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Phase Coaches Handbook



A. Job Descriptions

THE WIN FOR PHASE COACH : As a Phase Coach (PC) to our Coaches (or SGLs), we need you to lead your Coaches by helping them exercise their Coaches Handbook and championing the phase you lead.

Phase : a time frame in a students life when you can leverage distinct opportunities to influence their future.

Your role will involve communicating, managing and shepherding. You win when your Coaches are trained well that they feel known, supported, and celebrated so that they can do for their SGLs what you do for them. 

ACCOUNTABILITY : 
Reports to your Phase Coach Coordinator/ Next Gen Coordinator at your location.

QUALIFICATIONS :
  • You love God.
  • You care about students.
  • You’re committed to consistently investing in and caring. 
  • You enjoy leading pre-service prayer.
  • Three years of volunteer experience at Kids/ Youth Ministry as small group leader or small group coach (Experience 5 Lead Small Principle and the Art of Group Talk)

RESOURCES :

Recommended Learning Materials Phase Coaches :
  • Phase Coaches Handbook
  • Lead Small Culture
  • It’s Just a Phase Training Kit
  • Lead Night & Internal Strategic
RECOMMENDED LEARNING MATERIALS PHASE COACHES

B. What they do

The capacity of human nature is around eight to 10 people.
Relational capacity to 
  • Know every name
  • Remember every birthday
  • Follow every story
  • Keep up with every need

Coach is “someone” for our SGLs, so do Coaches need someone so they can own the ministry and lead better.

That’s why we need someone who feels directly responsible for our Coaches. And we call that person a phasecoach. 

Regardless of the size and organization of our ministry, coaches need someone who prioritizes them. They need someone who gives them time, training, and care. They need someone who knows what’s going on in their groups and in their lives, too. They need a phase coach. 

A phase coach is someone who is responsible for communicating, managing and shepherding Coaches. 

> A phase coach communicates. Coaches need a phase coach because they need someone to look up for hard questions, helping them to master the coaches handbook and training them how to lead the phases they lead. Your role will be more on developing practical strategies regarding phase and plan to implement.

Coaches need someone who contextualize practical strategies and a plan to be phase conscious. Contextualization. . .
  • What is happening in the life of their student right now?
  • How do I need to adjust ministry to intentionally: 
    • incorporate these moments? 
    • connect with students developmentally?
  • Develop practical strategies and a plan to implement
> A phase coach manages. Coaches need a phase coach because they need someone to manage the details that go into leading a pack of SGLS in order to create a great small group experience. 
Coaches need someone who. . .
  • Empower them to lead weekly huddle.
  • Help them to monitor the dynamic of their group through consistent feedback monthly
  • Monitors the size of their group.
  • Recruit the right leaders for them (decision is on Phase Coach).
  • Champion lead small principle and art of group talk
But managing can’t be all a phase coach does. That model just won’t work. It’s not enough. 

> A phase coach shepherds. Coaches don’t just need someone to care about the management of their group. They need someone to care about them. 
Coaches need someone who . . . 
  • Models the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus.
  • Listens to their stories.
  • Cares about their job changes, new babies, and big moves.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

How we do it? What is our coaching strategy?
They need to be known, supported, and celebrated.

> Coaches need to be known.

“No one here direct me on how to lead huddle. I know my SGLs. I knew my kids. But I wasn’t truly developed to lead the leaders at JPCC Kids”

We never want that to be voice over of our coaches.

Since one of the five roles of a small group leader is to “make it personal,” someone on our ministry team should have the responsibility of knowing our SGLs, including Coaches personally. Phase coaches don’t have to be like a marriage counselor, DATE Leader, or party planner for your Coaches. Phase coaches don’t have to spend long hours listening to their story of a best friend’s, brother’s, and their working partners. But they should know the leader in a way that is more than purely functional.

So, be intentional to build relationship by spending time with them. You should know the birthday, the big moments ( anniv, vacation, care about their lives). We recommend you to meet with them twice a year.

COACHING STRATEGY : 
  • Be intentional to build relationship by spending time with them at least once every six months.
  • Be aware of major events and needs in their personal lives.

> SGLs need to be supported.

Coaching Coaches and SGLs takes time. Coaches don’t just need to be known; they need to know what they need to know and empowered to lead. 

  • Connection
No small coach/ group leader should lead alone. They need to know you and the person in charge. They need to know each other. They need to know that leading a huddle and small group are a team effort. So plan a little time for them to connect to other coaches. 

  • Information
There are probably some logistical things we will want our leaders to know about us, about our ministry, and about our church. They need to know what kids/ youth event coming up, the new system in place for training/ developing or recruiting and other general information. Take the time you need to answer their questions and give them information they need to be successful.
  • Inspiration
You’ve made a big ask of your Coaches. If you want them to know they have a significant role in your ministry, now is one-of many-times to tell them. Inspire your leaders to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Also, inspire them on Lead Small principles (to be present, create a safe place, partner with parents, make it personal and move them out. Train and discuss with them on topic about Art of Group Talk (Prepare, Connect, Know, Engage, Move). Just remember to let your leaders know why what they do is a significant part of your ministry. 

COACHING STRATEGY : 
  • Know the dynamics, numbers, and needs of small group at each phase of Kids/ Youth Services 
  • Develop practical strategies and plan to be phase conscious. Tell stories, share podcast or other resources about how to handle specific age group within their leadership context.
  • Encourage feedback from your Coaches for you to lead them better by asking these questions : what went well, what can be improved, and their win stories. 
  • Be a role model on how to make it personal in doing life and ministry - in relationship with Jesus, relationship with others,as well as relationship with the kids and their parents.
  • Cue them every 6 months on the importance (the WHY) of compliance to our Code of Conduct.
  • Communicate and encourage them to attend training and other important ministry events. 

> Coaches need to be celebrated.

We have one more list to talk about. For this last list, take a moment to think about all the things your ministry has celebrated recently. What’s on that list? What are the things you have acknowledged publicly and privately? What kind of things have you thrown parties over?

Maybe you celebrated the kids in your group who baptized last week. Maybe we celebrated the kids who join JPCC Youth Interns. You’ve probably celebrated some great things recently. But how often do you celebrate your Coaches?

What you celebrate reveals what you value. Think about what your recent celebrations reveal about your priorities. If coaches didn’t show up on your party list, what did? Attendance? Events? Art Installation? There is nothing wrong with any of these things. But if Coaches are our favorites, we should celebrate them like favorites. 

A great phase coach prioritize the celebration of coaches and small group leaders because coaches and small group leaders are worth throwing parties for. 

COACHING STRATEGY : 
  • Celebrate them publicly
When we play favorites with our coaches or small group leaders, you bring their stories and their wins into the public eye. You celebrate them from every platform in your church: to other Coaches, SGLs, in front of kids, and Slack winstories. If you want to empower Coaches, you need to reward what you want to see repeated. So, lead pre-service prayer at least once a month to celebrate the leaders who are doing it well by spotlighting their stories. Let the vision spread by their example. 
  • Celebrate them privately
You can’t only celebrate your coaches or small group leaders publicly. When you see a Coach do something great, acknowledge it with a handwritten note, a quick chat, or a complement in the hallway. Let them know you noticed. 

  • Celebrate them randomly
Whether it’s birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, end of the year appreciations, or just because, create opportunities to celebrate coaches or small group leaders unexpectedly and randomly. Remember, being a Coach or SGL is a big job. That unexpected celebration might be just what they need in the moment they need it.

C. Recruitment

You have been entrusted with the authority and responsibility to select and equip the people who will become major characters in the stories of children and parents. He has entrusted you with this great stewardship for a reason. You can do this! Go for it!

Set the Bar High
(And only recruit leaders who can reach it).

Everybody can be a star somewhere. But not everybody can be a star in your ministry area. God has created us with all kinds of skills. Some of us were created to love babies. Some of us are wired for elementary, high school or even uniquely wired for middle schoolers. 
You have to get picky!
Ask yourself this question: Would I be okay if this were my child’s SGL? Or better yet, ask this question to yourself: Would I be okay if this were the SGL of my senior pastor’s child?

You will be shared with highly confidential information (in trello) by the interviewer team about a candidate of a SGL, please treat it with respect. Once you’re okay to let one candidate to join the ministry, share the red flag info to the person’s coach, so the coach can help you to follow up and also have a hard conversation on behalf or together with you during the review probation period.

D. Hard Decisions

Creating an excellent culture also means making hard decisions. Despite your best efforts to find and recruit great leaders, you may still find yourself with someone who doesn’t need to be a Coach in your ministry. Sometimes you have to protect the integrity of your culture by transitioning a Coach to a different role. If you don’t let go of the wrong leaders, you might not attract the right leaders. 

You may have many reasons for asking a Coach/ SGL to transitioning to another volunteer position. Here are three :
  • A Coach can’t meet the expectations of their role. (Coaches Handbook)
  • A Coach can’t align with the direction of the ministry.
  • A Coach can’t live the way you want them to lead leaders and kids to live (please refer to our Code of Conduct). 
In any of those situations, it may be time for an Coaches to transition to a different volunteer position. Transitioning an SGL will never be easy. But the more clearly and frequently you communicate your expectations to leaders up front, the easier these conversations will be when they happen.

Remember, your Coaches are some of you significant volunteers. They are the “someone” you’re intentionally placing in the life of a kid or teenager to shape their faith. When you need to make this hard decision on some of your leaders, please do help them find where they can thrive by recommending them at other volunteer area (if they are fit for other ministries).
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