The document discusses mobilizing volunteers at ministry offices to support reaching more people for Christ. It proposes a 5-stage process for volunteer involvement: see, agree, equip, serve, and thank. Volunteers would fill roles like Cru partners, highly skilled partners, Cru affiliates, or associate staff. Cru partners would commit 3+ hours per week and complete a simple application. Highly skilled partners would commit long-term using specialized skills. Cru affiliates would lead missional or operational teams. The goal is to design systems to build lifelong relationships with volunteers as their roles change over time.

1. Ministry Office Volunteers
Mobilizing Laborers to Reach
the World for Christ

2. The vision of our movement
has always been to see the world reached to the
glory of God. Mobilizing hundreds of volunteer
laborers at ministry offices will support the
acceleration of building movements everywhere
so that the world is reached for Christ.
– We’ve always used volunteers; it fits our values
– The mission compels us to enlist more laborers
– The RMO missionary model is not sufficient for the
need
– We have an incredible opportunity to enlist and
empower hundreds of volunteers to support
reaching millions of people

3. A volunteer is one who serves with us
without pay to build movements
– Cru provides a
• Selection process
• Equipping in ministry (Training)
• A team (or distance coaching relationship) that provides an environment for
– Spiritual growth
– Feedback
– Ongoing equipping
– Accountability
– Encouragement
– The volunteer and team benefit from
• Cru organizational support
• Credibility
• Training
• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Coaching
– This person is not paid, but may choose to raise funds to reimburse ministry
expenses, in certain situations.
Note: We believe that students will serve as “volunteer” leaders in our movements,
but we are not including them in this proposal because we are not expecting them
to fill our applications to work with us as student leaders. Although this process
may mirror much of what we do with students, we are not including them in this
proposal.

4. Stages of Volunteer Involvement
• Following is a 5 stage process through which a
volunteer might progress in their relationship
with Cru, and Cru with a volunteer. Volunteers
can bring a lot to a team, but the currency
most often traded in the volunteer world is that
of vision, relationships, and contribution
(making a difference by doing something I
believe in). Because of that, each of the
following steps is important in preparing for the
contribution a volunteer will make with a team.

5. See – a potential volunteer hears about Cru’s
vision, sees the ministry in action, and meets a
team(s) who already work with Cru. This is
typically a local/relational process but may also
include connecting with a ministry leader who could
coach them remotely, and therefore the initial “see”
experience may happen in a different way. In this
step, the two are getting to know one another.
Before taking the next step, the person and the Cru
leader should know at the end of this “seeing”
period that both believe working together is
something they believe God is leading them toward.
*Note: Do not skip this step. The potential volunteer needs to know God is
leading them to work with us, and the local team needs to know they want to
work with this person, and that the person will be faithful.

6. Agree – a potential volunteer and Cru decide they want to work
together.
Components of a standardized process are:
1. An application (application, references, interview, statement of
faith, moral/behavior questions, background check request form
(as needed), volunteer service agreement). The application
would then be approved, or not.
2. An approved volunteer is entered into Cru’s system, which gives
them a relay account for in-house ministry communications, an
account for reimbursing ministry expenses (as needed), ability to
have a onecard (as needed), access to training, and access to
ePerformance/development/feedback tools.
3. A simplified volunteer job description and development process
are agreed upon.
*(VSA and background check to be renewed annually.)

7. Equip – based on the volunteer role, and number
of hours they want to work with us, a training plan
is agreed to and implemented.
As roles change and new projects are taken on
additional training is provided as needed.

8. Serve – a volunteer continues to serve with a
movement building team and grows in an
environment which includes spiritual
growth, feedback, ongoing
equipping, accountability, and encouragement.
The following elements are also updated annually:
• Job description
• Position Focus
• Training & Development Plan
• VSA/Statement of Faith
• Background Check

9. Thank – Volunteers need to see their contribution
connecting to the whole movement, so
appreciation from the movement leaders,
communicating the end results of the volunteer
contribution and appreciation from the rest of the
movement is important to ongoing motivation for
the volunteer. Leaders of volunteers need regular
plans for communicating this appreciation.

10. Volunteer Categories (Volunteer is the umbrella term for all
non-paid manpower)
Cru Partner – works with any project in the ministry office as
needed based on skills/availability defined in the application/
placement process. They typically work with us 5-12 hours/week.
Highly Skilled Partner – works in a committed long term role
alongside Missionary Staff in the ministry office using their specialty
skills. They agree upon a number of hours each week for a defined
time period and then renew their role agreement.
Cru Affiliates – works as a Missional or Operational Team Leader.
Associate Staff – typically former staff who works 6-10 hours.
Occasional Volunteers – not used in ministry offices for legal
reasons. On the field may volunteer for one-time, non-recurring
events or projects.

11. CRU Partner
Cru Partner – works with any project in the ministry office as
needed based on skills/availability defined in the application/
placement process. They typically work at least 3 hours/week.
• Field Partners – work with the ministry’s target audience directly.
• Project Partners – work in the ministry office primarily for
operational and project work. They may have a one card, may
raise funds for ministry expenses, may have access to secure info
(all of which require a background check).
Use a simple application which consists of:
• Biographical information
• Spiritual /Ministry elaboration questions
• Moral/Character/Heart elaboration questions (limited to 2 or 3 questions)
• Volunteer Service Agreement/Conduct Agreement/Statement of Faith
• 2 references
• Background Check if working with minors or raising/handling ministry funds or one cards or having
access to secure info.
Training appropriate to the assignment will be provided.

12. Highly Skilled Partner
Highly Skilled Partner – works in a committed long term role
alongside Missionary Staff in the ministry office using their specialty
skills. They agree upon a number of hours or 1 or more days per
week for a defined time period. When that ends they renew their
role agreement.
• HS Partners in most cases maintain the same assignment like a
full time staff member does, for a significant portion of a year or
on a yearly renewal basis.
• Current examples of projects are: a CPA financial research
project for International Accounting, an IT network
programmer, and a database programmer for Jesus Film.
Application addendums:
• Role commitment agreement
• Additional Questions per Role
• Background Check required

13. CRU Affiliate
Cru Affiliates – works as a Missional or Operational Team Leader
and typically gives 6 or more hours per week.
• Missional Team Leaders lead in the field.
• Operational Leaders / Fund Development Leaders supervise other
staff or volunteers. They lead and represent Cru in a wider way
relative to resource development and use of resources.
• Cru Affiliates in most cases would serve as field or project Cru
Partners first.
Application addendums:
• Additional references per role (2)
• Interview with regional / national leaders
• Additional Questions per Role
• Position Focus Review
• Background Check required

14. Associate Staff
Associate Staff – A group of volunteers with longer term ties to
Cru, almost always former staff, and a relatively small group of
people. These volunteers would commit at least 6-10 hours/week
to a Cru ministry and follow associate staff guidelines already
determined.

15. Occasional Volunteers
Occasional Volunteers – These are people who play sporadic
roles, i.e. preparing food for a meeting, setting up for an outreach,
speaking at meetings, raising money, etc. We would not require an
application unless their role became consistent. We may require a
background check if they are working with minors and play a role
that might warrant such a check – i.e. driving students to a retreat.
In Ministry Offices we cannot engage these volunteers because we
need more legal protection through the Cru Partners application for
people who are on our property other than visitors.

16. Related Proposal 1: We Intend to Build a
User Experience of Life Long Relationships in
our Systems and Processes
• Because we desire to build life long relationships
with people who work with us, our intent is to
design systems and processes which allow our
applications, training, and development to build
relationally even as a person’s hiring category
and involvement changes. This includes entry
level involvement (i.e. Summer
Projects, Volunteer) through staff level
involvement.

17. Life Long Relationship User Experience
• An integrated application tool/system which will
allow us to build on the relationship we are
building with people who work with us. This will
cause us to approach second applications to new
“hiring” categories more as transfers than as new
applications. For instance, a volunteer who
wanted to become a part time field staff would do
some elaborations, references, an interview, and
submit a review/ position focus to transfer to part
time field staff. An evaluation would be made,
but approached in a relational manner that builds
on the relationship we have.

18. Life Long Relationship User Experience
• Our new staff and leadership development
training and tools need to be scalable and
appropriate for each level of involvement. In
addition, our training needs to be structured so it
can grow with a person, both if they stay in their
present hiring category and if they transfer to
greater or lesser involvement – i.e. volunteer to
intern to part time field staff to RMO staff.

19. Related Proposal 2: PeopleSoft to Send Out
Annual VSA’s and Background Checks
• As more volunteers join us we will need
automated systems to keep up to date with
required documentation for legal and risk
management. As needed each year PS could send
out VSA’s and Background Checks and data entry
could confirm that those are returned in a timely
way. This enables smaller ministry offices to
comply with legal obligations, while centralizing
the filing of required paperwork.

20. Related Proposal 3: Training in Staff
Categories
• Local leaders need to lead in the light of the
complexity of people on their team from several
hiring categories. We need to help and coach
local leaders as they navigate the complexities of
having people from various categories on their
teams. Greater flexibility and clarity are required
when teams are combinations of volunteer, part
time field, intern, and RMO staff. A suggestion
might be to mobilize the HR/LD community to
provide additional coaching for each of our local
leaders – to help them find and equip their team.