Winter Retreats – A Little Like Heaven
Photo by SpringHill staff Where, other than life on the new earth, can you find 9000 people from more than 250 different churches and denominations playing, praying and worshipping together? At SpringHill’s Winter Teen Retreats! That’s right, attending a Winter Retreat is a little like Heaven. Because at SpringHill, like eternity, there’s no divisions between God’s people.
Instead the only competition between churches at SpringHill is the annual broomball tournament. The battle on the ice isn’t about doctrinal and governance issues, but instead about winning the coveted Winter Teen Retreat banner.
I have to admit, even after being a part of Winter Retreats for 14 seasons, I’m still amazed every time I walk around camp during a winter weekend, to see and talk to students and leaders from so many churches and traditions. It does make me think about and anticipate the coming of Christ’s Kingdom on the new earth.
What makes such an experience possible? First, every church understands the purpose of the weekend is to help students to know and grow in their relationships with Christ, to assist leaders in developing relationships with their students and to build stronger youth groups. Second, because of this purpose, SpringHill programs around what all Christian churches agree on – Jesus Christ. Finally, we stay away from issues that cause division and encourage the group leaders to do the same, which they’re only too happy to do.
So, this winter, if you think about SpringHill, say a prayer for the 1000’s of students and their leaders who’ll be attending one of eleven retreats, that their Christ centered focus will continue well beyond the weekend, becoming the focus of their lives and the lives of their churches.
The Huddle and the Scoreboard
Every football team develops a plan for each game. The game plan informs the coaches which plays to call and the huddle is the “meeting” where this decision’s communicated to the players. The scoreboard informs the coaches, players (and fans) just how good the game plan is and how well it’s being executed. Based on the scoreboard, coaches and players make mid game adjustments.
Many organizations have implemented their own version of a huddle and scoreboard to help their teams “win” their game. SpringHill is into its second year of its weekly huddle and scoreboard. Both have helped our team quickly see the score, make the necessary adjustments and then “win the game”. It’s not a stretch to say that both the scoreboard and huddle are two contributing factors as to why SpringHill had its biggest year in its history.
Our huddle is open to all staff but the official “players” are members of our management team who have the responsibility to record the “stats” in the scoreboard and report them in the huddle. Our scoreboard includes the following statistical categories, measured against stated goals:
Camper Experience including spiritual impact, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and safety
Camper registration
Fundraising
Finances
After the huddle each manager reviews the “stats” with their own teams, so within a few days the entire SpringHill team knows the current “score” and can make adjustments in their game plans. We’ve added another tool in 2012 – a bi-weekly Huddle Report that’s emailed to all staff and summarizes the huddle, the scorecard and other important information our team needs.
We used three books in designing the SpringHill huddle and scoreboard – The Rockefeller Habits, Death by Meeting and The Great Game of Business. Each provided great perspective and input.
At SpringHill, we like to keep score, and we like to win, and the SpringHill huddle and scoreboard helps us do both.
False Hero Worship
Our Michigan Facilities Manager, Joe Yahner, calls the celebration of work and projects done at the last-minute, false hero-worship. He mentioned it in an impromptu conversation he, our Retreats Manager Eric Woods and I were having about Winter Teen Retreats preparation.It’s a great description of an all too often occurrence in organizations large and small, including, in times past, at SpringHill.
False hero-worship happens when organizations confuse procrastination, the lack of planning and the accompanying last-minute scramble to get work done, with good planning and execution. When organizations and leaders make this mistake they reinforce the wrong behaviors in their teams. Instead of encouraging great planning and execution, leaders send a message that they value being behind with two minutes to go, and the lack of planning and procrastination which causes it.
It’s like making heroes of fire fighters who start their own fires, and then celebrating their great fire fighting. We become so addicted to the adrenaline rush of fire fighting (or watching fire fighting) that we inadvertently encourage fire starting (lack of planning and preparation).
And if adrenaline highs is your goal then good, thoughtful and intentional planning followed by calm and professional execution of the plan, offers very little excitement. It only offers great, sustainable results at lower organizational and personal costs.
Great planning and execution also offers the deep satisfaction of knowing a job, the entire job, from beginning to the end, has been well done – so well done that the work looked easy (even if we know it wasn’t).
So Eric, Joe and I had our own brief “celebration” in the Trading Post of the good planning and great work done by our team. And based on the first two retreats, we’ll also be celebrating another winter of great ministry.
Wisdom is Supreme
“Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding”. Proverbs 4:7This week our Development team received wisdom. It cost us three long days away from our families and the office, but it was worth every minute.
Actually, it maybe the best 3 days of any professional investment I’ve made in a long time. Not because of the subject matter – yes development and fundraising are incredibly important for ministries like SpringHill – but because of the wisdom of our seminar leader Bill McConkey of McConkey Johnston International.
Bill has been a development professional for 50 years as well as a local church pastor for over 40. He sits on boards of well-known and significant ministries while continuing both his consulting and pastoral work. Bill embodies wisdom.
Which had me thinking, why is there such a serious lack appreciation in our culture for true wisdom and its sources?
First we need to understand wisdom. Wisdom is the accumulated learning and knowledge one has gathered from personal experience or the experience of others. The two key words are “accumulated” and “experience”, both of which can only happen over a long period of time, such as a… life time. By implication then, the only truly wise people walking the earth are those who’ve been around a long time and those who have learned from them.
Which is why our culture doesn’t value true wisdom, we don’t value the people who have it. There’s a bias against older people because they’re not always “current”. Bill McConkey doesn’t own a computer, thus never does email. So it would be easy to dismiss things Bill has to say, but oh, what a mistake that would be (could it be that Bill’s wiser because he doesn’t have email?).
So beyond all that I learned about fundraising this week I also reminded of my need to be with and around wise people, those who’ve traveled life for a long time, because “wisdom is supreme”.
Jim Collins & Great by Choice
Mark Olson, SpringHill’s former President, was the first to introduce Jim Collins and his work to SpringHill through the book Built to Last.It was in reading Built to Last that I became a fan of Jim Collins, and it certainly wouldn’t be far off to say, over the years, that I’ve become a disciple of Jim Collin’s research/writing. Since Built to Last, I’ve read all his books, have had our key leaders read his books, then continued the practice Mark started of applying the books’ principles to SpringHill.
After 15 years and 5 books, both Collins’ concepts and terminology have become part of the SpringHill culture. Read our strategic/ministry plan and you’ll see how Collins’ work has impacted and influenced SpringHill.
In an effort to avoid becoming an organization that is always chasing the “flavor of the day” we’ve been intentional about staying consistent in using Collins’s concepts and terminology. We acknowledge there are other good management consultants who use different terminology and have their own twist on strategic and leadership concepts. But we believe it’s counterproductive to switch, mix and change language within a culture, in the name of being cutting edge, when the underlying principles are similar or the same.
Finally we’ve stayed with Collins and his work because, unlike so many other experts and their books, the concepts derive from rigorous research not anecdotal evidence, opinion or folk-lore.
Which brings me to Collins’ new book (written with Morten T. Hansen) – Great by Choice, it’s another “great” work based on “great” research. Many of SpringHill leaders have already read it and a number of our department teams, including my leadership team, have plans to carry out the appropriate concepts into SpringHill.
So once again, Collins provides timely and relevant insight for organizations and leaders looking to stay or become “great”. I highly recommend it.
Reflections – Volume 4
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It’s Not 1980 Anymore
It’s dangerous to clean your basement. I was reminded of this fact in my recent purging. What did I find that was so dangerous?Four old Steelcase chairs, the same model I use to assemble during the summers while attending college.
Why would 30-year-old chairs heavy enough to anchor a battle ship be so dangerous? Because, as with most things found buried in a basement, they brought back a flood of memories. And those memories got me to thinking about the world my kids are entering.
First for the memories; I had a great summer job, but not uncommon for 1980.
I averaged between $9 and $10 an hour plus overtime, working 45 to 50 hours a week.
I received: holiday pay for the 4th of July plus two quarterly profit-sharing bonuses
I made nearly $7000 (the equivalent today of over $18,000).
And college only cost me $3500 a year.
Now for the dangerous part – thinking about my kids and the world they’re entering.
There’s no summer job anywhere that a student can make $7000 let alone the equivalent of $18,000 that I made. Today, with a reasonably good summer job, a student might make $4000 to $5000.
The average cost for tuition and room and board of a 4 year public university is hovering around $20,000 a year.
Which means a student may need to finance up to $15,000 a year/$60,000 total for a college education.
The numbers say it all. It’s apparent the values and priorities of our country have swung from assuring our young people have the best chance of succeeding, to financing the lives of those who have already had their opportunities.
2012 provides us yet another chance to make the courageous decisions necessary for our kids and thus our future. I pray that we’ll be courageous once again.
Reflections – Volume 3
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Reflections – Volume 2
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Time – One of Our Most Valuable Gifts
If I learned anything in 2011 it’s that time isn’t just my most valuable resources, it’s a gift.
It’s a gift because it’s part of God’s creation. It’s one of God’s most valuable gifts because (along with space) it’s the context in which we experience all His other good gifts.
In the book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror (see my post) Robert Steven Kaplan recommends leaders do an audit of how they spend their time. Sensing, that with the growth of SpringHill, I was beginning to lose my grip on this gift, I did a time audit in November and early December.
I accomplished this audit by carrying around an Excel spreadsheet with a list of key activities I do, or should do, during a typical week. Then I marked down, in ¼ hour segments, where I spent my time. I did a tally at the end of each day and at the end of the week. After the first week I made adjustments in the spreadsheet to better reflect where I was actually spending my time. It was a simple process, requiring little time and, most importantly, it was enlightening.
After five weeks one major theme became apparent – the time I’m committing to my work has increased as SpringHill has grown. The trouble is, if this pattern continues, one day I’m going to run out of time (time being a finite resource), which could result in me becoming a hurdle instead of an aid to SpringHill continuing to reach more kids in more places more effectively.
This result would be unacceptable. So I’m taking intentional steps in 2012 to do a better job with the gift of time God’s given me. (See my post on questions to ask yourself in preparing for 2012).
What will you do with your gift this year?
