Administration

One of the values that we talk about a lot at Freedom is honor.  Basically, it is just esteeming others better than yourself.  Unfortunately, this is something that people don’t generally do very well.  For the most part, we’re terrible at it.  We always think that we are better than the next person, whether we say so or not.

Our staff has chosen this week to celebrate Pastor J.R. and his family.  They have sacrificed so much to make the vision of Freedom Church a reality.  Words cannot express how much I appreciate what Pastor J.R. and his family have done.  I have grown more and been stretched more in the past 2 years than any other span in my life.  God is using him in a tremendous way to speak life into people.  I am just glad to be part of the team!

(For Executive Pastors:  You need to drive this in your church.  Honor is not a culture that just happens, you must be intentional about it.  Organize it and show your Pastor how much he means to your church.  He needs the encouragement!)

One of the things that I strive to do is to be a good employee for Freedom Church, so that people far from God can experience life in Christ.  One of my goals is to not create more stress but to relieve the stress from my Pastor.  I want to make it possible for him to trust me more.  Andy Stanley recently communicated these thoughts:

1.  I’ll make the commitment to do what I say I’ll do but if it doesn’t happen, you’ll hear it from me first.  No one likes to be surprised.

2.  If you confront me about the gaps I’ve created, I’ll tell you the truth.

Great principles!  Now if we would all just use them…

This week, I am in the middle of meeting with our staff for our bi-annual staff reviews.  I love this process!  At Freedom, we value tough conversation.  It’s not fun.  However, it is necessary to move forward.  The bottom line is this: we want our staff and Freedom Church to be as effective as possible.  In order for that to happen, some uncomfortable conversation has to take place.

The cool thing is that we have created a very open culture.  People receive constructive criticism well around here.  We talk about these things all year, not just on reviews.  This week, I have been reminded over and over that people desire to get better.

At Freedom, this is another way that we are continually trying to move the ball down the field.  Not just for the sake of getting better, but so more people far from God can experience life in Christ!

Check out these verses.  They contain a very cool Bible story with a lifechanging principle.

My Pastor says all the time that “the issue is not in God’s ability or willingness to give but in our ability to contain the blessing of God.”

How does this translate to real life?  Most of the time, God cannot give us what we are  praying  for because we do not have the systems to handle what we are praying for.  What are you currently doing to add ‘jars’ to your life?  If you are looking to improve in a certain area, why not call the best and spend some time learning from them?

At Freedom, we talk to people all over the country where God is moving in an incredible way so that we can learn from them.  This helps us to be prepared for what God is going to do in our future!

How are you adding ‘jars’?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about our follow-up process with 1st and 2nd time guests.  I thought I would follow that up with our process for following up with those who give to Freedom Church for the 1st or 2nd time.

We take it very seriously that someone would give of their income to what God is doing at Freedom.  As a result, after a person gives for the 1st time, we try to encourage them to continue in obedience in this area of their life.  Pastor J.R. sends them a letter thanking them for the gift.  We also try to take a few extra steps to show our gratitude.  We also send a document that has some FAQ’s about how money is handled at Freedom.  As a bonus, we also send them a cd of a message that Pastor J.R. preached on the topic of Generosity.

After a person gives for the 2nd time, we send them a pre-printed card that thanks them for the gift, as well as has 4 different giving options.  They also get a cd of a workshop that we did during the DebtFreeAcworth.com series.

Again, we are extremely grateful that people believe in what God is doing at Freedom.  We want to make sure we express that gratitude, as well as encourage them to take the next step in the giving process.

One of the things that we are constantly doing at Freedom is trying to determine how we are doing.  This is important to us because we want to be as effective as possible at helping those that are far from God to experience life in Christ.  Measuring success is difficult but here are a few of the things we use to track how we’re doing.

a.  Hard Measurements:  We track almost everything.  On a weekly basis, we look at attendance, financial, groups, children’s ministry numbers and percentages.  We track almost everything on a 10 week average and even compare our data to what was going on 1 year ago.  This helps us to know how we’re doing.

b.  Soft Measurements:  We realize that you cannot attach a numerical value to all that God is doing.  We also make it a point to talk about feedback and stories of life change.

With over 120,000 people in a 5 mile radius of our meeting location, it is vitally important for us to gauge how we are doing.  Measuring our success helps us to determine how we’re doing at helping those that are far from God to experience life in Christ.

We all have them.  Whether it’s a church staff, your family, or your friends, you expect certain things from them without ever having a conversation about those things.

Among our staff, we attempt to voice those expectations.  Lots of our frustrations with other people come as a result of unspoken expectations.  I expected one thing.  They delivered something totally different.  I get frustrated and then realize that I never told them what I expected.

The bottom line is this:  the only thing that can come out of not voicing your expectations is disappointment.  Save yourself and everyone else a little time and tell them what you are looking for.

What expectations do you need to make clear today?

Our goal for First Time Guests is for them to be Second Time Guests.  One of the questions that I am often asked is, “what is your process for following up with you first time guests?”  So…here you go:

Person visits on Sunday and fills out our communication card.

The card is turned in at our First Time Guest tent, where they can receive a free Freedom tshirt.  Pretty sweet deal!

They receive an email from Pastor J.R. on Monday with a brief online survey.

They receive a phone call from one of our amazing partners.

They receive a hand written card thanking them for being our guest.  (We just started this part of the process because we realized that people aren’t as dependent on email as we think they are.)

We desire to make sure we are following-up in a timely manner to those that God sends our way.  I feel that if you don’t, He might just stop sending them.

Here’s the scene in 1 Samuel 24:  King Saul is trying to kill David.  David catches him ‘relieving himself’ in a cave.  David sneaks up behind him and cuts off the corner of Saul’s robe.  (Must have been a long one!)  David basically does this so that he can show Saul that he could have killed him if he wanted to.  God convicts David in a huge way and he realizes that he has dishonored the King, even though Saul has tried to kill him.

This causes me to wonder about how we treat those in authority over us.  Do we chop off parts of their robe just to show them we could undermine their leadership if we want to?  Do we do things just to show them that ‘we don’t need them’ or ‘just to show them who is boss’?

I never want that to be true of my life.  I am blessed to have a Pastor that gives me the ability to lead.  He gives me a lot of freedom (no pun intended).  I want to be sure that I’m not guilty of undermining his leadership.  I want to complement him, not compete with him.  The bottom line is that God has called him to be the Pastor.  God has called me to be the Executive Pastor.  I’m perfectly ok with that.  In fact, I feel like it was what I was born to do.  I pray that God would help me not to do anything that would chop off a corner of Pastor J.R.’s robe… especially while he is going to the bathroom:)

John Maxwell has encouraged me to do it for years.  My Pastor even mentioned that it was a great idea at a meeting the other day.

What in the world am I talking about?  Planning your day the afternoon/night before.

Currently I am in the middle of a day in which I have 9 meetings and a bunch of other stuff that needs to be taken care of today.  I’m not freaking out about it though.  Last night, I sat down and wrote out the things that I needed to accomplish.

Looks like I’m going to make it!  I’ll be able to accomplish a lot more than I thought possible.  Now I am realizing that if I had listened a lot sooner, my life would probably been a lot less stressful!!