So if the first thing you do when you need leaders is
pray.
But, what do you do next?
Next, it’s important to have an on-boarding plan to receive
the leaders you’ve prayed for. This
requires preparation.
When preparing to receive new leaders, there are 5 Key Pieces of Preparation that
should be documented.
#1: Prepare the Why
What kind of team is it that you are recruiting to? Children’s Ministry? Technology?
Guest Services? Life Groups? The first thing new members of the team are
going to want to know is “what’s the point?”
Why should they give their time after working a 40-hour work week? What is it that the team is trying to
accomplish together? And how does their
place in service help move the mission of the entire organization forward?
Team goals should always be aligned with the common overall
mission of the church or organization.
I’ve been doing some of this work at Medford First in my first three
months here. Our church’s mission is to
“Lift up Jesus so all are drawn to follow Him”.
When it comes to the purpose of our life groups we are beginning to
define the goal as “Helping people connect to each other so they can continue
to follow Jesus”.
As a new life group leader steps up to serve I don’t want to
them to feel like they are plugging a hole or serving out of obligation because
our church needs life groups or it’s just what people do. The hope is that they would feel inspired to
help people connect and continue following Jesus, and be encouraged to be a
part of a team of leaders that helps make that happen. This can’t be communicated to leaders without
taking the time to “Prepare the Why”.
#2: Prepare the Path
In an initial meeting with a leader, more than likely you
will find people completely nervous that you would even consider them to be a
leader. It’s a prime opportunity though
to cast a little vision for all they could grow into and become. Leaders flourish and grow when they can see
the growth path in front of them.
In general I’ve used this basic path when creating teams:
Apprentice Leader à Leader à
Coach à
Ministry Director à Staff
Apprentice Leader: learning
the role and building trust
Leader: leading in the role
and building trust
Coach: leading other leaders
and providing care to leaders
Ministry Director: leading
other coaches, providing care to coaches, and directing the ministry
Staff: leading other
directors, providing care to directors, building systems towards effective
ministry.
http://www.daveferguson.org Has more information.
This is a development path, where everyone starts at the
same level. As they grow, a conversation
is had with that team member inviting them to take their next steps in
leadership. A few quick rules of thumb
that I learned the hard way:
1. Everyone (no matter their
experience) starts as and apprentice leader. Experience may move them quicker through the leadership
path than some others, but everyone starts at step one. Trust isn’t built in day, it takes time, and
the currency of leadership is trust. So,
for that reason, everyone starts as an apprentice leader.
2. Develop people through the
whole path – don’t let them skip steps. Every
time I’ve let someone skip a step it’s come back to bite me in one-way or
another. Either the person is placed in
a higher level of leadership fails and quits.
Or you find yourself having to go back and retrain in the level that
they skipped because they needed that experience to be able to preform at the
level you skipped them up to.
3. Don’t ever give someone
leadership just to fill a gap on the pathway. Leadership development takes time. While you may really need 10 coaches and only
have 5, placing someone in a coaching role too soon will only hurt that leader
and the trust your leaders place in you.
Developing leaders takes time.
Filling roles is a quick fix.
Settling on filling roles over developing leaders will break down over
time. Developing leaders will build up
over time. Don’t settle for the
immediate at the cost of long-term sustainable team growth. Again, learned this the hard way.
As you document the path for leadership development you will
have documented a vision for each and every leader you meet with.
#3: Prepare Job Descriptions
Ever hear a leader say something like “Our volunteers just
don’t get it.” or “They should know better.” or “good luck with that, our
people won’t ever…”
Odds are the leader has failed to clearly define the
expectations of their leaders in which they can succeed. Taking the time to prepare job descriptions
for your leaders will save you the leader a lot of headaches down the road.
I firmly believe that no one should ever get asked to do
anything without some kind of written, clear job expectation in hand. Especially as they volunteer and give of
their precious time. No one volunteers
time wanting to fail, they just need to know what is expected of them so they
can succeed.
Job descriptions should be kept simple. What’s the end goal they are expected to
meet? What time are they expected to be
there? What’s the basic role? Who do they report to? Who’s responsible for their pastoral care? What can they expect from you? All questions that should be answered in a
prepared job description.
#4: Prepare Policy and Procedures
Does the ministry area you lead have specific policy and procedures? If so, write them down and spend time in that
initial interview walking through them with incoming apprentice leaders. Let them know what they can expect before the
first day on the job.
How do we handle child safety? What are the basic “rules” for healthy life
group discussion? Can student ministry
leaders friend students on facebook?
Where do they show up on the first day?
Not sure where to start on documenting policy and
procedures? Go online and research other
ministries. Or, contact someone who does
it well and get their stuff as a starting point.
Each time I’ve met with an upcoming leader over policy and
procedures I’ve basically said, “Next we are going to walk through some basic
policies and procedures, a lot of this is going to seem like ‘no duh’ to you
but we hope that all of our leaders understand how we handle certain situations
before they get into the first day on the job.
If you have questions as we go through this, feel free to stop and ask”
The goal is after an initial meeting with an incoming
apprentice leader is to have them walk away feeling they can trust you, feeling
prepared, and feeling really excited.
#5: Prepare by Knowing Your Greatest Need
So, if you are leading an area that has multiple ways to
plug in as an apprentice leader (for instance, children’s ministry has all
kinds of age groups, etc.) it’s always great to go into an initial volunteer
meeting knowing your greatest need.
Most of the time, 9 times out of 10 leaders will tell you
“just put me where I’m needed most”.
People really want to have a big impact with their lives and so they
will often forgo personal preference for greatest need. Be prepared for that, knowing your greatest
need. This also goes back to trusting
God, he knows your greatest need and he’s going to send you what you need.
If you, then, though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in
heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:11
Prepare by knowing your greatest need, pray specifically for
that need, and be prepared to present that need to those interested in serving.
Need Leaders?
Pray. Then Prepare.
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