In the 1960s, the premier football team in the NFL was the Green Bay Packers. They won five NFL titles in 60’s. They also won the first two Super Bowls. Their coach; the Superbowl Trophy’s namesake, Vince Lombardi.
Vince Lombardi was an incredible coach and an outstanding leader; one of his greatest successes, wasn’t just winning championships, but building an enduring team. He won because of the teams he built, and he built the team he did because he focused on what he called the fundamentals of the game.
If you are a fan of sports at all you will have at least heard of the legendary Vince Lombardi. Vince understood something that caused his teams to be great and allow him to achieve greatness on the field few have matched. He understood that winning doesn’t come be accident. He preached the value of fundamentals.
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Vince Lombardi
In sport, and life, winning and losing always comes down to the fundamentals, will the person or team do the small things right. If so, nine times out of ten they come out on the winning side.
When I was in High School I played basketball, I wasn’t the best player on the court but I was part a great team. Our coach absolutely hounded us with the practice and value of fundamentals. We did drills over and over again. We begged to scrimmage; we loved to play the game, but our coach wouldn’t let us, “Any given day any team can lose, but it’s the team that executes the fundaments flawlessly that will win” he would howler. Win we did that year, we lost one game by 2 points and actually ended up placing third in state. Did we win because we were the most talented? I don’t think so, looking back I believe it was because we did the right things all the time.
Leadership is all about doing the right things all the time, developing what Lombardi calls a winning habit. What does a winning habit look like in the leadership in Children’s ministry? What are the fundamentals of Children’s Ministry that winning? If you’re going to soar in Children’s Ministry what are the things you need to be doing at the ground level? What things do you focus on in the first year? If you’re a grizzly veteran, what are the fundamentals you must revisit every year?
Vince Lombardi said it this way, “Every time a football player goes to play his trade he’s got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head.”
- Lead With Vision
- Build with Relationships
- Grow with change
An organization that is lead by vision, builds relationship, and is continually changing will produce fruit that remains. As a leader your passion is sapped when you forget these fundamentals, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the arena of kids ministry. Remember and constantly work on the fundamentals.
This is part of my article from the latest K! Magazine. To read my article in total as well as many others from men and woman I respect greatly subscribe now. I love the layout and content of K! it reminds me of Harvard Business Review and that’s saying something. If you are in Children’s Ministry you need to be a subscriber.
