July 2009 Archives

That's a question we've heard a bunch since we announced a new operating model for Glorieta last January. We've also heard, "Why are you closing Glorieta?". Quick answer to that one, "WE'RE NOT CLOSING GLORIETA!"

So, now that you know for a fact we're not closing, I would like to share with you some of the details of our new operating model for Glorieta. We're excited about the future for Glorieta and we believe God has great things in store for the ministry that takes place there.

 Glorieta Update from Byron Hill on Vimeo.

Devotional Passage: Ephesians 1:1-6
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Ephesians 1:6

A couple waits for a call that will bring closure to a long and often heart-wrenching international adoption process. Over the past several months, they have traveled to the birth country, held the baby, provided care, taken pictures, and developed a bond. Alas, they have not yet been able to bring the baby home.

Why all the effort and the willingness to endure the pain of waiting? These young friends are driven by a desire for a relationship and the pleasure it will bring. They have love in their hearts for this child. By choosing to adopt her they will, in effect, free her from a life of uncertainty and give her the benefits that come with being raised as their own daughter. No doubt when the baby finally is home, they will celebrate like never before!

Look back at the words used to describe this couple’s efforts. Perhaps you will see why Paul used the image of adoption to describe what God did in Christ. He chose us with love and grace that we might be blessed. Hallelujah!

Father, my heart leaps in praise for Your glorious act of grace in choosing me in Christ!

©Fall 2008 Open Windows devotional guide. Used by permission. For information about Open Windows, go online: www.lifeway.com/magazines

Everyone has a telephone,right? We are supposed to be more connected now than ever, but it seems to me that people don't want to actually talk anymore. We text, email, Tweet, write on Facebook walls, instant message, and blog without ever speaking a word out loud.

I personally would rather talk to you. I like the personal interaction rather than trying to read what your feeling through your written words. I'm not saying that all of the written forms are bad, I just think we need a balance. It's funny to me that with so many of these social media tools taking off, we are forgetting about the personal connection you find in someone's voice.

I'm just saying...

Recently I came across a chart in USA Today that showed the results of a poll that asked adults what bugs they feared the most. Specifically they asked if you would have a great deal of fear if the following bugs (ants, cockroaches, termites, bees/wasps, spiders, bedbugs)showed up in your house.

This got me thinking about my bug phobias. As a homeowner I think termites scare me the most. The rest of the bugs I can deal with and they can't destroy my house. On the other hand, termites are scary because most times you don't even know you have them until it's too late. Fortunately I've never actually had them in any of our houses...yet!

While termites are the ones I fear as a homeowner, as a longtime pro in the hotel business I must say bedbugs are pretty scary. Again, you can't see 'em and you don't know you have 'em until someone complains. By then it's too late and you have to do a lot of pretty radical stuff to get rid of 'em. It's happened to my hotels a couple of times and I can tell you it was not fun. For the guests, or for us!

Here's the list from the USA Today poll:

• Termites - 33%
• Bedbugs - 28%
• Bees/wasps - 27%
• Cockroaches - 27%
• Spiders - 21%
• Ants - 18%

What about you? What bugs in your house scare you?

Devotional Passage:  Psalm 104:31-35
I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 
Psalm 104:33

There are approximately 10,000 species of birds on our planet, ranging from the gangly ostrich to the petite hummingbird. The animal kingdom includes such oddities as the three-toed sloth, the poisonous Gila monster, flying squirrels, and the Bombardier Beetle.  What a great mind it took to think of such interesting creatures! Then consider the limitless array of flowers and plant life, with the vast spectrum of colors they display. This enormous variety of botanical and animal life incites us to praise God.

Even our solar system has been handmade with great care. The moon keeps us rotating at the right speed and stops us from teetering toward Jupiter. We are situated at a perfect distance from the sun so that its million-degree temperature doesn’t scorch us. More astonishing still, our solar system is only one of at least 200 billion in the Milky Way Galaxy. Whether viewed through a microscope or a telescope, all of creation is a masterpiece.
 
Isn’t God amazing! Let’s magnify and glorify His name!

Father, You are incredible. I give You praise!

©Summer 2008 Open Windows devotional guide. Used by permission. For information about Open Windows, go online: www.lifeway.com/magazines

Growing up, I never had the opportunity to attend a summer camp. At the time it was no big deal because I didn't know what I was missing. However, the longer I've been involved with our summer camps, the more I wish I could have enjoyed the camp experience as a child.

The following is a recently published article detailing a mom's wish to provide that summer camp experience for her kids. I hope you'll enjoy it.

When Heather Murry tried to enroll her children in camp at Ridgecrest, there were no spots open. Camp staff suggested she try their newer sister camp in Glorieta, N.M. The mother of five from Belmont Baptist Church in Conyers, Ga., said that was divine providence.

"Glorieta boys and girls camps are the jewel of the Southwest – it’s an undiscovered treasure," Heather said. "We wouldn’t trade any camp in the world for this one. It has everything from good, old-fashioned archery and canoeing to worship and quiet times all in one of the most beautiful settings you’ll ever experience."

To read the entire story, please click here.

What about you? Did you have a camp experience growing up? What about your kids? A week or two each summer, at a Christian camp, could have a huge impact on their spiritual growth. If you don't believe me, find someone who's had a "good, old fashioned camp experience" and I'm sure they will tell you the same thing!

The 70-plus summer staff members at LifeWay’s Glorieta Conference Center are working in "the family business" this summer, but that phrase doesn’t mean what you might expect.

"I do feel like their dad," said Billy Roberts, speaking of the young adult staffers he will oversee as manager of the Chuckwagon, Glorieta’s fast food eatery. During the busy summer camp and events season, Roberts’ employees will prepare and serve about two-thirds of the Chuckwagon’s annual food sales.

A couple of weeks before Glorieta’s busy season begins, summer staffers, mostly 20-something college students, arrive at the conference center outside Santa Fe, N.M. Preparations are already well underway to transition Glorieta from its winter schedule, which features mostly small church group bookings, to its busier summer schedule that includes weeks of student camps and large training events.

On top of reopening buildings shuttered during the winter months and performing standard springtime maintenance on the several hundred acre campus, Glorieta’s full-time staff and managers invest a couple of weeks training summer staff members for tasks such as serving meals, working the front desk, housekeeping, facilitating recreation and a variety of other responsibilities.

"We work hard to create an experience that is not just a work experience," said Andrew Morris, Glorieta’s program specialist. Morris is in charge of HighPoint, Glorieta’s summer staff program that incorporates spiritual training into the summer job.

"We want [summer staff members] to see themselves as part of the ministry of Glorieta," he said.

Since ministry is a key component of each job description, Morris said he examined each job application carefully in his search for servant leaders.

Kelli Rice, a student at San Francisco State University, said that the ministry element of working at Glorieta is what drew her to the job.

"I could make more money doing something else this summer, but we get to come here and serve and glorify God," said Rice, who will be working primarily at Glorieta’s front desk.

This is the first summer that temporary summer staff will handle front desk duties, said front desk manager Robert Suggs. Because the job is so complex, his summer employees arrived for training a week earlier than other staff members.

Rice said her first few days on campus were "really quiet," and she was grateful for the friendship and community she developed with the other front desk workers.

That community is what Roberts wants to cultivate as a manager of summer staff members. He said he views the Chuckwagon with the same perspective as he applies to LifeWay as a larger organization. "We’re a ministry first and a business second," Roberts said. "We’ll be busy, but we have to retain that mentality.

"I have a responsibility to lead by example," Roberts said. "I want to know that the summer staff is growing in experience and spiritually." He added that accomplishing that begins with ensuring the summer staff functions more as a family than as a group of individual employees.

This summer’s staff is comprised of very few returning employees. While that means their level of experience is low, Morris said the level of opportunity to foster a sense of community is high.

"It’s a really strong staff and the morale is high," he said. "We want them to understand that they are working as the Body."

Several years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Dale Price at a CCCA national convention. Dale is a good friend of Hal Hill's and has been the executive director at Canyonview Camp in Oregon for many years. Anyway, Hal asked if I minded if Dale joined our group for dinner. I said, "of course not, tell him come on". So Dale joined us that night and a new friendship was launched. Over the next couple of years it became a tradition for Dale to join the LifeWay group for dinner on our free night at the CCCA annual conference.

Less than a year ago Dale was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer and given very low odds for survival. He immediately began a very aggressive treatment  of both radiation and chemo. Shortly after his diagnosis Dale launched a diary (link to Dale's page) on CaringBridge.org and I can't begin to tell you how inspiring it is to read. Dale and his lovely wife Ruby, are now living their lives in HiDef and he's doing a great job of chronicling that journey. God has not cured Dale, yet, but the faith that Dale and Ruby exhibit in this battle is certainly an encouragement to me.

Please take a moment to read a little of Dale's walk with our Lord. I promise you won't regret the time spent.

Dale, we're praying for you buddy. Hope to see you guys this year in Colorado Springs. Dinner's on me!

One of the first marketing lessons I learned, early in my hotel career, was that it costs roughly five times more to get a new customer than to keep one you already have. While the ratio may have changed over the years, I think the basic premise remains true today. If you really want to grow your business, you must do everything you can to keep your guests coming back.

An effective way to keep your guests coming back is to provide them with a level of service that exceeds their expectations. In order to be successful doing this, you must have a good understanding of the level of service they expect and how well you’re doing in delivering that service.

The best way to gauge what your guests think of your service is to simply ask. In today’s wired, online world, your guests are already talking about you and your service. The key is to make sure they’re telling you as well. For that to happen, you need to ask them often, and in different ways. At Ridgecrest and Glorieta we take three steps to get a handle on what our guests think of our product and service.

In-room Surveys

In all of our adult guest rooms, we provide a simple, one-page guest survey. The questions are basic and designed to give us immediate, actionable feedback. By that I mean if there is a problem, we can hopefully find out about it and correct the problem while the guest is still on campus. If that’s not possible, we still have a chance to fix the problem before the next guest checks in.

This type of survey is considered to be unsolicited guest feedback. The survey is in the room and the guest chooses whether to complete it. As a result, the data collected is not always an accurate picture of the true level of service being provided. Typically this survey is only completed by guests who were either very satisfied or very unsatisfied.

Online Surveys

The most accurate measure of guest service is what is termed solicited feedback. This feedback comes from asking the guest to give it to you. The easiest way to do this today is online. We have designed a comprehensive online survey this is emailed weekly to every guest (for whom we have an email address) who stayed with us the prior week.

The results of these surveys are compiled on a monthly basis and give us a good picture of the overall level of guest satisfaction with our product and service. We look at both the current month’s results and the three month rolling average, then see how the scores compare with the same period the previous year. This allows us to reinforce the areas where we identify positive trends and to address those areas that reflect a negative trend.

Event Planner Evaluations

While the in-room and online surveys are targeting individual guests or attendees, our event planner evaluation targets the group leader. In most cases these are the people who made the decision to bring their group to Ridgecrest or Glorieta and, as a result, their feedback is critical to our future success. The questions on this evaluation are focused on the needs of the meeting planner and how well we met those needs. From these evaluations we are better able to make decisions that allow us to improve the way we serve our meeting planners and hopefully make their job easier.

By utilizing all three of these methods for gathering guest feedback, we are able to get a well-rounded picture of whether we’re meeting the service expectations of our guests. The good news is that when we do this well, the guests will come back. When more of our guests come back the following year, the pressure and costs associated with finding new customers is reduced and we’ll see our business grow.

Devotional Passage:  Ephesians 6:10-16 
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11

No warrior would ever dream of running into battle with a cardboard shield or a plastic sword. No fighter pilot would be excited about entering a high speed, high altitude dogfight in a Styrofoam jet. No football coach would send his team onto the field wearing paper bags as shoulder pads. No military leader would send his troops into a tank battle on bicycles.

While these things sound far-fetched, many believers find themselves facing spiritual warfare without proper gear. Our religious platitudes and traditions are not effective weapons for the battles we face as Christians. We need more than religious rituals when it comes to war. We stand under constant attack from a fierce enemy, and we need to be ready with the best possible equipment.

Our enemy is a cunning foe, but we are on the winning team. God’s perfect armor is everything we need for certain victory and it isn’t designed for retreat. So suit up soldier–we’ve got a war to win!
 

Father, help me stand firm against the enemy’s attacks.

©Summer 2008 Open Windows devotional guide. Used by permission. For information about Open Windows, go online: www.lifeway.com/magazines

The B-I-B-L-E yes that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E……That’s what it’s all about"  It may seem strange to hear it this way, but it is great theology.

People who develop computer systems know that the project isn’t finished until it’s documented, because other people need to know how to use what you develop. It stands to reason, then, that if the universe has a Creator, then He would leave a document explaining what it’s all for. In a sense, the Bible is God’s documentation of the most important project in history, which is His creation and redemption of the human race.

Technicians tend to be frustrated with people who won’t read and follow documentation, even though we admit human documentation is imperfect. Imagine a car owner who says, "I don’t believe all this stuff in the owner’s manual about changing my oil! I won’t let the car company tell me what to do!" A person like that will get what he deserves, which is a blown engine. All the more reason, then, to follow the infallible documentation that God has given. People, families, institutions, and societies that ignore what the Creator of the universe says about His creation are setting themselves up for a fall.

Of course, the Bible is much more than a manual. The more we read it, study it, meditate on it, and memorize it, the more we find it is like the spring of living water that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman.

The Bible may not tell you how to fix your computer, but it says a lot about what really matters – such as that system between the chair and the keyboard.  I’ve seen many computer systems come and go. But as the Bible says in 1^st Peter, "the word of the Lord endures forever."

I read a great article this week on what our ministries can learn from Disney.  Here are some points that I thought we're particularly interesting.  Walt Disney lived to bring joy to others-but he was also an incredibly driven, principled, precise and visionary leader.  Look at how his principles can impact  leaders, dreamers and ministers.

Work diligently. Bring out the best in others.

·        Do you have a go-the-extra-mile attitude?

·        Do you help people discover their gifts and use them?

·        Do you make the people around you better?

·        Who are you mentoring right now?

Maintain a commitment to excellence.

·        What qualifies as “excellent” in your ministry? What doesn’t?

·        Are you content with “good enough”?

·        Do people associate excellence with your ministry?

Create a place families can experience together.

·        Does your ministry provide experiences families can enjoy together?

·        How do you equip parents to explore faith with their children outside church walls?

·        How can you make your church a more welcoming environment for families with children?

Remember that ministry is all about the people.

·        Do first-time guests have a great experience?

·        Do people at your church feel loved and cared for?

·        Do you put people before rules?

Remember that it’s not just about brainpower.

·        Do you depend on God’s strength or your own?

·        Are you working where God gifted you?

·        Do you make yourself available to God?

Make people smile.

·        Do people enter your doors with a spirit of anticipation?

·        Do people smile and have fun?

·        Do people say your services or programs are boring?

Devotional Passage: Mark 6:30-32
And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. Mark 6:31

Working 8-to-5 six days a week, drive time, getting the kids up and off to school, packing lunches, laundry, yard work, Little League, ballet lessons, church on Sundays (and Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and Tuesdays for visitation), seminars, board meetings, deacon’s meetings, taking care of Grandma or Grandpa, birthday parties, working out at the gym, meal time, house work, bed time for the kids, family devotions—the list goes on and on whatever our stage of life. We put ourselves into a continuous rush it seems, dashing from one activity or responsibility to another. Jesus said, Stop! Breathe! Get alone! Be still! Pray! Think! Listen! And rest!

If a little rest was a good prescription for Jesus’ contemporaries–His intimate circle of disciples–it will work for us mad-dash, Twenty-First Century disciples, too.

Take a little time today to pull away from the busyness of life, even the good things, and “rest a while.”

Father, help me follow Your advice to come apart from my busy life and rest in You.

©Summer 2008 Open Windows devotional guide. Used by permission. For information about Open Windows, go online: www.lifeway.com/magazines

If you are a leader, you ask people to do things every day. Hopefully they say yes to your request and things get accomplished, but have you ever stopped to think why they did what you asked? If not, you should, because the answer to that question will go a long way in determining how successful a leader you are or will become.

Early in my management career I learned there are basically three reasons people will do what a leader asks them to do. The first one is pretty obvious: You’re the boss! This is known as position power. Because of the position you hold, your employees have to do what you ask.

While every leader uses position power, especially when coming into a new position or organization, over reliance on it can lead to an unmotivated or even resentful work force. Employees will begin to do just enough to comply and the bolder ones may even begin to look for ways to subtly undermine their leader – neither of which is good for the long-term health of the department or organization.

The second reason a person will do what a leader asks of is based on what could be described as a cost/benefit analysis. Although this may sound complicated, it really isn’t. Basically the employee considers the benefit of doing what you’ve asked versus the cost of not doing it. If doing what is asked benefits the employee, or if the cost of not complying is too steep, then he/she will do what is asked. However, if they don’t think they will benefit and/or they deem the cost of not complying acceptable, then they usually won’t. This typically happens when people feel their leader/organization does not care about them. As a result they begin making the majority of their work decisions based on what is best for them, not the organization.

The third reason a person says ‘yes’ to a leader is really the sweet spot of leadership and this is personal power. In other words, people are willing to do what you ask of them because of a personal relationship that has been established. Having this personal relationship does not necessarily mean being buddies with those you lead. What it does mean is that they respect you and trust that what you are asking of them is the right thing to do. Gen. George Patton and Coach John Wooden were both great leaders.  One was feared by his men and the other was loved by his players, but both were respected, trusted and followed.

While initial respect comes with the position, long term respect and trust must be earned over time. Are you the real deal? Does what you say line up with what you do? Do those you lead sense that it’s more than a job for you? Do they see you living out the mission? If the answer to these questions is yes, then your people are following you because they want to. If not, then they are probably following you because of your title or because it’s in their own self interest. Either way, it’s not a recipe for long-term leadership success.

So…why do the people you lead say ‘yes’?

My son has been at camp for ten days now, with three more to go.  I miss him terribly but the great thing about Camp Ridgecrest is that every day they post pictures of the days activities online with a note that includes daily highlights and what they were served for meals.  As a Mom, what they served for meals is very important because you do wonder if their eating and knowing what they were served gives you a good idea if they ate or not.

Anyway, I sent my son with 14 postcards (all pre-addressed and stamped), I figured that they had a rest period every day, so how hard could it be to write a quick postcard.  It wasn't like I sent stationary and expected a letter.  Apparently, harder than I thought.  I have received one postcard at this point and it said "I love you mom".  As excited I was to hear that, it just wet my whistle, I still wanted to know more. (Let's face it, I want to know if he's brushing his teeth.)  Then today in the mail I received a postcard from camp.  Not one from my child of course.  But, the next best thing...his counselor.  Now we were talking, his counselor told me how he had spent his extra money, what he was doing,  that he was sleeping well (still no mention of the teeth, but I'll get over it), that he's having a great time.  His counselor told me about some of the skills he has learned, like throwing a Frisbee and how well he is doing in volleyball and how he talks constantly. 

Yes, finally I had some information and I couldn't have been more excited about it.  Then at the end of the note came the most important sentence of all.  He said "and he is really growing in the Lord every day."  Wow, you can't get that from a picture but, that is what it is all about.  The knowledge of these camp programs and their focus on discipleship gave me the ability to send my eight year old to camp for two weeks so far away in the first place.