One thing in which we changed as soon as I came on board at CCV Students was our volunteer process. Having a good volunteer process for when leaders come and want to join the team will determine whether or not they will be confident in leading once you release them out into the world of your ministry. Leaders should know what the “wins” are in your ministry.

In order to make that happen, the process in which you on-board leaders is super helpful.

Part of the success of on-boarding new leaders has been DYM University.

Our process is as follows:

  • Turn in application (can see it HERE)
  • 1st interview (This is where we set the wins, intro DYMU)
  • 1st Wednesday night. They shadow an existing leader for 3 weeks so they see what leaders do
  • 2nd sit down. Making sure both parties are a good fit to serve. Leaders get their leader shirts (all our leaders wear the same shirts on Wednesdays) and a name badge to make them official

I think one of the key ways our new leaders feel like they are confident in leading well and making sure they are knowing what we want a leader to do during service has been DYMU.

Like stated above, part of the process is a 1st interview where we set the ministry expectations and intro them to DYMU. We actually have it a part of the requirement to serve in our ministry to finish and complete course 101 of DYMU during the 3 weeks of shadowing in order to serve with us.

Course 101 is all about relational ministry (check out Course 101 HERE). It trains and shows new leaders what they can do to be effective before and after service and begin to make a difference in the live of students right away. I say to them, “If you want to know how I think and why I think it when it comes to our services, this course will help you understand what I want and expect of you.”

Since we started doing this for new leaders, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM have said Course 101 was super helpful and made them more confident as a leader. They said they know and remember more student’s names, they feel confident to pray for them and follow-up with them after because it all has to do with relational ministry and that is what they were trained on.

It’s been a game changer on how we lead and train.

Surprisingly, I am not paid by DYM. I simply just like them and use DYMU and think it betters my ministry. I think it’s worth the investment to have on going training for your leaders. How could your ministry not be better if EVERYONE was being trained all year-long on the same topics and getting on the same page.

It’s a no-brainer in my humble opinion.

 

@justinknowles3