at church. It is during those first fifteen minutes that a first time guest has decided whether or not they will like Elevation. Our volunteers understand that each step towards the auditorium is a part of that deciding factor.

I could liken it to a baseball game, except in our game there are a lot of extra bases before making it to home plate. The volunteers understand that the part they play in getting the guests around the bases really makes a difference in whether or not those guests will have the opportunity to make it to home plate. If our volunteers have succeeded, by the time Pastor comes out to share the Word, the guests’ hearts have not been distracted by chaos and confusion coming in, but rather pleasant experiences that have softened their hearts and have allowed their ears to remain open to hear what God is speaking through Pastor.

My encouragement to you is this: communicate to your volunteers the role that they play. Share with them stories of people that have come through your church and have been positively affected by your volunteer staff. Remind them of the vision they have committed to be a part of.

If we do this, our volunteers will feel more valued as well as feel a sense of purpose in their roles.

Candice Lanning, Guest Services Director

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