Ownership in Meetings

My friend Derry wrote about some very special students he works with who have taken ownership of their youth group's effort to reach the lost. You can read it here.

That post got me thinking about the exciting opportunities I've had since becoming part of the staff at Nappanee Missionary Church.

Most people don't like sitting through meetings, and I understand why. There are some meetings, however, that I get excited about. When I am asked to be part of a "creative team" meeting I know some great ideas are going to come out. When I am asked to be part of a programming meeting, I know I'm going to leave with some responsibilities and the freedom to carry them out my own way.

The other day I was part of a planning meeting for the church's annual Volunteer Appreciation Night. NMC has somewhere around 800-900 people to honor on this night so it has become quite a big deal. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of people's efforts to pull it off.

We tossed around theme ideas until we landed on "All-Star Night." We're going with a baseball theme, since the event is in May, and we want to make the volunteers feel like the All-Stars.

I left this meeting with a picture of what the logo and look of the night would be and went straight to work on it. I took ownership and ran with it, and this is what I came up with.

This is the first time in my professional career that I've really felt like a big part of an even bigger team. Before, I usually just felt like the guy who was expected to make other people's ideas come to life. Not always, but most of the time. So, it's really nice to be able to take ownership and feel good about it.

I still operate within the team's overall goals, but now I get to be a player and not just the batboy. It feels good. I'm very thankful for this opportunity.