Run with God

Superhero Characters and Volunteer Thank You(s)

First off, thanks to the TONS of volunteers who serve on a weekly basis @ CF. Honestly, we could not do what we do without you all. CF would not exist, and I for one say thank you.

Now, I said that I was going to dress up as a Superhero/Villain, and I needed your help. Who should I be?

Captain Geiger of the Spaceship CF Enterprise... iJeff... MacMan... Bibleman... Six (the Cylon from Battlestar Galactica)... Duct Tape Man... all great ideas...

I was going to back out of dressing up. Really torn in what to dress up as.

I decided that I was going to go with Lex Luthor. I'm bald. I'm smashing in a suit. Should be a slam dunk. The problem is my big 'ol honkin eyebrows. Luthor lost all his hair in the comet crash in Supermandome... so my eyebrows and chest hair gotta go. Relax, I'm not that guy. I don't wax. The Goatee? well, maybe that's expendable...

So I struggled with who to be. Leave it to Paul Ronda for the save. "Luthor? You look more like Kingpin!"

Kingpin, in Marveldome, is a huge, bald villain/crime boss who goes at it against Spiderman, Daredevil, and a ton of other superheroes. He's a beast of a man, and if he's coming at you full steam ahead, you better move... I'm really not 6'7" and 450lbs, but you get the idea.

Yeah, that's who I am. Kingpin...

So thank you, Paul, for hooking me up with the idea. I LOVE IT! BTW, Paul, You get the giftcard hookup that I aforementioned in my blog. Tell me which store you want it from. AND since I don't think you read my blog, if someone could tell Paul he won, that'd be great.

So did I pull it off? Eh, it could've been better. But I win the COMMITMENT award for shaving the Goatee just for this event!

Thanks again to all our volunteers, especially our Media crew! You are greatly appreciated!!!

Media Reach Beyond

A couple weeks ago, I coordinated a Reach Beyond for the Media Ministry. Several people heard the story, and I quickly found myself on the other end of the camera. Note: I hate being on camera. And thanks again to the many volunteers who sacrificed a Friday night to come serve Miami.

Check out the video below. Thanks to Hector for making me look good. Believe me, that's not an easy thing to do.

"Core Values" of Management

I'm not an "educated manager". In fact, I was "asked to not come back" to my Broadcast Management class in college. It's not my fault that the class started meeting @ 8am. Come on, be realistic! I apologized to my prof for sleeping in class... needless to say I never got past week 2. But even my uneducated self can recognize the quality of this:

Butch Whitmire, Pastor of Creative Arts at Granger Community Church, recently blogged on 12 Core Values they institute in their creative ministry:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the equipment and tools I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my work make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the past 6 months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had the opportunity at work, learn, and grow?

Funny, I thought we were doing a good job with our volunteers @ CF. Then I read this and get seriously convicted.

Then I think of the 20+ people that work for me at The Living Word and C28, realizing that in my recent absence from the stores, they may be feeling neglected and have not had the attention they deserve.

Dang it. Just when I was getting my life down to 50+ hrs a week, I see where I have slacked off, and it's time to once again ante up.

God, thank you for the people in my life, those that work for me, those that boss me around, and those that serve for Your benefit. Thank You for what You have for me now. Thank You for what You have done, and what You will do soon.

New Respect for Volunteers

This was a humbling couple days for me.

At the Palmetto Bay and Homestead Campus, Rick spoke this week on serving, and how at CF we ask our members to serve, not for earthly benefit, but for eternal reward.

Within the past couple days I've had experiences with people serving above and beyond the established "norm" without so much as batting an eye. And even though they do it selflessly, and not for earthly recognition, their dedication drives me to do more than I already am. Let me give you some examples:

* Willy. Willy helps in the Building and Grounds area at the Palmetto Bay Campus. Having been at CF for years, I've seen Willy around the church many times. Serving. Sweating. Physical labor stuff. I talked with him a couple days ago (he was drenched in sweat) and found out he's not on staff, but he volunteers every week to do physical labor stuff around the Palmetto Bay Campus. Let me repeat that... Volunteers to do physical labor stuff every week.

* Aubrey. Aubrey is one of the humblest, meekest guys I know... For years Aubrey has coordinated the Palmetto Bay Adult Worship Center. Guest Services. Ushers. Room Presentation. He's always one of the first guys there (even before most of the Media) and I have much to learn from his servant attitude. I had a nightmare last night about what CFPB would look like w/o Aubrey. It wasn't pretty.

* Eric & Jason. These two guys are my Media Dynamic Duo for CF Redland. Their drive for excellence in the CFR Adult Worship Venue is pushing me faster than I can move my crew. Pretty sad when the volunteers basically call and harass you because you aren't giving them the information they need to serve God better.

* Keith. Having recently accepting a part-time position as CF Downtown's Media Director, Keith has been putting a sick amount of hours and effort into helping create the worship environment at CFDT. Being sensitive to the time he has put in at CFDT, I recently pulled him away from some projects on the other campuses. Keith chastised me yesterday that while his paid job was working at CFDT, he would still be volunteering/serving on some of the other campuses... and I needed to stop giving his work to other people!

* Landon. Mike C. Mike S. Luke. James. We got some news from the theater where CF West Kendall is meeting. We need to fly some speakers, and were waiting to schedule a time. We were given a window Saturday night. We can install Monday from 6-9am Monday and 6-9am Tuesday. So I needed to find a crew of people who are willing to do hard labor at 6AM w/o even 24 hours notice. Ironically, it took maybe 10 minutes to put a team together. These guys agreed to do it w/o hesitation. (BTW, if you want to help, call/email me).

God, thank you for these and the MANY OTHER volunteers that serve thankless jobs so that we (as a collective) can worship You. Thank you for being worthy of our work, our worship, and our praise.

Ownership and 3 Coaches...

I sat in a room this evening with three key CF Media Volunteers. The topic: How to get prospective Media People plugged in to the Media Ministry. By the end of the 90min+ conversation, I'm excited by the fact they're excited...

Ownership is a delicate thing with volunteers. It's been my experience that you can't hammer ideology and propaganda down their throat. Some people can pull that off... I'm not one of them. By explaining the big picture to them, and showing them the problems we have, more often than not their ideas are exactly the same (if not better) than I was planning myself. Honestly, I try to shape the conversation, but tonight I really didn't have to. They were doing it for me...

An interesting development came today that I was not expecting... it was the idea of "find a replacement to fill your current position so you can then be trained to do something else..." Call it a cross of "Movin' On" and "Raise the Bar"... Sure, it's the theory that I've been pushing for years, but it manifested itself pretty cool this evening as these guys were jumping to learn more, do more, give more, serve more.

If pride wasn't a sin, this would make me proud.

Honestly, I'm a little stressed with the CF Multisites right now. Within the past year we've designed almost sixteen worship venues (age graded and adults) the brain is a tad fried. But God is good, and seeing people take passionate ownership of this church, this ministry across multiple locations, is awesome.

Guest Blogger: Volunteer & Ownership

I've asked Charlie Bearham to also step in as a guest blogger. Charlie is one of CF Palmetto Bay's Camera Directors in the Media Ministry, and helps with much of Media's Administrative duties. Honestly, CF Media owes much of what it is now to volunteers like Charlie who stepped up into volunteer roles, filling the voids where necessary. Charlie works in management for Jackson Health Systems in Miami, is married to Lydia and has two daughters.

I asked Charlie to share his thoughts on Volunteerism in the Church...
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I need to be honest. At times the line between being a volunteer versus feeling I was on the church staff has been blurry for me.  Family, work and personal attitude has suffered; but is that our church's fault? No, its mine and my generations lack of ability to set limits on time commitments.

No one at CF has ever said to me "hey you are not serving enough" or tried to lay a guilt trip on me.  But rather each time I have said "I need some time off" it’s been received with "ok we understand."

With that being said, I also believe that there is a difference in volunteering in other kinds of organizations and serving at church. Our mission is greater, our mission is life versus death, and our mission is eternal. So we must take ownership in our church, in our ministry, in our small group and beyond.

It takes both volunteers and church leaders to understand this. When volunteers step up and take ownership, (take the initiative to "lead" versus "being led"), so must the church leadership allow and create opportunities for volunteers to have a voice in setting the direction the ministry will go. Now please don't get me wrong. I fully understand that God has chosen certain men and women to be leaders of the church and we must ultimately follow their direction. But if we are to create a culture of ownership for volunteers, they should be brought into the planning phases, rather than hearing about future initiatives when all is said and done. Buy in comes naturally when the individuals feel a sense of ownership and cannot take the easy way out by blaming someone else for direction the team is going.

So how does this happen when you have different generations serving side by side, Traditionalist (pre-1946), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1964-1979) and the newest Generation Y (1977-2000) known to many as the echo-boomers, boomer babies,  millennials, the entitlement generation, or the digital generation. See Work Place Transformation article written by Cara Spiro.

Leadership has changed and decentralized organizations are here to stay, but there will always be leaders. Once we have tossed aside the crutch of hierarchical authority, leaders need to inspire by enabling others to be leaders. By making room for other leaders “you attract people who aren’t followers, who aren’t looking for the kind of leader who will save them from anxiety of responsibility” according to Michael Hopkins. By the way the millennial generation does not follow. By their nature, they need to lead.

At CF, we are looking for people of all generations to take ownership. Opportunities are endless. So the question is will you take ownership of my church, my ministry, my camera, my sound board, etc. or will you stand by the side of the road and regret that you didn't step up and move on to a greater sense of ownership.

Now is the time, there may not be a tomorrow. Please pray about it, and take the challenges that God has for us.

Rescued by his grace,

Charlie Bearham
Servant, Father, and Christian Business Leader.

CF Multi-site Media Openings

As part of CF's "Movin' On" Series, we are challenging 500 people to leave the CF Palmetto Bay Campus and help establish our three new campuses... CF Dwntwn, CF Redland, and CF West Kendall.

Among those 500 people, Media volunteers are definitely needed. Below is a listing of available positions:

CF Downtown
Audio Operators (1 person)
Lighting Operators (2 people)
Video/Imag Operators (1 person)
Stage Director (2 people)

CF Redland
Audio Operators (1 person)
Video/Imag Operators (1 person)
Stage Director (2 people)

CF West Kendall
Audio Operators (1 person)
Lighting Operators (1 person)
Video/Imag Operators (1 person)
Stage Director (1 person)
Set up/Tear down (16 people, yes 16)

For a definition of the positions, check out Worship343.com

The Multi-Sites also need help Saturday night on the CFPB campus. Most of the Multi-Site Media work is done after the Saturday night service. I need three volunteers who are computer savvy to help us coordinate all the computer files for the weekend services on CFDT, CFR & soon CFWK. It takes about an hour...

Even if you're not moving away from CFPB, help someone else who has moved on. See me ASAP!

If you're currently serving in Media at CFPB, consider Movin' On. I know it will be difficult to leave, but we have an incredible opportunity to impact Miami, and help is needed across the board. See me, and help us gain a foothold in reclaiming this city.

Not involved in Media. IT'S NOT DIFFICULT TO START. We have plenty of positions for tech-savvy and non-techie positions. The great thing is we'll teach you everything you need! MOVE ON! Email me, or stop by the Location Booths this wknd at CFPB.

Movin' On? Awesome! Thanks for your willingness to serve.

CF Dwntwn needs your help

Okay, I said I would ask for your help this week for Dwntwn. We are doing a major media (and everybody) workday @ CF Dwntwn this Thursday (11/15). We're hoping to have most of the new stage assembled, and we're wanting to install most of the sound equipment as well as do some major cleaning/renovations of the Media area in the Worship Center.

I would love to get as many people as possible to come help us. You know you're itching to blow of work and come join us. And I understand that public school has an early release that day too. Ride the Metrorail. Catch a cab. Call a friend and carpool. If you're available on Thursday, we could use you! Come for as little or as long as you can.

If I've convinced you, e-mail me and let me know. We're meeting at CF Dwntwn @ 8:30am, although we will probably be there all day (and into evening). Thanks in advance.

Media Small Group starts Wednesday

Wanted to give a heads up to everybody... Amy and I are starting a Small Group for CF Media Volunteers... In the Media, so often we are so busy creating a venue for others to Connect to God that we miss out on getting ourselves connected. My hope is that during our brief time together we can get Connected to God as well as Connecting to Others.

We'll be meeting on Wednesday night, 6:45pm, at the Palmetto Bay Studio. CF Media volunteers from both campuses (Palmetto Bay & Homestead) are welcome to attend. We are going through the six-week iPray study that coincides with the sermon series, iPray, that Rick/Eric are currently leading us through.

If you are already connected to a small group, great! If not, please consider this opportunity to meet with us as we delve into our study on prayer.

If you have any questions, drop me a line.

I [heart] Volunteers

Earlier this week I wrote on my workaholic tendancies, and my inability to handle stress when my wife isn't around.... and ended up having a very serious conversation about how to work with volunteers in ministry. If you haven't read the comments in "Workaholic Jerk", check it out.

Volunteering is difficult. We strive at Christ Fellowship to say that we want our "volunteers" to attend a worship service one hour a week, and then volunteer/serve in some capacity one hour a week. Sounds great in principle. However, practice sometimes looks different.

Today I spent almost eight hours watching four or five volunteers rework the stage lighting infrastructure in the Palmetto Bay worship center. Several of the volunteers were high school/college kids working for a free meal. There also were a couple adults who took the day off from work. All of these volunteers will work another 3-6 hours this weekend to make the worship service happen.

When I left at 6pm to come home, there were two guys still programming the light board. As hard as I tried to kick them out, they would not leave. Crazy.

Ownership is a weird thing. Honestly, of all stage elements, I know the least about stage lighting. Two of our key volunteers, Keith and Brian, know far more than I do. Instead of me mandating and dictating the situation to them, I basically let them lead...not like I knew enough to do it myself... What's phenominal is that at the end of the day these guys are smiling from ear to ear, unable to tear themselves away from volunteering, from serving. Keith kept saying this weird line over and over again, (I'm not sure if he was kidding), "If I knew serving up here was so much fun, I would have quit my day job!"

Maybe there's a little pride in the situation. Knowing at the end of the day you are the mastermind that created the effects... And at the end of the day I'm okay with that. They own the situation. They are the lighting guys...

Now, not everyone is suited to take ownership. Some volunteers don't have the knowledge of technology, or the maturity to lead others, or are capable of seeing the big picture, or know how to relate to a staff supervisor. But if you can find those diamonds in the rough, those guys that willingly take off a day of work to hang some lights... well, you better respect them.

The problem that I've found with volunteers that take ownership is that they don't know how to let go. When volunteering gets in the way of family, it's time to stop volunteering. When work suffers, maybe you should reconsider. I've seen guys get so wrapped up in serving that they burn themselves out. I was one of these people. And I wish someone on staff would have told me back then, "uh Jeff, STOP!" Volunteering is an awesome thing, but it's not worth the other parts of your life suffering.

More than any other church setting I've volunteered/served on staff, CF has taught me to respect and appreciate volunteers. I've also learned that they are a church staffer's most valuable asset, and need to be protected above all else.

Keith T., Brian L., Eric C., Luke I. and whoever else stuck their head in to help today, thanks for your time once again. I greatly appreciate the sacrifices that you and all of CF Media volunteers do week in and week out. CF Media would not be where we are today if not for our volunteers, on Palmetto Bay and Homestead campuses. For that, I am eternally grateful.