Hull House

I'm a bit of a history buff.  Not the kind of person that could answer a lot of questions on Jeopardy, but the kind that likes to read or watch programs about historical things and visit historical places.  I just finished a photographic book on Hull House, the famous settlement house started in the late 1800s here in Chicago (remember your high school history class?).  Hull House residents sought to address the needs of the urban poor by living among them and offering services and opportunities that could transform the neighborhood. It was started by two upper middle-class women, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr although it is clear that Addams quickly became the leader of the settlement.  At its height, Hull House's complex filled up an entire city block on the West side of Chicago.  Now all that remains are two buildings...the original residence that Addams and Starr occupied and the staff dining hall.

I went there on Sunday.  There is a small museum housed in these two buildings and I thought it would be interesting to go see it.

Just in case you are wondering if I forgot the topic of this blog, let me tell you why I'm bringing all this up.  Hull House became quite a large endeavor in its heyday.  But one thing struck me as I read about its historical path.  When Jane Addams died in 1935, the settlement was thrown into a leadership crisis.  Leadership bounced between a couple of people but from the accounts I read it sounds like no one really knew how to head into the future after Addams was gone.

Now I am certainly not criticizing a historical figure who made an incredible impact on both the national and international stage, but it did strike me as odd that there was no succession plan.  No one was prepared with a clear understanding of what was to come next.  Addams was 75 years old when she died.  And I think she died of cancer so my guess is there was some length to her illness.  Had no one thought to make a plan?

Every once in a while I wonder what would happen if I were hit by a bus.  What would happen to Kids' City?  Who have I prepared to step up and take the reins?  I think multi-site has both advantages and disadvantages for the senior leader in creating succession plans.

Advantage: Multi-site forces you to learn how to create a leadership development culture.  Every time you start a site, there is an entire new leadership vacuum that needs to be filled.  We must always be about the business of raising up new leaders to send out to these new campuses or churches because we can't be everywhere at once.  Hopefully in this process of raising up and sending out, we are developing someone who could step into our place should the unfortunately bus accident occur.

Disadvantage: Our teams are spread out and focused on their individual pieces of the missional puzzle.  By nature my role is to oversee the whole and make sure all these individual pieces are aligned and all the systems are working correctly.  Every year we go through a talent review process and one of the questions that gets asked is, "Who is your apprentice?"  It troubles me that I don't have a real answer to that question.  So many on our Kids' City staff are in part time roles (anywhere from 5 hours/wk to 20 hours/wk).  I struggle with figuring out how to bring someone alongside me in my Director role to work on the "big picture" with me.  Especially because it seems their part-time hours need to be focused on their particular campus location.

Sometimes this leaves me feeling like the bottle neck for the bigger picture.  I'm feeling the limits of this in communication, decision making, capacity for initiatives...

But what scares me about it is the succession plan.  I have no plans to go anywhere and prayerfully God will keep me from stepping off the curb in front of a moving vehicle until we figure this out, but who am I preparing to replace me when I'm gone?  What is my succession plan?

Do you have one?  Would love to hear any thoughts that you have on this topic especially if you are the senior leader of your kids' ministry and your multi-site church has spread to at least 4 or 5 sites.

Comments

[Justin Browning]

Good thoughts... I'll be looking twice before I cross the road now! Ha! Our staff spent the weekend with Larry Osborne talking about multi site options. It was good conversation and I thought about CCC a lot while he was talking. How often do your children's ministry leaders (volunteer) serve? Would you mind emailing me a structure of your volunteer layout for a kids city campus. We are running around 2000 in worship now with about 350 kids.

[Tammy M]

Hi Justin,
Our small group leaders serve every week. Apprentice leaders and helpers serve anywhere from once a month to every week. But the vast majority of them serve every week. Our artists (Worship Leaders, Communicators, Tech) serve once a month for all services on the weekend.
You can find an overview of our campus structure in the column to the right. It's part of the document "Kids' City Organizational Structure."