Volunteer Leaders Pt. 3

If you had to imagine the perfect small group leader, or just a leader in your ministry at any level, what would that person look like? Would they come prepared? Would they always have encouraging words to share with the students?  Would they make phone calls  just to see how their day is going? Hopefully you have in your mind what that leader looks like. 

So how close do YOU look like that leader.  Are you coming prepared to your meetings and group times? I know for myself I can hop up on a stage and wing something, but are we taking the time to really prepare for those meetings with our leaders so that they walk away "Developed" or some other nice key word that we love to throw around. If we expect our leaders to come knowing their stuff we must show them that we are doing everything ourselves with a high level of excellence. 

We are always looking for great leaders to encourage our students in their spiritual life and just to provide that pat on the back.  What are you doing to encourage your leaders?  We must do more than yelling, "Great Job!!!" as they are leaving for the night.  Take some time and write a note, make those phone calls, spend some money and take them to lunch with no other agenda than to hang out and tell them how much they mean to you and that you value what they do. We have to do more than the annual Christmas party.  Imagine what you would think if you were meeting with a leader and they said the last time they had done anything for their students was in December. With all this, I simply want to leave you with this... 

If we want leaders that encourage, we must encourage our leaders. 

Ministry around Parents

Here is a group of youth pastors talking about parents. Great Stuff! http://timschmoyer.com/2009/05/15/podcast-shaping-youth-ministry-around-parents/

Volenteer Leaders Pt. 2

(Interviewing leaders and finding the right place)

I have to start this entry off by telling you how important I think that Jr. High ministry is. Because I value this ministry and the students in it, I want to be very careful in finding the right leaders and placing them in the perfect spot so that they and the students feel valued and develop through the whole process.

The first thing that is important in placing these leaders is having them fill out an application. We have all our leaders fill out an applications for a couple of different reasons. First is the obvious reason of safety. We have all our leaders go through a background check because you can never be too safe when dealing with students. Along with that, on these applications we get to find out a little more about these leaders. We get to hear their story written out and other experiences they have gone through in their life that will affect the way they lead students. This process allows us to see what kind of person is wanting to be a part of our ministry. Also one thing that this application does is it weeds out a few people. I don't mean this in that they fill it out and we turn them down. I mean we give out a lot of applications and they never come back. Our application is a few pages and will take some time to fill out. You are able to really see the commitment of the leader by the time they took to fill this out. These applications help us learn about these leaders and get all their contact information in a real easy way. Tim Mannin, the Executive Student Pastor at Journey, is the person that developed our forms and they are great. If you are looking to really learn ministry from someone he is the man to follow. Look him up on twitter, it is well worth it.

After a leader fills out this application we will meet with the leader to talk more about our ministry and also start a relationship with our leaders. We want them to start feeling comfortable with us and us really start to care for these leaders. During this time it is important to listen to these leaders and also make your vision for your ministry clear and all expectations laid out on the table. It is much easier to lay all the expectations out on the table here than a few months down the road. Believe me, I know this principle.

After the interview and some prayer time we have to look for a place to put this new leader. I think it is real easy to simply put the leader in the place that you need to fill a body. But, this is not always smart. Ask yourself some big questions. What are the strengths of this leader? What are the weaknesses? Are there any students that are walking through some of the same things that this leader talked about? You can think of a thousand more questions to find that perfect place for that leader not only to enjoy what they do, but to succeed. We must set these leaders up to knock it out of the ball park.

What is your process of interviewing leaders?
What are some of the questions that you ask when placing a leader?

Volunteer Leaders Pt. 1

Leaders make everything that we do possible. But, how much thought do we put into recruiting new leaders?  Most of the time we simply post in the bulletin that is being handed out that Sunday that reads something like, 

"Volunteers need for Jr. High Ministry please contact...."

or

"Do you love God and like students then we have a place for you in Jr. High Ministry..."

or

"Please I need your help I am about to kill these kids."

Well maybe not so much that last one but you know what I mean.  When we put on messages like that we get what we ask for.  We will ultimately get a lot of people that have a high gift of mercy.  They see our cries and want to help, or they see a need and are willing to give up some time.  But, to really reach our students at all levels we need others that have giftings in other areas.  We need people with high levels of organization and leadership and many other different gifts to develop not only our students but also our ministry. 

So how do we make this happen?  We must go after leaders.  Don't just wait for them to come to you. Make an effort to find the best leaders in your church.  In Bill Hybels book, Axiom, he makes a great statement by saying, "Don't say someone's no for them."  I think a lot of the time we see these great leaders and we think about how busy they are and so we say "No" for them.  I want to make a bold statement.  We are robbing these people out of an experience of getting to see these students lives changed and the chance to share the love and grace that God has given them to these students. 

So I have a couple of questions for anyone that comes by.  Haha, right now I feel a little funny asking because I know I have no one following, but I would imagine you have to write a few things before anyone follows.  So here are my questions.

1. What are qualities that you are looking for in your leaders? 

2. What does the process look like that you put prospective leaders through? 

More than what I had for Lunch

Over than past year I have read many blogs. One type of blog that is very hard to find are people that love Jr. High Ministry and the students that are involved. My hope for this blog is that I write more than what I had for lunch. I want this to be a place for other Jr. High workers to be able to be apart of a large disscusion concerning Jr. High, leadership, culture, and over all ministry to students. I want our concentration to be on students between 6th to 8th grade. So often many articals that you find on the web cover both Jr. High and High school ministry I think that these ministry are different enough that to be able to understand them they must be looked at under a different micoscope. With that being said, I need your help readers. Please respond! I will try to post at least once a week. Thank you to everyone that takes the time to read this and allow the party to begin!!!!