Today's Prayer

Dear God, Today I come to You, bringing prayers for my neighbors before Your throne. I don't know what each and every one is going through right now, but I know that each has their own hurts, challenges, problems, needs. I know that some are grieving, whether over an errant child, a lost job, the death of a loved one or something else; some are lonely; some are lost and need the Savior; some are ill and need healing and comfort; the needs go on. Please help me to know what to do to be a good neighbor to them. Give me opportunities to reach out and share Your love. I pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to each one and meet their spiritual needs. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

How To Recruit Volunteers - Free Book

[From Ministry Best Practices by Bill Reichart]

Do you want to recruit more volunteers for your church or ministry?

Agile ministry has just put out a new FREE eBook to address that issue. Here is some more information about the eBook from Agile:

No matter where you may be in your leadership, recruiting volunteers can be one of the most difficult tasks you will encounter. Even if you are able to teach a room full of kids, design a website, or manage hundreds of youth, recruiting may not come easy.

This FREE, easy-to-read electronic book (”eBook”) provides a simple approach to recruiting more volunteers for your church ministry. Whether you are a new leader or have been leading for years, there is something new and fresh to learn about recruiting volunteers. A simple process to volunteer recruiting.

This book is designed to open your eyes to new ways of thinking about recruiting. It will provide some ideas, inspiration, and a 5-step process that will help you to improve your ability to recruit new volunteers for your town.

Click here to get your FREE copy of this ebook now!


Volunteer Recruiting Step 1: Prepare

Before you can recruit new volunteers, you need to prepare the way through your actions, attitude, requirements, and prayer. Learn how to create job descriptions, put time limits into your team structure, and develop a contagious attitude that will help you recruit more effectively.

Volunteer Recruiting Step 2: Find

Finding new volunteers is often the largest source of frustration for team leaders. In this step, we’ll find fresh ways of thinking for more effective volunteer recruiting. You’ll learn how to recruit by focusing on passion and relationships, becoming others-focused, finding connectors within your church, and recruiting through structure and one-time service opportunities.

Volunteer Recruiting Step 3: Interview

Don’t skip the interview step! This step is essential to make sure both the candidate and the leader are comfortable to work together. You’ll discover how to conduct a simple, relaxing interview as well as when to include gift and personality tests.

Volunteer Recruiting Step 4: Integrate

The volunteer’s first impression is what will shape their view of your team for weeks and months to come. Your first priority is to get them trained and integrated into the team. Find out how to pick the right person to train your new volunteers, how to conduct a follow-up interview, and how to deal with volunteers that just aren’t a good fit.

Volunteer Recruiting Step 5: Retain

Recruiting doesn’t end with training. Recruiting is an ongoing process that requires you to learn how to retain your volunteers after you find them. Find ways to reward your volunteers and how to deal with letting go of volunteers when the time comes. Learn how to create example job descriptions, training materials, and more!

This free book also includes a 5-step action plan for applying this simple volunteer recruiting process. View examples of job descriptions, create simple training materials to help your new volunteers, and create a recruiting plan to guide you through your recruiting process.

Click here to get your FREE copy of this ebook now!

Church Volunteer Training

Does your church volunteer training really hit the mark?

Here is an excerpt from Group Volunteers - Tuesday's Tip to answer that question:

1. Make sure your volunteers know your ministry's overall mission. Never assume your leaders know your goals if you haven't told them (or told them recently) what they are. People who don't know how they fit into the big picture quickly lose their enthusiasm. Also, always tie your training in to a specific ministry goal.

2. Leave time at the end of each training session to make sure they understand what you taught. Encourage, prod, and beg them to ask questions about what they're learning. Never end a training time without asking them to repeat, somehow, what they've learned. Group activities can help reinforce spoken teaching.

3. Tell your volunteers where they can get more information on a training topic. Refer your leaders to printed and video resources that can give more in-depth information on a particular topic. Church Volunteer Central members can point their people to thousands of free resources on our site, including online training.

4. Don't assume your volunteers "got it" the first time. Don't be afraid to hit a crucial training topic more than once. For example, if you train your adult leaders on building relationships with teenagers, hit the same topic at your next meeting with a lab experience. Invite youth group members to the meeting and have your leaders use them as guinea pigs to try out their new skills.

5. Give volunteers a booklet of important training tips. It's important for your adult leaders to have an ongoing reminder of what they learn in training meetings.

[Adapted from Group magazine, the world's most-read youth ministry resource. See www.youthministry.com for more information. This post is from Group Volunteers: Tuesday's Tip. These tips can go directly into your inbox, and you can click here to go to their site to receive them.]

How Pastors Can Use Facebook

[By Leadership Network]

We found this free e-book that gives a bunch of great tips of how pastors and other ministry leaders can use Facebook to multiply ministry. You can download the e-book here (PDF). Topics covered in the e-book include:

• How to make the most of your profile information
• Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
• All about groups, messages, poking, etc
• Meet prospects for your church
• Learn more about the members in your church
• Testimonies from Pastors who use FaceBook

Chris Forbes of MinistryMarketingCoach.com put this easy-to-read e-book together, some of its content comes from his series of blog posts last September, several highlights I'll mention:

• Who’s on FaceBook?
• It’s not just a waste of time!
• FaceBook People need ministry too!
• Making Friends on FaceBook for Ministry Purposes

Ministry Shift

As we continue to move from the Gutenberg world to the Google world, Dr. Albert of the Anglican Church, India, points toward seven strategic shifts for pastors in particular and ministers in general to ponder:

• Shift 1: A Power Shift from Self to God
• Shift 2: A Priority Shift from inreach to outreach
• Shift 3: A Program Shift from events to relationships
• Shift 4: A People Shift from ministers to equippers
• Shift 5: A Provision Shift from consumers to contributors
• Shift 6: A Perspective Shift from a church mentality to a Kingdom mentality
• Shift 7: A Process Shift from the older to the younger

When you and your organization are able to make these shifts in the years ahead we can be sure the baton will not drop on the ground of time. Let us capitalize on global and local opportunities before they are lost forever!

[http://www.billion.tv/]

Can We Really Trust God?

"Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son" (Gen 22:10).

There are times in our lives when God brings a test to see if we are ready to put to death the very thing that God promised we would have. Such was the case in the life of Abraham with Isaac. Isaac was the promised son. Yet, God said to raise the knife to sacrifice him in obedience God.

When God brings such a test into our lives we usually have a choice. Neither choice is attractive. One choice will often salvage some aspect of the vision. The other choice will totally kill the vision from our perspective. However, that is the faith decision. That is the only decision from God's perspective.

If we choose the faith decision that kills the vision - we will witness the resurrection of the vision supernaturally by God. Our own faith will be launched into a whole new dimension. He will raise us up in order to speak through our lives in that experience. God often brings that person into a very public ministry.

However, if we choose the lesser decision, we will reside in a lesser walk with God. God will accept the decision but there will be consequences to our faith journey. He cannot trust us with a bigger vision because He sees our obedience is moveable based on our perceived consequences.

If we choose the lesser decision then God will often orchestrate other events in our lives that are designed to develop our faith to a level that will allow us to make the right decision the next time.

Do you have resurrection faith that will trust God to raise your situation from the dead?

[Os Hillman]

Five Dysfunctions of a Team

1. The first dysfunction is an absence of trust among team members. Essentially, this stems from their unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group. Team members who are not genuinely open with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build a foundation of trust.
2. This failure to build trust is damaging because it sets the tone for the second dysfunction: fear of conflict. Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas. Instead, they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.
3. A lack of healthy conflict is a problem because it ensures the third dysfunction of a team: lack of commitment. Without having aired their opinions in the course of passionate and open debate, team members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions, though they my feign agreement during meetings.
4. Because of this lack of real commitment and buy-in, team members develop an avoidance of accountability, the fourth dysfunction. Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.
5. Failure to hold one another accountable creates an environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive. Inattention to results occurs when team members put their individual needs (such as ego, career development, or recognition) or even the needs of their divisions above the collective goals of the team.

[Patrick Lencioni]

Happy Father's Day

Neckties May Be On Their Way Out

Neckties may be an American institution that is shutting down. The Men's Dress Furnishings Association, which has represented American tie makers for more than 60 years, has shuttered its New York City headquarters and, later this month, plans to close down for good.

Some industry watchers don't think neckties themselves are on the way out, but, in a 2007 Gallup poll, 67 percent of men "never" wear ties to work — more today seem to appreciate ties for personal style reasons, reports http://www.abcnews.com/.

Clergy, especially on the U.S. west coast, are dressing more casual.

[Focus on the Family]

Southern Baptist Have a New President - Pastor Johnny Hunt

The Rev. Johnny Hunt, pastor of a megachurch in Woodstock, Ga., was elected Tuesday as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, reported the Washington Post. Hunt, 55, acknowledged in a speech to pastors Sunday, that the denomination is facing difficulties:

• Baptisms, a key sign of spiritual health for Southern Baptists, have fallen to a 20-year low;
• Membership dipped to 16.27 million last year from 16.3 million (except for a drop in membership in 1998, the last decrease was in 1926).

Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., said he nominated Hunt because of his "heart for the nations" and his "heart for the next generation."

[Focus on the Family]

Today's Prayer

Lord, Please make me a blessing. I present myself to you, a living sacrifice, for ministry to the world. I pray that I would see others through your eyes of love and concern and that I would ask myself "What would Jesus do?" Please forgive me of the times I have been selfish or apathetic, for the times I have missed out on the opportunity to minister and be a blessing. I pray for all the people in my family and community who need a blessing right now. I pray for Christians around the world who need your hand of blessing right now. Lord, you know the need. You are good, all the time. I pray that in your mercy, you will will reach out in the way you know best and meet those needs, uplift those spirits, bless those souls, for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

5 Skills of Good Leaders

Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi recently told Training+Development magazine that she believes that each one of PepsiCo’s 18,000 employees is a leader.

She names five skills that she believes are the hallmarks of a good leaders:

1. Competence. You must be an expert in your function or area of expertise. You will become known for that.
2. Take a Stand. You must be known for your courage and confidence to act and say what you believe is right.
3. Communication Skills. Communication skills are critical. You can never over-invest in them.
4. Coaching. Surround yourself with good mentors. Listen. Learn. Your mentor is a major force.
5. Your Moral Compass. Have the strength and courage to do what’s morally right, not what’s expedient. Your moral compass must be your true north.

On building leaders she says:

We are building talent with an enterprise mind set. We strategically build skills for key talent through carefully planned developmental assignments.

Succession planning is also critical. Our succession planning process is designed to identify the kinds of experiences our leaders need.

Once identified, we put people in assignments that enable them to build those skill sets.

Spiritual Formation and Leadership Formation

The New Testament speaks clearly that God's call upon our lives is to be transformed into the image of Christ.

So, how does this process of transformation connect with the concepts of leadership formation? Does leadership formation happen alone or in an organizational context?

In this session, Drs. Bekker and Gomez encourage leaders to delve deeper as they discuss the connection between leadership and Christian formation and how our innermost being affects how we lead, our organization and ultimately the world.

To listen, click http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/leadershiptalks/home.htm

Today's Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray today for the deacons and ministers of caring in the church today. I pray that they would support and uplift the pastor, like Aaron did Moses. I pray that they would help the pastor carry out the ministry of the church, looking after the needs of the congregation, going about in an attitude of prayer, and seeking Your will in all circumstances and obstacles that arise. I pray for their protection from harm and evil in any form. I pray that You will anoint, bless, and minister through them to reach people, to show them Your love, and to bring glory and honor to You. Help these ministers to see their role in Your work, and give them the boldness, wisdom, and encouragement to carry on. In Jesus' name, amen.

David Baroni Releases New Book and New CD

David Baroni is a true minister of Word and song. His roots run deep in the church with a dedication to ministry.

His new book is titled, "The Jazz Preacher." It is his story and you will thoroughly enjoy it.

An excellent musician and songwriter, David Baroni's new CD is titled, "Finger Paintings: Dream."

Check it out at http://www.davidbaroni.com/.