Tag Archive for: Shoreline

7 Elements of Student Ministry Directing by Stacy McVane

Communication and relationships are the most important aspect of any church organization.  Developing great relationships across the entire church staff, and not just within your department is crucial to the vision.  In order to have unity and continue to stick to the vision of Shoreline ChurchUnveiling God’s Love, I must be able to communicate and find some sort of commonality with everybody on staff.  Respecting and adhering to other departments’ processes and systems gives you credibility and opportunity to serve one another.  Developing relationships is always a blast!

I was having a conversation about communication with Joel Maguire, the Men’s Student Life Director of Shoreline’s Leadership College.  He said, “Unvoiced expectations will always equal unmet expectations.”  This is such a true statement.  If it weren’t for the volunteers at Shoreline Church, we wouldn’t have a church.  Volunteers want to know what is expected of them so they can meet and exceed expectations.  People want to be asked to help and serve.  Everybody wants an opportunity to make an impact.

From my perspective, these are some practical elements of directing student ministries from Ji-High to Young Adults:

  1. Be the person who has all the answers to all the questions.  If you don’t have the answer, tell the person you will find out and get back to them.  Make sure you follow through on what you say.  I had four leaders call me about a specific incident.  I let them know I didn’t have an answer because I wasn’t there, but I would get back to them.  I researched, found the answer, and called each one of them back to dialog about the incident.
  2. Work yourself out of a job.  Bring someone with you everywhere you go.  Always be mentoring someone.  Multiply your leadership.  It’s not necessary to be at the Lift Young Adults service on Sunday nights because Nadine Matthews can run it.
  3. Make sure everyone is clear on the vision of the ministry and what the win is.  The win at every Lift service is to have no first time guests sitting alone.  Adrian Cardenas makes sure this happens at our Lift 7th-12th grade service with our Lift Rats (a team of teenagers who love on our guests) and Jenny Heggem makes sure this happens at our Lift 6th-8th grade service.
  4. Plan ahead and be flexible with change.  Always plan, but always be ready to change the plan if asked to.  If my supervisor, Pastor Earl McClellan wants some part of our Lift Young Adults service to change, I make sure to leave enough room for change to happen.  If I have a question, I can always ask after the service.  Take action at the moment and debrief later.
  5. Look for the gifts, talents, and passions of others.  Jessica Worthey is passionate about 6th-8th grade young ladies and I knew she would love to lead a small group of ladies in the home of Grace Wall’s parents.  Jessica loves her small group and the young ladies are learning about relationships and leadership with Jessica.
  6. Learn emotional flexibility.  Be able to pray with someone and comfort them and then move on to tasks related the rest of the service.
  7. Be Prepared and be yourself. This is the best piece of advice I have ever received from my brother-in-law, Pastor Sam Mata. I do my best when I adhere to that advice.

After serving on staff at Shoreline Church for nearly eight years, I’ve had to learn to be confident in who I am.  I am God’s child, made out of His love and grace.  I have a purpose made specifically by God.  If I concentrate on these truths and not on my position, there comes a freedom to rely and depend on God rather than striving to get things done in my own strength.

Your Thoughts?

Stacy McVane is the Executive Director of Lift Student Ministries at Shoreline Church, Austin, TX. You can follow her on Twitter HERE and friend her on Facebook HERE. Visit her website at www.StacyMcVane.com.

STOP Child Trafficking NOW

This weekend on Saturday and Sunday on September 26-27, 2009 in cities all over the world people will be walking in their city streets. For what you ask? Well, this Saturday, September 26, 2009, I will join my friends from Shoreline Christian Center and hundreds of other walkers to rally behind a growing movement called, STOP Child Trafficking NOW.

This campaign was founded by a good friend, Lynette Lewis and her husband, Ron Lewis. Ron and Lynette pastor a thriving church in New York City called, Morning Star New York (part of Rice Brooks Morning Star Churches). When I first met Lynette Lewis, I was just a junior at ORU, leading the annual student-led Ignite Leadership Conference. She was one of our guest speakers. After talking with her over lunch, you could conclude she is very professional and savvy in marketplace ministry, but also driven with a mission. Plus, very fun to talk with and get to know. This campaign to STOP Child Trafficking NOW, is not just part of the Lewis’ mission, but it is our moral responsibility.

The purpose behind SCTNOW is to target the source of child trafficking — Predators who supply the sex industry everywhere in the world, including in your local community. The objective is to rally people to raise awareness and funds to support teams of elite operatives who are tracking down and bringing to justice predators in the child sex slave industry. Watch the video below as Lynette and other operation directors present their strategy to STOP Child Trafficking.

Join the movement and get involved!