In just a few days, I’ll step on a plane to head out to Loveland, CO – home of Children’s Ministry Magazine and Group Publishing. I’ll be joining two dozen other thinkers and practitioners from the world of Children and Family Ministry to discuss trends and topics impacting the local church.
I love the fact that, because this event was invite-only, we’ll be in a smaller setting and that some leading names from the world of Kidmin will be there.
I’ll be tweeting thoughts and ideas that come out of this gathering and I’ll be using the hashtag #regroup10 for those of you who want to follow along.
My wife loves me. She knows me all too well. She knows that I geek out to tech news and all things gadget-y and therefore recently got me a subscription to Wired magazine. I just wanted to throw a quick shout out to her because January’s issue got me thinking…
This is a series of posts exploring three major types of ideas that exist in a collaborative community… ideas that have to be shared in order for the community to actually be collaborative. For the first post in this series check out: Ideas in a Collaborative Community.
In this series, we’ve briefly explored two types of ideas that need to be shared in a community of thinkers in order for that group to truly collaborate. We looked at the importance of sharing Ideas that Worked and the process that led you and your team to successfully executing that idea. After a month long break from the series, we looked at the importance of sharing ideas while they’re still just ideas (New Ideas).
Today, we’ll wrap things up with the sort of thing many of us refuse to talk about: The Epic Fail.
I’ll start with one of my own… to show you that I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.
Because our church seeks to resource and equip parents in our community to pass their faith on to their children, we decided to gear part of this conference toward parents. How did we do this? We invested heavily in a fully programmed children’s portion to the morning and recruited some of our best team members to be a part of what was sure to be an amazing day. Our rationale: Parents will come if their kids are excited to come spend an awesome day wait us. We made the conference extremely affordable for families ($10 per adult… FREE children’s program… lunch included for everyone!). Our rationale: Families will come if you make the event affordable and give them food. We spent hundreds of dollars and put hours (and hours, and hours, and hours…) of prayer and planning toward this event. Our rationale: If we put all of our energy toward this event, and invested spiritually as well as monetarily, the event would succeed.
We knew we were in trouble when, less than a week out, we looked at the registration for the event and noticed a glaring figure: 0 (ZERO) children had been registered. In a last ditch effort, we hit the phones and emails hard one more time in an attempt to stir up excitement. We found that we had three HUGE things working in our favor: parents had the morning free (a rainy forecast canceled many of the sporting events that usually get in a family’s way of church events), families had the money to spend on sending their kids to our program (again… FREE!) and our breakout speakers were notable names in our community. We weren’t going to back down – we had said we were offering a full children’s program and I was going to make sure that we delivered on what we promised.
So, the day came. And… the day went. No kids came to our event. Zero. I let my team down. I felt like my heart had been ripped out and stomped on. You can’t fail much more than that… right?
How to Share Ideas that Failed
When it’s all said and done and your heart is done breaking, you need to tell others about your idea. Whether it ended in a success for you or not, God might still have a plan for that idea. Here’s what I mean…
It wasn’t supposed to work?!
I have a friend who talks with God. No… he’s not crazy. I promise. I’ve met a few people in my life who have moments where they really can sense what God wants them to do (or what God wants them to see, or say, or know, etc.). This friend of mine is one of those people. One day, my friend was in a meeting and he felt God prompt him to share an idea of his. He was embarrassed to share but, after feeling both nagged and convicted by God’s Spirit, he spoke up and told the group what he was thinking.
The group verbally assaulted him. His idea was shot down and my friend left that meeting feeling utterly defeated. After gathering himself, he began praying and asked God why he was set up to fail. God simply helped my friend know that he was just supposed to share his idea… he didn’t have to worry about the results.
Sometimes your idea doesn’t accomplish what you think it will accomplish… God might want you to test run an idea that someone will reproduce in a better and more effective way down the road. Your idea can only fail if you put a period at the end of it… I’d encourage you to consider replacing those periods with commas. Share the idea and let God take care of the results.
Learn to embrace failure
I have another friend who sits down with me at least once a month to talk ministry and collaborate. We have a standing agenda where we check in personally (you know… how’re the wife and kids?), we talk about new ideas we have, and we debrief recent ideas we’ve tried to move from paper to reality. The first few times we met, I tried to hide the ideas I was trying that weren’t working or didn’t have success. It wasn’t until my friend shared with me a recent failure he’d faced when I realized I’d been robbing our partnership by not being fully honest – I had to check my ego at the door and begin actually partnering and collaborating in a way that was no longer just about the castle I was building. We’re at a place now where I feel like I can bring anything to the table, success or failure, and know that my ministry will be richer and more full because of it. In embracing our failures, we’re learning together and we’re building a stronger kingdom because of it.
Over this series of posts, we’ve explored three major types of ideas that exist in a collaborative community… ideas that have to be shared in order for the community to actually be collaborative. Thoughts or comments? Feel free to share them via twitter (@anthony_prince) or facebook (facebook.com/anthonyprince) or add your ideas to the comments area below!
This is a series of posts exploring three major types of ideas that exist in a collaborative community… ideas that have to be shared in order for the community to actually be collaborative. For the first post in this series check out: Ideas in a Collaborative Community.
After an “oh-my-goodness-raising-two-kids-is-more-than-twice-as-much-work-as-raising-one” hiatus, I’m back to finish off our series on Ideas.
As I mentioned in the last post in this series, Ideas that Worked are always the most fun to share… but they should only be a part of the discussion taking place in collaborative communities. Though a little harder to share, it’s important that we bring New Ideas to the table whenever we’re having discussions with others in ministry. I’m sure you’ll find it helpful if I start with an idea we’re kicking around the leadership table at my home church, Glenkirk Church – located just miles away from the epicenter of this week’s 4.4 magnitude earthquake. One of the hard things about sharing a new idea, I’ll say up front, is that someone might steal it. You have to be okay with that. But… we’ll get there at the end of this post.
The Idea
There’s a couple general assumptions about family dynamics as they apply to church.
It follows that, every year, Mother’s Day Sunday is highly attended at our church (what does mom want to do? Go to church!) while Father’s Day Sunday sees a bit of a dip (what does dad want to do? Sleep in! Do something fun! Anything but church!). As we aim to be a church that engages and equips families, our team has started to wrestle with this dynamic. Is it true? Are we okay with this? What could we do to fix a perceived dilemma?
The answers are simple:
Probably. No. Something we’ve never done before.
This year, we’re being intentional about making Father’s Day a day that unchurched dads will feel welcome on our campus. We’ll be barbecuing on the patio all morning, offering relevant gifts to dads in attendance, gearing the worship services to be engaging for your average guy, and making sure the sermon is on a topic that resonates with the dads in the room. Oh, and we’ll have live running commentary a la Sports Center from two guys on stage.
(don’t worry, it’ll be better than this guy)
The fun thing about a New Idea is that it’s just an Idea. We don’t have all of the details worked out. We’re still trying to put pieces in place and make sure that we have buy in where we need it. You know, there’s even a chance that this idea won’t actually even happen… but, there’s value in sharing it. Here’s why…
How to Share New Ideas
As I mentioned above, new ideas are exciting to share, but can be harder than ideas that worked. What if it’s an idea that won’t actually lead to an action? What if people don’t like the idea? What if you didn’t ask your Sr. Pastor if you could share the idea and potentially get it stolen? (Sorry, Jim.) I can’t speak to the third question (I’ll let you know tomorrow how that one went), but the first questions are legit and alright to ask. You just need to know that new ideas are never bad.
Your idea won’t be perfect.
Some people won’t like your idea. The advantage to sharing it, though, is that you can make changes to your plan before it actually launches. Try bouncing the idea off of the people at your church who are brutally honest… what are their thoughts? Sharing your idea and having it shot down will help you learn how to pitch it correctly. Oh, and don’t forget to share your ideas via twitter, facebook or even CmConnect.org. You have amazing resources at your fingertips. Literally. Your idea might not even be new – someone out there has probably tried it and can speak into your decision making process.
(which reminds me, if you’ve pulled off an amazing Father’s Day Sunday at your church, please comment below!)
Your idea might not work… for you.
That’s right… I said it. Now, get over yourself. Part of being in a collaborative community is that you have to think bigger than yourself. The Church is bigger than just your building. You idea might not work for you, but the process that led you there might lead someone to launching a better version of what you had planned. An idea 2.0, if you will. By sharing your idea, in the beginning stages, you open yourself up to be a resource to those around you and potentially expand your idea’s impact. There’s so much to say here… but, simply put, you need to be okay with failing. People have tried much bigger ideas than yours and have failed epically.
It might get stolen.
There’s no tip that I can share with you that can help you be okay with this. You just have to be. No magic wand here. If you ever have the chance to have a cup of coffee with me, you’ll hear me stand on my soapbox and talk about how your ministry needs to be bigger than your castle. Jesus came to usher in a kingdom. You get to be a part of that. You’re a jerk if you have amazing new ideas and you’re not sharing them because someone else might do them better than you. If you’re called to ministry, you need to remember that you serve a God who leaves the 99 to chase the 1 lost sheep. Your idea might help someone find that lost sheep. So, listen to your mom and learn to share. It’s what you’ve been called to do.
Later this week, we’ll tackle that elusive last type of idea. Here’s a hint.
The views expressed on this blog are those of Anthony Prince.
Occasionally the views expressed belong to guest contributers.
Glenkirk Church is not in any way responsible and does not necessarily endorse the opinions and content expressed on this website.
