{"id":10181,"date":"2012-12-19T23:47:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T01:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/?p=10181"},"modified":"2012-12-21T14:19:12","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T16:19:12","slug":"what-tom-cruise-can-teach-church-leaders-about-the-value-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2012\/12\/19\/what-tom-cruise-can-teach-church-leaders-about-the-value-volunteers\/","title":{"rendered":"What Tom Cruise Can Teach Pastors About The Value Of Key Volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>“You guys\u00a0(ushers)\u00a0keep people coming to the movies. You guys run the cinema and make it an enjoyable experience. You guys I value most of all.”<\/em> – Tom Cruise<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the week I am a Generosity Architect for <a title=\"ISS\" href=\"http:\/\/www.injoystewardship.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Injoy Stewardship Solutions<\/a> helping pastors and church leaders craft mission and vision.\u00a0 On\u00a0weekends, however,<strong>\u00a0I\u00a0serve with my wife\u00a0on the Hospitality Team at <a title=\"Fellowship Roswell\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fellowshiproswell.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Fellowship Bible Church<\/a><\/strong> in Roswell, GA.<\/p>\n<p>To\u00a0many in our church\u00a0I simply hand out bulletins, help people find seats, and smile A LOT.\u00a0 I am reminded of this because whenever\u00a0I speak, train volunteers, or have\u00a0someone discover this blog, I often then\u00a0hear, “Wow, who knew?\u00a0<strong>\u00a0I thought you were just a greeter<\/strong>.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Upon\u00a0hearing\u00a0those words, I am always very gracious because I know they were meant\u00a0as a compliment and\u00a0am thankful.\u00a0 It\u00a0also reminds me that\u00a0<strong>the concept of\u00a0effective ministry for many church leaders\u00a0needs\u00a0expanding<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Barna\" href=\"http:\/\/www.barna.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The Barna Group<\/a> once did a study\u00a0stating over <strong>90% of church visitors\u00a0know within the first 12 minutes if they will be returning\u00a0to a church or not.\u00a0<\/strong> A separate study also\u00a0revealed that over 90% of church visitors\u00a0state their #1 reason for returning\u00a0to a church was because of the pastor.\u00a0 The irony of this\u00a0study is that a pastor is rarely part of the first 12 minutes.\u00a0 What these\u00a0two independent studies\u00a0teach us\u00a0is that the people are truly a picture of the leader.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This brings me to Hollywood movie star <a title=\"9 Leadership Quotes and Lessons From Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol\" href=\"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2011\/12\/17\/8-leadership-quotes-and-lessons-from-mission-impossible-ghost-protocal\/\">Tom Cruise<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>With his new movie <a title=\"Jack Reacher\" href=\"http:\/\/JackReacherMovie.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><em>Jack Reacher<\/em><\/a> opening this weekend<\/strong>, co-star Rosamund Pike made an interesting observation about Cruise in the December 18th of <a title=\"USA Today\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">USA Today<\/a>.\u00a0 While at the film’s premier in Stockholm, Pike noticed Cruise’s interaction with the theater’s ushers.\u00a0 She said, “He stopped and said: ‘You guys keep people coming to the movies.\u00a0 You guys run the cinema and make it an enjoyable experience.\u00a0 You guys I value most of all.'”<\/p>\n<p>Pastors,<strong> the following is a list of people your visitors encounter in the first 12 minutes<\/strong>\u00a0as they arrive on your campus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Parking Team<\/li>\n<li>Greeters<\/li>\n<li>Information Desk Workers<\/li>\n<li>Hospitality (coffee) Team<\/li>\n<li>Children’s Welcome Desk<\/li>\n<li>Nursery and Pre-School Workers<\/li>\n<li>More Greeters<\/li>\n<li>Ushers\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>More Greeters<\/li>\n<li>And let’s not forget those\u00a0leading the opening song<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Pastors, when is the last time<\/strong>\u00a0you personally\u00a0thanked each\u00a0hospitality team member for their contributions to the success of your ministry?\u00a0 Like Tom Cruise, have you ever said to your volunteers, “You guys keep people coming to church. You guys run the parking lot, the lobby, the childrens’ area, and the sanctuary.\u00a0 You make it an enjoyable experience.\u00a0 You guys I value most of all.”<\/p>\n<p>Most pastors I have met do a tremendous job honoring their hospitality team members.\u00a0 But\u00a0if<strong> Tom Cruise can say those words to ushers at a movie theater<\/strong>, how much more important is it for all\u00a0pastors to say it to their team?<\/p>\n<p><strong>While many see me as just a person who\u00a0“hands out bulletins”, here is\u00a0how\u00a0I\u00a0view my responsibilities<\/strong>: I have never found a parking space for someone who God doesn’t have space for in Heaven.\u00a0 I have never placed a bulletin into the hands of a person\u00a0whose Christ’s hands weren’t pierced for.\u00a0 And I have never found a seat for someone who\u00a0Jesus isn’t seated on the right hand of God interceeding for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I also count it a true honor to be a\u00a0reflection of my pastor <a title=\"Crawford Loritts\" href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/crawfordloritts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Crawford Loritts<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 My attitudes and actions, as are those of our\u00a0entire Hospitality team,\u00a0provide a picture for our\u00a0visitors\u00a0of his leadership.\u00a0\u00a0Our goal is to remove all the barriers\u00a0that could prevent a person from hearing a life-changing message.<\/p>\n<p>Pastors and church leaders, does\u00a0Cruise’s words ring true for you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe <a title=\"Subscribe\" onclick=\"javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http:\/\/eepurl.com']);\" href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/rQ4Mz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">here<\/a> so future posts can be sent directly to your Inbox. As a gift for doing so, I will also send you a FREE copy of my brand new eBook <a title=\"Ebook\" onclick=\"javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http:\/\/eepurl.com']);\" href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/rQ4Mz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">455 Leadership Quotes: Lessons From 2012\u2032s Top Christian Conference Speakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>“You guys\u00a0(ushers)\u00a0keep people coming to the movies. You guys run the cinema and make it an enjoyable experience. You guys I value most of all.” – Tom Cruise During the week I am a Generosity Architect for Injoy Stewardship Solutions helping pastors and church leaders craft mission and vision.\u00a0 On\u00a0weekends, however,\u00a0I\u00a0serve with my wife\u00a0on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[94,156,259,720],"class_list":["post-10181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-leadership","tag-christianity","tag-entertainment","tag-leadership","tag-movies"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10181"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10197,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions\/10197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}