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How to Assemble your Serve Local Team

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Once your church has committed to participate in One Day: Serve Local, you are ready to begin assembling your Serve Local team – one of the four steps to a successful Serve Local day. You can view a video describing these four steps HERE. Eventually, this team will consist of all church members who choose to serve, but a vitally important first step is to quickly form a Serve Local Leadership Team.

 

Due to the limited time available and the uniqueness of your church, we are offering the following three options for the composition of your Leadership Team.

 

THREE OPTIONS FOR YOUR SERVE LOCAL LEADERSHIP

 

OPTION 1: ABSC ONE DAY MODEL

 

Under “normal” conditions, this approach might take 1-3 months. However, if your church is blessed with an abundance of leaders, this model can be fast-tracked.

 

This model would include the following:

  • Coordinator: one person who will lead a team to coordinate all aspects of Serve Local
  • Leadership Team: 2-4 people working closely with your Coordinator
  • Ministry Coordinator(s): a leader for each specific ministry
  • Ministry Site Leader(s): a leader for each site of a specific ministry, only needed if specific ministry has multiple sites
  • Members

Registration of members to serve can take place prior to determining specific ministries but is best if members are provided the option of choosing the ministry they wish to serve. If you wish to give members service options, determining ministries must take place early in the process.

 

Using this model, the Coordinator should be identified immediately. Given a four-week period prior to Serve Local, the remainder of the Leadership Team should be in place by the end of week 1, and Ministry Coordinators in place by the end of week 2. The sooner these leaders are in place, the more time you have to mobilize members to serve and plan for your Serve Local day.

 

OPTION TWO: EXISTING STRUCTURE MODEL

 

A second option would be to secure Serve Local leadership from the existing leadership and ministry structure of the church. If your church has a Committee or Ministry Team responsible for evangelism and/or missions, they could serve as the core of your Serve Local Leadership Team with the Chair serving as Coordinator. 

 

Your Evangelism/Missions Team could then recruit Ministry Coordinators and Ministry Site Leaders by following option 1. This simple move could provide at least one additional week for your planning and preparation.

 

Or, a variation of this option, that might be appealing to many churches, would be for the Leadership Team or the Evangelism/Missions Team, to:

  • Meet with representatives from each church ministry (children’s, youth, college, women, men, senior adults, deacons, WMU, Brotherhood, etc.) and each Sunday School/Small Group
  • Explain Serve Local and the church’s commitment to participate
  • Request each church ministry and Sunday School/Small Group plan a ministry event/activity and recruit members from their ministry or Sunday School/Small Group to serve
  • Each ministry and Sunday School/Small Group designates a leader for their ministry who joins Leadership Team as Ministry Coordinator. Information on chosen ministry is relayed to Leadership Team for promotion and scheduling Serve Local day.

Having existing Ministries and/or Sunday School/Small Groups plan & recruit for Serve Local ministries can save valuable time and lessen the responsibilities of the Leadership Team. In addition, recruiting members to serve who are not enrolled in Sunday School/Small Groups could result in growth.

 

OPTION 3: ONE EVENT MODEL

 

A third option would be for the Pastor and Staff, or Pastor and Coordinator, to choose one and two ministries where church members would be recruited to serve. This option may work best in smaller membership churches and would definitely require less time to plan and promote.

 

Possible ministry options might include:

  • Prayer Walking the entire community or specific neighborhood(s)
  • Door-to-door Evangelism covering the entire community or specific neighborhood(s)
  • Choose one specific group of people in the community to serve: School, Police, Fire Department, Medical Professionals, Local Businesses, etc.

Regardless of the option you choose, leadership is important for a successful Serve Local day at your church.  To allow sufficient time for all other planning aspects of Serve Local, developing a leadership team should be the first step you take and must be accomplished quickly. An article detailing the responsibilities of the Leadership Team can be found HERE. 

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