Multi-Site Kids

1 Week from TODAY!

So I know I have been away from blogging for way too long, but it has only been because of all the great stuff going on in this little multi-site world I live in. :) I get to watch children's ministry play out at 10 campuses every week! That is GOOD stuff. Next week at this time many of the directors from those campuses will be joining me at the KidMin Conference in Chicago. We are EXCITED!

First, this conference promises DEEPER LEARNING and who doesn't need that? Our team is excited to bring home some new skills, tips and tricks to do what we do better. The speaker list in impressive. We are coming to learn!

Second, this conference offers AUTHENTIC CONVERSATIONS. We are looking forward to interacting with speakers and fellow kidmin peeps. We'll take off the masks and talk about what it is like down in the trenches of ministry. We'll listen and hopefully help each other grow. We hope to make some new friends along the way too.

Third, we are coming to REIGNITE OUR PASSION for ministry. All of us entered ministry with hopes, goals, and dreams. Some of us have seen those hopes put on a waiting list, others have had to change their goals. Together we hope to find that passion we all have deep inside and put a path in place to live it out.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Chicago next week. What are you hoping to get out of the conference? It should be a fabulous long weekend!

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.

The Privilege of Being Equipped

We tried something new today.  And I'm feeling pretty good about it.  As we continue to address the need to get our Leadership Pipeline flowing strongly (see previous post), we decided to start something we're calling the "VIP Leadership Development Track."  The idea behind this is to invite select high-capacity and/or high-potential leaders to a Sunday afternoon lunch to receive leadership development training.  OK, really what we were doing was inviting people to a 2 hour lunch and workshop on "recruiting."  You might think that people would make excuses to get out of this, but we saw the exact opposite response.

We invited about 15 people to this event.  The invitation was personal.  1-on-1.  Face-to-face.  We let them know we had identified them as a high-capacity leader who had the potential to increase their influence in Kids' City.  We briefly explained that we'd be providing lunch after services and then would be walking them through a training on "Making the Ask."  11 of them came.  The others had scheduling conflicts but asked if they could be invited to the next one.

We had a great Italian meal (no, not pizza) waiting for them.  Red table clothes.  Sparkling grape juice bottles on every table.  These are VIPs, of course.

And then I spent 1 1/2 hours training them to be more effective recruiters.  Everyone was so engaged.  My sense was people felt privileged to be there.

And the best part is, I think people left with with a bigger vision of how God could use them to make a greater impact.  I think people left recharged to go after the mission and willing to consider that God might call them to take on greater leadership responsibility.

We're planning to try 3 or 4 of these VIP gatherings this year.  I'm hoping they can contribute to the development of our pipeline.

UPDATE: Because Rob begged so nicely, here are my notes from the training meeting: Download recruiting_skill.doc

Kids' City Leadership Pipeline

Last Saturday at our monthly Leadership Community gathering, I spent some time talking to our Leaders about our Kids' City Leadership Pipeline.  I believe the future of the Reproducing Church Movement is dependent on our ability to develop leaders for new congregations, campuses, and churches.  Every time we launch a campus here at CCC or help plant a church in the NewThing Network, we need a Children's Ministry Director ready to help lead the charge into this new venture.  I've realized that our Kids' City Leadership Pipeline is not flowing strong enough.  We have amazing, dedicated leaders, but we're not doing enough to move more of them further down the pipeline into Coaching, Coordinating, and Campus Director roles.  We've got to get after this.

So I created this diagram to help our leaders get a better picture of what our pipeline looks like.  Each box holds a brief description of the role but also a short list of the leadership skills that are developed at each level.  I challenged them to consider if God might want them to take a step further down the pipeline. 

After we spent some time discussing all of this, we broke up into huddles of 4 to 5 people and I asked each group to discuss the following 3 things:

1. What is your current role?
2. What development do you feel you need to grow in your current role and/or to prepare you to take the next step in the pipeline?
3. What is your dream role?  Where would you like to end up in the pipeline?

I was so encouraged to see how people responded to this exercise.  I had the groups record their answers so that I could read them afterward.  It was great for me to see how many people aspired to greater levels of leadership.  And it was also good for me to learn what areas of development they desire.

My dream is to have so much energy and passion flowing through this Kids' City Leadership Pipeline that the next time we launch a campus or plant a church we have multiple people who are prepared to step into the Director role.  I'd love to say to a new Campus Pastor, "Here are 3 people for you to interview.  Figure out which one is the best fit for your team."

Follow this link if you'd like to download a copy of the diagram: Download KidsCityLeadershipPipelineIllustration.pdf

Spotting Talent

Had a conversation with one of my co-workers yesterday about how to spot leadership talent.  It seems experienced leaders can spot emerging talent almost immediately.  But how do you explain to someone what made you realize a person had potential for increased leadership responsibility?  As we talked, I realized there are at least three things I automatically take notice of when looking for people to become Coaches or Staff in our ministry:

1.  Attention to Others: When this person is standing around mingling with others do they only talk about themselves or do they try to draw other people out?  Do they ask questions to engage others in conversation?  Do they seem genuinely interested in the needs, desires, and interests of the people around them?

2.  Bias Towards Action:  When something needs to be done, are they quick to step forward and volunteer?  Do they lead with a "yes" when a request is made of them that will require their time, energy, and effort?  Are they self-starters?  Do they initiate action to solve problems or improve the quality of the ministry?  Do they go above and beyond stated expectations?

3.  Charisma:  Are people drawn to them?  Does everyone enjoy being around this person?  If they were standing in the middle of the lobby would people gravitate towards them?  When they walk into a room of their peers do people take notice?  Do other strong leaders engage them in conversation?  Ultimately charisma is something more experienced than defined.  You can tell almost immediately if someone has it...or if they don't.

There are other things I want to see when considering someone for increased leadership responsibility...a growing relationship with God, a teachable heart, the ability to vision cast...but those things take a little longer to observe.  The three I mentioned are my "first clues."  You can spot these three even if you barely know the person.

Campus Director's Retreat

I spent yesterday and today with our Kids' City Campus Director team at The Grand Bear Lodge in Utica, Illinois (near Starved Rock).  I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed that time.  It was both productive and the most fun I've had in a while.  Here's a recap of the events...

1. Devotion by Tony, our  Pilsen Kids' City Director, who did a fabulous job encouraging us to face our Goliaths.
2. Initiative Brainstorm.  I'd asked each Director to come to the retreat prepared to "pitch" 1-3 initiatives to their teammates.  These initiatives will be things we'd like to tackle as a team in the coming year that would make the ministry of Kids' City more effective at every campus.  Everyone filled out a giant Post-It note with their ideas and then we took turns presenting to one another and discussing the ideas.  Afterward we combined similar initiative ideas into a list of about 9 possibilities.
3. Lunch in the Lodge filled with much laughter, sarcasm, and teasing.
4. Initiative Decisions & Initiative Teams.  We discussed the possible initiatives some more and then took a vote.  It seemed clear after the vote and a bit more discussion that 3 of the initiatives rose to the top.  I then asked each Director write down their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice of initiatives they'd like to work on and also explain what about that initiative excited them.  While I had them move on to the next task, I prayerfully considered what they had written and put together some tentative teams identifying a potential team leader.  Then I called them to the back porch one by one to talk to them about the role they could play.  We made some adjustments based on these conversations and the foundations of the teams were formed.
5. DISC Profile.  Each Director filled out the profile and then we spent an hour talking about what we learned about ourselves from the profile and specifically what we thought our teammates should know about us.  This exercise was extremely helpful.  Some major breakthroughs in understanding came out of it.  I think what we learned will help all of us work together better.
6. Final thought (or Beginning thoughts) on the Initiatives.  We summarized the goals of each initiative and brainstormed some additional people (not Campus Directors) that we might like to play on these teams.  The next step will be for the team leaders to gather their teams to work out a strategy complete with measurable goals and timelines.  Hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks.
7. Dinner at a local pizza place where we were quite entertained by the owner.  Much laughter, sarcasm, and teasing--a theme at meal times.
8. Mini-golf back at the resort.  I won't comment on the scores.  It wasn't pretty.  Although Shannon, our Montgomery Director, did get 3 holes-in-one.
9. Indoor water park.  I'm not sure I've had as much stupid fun as I had in this hour and a half in years.  Complete with the "death slide," lazy river combat zone, and wave pool races (I'm sure people thought we were intoxicated), we were undoubtedly the most immature people in the building.  And everyone else was under 7.
10. Indoor amusement park.  I was a spectator at this event.  4 of my co-workers braved the stomach-turning spinny rides.  1 of them lost.  Thankfully she made it to the bathroom.
11. Several games of euchre and one stimulating game of Skip-Bo later, it was time for bed.  The resort has Vacation Villas that sleep 9 so we were all able to stay in one house together which added to the bonding.  Well, there were also fights as to whether or not the bathroom fan should remain on all night.  The high "D" from the DISC profile won out over the "C" on that one.  And there was the chirping of the dead battery in the fire alarm at 5am.  But other than that, a peaceful night.
12. 8am...a run to the local market for breakfast goods.  First pack of bagels I almost bought had an expiration date 7 days ago.  A crumb cake I picked up next had fruit flies inside the box.  Is there someone I should notify about this?  Just stay away from the Mill Street Market should you ever be looking for breakfast in Utica.
13. 9am...journaling circle.  I will probably write more about our initiatives once they are further refined, but one has to do with challenging kids, leaders, and ourselves to be regularly in God's Word.  As staff, we know we have to go first in this so this morning we did something I'd never done before...we had a journaling circle.  We sat together in silence taking 20 minues to read, digest, and journal thoughts on John 14-15.  I challenged everyone to be sensitive to the one word, phrase, or verse God wanted them to have that morning and to reflect and write on it.  Then for the next 30 minutes we went around the table and shared what we had heard from God.  This was without a doubt my favorite part of our time together.  I love seeing how God speaks to each of us in unique yet often similar ways when we take the time to listen.  We will be doing this more.
14. Affirmation activity.  I purchased simple white frames from Target for $5 a piece and a package of multi-colored Sharpee markers.  Each Director was given a frame with their name written on the back.  I then asked them to go around and write words on each other's frames that described what they saw in that person.  When everyone was finished with this activity, I gave them a picture we had taken of our team to put in the frame and told them to keep this as a reminder of what their teammates believed about them.  At times when they might feel discouraged, inadequate, or alone, they can look at the frame and remember that they have teammates that appreciate, admire, and care about them. 
15. Closing prayer circle.  Did we share requests?  No.  We went around and shared what we thought was the funniest thing that happened in the 24 hours we spent together.  More laughing, sarcasm, and teasing before a short prayer of thanks and the trip home.

Long post.  A lot of detail.  But I share it because I believe that taking time like this with your team is invaluable to your chemistry and productivity.  I feel like so many important things happened in this 24-hour period.  If budget allowed, I would do this more than once a year with my team.  When's the last time you got away with your staff and/or key leaders?  Put some thought into it and create an experience that will boost them into the next ministry stretch. 

Saying Thanks

Yesterday we took our Kids' City staff on a brunch cruise on Lake Michigan.  Once I year I like to do something that is a special treat for our staff to say thank you for all the heart and soul they pour into the ministry during the year.  Whether they serve full-time or 5 hours/week, the ministry would not happen without their missional commitment.  We rented a bus and headed down to Navy Pier where we boarded the Odyssey and ate ourselves into fullness (the chocolate fountain was a big hit!).  Then it was several hours enjoying the sunshine and each other's company as we cruised the Chicago coastline.

On the way down I told them about one of my heroes, Amy Carmichael.  Amy was a missionary in India during the first half of the 20th Century.  She had determined as a young girl that she was going to build her life out of gold, silver, and jewels not wood, hay, or straw.  And she did.  God used her in India to save hundreds if not thousands of children from a life of temple prostitution.  What she gave her life to mattered.

Those who are serving with you in kids' ministry are building gold, silver, and jewel kinds of things.  Don't forget to thank them often and to remind them of the greater thanks that will be coming.

Filling Buckets: Leadership Development

Let's return to the Leadership Buckets discussion.  In previous posts, I named what I believe are 5 Core Functions of a Kids' City Campus Director.  If you are new to the discussion you can read about the 5 here: #1  #2  #3  #4  #5.  A suggestion was made to discuss how to increase the water level in each of the buckets.  This time let's talk about the second bucket...Leadership Development. 

As I mentioned during some previous thoughts on the buckets, I believe Leadership Development is the most important of the 5 Core Functions.  Honestly if this bucket is empty or low I'm afraid you don't have the right person in the Director role.  But assuming there is a healthy yet inexperienced level in this bucket, here are some thoughts on how to improve:

First, invite others to tag along.  Sometimes I get running and I don't think about the learning opportunities I could be giving to those on my staff or young, potential leaders.  But for the past few months I've been making a conscious effort to invite others along and their responsiveness reminds me how much "tagging along" can help a leader develop.  Think about the meetings, tasks, decisions, and opportunities you have in the coming week.  Who do you know who could benefit by tagging along?  I think some of the best leader developers are those who never do anything alone.

Second, give more away.  I'm in a great season of ministry right now because I'm in over my head.  I have too much to do.  Yes, at times I'm quite overwhelmed, but I also feel like right now I'm doing a better job developing my staff of Campus Directors than I have for the past 2 years.  Why?  Because I've had to rely on them more.  I've had to ask them to take things off my plate...big things...and watching them step up and respond has been so awesome.  Want to identify a person's leadership potential?  Give responsibility and authority for an initiative and see how they do.  Start with something small and if they rise to the task keep upping the ante.  If you are going to develop leaders, you should make it a practice to always be working yourself out of a job.  Give away as much of your job as you can.  Your job description should be changing on a regular basis.

Third, get beyond the task.  You aren't just training a worker, you are helping to develop a person.  Part of that development is equipping them for their task, but a bigger part is helping their heart, mind, and soul grow.  Invest in a young leader's life...their whole life.  Know how they are doing with God, their family, their significant friendships.  Listen to their struggles and pray over them when you meet.  Earn the right to speak significant words into their life.  If they know you love them, they will let you challenge them.  They will let you speak words that help take their faith, ministry, and life to the next level.

Finally, be someone others want to follow.  I whole-heartedly believe that the best thing we can give to those we lead is a heart that is intimate with God.  If we are intimately connected to God, what he wants to do through us will happen and those we are leading will experience a blessing through that.  If we are genuinely Spirit-led leaders, rising leaders will want to walk beside us and will be hungry to learn from our example.  Leadership development will happen through just being together.  Want an example?  Just look at Jesus. 

Filling Buckets: Vision and Strategy

Let's continue the Leadership Buckets discussion.  In the comments on my last post on this topic, a suggestion was made to share ideas on how to increase the water level in each of the Leadership Buckets (thanks, Rob, for the idea!).  I'll share some of my thoughts and then feel free to chime in with your leadership development suggestions.  So let's start off with the first bucket: Vision and Strategy.  How does a person grow in this important aspect of leadership?

My first thought...READ! READ! READ!  Vision is at first a process in your mind so I think it is important to stimulate your thinking with a regular dose of new ideas.  Of course you can gain the same kind of inspiration from conferences or sometimes conversations, but through books you have ready access to some of the best leadership and ministry minds in the world.  If you need a place to start, I think Andy Stanley's 7 Practices for Effective Ministry can be a great tool for sparking children's ministry vision.  Marcus Buckingham's First, Break All the Rules can help you think through how you develop and care for volunteers even giving you some clear strategic things to measure.  Erwin McManus' An Unstoppable Force will challenge you to dream about what your church could become.  If you are serious about growing as a visionary leader, you have to read.

Second, create spaces that give God a chance to whisper his vision into your heart and mind.  Now I know this practice is harder for some than for others.  I tend to be a contemplative at heart so having a whole day to sit in a park with my Bible, a book, and a journal is heaven to me.  For me, vision and strategy come in these quite spaces.  It's getting away from the urgency and noise of the everyday environment to hear from God.  I make it a regular practice to take one work day every 6 weeks as a retreat day.  During this time I get away for a half or whole day to re-center.  Sure I need regular, daily time with God...but I find I need an extensive time with him every 6 weeks to stay on course.  On my retreat days I usually spend the first hour or two journaling on "How are you and I doing, God?"  After that, I ask him to guide my thoughts on the big picture.  Often this is the place where ministry vision and strategy is birthed in my heart and mind.  I feel these retreat days are critical to Spirit-led leadership.

This last one might sound strange, but if you don't come by this naturally, force yourself to be discontented.  Look for things that are not what they should be in your ministry.  Important things.  If you have a low level in the Vision and Strategy bucket, chances are you might be too satisfied with the way things are.  I think visionary leaders are never content with the status quo.  Once one piece of vision and strategy is ticking, something else will start bugging them until they have to dream a dream and devise a plan to get there.  Let yourself get critical for a day and list all the things that are not what they should be.  Then pick the most important one and begin dreaming what it could be and outline steps that will lead to that future.

So there are a few thoughts.  What do you think?  How do you fill your Vision and Strategy bucket? 

Leadership Buckets Observations

Time for a few observations on the 5 Leadership Buckets describing the Core Functions of a Kids' City Campus Director.  Here are the 5 Buckets in review:

#1 - Vision and Strategy

#2 - Leadership Development

#3 - Relational Authenticity

#4 - Administration

#5 - Upfront Magnetism

Now I mentioned from the beginning of these posts that most people do not have a "full bucket" in all 5 of these areas.  So considering that, here are some thoughts I have about the 5 Buckets.

Thought #1 - The most important bucket is "Leadership Development."  If a Campus Director does not have the ability to identify and develop leaders, the growth or health of the campus will suffer.  A wise Campus Director will look for people with "full buckets" in areas where he is less gifted and figure out ways to use their giftedness in the leadership of the ministry. 

Thought #2 - At smaller to medium sized campuses, a low-level in the "Upfront Magnetism" bucket can be compensated for by a high-level in the "Relational Authenticity" bucket.  If the campus is at a size where the Director has the ability to cast-vision and make connections with a wide range of people on a personal, 1-to-1 basis, then she can get away with not being a dynamic upfront presence.  But as the campus grows, the need for "Upfront Magnetism" will increase.

Thought #3 - Understanding the 5 Buckets can help you make wise decisions in complementary staff hires.  For example, we currently have a staff opening at our largest campus.  This campus is large enough to necessitate both a Campus Director and an Associate Director.  Now everyone on our staff has to have a full or rising bucket in "Leadership Development," but the Associate Director we have also excels in the "Relational Authenticity" and "Administration" buckets.  She is off the charts in these two areas.  So I know the Campus Director we need will be someone whose "Vision and Strategy" and "Upfront Magnetism" buckets are overflowing.

So what are your thoughts?  Anything else you see with the 5 Leadership Buckets?  Do you agree or do you see things differently?