Still Going Strong

Back on the train again…. this time heading back to Ottawa from a very productive two days  in Niagara Falls with the City Kidz Leadership team.   The meetings started at 9:00 am sharp on Monday January 16 and continued rapidly through 16 team building tasks ending early the following day at 3pm.  In addition to the incredible insights which were presented by our hardworking Executive Director Todd Bender and the Executive Team, we ate and slept well at the Mount Carmel Retreat Centre and had a great game of Electronic Catch Phrase…. my new favourite game. 

This was my second attendance at the annual meeting and I am so glad that I was able to attend.  Since becoming Branch Coordinator for Ottawa, I am often learning on the job and have really appreciated the constant coaching and support from Todd as I started up and continue to run this branch.  These two days, however, gave me the time to soak in a plethora of teaching on team management. From tasks gleaned out of Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, learning the difference between Core Values, Mission Statement and Vision Statement, right down to the intricacies of SMART goals,  I have come away feeling a little wiser and even more equipped than ever to lead the Ottawa team to new heights in 2012.  I feel blessed too, because the material taught at these training sessions would cost hundreds of dollars for the average person looking for a seminar on team leadership.  Yet, City Kidz does it for free, with the desire to see the ministry excel to its greatest potential through an army of properly equipped children’s ministers. And I maintain that’s one of the reasons why City Kidz is still standing after starting as long ago as 1992.  In addition to recognizing his pastoral role, Todd Bender also figured out early on, that in order to make a ministry sustainable over the long haul, one needs to apply good business sense and strategy for future growth.  Todd has always been proactive in equipping his team administratively, AS WELL AS pastorally.

But it was the last exercise that really drove things home for me and how I personally fit into the City Kidz team.  As you may or may not imagine, it hasn’t always been easy starting up a branch on my own in the big City of Ottawa.  In many ways in this modern world of ours, I have often felt like a pioneer out on the frontier battling the elements alone to build my new home.   Perhaps that’s a little drastic.  I do have one major supporter that has been with me through thick and thin from the beginning and in the last few months I have discovered an incredible team of volunteers and community members who are coming on board with the City Kidz vision.  So I am not completely alone.  In the end, however, the vision for a branch in this City was  mine and 95 percent of the administrative work and fundraising has been done by me.  What has kept me going  was the incredible  support and coaching I have been receiving from the City Kidz Hamilton (National) office.

So,  in the last exercise of our retreat, we were each asked to look around the room we had been spending our time in, and find an object that best reflected the impact that was made on us personally.  Each person went around the room and found significant objects that represented their feelings.  One chose a rock, another a picture of a mother and child, and yet another, three markers.  I chose a chair. 

You see for me, coming to Hamilton and meeting Donna West, our Regina Branch Coordinator, and all the other leaders from the Hamilton office, I felt very much a part of a bigger vision. Not just for Hamilton or any of the branch cities, but for the country.  As I sat in my chair, next to this amazing team of Christian leaders who love the Lord and are passionate about reaching 5000 children by the end of 2013,  I was constantly reminded that I am not just one individual trying to make a change, but a member of a unified force.  I am only one member of a team of people that want to bring change to this nation’s children and who are wholly committed to finding the best way to foster those changes in significant ways.    I am not alone.   And this is what I will be telling the Ottawa team when I return.  That we are all part of something very big that’s happening in Canada and not only can we feel proud, but we can feel supported in the cause as well.  We have a team of people from across Canada now that share the same vision and are there to cheer us on any time we ask.  And that’s why I chose the chair.  And that’s why I think City Kidz Ottawa is going to excel in 2012!

…And ONE for all!!