Green Sky Innovation

Green Sky

The Host's Perspective

UNLOCK INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION ON YOUR TEAM AND OTHERS.

A Tale of Two Tables

A Parable

The Host's Perspective

"A guest never forgets the host who has treated him kindly."

- Homer, Greek poet

What would you do if you had the opportunity to have Jesus over to your house for dinner? I’m sure you would want the evening to be memorable, the food delicious, and the conversation special. You would think through every detail to make the experience perfect. Nothing would be left to chance. The New Testament shares stories of people who hosted Jesus and His disciples as they traveled. People opened their homes and invited Jesus into their lives. Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus were some of the people who became close friends of Jesus through the time they spent together.

Inviting someone to share your table is a powerful act of hospitality. When we host others, we care for them as we do for our own families. Jesus Himself demonstrates the power of hosting when He washed the feet of His disciples. He also broke bread and ate with them—instructing them to do this regularly. He could have chosen anything to become His followers’ ritual. But the act of coming to a table and sharing a meal was what He chose for us to remember Him by.

Every opportunity we have to host people is a chance to show the love of Christ. What does this have to do with ministry innovation? More than you would expect. Every time you are with a group of people you have the choice to adopt the host’s perspective—creating an experience that demonstrates Gospel values. A host’s perspective is key to the work of ministry innovation because we cannot solve our biggest challenges alone. The kingdom problems and opportunities we face are too big. We must collaborate to innovate.

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A host helps people collaborate well and focuses their energy in the right direction. Ministry innovators can learn to be facilitators who activate others to give their best. Facilitation is a powerful way you can lead and serve. The host steps forward knowing that every interaction is a valuable opportunity. Great results come from well-designed experiences.

Well-facilitated gatherings take effort to plan and execute. But they are worth it. The most valuable part of any ministry is its people, which means the most valuable thing we have is people’s time and attention. We should strive to steward our people, partners, and their contributions in the best way possible to ultimately lead others into powerful encounters with Jesus.

Together as One

Innovation thrives in diversity, but diversity also brings challenges to navigate. Each person is different and brings their own expectations, communication style, and way of working. Effective teams leverage these differences to create strength, but this does not happen by itself.

Think about when you are invited to someone’s house for a gathering. You walk into a room of people you don’t know but who have also been invited. You instinctively look to the leader of the gathering to know what to do. The host is the guide who moves you through the event from beginning to end. A good host connects people together and helps them find areas of similarity or interest to talk about. A host is also alert to areas of difference among their guests and helps gracefully navigate any potential tensions.

A host does not need to be the team leader, but they are always a servant leader. They serve the team by creating an environment that brings out people’s best contributions. A host sees each person’s individual strengths and plans ways for everyone to work together effectively. You may already have someone like this on your team—someone who can empathize with many different perspectives, or perhaps a peacemaker who can negotiate your team out of conflict. That person may naturally exhibit the qualities of a host, but anyone can learn this skill.

One of the most practical areas where a host’s perspective is needed is in any kind of meeting. Meetings gather people together for a purpose. They are incredible opportunities for innovation, but we often don’t take enough time to plan for them well. Getting the right people in a room is only the first step. What you do with them once they are there is when the real work begins. Too often we stop at just scheduling time together assuming that the meeting will take care of itself. That is where we are wrong. I have found that the most successful meetings are the ones that have a host dedicated to planning and conducting the gathering.

As the host, you set expectations and keep the group moving forward to accomplish their purpose. You don’t have all the answers, but you do know how to plan a group’s time so that they can discover the answers together. Hosts are the most visible to everyone, but the least important in terms of contributing content to the meeting. This is good news because it means you can host any kind of meeting. You do not need to be the expert in whatever the subject is, you just need to learn to be an expert facilitator to make any meeting a success.

Planning Your Purpose

Before you gather anyone together to do anything, ensure you know your purpose. Your purpose guides every decision you will make. I learned this principle from a book called The Art of Gathering by facilitator and strategic advisor Priya Parker. Parker has built her career in the field of conflict resolution through group dialogue. She helps people who disagree get together in an environment where they can seek understanding and resolution. Her book’s tips for designing gatherings are widely applicable from planning business meetings to birthday parties. Parker emphasizes that every meaningful gathering has a strong and specific purpose. Why are you getting these people together?

The purpose must be clearly defined from the start. We often confuse the type of an event with its purpose. A birthday party is a type of event, but its purpose is to celebrate a milestone in someone’s life. Who that person is and how they feel about that milestone should guide you in creating a more specific purpose for their party. A weekly team meeting is a type of event, but its purpose is not just to take up time in our week. Perhaps it helps us align our work, increase communication, or solve problems together. Your purpose determines who you gather and points you towards the best format and agenda for the time together.

For example, if your goal is to serve pastors in your city, you might decide to host a citywide pastor’s conference. This generally tells us who should be included (pastors in this city) and what they are being invited to (a conference). However, this is not a strong specific purpose that helps us plan a meaningful event. A purpose might be “to create an opportunity for the community to show appreciation for pastors and their families,” or alternatively, “to help pastors who don’t usually work together share ideas for how to reach the city.” These are two very different purposes that would result in very different decisions and plans. From the venue you select to how many people you invite and what you include on the schedule—everything is built around your purpose. Purpose determines the kind of conference you end up with and helps you plan an event that accomplishes it.

I realize this sounds basic, but it is surprising how often we skip the step of defining our purpose and communicating it clearly. We tend to jump straight into planning and execution. We often let our constraints drive our decisions rather than being guided by our intended purpose. Practice slowing down at the beginning of your process and looking at the bigger picture.

Creating Safety and Trust

To accomplish your stated purpose, you must establish an environment of trust where people feel safe to contribute. Every gathering has its own opportunities and risks. You are mixing different personalities, perspectives, and opinions together in one place. No two groups of people are ever the same. Even the same group of people can act very differently depending on the day, time, and their mood. Hosts serve a critical role in equalizing the environment so each participant feels comfortable.

Many factors impact a group’s feeling of safety. In your gathering, you may have people of different cultural backgrounds, authority, and expertise. Some people may know each other, while others will be new to the group. Some people are used to leading, while others will be shy to share their opinions. A good host anticipates these differences and establishes guidelines for interaction so the group can function harmoniously.

For example, in some gatherings I have set a “no phone” rule to help people stay focused. Phones can be very distracting, and checking them while someone else is talking can be rude and disrespectful. I communicate this to the group at the start of the meeting and invite everyone to put their phone in a box. This saves me the trouble of having to enforce the rule during the meeting and potentially cause embarrassment. At the end, everyone gets their phone back and even those who initially complained about the rule usually see that it makes the group more productive.

It is important to consider what rules you need to establish for your gathering. Don’t have too many rules, but carefully choose which guidelines are needed to ensure the group can do their best work. People feel safer when they know what is expected of them and have boundaries in place to guide collaboration. Save the group from miscommunications and hurt feelings by communicating the guidelines clearly and holding the group accountable to those values.

The primary job of a facilitator is to help people to work together. In order to do that, people need to get to know each other. Do not underestimate the need for human connection. It can be easy to skip things like introductions and icebreakers in your agenda, but these are critical to establishing a friendly environment. The host builds trust among the group by helping people connect. This is particularly important at the start of the gathering when everyone feels awkward, as well as in transitions between activities. These are important moments the host must intentionally guide. Work to ensure everyone enjoys the time together and leaves with a positive impression. Be friendly and help them connect to you as well as to each other. Fill in awkward silences and lighten the mood if you need to. As the host, you are not there to be in the spotlight. But you are uniquely positioned to create a positive environment where people are able to bring their best.

Producing Participation

Bringing a diverse group of people together to accomplish a shared purpose only works when everyone participates. Having different perspectives represented in a room is useless unless those perspectives are able to be voiced. As a host, one of your primary responsibilities is to help people engage. There will always be people who speak too much and people who are shy to contribute. But a host ensures no individual takes over the conversation. As the facilitator, you have unique permission to gracefully interrupt when someone is dominating the conversation. Invite others to share their thoughts. Everyone has something valuable to contribute, so ensure everyone has a chance to be heard. Communicate this value to the group ahead of time so they can all share in the responsibility of listening well.

Hosting requires empathy and alertness. Pay attention not only to the group’s conversation, but also to their body language. Facial expressions and nonverbal cues communicate loudly if you look. You can usually tell when someone disagrees even if they don’t say anything. Invite them to share their opinions. You should also watch for anyone who might feel uncomfortable or confused. People may have questions but feel embarrassed to ask. Be sure to make space for clarifications and ensure everyone is on the journey with you.

If you have planned a long meeting, know that it will be difficult to stay focused the entire time. You should monitor people’s energy levels and take breaks when needed. Use the power of your words to encourage the group. Help them know they are moving in a positive direction and their contributions are appreciated and valuable. If the group is getting stuck or disagreeing, you might need to adjust your plans. Be willing to adapt and exercise flexibility. While your agenda is important, your people are more important. Your first priority should be helping them give their best towards the shared purpose. If needed, sacrifice your schedule. You can always plan another meeting or follow-up conversation.

Finally, know that hosting requires humility. It is not about you and your plans. You may be the most visible person as the facilitator of the gathering, but the group is not there to follow you. You are there to serve them. They will listen to you, but your opinion is not the one that matters. The strength lies in the group and in each person who comes to the table. Your role is to set the table and serve the group by directing their energy and efforts towards the shared goal. People will quickly come to recognize the value of this skill set and invite you to help them further.

Crafting Memories

Think back on your life. What moments stand out as truly special memories? Take a minute and recall a few . . . maybe you thought of your wedding, a graduation, or a trip you took with friends or family. Often these memorable moments are the most carefully planned moments in our lives. Just consider how much time, effort, and money is spent planning a wedding. Indian weddings literally last for days. My Brazilian friends tell me you invite the whole town to celebrate a wedding. Wedding planning is a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide dedicated to ensuring every single moment is as perfect as it can be. It requires multiple people working together to create an experience that honors the special couple and everyone who joins them. So it is no mystery that we remember those days well.

I never bothered to think much about what my wedding would be like and left all the planning to my wife. But I remember being unexpectedly moved by all the people who came to support us. I didn’t even know many of them, yet they took time to be with us and see us off into our first steps of life together. One of the most special parts of the afternoon was when people took time to toast us and speak words of affirmation and blessing for our future. I still get choked up thinking about it. Yet that was such a simple thing. No special equipment was needed—just people together in a heartfelt moment. It made me wonder why we don’t take time to bless and affirm each other more in our daily lives.

Most days are unremarkable. You probably don’t remember much about what happened last week or last month or even last year. Weeks blur together and time seems to slip by. One of my leaders told me once that “the days are long, but the months are short.” I have found this to be true particularly as an adult. When I was a child, every year was memorable and different. I had new teachers, new friends, and new experiences. Every birthday was a major milestone. The leap between age nine to ten felt enormous! But now it feels like birthdays are very close together. A whole year passes quickly because I am mostly doing the same kinds of things every day.

Picture your usual daily life as a flat line. When you have a great experience, the flat line jumps up to make a peak. If you have a negative experience, it drops down creating a valley. The language of peaks and valleys is helpful as we think about creating memories. People tend to remember what breaks the pattern of their everyday, mundane experiences—for good or bad.

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Jesus Himself created powerful moments throughout His ministry so people could better understand the kingdom of heaven. He performed miraculous healings, cast out demons, and multiplied food to feed thousands. He told stories that communicated the power of the Gospel in a way people could more easily understand. Jesus’s disciples lived with Him through some incredible peaks and some very low valleys. We are engaged in that same work of helping people understand the Gospel and how it applies to their lives. As we journey with people through their lives, we will get to celebrate their peaks and comfort them in their valleys. Most importantly, we can be alert to opportunities for them to encounter Jesus personally.

Memories don’t have to be limited to miraculous, once-in-a-lifetime moments. Crafting memories is a powerful tool available to us all if we know how to use it. Brothers Chip and Dan Heath teach this in their book The Power of Moments. This concept of peaks and valleys comes from their book. They describe four types of moments we can create: Moments of Elevation, Moments of Insight, Moments of Success, and Moments of Connection. Let’s look at the first two and their potential applications to our ministry work.

Moments of Elevation

Teaching Sunday School to six-year-olds is challenging work! They are just old enough to reason with, but they don’t always listen. Their individual personalities are really starting to emerge, meaning there are lots of ways they can upset one another and their teachers. I taught Sunday School classes with my mom, who is one of the most creative and inspiring people I know. The weekly lesson guides provided were often disappointing. While the activities were simple to conduct, they were boring and never engaged our students’ imagination.

We decided to do things differently. One Sunday, we were teaching the lesson of Jesus miraculously feeding the crowd of 5,000. When the children arrived, they were greeted by the unfamiliar smells of fish and freshly baked bread. We had stopped by our local market on the way to church and picked up two fish and some loaves, just like in the biblical story. The children were excited to see and touch a real fish! We broke the bread and ate it together as we told the story. Certainly we could have done an easier activity, such as coloring pictures of fishes and loaves. But real fish and bread helped the children participate in the story in a powerful way and make a memory. They couldn’t wait to tell their parents what had happened. We created a moment that broke the typical pattern of a Sunday morning.

Moments of elevation rise above our typical experiences by breaking our expectations. They form peaks. These moments transform an experience from ordinary to unexpected. In doing so, it activates our brain in figuring out how to respond to the new situation. The vivid experience leaves a strong memory.

My mom and I broke the pattern often with our Sunday School class. One day, we tiptoed around the church because we heard there was a giant in the building. We glimpsed a life-sized drawing of Goliath’s outline in a dark hallway and quietly snuck away hoping he hadn’t seen us. Another week, students arrived to find my mom in the classroom at the top of a ladder imitating Zacchaeus when he was up in a tree. These creative activities made our Sunday School class the most popular at church. But most importantly, we hope it helped those children experience Scripture for themselves and grasp the wonder of those Bible stories.

We can plan for and create moments of elevation in our ministry work. To do so we first need to understand the expectations we need to break. What do people anticipate from their interaction with you? We can easily slip into ministry routines, repeating patterns that seem to work. This isn’t bad, but it creates a habit in our audience. They may start to have a flat-line experience instead of peak moments. The great news is that once you recognize the habit, you can embrace the opportunity to interrupt the pattern in a surprising way.

Sometimes people interrupt us as well. For example, when someone has a complaint about us or something we have done. Chip and Dan Heath describe this as a “pit moment” in their book. But even negative experiences present opportunities. When someone complains, you also have the chance to break their expectations in a good way. People remember great service even if it was initiated by a problem. Practice empathetic listening and go above and beyond to fix the problem. Every experience creates a lasting impression of your organization. As Christians, we also represent Christ and should be intentional to leverage every moment to reflect the love of God to others.

We have learned about two ways to create moments of elevation. But which should you focus on: creating a peak or filling a pit? Which is more effective? Imagine a rating scale of 1–7 for your ministry. The people you interact with have the chance to score you between a 1, being “very bad,” and 7, being “very good.” When considering the ratings, you have limited team capacity and resources to respond. You face two choices:

1. Eliminate all the negatives: You can focus on all the areas that score low (1–3) and aim to make them a 4, which is average.

2. Elevate the positives: You can take all the good scores (4–6) and aim to make them a perfect 7—the best score you can get.

Which should you choose? Chip and Dan Heath extensively studied businesses that took different approaches. Research showed that elevating the positives was nine times more beneficial than eliminating the negatives. This is surprising! It can be easy to spend all our time fixing problems and not spend any time improving what is going well. However, it is much more valuable to focus on creating spectacular experiences, even if there are still some flaws to work out.

Moments of elevation are what create fans who tell others about your work. We don’t remember “not-bad” experiences (in other words the 4–6 ratings). We remember and share amazing experiences (the 7’s). Focusing on filling in the pits just brings people to average, which means we have met their expectations. We should aim to exceed their expectations. How can we make something extraordinary rather than ordinary?

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This is not easy, and we may need to fight to make it happen. Not everyone will see the need to create a moment of elevation. They may be perfectly satisfied with the work as it is. It would have been easy to say that bringing in fish and fresh loaves of bread for our Bible lesson was “over the top” or “too much trouble.” That’s probably what other Sunday School teachers thought. Why couldn’t we just teach the Bible story the normal way? The pressure to “be reasonable” will persistently threaten to drain the awesomeness from the peaks you aim to create.

There will always be logical excuses not to make an effort. Creating moments of elevation may require time, cost money, or be a risk that may not work. Businesses know the value of creating peak moments though. Disney designs exclusive experiences at their theme parks that create special moments for families on vacation. Apple unveils each new device they create and makes getting it an event worth celebrating. The Gospel is worth far more than a family vacation or a new phone.

As ministry innovators, we should be willing to go where others have not gone before for the sake of the Gospel. Creating moments requires us to push past resistance and fight for something exceptional and different. How can we elevate a person’s encounter of the Gospel and make it the most special moment they have ever experienced? Peaks do not build themselves. It is worth the effort to make our presentation of Christ meaningful and memorable because there is nothing in this world more deserving of elevation than Christ.

Moments of Insight

Another way to create a powerful experience is by helping someone have a moment of insight. An insight is a new realization that comes not from someone else but from within our own heart and mind. We cannot guarantee that an insight will occur, but we can create an environment with all the right conditions.

OneHope has a program called God’s Big Story that we developed for children in Africa. We created it to share Scripture with children who cannot read. Each week, a teacher shares a Bible story and gives each child a small card with a picture on it to help them remember the story. Collecting the story cards motivates them to come back each week for the next card. The stories start in the Old Testament and continue into the New Testament with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

There are sixteen cards to collect, and when lined up in the right order they unlock a secret. The children can flip all the cards over and see that they form a picture on the back like a puzzle. This picture shows how we fit into God’s bigger story of salvation. This creates a powerful moment of insight. It connects everything they have been learning about the Bible to their own lives. It helps them see that the Gospel message is for them personally. Millions of children have been reached through this program, and it has spread from Africa to Latin America, to Asia, and around the world.

Moments of insight must be intentionally designed. They don’t happen accidentally. Chip and Dan Heath tell a story of how teachers were led to a moment of insight. The teachers were asked to write down what they hoped their students would remember years after taking their class. One by one the teachers read their dreams and goals to the group. They said things like, “I want my students to learn that math is actually fun,” and, “I hope they will feel more confident connecting with other people and talking about ideas.” All the teachers expressed worthy goals, but the next assignment was to look at their lesson plans and identify what would lead their students towards those ends. The teachers struggled to do this, and many had a powerful moment of insight.

They realized that nothing in their lesson plans would really accomplish the dreams they had for their students. Most of their plans focused on teaching information students needed to pass their tests. They had not spent a single minute planning experiences that would accomplish what they said they wanted students to remember years later. It was as if they were leaving for a trip and they were already lost. They had a vehicle, gas, and a destination—but no map to plan how they would get there.

It can be the same for us in ministry. We have dreams and goals for those we are reaching with the Gospel. But have we spent enough time and effort planning how that experience will truly change their lives in the way we hope?

A church service is a type of gathering you may be involved in designing. Yet we often fall back on an expected routine, rather than carefully examining the pattern to see if it is helping us meet our goals. For example, rather than hoping people feel connected to the church community, why not design a Sunday specifically focused on helping people make friends? Use some of the time to help people connect one-on-one and break down the barriers of age or culture that might be standing in the way. If evangelism is a priority, what about making space for people to practice sharing their testimony to help them feel equipped and confident? There are many ways we might reimagine church services to create powerful moments of insight and elevation if we stop and look.

The ultimate moment of insight is realizing what the Gospel means for your life and choosing to follow Christ. That is the purpose behind each one of our ministries. It is a worthy purpose, and we should use every tool and resource available to us to accomplish it.

Think about how you can create moments of insight for the people you are reaching. Look through your ministry plans with new eyes to see how what you are doing is connecting people personally to Jesus. If you struggle to find those connections, think about how you can create them. We sow the seeds and God brings the growth, but we should still do everything we can to give those seeds the best chance to grow. By considering each person and carefully crafting moments for them, we can make the most of every opportunity we are given to share the Gospel.

The Hidden Power of Facilitation

It had been a long week. Brightly colored sticky notes cluttered the windows and walls. Elaborate drawings were taped up around the room, and the whiteboard was an inky mess of shapes, arrows, and illustrations. The team worked tensely, nervously checking the clock.

“Alright, ten minutes left till we start the first interview!” I said. “Let’s run through the prototype again and make sure we’re ready.”

Everyone anxiously watched the screen while we clicked through each button on the fake app we had pulled together in just the past twelve hours. It wasn’t quite perfect, of course. It was only designed to look like the real thing. Some places weren’t clickable, and all the content was made up. But it would be enough. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but there wasn’t much time to celebrate.

I quickly ran to meet our first guest—a nine-year-old. He would be the first of five children we would interview that day and ask to give an honest first impression of our fake app. They were the experts now because our project was intended to help children better engage with Scripture digitally. Our team of eight had spent the past four days in a room together thinking up ideas for this monumental task. The best thing we could do now was hear from the children themselves because none of us knew exactly how things looked from the eyes of nine- to twelve-year olds.

The whole team watched from the room next door as the scene unfolded on live video. The children clicked the buttons we had just carefully tested and paused to watch the video of a young person sharing how Scripture taught her the importance of relying on God. Then the comments started rolling in. “That was funny!” “She seems nice!” “What is this here for?” “So cool!” “Will there be more tomorrow? I would watch that again!”

We carefully took note of each response and what surprised us. Some comments were expected, while others we would never have imagined. After just five interviews, we had all the feedback we needed to make some key decisions about how to move forward. The team ended the week feeling tired but confident about the next steps needed to create an engaging digital Scripture experience. We had just completed our first sprint.

Sprint is a book by Jake Knapp that lays out a method to solve problems and tests ideas in just five days. A sprint gathers a team of seven to ten people for a focused period of brainstorming and work, at the end of which you test your idea on your target audience by using a prototype—like the fake app we showed the kids. Sprints create valuable moments of insight that save you from going the wrong direction. We all tend to get attached to our own ideas and the solutions we think are the best way forward. But by testing those ideas early, it is easier to let them go if needed—before spending a lot of time and money on them. It is also so valuable to hear from the people you are trying to serve, rather than assuming you know what they want or need.

A sprint requires a facilitator to host the five-day experience, and every person who is invited has a specific job too. For example, one person is “the Decider,” who is the final authority on decisions and helps the group move forward when there is a disagreement. Defining roles is critical to keep the group focused since everything has to be done in just a few days. If you follow the plan, you are guaranteed valuable insights on how your best idea will be received.

The secret to a sprint’s success is the effectiveness of facilitation and focus. It is an intentional plan to support collaboration. All the activities have already been designed and arranged. All you have to do is learn to lead those activities and get the right group of people to focus on the problem you want to solve.

Here is a brief outline of the sprint schedule:

Day 1: Map. The team defines their long-term goals, maps out their vision for how they want to serve their audience, and establishes a shared understanding of the problem to solve.

Day 2: Sketch. The group works towards a solution by researching ways other organizations have solved similar problems. Using all those ideas as inspiration, each person in the group sketches out a proposal showing a drawing of how the problem could be solved.

Day 3: Decide. The team reviews their sketches and chooses one solution to focus on. Once everyone’s feedback has been considered, a more detailed sketch is created, and the group plans how to create a prototype.

Day 4: Prototype. The group works for the entire day building the prototype to test their idea. A prototype is not a finished product, but rather the bare minimum needed to collect honest impressions and feedback from real users.

Day 5: Test. Five people from the target audience are brought in to use the prototype and give their opinions. One person from the team interviews each person while the rest of the group observes and takes notes. After the interviews are completed, the team reviews what they learned and how they should move forward.

When I started facilitating sprints, I felt like I had a new superpower to help people. I didn’t really do anything other than explain the activities, keep people on track, and answer questions. But it was like magic. At the end of the sprint, people had clarity and could move forward in their work more confidently. Plus, everyone had fun and felt purposeful contributing their skills to build something together. It broke the script of the ways we usually worked together and created memorable moments.

What I was experiencing was the hidden power of facilitation. Sprints teach one method of leading a group over multiple days to solve a specific kind of problem. But you can apply the same facilitation skills to any meeting or presentation. Sprints are not the solution for everything. It is difficult to get a team to commit five full days to this process, plus there are many projects that don’t require prototypes and interviews. Rather, a sprint’s true value is in excellently hosting people to solve a problem collaboratively.

We often think that by simply putting brilliant people in a room together, we will get brilliant results. But the truth is that much more is needed. People dislike being without direction and leadership. Not having a plan wastes time and makes everyone feel uncomfortable. Inevitably, someone has to step up and lead. With a good host, even the most ordinary group can produce extraordinary results. You just need a well thought-out agenda and a host dedicated to facilitating the time well.

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Remember, you don’t need to be a subject matter expert to facilitate—you just need to practice facilitation. By starting with sprints, you can learn many activities that you can use or modify to meet different needs and time constraints. Always be on the lookout for new activities and tools you can try to help people collaborate better. Even a simple brainstorming activity can really help a meeting be more creative and productive.

As a facilitator, you are not responsible for a group’s results, but you are responsible to help people make the most of their time together. Plan with the values of a host in mind: communicate a clear purpose, create an environment of safety and trust, and help everyone participate and give their best. Look for opportunities to create moments that break the script or lead to insights. Hosting is a sacrificial role but a powerful way you can lead and serve, modeling Christ’s humility and love for others.

Afterward