For a time in my life I quit all team sports – not because I didn’t like the particular sport, I just didn’t like being on the team. I was always among the top most talented members on whatever team it was and was always annoyed that everyone else kept us from winning every single game every season. The more talented I became the more frustrated I got – I was too good for teams. So instead, I decided to focus on sports where I won and lost or progressed based on my own ability; snowboarding, skateboarding, track and field, and bouldering.
Admittedly, I still do not play team sports, however, my motive has changed (accept I still won’t play volleyball unless it involves sand and speedo’s). Five years of youth ministry has drastically changed how I view teams and has taught me again how to problem solve, work towards a goal, and celebrate with other people. My closest team is a tight group of four guys; myself, Chad Langerud, Josh Livingston, and Chris Luff. Together we build all of our teams based on four C’s in the order and priority of what we think is most important. We have unashamedly stolen three of these from Ol’Billybones himself. A summary:
1. Character - We need to know that you know and love Jesus and are living a life that honors and follows his teaching. You are growing in faith and operating in the spiritual gifts needed for the precise moment that you need them.
2. Chemistry – Some chemicals simply do not react well together; you need to be a good fit for this team!
3. Commitment – So many people define commitment in so many different ways; the definition we use is this, “If you died right now and Jesus asked you about your life you would talk about this team.” Ya dig?
4. Competence – We are not ashamed to go after top notch and highly skilled individuals to lead with a ‘we kick-ass’ attitude. Unfortunately, too many teams are built with competence as the highest priority. The reality is that competence is the easiest of the 4C’s to learn and the easiest to fix. i.e. Failing at completing a certain task is much easier to fix then a team member sleeping with the secretary or doing something equally as stupid!
Go build a great team!
-Jer
Technorati tags: youth ministry, leadership, team building
5 comments:
what do you think jer... do you think there is mabey a fifth C that defines your teams --> creativity?
Lovin the YM Memories/Reviews!
I personally like the added touch of Ol'Billybones!!!
Keep it coming man! I love that eclevity is on the go again!
Thanks Matt - we'll keep rocking this out for awhile yet...thanks for reading!!
Jeff - No, I do not think that Creativity is a definer of our teams...however...it does describe our team accuartely.
I would suggest that creativity fits into the Competence bit of our teams; one of the skill sets that we look for are people who view problems from different perspectives so that we can come up with better solutions.
When we were crafting this a bunch of years ago we had a whole pile of C's that we thought could work: creativity, communication, contagious, community, etc. etc. of which I can't remember them all now. What we had to do was narrow it down to be as focused as possible so that they would be easy to remember, teach, and use in recruitment and evaluation.
Though I am open to a good case as to why Creativity should be a fifth...?
Fuuny thing:
I have a friend and his real name is Jordan Arnold. But he started a band called Thee Pirates so he legally changed his name to Billy Bones. He used to live in a VW van with his wife and seriously ill child. Now he owns a guitar company. Arrrrrr mateee!!!!
His real name was Jordan hey? I used to rock out to Thee Pirates and take a stop by rampage everytime I made it down to the Loops! In fact, now that you bring it up...I'm listening to Thee Pirates right now...
Paul - I have a new level of respect for you! :)
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