Adult Volunteers

Chuck on December 9th, 2009

A little survey, brainstorm, networking, get ideas from one another deal here.  Working in college age ministry requires us to have volunteers.  Much of what we do can be – and should be – led by college age people themselves.  But, as you’re likely aware, I’m very big on having older believers invest in college age people.  Thus, we need people.

I have done a variety of things to equip and train these leaders.  My question for you is, are there any resources (books, articles, websites, etc.) you’ve given your adult volunteers to help them be more effective in their ministry to college age people?  If you list some, make sure to briefly comment about how it’s helped them.

Related posts:

  1. Biggest Question
  2. Adult, Adolescent, or Both?
  3. New Book For Volunteers
  4. Website Resource
  5. Year End Evaluation

Share Discuss (6)

Logan Gentry at 2:28pm December 9

We’ve utilized Total Church by Steve Timmis as a way to translate our DNA to our adult volunteers to allow them to lead their students, but I think our ongoing bi-weekly training which involves face to face time and collabortation amongst our coaches (adult volunteers) is the most beneficial in regards to working with the specific age group.

Tim Simpson at 2:32pm December 14

We share some Tim Elmore material with them on generational differences. I try to tell them what books I’m reading.
We have asked our adult Sunday school classes to provide a meal for our college students once a month on Sunday nights which we call College Community Dinners. Then we’ve asked them to hang around and talk to the students. We are trying to be more intentional with this because most of the adults just gathered at a table with each other, ate, and talked. For the one in January, we are going to have all the University employees who attend our church to come, eat, and sit with the students at 8 person round tables. We’ll introduce each adult and tell what part of campus they work for. We’d like to have a career dinner where different adults in our church share a little about what they do and then give students an opportunity to build relationships with them by asking them questions or out to lunch. I know this seems like a long process but it helps us find adults who love college students.
We also invite our college Sunday School teachers to attend all of our events for free. The students love it when they show up at our retreats, Christmas Party or Thrift Store Formal.
I try to spend one on one time with each of our Sunday School teachers once a semester and allow them to bounce ideas for their classes off of me and just love on them.