As you start the fall of college ministry, there are three big things your staff need:
- Connect as a family (who) – 71% of Millennials want their coworkers to be a second family
- Direction and clarity of role (what) – what does it look like for me/us to succeed?
- Vision for reaching college students (why) -Â “You can pretty much assume that most staff return [in the fall] willing and able but not very motivated and with little or no vision.”
A few helpful starting-the-fall tips for Team Leaders:
- Encourage staff to get all personal things done before they report back. I usually email something like this:
- “Please have all your personal stuff done before next week (moving in, raising support, prayer letter, etc) as we will be pretty slammed starting Aug. 8 (so take advantage of the next few days to get all personal stuff done!)”
- I highly recommend reading this short article -Â Orienting Your Team
- Pick staff to fill two key roles: First Week Director and Follow Up Director. This frees the Team Leader to focus on the team/movement instead of the millions of details associated with the First 4 Weeks.
- Don’t assume that everyone is on the same page as far as Ministry Philosophy. Communicate clearly on how we do things. We have a one page sheet called “How we do Ministry — One Page” which, as you would expect, tells our entire philosophy of ministry on one page!
- Discuss Team Norms together (how we operate as a team)
I think it’s always interesting to see how other teams operate.
Here’s what our planning week looks like:
- 2 days of planning 9-noon. Afternoons spent working on reserving locations, getting donations from local businesses (for door prizes for cookouts), working in smaller groups with other staff on specific tasks
- 3 days on a staff retreat (all fun/no work)
- 2 more days planning 9-noon. Afternoons working on team to-do’s.
- 2 night student leadership retreat
- First Cookout and Move in Week activities
Team Leaders- what do you do with your team before the school year begins?
Staff — what are your primary needs going into the year?
photo courtesy of  Yasin Hassan – ياسين Øسن