Unfortunately we were not able to get enough interest in our upcoming event and need to cancel our 2012 Gathering in Chicago. Though we were excited to discuss doing ministry in teams and learn from Scott Chapman and Jeff Griffin from the Chapel, we just did not get a large enough response from everyone to warrant moving forward.

Thank you for your continued support! Be sure to check back for future updates on YPN.

Dan Spino                                                                                                    YPN Director

In my current role at a multi-site church, I work with an amazing staff team of just under 100 people.  I love the people I serve with, and I’m thankful for what we get to do together…but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy.

While there are many blessings to sharing the demands and requirements that come with leadership, there are also some challenges that I didn’t initially anticipate.  Multisite churches can take a variety of approaches to leadership.  Our church has a strong campus leadership team for each of our campuses, but we also work very closely with our Central Teams.  Our Central Teams provide support to all of the campuses and make it possible for us to be one church in multiple locations.  Having this many leaders driving things on each campus allows us to provide more opportunities for the people attending, but it also creates some obstacles.

In an example Jeff gave, he talked about not being present when the team made a decision to roll out a new training program. Though he wasn’t there for the final decisions, he still had to own the training curriculum and implement it. Jeff said it was his passion, together with his team’s resourcefulness, that led to a successful implementation of the program.

I’ve learned that if we’re going to be a successful team, I need to be ready to lead with passion in all of the things we’re doing to serve our people, even if it’s something that I wasn’t a part of from the beginning. 

Ministry almost always happens in teams. Teams require a unique mix of personal drive and, at the same time, a collective spirit – a give and take between the individual and the individuals.

To learn more about doing ministry in teams, join Jeff and some others this July at our next Young Pastors Network gathering.

Click here to register today! We hope to see you in Chicago!

We are looking forward to our time together!

Life on the Playground:  A conversation about team ministry with Scott Chapman and Jeff Griffin (co-senior pastors of The Chapel)

Remember the carefree days on the playground? We learned a lot as children there: how to swing and jump rope, how to make friends, the pleasure of independence. But at the same time, the playground is where many of us got in our first fight, first felt left out, first experienced real conflict with others. The playground is where we first learned that life is so much better, but so much harder, with other people.

Pastors live in this tension every day, whether they do so in a professional staff, with a team of elders, or a group of volunteers: ministry is so much better, but so much harder, when you do it with other people. So, how can young pastors lead teams of people well?

The Young Pastors Network invites you to join us in Chicago, July 10-11, 2012, for a conversation with Scott Chapman and Jeff Griffin, co-senior pastors of The Chapel, as we explore together the joys and frustrations of doing ministry together.

Schedule of events:

Tuesday, July 10:

11:00am – 12:30pm            Check-in / Lunch in the Waybright Center

12:30 – 1:00pm                   Introductions

1:00 – 3:00pm                     Session 1: Alone in the sandbox

3:00 – 3:30pm                     Break – snacks provided

3:30 – 5:30pm                     Session 2: Team captain

5:30 – 6:15                          Break / Get ready for Dinner

6:15 – 9:30                          Dinner / Night Out – Location TBD

Wednesday, July 11:

9:00 – 9:30am                     Coffee and snacks

9:30 – 11:30am                   Session 3: I’ll take my ball and go home

11:30 – 1:00pm                   Lunch and Networking

1:00 – 3:00pm                     Session 4: Getting in the game

3:00 – 3:30pm                     Wrap-up

3:30 – 9:30pm                     Dinner and Fun in Chicago*

*If you plan to head back to your hotel or home, you will want to plan accordingly as we will be in Chicago this evening. There is access to the airports via the train from downtown; visit metrarail.com for more information.

 Session 1: Alone in the sandbox

This session is about setting the stage for the conference. We start in the sandbox because it is one of the first places on playground where we transition from solo play to team play. It also speaks to the temptation to create on our own because it is easier than involving other people.

We all know teams are a good thing for ministry (whether you are a pastor at a multi-staff church or a solo pastor) but they are also hard to manage well. There are many advantages to teams (seems to be the biblical model, avoiding burnout, avoiding cult of personality, etc.) but lots of dysfunction as well. Sometimes, it feels like it’s easier to do it on our own. Why is that? What have been your experiences with this at The Chapel?

Session 2: Team captain

This session is about the perils of choosing the right people for our teams. How do we choose well? How do we recognize our own weaknesses and create a complimentary team of people around us? How do we create unity around a common goal/vision? Are the dynamics different between staff teams and lay teams? If so, how? How do you facilitate a team that doesn’t become a rubber-stamping group (where the leader/pastor is “answer man”)?

Session 3: I’ll take my ball and go home

This session is about dealing with conflict and general team health. What do we do when we have chosen the wrong people? What if you had no choice in your team to begin with? What if members don’t like each other or don’t like you? How do you “fire” bad volunteers?  How do you cultivate healthy disagreement (to get good ideas) without stepping on people’s toes? How do you deal with bad team leadership if you aren’t leading?

Session 4: Getting in the game

This is a wrap-up session designed to target more specifically where these young pastors live and work. Topically, we’ve moved out of the sandbox and into the game.

What if you aren’t a high level leader in your organization? Can you affect change to healthy team ministry? How do you lead well from the middle (leaders over you)? What if you are in a highly silo-ed team where specialization works against global organizational thinking? How do we lead teams of volunteers with excellence? How do we lead multiple teams well?

Registration

You can register for this event here.

Lodging:

If you need to make hotel reservations for your stay while at the conference, we recommend La Quinta Inn and Suites, located at 2000 South Lakeside Dr, Bannockburn, IL 60015. Phone: 1-847-317-7300. When calling, please ask for the Trinity University Rate.

Transportation:

If you need transportation while staying in Chicago, please let us know when you register.

1. Absence of Trust (evidence of this is a lack of vulnerability)
2. Fear of Conflict (evidence of this is artificial harmony)
3. Lack of Commitment (evidence of this is ambiguity, a lack of buy-in)
4. Avoidance of Accountability (evidence of this are low standards on the team)
5. Inattention to Results (evidence of this are status and ego)

At the base of every team working well together is trust. Lencioni says that an absence of trust “stems from their [team members’] unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group.” Without getting into the other dysfunctions and how they manifest themselves (I defer to Lencioni’s book, which is an easy weekend read), I thought I would spend some time on building trust and unwillingness to be vulnerable.

As I look at the various teams that I have been in and are currently in, I realize that what is often lacking is trust. I don’t trust others and others don’t trust me – it becomes a bit of a chicken or the egg thing. But at the root of it is an unwillingness to be vulnerable.

Being vulnerable means being weak. It means exposing myself as someone who is not perfectly put together and who doesn’t have all the answers. How could I function? As someone who lives under the false delusion of perfection, being vulnerable is risky. Besides my marriage, I haven’t had much success with being vulnerable either. It seems that we are not setup well in our culture to receive vulnerabilities – unless I tweet them or post them on my facebook page. At times, vulnerability requires a bit of risk management – how might this person receive what I am about to share?

And guess what happens when I start to think like this – I AM NOT VULNERABLE!

A vicious cycle. Am I alone here?

I know I have at least one person who is with me. There was a recent talk about this very topic at one of the TED Lectures – (TED.com). Brene Brown, author and researcher, discusses this very topic. Check out the video from her talk, it takes only 20 minutes.

And let me know your thoughts.

The next YPN gathering will take place on Trinity’s campus in the Waybright Center on July 10-12. All TEDS MDiv grads from the last 5 years are invited to attend.

We are also pleased to let you know that registration is now open. You can register by clicking this link and filling out the form, which takes only a brief moment. Take advantage of our early bird registration rates through April 15. Be one of the first ten people to register and you will receive an additional $50 off (sponsored by the Trinity Alumni Office). That comes to a whopping $100 discount!

Can’t wait to see you in Chicago…

On July 10-12, we will be hosting Scott Chapman and Jeff Griffin, senior pastors of The Chapel, a multi-site church with campuses throughout the North Shore. The conversation will center on the practice and perils of doing ministry through teams: all pastors work with teams, but how do we do it well?  We are calling our gathering “Life on the Playground.”

Mark your calendars; we’d love to see you there! Be looking for more updates in the coming weeks.

Our plan is to move the Gathering to the greater Chicago area next summer.  We feel this move will better facilitate our mission, which is to cultivate a network of connections among seminary graduates serving as leaders in the local church.

Although this necessarily entails that we will not be able to meet this summer, we are excited for the conference next summer and look forward to being sharpened together with you. Keep a look out for our upcoming announcements on specific dates, themes, and speakers for our Gathering in 2012!

For more information, or if you have questions, please contact us at 913.402.2701 or email youngpastorsnetwork@gmail.com.

Our best attempt at improv. We clearly still have much to learn!

Last week we had the privilege of hearing from Peter Cha and Lee Eclov as we explored what it means to be improvising pastors, and while the 2010 Gathering of the Young Pastors Network may be behind us, the knowledge we gleaned from our seasoned speakers will stick with us.

Our gathering centered on the idea that as pastors live in the world of improvisation. Wynton Marsalis, one of the greats in the world of jazz, knows more than a little bit about improvisation, and his definition guided our discussion.

“Improvisation is the willingness to live within the bounds of the past and yet search for the future at the same time. Improvisation is the desire to make something new out of something old…It is experience in being open to letting the people around you have an impact on what you are creating.” Wynton Marsalis

Improvisation is where the past intersects with the future. We, as young pastors, stand at that crossroads. We stand on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before us, yet we are continually looking ahead, moving as the Spirit guides us, and growing as the Body of Christ. This past week we discussed this intersection and what is required of us to live and minister here.

We discovered together that we must live in a state of Relaxed Awareness, learning to be more aware of what God is doing in our midst, and more aware of the contributions others around us can make in our lives and ministries. We also recognized that improv is about Constrained Contingency, living in boundaried freedom. To do this we must know the story we are telling deeply, know who we are with our unique, Spirit-given gifts, and know the boundaries of our own faith traditions. Finally we live in a state of Disciplined Spontaneity. Those who improvise are masters of their craft, and mastery comes through discipline. Those who have been formed through discipline are then free to respond spontaneously in any situation that arises.

Relaxed Awareness. Constrained Contingency. Disciplined Spontaneity. These are the building blocks of improv and the building blocks of sustainable pastoral ministry.

All in all, we had a great few days together. We’d love to have you join us next year. Be watching for dates later this fall!