Patrick O'Connell

Leading by Hand

If you're leading people I have a question for you: How often do you write handwritten thank you cards to the people on your teams?

Emails and verbal affirmations don't count. I am talking about sitting down and writing words on a card with a pen. There's something intimate about the act of handwriting that the person receiving the note connects with. 

If you can't remember may I encourage you to start writing. Not only are you missing  out on an opportunity to show gratitude but you're missing out as a leader. People aren't going to care about you, your vision, or your plans until they know you care about them. Leadership is a people thing. The sooner you let people know you appreciate them the better it's going to be for everyone.

Two years ago I set a goal of writing three thank you cards every week to the people who contribute on my ministry teams. I write them and then pray for the person I am thanking and get it into the mail.

I hope my contributors appreciate the card. I want them to know how grateful I am for each of them. But the real benefit of writing cards has been personal. The practice has helped me grow as a leader. I have come to realize every one of our contributors brings something unique to the table. 

I use the time it takes me to write the card to pray for the person.During the five minutes it takes me to write the card, I am focused on the person and thinking about the things that I can do to help them grow.

Writing thank you cards is a great way to build humility into the rhythm of the leader's life.

If you do thank your team with handwritten letters, how often do you write them? I'd love to know the details.

I Know What a Wal-Mart Greeter Must Feel Like

511 people Sunday at Restore.

We had so many new people who needed to be greeted and shown around that I felt like a Wal-Mart greeter opening the doors the day after Thanksgiving.

Our Guest Services contributors knocked it out of the park.

It was crazy-fun!

Everyone is a Guest...Until

Everyone is a guest until they begin connecting and contributing to the mission of Restore Community Church. And thus our Guest Services area is designed around this concept.

Tell me what you think? Do you agree? Am I missing something?

The question then becomes, how does the church move guests to connectors and contributors?

First Impressions Resources from Mark Waltz

Mark Waltz's blog is essential reading from anyone involved with the Guest Services ministry of his or her church. Mark is Pastor of Connection at Granger Community Church and so he has a wealth of experience in this area.

Mark has also written a book, First Impressions: Creating Wow Experience in Your Church that is a wonderful resource.

Building Guest Services

So I am the Guest Services Director at Restore Community Church. Because our church plant is a bit heavy in staff (there are 8 of us not including our famous intern Luke K.) we have the luxury of having me direct this ministry. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking, dreaming, and praying about what this ministry is all about. I am blessed to have some highly energetic and capable people in our teams and we've come up with some really good ideas.

I've done quite a bit of research on the topic of Guest Services and found that there isn't a whole lot of published material. Kind of ironic since every church has some sort of Guest Services/First Impressions ministry. And so I am hoping that as we develop the ministry I will be able to blog about it and therefore pass along our ideas and observations. Of course, if you contribute to a First Impressions/Guest Services ministry, I'd love to hear from you.

Wireless Chaos

You can't do this to people...

My wife and I bought new cell phones last week and contracted for a new service via T-Mobile. We each purchased Blackberry Pearls because as a church planter I have an increasing need to communicate on the road.

All was well for a day until my wife told me that we were unable to receive text messages. Now I don't text very much but she and my daughter do. We have unlimited texting on our plan and therefore they claim that it saves our minutes for me. Very nice of them right. So my wife calls T-Mobile to fix the problem.

Nearly four hours later and after speaking to at least eight people at T-Mobile, the problem is still not fixed. (It has something to do with he fact that our new cell phone numbers were once land-lines?) We were told by several service representatives this was not T-Mobiles problem. They provided us the numbers! How can this not be their problem!The best part was when we were encouraged to call each of the major cell phone carriers and tell them that they needed to address the problem.

I am not making this up!

Mistakes are made all the time. It's best that a company simply fesses up to it and then fixes the problem. Don't involve the customer. I don't care what's behind the curtain, I just want the problem fixed. I am shocked that T-Mobile would really want to tell  brand new customers (who still have 10 days to return the equipment) that because of some very complicated technical glitch between these carriers the customer needs to fix the problem? 

I am not sure what we are going to do. Up until last night we were happy campers. A manager at T-Mobile is looking into the matter. I am not sure what that means?

This is so easy. Keep the customers out of the technical glitches. Just fix them.

Dreamin' About Guest Services

This afternoon I finally have an opportunity to sit down with my Guest Services leaders. Our agenda is simple: dream about ways our ministry can contribute to the mission of helping people find their way back to God.

We’ve got some details to sort through but mostly this meeting is going to be about how to improve upon what we've alrerady started. With the first preview service at Restore over, we have a chance to discuss what went wrong and how we can do better next time.

I am so blessed to have the chance to serve Jesus with these leaders. I really love the connecting and creating part of church planting.