Mike
The helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and 7 others had many tragic storylines. One that struck me is that the helicopter had almost risen above the clouds before it began its fateful descent. If the pilot had reached that point, he would have been able to see clearly and the story would have had a very different ending.
Church and ministry leaders today also feel like they’re flying blind. The dramatic changes caused by the coronavirus have occurred at an incredible speed. The future seems more foggy than ever. And without the ability to gather corporately, we’re missing one of our best sources of information. It’s easy to generalize that people must be anxious, but it seems impossible to know exactly what they’re thinking and feeling without our typical face-to-face conversations. So how can you lead well if you don’t have a good read on the people you’re leading?
Is our only choice to blindly forge ahead? I don’t think so. Here are four ways that you can clear some of the corona-driven fog:
- Meet virtually with your leadership team. You’ve probably already met with staff, but have you had a virtual meeting with your lay leadership team? When you do this, don’t immediately jump into addressing the urgent issues that are on your mind. Start by asking how they are feeling and what they are hearing.
- Create an online prayer portal. Technology makes it easy to receive confidential prayer requests through your web site or app. If you haven’t already created this system, set it up and make it prominent on the home page. Be sure to have a process in place to pray for these requests and to follow-up with the people that submit them. If you want to take it a step further, categorize the types of prayer requests to get a broader sense of what people are most concerned about.
- Leverage existing groups. Your already have a structure for connecting with people – your small groups or Sunday school classes. So ask each of the group leaders to reach out to the members of their groups and report back. If you want to be more systematic, give them 3 or 4 specific questions to ask and a format for summarizing what they learn.
- Take a poll. The final, and most data-rich option, is to do a simple online survey. This can be created quickly and distributed by email so that everyone in your congregation is invited to respond. Questions on a poll could include: (1) How anxious are you right now? (2) What are you most concerned about? (3) How can we best serve you? The first two can have dropdown answers, which makes it easier to tabulate results. You can come up with your own, but whatever you do, keep it simple.
Part 2 of this blog will address ways to improve clarity with your finances. We can’t get rid of coronavirus or fog, but we don’t have to fly blind in these uncertain times.
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