Things I learn from our Outreach Staff recently

I got to lead our last two Outreach Staff meetings. I wanted to conduct them with a focus around three main sections: Vision, Team, & Skill.

Vision: I intended to rehearse the vision and values of our church with the team. I have heard that people lose vision in less than a month. So to rehearse our vision was part of this segment.

Wooster Grace Vision Statement "Developing everyone into fully-devoted followers of Christ"

Next, I challenged our team to ask the question everyday, "Is what I am doing developing everyone into fully-devoted followers of Christ?" I phrased the question differently and created a one-page reminder for each team member to post in their office or cubicle to help them keep the vision in front of them.

Today I asked how the reminder helped. I noted how it helped me from being too distracted. As a people-pleaser, I tend to say yes to everything. So, this reminder redirected me to refocus on the mission. I will need to say NO more. Another teammate shared how the reminder helped her clarify what she wanted to do. She used "filter-questions" to strain out her excuses and to discover what was the key issue and then to make a decision. A different teammate shared how ministry can be so overwhelming at times. We want to help others--that's why we are on the outreach team. Yet we must seek to keep a margin, even in ministry. Her gifts and talents clarified her to decide to add one more ministry project to her life because our vision is developing others. The printed reminder helped us stay on mission.

You can do the same. Insert your church's or ministries' mission statement in the question and place on postcard or page to keep you on-mission. "Ask, 'If what you are doing is advancing your mission statement?'"

Ministry can be extremely busy. I wonder how you stay on mission amid the chaos of ministry opportunities. Please share in the comments below how you stay on mission.  

One of the things that I want to do in the new year is to share what I am learning in ministry. I trust these posts will encourage you and help others who are in ministry also.