Serving Tips...

We are kicking up our training: We want help people to serve well...

Serving Tips

How to serve others more effectively

If you have signed up to serve at the Vineyard, you might be excited, nervous, and feeling a bit like a fish out of water. Good news… it’s normal. Here are some tips to help you develop confidence as you serve.

Gain knowledge…be sure you the information you need and that you have an understanding about your assignment. It’s ok to ask questions and to ask for a simple job description before your time of service. Be sure to attend any training sessions before the event.

Exercise…confidence grows as we apply our ability through experience. Simply put…the more you serve…the better you serve.

Find a place…there may be an event when volunteers just show up, or arrive late; the instructions may seem sketchy; people are rushing to meet time lines; setting things up, moving here and there the energy is high.

The show up events can feel a little like being out of control, chaos. We prefer to call it organized excitement. We really do have a plan and know what we are doing.

The key to press through this stage of the event is to actively seek to find a place of service. Step back and look around and begin to ask yourself is there anything needing done that’s not being done? Is there any equipment that needs to be moved, or set up, or trash needing picked up? Are there any volunteers that seem over whelmed you could help? Learn to step back and take a wide look at what's going on, then take a deep breath and begin to serve.

People focused… remember people are always much more important then the task at hand. In the midst of serving... remember it’s all about building relationships and revealing Jesus to the people we serve.

Attitude…have you ever been served by an uptight aggressive person? I have. I’ve wondered why they are serving in the first place? Having a positive attitude toward the people you are serving is all important. People are usually pretty perceptive and can sense when we are uptight, having a bad day, or when we are full of encouragement and are genuinely seeking to care about them.

Tip: before the event it is important for you to do some personal prayer prep, to pause and think why you signed up and ask God to help you care for others, and help you to serve with a good heart. Chose to wear a smile, and to allow your love to be real.

Paul writing in Philippians chapter 2 talks about having a proper serving attitude. He says, in your serving:

Don’t be selfish…as you serve don't be focused on your feelings and your needs, but choose to focus on the needs of others.

Be humble…begin to think how you can effectively express Gold’s love and grace toward those you are serving. Perhaps your expression of humility will be a kind smile, a calm voice toward and aggressive stressed out person, a warm look toward someone who looks out of place, a gentile hug to affirm a kid, or an informative answer to a nervous question.

Bottom line…How do you learn to serve? By serving. Serving others generates a healthy other centeredness. Consistently serving others is one of the ways God brings health and healing into our lives.

ktg Jan

January is always a great month...I slow down and think, reflect, pray and plan for the year ahead.

We are keeping our outreach on ramps, just strengthening what is already in place, retooling 2nd Saturday, adding Vineyard on Main and helping Impact...Love In Action for Dayton's World Impact Tour.

We will begin to up our training this year planning a few exciting all church intensives.

The first intensive is March 15th 9am - 1pmish

Future Past Creating An Outward Focused Church Doug Roe

Good Deeds Creates Good Will That Opens Heart To The Good News Steve Bowen

Being Irresistible...I'm just wondering...Boy, I wish I said... Doug Pollock

Just walk across the room. What's your story morning glory? Steve Bowen

The Good News Is The Good News YWAM



Kindness to go

January is the kick off month so it's Give em the Bag!

What's in the bag?
I purchase the bags and the sparkle filler from American Paper and Plastics West Chester OH nice paper lined bags various colors. Sparkle filler that we place in the bag gives the bag some eye popping color, and buzz...we've discovered that people like to dig past the sparkle filler to see what items of interest are in the bag.

Items:
1 package of Grandmas Cookies
1 bag of peanuts
2 granola bars
2 rolls of lifesaver peppermints
1 peanut butter crackers
a sprinkling of peppermint round candy
1 box of Kleenex tissues
sparkle filler
1 connect card attached to the bag and 2 connect cards in the bag on top
1 instruction sheet for people doing the outreach.

Our Teens pack the bags the Wednesday night before a Kindness to Go! weekend. We always hear from someone who was on the receiving end.

During the weekend services we mention the outreach and encourage people to grab a bag along with some instructions as they leave the service. I usually plan for around 100 bags at the end of our 3 weekend services. Long Term Sowing. Bridge Building. People Equipping. Fun and Uplifting. Creative Sparking. Outoftheboxthinking.


This weekend is a Kindness to go weekend...We're doing the 'give them the bag' outreach. It's always fun to watch people as they realize it's a KTG weekend...Big smiles, some people usually new, pausing to read the instruction sheet then smile and grab a bag. Those in the know usually grab their KTG item on the way in to ensure they are locked and loaded for the outreach.

Behind the scenes:6 to 10 hrs.
Steve: orders the items from Sam's Club online.
Steve: drives to Sam's picks up items
Steve and Nicole: Unload items and prepares for packing
Chris and Teens: Set up tables, packs bags, staple card on bag and place bags in safe secure room
Steve: Goes through bags, fills any light bags, puts iridescent film into bag and places two connect cards in bag.
Nicole: prints out Instruction sheet and has them photo copied enough for every bag
Steve and Nichole: Place bags on Kindness to go cart and in wagon for each of the 3 services

Church: grabs bags and goes out into the community to do outreach on weekend or through the week.

Here is the instruction sheet information.
Kindness to Go! Ok, How’s does it work?

It’s simple:
Step one: Grab a bag
Step two: Transport the bag to your favorite restaurant, after or before the meal hand the bag to the person serving. Say, ‘This is a small gift for you and your team.’
key… tip big and smile.
Or
Step one: Grab a bag
Step two: Take it with you the next time you go grocery shopping, put the bag at the end of your shopping for the person checking.
Or
Step one: Grab a couple of bags
Step two: Take the bags to your local police station, fire station, emergency room or post office. Say, ‘Just thinking about you this time of year.’

When asked, ‘Why are you doing this?’ Reply, ‘Just showing you God’s love in a practical way.
Or
Be creative...choose your place, smile and have some fun!

Turkey's giving away turkeys

above video for our thanks to all who served at a pretty good church.

what a buzz...over 300 people showed up for our outreach...mostly newbies...

we divided up into three teams and car pooled to the area housing apartments where we have been serving and caring over the last few years...It was planned chaos...most handled the chaos well...we are hearing story after story how the people we touched were overwhelmed by God's love shown in a piratical way...

some wept.

others hugged.

some thanked.

most received prayer.


one mom on our team stated, 'we went to a single mom's door...all she had in her apartment was a table. it put my life in perspective...i'm not going to complain about my old couch any more.'

...I often say, you can't really care until you've been out there....

we left at 10:30am and were finished by 12:00 pm just in time to see the Ohio State and the Michigan game.

a great buzz...in the end we served near 400 thanksgiving dinners to those in need. not a bad day for a pretty good church



here's a great song we sing often to remind us of why we are living on Terra firma.

Let Us Be
Robbie Reider


Verse 1:
Take our hands
Move our feet
Break our hearts
With the things that make Your heart break
With the things that make Your heart break (2nd time)


Chorus 1:

Let us be Your hands Let us be Your feet
Let us be the love that longs for those in need (repeat)


Verse 2:
Spirit move
Across the land
We invite You
To move on earth by Your sovereign hand
Come and move on earth by Your sovereign hand (2nd time)


Chorus 2:
We will be Your hands We will be Your feet
We will be the love that longs for those in need (repeat)

©2002 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing (Admin. by Music Services)

Saturday turkey give away

Satruday 17th @ 10am

Kindness to Go Turkey's giving away turkeys...

this year we changed form...we placed boxes in the lobby with an attached shopping list and encouraged our people to grab a box...gather some friends or their small group...and go with others to 3 apartment complexes we have been serving for several years.

to our surprise over 300 people grabbed a box and saying, 'We'll go.'

One guy who had never been on an outreach sparked my interest...I said, 'Hey thanks for choosing to help.' His reply, 'This is what we do isn't it.' I thought, wow. Outward focused thinking is working...

here is the list and instructions attached to box.

Join your friends, small group or as a family
helping others this Thanksgiving.

It’s simple:
Take this list to any store and purchase the items listed. Pack the items in the box provided and place the frozen turkey in the bag provided.

Then come to the Vineyard Saturday, November 17th @ 10am. After some instructions we will head out to an apartment building or two, and surprise the residents with a free turkey dinner.

Tip: this outreach is fun to do with a few friends or family. If you want to participate... or are short of cash, why not grab a few friends or invite your small group to pool resources and then shop together (grab some ice-cream after) and then serve together.

Shopping list:
__ 2 cans of corn
__ 2 cans of green beans
__ 1 large can of yams
__ 1 box of scalloped potatoes
__ 1 can of cranberry sauce
__ 2 boxes of mac and cheese
__ 1 box of brownie mix
__ 1 package of brown and serve rolls
__ 1 medium Frozen Turkey

Option:
Be creative and add your own treats to the list
Throw in a pie or other fun items

funfest 5

for pictures click this link Dayton Daily News

Without His favor, His blessing and His presence upon us...
all is folly.
steve bowen

Many thanks to the 250+ volunteers, our take a risk staff, Nicole our new (thrown in the deep end) outreach assistant...all went beyond the call of duty to serve our community joyfully...

• the set up team did a fantastic job the night before,
• the kids worship team and great parents who came at 5am for Channel 2 news,
  
• the grill, snowcone, and popcorn team 3k hotdogs, the patient snowcones and popcorn people,
  
• the game people were caring, and creative,
• the inside pingpong fish bowls were a huge hit and the team had a great ab work out,
• the face painters painted,
  
• mom's muffins (500 caringly made homemade muffins for moms),
• the medical team and lost parent team thankfully had a slow night,
• the artist small group carved many a pumpkin,
• the helium balloon people are now nursing bruised fingers,
  
• the candy runners ran often,
  
• the volunteer care team cared well,
• the security guys hospitality people solved problems, like having too many cars, our grass became a car lot, getting people in the parking lot then out safely,
• the clean up crew cleaned up the mess in one hour...the reserve clean team the next day 2 hours.
  

Most people commented on the peace people felt on the campus. Our prayer team prayed, literally, walking the property, worshiping, and believing from Oct 1 ...we had several joint times of prayer during he month.

Believe it or not, I believe that prayer is the engine behind whatever we attempt to do in His Kingdom. Without His favor, His blessing and His presence upon us... all is folly. steve bowen

The wind...we didn't count on wind...

all day the our set up was blown all over the place...
...67 degree weather clear sky and wind...all day.

During the day i pondered how Jesus just spoke to the wind and it immediately died down, I asked. 'how did you do that?' you can't see the wind or the source!'

So, I also spoke to the wind all day, noting the wind seemed to increase as yet another safety barrier was knocked down. O me of little faith.


at 7:00pm I was walking to solve another minor problem when i sensed what friend calls 'flutterby' a small slight impression, possibly missed if you are not aware of a still small voice speaking in your heart...

I sensed, heard, had a slight impression...'Steve, what do you notice?' I paused...slowed down on the inside, stood still and listened...I heard a simple statement 'no wind'. In the moment I noticed it was dead calm... an encouragement for my heart, a sense of God's love and favor that is worth more to me than gold... what I call a God moment.

once again i realized ... 'Me Father is in heaven and He is quite fond of me' old irish priest quote....

the wind did pick up to a gentle breeze a short time later but there were no more knock em down gusts.


In the end...
all the noise of the event, the sense of success, the joy of seeing an autistic kid take 20 minutes to climb a rock wall, then grin from ear to ear on his first ride on a ferris wheel...seeing thousands of people enjoying God's generosity through His people was amazing.

For me personally...Hearing His voice in the midst of all the craziness was the highlight of my long day. That one 'God moment' filled my spiritual, emotional tank.

FunFest 5 Experience the Light!

It begins! This is the month that we begin to ramp up to FunFest 5. Each year thousands of people come to our campus for a night of safe, upbeat fun. We touched a nerve when we used the words, free, safe place, families, on Halloween.

Many believers do not take advantage of the number 2 secular event in the USA.(almost as much money is made as Christmas) Some are on the defensive dreading the night. Others take a different tack and seek to turn the night into an opportunity. This is what we have done for the last 5 years.

One lady came to the first year with her child. Later she decided to attend church somewhere. She asked her child where would she like to go. The child replied, to the fun church. They attended, began their journey with Jesus, were baptized, served on hospitality for a year now the mom volunteers in childrens.

What is Funfest?

Funfest is a safe, fun, FREE place for families on Halloween. This annual event has taken a life of its own. Every year thousands of people attend, helping to make this event a success.

What's happening?

This year we will have:

• K-12 Children’s Artist Group

• Horse drawn cart from Liberty Stables

• Karaoke from DB&D Entertainment

• A Ferris wheel

• Tons of games

• 3000 plus Hot Dogs and other refreshments

• Crafts

• Face Painting

• Kidz Zone

• Vineyard Kidz
  

And 250 amazing volunteers.