Lighten the Load for Your Leader

I created this blog for Church Assistance Ministry (CAM) as a way to advance CAM’s mission to equip church leaders around the world. When my field supervisor, Steve Elliott and I met for me to show him the blog, I walked him through the entire process of how to create a blog post, how to publish it, and what it should look like when it is finished.

After the meeting, Steve knew exactly how he can compose, post, and publish blog posts to the CAM blog. However, after the meeting I realized that I had made a mistake. I failed to offer my help to Steve by posting content on the blog for him. My role with CAM is to help advance their mission by lightening Steve’s workload. I should have told him that I am glad to post content for him on the blog if he provides it to me. My hope in creating the blog is that Steve has a bunch of content he has already written/created that can be posted on the blog to reach more people. If Steve or the other CAM members have content that can be posted with my help, then I need to do that work for them (especially for Steve).

As a follower, my main job is the lighten the work load of the leader above me. With CAM, Steve is my leader and almost everything that I do needs to revolve around lightening his work load and furthering CAM’s mission.

Question: How do you lighten the load of your leader?

Build Trust Among Others

As a leader, the odds are pretty good that at one-time you have had a vision for something, but have it slowed down by others.

Having led many meetings for a volunteer based nonprofit program called A Day of Hope, I have experienced the feeling of wanting to move forward but having to wait for volunteers to catch my vision. These were times when I believed that I knew what was best for our program, I believed I knew what we needed to do to move it forward, but I couldn’t get the volunteers to move with me. This can be extremely frustrating when you are trying to serve people in need. 

On the flip side, there are times when my volunteers had a high level of trust in me as the leader and they followed me even when they didn’t understand everything or agree. These were times when the volunteers knew my heart was to serve and help people in need, and if I believed we needed to do something in order to do that more effectively, they would trust my discernment and insight.

I personally saw this lived out on a much higher and more influential level when observing the Church Assistance Ministry (CAM) board meeting last week. I observed a group of godly men who were faithfully following their leader, Steve Elliott. As Steve led the CAM board meeting, I was able to observe him lead a discussion about a big decision to be made. Even though a couple of the board members did not quite understand all the details and facts of the decision, they allowed him to lead and proceed with the idea because they had a high level of trust in him as their leader.

When Steve and I met after the board meeting to debrief about what I observed, he summed up my thoughts by pointing out that “When you get people who trust you, they will follow you along even if they don’t understand you.”

You too, as a leader need build trust among others. When you build trust among others, it allows you to go faster, which every leader loves!

Question: How do you build trust among others?

Posted by Christopher Scott, CAM Intern

Who You Spend Time with is Who You Become

One benefit I am receiving from interning with Church Assistance Ministry (CAM) is that I get to spend time with men who are older, more mature, and more experienced that I am. That is a benefit to be because who I spend time with today determines who I will become tomorrow.

As an intern with CAM I get to spend time weekly with Steve Elliott, a man who has been in ministry for almost 40 years.  I also get to spend time quarterly with other staff and board members of CAM who have been working in ministry for a long time.

There are three things I am benefiting from as a younger man spending time with these older men:

1. They give me examples of what to do: Their examples, stories, and lives show me how to effectively serve others and manage a family.  This ensures that I do the right things with my time going forward to help me become more successful.
2. They give me examples of what not to do: They have many stories of how they have failed and been unsuccessful which gives me a clear picture of what not to do.  This allows me to avoid failures in my future and serve more people without having to experience the lessons they have had to experience.
3. They give me examples of good habits to develop and maintain:  You definitely reap what you sow.  When spending time with these men I am able to see what habits they have maintained over their lives and how that has affected them long-term.  This gives me a better perspective to choose the habits I cultivate and maintain going forward in ministry.

As a result of spending time with these men who are older, more mature, and more experienced than I am, I will grow into a man who has gleaned years of examples of godly lives lived and be able to incorporate these into my own life in order to do great work. 

If you are a young leader (like I am) I suggest you find some men who are older and more experienced than you are and spend time with them. Who you spend time with today determines who you will become tomorrow.

Question: Who in your life who is older than you has had a positive impact on your life? (Feel free to share stories.)