How to Reproduce Yourself on Your Volunteer Team

As a leader in children's ministry, your goal should be to work yourself out of a job. Don't be alarmed when I say "work yourself out a job." The truth is this - the better you do at working yourself out of a job, the more valuable you become to the ministry. As a children's ministry leader, your role is to be an equipper more than being a doer. This is crucial if your ministry is going to continue to thrive in the years ahead. Let's look at the keys to reproducing yourself. Identify potential leaders. Who on your team has leadership potential? Who is growing? Who is teachable? Who is thriving in their current role? Who is ready to go to the next level in their leadership? You should love everyone on your team. But when it comes to reproducing yourself, be selective. Jesus modeled this. He had 12 disciples, but out of the 12, He had 3 that He brought into His inner circle and mentored. Follow His example and identify 2 to 3 people you are going to reproduce yourself in. Once you've taken those people through your process, then identify 2 to 3 more and repeat the process. This will enable you to have a consistent, growing number of leaders who are serving at a high level capacity. Invite them to the process. Let them know you see leadership potential in them. Invite them to come alongside you and be mentored. Include potential leaders. Begin to include them in key meetings. Include them in your decision making process. Include them in conferences you attend, in books that you read, in podcasts you listen to, in training and personal growth plans, etc. Involve potential leaders. Involve them in your job. Have them begin shadowing you or the person you want them to replicate. Show them the behind-the-scene parts of the ministry. Slowly share some of your job responsibilities with them and have the begin leading some of these. Inspect potential leaders. A big part of the reproduction process is giving the person(s) feedback. Feedback is one of the best ways to reproduce yourself. Ask permission to give it and then provide ongoing feedback. Improve potential leaders. Take the ongoing feedback and use it to help the person improve their leadership capabilities. Your goal should be to help the person grow and expand as a leader. Infuse potential leaders. It's vital that you not only teach the person the in's and out's of the ministry, but that you also infuse them with the DNA, vision and heart of the ministry. If you can help them buy into the why of the ministry, you will then see them carry out the how of the ministry with passion and enthusiasm. Heart first...duties second. There are people in your church and ministry waiting for you to invest in them. Follow these steps and you will set the ministry up for ongoing success.