15 February 2012
Posted by Scott Rubin
When it comes to training & equipping volunteers, I’ve come to believe that A LITTLE is better than NONE! (and sometimes better than A LOT!)
Today is the first day that “99 Thoughts about Jr. High Ministry” is available… and I’ve already ordered some copies of it. Lots of volunteers won’t have time to read a whole book about Middle School Ministry — but Kurt has packed this little book (maybe even book-let?) with short, helpful thoughts that can motivate and inform busy people who serve students. It’s like giving your volunteers the wisdom they’d gain from sitting down for a cup of coffee with Kurt… only this booklet is probably a little more focused than he’d be in person. 
I can’t wait to get it!
Along the same lines, I used to try to do “day long” or “half day” trainings with our volunteers… and it felt like a HUGE undertaking! But recently, our philosophy has shifted to 30 minute trainings… very focused and purposeful … about 2 times a month (when volunteers are already at church). It’s been fantastically helpful for us — and not only that, our volunteer attendance rate has been right around 90%!
How do you train volunteers? Maybe “short” could be Great for you, too.
3
Kurt Johnston leads the student ministries team at Saddleback Church in Southern California. His ministry of choice, however, is junior high, where he spends approximately 83.4% of his time. Kurt is also the founder of www.simplyjuniorhigh.com, and he writes, speaks and looks for opportunities to encourage other youth workers. He likes to surf, ride dirtbikes and hang out in coffee shops. He is married to Rachel, and they have two teenage children, Kayla and Cole
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Scott Rubin is the Director of Elevate, the junior high ministry of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. He's mostly a middle school pastor, but he also writes some, speaks some, and blogs some. He's the co-author of the book Middle School Ministry, and a few other titles too. He likes sports, summer, his wife Lynette, his 3 sons, and often wishes that Lake Michigan was actually an ocean.
Scott, I’m hurt that as a friend you would pick on my attention span. You know that when I want to I can be exrtremely……Squirrel!
Just wondering what those 30 minute trainings looked like in your context? What are you trying to train your leaders and how do you organize those 30 mins?
Hi John – we try to make our trainings 3 things: FOCUSED on 1 topic, INTERACTIVE to keep everyone engaged, and TIMELY so we’re talking about something that volunteers see will effect their groups right away. In the beginning of the season we cover things like “How to lead a middle school SG discussion”, and “How to handle rowdiness/discipline”, we move to things like “how to engage middle school parents”, “how to clearly share the gospel with students”, “how to talk about sex/dating appropriately”… maybe someday I should try to put some of it in a publishable form, since it’s really working for us.