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Love to Teach

I'm the Director of Religious Education (DRE)for my church, and we've just completed our second year of the rotation model -- it's been a terrific success. I work 20 hours per week and am a paid employee of the church.

Recently, a woman from a neighboring town came to visit our church, was impressed with our program and feels it would be perfect for her church. However, they do not have a paid Sunday School staff person, and wonders if it's possible to start a program completely from scratch with just a core group of dedicated volunteers.

Oh, and there's very little money budgeted for children's ed ......

Of course I told her about this website; acknowledged that it does take effort and commitment to get it up & running, but that it's so worth it that you just have to jump in. She is concerned her volunteers would get "burned out" because there's no actual leader per se.

Has anybody out there done it with no paid staff and just 3 or 4 volunteers? If so, how? I'd love to let her know that it's possible, and put her in touch with you ...

Thank you!

Debbie Fisher
St. Alban's Episcopal Church
Cape Elizabeth, Maine

This topic has been edited and improved by Wormy.

6/3/0310:38 AM

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Lisa MartinRotation.org Legend (500+ pts)

Debbie,
Does the church have a pastor? -- and is the pastor supportive?

That can make a huge difference.

Lisa

6/5/039:18 AM

Love to Teach

Lisa --

Yes, there is a pastor, but his support is lukewarm. I sense that he does not want to put a lot of his time and energy into beginning this program because he obviously has other matters to tend to.

6/6/039:32 AM

Rachelle -- member

Hi Debbie! We run our rotation program solely on volunteers.

Our pastor is very supportive, and right now is only involved in reviewing any doctrine issues that may arrise.

I am the "volunteer director" and we have a core group of dedicated folks, with a few other people who teach a lesson or two.

The hardest challenge is training the teachers in this method that is somewhat foreign to them. Most are used to the one lesson per week, sign up for a year kind of thing. They learned quickly, however. Most of our teachers are very creative and the program has been very successful.

We are just starting into our second year, and we are mission congregation, right now our total attendance for Sunday School has been around 15. If the number of kids you have is substantially larger, then it might be harder with 'just' volunteers.

8/17/034:05 PM

JayneD -- member

Our program is completely volunteers.
We have no paid CE director, and $200 is our YEARLY budget.
Everything else is donated.
So far, we are doing great, but we are only 2 months in.
I'll keep you posted!

10/19/0310:15 PM

stpaulsk8 -- member

Here's another angle on the "Staff --No Staff" issue....

I'm in a church where I am basically the ONLY PERSON REALLY EXCITED about this. Yes, we have a few who are very interested, and some ready to support it, but I feel like I'm carrying the load.

Even if I was paid, I'd still be frustrated. So to me, it's about the LEVEL of support, and not just having a staff person. I've been in churches that had staff, but who were very complacent.

8/8/054:08 PM

techiemom -- member

stpaulsk8, I was in the same position as you last year when you posted this--I'm sorry I didn't find your post then!

At that point, it was decided to put off implementation until we had the leaders and enthusiasm. Rushing ahead of our volunteers wasn't getting us anywhere. While patiently waiting, I've been able to recruit others to this mission and I'm happy to report that I now have a strong 5-person team, as well as a new pastor (came on board last fall) that is totally supportive. We are an all-volunteer group and have a yearly budget of roughly $2000.

Tammy

4/26/0610:22 PM

Wormy the Helpful WormSite Admin Supporting Member!

Wormy Notes

Having paid staff helps, but some paid staff aren't particularly creative, or desiring of taking on something new. Like some volunteers, they can be set in their ways.

Many small and medium size churches have discovered the VIRTUE of hiring a "very part-time" person from among their super-volunteers to act as a Coordinator for Rotation Implementation.

Paying a volunteer, even modestly, confers responsibility and a sense of leadership. It also helps volunteers know they have someone to turn to, and someone backing them up.

Of course, picking the right person is key. And in fact, you might hire TWO very-part-time volunteers (3 hours a week, for example) to fill some of these roles:

Curriculum coordinator
Promoter, communicator
A great teacher-trainer
Great organizer
Creative Workshop Design Genius

Who you pick might depend on what your immediate needs are, and who else is available to fill in these other roles, paid or volunteer.

2/13/146:04 PM

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