Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chris, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?
Well, as what I do is not your usual business venture, my story had to take a different road, but much of the challenges are the same. We set out to ‘plant’ a new church, so it was my wife and myself to start. Big dreams, excitement, massive steps of faith and trust that this was what we’re supposed to be doing.
Our first focus was prayer, finding out if this was actually what God wanted us to be doing. It would mean moving again, picking up our 2 high schools boys and transplanting them in another school. Leaving our church and family to enter a new region, one with only a handful of people that we know. Buying a new home, finding community again and simply leaving the ‘known’ to follow what God put in our hearts…but we wouldn’t have it any other way! RISK & FAITH!
We couldn’t wait until we moved to get started, so we began driving an hour each way to check out the new area, to meet with the handful of wonderful people who were ready to go on this journey with us and to find out where we would meet regularly. Thankfully, another large church in the area found out we were planting the church and offered a facility to us free of charge! They didn’t use it on the weekends or evenings, which was perfect for us, so that was a real ‘sign’ that God was with us in this.
Once those logistical things were in place, the next focus was ‘who’ was going to handle the different areas of leadership and ministry we’d have in place to begin meeting and this is where the fun begins!
We were ‘given’ a group of people who were willing to serve, to jump in and use their talents to see this church ‘birthed’ and thriving, so my task was to figure out just where they fit. One of the most important facets of leadership is to find out what makes a person passionate, what makes them excited to get up in the morning and how their skill set connects to that passion. We work with volunteers for the most part, so our challenge is also to not overwhelm their schedules and burn them out! But once you see their passion coming through, whether it’s for creating an environment that is welcoming and makes visitors feel loved and a part of community or someone to set up a facility so that it not only ‘works’, but makes you want to come on in and stay a while, fanning that into flame is where the fun begins as you build team. If they never feel like it’s ‘work’, but a joy, they’ll love it and thrive in it. It’s not that we don’t have to do some things that aren’t our favorite, but when our greatest focus is on something we delight in doing, our drive to do it seems endless.
Once each person was serving in areas that they had a passion for, the next focus was to envision them. To help them understand the ‘why’ of what we’re doing. Why start a new church? Why this community? Why now? Why them? What are the expectations? If we don’t have a grasp of the ‘why’, we’ll quickly lose our ‘want’!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
For me, though I took some of the traditional routes many do, I always found myself a bit unfulfilled. I went to college, played football, got a job at a nearby health club, which turned into quite a lucrative role as a percentage partner with the company. I was making money, buying the toys, etc…but still felt like something was missing. I really liked helping people better themselves, but the gym atmosphere really pointed me to a self indulgent life, which just didn’t satisfy.
Let me give just a little background on my life, for context and clarity, so things will make sense. I was born to parents that were each on their 2nd and 3rd marriage when they had me. My dad left when I was 3 to pursue his next fling and my mom, as much as she tried, struggled with being a parent, so she set me up in an apartment on my own at 7yrs old. Many ask, ‘how did you survive on your own at that age?!?’ My answer is simple, you don’t have another option, so you just get on with things. So, I became a survivor, always finding ways to get by. I started jobs at a young age, learned how to make money, friends and take care of myself. But, with lots of bad decisions over the years after that (riding with a biker gang, moving from city to city, living on couches, being kicked out of schools to name a few), I became quite selfish and a bit visionless for my future.
Now, back to how I got into ministry as my calling. As I was managing the local health club, an ex-Hell’s Angel came in to apply for a job. As a guy that always wanted to ride with the HA’s, this caught my attention. He was scarred up and didn’t introduce himself as a former HA, but there was something different about him. He was 42, had 3 kids and had just quit a decent job elsewhere to come work at the gym part-time. Well, needless to say I was curious about this decision and asked why. His answer definitely caught me off guard. He said, ‘I’m a Christian and God told me to come here.’ “Whoa?!? What?” was my response. I had encountered a few well meaning Christians in my day, so I wasn’t too excited about it, but I was curious, so I ended up hiring him.
Over the course of the first months he worked for me, I saw a man who loved and took care of his family well. A man who was born into the Hell’s Angel family, yet was truly saved by God out of that life. He had been beaten, shot, stabbed and done plenty of bad things in his early days, yet somehow he had found peace and forgiveness. As our friendship grew, he shared more and more of his faith and story, about all that Jesus had done in him and for him. So, after a few months, he invited my then girlfriend and I to his church. God radically got a hold of me that morning in August 1992, saved a messed up, selfish and unworthy guy like me and lit a ‘fire’ in my heart to serve God in ministry.
That’s the shortened version of it all, but hopefully you get the gist of why I am no in ministry. I figured if God can save a guy like I was, make me whole and give me a life worth living, He can do it for anybody!…and I wanted to make sure everybody got a chance to hear about it.
My greatest privilege now, is seeing broken lives made whole. Marriages in shambles being restored. Lost souls finding a genuine hope, not just for the few years on earth, but for eternity. My ‘proudest’ moments are when people begin to live a life worthy of what God made them to be.
So, the church I currently have the privilege of leading, will always have the ‘heart’ for reaching and caring for our non-members, though anyone who is a part of the church is family and loved accordingly. We’re not about me or promoting my name, not about making money or getting rich. We’re here to impact our community, neighbors and nations. We’re here to change the world for the better…for eternity.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Our team dynamic is unique compared to most businesses. Firstly, we’re not a business, but a non-profit organization based on our faith, so our teams are primarily volunteers. Yet, the concepts for team remain true in any context.
A team should be broad in giftings and talents, in other words, don’t create a team that’s just like you. A leader needs the diversity of perspectives and ideas, not to constantly fight over who’s right, but to make sure you’re getting the bigger picture. Also, each team member is gifted differently, so your impact and effectiveness will be broad as well.
Inspiring and motivating team members can be an amazing experience. The idea is not just to have the team fulfill your vision and get the job done, but to help them to thrive in the process. Find out what makes each person passionate and see if there’s a way to incorporate that into the work you do, while still fulfilling the overall purpose your trying to achieve.
Encourage often, helping your team to see the great talents they have, even if they can’t see them yet. Correct and deal with discipline quickly, but always with the plant to redeem the situation and person. Try to correct privately when you can, as public correction creates shame and fear in the whole team. Celebrate the little things, helping the team to see the progress along the way.
Remember, none of us are perfect nor do we ‘have it all’ on our own! We all need ‘team’ to be our best, whether in a marriage, parenting, business or church setting.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Much of what I’ve already shared with you at this point should help to explain my resiliency, but here is a quick story along those lines.
Once I knew that my future was in ministry, I felt I was ready to go right away. What I didn’t realize was my motives and faith were incredibly wrong and selfish. I tried to ‘push’ open doors, thought I was better than others, more skilled and would do a better job, but thankfully God didn’t let those doors open quite yet. I had to spend 7 long years being ‘worked on’, serving others in ministry, growing in my faith and knowledge. I was asked to stand up and announce who the next pastor over youth would be, when I thought for sure, I should have been that guy. I was given opportunities to preach and teach, to lead and serve over that time, but none of it with a recognized role.
It wasn’t until I adjusted my attitude, put aside my pridefulness and was willing to serve in any way I could, without a title or official role, that God opened that door.
It was 7 years of longing and dealing with disappointments, but looking back, I’m grateful for every moment of that time! Not only did I have to stay focused on what I wanted more than anything, I had to take the time to grow up and develop the proper motives for what I was called to do in this life. We have to learn not to despise the waiting, but be resilient and embrace the process that will make us the best we can be, both inside and out.
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