MODULE 1 - Section 2
Creating a Healthy STT: Parameters & People
15-20 Minutes to complete section and related assignments
In this section, you will learn:
The importance of setting healthy parameters for short-term team opportunities
The 7 Standards of Excellence that guide STT opportunities
The additional parameters developed by the STT Dept to ensure optimal impact from collective efforts investing in STT opportunities.
Introduction
Let’s continue the conversation around what it means to be intentional in how we approach traveling short-term teams in your community. We’ve already set a strong foundation through Purpose, Priorities and Perspectives.
There are three more aspects that will round out a healthy STT opportunity:
Parameters - We want to define the general environment in which teams are going to not only execute in, but thrive in. Having specific requirements and framework to help set this is important.
People - Healthy teams require many people playing specific roles to help maximize a team’s short-term efforts. We will explore the roles each person will play in a TSTT opportunity.
Process - No strong STT opportunity is complete without a well-structured process that can carry it from inception to completion. This will be laid out in more detail in Section 3.
Parameters:
Since every short-term team opportunity offers the opportunity to engage with the vulnerable,
We know that you have invested a tremendous amount of trust-building with the vulnerable. It’s taken time, energy and intentionality and that is just in those relationships, let alone the additional efforts to rally local people, resources, etc.
In addition, we also know that a short-term team is stepping into ongoing relationship and long-term transformational work. For these reasons, among many others, we believe that every STT platform should feel the tension of maximizing short-term efforts while thinking through a long-term mindset.
To help all involved find success in this collective endeavor, we will need healthy parameters that guide us there. In order to ensure this as best we can, we have embraced the 7 Standards of Excellence.
We highly encourage you to review the 7 Standards. For one, we hope that you will build them into the way that you host teams in your community. And secondly, since they are built into our traveling short-term team opportunities (many naturally apply to virtual opportunities as well), you should be aware of what we are requiring of them.
While we will not walk specifically through the 7 standards, you will see below how we have enfolded them into healthy parameters for a traveling short-term team:
The ways of Jesus are central to our organizational mission and why we do the work we do. (God-Centeredness)
We see people and communities in an integrated way and, therefore, we address the needs of people and communities in a similar fashion. (God-Centeredness)
We can create new plans as needed, but we want to start by noticing where God is moving. (God-Centeredness)
All STT opportunities should embrace reciprocity. We all bring something to the table, including the vulnerable. Therefore, we all have much to learn from and to share with each other. We ask goers to come as curious listener-learners and locals to be ready to contribute to the work of the short-term teams. (Mutual Design)
Teams agree to engage in the necessary components for a team to arrive in your community, such as meeting entry requirements, following timely funding deadlines, submit information/documentation in a timely manner. (Comprehensive Administration)
A healthy team requires they have a healthy leader who has the skills, passions, experience and perspective to lead the TSTT well. Equally so, those same expectations apply to a STT coordinator who has tremendous influence as they lead the TSTT in-community. (Qualified Leadership)
Applicable trainings are provided by the STT Dept to support qualified leadership of the team leader and STT coordinator. Our team TSTT Training requires 5 key components be included:
Spiritual preparation
Self-awareness
Team building
Cultural awarenessUnderstanding healthy poverty alleviation principles.
The STT Dept provides a team-driven training schedule that strongly covers cultural awareness and poverty alleviation principles and moderately covers self-awareness and team building, along with additional resources (i.e. security, fundraising, etc). The elements not addressed are the responsibility of the team to cover. (Appropriate Training)
In the majority of circumstances, the STT Director has at least two leadership coaching calls with the Team Leader prior to arrival to equip them for healthy team leadership. (Appropriate Training)
To maximize the team's efforts, the STT Dept provides an end-of-week debrief that guides team members in integrating their TSTT into their ongoing walk with Jesus as they prepare to return home. (Thorough Follow Through)
The STT Director has separate post-team debriefs with you, the host-coordinator, and the team leader to celebrate and identify future development opportunities, both with the team process and potential partnership relationships. (Thorough Follow Through)
We strive for STT opportunities to not end when the primary experience does. We also believe in the relationship-building potential inherent in a STT opportunity. Therefore, we provide tangible next steps toward partnership after every opportunity, either as an individual or as an organization. We call this entire intentional effort Sustained Relational Momentum. (Empowering Partnerships)
In addition to these healthy requirements of a traveling short-term team, the STT Dept has also developed additional parameters to help us know where to best focus our efforts when it comes to TSTTs. These parameters help us to determine if we are hitting our ‘bullseye’ when engaging short-term teams. The purpose of this is to ensure we are getting optimal impact from our collective efforts investing in TSTT opportunities.
You will want to consider your own community’s bullseye for TSTTs and then continue to evaluate it as you increase you experience and ability to engage STT opportunities. To learn more about this bullseye concept and how the STT. Dept. has defined it, please see the resource at the end of this section entitled Hitting Your Bullseye.
People
While a strong foundation (Purpose/Priorities/Perspectives) supported by healthy parameters are all good and necessary items for a healthy short-term team opportunity, the reality is that people are the linchpin element to this all.
It is because of people that we do this work. God’s desire to know people and they to know Him is the very genesis of His creating them. And inherent to people is relationship.
Let’s take a moment and get a quick overview of the key people and relationships you will engage through any STT opportunity.
HOME OFFICE:
Short-Term Teams Department
The Director and Coordinator make up the team and work in tandem to facilitate the short-term team process from start to finish. Specifically, the Director’s primary role is to develop relationships with goer-groups, bring consistent vision and connection to departmental values, lead resource and training creation for goer and field alike, engage in STT team leadership training calls, and ensure that teams across all communities have a similar trajectory. The Coordinator’s primary role is to oversee the administration and logistics of all short-term teams in process with our organization. The Coordinator will be your primary administrative guide throughout any short-term team opportunity, ensuring you are navigating the process smoothly.
Other Organizational Staff
There may be other staff who play a specific role during the STT process such as the Finance department who transfers funds to the community, Human Resources who may answer some questions regarding insurance details or Global Connections and Mobilization who may help individuals or organizations take more committed steps with our organization after their STT opportunity.
GOER-GROUP
Organizational Leader
When working with a goer-group that is represented by a broader organization such as a home fellowship or university, there is usually a director or fellowship leader who is responsible for the oversight of the team. They often play a key role as the stable relational figure to build relationships between their organization and ours. They may or may not serve as the Team Leader.
Team Leader
The Team Leader is the primary leadership and communication point for the team that will be visiting your community. They have numerous responsibilities depending on the short-term team opportunity, including leading the team through pre-field training/team meetings, gathering team documentation, ensuring the team is embodying a teachable, flexible posture, and overseeing team chemistry and participation during their visit.
Team Members
The Team Members are the individuals who make up the rest of the team joining your community. They engage the pre-field process, often going through a period of training and potential fundraising. When they arrive (virtually or in-person), they are bringing their prayer, talents and abilities alongside the long-term work you are doing. Our hope is that at the end of their short-term team opportunity, they will stay connected to your community and the vulnerable as a prayer, giver and/or goer.
HOST-COMMUNITY
Short-Term Team Coordinator
That’s you! You play numerous pivotal roles during a STT opportunity. For starters, this may include overseeing some of the administrative pre-community process, but it always includes making preparations prior to the team’s visit. Those preparations vary depending on the type of opportunity, but may include establishing appropriate team activities that feed on-going long-term transformation, readying locals/local leaders for the role they will play while the team is there, and preparing on-field accommodations and arrangements for things like meals, lodging and transportation. Another critical aspect of your role is that of “the storyteller” whereby you help the team see through the different layers (spiritual, cultural, systems, etc.) where God is moving in your community (more on the role of The Storyteller in Module 2).
Catalyst
You already know the role of the Catalyst, however, depending on the way you and your ministry team have split responsibilities, the Catalyst may play a role when the team arrives in casting the vision of the work in the community and bringing context to how their presence fits into the larger transformational picture. They may also be responsible for carrying the partnership portion of the goer-group relationship, as well. The Catalyst also plays a part in developing and executing the philosophy and values of STTs within your community, which also means actively including local leadership during team visits as well.
Local Leaders/Staff
As you develop your STT approach, local leaders/staff should be a part of that development as well. Local leaders bring an irreplaceable perspective of their own community. They can offer their talents and leadership as they either lead or co-lead team activities, demonstrating the integrated nature of local involvement in long-term transformation. Lastly, local leaders/staff also benefit personally from being involved shoulder-to-shoulder with short-term teams.
The Vulnerable
The vulnerable, as said before, are the reason why we do what we do (in addition to the glory of Jesus). Therefore, their involvement may be more indirect depending on the appropriateness of the context and circumstances or they may take a more involved role with a short-term team by offering their story, perspective on their community, or by bringing their own talents and abilities alongside a short-term team.
Section 2 Resources
