Gilbert’s Coaching Tips

In last week’s tip, I talked about the stages of development of movements and the skills needed at each stage.  For the next few weeks, I want to double click on each of those stages and focus on specific skills.  Today I am double clicking on Pioneering.  The skill we need to develop is how to filter a leader.

Steps in Filtering a Leader

There are any number of ways that someone might express interest in starting a Campus Crusade for Christ ministry.  Maybe they are the leader of an existing group or they have initiated toward us in some way.  What I am going to describe is what I would do.  You may have other resources and steps, but I think you want to have a process for helping you determine who your leaders are and helping them see that God has raised them up.

Garett found out somehow that Campus Crusade for Christ could help him start a ministry.  When his email reached me, I emailed back to tell him that I was sending him a Starter Kit.  I asked him to fill out the required information and then mail it back to me.  Within a week or so, he sent me each piece filled out and we were on our way to launching a ministry SUNY New Paltz.

Several years ago the Starter Kit was developed as a way to filter leaders.  It introduces Campus Crusade for Christ and explains our vision and plans for reaching every student on every campus for Christ.  It also helps us get to know the potential leader.  The hardcopy version that we have in our office has examples of specific tools for prayer, evangelism and discipleship.  An on-line version of the Starter Kit is found on the Start a Ministry pages of GodSquad. 

We start by looking for the most mature Christians that we can find.  I ask them to read Transforming Movements.  Then I would meet with them as a group to discuss the thought questions at the end and dream with them about how to reach their campus.  I would also walk through or draw out the Local Leader Critical Path.  This helps cast vision for what we are believing God to accomplish on their campus.

By the end of that discussion I hope to find one or two who have distinguished themselves as potential leaders.  The others would hopefully see them as leaders and these leaders see themselves as such.  Then I would hand each potential leader a Starter Kit, walk through it and ask them to prayerfully fill and mail to me the application, sign the Statement of Faith and Key Person Volunteer Agreement.  The application helps us to get to know them.  The volunteer agreement helps them see what they are committing to. And the Statement of Faith clarifies what we believe.

I believe we have two tendencies in this process.  First we can rush to hand them a Starter Kit without taking time to cast vision and instill personal confidence that God can use them.  The other is that we don’t ask them to prayerfully commit to being a leader.

There is nothing magical about the application and agreement as they are written.  But I believe the process is valuable for the potential leader to consider their role.  We must not discount what God does in the heart of a potential leader as they take personal stock of what He might be calling them to do.  There is nothing like the joy of personal discovery as they begin to crystallize their thinking about their vision.

We do learn some things about them if they delay in filling out an application or they are superficial in their answers.  But if they know that we ask every leader to fill out an application they will see this as a necessary step.  Evon took over for another as leader on one of my campuses.  I asked him to fill out each form and he did.  Reading his answers helped me get to know him better and to see how God had prepared him for ministry.

The next step is to have a conversation with them.  The Telephone Interview.  is one way to gather typical contact information, some cursory campus demographics and get to know them.  We get to hear some of their heart and how God has prepared them.  I remember once finishing the interview with Jeff.  He thanked me for taking the time to get to know him when he knew that I was looking for a person who could begin a ministry on his campus.

An optional step in assessing the qualifications of a potential leader is calling references.  On the back of the application, there is a place to list references.  A Reference Questionnaire helps us determine if the prospective leader is qualified to lead the ministry.  It is a good idea to call these references if we have questions about their leadership qualifications.

Now we are at the point where we can make a decision about their being a leader.  A helpful tool for this is the Key Person Criteria.  This page lists several areas and assesses each with a “green light” (Go forward.), “yellow light” (Precede with caution.) and “red light” (Stop.).  It helps to objectify the qualification process to that we can make an informed decision.  Finally, we call them to inform them of our decision.  From here we begin to dream and make plans to reach their campus so that everyone has an opportunity to say “Yes!” to Jesus Christ.

A lot of us have encountered a few of the same pitfalls over the years in launching and building movements. Two of the most common are not having the right leader in place and having to restart ministries because leadership does not transfer to the next generation after the original leader graduates.  It is easy to rush to start with the first person to come along.  We might be uncomfortable asking them to fill out an application or we don’t do references if we have concerns.

The first few times through this, the process can feel somewhat contrived.  But it will cut down on the number of instances where we have the wrong leader.  It will also help us when we or they realize that they are not the right leader, because right up front they know what we are asking them to agree to.  By having a qualification process, we minimize the start and restart cycle.