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Hurricane-damaged Tropicana Field can be fixed for about $55 million in time for 2026 season

A detailed assessment of the hurricane damage to Tropicana Field concludes that the home of the Tampa Bay Rays is structurally sound and can be repaired for about $55.7 million in time for the 2026 season.




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Canada forces TikTok to close its offices, claiming company poses threat to national security

TikTok has been forced to close its offices in Vancouver and Toronto because Canadian security and intelligence officials said activity at the offices threatened the national security of Canada, a charge that TikTok plans to fight in court.




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Vatican, Microsoft create AI-generated St. Peter's Basilica to allow virtual visits, log damage

The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world's most important monument's while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems.




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Facebook and Instagram users in Europe can opt for less personalized ads

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will get the option to see less personalized ads if they don't want to pay for an ad-free subscription, social media company Meta said Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Brussels over digital competition concerns.




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Pelicans add CJ McCollum and Herb Jones to growing injury list

When Willie Green learned Friday that starting guard CJ McCollum and top defender Herb Jones would be joining point guard Dejounte Murray on the injury list for multiple weeks, the New Orleans Pelicans coach tried to look on the bright side.




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Prince William describes family's 'brutal' year as wife and father faced cancer treatment

Britain's Prince William has described the past year as "brutal" following cancer diagnoses for his wife and father. "Honestly, it's been dreadful," he said.




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IOC candidate Samaranch urges European lawmakers to invest in sport as a public health policy

IOC presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. has urged European lawmakers to regard investing in sport as a public health policy in his first keynote speech of a six-month Olympic leadership campaign.




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Canada Soccer Association said Olympics drone-spying scandal was not an isolated misstep

The Canadian Soccer Association says an independent review confirmed the Paris Olympics drone-spying scandal was not an isolated misstep.





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Article Alert: Ten Ways Remote Sensing Can Contribute to Conservation

Abstract: In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals were to increase conservation practitioners’ use of remote sensing to support their work, increase collaboration between the conservation science and remote sensing communities, identify and develop new and innovative uses of remote sensing for advancing conservation science, provide guidance to space agencies on how future satellite missions can support conservation science, and generate support from the public and private sector in the use of remote sensing data to address the 10 conservation questions. We identified a broad initial list of questions on the basis of an email chain-referral survey. We then used a workshop-based iterative and collaborative approach to whittle the list down to these final questions (which represent 10 major themes in conservation): How can global Earth observation data be used to model species distributions and abundances? How can remote sensing improve the understanding of animal movements? How can remotely sensed ecosystem variables be used to understand, monitor, and predict ecosystem response and resilience to multiple stressors? How can remote sensing be used to monitor the effects of climate on ecosystems? How can near real-time ecosystem monitoring catalyze threat reduction, governance and regulation compliance, and resource management decisions? How can remote sensing inform configuration of protected area networks at spatial extents relevant to populations of target species and ecosystem services? How can remote sensing-derived products be used to value and monitor changes in ecosystem services? How can remote sensing be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts? How does the expansion and intensification of agriculture and aquaculture alter ecosystems and the services they provide? How can remote sensing be used to determine the degree to which ecosystems are being disturbed or degraded and the effects of these changes on species and ecosystem functions?

Original Source:

Rose R. A. et al. (2014) Ten Ways Remote Sensing Can Contribute to Conservation. Conservation Biology. Vol. 28, Issue 5. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12397

 





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Article Alert: How Aphia Can Serve Both the Taxonomic Community and the Field of Biodiversity Informatics

A new article published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering looks at how Aphia, the core platform that underpins the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS),  can Serve the taxonomic community and the field of biodiversity informatics.

Abstract

The Aphia platform is an infrastructure designed to capture taxonomic and related data and information, and includes an online editing environment. The latter allows easy access to experts so they can update the content of the database in a timely fashion. Aphia is the core platform that underpins the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and its more than 80 related global, regional and thematic species databases, but it also allows the storage of non-marine data. The content of Aphia can be consulted online, either by individual users or via machine-to-machine interactions. Aphia uses unique and stable identifiers for each available name in the database through the use of Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs). The system not only allows the storage of accepted and unaccepted names, but it also documents the relationships between names. This makes it a very powerful tool for taxonomic quality control, and also allows the linking of different pieces of information through scientific names, both within the Aphia platform and in relation to externally hosted databases. Through these LSIDs, Aphia has become an important player in the field of (marine) biodiversity informatics, allowing interactions between its own taxonomic data and e.g., biogeographic databases. Some applications in the field of biodiversity informatics encompass the coupling of species traits and taxonomy, as well as the creation of diverse, expert validated data products that can be used by policy makers, for example. Aphia also supplies (part of) its content to other data integrators and the infrastructure can be used to host orphan databases in danger of being lost.

Original Source: http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/3/4/1448/htm

 





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DataONE welcomes its first South American Member Node

EU BON partner DataONE welcomes the Program for Research on Biodiversity (PPBio) Western Amazon as its first Member Node in South America. PPBio’s Western Amazon Node data repository contains data from surveys conducted in the framework of the Research Program in Biodiversity, the Center for Integrated Studies of Biodiversity in the Amazon and partner projects.

About PPBio:

The Research Program in Biodiversity (PPBio) is structured into three components:

  • Biological Collections - support and development of biological collections such as herbaria, museums and living collections;
  • Biological Inventories - biodiversity surveys, collecting sites, metadata and data for long-term studies;
  • Thematic Projects - developing methods for sustainable management of biodiversity and bioprospecting.

PPBio’s research is based on spatial standardization that is crucial for answering the questions raised by decision makers, the integration of biodiversity and physical sciences and on the incorporation of local people and traditional knowledge in biodiversity research and bio-prospecting. PPBio uses a flexible, standardized, modular and economical sampling method, RAPELD, which is compatible with other existing methods and a data policy which enable their datasets to be quickly made available to other researchers. PPBio has produced several free online guides to the flora and fauna of the region and the book "Biodiversity and Integrated Environmental Monitoring" which is essential reading for anyone with questions about biodiversity whether or they also intend to collect data.





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How Ecosystem and Biodiversity data and knowledge can support the GEO objectives: EU BON’s session at the European GEO Workshop

The 11th European Projects GEO Workshop took place between 19-21 June 2017, in Helsinki, Finland, bringing together European stakeholders interested in and actively contributing to the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS).

Alongside the plenary (see presentations here), the conference featured 20 sessions looking at various aspects GEOSS, its objectives and their implementation.

Among those EU BON took part in a dedicated session titled ‘How Ecosystem and Biodiversity data and knowledge can support the GEO objectives’, alongside fellow projects and initiatives, and associated partners ECOPOTENTIAL, LTER-Europe, GLOBIS-B, EKLIPSE and ENEON.


Credit: F. Wetzel

The session aimed to inform about recent developments of relevant projects that focus on Ecosystems and Biodiversity and also outline how the generated data and knowledge can support the GEO objectives and inform relevant policies on a European and global scale.  

EU BON, as a now completed project, opened the session by presenting its major products in particular the European Biodiversity Portal and how current and future projects can build on the outcomes achieved.

Overall, the session gave the opportunity to learn about the different approaches of selected EU-projects that address the mobilization, integration and analysis of biodiversity and ecosystem data, their current achievements and existing barriers. Here are some of the Key Messages that emerged from the session: 

  • For biodiversity and ecosystem approaches, European level efforts are needed to achieve comprehensive data coverage and full open access, especially for in situ data integration.
  • Existing European-level data portals and information platforms need to be sustained and considered as integration points for national and local data hubs. 
  • Systematic approaches for biodiversity are needed, which means linking biotic and abiotic data and improving harmonization efforts for the whole data cycle/ workflows from data collection, analysis and dissemination for different disciplines (SBAs). 
  • Essential (Biodiversity) Variables (EBVs) are a key concept / framework especially for monitoring / long-term observations that should be applied for all available biodiversity/ecosystem data fields.
  • Use examples from existing projects and networks as successful blueprints for bottom-up/user-driven approaches in GEOSS that relate to knowledge and user needs at the local scale. 




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What can Remote Sensing do for the Conservation of Wetlands?

The International Symposium "What can Remote Sensing do for the Conservation of Wetlands?" will take place on 23 October 2015 in parallel with the XVI Congreso de la Asociación Española de Teledetección (XVI Meeting of the Spanish Remote Sensing Association) in Seville, Spain.

The Symposium aims to become an interdisciplinary meeting for wetland managers and scientists interested in remote sensing as well as remote sensing experts doing research in wetlands.

Wetlands are fragile and dynamic ecosystems sensitive to changes in climate and land-use, and rich in biodiversity. For centuries they were considered to have little or no value, and most have been drained or transformed. In 1971 the first international convention for the protection of Wetlands, the Ramsar Convention, was signed to promote their conservation and sustainable use. Now it is recognized that wetlands provide fundamental ecosystem services, such as water regulation, filtering and purification, as well as scientific, cultural, and recreational values. Wetlands constitute an extensive array of ecosystems ranging from lakes and rivers to marshes and tidal flats. An increasing number of wetlands have some kind of legal protection, and many wetlands are monitored and actively managed.

For more information on the symposium, please visit the official webpage: http://wetlandssymposium.com/












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This North Shore home has ties to the Salem witch trials and American Revolution. Officials say it’s now ‘rotting’ away.

Local officials are racing against the clock to intervene and save Ingersoll’s Ordinary before more than three centuries of Danvers history is lost for good.

The post This North Shore home has ties to the Salem witch trials and American Revolution. Officials say it’s now ‘rotting’ away. appeared first on Boston.com.




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Can biodiversity monitoring schemes provide indicators for ecosystem services?




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Disentangling the role of remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity as a proxy for North American plant species richness




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How can local and traditional knowledge be effectively incorporated into international assessments?





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Fauna Europaea: Annelida – Hirudinea, incl. Acanthobdellea and Branchiobdellea




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How Aphia—The Platform behind Several Online and Taxonomically Oriented Databases—Can Serve Both the Taxonomic Community and the Field of Biodiversity Informatics




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2nd EU BON Stakeholder Roundtable (Berlin, Germany): How can a European biodiversity network support citizen science? EU BON Workshop Report










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As both a full-time employee and a primary caregiver to one of my family members, I am worried about potentially exposing my family to COVID. Is there anything I can do? Elaine Varelas guides

Being a primary caregiver while working full time is a challenge in itself and even more so during the pandemic. Elaine Varelas guides on how to best keep your family members safe while maintaining your work responsibilities.

The post As both a full-time employee and a primary caregiver to one of my family members, I am worried about potentially exposing my family to COVID. Is there anything I can do? Elaine Varelas guides appeared first on Boston.com.




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Meet the actors in the cast of ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’

Learn more about the actors playing Tim Tebow, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, Rob Gronkowski, and other notable Patriots in FX's "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez."

The post Meet the actors in the cast of ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’ appeared first on Boston.com.






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American Justice

All over the world, countries are imprisoning women at higher rates than ever before.

On the programme: We visit a new kind of drug treatment program for women in the Midwestern state of Ohio; we hear about why more and more mothers in Mexico are serving time for selling drugs; and we go to court with a Canadian woman named Cheyenne Sharma whose case ends up changing the law. The programme ends with the song ‘The One Who Stands In the Sun’ by Choctaw musician Samantha Crain.

(Image: Lisa Duncan, Ashley Porter, Sheena Kimberly and Stephanie Cleveland, all of whom are in the Tapestry program in Ohio, are pictured from left to right. Credit: PRI’s The World)




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I can't breathe

The homicide of George Floyd, an unarmed man, while he was in police custody has sparked demonstrations and protests in the US and across the globe. From London and Berlin to Australia and the Netherlands, thousands marched in solidarity after a video showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes before he died. The incident touched off outrage in the United States, amid a polarizing presidential campaign and the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown millions out of work. Darnella Wade, an organizer for Black Lives Matter in St. Paul, Minnesota, hopes that this becomes a galvanizing moment for lasting change.

Also, black Americans once largely fought alone against police brutality, but as Somali American kids grew up in the same environment, they began to join Black Lives Matter; Dr. Michelle Morse, a professor of medicine at Harvard University explains why the racism in public health is so harmful in the age of Covid-19; America's adversaries are using global attention on the George Floyd protests as anti-US propaganda; and America’s foreign adversaries are also using social media to deepen division in the US.




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American Airlines tests boarding technology that audibly shames line cutters

American Airlines is testing a new technology at three airports across the country during the boarding process that aims to cut down on passengers who try to jump the line

The post American Airlines tests boarding technology that audibly shames line cutters appeared first on Boston.com.




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Three Boring, Spiritually Unspiritual, Simple Ideas You Can’t Not Do to Grow Your Team, Part 1

This is the first of a three-part series on team building. The ideas are simple, but the why behind the what is the secret sauce to growing a solid team. Like most people reading this, I’ve made mistakes. And those disasters have forged the conviction that we can’t be in ministry without being radically committed to loving Jesus and his church more, and on a daily basis.

Keep Jesus close, make sure that your family always takes the right priority (more on that in the future) and be willing to make your church better.  Notice I said better, not different. 

Better, Not Different

One of the biggest complaints I hear from worship pastors/leaders is that somehow, they have found themselves in a church that they really don’t like. 

They don’t feel appreciated by their lead pastors. 

They don’t like the weekend worship experience. 

They don’t like the people. 

At the end of the day, there is so much complaining that I am left scratching my head wondering if they even love Jesus.  If this is you, take some time to pray if you can make your lead pastors vision for your church come alive. If you aren’t in agreement, you may be in the wrong place.  Do yourself, your family and your people a favor and get connected with someone or something that is complimenting to your convictions and your philosophy.  God created you to be you, but we are servants before leading anything. Some of us carry the responsibility to make things different.  Most of us don’t.  Know your place.  Is it your burden to change things? …or is it your job to make things better.  Talk to your teams about this.  This is a fantastic “clarity” question that will free up your bandwidth.

Is it your burden to change things? …or is it your job to make things better.

OK, that is my soap box! ☺  As I give you these three helpful tips, it’s important for you to know that these are just tools.  You can’t fake or replace strong spiritual foundations of ministry leadership.  Love Jesus and use tools and resources to LOVE His PEOPLE better.  We try to change people or churches.  But what I’ve found is that when you develop people, things change. 

But what I’ve found is that when you develop people, things change. 

So, if it’s our job to make things better, what are some ideas that we can do to commit to improving? 

  1. Develop a leadership pipeline

Developing a leadership pipeline is a helpful tool to bring clarity to “who’s responsible for who and who’s responsible for what”.  It’s really difficult for a worship pastor to carry the burden of a ministry on their shoulders alone…and they shouldn’t. I don’t have to tell you that the apostle Paul makes it clear that we are called to empower people to do the work of the Kingdom, not do it all on our own! (Ephesians 4:11-13) We also get a peek into Moses' anxiety in Numbers chapter 11, where he's at his wit’s end and well over his capacity. The Lord tells him to gather 70 of his most trusted and responsible people. Moses brings them to the "tent of meetings" and the Spirit of the Lord pours over them.

God helped Moses build his team. He will help you build yours.

A leadership pipeline helps you identify your 70 (or even 7 figuratively speaking). This is the pipeline our church utilizes.  

How this works:

In this chart, we document how responsibility falls within a team.

  • An assistant is the first place in which we invite someone to be developed as a leader.
  • A leader is the first level in which a person is responsible for a team.
  • A coach is the first level in which a leader is overseeing other leaders.
  • A director is responsible for directing a particular team.
  • A pastor is responsible for care, culture and vision.

My favorite area to develop is our coaches. In worship ministry, I am so lucky to have some of the best coaches.

Here's how this role works:

Jordan Hicks is my guitar coach. He is responsible for developing all guitar leaders, recruitment and assimilating guitarists for all of our campuses, adult, youth and kids’ teams. He's responsible for all communication and administration for this group as well. Because Jordan is the leader I've poured into, he completely understands my values, our church’s values and culture, and our end goal. He's a volunteer, but he brings a priceless value of leadership and excellence to our church. Our worship leaders never should worry about who they are leading with. We are spoiled because of warriors like Jordan. He's just one example of Ephesians 4 coming to life in our ministry.

I grew up as a jazz musician—tenor sax. I loved John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk. C’mon somebody!  I was in high school when I first played in combos with some older pro musicians in our city. We started playing a blues tune when one of the guys stopped me and said, “In the words of Miles Davis, man…you can’t play blues because you haven’t hurt enough yet.”  Apparently, I lacked any sense of emotive playing ability as a teenager. And I hadn’t hurt enough yet. 

If playing jazz and blues is an expression of pain and hurt that we’ve experienced, then singing worship music is an expression of the HOPE we know. We can’t and shouldn’t do this alone. Lean on your team. Empower them. 

I am excited to share with you the next two tips over the next few months. You’ll be able to find them right here at allaboutworship.com.  If you have questions about developing your leadership pipeline, you can email me at mike@worship.coach.

For free development resources, check out www.worship.coach.




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Three Boring, Spiritually Unspiritual, Simple Ideas You Can’t Not Do to Grow Your Team, Part 2

Last month we explored the idea of developing a Leadership Pipeline for your worship ministry. (If you missed it, please check out their link here

 A “leadership pipeline” is an established development path for your leaders.  It shows “who’s responsible for who" and "who's responsible for what." It also helps clarify a communications path for burden and responsibility. Empowering leaders to lead requires clarity. Being clear is hard work. I’ve made the mistake of keeping my “plans” top secret. I mean, what if something or someone doesn't work out or someone tries to hijack my direction! Can I tell you this…Insecurities stink!  Can you relate?  Ugh. I’ve learned a few priceless lessons along the way, and one of them is this:  Pull the RIGHT people close and make your dreams/vision known. When you do this, you will create a culture that trusts communication from the leaders who carry a certain level of responsibility and burden.  The people that you have pulled close know the dreams and plans that God has given you.  They can share the weight of your dream with you and help you navigate potential problems.  Sometimes, lack of clarity happens because only one person is looking at the map.  Let your map be known…and let others drive.  

Empowering leaders to lead requires clarity

Here is a sample of the leadership pipeline we use as a whole at our church. 

If you have any questions regarding developing a "leadership pipeline," please contact me.  I have several resources to help you with this discussion and discovery.  This applies to your whole church and not solely the Worship Ministry. Now on to IDEA #2.

Idea #2. Make recruitment and assimilation a “normal” for everyone

Here is the heart behind this:

This past week at my church we hosted our monthly "OPEN."  “OPEN” is a time in which we “open up” our team devotional time, production time and pre-service experience to visiting churches and leaders.  

The visiting church this week was a church from a different stylistic approach but from our city.  They wanted to observe how we produced a "contemporary" worship service.  We met for coffee a few weeks ago, and I was excited that they said yes to my invitation to attend "OPEN."

During their time with us, I gave them a tour of our church and talked about our teams.  I spoke about some of our values.  I sensed that they wanted to talk about guitars and keyboards.  We ended up talking about the power of God’s presence and how He changes lives, always.  While standing backstage after rehearsal, I noticed that one of their leaders looked overwhelmed.  When I asked her what she was processing, she shared with me that she was amazed that all our teams were volunteers.  I responded to her that it’s amazing what people will do when they've been given the gift of second, third, fourth and fifth chances. It’s unrealistic and somewhat unfair to expect leaders to step forth without a testimony attached. The look of being overwhelmed shifted and was now accompanied by tears of awe and wonder.  Saved people save people.  

It’s unrealistic and somewhat unfair to expect leaders to step forth without a testimony attached.

She asked me a question: “How is it that so many people are involved?”  Here is what I have found.

Like attracts like. Visibility replicates.

"Like attracts like" implies that the things that we are most excited about attracts people that are passionate about the same things.  I love Apple computers and Chick-fil-A.  Wouldn't you know it, I happen to attract people that tend to like Apple computers and Chick-fil-A. God is doing something special at my church.  People are excited about being on our team.  They attract people to our teams.

“Visibility replicates” implies that whatever you make visible, whether that is a talent or behavior, is what will replicate in your culture.  If you make it a priority to foster a genuine culture of prayer in your ministry, there's a pretty good chance the people that want to be a part of it have a desire to grow or be involved with the same.  Likewise, if you put your worst guitar players on the platform in your biggest service every week, it tells every other bad guitar player in your church that they too are guaranteed a spot on your stage.  Visibility replicates.  

Here’s the practical behind this:

Having the right people on your team, to begin with, can be THE biggest hurdle. You know you have the RIGHT people on your team when they are EXCITED about what God is doing in your team, and YOU want to replicate them.  Here are a few ideas to help you develop an assimilation culture:

  1. Decentralize the “responsibility” of getting people into your ministry by empowering capable leaders you trust. Here’s how this works at my church. Coaches are responsible for recruiting and assimilating their teams.  (Guitar coach is responsible for building the guitar team). I meet with all the coaches monthly, and they give me an update on the things I need to know. They own this completely. These are the RIGHT people that have been vetted.  They are VISIBLE leaders who replicate.
  2. Make “being a bringer” your “new normal."  Whenever new ministry team members are on-ramped, ask them to bring someone with them! Language like “YOU DON’T HAVE TO COME ALONE!”, “WE WILL FIND A PLACE FOR YOU” really helps create consistency in an inviting team. This is where I’ve seen “Like attracts like” come alive. This is a core value that is communicated from day one, and it has become our “normal” over time.  

These might seem small, but they are significant. We DREAM DREAMS, but we LIVE MOMENTS.  These principles are what I would call moments.  "Moments" matter because they cause a chain reaction that affects forever. These two moments lead to a bigger dream of seeing our team members be “MINISTRY OWNERS." The practice of MINISTRY OWNERSHIP is a significant value.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:11-13 NIV

"Ministry Ownership" tells a volunteer that they don't need a title to carry a burden.  They don't need a title to help pastor a team. We all have different roles and talents and spiritual gifts.  “Ministry Ownership” is a culture in which team members take responsibility to shepherd and build the ministry that they are a part of.  I’ve just noticed that in general, people who own houses are more aware of the condition of their homes than renters are.  

So, let me ask you, what dream are you dreaming today?  Are there smaller moments that are hijacking your bigger dream?  Take some time today and pray through this.  I believe that being involved in our teams has nothing to do with what God wants from us, but it's what He has for us. Jesus will be bringing the right people to your teams because God desires to use you and your leadership gifting to change the world . . . one willing person at a time.

Jesus, I pray for those that might read this blog.  I pray that this would be an encouragement to those feeling stuck today.  I feel stuck a lot, and I am thankful that you give me grace daily to start over.  I pray that you would continue to instill a spirit of bravery amongst my brothers and sisters. None of us have it all figured out, but you are still consistent and always for us. Amen.

Thank you for checking out these first two ideas. Next month we will dive into Idea #3! 


Michael King @michaelkingjr I free resources available at www.worship.coach





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Three Boring, Spiritually Unspiritual, Simple Ideas You Can’t Not Do to Grow Your Team, Part 3

Over the last few months we’ve tackled the topic of TEAM BUILDING.  As much as I would love to feel as if we have this one nailed, we don’t.  TEAM BUILDING is a muscle that every leader needs to continue to develop.  It’s easy to let this one slip away from us! Just when we start to feel like we are getting on top of this, something changes.  A vital team member leaves.  A leader needs to take on the responsibility of a different area.  Your best guitar player gets hired as the worship pastor at another church.  These are all real-life situations that happen in even the best teams.  They will happen to yours as well.

In our “Month One” blog on team building we presented the IDEA of developing a Leadership Pipeline within your worship ministry.  This IDEA helped support that idea that building an EMPOWERED TEAM is a powerful Kingdom tool.  “Who’s responsible for who?” and “Who’s responsible for what?” are two of the most important questions that needs to be answered in any team environment.  When you lead a team with clarity and spread out the responsibility for others to own your team, you ignite growth opportunities that might have went unnoticed. 

In “Month Two” we presented the idea of “Making Recruitment and Assimilation a Normal for Everyone”.  So many times, I bump into Worship Leaders and Pastors that feel the very unfair burden of building ALONE.  With this IDEA, we present the notion that every team can build better and faster when the team members who are on the teams are your best recruiters.  Make this a normal practice.  At my church, we practice asking new team members to “bring one” with you.  We have found that by making this a standard practice at ground level, we never have to ask for participation from the 10,000-foot level.  Whatever is visible is what replicates.  Empower your best leaders to build.

So here we are. Month Three.

Idea #3. Clearly Identify and Communicate Simple On-Ramps.

I love my city.  I live in Lincoln, Ne.  Home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  I love the youthful spirit and progressive nature of our city.  I have even grown to love and cherish the special college football atmosphere that engulfs our city on game day.  It’s addictive to say the least.  But one thing that I am not a big fan of is traffic on game day.  There is one primary road that leads into Lincoln and over 90,000 fans make the trek to our city on game day.  There are probable more if you include tailgaters.  THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM: The roads infrastructure needs to be able to support the traffic flow to the desired destination.  If there are too many confusing pieces of communication, it would put our city into emergency mode and have catastrophic effects.  I mean, the world might come to an end if people missed a Cornhusker Football Game! (No, but seriously) ;)

Having clear and simple communication about “what to DO next” can make or break your teams culture. 

Every month I host a worship leaders round table in Omaha Ne.  At this round table, Worship leaders from multiple different denominations gather for friendship and peer coaching.  These leaders have become family and they are amazing.  We discuss a wide range of worship ministry issues.  One topic that comes up regularly is “attracting the right volunteers”.  If a leader starts to pour their heart out to me about how they can’t get enough volunteers, I always ask one question to start the conversation.  “Can you tell me about your on-ramp?” This might sound overly simplistic, but what I have found is that sometimes we make it more complicated than it needs to be or we haven’t identified the answer to the most important question at all.  Every leader on your team, in unity, needs to be able to answer this question with clarity and simplicity.

 THIS IS THE QUESTION

“Where do I go and What do I do?”

 Having clear and simple communication about “what to DO next” can make or break your teams culture. 

 Here are a few suggestions when it comes to identifying your onramp into your ministry:

       1.     KEEP IT SIMPLE-

Keep it simple in language and communication.  Your “on-ramp” shouldn’t be riddled with complex forms, interviews and assessments.  Not yet anyways.  Create an “on-ramp’ that just answers the question, “where do I go and what do I do?”.  Worry about next steps later.  But for now, getting a “willing one” to show up is your biggest win. Make it simple for them.

For example, I person asks about playing guitar on the worship team.  Any leader in your department should be able to have the same simple answer. ”I am so glad you are interested!  We host all our new volunteers on Monday Nights at 6:30pm!  Would you be my guest?!”

       2.     USE WHATS ALREADY WORKING AS YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD-

­What is already working in your church?  Do you have a rehearsal process that is spot on?  USE IT!  Is God’s presence so thick in your weekend worship services that lives are being transformed?  USE IT! I’ve made the mistake of overthinking and over programming.  I’ve launched the “extra” visitor’s night or the quarterly worship night with the intentions of attracting new people.  Sometimes those things work.  But the problem is that even though they may be effective, it takes a long time for those events to represent the culture and team that we want people to be attracted to. 

Identify what’s already working and utilize those moments to “on-ramp” your team.

        3.     KEEP IT CONSISTENT-

Nothing can steal the wind out of the sails of progress like a good dose of inconsistency.  If you “welcome” new team members on Monday nights, keep that consistent for a season.  If you “welcome” new people to your choir rehearsal and you celebrate leaders that brought them, don’t change that unless you are communicating change.  Consistency, on this point, allows us the opportunity to get buy in from our team! Consistency builds reliability. Consistency gives our leaders tools to build with.  (Side note:  We will be talking about “embracing change” and reinvention in the upcoming months.)

Consistency tells our teams that we aren’t building a kingdom that only serves us, but we are leading an army that can fight battles when we share the burden.

Identifying your “on-ramps” could be a simple strategy that could help you engage people better.  Below is a sample of an “on-ramps” document that I created for our kid’s ministry at our church.  This idea isn’t just for worship/creative teams, but for everyone.


It is essential that you clearly communicate the “WHERE/HOW” to START whenever you are building teams.  Keep your communication clear and simple.  Try utilizing opportunities that your church is already doing well to interact with potential volunteers.  Lastly, be consistent.  Everyone should know the answer to this question: “Where do I go and What do I do?”.

 Having clear and simple communication about “what to DO next” can make or break your teams culture. 

Jesus, I pray today for the burden and stress that our worship leaders and pastors feel daily. We pray that you would continue to grow our capacity to shepherd well.  Thank you for entrusting us with big things.  We are honored to pastor your people.

Please feel free to use this resource or any that you find at worship.coach. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about these three helpful tips.  I am always glad to help. 

Michael King @michaelkingjr
free resources available at
www.worship.coach




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