I think one of the most difficult things is when it comes to leading a ministry is the fact that people are the ones you are leading. People are broken so they are not going to be perfect and they are going to make some mistakes. Regardless if you don’t mind conflict or if you loath it, having a difficult conversation is something that is not ideal but because you are the leader you have to do it. Because you are the leader, you should want the conversation to be positive in the aftermath because we want people to grow and reach their true potential. When it comes to teaching students or volunteers we always want to see growth come out of it. My supervisor is one of the best at this. We adapted this idea from him in our ministry and it such a great way to have difficult but growing conversations.

We want the people we lead to understand we are for them and not coming down on them. We want them to understand that we want to see them grow from whatever situation you need to talk about it and how you communicate that is a really big deal. Hopefully these three easy but effective concepts can help you in your next conversation.

We want to show and offer the 3 H’s:

HELP: “I want to do whatever I can to help you succeed with what we talk about.”Let them know you are on their side and you are going to be there with them through whatever it is. A lot of times if they just know there is someone is in their corner, they are willing to make the changes that need to happen.

HONOR:  “I want to honor you by telling you the truth about where we are at.” Don’t beat around the bush. That is not honoring that person if you are not being up front with them. If we truly want to see people grow we need to learn how to honor them by telling them the truth. Obviously we need to do it in a loving and caring way but we do need to tell them what’s going on.

HOPE: “I genuinely hope you will succeed in this and we are able to see improvements.” It’s really easy to go negative. As leaders in the church we are to offer hope to people. that is what our message is all about isn’t it? Let them know and believe you see hope in the situation.

I HOPE this is HELPFUL and it HONORS your ministry. See what I did there? HA!

 

@justinknowles3