How to Develop a Leadership Training Plan

We want to see children’s and youth ministry leadership teams in churches serving with enthusiasm and growing in their effectiveness in their ministry to young people. The truth is that leadership teams are vital to our ministry to young people.

Whether your leadership team is made up of two, five or 50 leaders, the ability of our churches to reach and disciple young people relies (under God) on healthy leaders. We need to be serious about investing in leaders, so they are growing as disciples as they seek to disciple the next generation.

The question then is, what does good training look like for leaders of young people in our churches?

There are two equally important but distinct aspects to an effective leadership training strategy. Both are vital and must work together. First is the content of the training, second is the format in which the training is delivered.

Training Content: What do leaders need training in?

There are some areas that it is appropriate and necessary for all leaders to be trained in which include:

· Safe ministry/child protection practices and policies.

· Personal life of a Christian leader – church attendance, personal devotional life etc.

· Christian Character.

· Vision and strategy of your church and/or ministry.

There are also specific ministry skills that leaders need to be trained in. Some of these may be suitable to all leaders, others may be more specific to a particular age group or ministry program. Things like:

· Preparing a Bible talk.

· Leading a small group for teenagers.

· Running games for children.

· Group management.

· Teaching pre-schoolers.

· Child development.

Alongside the training areas that might be ministry specific, there may also be specialised training for those that have different levels of leadership responsibility, including:

· Coaching.

·  Team leading.

·  New leaders.

·  Raising new leaders.

·  Implementing a ministry strategy.

·  Casting and celebrating vision.

Training Format: How and when will training happen?

This concerns both who is delivering the training and the scale of the training. A growing leader can, and I would suggest should, receive several different formats of training throughout a year. A well-rounded training strategy will include several of the following formats of training:

· Regular Check-Ins: These are short opportunities which may be part of the regular leadership team meetings before or after a particular program.

· Local training: Local training is training that is coordinated by the local church and run either by a staff member or team leader, or by someone invited in from elsewhere.

· Network training: That is, gathering with other local churches to train leaders together. This provides opportunities to cover a wider range of content and for leaders to both gather with other leaders and hear from other voices.

· Training events/Conferences: These are the large-scale training events that are hosted and coordinated beyond the local church. Whether it is a camp, single or multi-day event, these training options provide an opportunity for leaders to hear from a range of voices and network with other leaders from different ministry contexts. This may be something that the whole leadership team attends, or it might be something that a particular section of the leadership team attends.

· Retreats: A retreat is either a single or multi-day event for your leadership team with the focus most likely be more on the local ministry and team building.

· Coaching: Coaching involves the one-on-one, walking alongside someone as they continue to grow in their leadership skills and discipleship of Jesus. This could be in a formal coaching arrangement, or simply developing a culture of reflection and feedback.

· Specific Groups: This involves working with a specific group of leaders for guided training that is specific to their role or leadership responsibilities. E.g. all first-year leaders, all team leaders.

· Resource library: Maintain and share appropriate resources, whether articles, books, videos or other tools to equip leaders in their ministry.

Training Strategy: Putting it together

It is now essential to put the two together to develop a plan or pathway for when training will occur over a year (or multiple years) and what content will be covered when. Pathways help because they provide a framework and structure of moving people from Point A (where they are now) to Point B (where you want them to be in 1, 2, 5 years). However, each person is different and not everyone (anyone?) moves in a linear direction and there will be times when you need to train leaders in reaction to something in your ministry, so a pathway is helpful but held to loosely.

The key questions to ask when developing a training strategy are:

1. Who is the training for? Is it for the whole team, new leaders, experienced leaders, team leaders?

2. What do they need training in? Do they need new skills? Ask the leaders what they would like to be trained in? Ask team leaders what their teams need?

3. What is the outcome of the training? What are you hoping the leaders will know, do or believe?

4. What format of training suits this outcome best? Given the previous questions, should this be local, a network, a conference, other?

5. Who is best to deliver the training? Is this training you should run? Can you get an outside voice to speak? If you aren’t sure what is available talk to other children’s or youth ministers near you or get in touch you with a Youthworks Ministry Support Team advisor.

Answers to these questions will help shape the path and direction of a leadership strategy and prioritise the content that your leaders are trained.

Below are three examples of what an annual training strategy may look like. These range from one training moment per quarter through to some training input every month. Depending on the size of your ministry and your capacity as a leader, one or two of these options may be more suitable to you.

*These examples will have a Sydney flavour to them, but the principles outlined can be transferred to any location.

Training Strategy #1 – One formal training moment per quarter

Training Strategy #2 – Two formal training moments per quarter

Training Strategy #3 – Three formal training moments per quarter

This is one of the free resources available on the Training Ministry Teams platform where you can subscribe to access a range of training for you to use in equipping your leaders.