Planning your course from scratch

Benjamin Staton Updated by Benjamin Staton

Creating online training is probably only one small part of your job. Most ministry leaders don't have formal education or experience in developing online curriculum. That means planning your courses might be difficult, but don't worry.

When it comes to planning, I like to take a light-touch approach. Most of what you're planning to teach is probably stuffed inside your head already. It just needs to be organized to be able to present it clearly.

Planning your course, therefore, just needs to be a process of organizing your thoughts and giving yourself enough guidance so teaching it is easy. That means we're going to create an outline and fill it with enough context to help you on camera.

Creating Your Training Outline

Your outline for your course doesn't need to be epic. In fact, it should be as lightweight as possible to start. The more concrete things in your outline that you have written down, the less natural your video will seem.

Here's an example outline for a Greeters course.

Course Title: Introduction to Greeter Ministry at Freedom Church

Module 1: Welcome to the Team

  • Introduce myself
  • Explain the mission of the Greeter team
  • Explain the importance of being a Greeter
  • Give an overview of what is covered in this course

Module 2: Schedules and scheduling

  • Explanation of volunteer scheduling expectations
  • Introduction to scheduling tool
  • Expectations for accepting and declining service requests
  • Expectations for communicating vacation (absent days in the future)
  • Expectations for finding replacements for last minute cancellations

Module 3: Appropriate attire

  • Reason for having a loose dress code
  • What is the best type of clothes to wear
  • What to avoid (ball caps, short dresses, ratty t-shirts, low-cut blouses, dirty clothes, etc)

Module 4: Greeter language and culture

  • What is our culture of hospitality
  • What does the Bible say about hospitality
  • What are some phrases we use to convey hospitality ("Welcome to Freedom Church, can i help you find anything?" or our church's mission statement)
  • What are some phrases we avoid ("I don't know" or "The bathroom is that way")
  • Alternative phrases ("I'm not sure, but let me find out for you." or "The bathroom is this way (as you show the way)")

Module 5: Next steps for new team members

  • How to get scheduled for your first time serving
  • Who to get in touch with and how to contact them
  • What to expect on your first Sunday serving
  • Who to contact with questions

 

Did you find this helpful?

Making great webcam training videos

What's the ideal video length?

Get in touch