Changing the New Staff Job

(This is the initial proposal we wrote about re-focusing the New Staff job description. It has illicited a great deal of good comments which are posted above. Please tell us what you think.)

It is my belief that every organization eventually gets to the point where the will to spawn a revolution wanes. Whether we are at that point I don't claim to know. But this idea is hatched in an effort to allow our youngest leaders to create a revolution.

To summarize what we are proposing, we'd suggest limiting the New Staff role to three areas: 1) Lots of evangelism. The idea would be that each staff facilitate 1,000 gospel conversations each year during their two year training period. 2) Basic Follow Up. Those who come to faith would be followed up (perhaps using the transferable concepts laid out on the Nat'l Team's most recent DNA paper.). 3) Launching new movements. Those who complete Basic Follow Up would be coached, or sent to launch new movements in thier communities. Discussion along these lines has surfaced the following questions or feedback. I will try to represent the perspective of others as best I can. These ideas are very formative right now, so please dive in and help us think clearly and comprehensively about each aspect. I have answered some questions that have been posed below, but you may not agree with my answers, or it may be that I am not adequately answering the questions. Please raise others and comment on what you find here.

Under the evangelism aspect...
A comprehensive evangelistic strategy should include aspects of personal evangelism, small group evangelism and large group proclamation. Also, there should be a direct connection to the point of decision. In other words the distance between the strategy and the presentation of Jesus' message should be short. As much as the initiatives lend themselves to an ongoing discussion, it seems they would be increasingly effective. We'd like to see more initiative engaging the lost, and more creativity in gathering students together in order to hear our message.

"This sounds like a Staffed Campus paradigm, how can this be accomplished in a Catalytic setting?" By using the word "facilitate" we give freedom for all staff to coach others as they themselves begin initiating in a more forthright way. However, the idea is designed to help move us on from the "gather, build, send" model we sometimes experience, to all staff more directly engaging with lost people in conversation.

"How is this not, more-bricks-less-straw?" First, the design would hopefully be that the goal is so audacious, that to reach it new and creative ways of engaging the lost would need to be found. To take 10 surveys a day is untenable, so staff would need to look for ways to bring together groups of people together to converse with so many. Also, the time constraints on the new staff will be different. This in not added to thier job, it is thier job. Anything else would be added to thier job.

"Goals imposed from above illicit little motivation." This is not a goal, but as a job description, I see the difference as important, but that might not satisfy some. This makes evangelism our default activity, not the melieu of organizing weekly meetings, They will become experts at evangelism. They will be a new class of evangelistic new staff who will go on to lead teams, etc., but hopefully with a different bent. They will teach us valuable lessons in how to connect with the lost.

Under the Basic Follow Up aspect...
Basic follow-up would train people in what they need to know in order to launch a simple movement. That content has recently been spelled out for us on the "DNA Paper" we received last week.

"If even 10% came to faith it would be a logistical challenge to follow up." We would need to do follow up differently too. Staff would need to be trained to move away from an approach that may be weighted toward the on-on-one approach to a group format for a lot of coaching.

"There is no provision for the development of the staff in this kind of a position focus." Perhaps we could streamline what the staff are already getting in terms of personal development and where we do emphasize specific topics or resources they would be along the lines of what the Nat'l Team included under the "build" section of the DNA paper (This is mostly the Trasferable Concepts plus some expanded material). In other words we could dive deeper into the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the other concepts list on that page.

Under the Launch Movements aspect...
"Doesn't this get us away from what the National Team is asking us to do in launching movements everywhere?" Hopefully not. New staff will be launching movements everywhere as they send new believers back to their communities to win and build others.

With so much confusion on what it means to launch movements, how will they do this? Again, this is an area where we as an organization need to learn from the grass roots level what it looks like to launch movements everywhere on college campuses. It cannot mean launching new organizations and it may mean launching movements that act in a very autonomous way from the mother ship. Our church just launched another church in a different town. They hire a pastor, sent many families, and advertized like crazy to go and join the launch. Now it is up and running and our mother church really expects nothing in return.

I personally believe the biggest hurdles to these ideas are the multitude of small jobs and meetings New Staff usually need to pitch in on and the inertia that exists in that direction. To give the staff freedom to create, they would need to be exempted from a great deal of work that keeps the current ministry going. I am sure there is lots more, but this should get us going. THANKS FOR HANGING IN THERE!