L1-06 RECRUiting and Leading Volunteers
Thinking Through Leadership Meetings
INTRODUCTION
A key role of a staff person is recruiting, equipping and leading volunteers. Young Life is a volunteer-fueled ministry and we want to give people in our communities an opportunity to invest in the lives of young people. We want to give people the opportunity to be involved because of the impact they can make on others’ lives, but also for the impact it will have on their own lives and faith. We believe leaders have an eternal impact on the young people they serve. We also believe that leaders will grow spiritually as they give their time, energy and hearts to young people. Our role is to encourage them, equip them and help them know Jesus more as they make Him known to young people in their communities.
Evidence of staff demonstrating this objective looks like:
- Uses the leadership tree to develop leaders on their team.
- Has regular (weekly or twice a month) leader meetings with their team.
- Has an annual or semester planning day with leadership team to plan ministry schedule.
- Leader meeting include time for community building, sharing the mission and developing skills, prayer and Spiritual Growth and practical planning.
- Uses the Training Square to develop leaders in how to do ministry.
- Actively uses Hands-On-Training experiences to develop leaders and invites leaders to do ministry alongside them as part of the training process.
WHERE DO WE FIND LEADERS
During the first night club talk at camp sometimes we use the story in John 1 of Philip telling Nathaniel about Jesus. Nathaniel is full of doubts – he’s not sure anything good can come from Nazareth. Philip responds with the simple invitation, “Come and see.” We often use that line to invite kids with us on a journey to get to know more of who Jesus is during the week of camp. This story, though, is a story of one of the future disciples inviting his friend to come and see – and this friend also becomes a leader in this movement of following Jesus. How can this story help us think about how we invite leaders into this ministry?
It’s interesting that Philip is the one who goes to Nathaniel. Jesus is not the only one who invites others close. How is your team involved in inviting their friends into this Missional Community of Young Life? One of the challenges for us as staff is to create such a community that others want to be part of it, because they see life, joy, purpose and Christ in this community. What are we doing to build that type of community in our ministries?
As a ministry leader you’ve probably said at some point, “We need more leaders!” I have good news for you, Jesus said that too. Spend some time looking at Matthew 9:35-38. Jesus’ heart is moved for the broken and lost in this passage. What does he say the solution is?
The combination of these two passages, Matthew 9:35-38, and John 1 are a great starting place for finding leaders. First we pray. We pray to have eyes to see the needs, and also the possible leaders around us. We invite. Come and see. What activities (clubs, team prayer meetings, camps, weekends, movie nights, hikes) do you have that you can invite someone to come and see? How can you inspire your team to be part of inviting others into this community as well?
LEADING WELL
What are you inviting leaders into? Our first step is inviting them to “Come and see” what it looks like to be a Young Life leader. But what they see at Club or a team prayer gathering is not going to give them a full picture. We want to inspire our volunteers that they are part of something bigger than we can manage. We have invited them to join us on this mission of reaching the next kid in our cities and towns. Part of leading is casting the vision of where we are going and how we want to keep reaching out to new kids who have not yet heard how much Jesus loves them. At our staff meetings, team meetings and area gatherings we want to keep casting that vision of introducing that next kid to Jesus and helping them grow in their faith.
We also want to set clear expectations for people on what it means to be a leader. It is critical that these expectations are clear, are communicated well, and are repeated each year. No one wants to be evaluated by a standard they did not know exists! What are your expectations of your volunteers?
- How will you explain the Faith and Conduct Policies of Young Life and how does your Country leadership want those to be signed and agreed too?
- All volunteer leaders need to do Contact Work. Part of your role as a staff person is modeling how to do Contact Work with your volunteers and making sure they have a place to do it. How will you clarify your expectations about Contact Work and that they should spend about 2 hours a week with young people outside of planned ministry activities?
- How often will you have team meetings? Weekly? Twice a month? What time and days will they be so that your leaders plan it into their calendars?
- Young Life is not the church and we want to make sure our leaders are active members of a local church community – how do you talk about this with your leaders and follow up with them on this?
- Of course we want leaders at our regular activities, clubs, campaigners, weekend or summer camps. Do your leaders know when those are planned for, or have a voice in when they’ll happen?
- We want leaders to participate not only in area leader weekends, prayer meetings or planning days, but also in our country-wide gatherings. How do you make sure you let them know when those are planned for and share the vision that these times are made to support and celebrate them as leaders?
- Just as you invest in your volunteers, we want to challenge volunteers to invest in others or in key campaigner kids. How are you sharing the vision and challenge to have a Leadership Tree and to be praying for others to join the team through a Matthew 9:38 List?
- What else is important for you and your team?
How Do You Equip Leaders?
What do we do with the leaders we have, to help them grow and learn how to be stronger leaders? We are always excited when someone says, “Yes!” to joining the team. Just as we invited people to come and see, prayed for them and had many conversations with them about what Young Life is and what it means to be a leader, we need to take our time and develop them as leaders one step at a time. In this video Scott Miedema, Vice President for Learning and Leadership International, shares about the Training Square and how this helps us think through developing our volunteers.
As Scott mentions, we want to focus on developing the leaders who are on our Leadership Trees. Who are those three key volunteers you are working with who you can develop and pour into? As they grow in their roles, the best next-step for them is developing someone else. Who are the new volunteers or key campaigner kids (future leaders) who they can be pouring into and developing?
Action Step: who is on your tree, what is one thing you want to develop each of them on this year. Start making a plan of how to do step 1 or step 2 in this
ACCOUNTABILITY:
- Do you HAVE a Leadership Tree that includes the volunteers in your ministry?
- Are you ACTIVELY working with them to develop them as followers of Jesus and leaders in the ministry?
- How have you SHARED the vision of Leadership Tree with your team?
- Are your leaders GROWING in their relationships with Jesus and abilities as leaders? Is their vision for investing in other leaders GROWING?
ACTION STEPS:
- Bring a list of at least 5 people you know who you would like to invite to “come and see” some of what you do in Young Life. Maybe these are future leaders, future prayer team members, church leaders who you hope will understand more of what we do. With your supervisor/trainer, begin to pray for these names and brainstorm what you can invite them too.
- Prepare your thoughts on what your expectations are for volunteer leaders. Bring your list with you to your training meeting to discuss.
- Work through the Accountability questions above and prepare to discuss those at your training session. See the link here (Link to Training Square) for a copy of the Training Square that Scott talked about.
- Click here (link to Running Effective Meetings) to think about what you do in your team meetings. Prepare to discuss this at your next training meeting.
