When directing a cm that had a director before you – how to establish or improve the training

Your Question:

“I am directing a CM that has had a director before me. How do I establish or improve the CM team training?”

The Issues:

Training your CM team is one of the best recruiting tools you could use! The more confident the CM team members are, the more they will invite their friends to join them, or at least give the ministry a “good review.” The greatest challenge with training is scheduling a time that is “easy” for most of them. Some may complain, but they should always be glad they came!

Scripture Foundation:

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”  Philippians 4:9

Short Answer:

Everyone is familiar with the concept of being trained to accomplish something important or new.  Most of your current CM team were trained to drive. Some people on your team may have enjoyed being trained to be a better cook, a stronger golfer, or how to ride a horse. Some churches believe that all they need to run the CM are good-hearted people.  This is basically true, but good-hearted people need to know how to specifically inspire children, deal with discipline challenges, be affectionate with children without being inappropriate, respond to emergencies, support parents and grandparents, and lead children to the Lord!  These abilities don’t come naturally to most people, they need to be taught, demonstrated, and reinforced. Paul’s encouragement in Philippians 4:9 directly applies to those on your CM team.  They need to learn from you, watch your good examples, and put into practice what you teach them.  The promised result of a thorough training process is that “the God of peace will be with you.” CM training is not accomplished in one or even a few mandatory training sessions.  Mandatory training sessions are good, but they are only a part of the on-going CM training process that should be established. It is much like the commercials for a sweet cereal. Many times, you see the bowl of cereal on a table that also includes fruit, milk or orange juice, and an egg. The narrator for the commercial says, “Yummy Flakes, part of a healthy, balanced meal.”  The various efforts you use to train the CM team may be good by themselves, but they are better as part of an on-going training “meal.” The questions you should ask are: 1) What topics should be included in the training? 2) What is the priority order for the list of necessary topics? 3) When is the best time to utilize “mandatory training sessions”? 4) How can I utilize social media, the website, email, podcasts, or even text messages in the training? 5) How can I “guarantee” that all CM team members have been exposed to each training session or presentation? 6) How do I “refresh” or remind the CM team members about the topics of the training on an on-going process? 7) Can I “release” the responsibility of training the CM team to the age-group or area coordinators? 8) How can I make the training enjoyable, short, rewarding, and fun?  These questions will help you develop a training process that lasts all year long. Download a suggested year-long training process. Make sure to make every training effort, short, personally interesting, applicable, and fun.  If you have a reputation for long, boring training sessions, you will experience a dwindling attendance in them!  For more help in developing an effective year-long CM training process click on the links below.

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