{"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>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; 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, &#8220;Wow, who knew?\u00a0<strong>\u00a0I thought you were just a greeter<\/strong>.&#8221;\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&#8217;s premier in Stockholm, Pike noticed Cruise&#8217;s interaction with the theater&#8217;s ushers.\u00a0 She said, &#8220;He stopped and said: &#8216;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.'&#8221;<\/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&#8217;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&#8217;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, &#8220;You guys keep people coming to church. You guys run the parking lot, the lobby, the childrens&#8217; area, and the sanctuary.\u00a0 You make it an enjoyable experience.\u00a0 You guys I value most of all.&#8221;<\/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&#8220;hands out bulletins&#8221;, here is\u00a0how\u00a0I\u00a0view my responsibilities<\/strong>: I have never found a parking space for someone who God doesn&#8217;t have space for in Heaven.\u00a0 I have never placed a bulletin into the hands of a person\u00a0whose Christ&#8217;s hands weren&#8217;t pierced for.\u00a0 And I have never found a seat for someone who\u00a0Jesus isn&#8217;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&#8217;s words ring true for you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe <a title=\"Subscribe\" onclick=\"javascript:_gaq.push([&#039;_trackEvent&#039;,&#039;outbound-article&#039;,&#039;http:\/\/eepurl.com&#039;]);\" 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([&#039;_trackEvent&#039;,&#039;outbound-article&#039;,&#039;http:\/\/eepurl.com&#039;]);\" 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>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;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.&#8221; &#8211; 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 [&hellip;]<\/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}]}}