Mobilizing Laborers to Reach the World for Christ

Ministry Office Volunteers

The vision of our movement

has always been to see the world reached to the glory of God. Mobilizing hundreds of volunteer laborers at ministry offices will support the acceleration of building movements everywhere so that the world is reached for Christ.

– We’ve always used volunteers; it fits our values– The mission compels us to enlist more laborers– The RMO missionary model is not sufficient for the

need– We have an incredible opportunity to enlist and

empower hundreds of volunteers to support reaching millions of people

A volunteer is one who serves with us without pay to build movements

– Cru provides a • Selection process• Equipping in ministry (Training)• A team (or distance coaching relationship) that provides an environment for

– Spiritual growth– Feedback– Ongoing equipping– Accountability– Encouragement

– The volunteer and team benefit from • Cru organizational support• Credibility• Training• Leadership• Teamwork• Coaching

– This person is not paid, but may choose to raise funds to reimburse ministry expenses, in certain situations.

Note: We believe that students will serve as “volunteer” leaders in our movements, but we are not including them in this proposal because we are not expecting them to fill our applications to work with us as student leaders. Although this process may mirror much of what we do with students, we are not including them in this proposal.

Stages of Volunteer Involvement

• Following is a 5 stage process through which a volunteer might progress in their relationship with Cru, and Cru with a volunteer. Volunteers can bring a lot to a team, but the currency most often traded in the volunteer world is that of vision, relationships, and contribution (making a difference by doing something I believe in). Because of that, each of the following steps is important in preparing for the contribution a volunteer will make with a team.

See – a potential volunteer hears about Cru’s vision, sees the ministry in action, and meets a team(s) who already work with Cru. This is typically a local/relational process but may also include connecting with a ministry leader who could coach them remotely, and therefore the initial “see” experience may happen in a different way. In this step, the two are getting to know one another. Before taking the next step, the person and the Cru leader should know at the end of this “seeing” period that both believe working together is something they believe God is leading them toward.

*Note: Do not skip this step. The potential volunteer needs to know God is leading them to work with us, and the local team needs to know they want to work with this person, and that the person will be faithful.

Agree – a potential volunteer and Cru decide they want to work

together.

Components of a standardized process are:

1. An application (application, references, interview, statement of faith, moral/behavior questions, background check request form (as needed), volunteer service agreement). The application would then be approved, or not.

2. An approved volunteer is entered into Cru’s system, which gives them a relay account for in-house ministry communications, an account for reimbursing ministry expenses (as needed), ability to have a onecard (as needed), access to training, and access to ePerformance/development/feedback tools.

3. A simplified volunteer job description and development process are agreed upon.

*(VSA and background check to be renewed annually.)

Equip – based on the volunteer role, and number of hours they want to work with us, a training plan is agreed to and implemented.As roles change and new projects are taken on additional training is provided as needed.

Serve – a volunteer continues to serve with a movement building team and grows in an environment which includes spiritual growth, feedback, ongoing equipping, accountability, and encouragement. The following elements are also updated annually:

• Job description

• Position Focus

• Training & Development Plan

• VSA/Statement of Faith

• Background Check

Thank – Volunteers need to see their contribution connecting to the whole movement, so appreciation from the movement leaders, communicating the end results of the volunteer contribution and appreciation from the rest of the movement is important to ongoing motivation for the volunteer. Leaders of volunteers need regular plans for communicating this appreciation.

Volunteer Categories (Volunteer is the umbrella term for all

non-paid manpower)

Cru Partner – works with any project in the ministry office as needed based on skills/availability defined in the application/ placement process. They typically work with us 5-12 hours/week.

Highly Skilled Partner – works in a committed long term role alongside Missionary Staff in the ministry office using their specialty skills. They agree upon a number of hours each week for a defined time period and then renew their role agreement.

Cru Affiliates – works as a Missional or Operational Team Leader.

Associate Staff – typically former staff who works 6-10 hours.

Occasional Volunteers – not used in ministry offices for legal reasons. On the field may volunteer for one-time, non-recurring events or projects.

CRU PartnerCru Partner – works with any project in the ministry office as needed based on skills/availability defined in the application/ placement process. They typically work at least 3 hours/week.

• Field Partners – work with the ministry’s target audience directly.

• Project Partners – work in the ministry office primarily for operational and project work. They may have a one card, may raise funds for ministry expenses, may have access to secure info (all of which require a background check).

Use a simple application which consists of:• Biographical information• Spiritual /Ministry elaboration questions• Moral/Character/Heart elaboration questions (limited to 2 or 3 questions)• Volunteer Service Agreement/Conduct Agreement/Statement of Faith• 2 references• Background Check if working with minors or raising/handling ministry funds or one cards or having

access to secure info.Training appropriate to the assignment will be provided.

Highly Skilled PartnerHighly Skilled Partner – works in a committed long term role alongside Missionary Staff in the ministry office using their specialty skills. They agree upon a number of hours or 1 or more days per week for a defined time period. When that ends they renew their role agreement.

• HS Partners in most cases maintain the same assignment like a full time staff member does, for a significant portion of a year or on a yearly renewal basis.

• Current examples of projects are: a CPA financial research project for International Accounting, an IT network programmer, and a database programmer for Jesus Film.

Application addendums:• Role commitment agreement• Additional Questions per Role• Background Check required

CRU AffiliateCru Affiliates – works as a Missional or Operational Team Leader and typically gives 6 or more hours per week.

• Missional Team Leaders lead in the field.

• Operational Leaders / Fund Development Leaders supervise other staff or volunteers. They lead and represent Cru in a wider way relative to resource development and use of resources.

• Cru Affiliates in most cases would serve as field or project Cru Partners first.

Application addendums:• Additional references per role (2)• Interview with regional / national leaders• Additional Questions per Role• Position Focus Review• Background Check required

Associate Staff Associate Staff – A group of volunteers with longer term ties to Cru, almost always former staff, and a relatively small group of people. These volunteers would commit at least 6-10 hours/week to a Cru ministry and follow associate staff guidelines already determined.

Occasional Volunteers Occasional Volunteers – These are people who play sporadic roles, i.e. preparing food for a meeting, setting up for an outreach, speaking at meetings, raising money, etc. We would not require an application unless their role became consistent. We may require a background check if they are working with minors and play a role that might warrant such a check – i.e. driving students to a retreat.

In Ministry Offices we cannot engage these volunteers because we need more legal protection through the Cru Partners application for people who are on our property other than visitors.

Related Proposal 1: We Intend to Build a User Experience of Life Long Relationships in our Systems and Processes

• Because we desire to build life long relationships with people who work with us, our intent is to design systems and processes which allow our applications, training, and development to build relationally even as a person’s hiring category and involvement changes. This includes entry level involvement (i.e. Summer Projects, Volunteer) through staff level involvement.

Life Long Relationship User Experience

• An integrated application tool/system which will allow us to build on the relationship we are building with people who work with us. This will cause us to approach second applications to new “hiring” categories more as transfers than as new applications. For instance, a volunteer who wanted to become a part time field staff would do some elaborations, references, an interview, and submit a review/ position focus to transfer to part time field staff. An evaluation would be made, but approached in a relational manner that builds on the relationship we have.

Life Long Relationship User Experience

• Our new staff and leadership development training and tools need to be scalable and appropriate for each level of involvement. In addition, our training needs to be structured so it can grow with a person, both if they stay in their present hiring category and if they transfer to greater or lesser involvement – i.e. volunteer to intern to part time field staff to RMO staff.

Related Proposal 2: PeopleSoft to Send Out Annual VSA’s and Background Checks

• As more volunteers join us we will need automated systems to keep up to date with required documentation for legal and risk management. As needed each year PS could send out VSA’s and Background Checks and data entry could confirm that those are returned in a timely way. This enables smaller ministry offices to comply with legal obligations, while centralizing the filing of required paperwork.

Related Proposal 3: Training in Staff Categories

• Local leaders need to lead in the light of the complexity of people on their team from several hiring categories. We need to help and coach local leaders as they navigate the complexities of having people from various categories on their teams. Greater flexibility and clarity are required when teams are combinations of volunteer, part time field, intern, and RMO staff. A suggestion might be to mobilize the HR/LD community to provide additional coaching for each of our local leaders – to help them find and equip their team.