Last time we talked about placement: placing meetings and practices on your calendar. Today let’s talk about people. How do you find the ladies to lead in areas? How do you effectively lead them and allow them to serve in their strengths without frustrating them?
1. Grow your Team.
You’re probably going to have to ask them! Honestly, I don’t know if this is just in my neck of the woods or if this is typical, but I have found ladies would love to serve, but often want to be asked. You need to keep your eyes and heart open as you consider the following ladies giftedness.
All too often, we work only with ladies who are just like us. They think like us, have giftedness like us, and the same temperament as us. We forget that God has made a variety of ladies who would love to serve Him and have something special He put inside them that can add to the event to make it better.
Romans 12:4-5
“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
Remember that God is the Creator and has brought these various ladies all with different giftedness into your ministry to help complete it for His glory. Here’s what you should be looking for:
Creative Ladies– Perhaps there is a lady in your church who posts pictures of Pinterest-worthy parties. Maybe there is a woman who can sew or scrapbook like a pro.
Ask her to head up an area that requires creativity like the décor, slide or program design, or the food setup (It’s amazing how I can just put tables up and food on them, and someone else can arrange that same food to look like a fairytale!) I am creative and could do the decorating myself, but I have found that with the time and talents of these ladies, our décor went from nice to mind-blowing.
Tip: These creative ladies often run in packs. By getting a few of them involved, they pull in other women whom I was not aware are also extremely gifted or have a die cut machine or embroidery machine at home. Trust me- find one or two, and you’ll have found a flock of them!
Detail Ladies- Then there’s those ladies who have no creative ability- not one single drop of creativity! Lol. These ladies are servants at heart though and often are very good with details. These are the ladies I ask to come for set up time to move chairs and set up tables. They’ll have the vacuum out and ready without your reminding them! They’ll remember to put out trash cans if there’s going to be food at the event. (Seriously, how is possible that I have forgotten trash cans so many times!) These ladies are perfect to have on a cleanup crew before and after an event. Remember your creative crew will be exhausted by the end of the event and being responsible for clean up will burn them out. Have a no non-sense lady? There’s your ticket sales lady. She will ensure that the payments are collected on time and without unnecessary discounts. This type of woman will keep those records right on. She can help you set your budget realistically. These women are the ones you want organizing your childcare and meeting beforehand with the volunteers. They are the wonders who will ensure that the doors open on time- and not a minute later.
Social Ladies- These women can sometimes be overlooked because they are not necessarily ones who will jump up to clean up nor are they idea-generators. They are however crucial to the success of an event. They are the social butterflies. If you get them to commit to come to an event, you will be gaining not just one other attendee, but 5-15 extra attendees. She will be talking about the event and what she’s doing at it, and she has a magical ability to get others to come as well! That shy lady whom you can’t seem to convince to attend will not hesitate when asked by this woman. Socials should be asked to serve alongside your detail lady in selling tickets- after service she’ll call people over to the ticket sales and chat with them about the event. She can be a great asset in sharing a testimony, leading in prayer, or hosting a table at your event. She will give the event warmth and personality. This lady can be asked to be a greeter. She will make everyone feel welcome and can smooth even the ruffliest of feathers when there is a problem. You will want her on your team!
Tip: Just remember what we said in the last blog about practicing. If she is sharing on stage, practice so that you can help her stay within the time constraints!
Leading Ladies- Sometimes these ladies can be intimidating, because we may not be a natural leader like them. Satan can use the idea that they will take over or not follow the plan or that they will offend others who are serving. But these ladies also have something to offer. God has gifted them with the ability to direct a group and accomplish a task. They are great for directing a clean up crew or leading the set up team (as long as they are willing to accomplish what the creative team leader has in mind.) Give these women the task of finding a team…whether it is a team of seating people at an event, organizing the food line, or structuring child care. If she has some stage presence, she can run a game or direct ladies to the food lines. She is a problem-solver. She can be your lady at the “help” desk ready to deal with an overflowing toilet or a stressed out creative who ran out of centerpieces. She can and will find a solution, and get the job done.
2. Get an Assistant.
You need one….get one! I did not really come up with this one on my own. It came from one of my right hand ladies who is gifted in program planning. We had just spent hours planning out the general details of an upcoming ladies event. After we had finally settled things, she looked at me and said, “You know, you really need an assistant to get ladies on stage at the right time and to help in these areas.” My program partner realized that she would not be able to assist a great deal in this conference as she would have a brand new baby. I realized that she was right- I needed an assistant not just for that event but for every event thereafter…and so do you!
There will be times where you need to be two places at once- like picking up the speaker and being at the church to unlock the doors for the ladies who will be setting up. Your assistant can help lead in your absence. Your assistant will be someone whom you’ll meet with and walk through the entire conference. She should have copies of the schedule, the volunteers, and more. Every piece of information for this conference should be given to her. If someone had a question, they will be able to go to her instead of you if you make them aware that she has extra schedules and all the information. Include her in the emails to ladies who are leading various teams so that they are aware of her role.
The lady who brought visitors will want to introduce them to her pastor’s wife. There will be women in the church who would love a minute with you just to say “hi” or to catch up briefly. There might be someone in need of prayer and counsel after a session. Having an assistant frees you up to meet other needs- people needs that only you can meet.
Tip: Keep in mind that you will need an assistant with strengths more opposite of yours. It’s likely that if you’re a creative or a social you may want a detail or a leading lady as your assistant. If you’re a leading or a detail, you likely need a creative or possibly a social.
3. Give them a Box.
For each lady to whom an area of responsibility is given, you will need to give a “box.” The box is a set of guidelines for her to work within. These boundaries would include things like time, budget, location, and purpose. This will give her the freedom to thrive and to do it her own beautiful way. Micromanagement can be very frustrating to creatives and leadings; they do not want to be your errand runner or personal task taker- “Move that to there”, “Buy this exact thing and bring it here.” They want to be empowered to accomplish the task at hand.
Giving a box promotes good communication and downplays drama. For example, a lady who has an exciting idea for décor that is far out of the price range, won’t have to be offended that you don’t like her idea, she can easily be brought back to the box that it is out of the budget.
Here are some examples:
The Task: Setting up a children’s activity for an event.
TIME/DATE: Has to last for 2 hours on Saturday
BUDGET: $5 per child (covers food and anything you want to include)
LOCATION: Has to happen in the Children’s Room
PURPOSE/GOAL: Fun. Help parents want to return to other events because kids had fun.
The Task: Plan and run a game for the Ladies Conference
TIME/DATE: Needs to last only 15 minutes – that includes game explanation
BUDGET: None- inhouse office supplies can be used as well as monitors in auditorium
PLACE: Has to be in auditorium with ladies seated at tables
PURPOSE/GOAL: Help ladies get to know one another
The difficulty is that sometimes a staff or church member will do something totally different from what you envisioned while still keeping it within the box. ☺ That is ok. First of all, there will be people who will love that new flavor of fun that you would not typically serve. And, don’t panic! Even if it is not a great idea and one that you knew would not go over well, this is still not a loss. Because now you have just had a team member grow. They experienced the chaos or flop, and now they can remember it. You might even make a note for next time to go a different direction or to simply make some adjustments.
When it comes to delegation, you have to pick your battles. I remember once years ago when the something wasn’t set exactly how I wanted it. In fact, another lady who was great with design asked me if I was going to move it or insist on changing the way the stage was set up. I said “no” that it was fine and that the person who had taken the lead on that had done it a different way, but it would work. And guess what? The world kept on turning. Be careful of being a perfectionist. There will be times you will have to say “no” or make a change. But save those times for when it is truly necessary. And if nothing else, make a note to yourself to be more specific with what you require next time or perhaps move that person to another area where they might be more gifted.
What about you? Have you found benefit in including ladies different from yourself in ministry? What are some tips for working well with different temperaments?
