Oct
13
2011

Leadership Reading List: The Dog Poop Initiative

An article by Matt

Having spent nearly a decade as a youth pastor, I know the value of using the word poop in your communication. There are very few words that can be said in polite company that are guaranteed to get a quick chuckle, goofy smile, or a middle schooler’s attention as quickly as using the word poop at the right moment. The word poop is youth pastor gold (between that, and my post on Domino’s Pizza earlier this week, I have just saved you the $60,000 required for a Youth Ministry degree). It is for this very reason that I was looking forward to reading Kirk Weisler’s book The Dog Poop Initiative.

The story is based on an experience the author had before one of his son’s soccer games. Upon arriving at the field the coaches were met by parents, coaches, and the referees who had been at the early game that day. The early game’s spectators made it a point to to inform the coaches that there was a big pile of dog poop on the field, and that they had to tell their teams to be careful not to step in it throughout the course of the game. Kirk explains the wonderment that people had as they watched him scoop up the pile of poop, and dispose of it in the trash.

Through the course of the book, Weisler distinguishes between pointers and scoopers… two people who anyone who has served in leadership have encountered at least once in their lives. The book is a simple read, that could be a helpful tool when developing your leadership team. After finishing the book, three things came to mind:

Pointers. Pointers will always be with us, they are the people who notice a problem, and point it out for the world to see. While it is easy to write the pointers off, they serve a critical purpose, and can often be our first warning that there is something going on in your church that needs attention.
Scoopers. Everyone loves scoopers, these are the people who see a need, and go about fixing it. While we love seeing people take the initiative and handle things in our churches, church leaders need to make sure that they do not burn out their scoopers by relying on them too much.
Culture. While many times the difference between a pointer and scooper is their willingness to take initiative, I don’t think it is always that simple. Your organization’s culture has the ability to make the most tireless scooper into the most strident pointer. Does your culture give people permission to be a scooper, or is initiative by those outside of the church staff frowned upon?

Is YOUR church made up of mostly pointers or mostly scoopers?