I wish I had the time (and the brain) to come up with just a small percentage of the insightful thoughts that Seth Godin generates. Until that happens, chew on this quote from Seth from earlier today:
“…Organizations that work best with extraordinary talent are almost certainly not investing enough in finding and developing it. If marketing works so well that you spend a fortune on it, why aren’t you marketing your jobs? If talent is so important that you are betting the company on it, why aren’t you actually investing in finding and retaining that talent?”
What do you think? Does this principle apply to ministry organizations with either staff or volunteer roles? Have you noticed any non-profits that are doing this effectively?
one of the best posts Seth has had (and he has a lot of good ones). investing in people is the most effective way to fulfill your mission. if you have the RIGHT people in the RIGHT places, your organization will be top notch and able to propery activate against its core goals!
Great point as long as it is the best-right leaders. I’m sure you’ve read or heard of Simple Church, and they talk about the difference between complex churches who hire the best and brightest, yet aren’t unified in purpose or process vs the churches who make sure they hire the people committed to the team and direction of the church.
Good To Great refers to this as well…making sure you get the RIGHT people on the bus…not necessarily the best or most qualified.
Great stuff Tony, thanks!
This principle definately applies to ministry organizations. Why? Because ministry organizations are offering something worthwhile – Jesus. What better venue to display one’s talent than in a place where people could meet Jesus? The church (or any other ministry organization) should be consistently praying for and seeking out extremely talented individuals.
At the same time though, there’s nothing new under the sun, and everyone is ultimately replaceable. Ministry organizations should be seeking out talent without losing the primary focus of advancing the Gospel.
No doubt!
When ministries recruit great leaders the Kingdom of God comes forth with more power.
When the volunteers are invited to lead where they are gifted and talented, and then challenged and engaged to become everything God created them to be, life comes forth.
“…wisdom is shown to be right by its results.” – Jesus Mat 11:19
In churches like ours we need to invest on two fronts, employees and the thousands of volunteers that work each month. It would be interesting to discuss how we target volunteers with the ability to become high capacity volunteers and how we develop them especially because they could be on staff at some point. It makes recruiting more seamless and retention is probably better because of history with the organization.
It is interesting that you (Tony) were recruited but it appears you have a lot of volunteer to staff too. What is your ratio? For example, on our Ministry Leadership team which included Executive Staff we have 9 from within and 4 who were recruited from without the church.
How about getting the person that God has ‘called’ to that purpose? I think that many times we run out in front of God wanting to ‘help’ Him with who we think is the right fit.
I appreciate the thought that we need to be purposeful in our actions but sometimes I wonder if we were ever meant to treat the church like a business. I think somewhere among all the activities that we do, there is a balance that God is calling us to… I don’t know what it is.
Re: Tony York–I assumed that called is included in “right” for the task. I don’t think Seth or Tony M. suggested that it’s not. The fact is that churches notoriously, chronically, and historically have hired–”called”–the wrong person to lead, serve, and work on Kingdom issues. Unfortunately, I know whereof I speak.
I just stumbled across your blog today while doing some research for work (I work in the Communications Department for Costa Rica Outward Bound) and found it intriguing that you referenced Seth Godin b/c I presented a little book report on his book, “Meatball Sundae,” to my co-workers today as well.
I visited NewSpring’s offices in Anderson a few years ago while visiting a college friend from there (I went to Gardner-Webb University) and got to meet most of your creative team, an inspirational experience on many different levels. So, I just wanted to drop you a line to say keep up the awesome work!
It worked on me.