Knowing how to write a good proposal is a must-have skill for every leader. It doesn’t matter whether or not you work in a church, run your own business, or are a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The odds are good that if you have an idea that you need to get buy-in for, at some point you will have to write it down on paper.
Here are a couple of rules that I use whenever I have to put a proposal together:
I’m a big Patrick Lencioni fan. I read just about everything that the guy puts out. When his first non-business book, “The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family”, came out, though, I was more than a little bit skeptical. I mean, the guy has a lot of experience in leadership, business, management, etc. and HAS a family, but does that really qualify him to write a book ABOUT families? In spite of some of my initial leeriness towards the book, I picked it up anyway and was pleasantly surprised.
The book centers around the idea of the Family Scoreboard. It’s a simple tool that will help parents help their families identify what’s most important/needed in their world right now and come up with a great plan to get to where they need to go. Whether you are single, married, married with children, or empty-nesters this idea of Scoreboard can add so much value to the way that you live your life.
Our team has recently revamped our Elementary Ministry orientation manual. It covers a lot of the basics of what we expect from our volunteers (vision, mission, values, service schedules, safety standards, room ratios, job descriptions etc.). It’s got A LOT of great stuff in it and I thought I’d post it here in case you are looking for a good one or are interested in revamping the one that you currently have.
Click Here to download our Elementary Ministry Volunteer Manual.
What do you give your ministry volunteers to help them get started and learn the ropes? What do you think that we need to add, take away, and/or change in our manual?
–Jeff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brontandthewings/4270015452/
How does your Children’s Ministry prepare your 5th/6th graders for Junior High? It’s not an easy question to answer. Often times we as Children’s Ministry Leaders don’t give it much thought until a couple of months before they are supposed to move up to our church’s Junior High Ministry. We don’t have a super great strategy at HDC yet but we’ve taken one small step to be more strategic about preparing our kids and their families for this transition.
Everybody has a strategy for getting things done, even if it’s to fly by the seat of your pants and to do what you want, when you want. There are a lot of great systems out there that work really well. “Getting Things Done” by David Allen seems to be the most popular right now.
SIDE NOTE: If you want to save yourself time and money this system can be summed up in the graphic above and by these great posts by Michael Hyatt.
If you’ve already got a good system and tools that work well in keeping you organized and getting things done, then read no further. However, if you are struggling in this area and are looking for a great, free tool, that will help you get on top of some stuff then please keep reading.
