Go Team!

So this weeks Egg Hunt became an opportunity for many on our team to shine. What made everything work so smoothly was our team.

I had one lady come up to me and say "I just want to thank you for hosting such an awesome event... my children are having a great time and to think that you put this on for free is just awesome. I thanked another one of your staff and they said that you were the Pastor. All of this coming from a young man... I'm very impressed. Thank You."

I said "Maam, I appreciate it but if you look around, we have a great group of people."

She then asked about our church and agreed that she'd be coming this next weekend.

After she left I realized how proud I was of our church. EVERYONE from our church who was present was working. For our church, this event was a milepost. This group had gone through a lot together over the last 6 months. To see how smoothly they made this Easter Egg Hunt just made me so proud of them.

Some things I observed that may help you:

1. People in their 'natural' position: It's taken a little while but yesterday showed that our leadership team knows our people well enough to only assign them tasks that will make people look like champs! Everyone is good at something or some type of thing. We now know our unique giftedness enough to identify needs and match them with great people who are able to do a great job with those positions. Our 'behind the scenes' people did an amazing job, our military guys flexed their muscle, our warm and detailed people handled registration, etc. A guy who works on the naval base managing a resturant handled our food, our resident artist handled crafts, etc. People were in their natural positions and it showed. If you want to involve your people in an activity... place them where they natrually fit... they will do it better than you and will have greater ideas on how to improve than 20 of your meetings.

2. Clear communication: One of the successes of our event was that there was a very clear line of communication. Calvin worked with our other leadership team to ensure that each area had someone as a 'point person' to make decisions. If that point person couldn't make a confident call, they could contact Calvin. If Calvin was unsure, THEN he would contact myself. With this system, each area was covered and I was able to spot-check each area as well as encourgae and love on our people. I found myself at every area yesterday encouraging and joking with our team. I was without many of the headaches that leaders sometimes create for themselves.

3. Successful Planning (and re-planning): Our leadership team began planning this event 3-4 months ago. All along the way we kept track of our execution, budget, contacts, etc. This event went off well because it was planned well. We all knew what to do and where to be. Our planning paid off with a successful and well organized event.

4. A great team morale: We bought some nice polo shirts for this event for all of our team so they could be identified. Even our teens received t-shirts with our logo... we became a unit. In addition we met at 12:15 p.m. (45 mins prior) for a breifing, prayer and encouragement. All of these things added up to a very positive and optimistic crew. I truly enjoy our people!

5. Pre-registration online: Some of our guests took advantage of our website and pre-registration. By offering this avenue... it not only sped up registration for those who attended but it also made a great impression on our guests who did not pre-register. As new people joined the line at the registration table, we asked "Did anyone here register online?" It takes up the professionalism when a church is able to provide that service for parents. I guarentee you that next year our online registration will yeild a TON of responses. Although registration was simple in person... it was super-speedy for those who did the online deal. We had their kid's nametags and egg-hunt section already assigned. The parents could walk right up, grab their nametags and free gifts and move on with the fun. It was an express lane for the computer savy!

6. Free Stuff: We gave out everything yesterday! We gave hundreds of promotional products (all with our logo and web address on them) to anyone who wanted them. For many it was a huge surpise that a church who was putting on this event for FREE would give away more stuff on top of this! I LOVED the faces of people when (at registration) we gave their kids stickers, magnets, frisbees, etc. But it was even more fun when we turned to the parent and said "For you mom, feel free to take one of these seat cushons, t-shirts, mugs, etc. The parents were pumped. Not only did we leave a great impression on the several hundred people who came out Saturday, but now we have hundreds of billboards. I observed adults and kids with our free t-shirts walking around. I got Napolien Dynomite inside and thought "Heck, yes!"

7. We involved the police department, fire fighters and ambulance services. A strategic decision for you is to invite some of your cities public services to your event. They LOVE doing it and it's FREE! Not only that, but it gives your church a feeling of friendship with the city. Another awesome thing is that it's FREE SECURITY! Yesterday we had the K-9 unit doing demonstrations and we had the kids safety division doing the "Identi-kid program". Almost every police department has these two groups and they will love to come out FOR FREE and meet the community. It's great PR for them and it can only help you! Our firetrucks were busy with a big-time fire that's been raging for days about 10 miles south of here... but they would have been here as well. Get them involved.

Okay... that's it for now... I have other thoughts but I'll share them later... for now I have to get back to work! Have a great Monday everyone!