I just recently just finished my two year Cadre journey with Jeanne Mayo. Judy Gregory, one of Jeanne’s key staff members is convinced that Jeanne is one of the best kept secrets in youth ministry. After my experience, I would one up that and say she is one of the best kept secrets on the planet for ministry in general. The Cadre was one of the best experiences in my life

If You’re In Youth Ministry and You Don’t Take Advantage of The Cadre... You’re an Idiot!

Jeanne is the Real Deal -when you see leaders from a distance, it’s easy to question if they’re the real deal or not. Jeanne is! She has been in ministry for over forty years! She has so much wisdom, loves people more than anyone I’ve ever seen, and will literally do anything to enable you to do what God’s called you to do! I’m so grateful that I’ve gotten to get to know her and interact with her!

You Make Friendships that will Last a Lifetime -Looking back, the greatest things about the Cadre was the relationships you build. I have 5-6 guys that I know we’ll stay connected for the rest of our lives. People in other states, that don’t know your church or the people around you, who can give you perspective and encouragement to get through anything!

You will Have Life Experiences You’ll Never…I Stress Never, Forget - Jeanne is beyond intentional with creating life experiences for people. Things most people would never have the opportunity to experience. I’ll never forget my Cadre experience.

To Jeanne, Judy, Jordan, Bethany, Christina, Adam, the MC students, and everyone else who made this experience possible: Thank you so much. It’s definitely a huge mile marker in my life and ministry! You’re all such a huge blessing!

I want to focus on the practical things I learned at Unleash today. Everything I learned was practical, but  I want to focus on the systems I can implement into our ministry. Hope this adds value to you and your ministry. I went to two sessions 1.)  Triple Threat Youth Ministry with Brad Cooper (This was awesome!) and 2.) Hiring, Firing, and Creating a Staff Culture with Jason Wilson (their Executive Pastor).  Here we go:

Services:

• Run Through an Entire Service during mock service as if you were having service
• Worship – Use Planning Center Online - Record Tracks early in the week – send them to team
• Countdown’s with the Series Graphic on it
• If it doesn’t point people to service, don’t do  it!
  • They Worship, Preach the Word, and do Small Groups – Period. No events except Summer Camp
• 2 Invitations: Salvation and Prayer – Leaders take students who raise their hands for both and either lead them to the Lord or pray with them then follow-up with them

Weekly Schedule (Youth):

• Sunday – All staff goes  to all 4 services
• Monday – Critique of Sunday (Brutally honest) / Focus on Area of Specialty
• Tuesday – Plan Services 4 1/2 weeks out / Afternoon off
  
• Wednesday -  A.m. Off /  Set-up tear down/ Relationships / Youth Service
• Thursday – Critique of Service
• Friday – Off until 5 p.m. – then Youth Service
• Saturday – Off

Follow-UP

• They use Fellowship One
  
• Small Group Leaders do the Follow-Up
• They TextSignal.com to follow-up with Text Messages

1st Time Guests

• Have Adult Leaders Escort all 1st time Guests around all night and follow up with that student
• They have a first time guest party – the Jump off – Every 1st timer gets a wrist band that gets them in there
• They get a letter at the 1st time guest party

Volunteer Process

• To be a member – you have to serve
• Observation Night
• Interview
• Application

Staff

• They have staff getaways just to pursue God together
• Evaluations every 6 months – great conversation times, feedback,  rating employees

This is just a touch of what I learned and look to implement into our ministry. I definitely recommend following Newspring and seeing what they’re doing. They’ve helped me out several times – they’re more than willing to pour into others and share anything they can that will add value to people and ministries.

Here are videos we played at our Christmas Party . . . our Students did a great job with “A Very Mobby Christmas” – Great job guys!

And the most embarrassing video of all time: