Frequently Asked Questions about 2012 Changes

Volunteer Organization:

Why are we making changes to the volunteer organizational system?

1.      Our attendance and overall population at Christ Church continues to grow (we welcome at least one new family each week). Thus we are reevaluating and updating our procedures to meet the needs of our growing family and ministry.

2.      Many volunteers have expressed the difficulties inherent in serving for an entire month of Sundays. We are hoping the new flexible scheduling options will alleviate some of those issues, as well as keep the opportunity open for volunteers to choose to serve for a continuous “block of time”.

3.      By organizing into defined Ministry Teams, we will build solid foundations upon which future growth in our church and ministry will be supported. Our goal is to support each other and to more evenly distribute the “work load”.

Why are we adopting two-week long volunteer sessions in Jr. Kidz and Kidz Camp?

1. We’ve chosen to switch to the “Elevate” curriculum from CreativePastors.com.  By using it over this past summer we found it to be an engaging, effective and fun way to teach the kids. It also uses thematic, DVD driven lessons, so the preparation time is significantly less for Small Group Leaders.
2. Our new curriculum allows us to schedule two week lesson periods. Week A will be the Large Group Teaching Week and Week B will be the Lesson Application and Small Group Week. Serving for two weeks in a row will allow our volunteers to learn along side the children and then help the children apply what they’ve learned through Small Group games & activities.
3. Consistency is a value of our Adventure Camp Program.  Consistency and repetition of volunteers encourages relationship building, increases the comfort level of both children & parents and decreases behavioral issues.

Teams:

What is a Ministry Team?

1. A small group of volunteers (5-7 members) who work together for a common ministry goal.
2. Each team has a leader and each member has a specific purpose or role to perform.
3. Each role on the team is a “bite sized” portion of the work to be done to accomplish the goal.
4. When a team needs to grow larger than 7 members in order to accomplish the goal, then the team must break the goal into sub-goals, divide into two or more teams and recruit new members for each team.
5. Almost every team will be directly linked with another team or leader above them. Often a team will also have a team or teams below them as well.
6. Committees are formed out of the teams that have to form sub-goals and subdivide. The subdivisions are the committees and their team leaders are members of the team above them.
7. See example charts below

What does a Ministry Team Leader do?

1. Mentor new team members.
2. Communicate with the other leaders that they directly work with on the team.
3. Help to recruit new team members.
4. Help to devise defined roles for team members and create small committees focused on specific ministry needs.
5. Meet on a quarterly basis with team for the purpose of planning, training, communicating and visioning.
6. Uphold the mission and vision of Christ Church and Adventure Camp - applying it specifically to your ministry area.
7. See example charts below.