WSU Cru in the 2000's

A walk down memory lane. If you attended WSU Cru between 2002 and 2009, there is a pretty good chance you are found in one of these pictures.

So much to be thankful for from the time these cover.

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life." - Deuteronomy 4:9

Jesus didn't need to read "Good to Great"

In "Good to Great and the Social Sectors", Collins cites the example of a high school science teacher that wanted to change the education system around him...and succeeded:

"First, and most important, you can build a pocket of greatness without executive power, in the middle of an organization. If Roger Briggs can lead his minibus from good to great within the constraints of the public school system, you can do it nearly anywhere. Second, you start by focusing on the First Who principle - do whatever you can to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people into the right seats. Tenure poses one set of challenges, volunteers and lack of resources another, but the fact remains: greatness flows first and foremost from having the right people in the key seats, not the other way around.

In " The Master Plan of Evangelism", Coleman reveals how Jesus began to change the world:

"His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow. Remarkable as it may seem, Jesus started to gather these men before he ever organized an evangelistic campaign or even preached a sermon in public. Men were to be his method of winning the world to God. The initial objective of Jesus' plan was to enlist men who could bear witness to his life and carry on his work after he returned to the Father."

Indeed, the "who is more important than the "what".

Raising support: From fear to faith to courageous action

We had a Skype conference call on Friday with our Ops interns to discuss support raising, as all of them (and I) are going to be working this summer on finding people to give financially towards our ministry of helping reach campuses of the NW. As you might imagine, ministry partner development (our preferred term to "fundraising", in part for it's broader scope) can be a challenge. It's my role to help our interns move forward and be pro-active in the process.

This is good, because in coaching them I am coaching myself. There are some friends we have been considering inviting to join our support team for several months, but have been reluctant to ask for a variety of reasons (risk the friendship, know they give to others on staff, etc.). Every worst case scenario had run through my head, despite years of experience telling me that wouldn't be the case.

As I knew I'd be telling our interns to be bold in asking and to trust the Lord for the results, I had to take action myself. Last week I asked these friends to join our team, and tonight I got a Facebook message from saying they want to begin giving towards our ministry. So encouraging.

There is a talk posted online we are all (Ops team for next year) going to listen to called "From fear to faith to courageous action". I'm good at the first one (fear), hit-or-miss on the second (faith), and a total work in progress on the third (courageous action). But what I've found is that not only does faith lead to courageous action, but courageous action can lead to greater faith...and on to more action.This principle certainly isn't confined to raising support.

[Update: For more talks related to Ministry Partner Development, click here. Note this link requires a GCX login.]

Sharing: Facebook groups as a tool for recruiting and building a team

I'm quickly becoming a fan of using Facebook groups to communicate and collaborate in a variety of situations. Here is a recent example...

One of the first responsibilities in my new role (Director of Operations) began at our regional student conference this past December in Portland: recruit students and recent grads to intern on our Ops team this coming school year. Coming out of the conference, there were 8-10 people (out of nearly 50 that we interviewed) we felt would be strong contributors on an Ops team for the coming year. However, very few of them knew me very well, and even fewer really knew what saying "yes" to an operations internship would look like. The following was a list of issues I needed to address:

- The Ops candidates did not know me, their potential team leader, very well. Additionally,  I would not have face-to-face contact with most of them between the conference and when they needed to make a decision about interning.

- They didn't know each other. It would be easy to make the decision "in isolation", that is, to envision the job with unknown people in an unknown place doing an unknown job for an unknown boss.

- Time to connect would be at a premium. Other job responsibilities, developing funding for my personal ministry, selling a house and moving on my end, school, jobs, and ministry on the student's end.

- Many of them would have the same questions. I could just "copy/paste" an email answer, but this would take away the relational aspect and not account for subtle differences in the question or circumstance being addressed..

There may have been others, but those were some that came to mind. Accordingly, a large part of my solution was to invite them to a "closed" Facebook group where everyone being recruited could interact with current members of our regional operations effort. The one thing I quickly realized, however, was that to really foster communication and community, I needed to actively lead the group. Here are some ways I did that:

- Made everyone an officer in the group with a useful and accurate description of their current role. Those I was recruiting were given the office of "Potential GNW Ops intern - 2010/11". Current Ops team members were labeled as accurately as possible.

- Posted liberally on the group wall. I introduced myself, who the different group members were, and asked them all to share a little about themselves. I'd also ops news/information whenever relevant.

- Used the tagging feature. If I wanted to get somebody's attention or ask them to post, I'd tag them in the wall post using the @name feature.

- Would ask people to post questions on the group wall that they had asked me on the phone or via email. I wanted to intentionally drive traffic/attention there and never have to answer a question more than once. I also wanted to let others weigh in and contribute to the conversation.

- I would respond to just about every post or comment. If people felt like they were talking themselves, they wouldn't want to post any more. I had to acknowledge what they wrote and that they were heard. It didn't have to be me providing the answer. In some cases, I might have messaged someone privately and asked them to weigh in if they needed some prodding or had just missed the thread.

There may have been more, but that's a start. I plan on continuing to use this group with our Ops team this coming year to actually get work done. We've started using discussion threads and "events"...and will likely evolve in our practices as our team comes together in person.

I'm also thinking of using groups in a variety of additional contexts on the job that could really cut down on email and phone-calls while simultaneously building community and trust across distance. I'll let you know how that goes. And maybe I'll ask our interns if the group was, in fact, helpful to them in overcoming the issues presented above!

Have you used a Facebook group (or similar) to actually get something done? Any "best practices" you would add to the above list about leading a FB group?

[For a thoughtful related post, see "Answer an email publicly and everyone wins"]

Evangelism - Is "who" more important than "what"?

One of the foundational principles in "Good to Great", an influential book in the business and non-profit world, is that great companies and organizations succeed not due primarily to their tools, technologies, or strategies, but because they get the right people to work for them. The analogy is to "get the right people on the bus", as the destination will often need to change, but if you have the right people they can adjust, thrive, and lead despite changing circumstances.

Reflecting on the evangelism survey and discussion that I posted about yesterday, I've thought about this principle in relation to evangelism. Is it possible that the tools/technologies in evangelism are secondary to the person using them? Face to face, on the internet, speaking to a large group...the person that is Spirit-filled, full of faith, and tender of heart is going to probably see people respond favorably towards them, and the gospel message, more often than the person who is not. If they are a good communicator all the better. Well trained with a tool? Best yet. But...the tool is simply the final piece to the puzzle.

While our tools have been a great part of our success as a ministry (the Four Spiritual Laws being the most notable example), they are just that: tools.  The greater component is the people. If you give me ten people with the qualities mentioned above and turn them loose on a college campus with just a little bit of training, I'm guessing they are going to have far great impact than another group that have the most well thought out, relevant strategies and tools...but lack in character.

As we seek to innovate and adapt our evangelism tools to the culture, I think we would be wise to focus on attracting, and becoming, people that are relational, Spirit led, and faith-filled....and let the development of tools, strategies, and tactics emanate from this foundation.

Learning leading to effectiveness: Two studies (Evangelism, Operations)

Two studies came to my attention today, one because of my role on a team of operations leaders around the country, the other because of using twitter and Google Reader. Both studies have results/conclusions that are fascinating, encouraging, and challenging...

Study #1 - Brian Barela shared a link on his blog to an evangelism study that the Mid-Atlantic region of Campus Crusade has done. It is long, but certainly worth reading...especially for staff. Here is the purpose of the study:

How can we increase the evangelistic satisfaction and effectiveness of Campus Crusade for Christ staff so that more lost students are presented with the gospel in culturally appropriate, positive ways and more students decide to place their trust in Christ?

I like that objective. One of my favorite parts so far (haven't finished it yet) were the results from a focus group they did with a group of students that were self-identified non-Christians. Their insights are enlightening, and generally match what I have experienced during my time on campus as a student and staff member. I'm looking forward to reading the rest and perhaps adding more thoughts in a future post.

Study #2 - Once a month, Operations leaders from around the US have a web/phone conference. I'm the new guy on the team at this point (15-20 people) so I'm trying to be a learner and figure out where and when to contribute. Today, one of our Operations leaders in Orlando shared the results of an "ethnography study" that was done to...

Gain a perspective on the Campus Crusade field experience so the organization can design systems to meet users’ needs.

Systems are used by field staff and volunteers and encompass things like finance, events, HR, communication, and professional development.

There were some conclusions presented and I would say they all line up with my experience as field staff:

The Campus Crusade ministry leader (staff, volunteer, student) is...

- independent and entrepreneurial when creating solutions

- determined to learn and thrive - and appreciates help from peers

- struggling to keep up with changes in technology

- mobile, and closely connected to constituents - but information is not

- supportive of organizational responsibility - but procedural complexity makes compliance difficult

There are a lot of sub-points and examples under each, along with next steps, but this paints the broad strokes. So encouraging to see, as the "new guy" on the team, that we're thinking about the right things. Figuring out the solutions to problems that were identified will be a large part of our job in the near future.

Summary: I'm looking forward to the challenge and the role I get to play as an Operations leader to translate study #2 into greater impact and effectiveness in areas related to study #1: Jesus known and God glorified on the campuses of the NW, US, and the world.

News: Campus Crusade at Creation NW

We're working on putting together the details, but it looks like Campus Crusade is going to have a pretty substantial platform at Creation NW. I'm working right now with our national headquarters and some staff and students in our region to get all the logistics nailed down and I'll share more info as I have it.

Bottom line: This Christian music festival is a great venue to connect with incoming and current college students. We can help graduating seniors plug into ministries at their future school, and we can also find current college students that would like to reach their campus for Christ and may want to launch a movement if none exists.

If you're thinking about going, or know someone who is, comment below or contact me via Facebook!

Operations leadership: essential qualities that are difficult to put together

I was recently thinking about how, as an Operations leader, I need to be a) a shepherd of my team, b) creative/innovative, and c) highly responsible. These three are challenging to put together, as some of the same stuff that makes you a shepherd sometimes keeps you from being responsible, and the qualities and temperament that make you responsible can keep you from being creative and innovative.

One of the burdens of leadership is knowing that the culture you create will be reproduced by those that you are leading. While I have my own personality with it's accordant strengths and weaknesses, I have no doubt been influenced by the leaders I've served under. The same will be true of those I lead. Thus, it's not only important for our team to flourish in all these areas for it's own sake, but also to enable those I lead to reproduce a healthy leadership culture when the time comes.

When I was challenged to take on this new role, one of our ministry's leaders shared that, perhaps the most important thing we can do as leaders is to establish a culture. If I highly value caring for people, I'll produce a culture where people care for each other. If I value excellence and achieving, I'll produce a culture of driven, ambitious people. Perhaps this is why the "who" of leadership is more important than the "what" of leadership.

So I'm challenged by these three areas. I don't always know how to care for people even though I desire to. I have lots of new ideas, but often lack the carry through to do the hard work of creating (this blog is practice). And while I really want to be responsible, my temperament sometimes gets the best of me.

"Who am I, Lord?" Fortunately, the more relevant question is "Who will go with me?"

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Facebook message

"Why is this person (calling/emailing/texting/chatting/facebook messaging/etc.) me!?!"

Have you ever said something like the above? Here are two possible reasons for the exasperation:

1. You don't want the person to contact you that is trying to contact you, regardless of medium

2. You want the person to contact you, but don't like the communication channel the person has chosen

Let's focus on the second reason.

During my time on staff, I've gotten pretty good at handling email and using it for ministry communication both with students and staff. But over my last couple years on campus, I found that my emails to students were taking longer and longer to get a response. Often, a student would tell me they hadn't heard about some meeting, event, or other key piece of information. "Did you get my email?" I'd ask. A typical answer: "When did you send it? If it was this week, probably not."

"These irresponsible students! Not checking their email every day! Do I need to train them in how the world works?"

Interestingly, at about the same time I started to get more text and facebook messages. My response? Try to push people that contacted me this way towards email, then get frustrated when they wouldn't respond. 

Fortunately, a day came where I had an epiphany: email wasn't the best way to reach college students and perhaps I should start embracing some of these annoying new communication channels. So I did. I started texting reminders or to set up appointments. I started responding to and even initiating Facebook messages to individuals and groups. Students would get back to me within hours, minutes, and sometimes seconds. Soon, Facebook messages almost completely replaced email in my communication with students. And then one day it hit me: there are good reasons young people are using these technologies. For many communication needs they are far superior to email. And the problem wasn't irresponsible students, it was the email medium that previously I was stubbornly embracing.

More and more I've seen the value and capability that Facebook brings to campus ministry. It's not only effective, but is used universally by college students. Shouldn't we be experts in speaking their language? And shouldn't we use this language as strategically as possible? In upcoming posts, I want to share some thoughts about how our strategy and tactics can move beyond messages and writing on walls, but also look more broadly at being wise in how we engage with new ideas/technology.

For any potential commenters out there: Have you been challenged by the rate of change in today's communication mediums? Do you see anything taking the place of facebook in the near future?

Books for an Ops team

As our Operations team begins to form this summer, I've began thinking about ways we can unify our vision and gain momentum before we officially launch in August. Reading the same books related to our job could play a helpful role in this. Here is a reading list that I'm thinking about suggesting to our GNW Ops team to work on this summer:

1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni - Great book to help us establish healthy team norms and avoid the 5 dsyfunctions that teams can fall victim to. Was really helpful for our WSU team, and I know other teams in the NW have read it together, too.

2. Next Generation Leader, Stanley - Another book with five main points, this one was referred to me by my friend Matt (see About) as the best of Andy Stanley's books. I was challenged and encouraged when I read it last year and think it's a good fit for our emerging young leaders.

3. Linchpin, Godin - This is the most current of the list. Godin is an innovator and challenger of the status quo. While not writing from a Christian perspective, I think there is much that translates to leading, working, and innovating in ministry. Michael Hyatt, CEO of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, liked it enough to give copies out to a whole bunch of his employees.

4. StrengthsFinder 2.0, Rath - Combined with the (included) online test to suggest your "top 5" strengths (everything is 5 in publishing, huh?), this book helps people to discover and leverage their strengths. Basic idea: spend more time working out of strength then focusing on weakness. Again, many teams with Campus Crusade, including mine at WSU, went through this together and gained great insight into how to better work as individuals and as a team. 

5. Celebration of Discipline, Foster - The first four deal a lot with productivity, leading, being pro-active, getting things done, etc. Topics like prayer, meditation, simplicity, and worship will be a good counter balance to help us stay centered on Christ and rely on the Spirit more than the flesh.

Have you read some of these books? Did you like them? What other books would you suggest for a new team to read together?

[Update: The book we will all engage with the most, both individually and as a team, is the Bible. All other books we read and engage, of any genre, will be sifted and processed through a Biblical framework.]

Coming this week...

I'll get back to normal (i.e. non-Lost-centric) posts this week. Here are some upcoming topics:

- Books to shape an Operations team culture
- Facebook: Why we should use it more than email, an example of how it can be used to recruit and build a team, and how we can be more strategic about status updates (me included)
- Essential qualities of an operations leader...and how these qualities tend to oppose each other
- An example of how leading change can meet resistance in unforeseen, and comical, ways
- A look back on nearly 10 years at Washington State University

How Lost can help us understand Pentecost

Two seemingly disparate things going on today: Pentecost and the season finale of Lost. Let's tie these together...

Some time in the last year a friend asked asked me what Pentecost was about in Acts 2. The question wasn't "what happened at Pentecost in Acts 2?", but rather "why did Pentecost draw people to Jerusalem from all over the known world, as recorded in Acts 2"? Why didn't I know the answer to this?

Watching Lost right now, I don't get all the connections because I haven't been immersed in the show through all six seasons. I've caught some here, some there, even seen some out of context re-runs. The people that will feel tonight's finale the most will be those that rooted themselves in the story line, studying the characters and plot development, agonizing to understand the big picture and where the story is going to end. If you watched Lost tonight for the first time, I'm sure it was still entertaining, but if you have trouble understanding why your Lost fanatic friend was crying at critical moments remember this: They know the history.

So here is some history. Pentecost is a harvest festival that commemorates the giving of the ten commandments to Moses on Sinai...50 days after the Passover in Egypt. Salvation came first (Passover and deliverance from Egypt), 50 days later the giving of the law on Sinai when God descended on the mountain (the pattern for the future temple) with fire. Sound like anything? Yes, history surely adds understanding. Here is some more, courtesy of follow the rabbi...

- On Mount Sinai, God's presence was accompanied by fire, smoke, and the sound of thunder (Ex. 19:16-19). God's presence during Pentecost was accompanied by the sound of wind, tongues of fire, and the gift of different languages (Acts 2:1-3).

- When God gave the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, the people were worshiping the golden calf. About 3,000 people died as punishment for their sins. When Jesus' Spirit was given during Pentecost, the people repented, and about 3,000 people believed and found spiritual life.
- God's presence was symbolized by a cloud and fire, which led the Israelites out of Egypt. Later, God moved his presence into the temple (2 Chron. 5:7-8, 13-14). During Pentecost, God's presence moved from the temple into a new temple, the followers of Jesus (Rom. 8:9).
- Finally, The Torah provided God's teachings for the Old Testament community of people. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit became the Teacher of believers (John 14:26).

There are many more. I'll add one: "And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." -  II Corinthians 3:3

Yes, Pentecost is important because it marks when the Holy Spirit was given to the church, when the Spirit of God came to take his Word beyond Israel to the whole world. But without knowing our history, specifically the story of Exodus, we miss the additional depth and power that come from knowing it was a replay, with a grace-filled twist, of a salvation event from 1400 years before.

Watching all the connections get made tonight on Lost, spanning six seasons, I appreciate the knowledge and creativity of the writers. How much more the author and perfecter of our faith, the one who invites us in to The Story, the story that will one day have a grand finale...with a very compelling spin-off.

Chaos, Leadership, Lost

Six months ago I helped produce a conference for staff ministry leaders in the northwest. For one of the sessions we were going to be talking about some aspects of leadership, so as the MC I decided a fun intro to the topic would be to watch a clip from a TV show that showed a little bit of what it can be like when you're leading: disorienting, lonely, overwhelming, urgent, stressful, perilous, reactive, like trying to prevent airplane wings from falling on people. Well, some things translate better than others. Nevertheless, while leading can be tough going, sometimes we just need to be thankful we're not Jack Shepherd...



It is striking to watch the first seven minutes again, especially as someone who has watched most of the episodes the last six years. There is clearly a spiritual undertone (that may become overt tomorrow night during the series finale) as Mr. Shepherd tries in vain to care for all the people wandering around looking like lost sheep. We'll see if the end of the series points us squarely back to the beginning.

As a footnote, I came to realize that there is a difference between watching Lost at home with my wife and forcing it upon 40 unsuspecting ministry leaders. In the case of the latter, it's good to consider that some may find scenes like this one....disturbing. Especially those with a strong bent towards empathy. Lesson learned: Remember your audience.

Building a team - 3 principles

One of the first things I had to be about in my new role was to start building an operations team of staff and interns for the upcoming school year (2010-11). Fortunately, we already had three full-time staff that had been functioning valiantly despite not having someone to lead them in any focused way over the last couple years. But, to really think about getting after the three things (clean up messes, change the culture, and increase communication) we had to grow the team and "get more people on the bus". The quickest way to do that, and probably the best strategy in developing long term capacity, was to start recruiting graduating students to intern for a year doing operations.

One of the phrases I heard from Andy Stanley on his leadership podcast a while ago was "Only do what only you can do." In this case, the person best positioned to recruit and build a NW operations team well is clearly the operations director. There will certainly be help needed from others, but no one will be able to give that as much time and focus as the point person for operations leadership in the region. 

Here are a few principles I've discovered/had pointed out related to building a team. Assumed is that the people we are recruiting have surrendered their life to Christ and feel called to serve him the rest of their life in some definite or indefinite way. While I am thinking in terms of operations, I think these principles can be exported to broad contexts:

1. People want to be pursued

2. People want to use their gifting/area of strength

3. People want to be on a team

I'll expand more on each of these three in the future, as well as some of the specific actions and technologies I've used to build my team for the upcoming year. While we will certainly not be overstaffed, we're going to have five great interns joining us to use their gifts as part of our NW Operations team!

Would you agree that ministry leaders, regardless of their specific role, should always be building capacity by recruiting others to the mission? Are there any principles you would add to the above list?

New job: 3 areas of focus

Four months ago I moved in to a new role (Director of Operations - Greater Northwest) with the ministry I work for (Campus Crusade for Christ), a role which for the last two years has been unfilled. As I've gotten a read on the "current reality", it seems there are three main things I need to be about for the next year on the job:

1. Clean up the messes - Last night, my wife and I were running errands while our kids were with the grandparents. As we were out until after the kids bedtime, upon arriving home we quickly put the kids to bed and retired upstairs for the night. What got missed in our evening ritual was cleaning up the kitchen, starting the dishwasher, and making sure everything was ready to go in the morning. Result? This morning we not only had to make breakfast for us and the kids (the usual), we also had to clean up the kitchen from the night before while doing so (not usual). Not a big deal, but it did create more stress to start the day and delayed getting to work this morning.

It's kind of similar with the job. Directing Operations for the region requires plenty, but even just a short period of neglect (which can partly be explained by number 2 below) creates a lot of additional work that needs to be done to even start getting after the main things. It could be financial decisions that need to be revisited, web and technologies that are withering on the vine, people that haven't had a leader to care for them the way they should, or just a lack of clarity in direction for the operations effort in our region.

2. Change the culture - By this, I mean how operations is viewed by staff and students within the northwest. The reason there are messes to clean up is the difficulty in finding people that are a) called to ministry, b) operationally capable/savvy, and c) are willing to focus on leading operationally. Most people that join staff do so to change lives by getting face to face with students and sharing with them from the Word. The word "Operations" seems to connote the opposite of ministry: mechanical, unrelational, distant (as opposed to organic, relational, and intimate). At least it did for me.

Fortunately, I don't think that characterization of operations need be true (though it certainly could). My desire is to help our staff, students, volunteers, and donors connect the dots between operations leadership/effectiveness and lives being changed and ministry capacity being expanded. Operations touches nearly everything we do in ministry (and that goes for churches, too) and has potential for tremendous innovation and impact all the way down to the life-on-life level. If we don't do it well, we'll find ourselves hamstrung, unable to grow to the point where we can realistically give every student a chance to know God through Jesus Christ. More about that in the future.

3. Increase communication - If you've played team sports, you know a warning sign for a team is when they stop communicating. Whether it's a baseball outfielder calling for a fly ball or a basketball defender calling out a screen, when there is great communication the team is going to perform at it's optimum level and be able to respond to emerging circumstances very quickly. Ministry may not be a team sport, but it is certainly a team effort.

While communication is just one area of operations, it seems like it has the most potential to provide huge, immediate wins. Social media/new technologies will certainly play a role here, but it is more philosophical. Few things build trust and a shared vision between people like good communication. And so much of ministry is communication. 

In a region that spans seven states and thousands of miles (from Alaska to Nevada), communication is going to be an issue. But you can just as easily not communicate with someone that's your next door neighbor. We need to learn how to communicate professionally in ways that help us all. Sharing and collaboration are buzz words right now, but I think it's for a reason. You can get a lot better at whatever you're doing a lot faster when you are not consistently reinventing the wheel. As a microcosm, I remember being in our staff meetings at WSU and having someone share about something they had been doing in ministry which was really getting results. "Why didn't you say anything?" was my thought. But then I realized: I'd never asked, and for them to volunteer and share could seem boastful. Those are two things we've got to overcome, but when we do cool things can happen. As my friend and operations co-laborer Matt McComas has said, "Get over yourself."

So those are the three things I've put my finger on so far. What do you think? Seem like they are in the ballpark?