I was reminded last week by Seth Godin that organizations don’t care…people care.
Your Chlidren’s Ministry doesn’t care…but your people do.
Your buildings don’t care…but your staff does.
Your curriculum doesn’t care…but your teachers do.
Your programs don’t care…but your volunteers do.
Your policies and procedures don’t care…but the people who administer them do.
If you want to care…then fill your team with people who care. Empower them and then get out of their way.
Care more about people than about policies and procedures. Does your team have the flexibility to make an exception to a policy and procedure when it’s warranted? I’m not talking about safety and security, but about special situations where care needs to trump policies and procedures.
Care more about people than about processes. Processes are necessary, but there are times when care should override a process. Let me give you an example. You have a baptism class that kids must attend with their parents before they are baptized. A family approaches you about their son being baptized on a certain weekend. There will already be family in town that day, an older sibling is being baptized, etc. Problem is there is not another baptism class before that date. You have a choice. You can stick to the process or you can let care for people trump it by doing a one-on-one class with the child and parents.
Care more about people than about programs. There are Children’s Ministries that are struggling because they care more about keeping an ineffective program that was started years ago that than they do about being effective. Programs are always under scrutiny when you care about people. And if a program is getting in the way of reaching or growing people, then it gets revamped or even replaced.
Care more about people than about plans. Are you okay with scrapping some plans when an opportunity to care about people arises? Are you willing to change your schedule when someone walks into the office that is hurting?
Today we had a staff meeting planned. We had several important plans we needed to talk about. But yesterday afternoon we found out that a mother, whose son is battling cancer, needs some help cleaning her house. So…forget the staff meeting…we’re heading to her house today during that time to help care for her needs. Make sure your team has the freedom to do things like this.
Couple of other care tips…
Make sure your greeters are people who care. If you don’t…people will not return. This may mean you need to make the tough call and move some people who are currently greeters, but don’t demonstrate care for people.
When faced with a choice about what to do…always do the most caring thing.
