"what i do"
Friday, March 28, 2008 Filed in: my life
lately, i've been
getting a lot of questions about what exactly it is
that i do. (also, some staff at my home church have
been making comments to some of my friends such as "i
don't get what he does" and "i don't understand how
he's qualified to be in family ministries.") so, i'm
going to tell you exactly what i do so that if anyone
asks, you can put to rest any (probably justified)
worries that anyone might have that i'm somehow
unqualified to be doing what i'm doing or any
confusion as to what it is i'm doing at
ROCKHARBOR.
as you probably already know, i am the associate director of ROCKHARBOR families, i work for the director of ROCKHARBOR families (and the most amazing boss ever) Michelle Anthony, and i absolutely love my job. it uses exactly all the things i've been trained for in my various undergrad work, post-grad work and life experiences. "but, how?" you might be asking. well, let me tell you.
probably the most important aspect of my job is to work with Michelle to make sure that the vision of Family Ministries is happening from birth through high school. we have a fairly new and specific vision and so ensuring that we're all working toward the same vision and are on the same page is a huge priority. this involves a lot of meetings, of course, but more importantly than that, it involves me being directly involved in each area of Families and building relationships with all of our Families staff. of course, my organizational leadership degree (which i'm about to finish in two months... hallelujah!) comes in great use here. it helps that i am quite passionate about this vision as it's directly in-line with ideas that i'd been mulling over for about two years. (it was actually really cool how everything worked out. Michelle and i started talking at an event last summer and it became immediately clear that we were already on the same page as far as our ideas of what Family Ministries should be. after that, we both sorta knew it would just be a matter of time before we ended up working together somehow.)
in addition to helping keep the vision throughout our team, i also work with Michelle to develop the implementation of the vision and brainstorm for the future. she and i meet for an hour every other week just to brainstorm and dream. (we meet much more often than that... but this time is dedicated to us thinking big.) this is probably the most fun aspect of my job simply because Michelle and i process very similarly. (out loud and collaboratively.) so, when she and i get in a room together and start coming up with ideas, we tend to accomplish more in those 60 minutes than we do during the rest of the hours of the week combined.
another aspect of my job involves training all of the large group teachers that we use. my teaching experience as well as my masters in education are a huge help here and are being used in ways that i never anticipated, but absolutely love. i meet regularly with the large group teachers from elementary, middle school and high school (though the majority of our teachers come from elementary so i end up spending most of my time there) and help them to develop their teaching skills. Michelle and i have also developed some teaching requirements that we want to see implemented from birth through high school, so i'm in charge of making sure that all of our teachers are on the same page with that.
tapping back into the organizational leadership stuff, i'm also in charge of staff development for the Families team. this is one of my favorite aspects of my job because it's all about building relationships and helping people to become even better at what they do. so far, i've mostly been focusing on building up the team as a whole to work interdependently (even having our Early Childhood Associate working with our High School staff). it's totally fun and very cool to see happen. as an extension of that, i also work with all of the interns in ROCKHARBOR Families on leadership development stuff and making sure that they're growing and learning in their internships. (right now, we have seven interns who are totally amazing, dedicated and loving it even though they aren't paid!)
probably the biggest project i oversee right now is our Family Curriculum. the purpose of our Family Curriculum is to give families some easy ways to connect every week. Kit started this last year and did an awesome job with it. so much so, in fact, that it's being downloaded and used all over the country (and Australia, from what i understand!) and somebody planted a church using it as their curriculum for teaching! (not recommended!) anyway, just when Kit was really getting into it, he ended up becoming the Interim Middle School guy (until we found Tyler) so it was more of a side project for him. since it's a large part of my job description, i've been able to put some time and effort into making some small changes and involving our whole team. (allowing each of our team members to contribute also sets each of them up as experts in their area of ministry.) so, each month, the whole families team now contributes to our Family Curriculum. we make it available to our RH families on the weekends and to everyone else for free on the internet. (you can see March's here... http://www.rockharbor.org/content/content_images/ministries/families/March-08.pdf) check it out... it's pretty cool.
one last huge project that my ed background plays into is our 18 Year Scope and Sequence. part of the Families vision is to plan out what a kid would learn if he or she were to enter our ministries at birth and go through high school. we look at when they should be exposed to what things and how often we should repeat things. (also, what should be repeated, when and when and how we should approach particular topics, etc...) we also take into account kids that join part way through, new believers, kids with particular giftings, etc... it's a HUGE project and i've kinda been overseeing it. (though, to be fair, the ministry directors do most of the work!) anyway, it's a pretty cool concept and it's been fun to see it play out and to be apart of some really interesting discussions on philosophy of ministry and teaching.
on top of all of that, i also teach regularly in Studio K (our elementary program) and The Hub (our high school program) and soon, The Outlet (our middle school program). i also host and lead worship in Studio K. i often work with Tommy to develop the look or atmosphere of a particular program or with Stacy to talk about curriculum. of course, there are a ton of little things here and there that i do, but those are the main parts of my job.
so, now you know. and knowing is half the battle.
- barnes
as you probably already know, i am the associate director of ROCKHARBOR families, i work for the director of ROCKHARBOR families (and the most amazing boss ever) Michelle Anthony, and i absolutely love my job. it uses exactly all the things i've been trained for in my various undergrad work, post-grad work and life experiences. "but, how?" you might be asking. well, let me tell you.
probably the most important aspect of my job is to work with Michelle to make sure that the vision of Family Ministries is happening from birth through high school. we have a fairly new and specific vision and so ensuring that we're all working toward the same vision and are on the same page is a huge priority. this involves a lot of meetings, of course, but more importantly than that, it involves me being directly involved in each area of Families and building relationships with all of our Families staff. of course, my organizational leadership degree (which i'm about to finish in two months... hallelujah!) comes in great use here. it helps that i am quite passionate about this vision as it's directly in-line with ideas that i'd been mulling over for about two years. (it was actually really cool how everything worked out. Michelle and i started talking at an event last summer and it became immediately clear that we were already on the same page as far as our ideas of what Family Ministries should be. after that, we both sorta knew it would just be a matter of time before we ended up working together somehow.)
in addition to helping keep the vision throughout our team, i also work with Michelle to develop the implementation of the vision and brainstorm for the future. she and i meet for an hour every other week just to brainstorm and dream. (we meet much more often than that... but this time is dedicated to us thinking big.) this is probably the most fun aspect of my job simply because Michelle and i process very similarly. (out loud and collaboratively.) so, when she and i get in a room together and start coming up with ideas, we tend to accomplish more in those 60 minutes than we do during the rest of the hours of the week combined.
another aspect of my job involves training all of the large group teachers that we use. my teaching experience as well as my masters in education are a huge help here and are being used in ways that i never anticipated, but absolutely love. i meet regularly with the large group teachers from elementary, middle school and high school (though the majority of our teachers come from elementary so i end up spending most of my time there) and help them to develop their teaching skills. Michelle and i have also developed some teaching requirements that we want to see implemented from birth through high school, so i'm in charge of making sure that all of our teachers are on the same page with that.
tapping back into the organizational leadership stuff, i'm also in charge of staff development for the Families team. this is one of my favorite aspects of my job because it's all about building relationships and helping people to become even better at what they do. so far, i've mostly been focusing on building up the team as a whole to work interdependently (even having our Early Childhood Associate working with our High School staff). it's totally fun and very cool to see happen. as an extension of that, i also work with all of the interns in ROCKHARBOR Families on leadership development stuff and making sure that they're growing and learning in their internships. (right now, we have seven interns who are totally amazing, dedicated and loving it even though they aren't paid!)
probably the biggest project i oversee right now is our Family Curriculum. the purpose of our Family Curriculum is to give families some easy ways to connect every week. Kit started this last year and did an awesome job with it. so much so, in fact, that it's being downloaded and used all over the country (and Australia, from what i understand!) and somebody planted a church using it as their curriculum for teaching! (not recommended!) anyway, just when Kit was really getting into it, he ended up becoming the Interim Middle School guy (until we found Tyler) so it was more of a side project for him. since it's a large part of my job description, i've been able to put some time and effort into making some small changes and involving our whole team. (allowing each of our team members to contribute also sets each of them up as experts in their area of ministry.) so, each month, the whole families team now contributes to our Family Curriculum. we make it available to our RH families on the weekends and to everyone else for free on the internet. (you can see March's here... http://www.rockharbor.org/content/content_images/ministries/families/March-08.pdf) check it out... it's pretty cool.
one last huge project that my ed background plays into is our 18 Year Scope and Sequence. part of the Families vision is to plan out what a kid would learn if he or she were to enter our ministries at birth and go through high school. we look at when they should be exposed to what things and how often we should repeat things. (also, what should be repeated, when and when and how we should approach particular topics, etc...) we also take into account kids that join part way through, new believers, kids with particular giftings, etc... it's a HUGE project and i've kinda been overseeing it. (though, to be fair, the ministry directors do most of the work!) anyway, it's a pretty cool concept and it's been fun to see it play out and to be apart of some really interesting discussions on philosophy of ministry and teaching.
on top of all of that, i also teach regularly in Studio K (our elementary program) and The Hub (our high school program) and soon, The Outlet (our middle school program). i also host and lead worship in Studio K. i often work with Tommy to develop the look or atmosphere of a particular program or with Stacy to talk about curriculum. of course, there are a ton of little things here and there that i do, but those are the main parts of my job.
so, now you know. and knowing is half the battle.
- barnes