Ministry to New Believers - Coordinator

In today's blog I'll begin talking about structure. We are beyond the place where the pastor can do everything. A church doesn't have to be larger than 12 for that to happen. In fact, larger than 3 shows the need to begin having others lead (see Jesus and the disciples). At Palm Valley Church, we have what we call Volunteer Ministry Coordinators (VC). Their job is to care for the volunteers of each ministry area. We have a ministry lead who is typically a staff member who oversees and sets vision for a ministry area, then we have the VC who oversees the ministry area itself.

The VC does the recruiting (with help from others) and follows recruits through the application process. This is important, because we don't want to just plug warm bodies into holes, we want people to engage in ministry where they are passionate. Different ministries have different requirements. For example, our children's ministry staff all ned to have background checks done as part of their application process. For our Fresh Start Coaches (FS is our primary ministry to new believers, and our volunteers are called coaches), we want people who interact well with others, and don't mind making phone calls to the people they encounter or are assigned (more on coaches next week).

For the Fresh Start Team, the VC (Diane is fantastic!) handles the application process, scheduling (we do an every other week rotation), and care. We want the VC to focus and emphasize the care part. That includes sending encouragement cards, birthday cards, etc. as well as calling them to encourage and pray for them. When issues come up, she contacts me (the ministry lead) so that I can be involved. Often she has already taken care of whatever comes up.

The VC also handles most of the training. Basically, the VC runs the day to day of the ministry. I cast vision and do broad team training, but Diane works with the individual Coaches to bring excellence to the ministry. Next week I'll write about the Coaches. These people are on the front line of life change and they rock!