Over my first summer as Camp Director, I traveled over 6000 miles, met hundreds of new friends, ate fast food way too many times, and learned several key leadership lessons along the way. One of the best things about working CentriKid is getting to work with about 20 fellow staffers. The Christian fellowship we enjoy is uncomparable, and I have incredibly fond memories of times spent with these friends over my 4 years of working camp. This summer, beyond the incredible time spent with my teammates, I learned the value of two leadership tools: investment and preparation.
Investment
Now, I’m not talking stocks and mutual funds here… I mean investing in those who you are leading. Investment goes a long way. It shows you care and allows you to build a better relationship with your team, which improves how you get tasks done together. This action can be a game changer in your ministry. Individuals love to feel valued and poured into especially from those who are leading them.
Investment begins with knowing those you are leading. Knowing about their day-to-day lives (where they went to school and where they work), what hobbies and interests they have, and about their family is vital. Once you begin knowing them, you may start to dig deeper to a more personal investment through providing helpful tips and guidance. Beyond this, spiritual investment may begin as well. Encourage them to spend time in God’s Word and in their walk with the Lord, in general.
Preparation
Preparation is a key leadership tool in all things. Time spent in preparation is always worth it. Taking the time to prepare allows you a few benefits:
- You have much less to worry about when the event you have prepared for is happening.
- You are able to identify potential snags and problems that might occur and either divert your plan to solve the problems prior to occurrence or have a plan in action to take care of the problems should they arise. This will help ensure that whatever you are doing runs smoothly.
- The better the preparation, the higher quality the results will be.
Take the time to prepare for events, conversations, etc. that you have planned or foresee occurring in your ministry. Mentally walk through everything that will be taking place and however works best for you, prepare for it. For me, that involves typing up plans and a breakdown of the order and flow of things. For you, that might just be providing yourself with outlines or simply thinking about what needs to be done. Different events and people will lend themselves to different preparation, but whatever it looks like for you, it is important to prepare ahead of time. These skills I learned are incredibly important in leadership, and it is always good to raise our skills in these areas as we go and grow as leaders.
About the Blogger:
Vincent Thomas is the newest member of the CentriKid office team! Originally from Georgia, Vincent has served as a team leader, recreation leader, and most recently, Camp Director of CK8 this past summer! In the office, Vincent oversees all things recreation and tracks times. We love having Vincent as part of the office team, and are excited about God is going to use him to make CentriKid even better!
1. Hungry Hungry Hippos
CentriKid’s Recreation Program. CentriKid Recreation is not just a time to play or a time to wear out the kids so they will listen during their lessons. Instead recreation is intentional. We try to make sure everything we do is rooted in scripture. Recreation is a great example of this value, because every game played on the recreation field is connected back to God’s Word through our debriefs.
We know everyone using this resource will have different contexts to play these games. We decided to organize them accordingly. There are five categories by which we organize the games in our resource: active games, indoor games, large group games, no equipment games and water games (one of my personal favorites). A game could be in several different categories or just one. So if it is raining outside and you are forced to think on the fly indoors, maybe you will try the no equipment games. Give Recreation: rooted in Scripture to one of your volunteers and they will be equipped to make sure the fun never skips a beat and have strong spiritual applications to tie to each game. The games can be searched alphabetically in the table of contents or by category in the index in the back.
An example of one of our games is Garbage Dump. This game is both an active game, meaning it is best played outdoors, and it could be a water game. This page comes with a diagram to help the game facilitator understand better what the game involves. There is a basic instructions section called, “How to Play”. Also, to the side of every game with equipment there is an equipment needed section with detail notes. Finally, at the bottom you always get a solid spiritual application debrief using scripture.
