In March, I was able to attend the Inside Elevation conference hosted by Elevation Church. It was a great experience for our entire team, and as always, the main sessions led by Steven Furtick were the highlight for me. Steven Furtick is an incredible leader and has great insights for churches of any size. If you weren’t able to be there this year, no worries, I’ve got you covered.

14 Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” 15 And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Draw the bow,” and he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands. 17 And he said, “Open the window eastward,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot,” and he shot. And he said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them.” 18 And he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them.” And he struck three times and stopped. 19 Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.” 2 Kings 13:14-19

Victory is a Decision

Seven C’s of a Championship Team

1. Choose Where You Want to Win

It’s impossible to be great at everything, so you need to narrow your focus. This also means you need to choose where you’re willing to lose. For us, this means we don’t do men’s ministry, women’s ministry, food pantries, and a dozen other things. There’s nothing wrong with any of them, but that’s not our focus.

2. Create a Win

What’s a win at your church? What’s a win in student ministry? Have you defined it? Take time to define the win in every ministry in your church.

3. Communicate the Win

Once you’ve defined what a win is, you need to communicate it when it happens. For my church, a person serving is a win, but I haven’t been intentional about highlighting our volunteers. A Sunday shouldn’t go by without me posting to social media bragging on our volunteers. People are willing to work if you show them they’re winning.

4. Contextualize the Win

One of my biggest struggles, if you’re a church in a small town, stop comparing yourself to the megachurch in a big city. Context matters. Don’t compare the other way either. Don’t think more highly of yourself by comparing yourself to someone who has a lot less to work with than you.

5. Capitalize on the Win

When a win takes place, talk about it until you get sick of talking about it. Find ways to multiply it. When you start talking about wins, you’ll be surprised by other people coming forward and share wins of their own.

6. Commit to the Win

The battle is won or loss before you fight it. If you go into anything thinking you’re going to fail, you set yourself up for failure. Use all the arrows you have and commit to victory before the battle even begins.

7. Celebrate Victory

Be on the lookout for my notes from Session Two and Three in the next few days, but in the meantime what would you add to this session? Let us know by leaving a comment, and make sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss out on church leadership tips delivered to your inbox each week.