Are virtual staff something that you are using with your ministry?

YWAM Ships is one of the first YWAM ministries that I have seen actively seeking volunteer staff to work with their ministry “virtually”. They first posted their desire to do so on their Twitter account:

ywamships: Why not create a base where the back office roles are virtual. – interfacing as a team by video conferencing. #YWAM #YWAMSHIPS #Logistics

They have also put a post on their web-site asking for:

Virtual Volunteers

If you have skills that work well from home and you are unable to join us on site we could still use your help.  If you have “back office” skills such as data entry, graphics, web, IT/programing, registrar, admin and office type skills we could do with your help.

I think that this is a rather unique way that a ministry can look at filling a staffing need. The needs that they are specifically looking at fulfilling virtually are the kinds of needs that can often be done remotely and even part-time. Being part-time roles even opens up the possibility for YWAM Alumni or Associates to perform those roles, while still maintaining a full-time job elsewhere.

Advantages of Virtual Staff

With virtual staff there are many advantages that your ministry can experience:

• No office space – With virtual staff you do not need to allocate physical office space
• Not location dependant – Your staff can be literally anywhere in the world, even in a completely different time zone
• Not time dependant - This is especially beneficial for a part-time role as the staff does not need to fill 40-hours a week
• Wider pool of potential workers - Since you don’t require your staff to possibly relocate to your location you increase the number of potential volunteers and staff
• more…

Challenges with Virtual Staff

In addition to all those advantages there are also many challenges working with virtual or remote staff.

I have been working on a remote basis with the YWAM International Communications Team for the last 2.5 years. In addition to the communications team in the United Kingdom I am tied in with a local YWAM Ministry here in Calgary. I must admit though that it is a huge challenge not working in the same location as the rest of my team.

Some of the challenges that I have personally experienced are:

• Isolation – It is hard not being around and having a “personal” relationship with the people I work with in ministry. Although we are friends and have spent time together “in real life” not having that interaction each day is a challenge.
• Bouncing ideas off others – Something that I miss is being able to turn around and ask someone for an opinion on something I’m working on or thinking about. For me to get an answer to a question to a member on my team normally takes a day or more via e-mail.
• Lack of Focus – As much as I love the work that I do in YWAM it can be hard to stay focused on the work when there is no one else around me doing the same or even remotely similar work.

Do We Need A Virtual YWAM Office Pool?

Here is a question for you, should YWAM have a virtual “office pool” of admin and communications people to fill these needs that are previlant and common at almost all YWAM locations?

I remember a few years ago when the “YWAM President’s Gatherings” started up one of the initiatives that they had talked about was the larger YWAM Centres “adopting” some of the smaller ones around the world. The goal of the larger bases adopting smaller ones was to assist them in growth and fulfilling the things that God has desired for them to do. The President’s gathering was for the largest 40 YWAM Centre leaders to attend. I wonder how many of those centres actually partnered with smaller centres to assist them?

Here is a question directed at YWAM Centre leaders, are you willing to allow your staff to work one day a week for another ministry location to assist them in their administrative or communication needs? Is YWAM one large organisation or tribe, or are we all trying to build our own little kingdoms?

It’s a relaxing atmosphere with no set agenda other than some good food (hopefully, since it’s pot-luck you never really know) and good fellowship.

The gatherings are open to anyone connected with Youth With A Mission and happen every Tuesday from 12:00 – 2:00 in McKenzie Towne, South East Calgary.

Last week was my turn to share so I lead a bit of a talk about Thankfulness. We made this video talking about what we believe being thankful means, and then what we are thankful for…

If you are interested in joining us for our weekly meetings, or finding out what else Youth With A Mission Calgary is up to, you can do so at the YWAM Calgary web-site, www.ywamcalgary.ca.

I reckon that it’s hard to watch a story like that and not be inspired by what can be accomplished. There are a lot of lessons that can be taken from that video.

I wanted to actually have a look at a few of the YWAM Foundational Values through the eyes of watching that video:

1. Be Visionary
2. Championing Young People
3. Function in Teams

 Be Visionary

The boys on that team didn’t just sit around and wait to be told what to do. They didn’t worry about how it could be done, they set out to do it and accomplished something pretty remarkable.

Championing Young People

There were no adults involved in the initial stages of the project, but when the time came for the team to head off to their first tournament they were “championed” along with the uniforms and with a cheer squad.

Function in Teams

Clearly none of it would have been possible if the kids didn’t act as a team. They had to pull together in the game and in the building of the soccer pitch. Without teamwork none of it would have been possible.

The video was produced by the TMB Bank in Thailand as part of their “Make The Difference” campaign.  It’s based on a true story that took place in the village of Koh Panyee, Thailand in 1986.

After reading this article about Google being sued for their search engine autocomplete results it got me thinking about who has the advantage in YWAM because of Google autocomplete. Although the results didn’t surprise me, I am disappointed as it’s another example of how the big keep getting bigger, to the disadvantage of the small Youth With a Mission Centres.

If I type “YWAM ” into Google here in Canada the autocomplete results that come up are:

1. YWAM Kona
2. YWAM Canada
3. YWAM DTS
4. YWAM Perth
5. YWAM New Zealand

Google autocomplete clearly gives an advantage to two of YWAM’s largest missions Centres, YWAM Kona and YWAM Perth. Although there is nothing that can be done to counter this, it’s another frustrating development for the smaller YWAM Centres around the world who are forced to compete with larger, better known locations.

What can we do to help alleviate the disparity between the larger Youth With A Mission locations and the smaller locations around the world?

Update

Well, if the autocomplete wasn’t enough, now there is Instant Pages.

Update 2 – Thanks to Daniel K

This video given at TED Talk by Eli Pariser called Beware online “filter bubbles” brilliantly displays that I am talking about in the above article. It takes it a step above what I’m talking about though as it talks more about how the filtering works and how it can change the lens that we view the world through.

One of The YWAM Foundational Values is to “Practice Hospitality” and it is written out like this:

PRACTICE HOSPITALITY

YWAM affirms the ministry of hospitality as an expression of God’s character and the value of people. We believe it is important to open our hearts, homes and campuses to serve and honour one another, our guests and the poor and needy, not as acts of social protocol, but as expressions of generosity.

While I agree entirely that hospitality should be a way of life for everyone in YWAM, and something that we all engage in, I also think that there is definitely a place for specific people to be actively engaged in the “ministry” of hospitality.

When we read Acts 6:1-7 we read about the apostles setting aside seven men to handle the distribution of food to the Hellenistic Jews. Their job is to provide hospitality for the women and help care for their needs.

The men that they choose were not just any slouches in the group. They were directed to choose “seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom”. The men were selected by the group, presented to the apostles, prayed for and released into this ministry.

Unfortunately I have seen hospitality looked at as a “secondary” ministry, a place where people go to serve while they wait for a school to staff or an outreach to lead.

Wow, what a waste!

This ministry is one that is set in high esteem by the apostles, and one where quality people were set aside to do it. The people selected were done so for the gifts that they had so that others in the group of disciples could also move into the areas of ministry that best used their gifts.

So how does your ministry do hospitality? Is it something that is forced or does it come naturally?

photo credit: marfis75

I’m sure that many YWAMers I know would rather associate YWAM with Apple, but they need to get over it. YWAM is much more like Android than it will ever be like Apple.

Google Android is an open source operating system for mobile phones and more recently for tablet computers. It has many different flavours and versions, and has been covered in many different “skins”. I reckon that this is a pretty good description of YWAM.

Youth With A Mission is built from a few core values. The foremost of those is:

To Know God and to Make Him Known

The YWAM Foundational Values are at the centre of who we are and they define how we live out the mandate of YWAM “To Know God and to Make Him Known”.

One big thing that we need to know as we look at YWAM is that no two YWAM locations are the same. What you experience at one location will not be the same as what you experience at the next. All 1250+ locations represent a slightly different aspect of who God is, even though we are all part of the same tribe.

The variety in YWAM allows us to minister into many different situations and countries, but also means that no one voice or location can truly represent who we are. The diversity and decentralised nature has been described as Youth With A Mission’s greatest strength, but also as it’s greatest weakness.

Like the Google Android Operating System I believe that YWAM will continue to diversify in who we are, but the challenge is to continue to remain compatible and unified in the core mission of Knowing God and Making Him Known…

If you ever wondered why the need for teams like this is so important than have a look at this map showing Africa’s major infrastructure that was recently released by Le Monde Diplomatique.

According to this article over at one.org only 30.5 percent of the total sub-Saharan population and only 14.3 percent of the rural population have access to electricity. If you can imagine that, imagine how few people also have access to the communication resources that we take for granted.

So that you can see a bit more about what the YWAM Communications teams do in Youth With A Mission around the world have a watch of this video…

You can read more about YWAM Africom and their work on their blog, and find out more about YWAM Communication teams over at the YWAM ICN Web-site.

To help us identify other members of The YWAM Tribe I’ve designed a few badges for YWAM Bloggers to put on their blogs and promote their place in the YWAM Tribe. This will help us to identify with other members of the tribe…

Here are a couple of YWAM Blogger badges for you to grab for your personal blog. Just copy the code that is embedded next to the image that you want to display on your blog and put it in your sidebar, footer, or where ever else you might want to put it.

Black on White, 150x150px logo (the one I use in my sidebar)

Black on White, 150x150px logo, rounded corners, transparent background

White on Blue, 140x140px logo

White on Red, 140x140px logo

Who can use the YWAM Blogger Badge

My intent is for the YWAM Blogger Badge to be used by individual bloggers who are current full-time staff in YWAM. If you do choose to place the YWAM Blogger Badge on your blog please also include a disclaimer in the footer of your site stating stating that your views do not necessarily represent those of Youth With A Mission since it’s not an “official” YWAM web-site.

If you are blogging using the Blogger or Blogspot platform I wrote are article explaining how you can add the badge to your sidebar.

Now, with easy communication tools like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, e-mail, etc. the YWAM DTS and other schools are not the isolated experience that it once was. Now it is possible for students to stay almost fully connected with friends and family back home while on their Discipleship Training School. The question we need to ask is how is that affecting the school experience and how can we as YWAM leaders use those tools to the advantage of our students?

With those thoughts and questions in mind please have a look at this infographic entitled “Is Social Media Ruining Students” and let us know your thoughts in the comments below the graphic:

Via: OnlineEducation.net

In rural Papua New Guinea one in seven women die in childbirth! Yep, that’s right, 1 in 7 women die in childbirth! That’s a shocking statistic to say the least. To give birth to a child a mother has a 15% chance of dying, can you imagine?

A friend of mine, Adriel Booker, in Australia works with YWAM Ships, a ministry that is currently working on delivering medical help into Papua New Guinea. She is a Mom, blogger and fellow YWAMer who has a strong passion for helping other mothers in need. To help expectant mothers in Papua New Guinea she has started a program called Bloggers for Birth Kits to help reduce maternal mortality in rural Papua New Guinea.

The way to help is so simple that anyone can do it…

For as little as a $2.00 donation you can purchase a Birth Kit. The Birth Kit is very simple, but according to the Birthing Kit Foundation can greatly help to reduce the incidence of infant and maternal mortality and morbidity. The kit includes:

• 1 plastic sheet to provide a clean birthing surface
• 1 bar of soap for clean hands during the birthing process and to clean the umbilical stump
• 1 pair of plastic gloves for clean hands
• 1 sterile scalpel blade to cut the umbilical cord
• 3 cords / pieces of strong string to tie the umbilical chord
• 5 gauze squares to clean the baby and mother

The kit is simple, yet effective. Adriel made up her own (which you can watch on the video at the bottom of this post), but I think the most effective way for us to help is to donate.

If you do want to help with this great project, and for only $2.00 who wouldn’t want to help, you can read more about it at Bloggers for Birth Kits.

I’m going to now do a major SEO faux pas and post this to all of my blogs and web-sites, but I’m hoping that the more people that hear about it, the more people will participate, and the more women in rural Papua New Guinea can also be helped…