Tracking Numbers

One of the things we do at Journey Church is track how we are doing each week. It gives us an honest look at where we are and at the health and depth of our church.

Several things we track each week are:

• Sunday Morning Attendance
• First Time Guests
• First Time Salvations
• Number of Volunteers Serving
• Attendance of Our Connect Groups
• Giving Totals
• Children and Nursery Attendance

All of these numbers help us determine if Journey Church is doing what God has called us to do.

For us a win is to for people to move from Sunday Morning attendance into small groups and then into serving. That is the vision that God has given us and the only way to find out if we are winning at that is to know how many.

It is not numbers for numbers sake. It is numbers to show us how successful we are being at making disciples.

Six Laws of Leadership Part 6 - Friend

The sixth leadership principal our leaders need to be successful at is being a FRIEND.

Leadership is not just about being organized and administrative, it is about caring for others. People don't care how much you know, they want to know if you care for them. A great leader is a person that cares for people around them. Caring for those that are on your team is another way we will be successful at Journey Church.

As you are a friend to those on your team they will exhibit a feeling of being cared for by God and others as they do what they are called to.

To properly care for others you need to:

• Communicate: Communicates effectively the vision of the church and the department so volunteers know why their gift and commitment makes a difference.
• Models Maturity: Leads the department into a healthy care and connected environment that celebrates and supports people within the team structure.
• Supports: Responds to the crisis situations in a timely and empathetic manner and members feel supported. Oversees that small group relationships are built throughout the department.
• Disciples: Builds a network of teams that gives quality care in the form of life discipleship. Leads a leadership small group each month.
• Affirms: Affirms each team member’s importance and value to the team through fellowship events, awards, and communication and values each team member. Organizes departmental fellowships that are designed to build strong teams and cause members to feel connected.

Six Laws of Leadership Part 5 - Coach

The fifth leadership principal our leaders need to be successful at is being a COACH.

A great leader is a person that coaches those people around you. Bringing out the best in others is a vital principal that will make all our teams successful at Journey Church.

As we look at coaching others it is important in this area that people feel they are becoming a better player on a better team.

• Teaching: Understands and communicates a well defined game plan and teaches the team principles and concepts that make each team member a better and well rounded player.
• Developer: Aware of the development of each key team member and mentors them in their personal, spiritual, and emotional development.
• Aware: Socially aware so both people and project are managed well. Provides encouragement and positive feedback to keep morale high.
• Execution: Executes from a game plan with effective policy and procedure manuals and implements them by giving oversight to the training and mentoring of each team player.
• Confrontation: Knows how to confront difficult situations with dignity and grace while affirming the efforts of each team member.

Six Laws of Leadership Part 4 - Recruiter

The fourth leadership principal our leaders need to be successful at is being a RECRUITER. Gathering people around you who will help to further your department and overall purpose of the church is a vital principal that will make all our teams successful at Journey Church.

A Recruiter is one who makes their team members "feel personally assisted".

• Recruits: Assimilates volunteers into the atmosphere and spiritual disciplines of JOURNEY as a part of a team.
• Connects: Connects the gifts and passions of the team member to the appropriate job description and ministry.
• Assesses: Assesses personnel needs well and recruits accordingly. Doesn’t just plug holes but finds people who fulfill a needed role.
• Helps People: Develops people in the tasks assigned to them by having good training processes in place and when the task doesn’t fit them helps them find new places to serve. Aware of the individual training that is necessary to assist people in finding their unique place on the team
• Listens: Listens to the ideas and opinions of others and implements ideas the team has agreed upon.

Click here for a video series on recruiting.

Six Laws of Leadership Part 3 - Director

The third leadership principal our leaders need to be successful at is being a DIRECTOR.

As you seek to be a Director for your team you must realize that "key directives are easily understood so the team can follow".

• Systems: Understands the Management System at JOURNEY. Understands how social, organizational, and technological systems work within the Journey Church organization. Joyfully works within the system.
• Factors: Aware of excellence in administrating the factors that create a productive ministry environment through good policies and procedures, job descriptions, volunteer schedules, and team ministry. Decisive with integrity and honesty.
• Planning: Embraces and demonstrates excellence in creating a detailed plan that manages objectives and time lines well so that progress is made and goals are achieved.
• Culture: Understands that atmosphere is vital to the health of the team and does well in listening to the ideas of the team. Communicates with vision, kindness, and respect where the team develops a sense of mature community.

Six Laws of Leadership Part 2 - Visionary

In continuing our discussion of our leadership culture at Journey Church, we want to focus on the second principle our leaders should embody. We feel all this principles will help make our leaders more successful in our organization.

The second principle is for them to be a VISIONARY. That means the people they lead should say they are consistently excited about what they do.

A visionary leads by:

• Team Player: Understands and communicates the general vision of the church with excitement in an emotionally positive way and causes the team to see how their part is vital in the big picture.
• Sees Ahead: Researches trends and is aware of what other churches are doing to stay on the cutting edge. Finds new ideas and using originality to meet and handle new challenges.
• Problem Solver: Sees ahead of the team to make adjustments and problem solve to keep the team on track. Is effective in coping with different situations and problems and is able to take action without being told.
• Motivated: Motivates the team by contagiously casting the vision for the team in an intergenerational way through different mediums to keep the team with high motivation for the task.
• Collaborates: Understands the importance of the gifts of others and how they can be blended on the team to create a better team. Can cooperate effectively with others designing work schedules and assignments.

Six Laws of Leadership Part 1 - Pacesetter

For five years I had the privilege of being on staff at what I feel is one of the best churches in America, Faith Family Church. At Faith I picked up a lot of great principles of leading that I have put into place in the various positions I have had.

As we begin to develop a staff and volunteer leadership culture, we are going to focus on six principles which we feel will help make every leader more successful in our organization.

The first is being a PACESETTER. As a pacesetter, people love following you for who you are. A pacesetter leads through:

• Integrity: Chooses a course of action consistent with Christian values that demonstrate honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, and productivity.
• Responsibility: Exerts a high level of effort and perseverance towards goals, deadlines, and timelines with dependability and takes responsibility for mistakes.
• Self-control: Sets well defined personal goals, motivates self, and demonstrates self control in the face of adversity and tension. Demonstrates consistent control of their emotions with others.
• Humility: Performs position with a true sense of self-worth and maintains a positive view of self as well as affirms the gifts in people around him/her. Makes an accurate assessment of personal knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Pacesetter: Sets the pace of the team consistent with the goals of the organization taking into account the gifts, abilities, resources, and maturity of the team members.

Developing An Internet Presence

From the beginning we are striving to develop a web presence. Even before we purchase and develop a website our goal is to utilize all the available sources of internet interaction.

There are many free websites that can utilized to connect with a variety of people as a point of contact.

We have created a Myspace site, Facebook site, and are in the process of creating a podcast utilizing Podomatic.com.

Youtube and Flicker/Picasa are also great tools to use to post pictures and videos.

In future posts I hope to walk you through an easy and free way to create a podcast.

There has been much debate on whether to utilize some of these sites due to their content. But at Journey Church we believe we have been designed to be a light shining to this world.

Kicking Off

Here is a test blog...Blog #1 for Journey Inside...an inside look at Journey Church - Corpus Christi.