"When faced with a choice about what to do...
always do the most caring thing."
We must always choose people over processes and procedures (and you are reading this from a guy who loves processes). Policies and plans are great, but in ministry they are not the goal.
The goal is to love others (out of a motivation to glorify God). Procedures are tools to help us reach that goal, but we must lead with practical love, not with the policies.
Dale wrote a great article. I hope people will read this not using it as an excuse to avoid putting processes and in-print policies in place.
ReplyDeleteI have had too many conversations lately where a kidmin staff person says "we're relational, we don't need policies & procedures". And what I have found after observing/participating in those setting(s) was that the lack of forethought, preparation, and prevention were evident. Those same settings/programs show evidence of volunteer and parent frustrations (and usually safety issues). I so agree with Dale's article, his examples were perfect.
Policies and procedures are actually tools to enable staff members and volunteers to be able to spend their energy being relational (and not cleaning up messes).
(this is a personal hot button right for me - as I am a volunteer in my own children's ministry).
Thanks as always Joey. I love reading anything you write or reference!
Amy
Thanks, Amy. As you know, I am definitely a process/procedure person. But I've learned that few situations have a cut-and-dry formulas that MUST be held to at all costs (though I used to believe and live that way).
ReplyDeleteThe example of safety is a great one. One of our highest (if not THE highest) goals we must have is to keep kids safe. The goal is not to have 100% of the volunteers having had background checks, though we do need a process and policy to get them as that is a great tool that helps us keep kids safe. But the goal of keeping kids safe is actually accomplished by many tools working together -- background checks, references, windows at each classroom, staff walking around at all times, etc.