Forming a Team

Below is a list of possible volunteer roles for an ESL ministry.  These are not exhaustive and not all roles are needed for each site. Feel free to be creative based on the unique giftings and skills of your team.  The roles are listed in the order by which they are likely to be most helpful or necessary. 

Site Director 

• • An ESL ministry needs a central leader (or leaders) to help keep everyone organized and streamline decisions.  The site director recruits volunteers, delegates responsibilities as well as roles to volunteers, communicates regarding schedule to all, and ensures that the class has everything it needs to continue. This role also has a key responsibility of connecting to the leadership of the church to communicate ministry needs and prayer requests. 

  • It would be beneficial for the site director to not have any other responsibilities (like teaching or hospitality) as that will allow for the most flexibility for the team and help to prevent burnout. 

  • The site director is the primary point of contact with Refuge. 

  • A good site director will be administratively gifted, have good leadership skills, and be able to communicate clearly and effectively. 

Lead Teacher(s)

• • The other required role for an ESL ministry is having enough teachers for as many classes as you anticipate having.  Most sites have between 2–4 classes although it depends on the number of students who attend.  It is possible (but very difficult) to have one class, so it is recommended to plan for a minimum of two classes and thus two teachers. 

  • It is helpful for teachers to have teaching experience but not required. Refuge provides teacher training and ongoing feedback as requested to help teachers feel comfortable in the classroom.  

  • Likewise, knowing another langauge is not expected or required.  Students will have more opportunities to learn if they have the whole class taught in English rather than through constant translation. 

  • Teachers should be consistently faithful in showing up weekly and having prepared for the day's lesson. The amount of weekly prep time will vary depending on what curriculum your site uses and how experienced the teacher is, but on average, volunteer teachers should expect to spend 1–2 hours preparing for their class.  

  • A good teacher will be patient, speak in careful and clear English, and know how to involve students in class. English classes don't work well with a lecturer or a teacher who talks the whole time; langauge classes are more effective when the teacher sees themself as a facilitator, helping students to use the language. Some creativity can be helpful as well. 

Hospitality Teacher

• • In the traditional Refuge class setup, there is a hospitality time where all students come together for drinks, snacks, and a time to hear biblical teaching.  Having a volunteer dedicated to teaching this portion of the class is helpful, but this role can be given to another lead teacher if needed. 

  • The goal of this teaching during the hospitality time is to have a short (no more than 10 minutes) and easily accessible teaching that points students to Christ. The emphasis here is on easily accessible as you will have all language abilities in the same room. We do not recommend a typical Bible study like you might teach to native speakers simply because that will likely be too complex of langauge for most students to understand. 

  • Refuge recommends using God's Big Story as the curriculum for hospitality teaching. This takes biblical principles in small chunks that can be taught in simple English.  The verses and principles are also translated for students in this time as well.

  • A good hospitality teacher will know how to take biblical principles and make them understandable in very simple English through clear vocabulary and concrete illustrations (movement, drawing, real-world examples, etc). This teacher will be comfortable teaching to the lowest of your proficiency levels. Prep time for this is usually only 30 minutes because the teaching itself is only 10 minutes. 

Hospitality Coordinator

• • The hospitality coordinator serves as the one who organizes the food and drink each week during hospitality time where all of the students come together. While the first portion of the classes are being taught in individual classrooms, this person is setting up the hospitality materials. 

  • Responsibilities include budgeting for snacks and drinks, getting purchase approval for such items, preparing them each week, and managing cleanup. The volunteer could also seek out donations of items from the larger church congregation as a way of involving other church members who do not serve weekly in the ESL ministry. 

  • The ideal hospitality coordinator will be organized, good with managing money, and familiar with food and drink needs for a large crowd.  This is also a good role for someone who may need to leave early and not stay the whole class time. 

Childcare 

• • While often the most difficult to staff, having childcare is usually a dealbreaker for many students who may not otherwise be able to attend your class. If your church is able to do this safely and well, we recommend having childcare. 

  • Childcare volunteers help care for the children of students so their parents can learn without distraction. Setting up classrooms to be used for childcare is important along with having toys or activities for them. Some sites have small English or VBS-type lessons but most allow for safe freeplay using church nursery or child classrooms. 

  • A childcare volunteer must first and foremost be approved through the church's system of approving people for working with children. Additionally, this volutneer would do well to be organized, good with all ages of children, and have creative opportunities for serving the children of immigrants well. It is helpful but not necessary to speak other langauges. Often, the children of students will have more English than their parents will. 

Administrative (Registration / Assessment)  

• • Most ESL classes typically have new students showing up each week, requiring an ongoing registration and assessment/placing process. Having a dedicated team member to this can help make the process smooth and also keep assessments consistent by having one person responsible for them. 

  • An administrative volunteer should be good with details and organization, capable of managing effective systems of attendance for students and volunteers and welcoming new students with a friendly face. This could also be a good role for someone who can only stay for the first half of class rather than the whole time. 

Assistant/Substitute Teachers 

• • Often it is helpful to have at least two teachers in the room at all times. Having an assistant teacher to support the lead teacher makes it easy to have someone to help pass out papers, do examples, or work with students individually while they are doing practice work. 

  • The other benefit of having an assistant teacher is if a lead teacher is sick or unavailable for a week, you have another person familiar with the class and students who can easily step in to teach or support another substitute teacher. 

  • The assistant teacher serves in a support role to the lead teacher and can be helpful in a variety of ways. Mostly, they are there to make tasks go smoothly and build relationship with the students. 

Transportation  

• • Particularly if you have classes after dark, providing transportation can be a really useful way to help students get to your class. Many times students do not feel comfortable walking after dark to a class, even if it is close by. 

  • Transportation volunteers should be friendly, qualified drivers, and welcoming to the students as they would be the first (and last) faces the students see each week. 

Your church is filled with gifted individuals with a heart for ministry. The task is to encourage and assure those individuals that they can be of great service to the kingdom through the use of their time and gifts. 

• Make an announcement at your church through whichever channels are typical and make it clear what kind of individuals you are looking for. It doesn't hurt to emphasize that knowing other languages or having teaching experience isn't necessary.  Share the heart and vision of your church's ESL ministry. 

• Follow-up with an interest form that describes the possible roles and ways church members can be involved. Be clear with your expectations about time commitment and how long of a commitment you would expect of a volunteer. 

• Occasionally, Refuge can help supply additional volunteers who may want to serve but are a part of a church without an ESL ministry or are college students looking for service / field experience hours. Reach out to info@refugeintl.org with a request for additional volunteers. 

• Even once your site is up and running, keep recruiting volunteers. Lord willing, your ministry continues to grow and requires more individuals or can provide your current volunteers a short break to keep everyone from burning out.