We’ve put together a handbook for all the leaders and staff in NextGen Ministries at our church. While every church is different in scope, size, and culture, some ideas are scalable and cross-platform. Here’s what we do in our church. Maybe there’s something helpful here for you? Maybe not. We just like to share.

It begins with the six values we’ve adopted as developed by the team at Orange in their book written by Reggie Joiner, Elizabeth Hansen, and Kristen Ivy called “Playing for Keeps”. They also have some great videos and training resources around that book, as well. These values really resonate well with us so we’ve fully embraced them.

Our handbook demonstrates how these values are fleshed out through our programs, principles, and practices and the expectations we have of our leaders. These include the Lead Small principles (also developed by Reggie Joiner and team) and how we see them being implemented in the way our SGLs (Small Group Leaders) serve the ministry and love kids.

You can download our NextGen Leader Handbook below.

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We use it to guide our training for every new leader every year and as a refresher for all our returning leaders (late August or early September). During this one-day training, we also use the videos and slides from “Playing for Keeps” and “Lead Small.” They’re great resources!

We also have another separate document that we call “NextGen Policies for Safe & Healthy Ministry,” in which we lay out the details of our current policies and expectations of leaders. More on that later.