New Year. New Direction.

This year my blog will become an outlet for opinions on tactics, training and gear as they relate to the firearms industry.  I resolve to post three new articles every single week, typically on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I will be interviewing other shooters in the industry, and will be attending events where my goal will be to report on the positives of that culture.
As a man, I am as common sense as they come, (read unintelligent if you wish) and I hope to discuss these categories in a way that everyone can appreciate.  Hopefully offering a different angle on many of the established norms in our industry.

Let's kick this off right -
I've noticed a disturbing trend over the past few years that has got me asking some unique questions about our gun culture.  In particular it seems like we've got four different camps of shooters in the U.S.  Please watch Colion Noir's video. It so accurately pinpoints the differences of these four groups, and is darn funny to boot.

I find myself somewhere between the tactical and hunting guys represented in that video. I've been a lifelong hunter and have a law enforcement background. So on my tactical side I would argue that pistols are defensive tools period. There is no other purpose for them than to protect people. On my hunting side I would say that all firearms are useful for the purposes of taking animals for food and sport. I have wandered into the realm of competition shooting various times over the years.  First with IDPA, then with 3-Gun, and now I'm getting into precision rifle competition.  My problem with competition is that it's a game. Which is totally the point for many shooters, but my tactical side screams out, "it's not realistic to know what threats are going to pop up and be able to plan for it!" Therefore I can't label myself a competition shooter in any way.  As far as the "gun collector" goes - I own a collection of guns, but to me, they are all tools.  I don't idolize my tools, I use them. I could care less if my guns have dings and scratches.

My beef with all this is the growing "in fighting" between the different camps. Like on Mr. Noir's video, the tactical guy says "you're useless" to all the other guys and sets his mind to believe there's no point to their particular view of gun culture.
Folks this is wrong! We have go to stop fighting each other and unite behind our common goal, which is to maintain our firearms related freedoms.  It's like trying to support multiple conservative presidential candidates at the same time. Your support for one hurts the other, and at the end just insures that several good guys end up going home broke and defeated. Why don't all conservatives rally behind one candidate early on, and unite for the common purpose of defeating the liberals?
The different camps within the gun culture are acting no differently, and it's disgraceful.  It's actually just tearing us apart.

Tactical guys, you could learn a thing or two about having fun from the Competition guys.
Collectors, you might really enjoy taking down an elk from 800 yards with that $7000 rifle. The Hunters will gladly teach you how.

Wake up and realize that Tactical Tim's overly prideful opinions are just as worthy as your particular perspective on the gun culture. How about you prove your devotion to our cause by trying something outside of your comfort zone this year?  For me that's precision rifle competition...oh and I promise to stop harping on the worthlessness of the 1911 platform...

- Me

As Any Good Leader Will Do - Part 3

In the first two installments of this article I told you about a person on one of my volunteer teams who was having trouble committing to the responsibilities of the service position. At the end of part 2 I left you with the thought that I would probably "fire" this person. Well, sometimes things change.

Interestingly enough I never had to confront the man. He actually came to me. I think he realized he was falling short, and felt convicted to apologize. This was perfect because I actually like the guy and was seriously dreading that conversation. Due to his honesty and self awareness of the situation I decided to keep him on the team and give him another chance. He stepped it up and hasn't been a problem for me or the team going forward.

As any good leader will do I am constantly on the lookout for changing situations concerning our volunteer teams. Seems like there is always something that is completely out of my control. Typically they manifest themselves in some negative way, i.e. a missing child, a domestic dispute, or a medical emergency. But every now and then an uncontrollable situation turns out for the best. In the curious case of the irresponsible volunteer, he just informed me that he's taking a new job out of state and will be moving. He has resigned from the team.

The twists and turns of life are never dull are they?

As any good leader will do - part 2

There comes a time in every leader's life when you have to decide whether to forgive and forget or forgive, forget, and fire a volunteer.  It's truly unfortunate when this happens. No one likes confrontation. The potential for ruined interpersonal relationships abounds. Sometimes however, it just has to be done for the benefit of the entire group.

The scenario I gave you in part 1 of this article is a real situation that I am currently involved in. I have had to let people go before so i'm dreading what comes next. Couldn't I just leave him on the team and encourage him and hope he gets better? Yes I could, but why? How many times do you let your children disobey before you spank them? The last line of part 1 asks, what would Jesus do? I know from personal experience that he disciplines those he loves. It's always for the better. Yes always. This is a grown man who should know better and be responsible and reliable. I can not let this go.

How to handle this kind of situation is the point of this article. So how will I handle it? In a loving and respectful way with the intention of building up and training this man. I will not call him out in front of others. I will not voice my disappointment about him with others behind his back. I will meet with him personally and explain my position. I will show him our volunteer agreement and gently point out the ways he has fallen short. I will give him time to voice his opinions on the matter. I will genuinely listen.

Lastly, I will ask him to step down from the team. I will encourage him to not talk negatively about me or the team to anyone else. The Bible warns us not to stir up dissention in the body of believers.

What about his position on the team? Do I have someone to replace him? Yes I do. He's been shadow training for over a month now. He will be able to jump right in and serve in a timely fashion. As any good leader will do I try to look ahead and strategize my movements.

In part 3 I will let you all know how my conversation with him went. My hope is that this personal experience I'm sharing will be a training tool of sorts for you.  More to come...

An article

Here's the link to an article I wrote for the Baptist Convention of Iowa on the need for church safety teams.  enjoy.
http://bciowa.org/danger-close/

As any good leader will do. Part 1

As any good leader will do.  Dealing with uncommitted volunteers. Part 1

If you are the leader of a team of volunteers then you will immediately relate to this story.

For the sake of our story let's call our main character John.  John comes to me and says, "I'd love to serve on your safety team ministry".  It could be any ministry you oversee.  My particular bent is church safety and security teams.  I respond as many of you would, "excellent.  Let's meet this week and talk some more about it."  So I meet with John over coffee (I hate coffee - I'm the minority I know) and I lay out the responsibilities and expectations of being a part of this important ministry.  John has all the right answers.  Other members of the team may even vouch for him.  By the time we are done talking I'm convinced that he will be a committed and loyal member of the team.

Things start out great.  John attends his first training meeting and shows interest.  He makes his way through our "job shadow" process and I put him on the schedule to serve on his own.  He performs well and I'm convinced that I've found a great new member of the team.  Perhaps a few weeks or months go bye with no issues to speak of.  But then I show up at church and I check in with my team to make sure everyone is squared away and ready to serve.  I'm told that no one has seen John.  I confidently say, "I bet he's just running late."  We wait and we wait and we...well by now I'm concerned and I decide to text him.  I say to myself "he just forgot to check the schedule".  No reply to my text.  Well as any good leader will do, I jumped in and covered his position for him.

Curious to know why John didn't show up for his scheduled position on Sunday I pursue him with an email and a personal phone call during the week.  I finally get ahold of him and he tells me he just wasn't feeling well Sunday morning and he's very sorry for not showing up.  Well as any good leader will do, I give him the benefit of the doubt.  Everyone wants to be given a second chance right?  "Don't sweat it John, but if that happens again, could you please work hard to find a replacement for yourself?"  He assures me he will. 

The next weekend that John is scheduled to serve I get a text on Saturday night saying he can't serve in the morning.  I suppress my frustration and reply with "ok, who's filling in for you?"  He responds with "I'm not sure I can find anyone on such short notice."  I'm thinking, well TRY!  I don't say this of course.  I mercifully respond by asking him to let me know who he finds to replace him.  Sunday is here.  John is not.  John's replacement is not.  "Hey guys, did John call any of you last night about filling in for him?"  "Nope"  "No"  "Negative" (there’s always one military guy in the group). 

Well as any good leader will do I jump in and cover his position... you are beginning to notice the pattern here or you haven't been paying attention.  So what do we do as leaders of volunteer ministry teams to mitigate this kind of behavior?  Mercy and understanding are always the right answer, right?  After all that's what Jesus would do.     …. To Be Continued

Always Learning

After building, training, and leading a quality safety team at a multi-site mega church, and now having moved to a "small" (600 people) church plant, I am learning a few things that I'd like to share with you.
The first is that people really don't like hearing how you did it before at xyz church.  My experience is a given at this point.  I don't need to validate my methods by pointing out my accomplishments.  I'm not saying this in a prideful way.  The fact that I'm the leader of the team means that the pastors and elders have confidence in my ability to perform in this ministry role.

Which leads me to the second thing.  I need to stop making my decisions based on what was done before.  Just because a particular strategy worked at that church, doesn't mean it's the best choice for this new church.  I need to look at each new challenge with fresh eyes and a clear mind.  I need to bring in interested members of my team and give them ownership.  I need to respect their opinions.

A third thing is what I refer to as legalism.  Let me just give you some examples of what I mean by this, because that word can be used in so many different contexts.  "If you are part of this team, then you are required to attend every single training."  "This is the only acceptable way to perform this task."  These are just two simple examples.  Saying things in this way is more akin to being a foreman on a jobsite rather than being a leader of a volunteer team.  I have never been the "foreman" type of person with one exception.  In the past I have worked primarily with cops, firefighters, and men with military experience.  These folks can respect a good leader, but often appreciate a cut and dried "correct" approach to situations.  What's truly important when you boil all of this down, is for me to lead out in the specific ways that I want my team to perform.  Die to self.  I'm Second.  Period.

Note to self:  Get the safety team guys a little something for Christmas to say thanks for serving!

Pastors Are The Worst

Ok not really, but well meaning pastors are often the first to request that your safety team pull double or even triple duty in areas like ushers and parking team.  Don't allow anything to distract you from your duties.

They don't understand that to work two or three seperate positions only hurts our ability to maintain vigilance for our primary task, which is the safety team.  They don't live in our world.  At a minimum they don't view the world in the same way we do.  Is this bad?  Not at all.  It's just different wiring.  They have a ministry role to fill and so do we.  

Respectfully decline their requests.  Help them understand your position.  Inform them what it is that you do and look for while serving as a Safety Team member.  More often than not, the pastor simply doesn't know everything that you are responsible for.  This can be a real eye opener for them.  

Look for ways to include your pastor/s in your information exchanges and your training sessions.  This is key.  If you want them to be simpathetic to your "cause" then you have to help them understand your ministry objectives.  They need to see how professional and proactive you are.  Get them involved and show them.   

I encourage you to write bi-weekly or monthly safety reports for your leadership.  This will keep them informed and in the loop.  They will truly appreciate your efforts to keep them in touch with every aspect of their congregation.  This can go a long way towards having a quality, on going relationship with the decision makers at your church or faith based organization. 

Stay Vigilant!