We had a volunteer celebration for the entire Willow production team the other night. It included production teams from all the ministries at our South Barrington campus as well as all of our regional campuses. It was amazing to see such a wide age range of like-minded people together in one place. From the minute I walked into the room, I was so proud of the team I lead and get to be a part of.
While the party was going on, I kept thinking, “We should do this more often.” The sad thing is that we hadn’t done an event like that in 6 years! The only reason I know this, is that we gave out production ministry t-shirts with a big ’06 on the back, that I still have.
Reflecting back on this and other big gatherings of our team that fall outside of the everyday, getting the job done type of tasks, I was reminded of a few things that I will share over the next few blog posts. The first thing is:
Just put something on the calendar.
I am not a huge fan of planning large events where I am the one responsible for people having a meaningful time. What if it fails? So instead of taking the chance, I tend to never put them on the calendar. I have noticed that when the word is out, and there is no turning back, there is now a deadline to make something happen. Retreats, staff meetings, celebrations…you name it.
There are so many things that are good for us to be about, but will never happen unless we plan for them. The other thing that will happen if you don’t put it on the calendar, is that your calendar will fill up with a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter as much.
Similar to “If you build it they will come” from the movie “Field of Dreams”, if you put something on the calendar, you will be prodded to make something happen and your volunteers will come.
Plan something. Put it on the calendar. Trying and failing is better than not doing anything. Your team needs you to take a chance.
So now it’s on the calendar…now what? Check out my next post.
[Disclaimer] – I didn’t actually put this particular event on the calendar, my team did…while I was on vacation. They just told me we were doing it. 🙂
