Had the privilege of training our weekend leaders this past weekend. We are taking our leaders in a new direction. They will completely be a part of our weekend team. They will no longer be just available but will be initiating connections with students. Thought I would post what I shared with our leaders.
The duties of the weekend leaders (Pastoral Care Team) will be to meet, greet, connect and pray for students. Our goal as the weekend pastoral care team is to reach out to students that are disengaged and also care for the students that are a part of the ministry. We are a part of the weekend team, so we will be fully engaged in the weekend programming. We want to bring the level of relational ministry on the weekend to a higher level of importance.
Here are 6 ways you will serve on the weekend:
1. You will be introduced to the students so they know that you exist and understand your purpose. This will give you the license and confidence to speak into the lives of the students and spiritually lead them.
2. You will also have the opportunity to be a part of the service (could be a video, announcement or handling communion). We want students to know that you are a part of HSM leadership and getting to know you is just like getting to know staff.
3. You will be assigned a zone in the theater during the service you attend. You will scout out those students who are sitting alone and sit with them or assign student leaders to sit with them. You will also control the noise level of the zone, making sure students are being respectful of each other. During Saturday 430pm service and Sunday 9am service we want all of the students sitting in the lower level of the theater. Please remember the students in your area who race to sit in the back alone and be sure to greet them after service.
4. You will intentionally connect with students.Instead of standing around waiting for students to come and get prayer, we will be actively pursuing and connecting with students so we can meet, greet, connect and pray.
- Meet – We want to meet students. We will meet students instead of wait in a corner for them to come to us. We will reach out to them instead of waiting for them to reach out to us.
- Greet – We want to make sure that we genuinely greet them. Refer to the hand out “Hand Shake Hi to a Hug Goodbye”.
- Connect – We want to make sure that we are intentional about our conversation with students. We want to look for ways in the conversation to suggest a next step. For new students we want to guide them towards community. That could range from life groups to serving opportunities within the ministry or summer camp. You can even suggest grabbing coffee, lunch or ice cream with them at the refinery sometime. For students who are already in life groups, you can suggest serving in a ministry, missions or summer camp. We want to make sure students are getting connected.
- Pray – We want to pray for students. While you are connecting through conversations, once an area of struggle, pain, disappointment, hardship and trial appears offer prayer. We want to avoid saying “I’ll be praying for you”. Pray for the student right there on the spot. Even pray for the core students you already know that have been met, greeted and connected. Go deeper in conversation and pray for them. Just because they are a part of our core students doesn’t mean they have everything together.
5. You will also be a part of the follow up team. We want to get them connected. If you meet a first timer make sure they fill out a response card so we have their info. We want to make sure we are able to keep them updated on what’s going on in HSM.
- Hanging out with first timers. – We will send our first timers to the growth booth. You will then escort them to the VIP lounge where they can sign their name and get awesome snacks! What if we had KING SIZE snacks…even bags of cotton candy?! You simply take two minutes sharing about our ministry and how much we are glad they are here. Tell them to make sure they don’t leave without saying hi to you the next time they come.
- Following up with first timers. – Contact the student just to see how things are going. Finding out how can we help them get more connected is our goal.
6. We will have an after service event. We will do a hang session right after all four services. The Saturday services can be different from the Sunday services. Basically, we will have an activity after each service that we will help slow students down so we can connect with them.
how are your weekend leaders active on the weekend?
hope it helps
ac