(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?
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