Friday, August 24, 2007

Make sure you make a big deal out of the 1st man’s big days

I will have to admit here that I have not been very good at all in this area. When I worked with the Jefe in Peru this was never a problem. The Peru team always made sure he was honored for every possible occasion. Now that we are here in the states and everything falls on me to make sure things are planned out right to honor him it is a little more difficult. I have to make sure he isn’t overlooked.

Hopefully, you have people in the ministry that will help you in this area. I know I do. If I forget something I usually have four to five other people coming to me asking what we have planned for the Jefe’s birthday, anniversary, or for pastor’s appreciation month. Last week was both the Jefe’s birthday and anniversary so that is why this is so fresh on my mind.

You need to make sure that for the special occasions things are planned long in advance. If you have a 1st man that has the right kind of heart, you know he doesn’t care about how much money you spend on him. He may even get upset if he knows that you did spend a lot, but that doesn’t matter. Your heart is where your treasure is. Make sure you plan long enough in advance so that people can be saving to spend a good amount of money on him.

If you wait to the last week or even month, it is difficult to really go all out. With our church just starting out here in Alpharetta, and our finances as tight as they are, we have to plan long in advance. Or at least we should.

Now my brother-in-law is in a hard position that I know many 2nd man are in. He is 2nd man to his dad. It is more difficult for him to tell all the church people to spend a lot of money on his dad. With that situation make sure you get the other church leaders behind you. Start conversations where the idea will arise, and you can turn it into their idea and get them to push the agenda. That’s a little trick that will work in a lot of areas in the ministry, not just gifts. You just have to make sure you don’t abuse your position when it comes to that.

But not matter what relationship you have to the 1st man make sure his is remembered. Remember his birthday, his anniversary, the day he started or came to the church, his wife’s birthday, etc, etc, etc. If you have a 1st man as good as the one we have here at Vision, make sure he is honored. People are more likely to stay around longer if they know they are appreciated.

1 comment:

April Baker said...

good things to remember. It might be a good idea for us to have a calender with important dates like that for church members to look at online. So they know when and who is having birthdays, anniversarys,date of salvation,ect... Great idea mark. I am going to see if stephen can do this for whitfield.