Tag Archives: Craig Jutila
Components of Illuminate
Posted on 20. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
So, what are we doing at Illuminate? I’m glad you asked. I don’t want to reveal all the surprises, but I can give you a pretty good idea of what is going to happen.
Originally when we started planning the conference we were going to have Craig talk for three sessions and that was pretty much it. Don’t get me wrong, Craig can easily carry the conference all by himself and people would walk away more than satisfied. However, I dont’ want Illuminate to just be about the speakers. I want people to interact and have opportunities to ask questions, meet others and add to the conversations. I knew the only way we’d be able to do that is to add opportunities for this through breakouts. So, here’s how the day is going to look.
- 8:00 Doors Open and Registration
- 9:00 Conference begins with short worship set by one of Gateway’s worship bands (Austin is known as the live music capital of the world and our bands reflect what our city is known for)
- 9:30 Session 1 with Criag Jutila
- 11:00 Breakout
- 12:15 Lunchout
- 1:30 Session 2 with Craig Jutila
- 3:15 Illuminate ends
Breakout:
- Endurance:  Sam Luce – Creating a healthy rhythm of balancing life and ministry.
- Family Impact:  Jonathan Cliff – Expanding your influence into the home.
- Lingo:  Michael Chanley – Creatively communicating to kids.
Lunchout
- Elementary:  Sam Luce – Interactive breakout experience for elementary volunteers.
- Early Childhood:  Jonathan Cliff – Interactive breakout experience for Early Childhood volunteers.
- Staff:  Michael Chanley – Interactive breakout experience for Children’s Ministry staff
Lunch will be provided by Chipotle, covered by registration which I think is a nice touch if I say so myself.
Doesn’t this make you want to come? Well, you can. If you’re close, just drive in for the day. If you’re further away, we’ve got some great rates on local hotels. I’d let you stay at my house, but I’ve already got Sam, Jonathan and Michael staying in all the extra beds/couches. 
For more info on Illuminate, click here to visit the website!
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Origins of the Illuminate Conference
Posted on 19. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Yesterday I announced our volunteer conference, Illuminate. However, the idea of this conference isn’t new by any means.
I’ve always struggled with volunteer training. No matter what you do, they often tend to be somewhat “forced.” They’re necessary, but for a long time I’ve felt the need for a revamping of the traditional training meeting. So, about 4 years ago while serving at Cross Timbers Church in Argyle, TX, I came up with a different idea for training our volunteers. We called it Gear Up.
Essentially, it was a conference style training specifically for volunteers. We had an early-bird breakfast, live worship, an opening keynote from our senior pastor, a closing session and two breakouts where volunteers could pick what they wanted to learn about. We included a new volunteer orientation for the newbies as well as session on discipline, communicating to kids, dealing with frustrated parents and four or five other topics. We had about 100 volunteers show up and it was definitely a success. Those who came really loved it, they learned a lot and most importantly, they felt appreciated.
Since Gear Up, I’ve been wanting to do it again. However, I knew that I wanted to bring in a headline speaker and open it up to other churches as well. So, Illuminate is definitely birthed out of the desire to have creative and innovative ways to inspire and equip our volunteers and while we’re at it, we’ll provide a stellar experience for any church who wants to participate. This probably won’t take shape this year, but I’m very interested in what happens when a bunch of churches in the same city get together and beging getting to know each other.
If you’re interested in attending Illuminate, click here!
* Dont’ get me wrong though. Illuminate is not just my brainchild. My incredible team hear at Gateway have been behind this and and have been developing Illuminate from day one.
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Launching a volunteer conference
Posted on 18. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
I’m very pleased to announce the Illuminate Conference. You’re probably asking, “what is Illuminate, I haven’t seen or heard anything about it?” True, you probably haven’t seen or heard anything about it because my team at Gateway and I just created it a few months ago.
So, why start a conference, aren’t there a lot of great ones out there already?
Good question. Actually, this conference has two very specific audiences. Like many churches, the economy has tightened budgets. It costs me almost $1000 (per person) to go to a national conference after paying for lodging, air, registration and food. One of the first things I was asked to cut from my budget were conferences. That makes sense. On the other hand, haven’t you ever come home from a national conference and though, “I wish my volunteers could have heard that speaker?” As a result of asking those questions, we developed the idea for Illuminate. Although I and a few members of my team might hit a national conference, our biggest focus is to bring the national conference to our volunteers.
Last spring we booked Craig Jutila to come and speak to our volunteers. We played around with the idea of having him speak specifically to our leaders one night and then have him speak to all our volunteers the next day and we’d open it up to other churches as well. We’ve footed the bill to bring in Craig, but we’d charge a pretty low rate to other churches to help us cover the costs. We figured that if we got enough people to come, this could become totally self-sustainable and we would be able to bring in a handful of Kidmin’s best every year.
So, just a few weeks ago we decided to broaden the experience by booking Michael Chanley (Creator of CM Connect), Sam Luce (the most famous Kidmin blogger in NY) and Jonathan Cliff (the most outspoken blogger against puppets I know). I’m so excited, I can hardly believe all this is happening and in a few weeks, I get to hang out with some of my favorite people in ministry.
I’ll be blogging about Illuminate all week, describing how we plan to pull it off. If you live close to central Texas, you really just plan to join us. Even if it’s a bit of a drive, we’ve got some great rates on hotels! Here’s more information:
Illuminate Conference
Saturday, Novmeber 6th
9:00 AM – 3:15 PM
Two General Sessions with Craig Jutila
Two Breakout Sessions geared to volunteer specific needs
A Chipotle lunch
An experience your team wont soon forget
All this for just $25 a person. Pretty amazing, huh?
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What was your defining moment?
Posted on 26. May, 2009 by Kenny.
We all have them. A moment of enlightenment. An epiphany. Something happens and you’ll never see the world again the same.
What was your defining moment for ministry?
I’ve had two big ones. One of them has a lot to do with Orange and in some ways, I feel like I’m still experiencing that defining moment. The first one though happened in 2003. My pastor had just resigned and a new one was being interviewed. This new pastor sat with me one day and asked me a really simple question that stumped me. He asked, “What’s your process for minisry?” I didn’t even know what the question meant much less how to answer it. I spent several weeks thinking about this question. I took it to mean, “how are my programs working together to achieve a desired outcome?” I bought the book “The Purpose Driven Church” a few week later. I’d never read it and I thought it might help me with his “process” thing. Turns out it did. A few months later I was soaking up everything Craig Jutila had to say about purpose driven children’s ministries. I don’t lead a purpose driven ministry today, but this idea of being direction by vision, mission and values to help kids achieve a desired end is central to my heart. It all changed after this defining moment.
What is yours?
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Orange 2008: Synchronizing Volunteers
Posted on 02. May, 2008 by Kenny.
This session was led by Craig Jutila. Someone said that most of this information is in his book “Daze to Knights.” I knew he had this book, but I didn’t think this was about volunteers. I’ve heard Craig on several occasions and I’ve heard most of this stuff before. However, it is good stuff and I really needed to hear it again. Volunteerism is one of the biggest issues in ministry, so everyone could hear this stuff multiple times.
First things:
- You don’t organize people, you align them
- You build people first and programs second
- You understand that without people, you do not nor can you have a healthy ministry
- Without a mission statement, you will never thrive with your volunteers
- We are all made differently
One of the problems we have is that we often try to make everyone do the same about of work. People are different. Our goal should be to help them reach their potential.
Craig talked about the 80/20 rule. 20% of your volunteers are doing 80% of the work. It’s a principle… expect this. Those 20% are your high impact volunteers. Of 100% of your volunteers, here is how they might break down:
- 5% – Influential: Empower
- 15% – Initiator: Energize
- 30% – Independent: Equip
- 50% – Industrious: Encourage
Craig then talked about how Jesus led “volunteers.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:6 – Jesus appeared to more than 500 followers. He encouraged them by motivating them.
- Luke 10:1-2 – Jesus appointed 72 and sent them out in groups of two. He appointed them to do a task.
- Matthew 26:20 – Jesus sat with his 12. He spent time with them, they were his friends.
- Matthew 17:1 – Jesus took his three aside. This was his intimate group.
We seen in scripture that Jesus spent most of his time with small numbers of people.. investing in them. Jesus spent the least amount of time with large groups. We need to see our volunteers this same way. We need to have a small number that we’re investing in “big time” where we are empowering them to lead others.
A few last points:
- Resist the temptation to personally “fill holes.” It’s not that you’re better than that… it’s not where you belong.
- The volunteers who challenge you because they have their own ideas usually frustrate us…. but they are your best volunteers. They have the potential to lead your ministry. You need to invest in them and leak your vision.
- You’re always going to need volunteers… if your ministry is growing. Synchronizing volunteers isn’t about eliminating your need for more volunteers. However, if you do these things right, you’ll put an end to managing the substitute list every week. Your volunteers will own their ministry.
- Craig says this works… so give it a try.
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Orange 2008: Rethinking Children’s Ministry
Posted on 30. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
I’ve really been looking forward to this breakout. It was a panel discussion of Children’s Ministry by Sue Miller, Jim Wideman, Craig Jutila and Norv Brown. What an incredible opportunity, huh?
I tell you, each person added so much. I do feel though that if anyone could spend a day with Jim Wideman and Craig Jutila, shut up and just listen, you’d advance many years in ministry in just that one day!!!
Here are some main things that were said that impacted me:
- Things are caught, not taught (Craig in reference to the importance of leaders who model faith to the kids)
- Buy curriculum, you can’t buy leadership (Craig in reference to CP’s who love spending time writing their own curriculum at the expense of developing leaders)
- Work on your Children’s Ministry, not in your Children’s Ministry! Stop subbing! You’re robbing when you do this.
- Build depth to your volunteer teams. Develop your second string.
The panel discussed what was the most difficult thing you encountered in ministry.
Craig spoke very candidly about his departure from Saddleback. He spoke about how he had allowed ministry to become more important than his wife and family. He spoke about how he almost lost them… how he almost crossed lines that he couldn’t take back. If asked if he would do it the same way again he said, “NO WAY.” He said he’d go much slower, be less driven and lead more with compassion.
Sue then shared her most difficult thing and silenced the room. You could have heard a pin drop. She shared how difficult it is to be a woman in leadership. She told of the times she questioned why God put her as a leader in a female body. She shared how she felt she had to work twice as hard to get recognized. She told about some of her experiences and I became furious/embarrassed. It was wrong how she was treated. However, she’s not the only one. She asked us all to consider our female leaders and the handicap they face just by being the gender they are. Wow! As much as I hate it, she’s right. Yeah, I have been wrong here as well and for that I am sorry. I don’t ever want to get in the way of God as he wants to do incredible things through the women serving under me.
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