Live Blog From Orange Conference ’15: 7 Keys To Leading High Capacity Volunteers From Carey Nieuwhof

I go to a lot of conferences.  I will spend three days at most events to simply get one good idea.  I get more quality content from one breakout session at Orange Conference than any event I attend.

In an effort to add value to pastors and church leaders, I am live blogging significant portions of this week’s Orange Conference and their amazing Senior Leader’ Track.  For pastors and church leaders, this is the most informative and thought-provocing three days you can spend all year.  It is “can’t miss” event for church leaders.

Today’s final session was led by Carey Nieuwhof, the incomparable pastor of Connexus Church, north of Toronto Canada.  Carey also host a leadership podcast and writes a blog no Christian leader should miss.

Before getting to Carey’s thoughts on why churches stop growing, INJOY Stewardship Solutions is offering a FREE download of Church Branding 101.  In this resource Ken Wilson, Director of NewSpring Creative, will be walking us through NewSpring Church’s recent rebranding process.  If you are unfamiliar with NewSpring, they are led by friend-of-Orange Senior Pastor Perry Noble.  You do not want to miss this.  Click here or on the image above to sign up.  Now onto Carey’s insights.

The following are 67 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Carey’s wonderful session on leading high-capacity volunteers:

1. We get paid to solve the problems no one else can solve.
2. You start out solving all the problems someone else’s make. Then you start solving all the problems you’ve made.
3. As a leader, you aspire to attract, keep and grow a team of high-capacity volunteers. But are you dreaming the impossible dream? Learn to keep your vision grounded by starting with a look at the flipside: where and why you’re losing your top volunteers.
4. I don’t believe a portable church is not sustainable.
5. You have to treat your volunteers well.
6. If you don’t setup you don’t have church.
7. You can always get people to show up at the crack of dawn. That was three of them. We needed 30 of them.
8. All good stuff comes out of brokenness.
9. I have to guard the health of our staff and volunteers.
10. If I have a healthy and growing staff, healthy and growing elders, and healthy and growing volunteers, we will have a healthy and growing church.
11. When you serve your volunteers well they tend to stick around and recruit others.
12. People bail on a sinking ship.
13. The church should be the best run organization in the world.
14. Give high-capacity volunteers a significant challenge.
15. People with significant leadership gifting respond best to significant challenges.
16. It is important to have small group leaders consistently present in the lives of our students.
17. You don’t have a relationship with the substitute teacher.
18. If you’re asking people to serve every week, you actually need fewer leaders.
19. High-capacity people respond to high-level challenges.
20. We have 353,354 unchurched people within a 30-minute drive of our church.
21. The people who respond to a high-challenge tend to show up.
22. People want to be part of a significant challenge.
23. The more you dilute things the weaker leader you get.
24. Continually communicate your mission, vision and strategy.
25. Are people involved in your mission or are they about theirs?
26. Mission and vision unite.
27. What people are involved in they are passionate about.
28. We don’t do a whole lot of ministries unless they align with where we are going. So when they get involved in a ministry they get attached to the mission.
29. Everyone walks into your church with a picture of their previous church in mind. – Reggie Joiner
30. Strategy begins as divisive, but ultimately aligns a church.
31. What you need in your church is a clearly defined strategy. Churches shrink away from this because strategy gets divisive.
32. Eventually strategy becomes unifying because the people who are left like it.
33. High-capacity people like a strategy.
34. Our church is not the Kingdom of God. We are not THE church. We are A church. We get to play a part. We don’t have to become all things to all people.
35. Other churches are not the competition. They compliment you.
36. Be organized. Few things are more demotivating to a volunteer than knowing the staff did not set you up to succeed.
37. We’re not that organized in church world and we should be the best run organization in our community.
38. We have to be the most organized people on the planet. We want our volunteers to win. Our job is to help you do your job.
39. Some people will put with disorganization, but high capacity leaders will ultimately give up.
40. When you don’t value the time of leaders, they will find someone who will.
41. Would you volunteer for you?
42. Refuse to let people off the hook.
43. The organization will drift to the level of accountability your leader establishes.
44. People want to be part of a winning organization. People want your church to win.
45. Who would I rather lose? High motivated volunteers or poorly motivated volunteers?
46. Play favorites. Spend 80% of your time with people who give you 80% of the results.
47. We need you to step up or we’re going to ask you to step aside.
48. It’s always the people you don’t want to hang out with are the ones who are going to ask for your time.
49. One action step – text your best volunteer and schedule a time for coffee next week. Otherwise your schedule will fill up with your worst volunteers preventing you from investing in your best volunteers.
50. Surround high capacity people with high capacity people. Like attracts like and keeps like.
51. How do we keep high capacity people from the sideline to the frontline?
52. Pay them in non-financial currencies.
53. People gravitate toward where they’re valued most.
54. Once your basic needs are met, money drops off the list very quickly as a motivator.
55. 5 non-financial currencies – Gratitude, Attention, Trust, Empowerment, Respect
56. No leader I know writes more Thank You notes than Jeff Henderson.
57. Most people feel under-valued and under-appreciated at work.
58. Say “Thank You” by connecting their service to life change.
59. As a leader, your job is to be a noticer.
60. Thanking volunteers is a whole lot cheaper than hiring staff.
61. If you are grateful for people’s donations, they’ll give you more.
62. If you’re a control freak it’s hard to give trust.
63. If you’re not trusting good people, they will flee.
64. Micromanagement is a sign you don’t trust someone.
65. The bigger the organization the more important it is to let volunteers lead.
66. Respect is an attitude as much as a behavior.
67. If you disrespect them and devalue them, they pick up on that.

I can’t wait until tomorrow.

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