I am a life-long church member, and love being involved in ministry. I have worked as a volunteer or on staff in a variety of different roles in churches throughout my life. My favorite verse about ministry is Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Our council agendas include much the same topics/information as the description given by James. Our President of Council sets the agenda and runs the meeting. Meeting agendas and other relevant information are distributed by email and hard copy on the Friday before the meeting (most people pick up their printouts on Sunday.) The Clerk records the meeting minutes and distributes those. Our Clerk also has an archive of minutes and decisions and is often the person called on to research questions about past events/decisions. We also have an office of "Vice-All". In the absence of either Council President or Clerk, the Vice-All will fill in.
I went through a Network class about 10 years ago, and liked it. It wasn't a DVD curriculum then, local church members led the class.
We are currently using the SHAPE curriculum, which was developed at Saddleback church and is free to use and share. This was recommended to me by another CRC in our area. I teach this class 1-2 times per year, and it has been well-received by those who have attended, although interest in the class is not as high as we'd like.
I'm always interested in hearing other ideas, too, so will look forward to seeing what others have to add to this discussion.
Our small groups ("Life Groups") are on a schedule where there are 3 "seasons" per year where church members sign up each season for a group. Because of that, many of the tasks of our coordinator are related to the cyclical nature of organizing and promoting the groups, but here are a few bullet points from our description that might be relevant to working with group leaders:
Recruit, Train, Develop and Recognize Life Group Leaders
Provide Life Group Leader training
Recognize and thank Life Group Leaders
Follow up with Group Leaders throughout the season to provide support and assistance as needed
Other tasks that might be helpful for any small group ministry:
Champion and promote the Life Groups mission: Grow, Connect, Serve
Seek out stories of Crossroads members who grew through Life Groups and who will share their story with the church (testimonies) and/or tell the story of Life Groups through videos or other creative presentations.
Create and send surveys to church members, and review results for effectiveness of Life Groups
Manage Life Groups budget
I think training is a big one, and in a scenario where groups are ongoing, providing training on a periodic basis both helps your leaders learn ways to develop and keep a healthy group going.
We run on an 8-12 week season typically, and each leader is contacted as often as weekly through the season. All are contacted after their first meeting, and then the small group leader is asked how often they want to be contacted and in what way (phone or email usually.) I am in a different ministry role, but one that also means that I "check in" regularly with various leaders. Even if they don't need anything, they appreciate a call. Often, however, they have a question or two, and it gives me a chance to help them and just remind them I'm available if they ever need anything.
We also ask our leaders to help us find future leaders by identifying group members who demonstrate gifts that would make them a good leader. Sometimes these people are asked to fill in as leaders when the main leader can't be there, for example, and/or are approached to lead or co-lead a group in the next season.
I attended a small group training earlier this year that was produced by Saddleback church, and they had a strategy for splitting larger groups into two smaller groups so that the healthy group could multiply. Essentially, the leader would identify 1-2 people in the large group who might make good leaders, and over time, gradually trained them by asking them to lead smaller, then larger portions of the meetings. Or, the one large group would sometimes split into two smaller groups for a some parts of the discussion, then reconvene later to share what they talked about and close the meeting. Over time, then, some groups are able to split and then make room for more members.
They also said that in response to someone who wants to join a group, they will ask them to consider starting a new group (instead of joining an existing group) by finding others who are interested in meeting. They also mentioned that their church has a variety of "off the shelf" materials they can hand out to a leader to make it easy for them to get started, which may not be the case in your church.
Just food for thought, and I've heard before that smallgroups.com (as a previous poster suggested) is a great resources.
Definitely this is an option to consider. We have 11 different people making schedules right now (every ministry = different scheduler), so that would be a lot to juggle, but not impossible.
I did check out this software, and while doing so discovered that Jon is not just a user of the software but the developer (as he'd mentioned in another post here on the network.) In the interest of disclosure, I just wanted others who might research this thread to be aware of his material connection to the product he recommends.
I am not sure yet if this will be the solution we choose, but it does appear to be a comprehensive solution that will meet this need for some churches.
We mail a note to thank visitors for worshipping with us. Our Communication Card also offers people the chance to request more information, so we send information about ministries, Life Groups (our small groups), serving, children's ministries, etc. as requested. I've thought about the gift idea, but haven't ever implemented anything, although now thanks to Brad's suggestion, that might change. I like that it's low-cost, yet can be personalized to our church, and has intrinsic value for both Christians and/or seekers.
Although we aren't using Planning Center, and I don't think we are using CCLI Song Select, we do project words (no music) using MediaShout. I am not on that team so can't speak to details (version, effectiveness) but if you want more info, I can ask someone else from my church to comment on this discussion.
We recently asked this question, too. One factor for us was that our church as a whole, in ways other than just financial, is trying to be more intentional about reaching out to our community, and we wanted our giving to be a part of that effort, so that meant an increase in offerings/giving to a few local partner organizations.
Our church has a strong culture of fully supporting ministry shares, so we looked at the list of which ministries/agencies are supported by ministry shares and gave higher priority in scheduling offerings to those that aren't, like CRWRC, for example.
As for scheduling, the deacons as a group discuss overall priorities, but one deacon is responsible for arranging those priorities into the schedule on a monthly basis, and tracking the frequency of offerings to any given agency or organization, denominational or otherwise. The schedules are still approved each month by all the deacons, even though one person is doing the coordinating.
Posted in: Do Any of You Have a Job Description for a Council Chair and Council Clerk? Eg. Who Sets the Agenda?
Our council agendas include much the same topics/information as the description given by James. Our President of Council sets the agenda and runs the meeting. Meeting agendas and other relevant information are distributed by email and hard copy on the Friday before the meeting (most people pick up their printouts on Sunday.) The Clerk records the meeting minutes and distributes those. Our Clerk also has an archive of minutes and decisions and is often the person called on to research questions about past events/decisions. We also have an office of "Vice-All". In the absence of either Council President or Clerk, the Vice-All will fill in.
Posted in: What are some of the best resources for leading church members into gift based ministry?
I went through a Network class about 10 years ago, and liked it. It wasn't a DVD curriculum then, local church members led the class.
We are currently using the SHAPE curriculum, which was developed at Saddleback church and is free to use and share. This was recommended to me by another CRC in our area. I teach this class 1-2 times per year, and it has been well-received by those who have attended, although interest in the class is not as high as we'd like.
I'm always interested in hearing other ideas, too, so will look forward to seeing what others have to add to this discussion.
Posted in: Volunteer Schedule Conflicts Ideas?
Thanks, Jon, I will check this out.
Posted in: Anyone have a well thought out job description for a Small Groups Coordinator?
Our small groups ("Life Groups") are on a schedule where there are 3 "seasons" per year where church members sign up each season for a group. Because of that, many of the tasks of our coordinator are related to the cyclical nature of organizing and promoting the groups, but here are a few bullet points from our description that might be relevant to working with group leaders:
Other tasks that might be helpful for any small group ministry:
I think training is a big one, and in a scenario where groups are ongoing, providing training on a periodic basis both helps your leaders learn ways to develop and keep a healthy group going.
We run on an 8-12 week season typically, and each leader is contacted as often as weekly through the season. All are contacted after their first meeting, and then the small group leader is asked how often they want to be contacted and in what way (phone or email usually.) I am in a different ministry role, but one that also means that I "check in" regularly with various leaders. Even if they don't need anything, they appreciate a call. Often, however, they have a question or two, and it gives me a chance to help them and just remind them I'm available if they ever need anything.
We also ask our leaders to help us find future leaders by identifying group members who demonstrate gifts that would make them a good leader. Sometimes these people are asked to fill in as leaders when the main leader can't be there, for example, and/or are approached to lead or co-lead a group in the next season.
I attended a small group training earlier this year that was produced by Saddleback church, and they had a strategy for splitting larger groups into two smaller groups so that the healthy group could multiply. Essentially, the leader would identify 1-2 people in the large group who might make good leaders, and over time, gradually trained them by asking them to lead smaller, then larger portions of the meetings. Or, the one large group would sometimes split into two smaller groups for a some parts of the discussion, then reconvene later to share what they talked about and close the meeting. Over time, then, some groups are able to split and then make room for more members.
They also said that in response to someone who wants to join a group, they will ask them to consider starting a new group (instead of joining an existing group) by finding others who are interested in meeting. They also mentioned that their church has a variety of "off the shelf" materials they can hand out to a leader to make it easy for them to get started, which may not be the case in your church.
Just food for thought, and I've heard before that smallgroups.com (as a previous poster suggested) is a great resources.
Posted in: Volunteer Schedule Conflicts Ideas?
Definitely this is an option to consider. We have 11 different people making schedules right now (every ministry = different scheduler), so that would be a lot to juggle, but not impossible.
Posted in: Volunteer Schedule Conflicts Ideas?
Thanks! I will check this out.
Posted in: Volunteer Schedule Conflicts Ideas?
I did check out this software, and while doing so discovered that Jon is not just a user of the software but the developer (as he'd mentioned in another post here on the network.) In the interest of disclosure, I just wanted others who might research this thread to be aware of his material connection to the product he recommends.
I am not sure yet if this will be the solution we choose, but it does appear to be a comprehensive solution that will meet this need for some churches.
Posted in: Does your church give first time visitors gifts? If so what do you give?
I LOVE this idea. Great suggestion and thanks so much for sharing!
Posted in: Does your church give first time visitors gifts? If so what do you give?
We mail a note to thank visitors for worshipping with us. Our Communication Card also offers people the chance to request more information, so we send information about ministries, Life Groups (our small groups), serving, children's ministries, etc. as requested. I've thought about the gift idea, but haven't ever implemented anything, although now thanks to Brad's suggestion, that might change. I like that it's low-cost, yet can be personalized to our church, and has intrinsic value for both Christians and/or seekers.
Posted in: What are the pros and cons of using Planning Center Online?
9nineteen & Joyce, thanks for commenting!
Although we aren't using Planning Center, and I don't think we are using CCLI Song Select, we do project words (no music) using MediaShout. I am not on that team so can't speak to details (version, effectiveness) but if you want more info, I can ask someone else from my church to comment on this discussion.
Posted in: What's the best practice for getting church visitors to fill out welcome cards?
Thanks for the input Fred! Do you have a counter or info booth or something that makes it easy for people to fill out the card on the spot?
Posted in: How should a church distribute support to the denominational family and as well as to other causes?
We recently asked this question, too. One factor for us was that our church as a whole, in ways other than just financial, is trying to be more intentional about reaching out to our community, and we wanted our giving to be a part of that effort, so that meant an increase in offerings/giving to a few local partner organizations.
Our church has a strong culture of fully supporting ministry shares, so we looked at the list of which ministries/agencies are supported by ministry shares and gave higher priority in scheduling offerings to those that aren't, like CRWRC, for example.
As for scheduling, the deacons as a group discuss overall priorities, but one deacon is responsible for arranging those priorities into the schedule on a monthly basis, and tracking the frequency of offerings to any given agency or organization, denominational or otherwise. The schedules are still approved each month by all the deacons, even though one person is doing the coordinating.