Peer Mentoring Groups

As church communicators, we are often in unfamiliar territory. Whether it’s growing a social media account for our church, or introducing online worship, or a graphic design project, it’s helpful to speak with others who have been there before and can help one another through the process.

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Caffeinated Church’s peer mentoring groups are designed to bridge the gaps between church communicators of similarly-sized churches. Broken into groups of four to five communicators, our hope is that through community and accountability, we can grow and learn from each other, while holding each other accountable with our goals.

Peer Mentoring Groups

  • Diocesan Leaders

  • Congregations under 50 (ASA)

  • Congregation size 50-150 (ASA)

  • Congregation size 150-300 (ASA)

  • Congregations 300+ (ASA)

  • Clergy

Getting Started

  1. Begin with a conversation on where mentor group members feel they can share areas where they could improve, as well as a few goals for the next month or year for their church’s communication plan or their professional goals. 

  2. Then, map out how often the group wants to have check-ins to discuss the progression of these goals. Consider weekly or monthly check-ins to begin, and then reassess to see if these need to be less or more frequent.

  3. Aside from these check-ins, plan for spontaneous questions (or rabbit trails that can lead to some great discussions and opportunities) It can be very helpful for individuals to ask their peers what they would do in an unfamiliar situation, or asking how to get started with unfamiliar territory, such as creating an annual report for a church or interacting with the media. 

  4. The facilitator at Caffeinated Church will touch base with the group periodically to see how the peer mentorship group is developing. 

  5. Some groups will have great chemistry and will hit it off easily and naturally. Other groups may have a great start and may fizzle out. If a group isn’t a great fit for you, you can be easily placed in a new group by contacting mike@caffeinatedchurch.org.

Goals & Norms

Next, lay out some starting goals to talk about and invite each member to facilitate a discussion once a month on a topic of their choosing; such as social media, graphic design, etc.

  • What skills do you feel you need to improve upon?

  • What do you admire about your coworkers?

  • What are your professional goals, and what do you see as the church’s goals?

  • What skills do you have that you feel you could teach others

  • Peer mentoring: a peer relationship between people on the same job level

Make sure that your goals are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Set group norms for your mentoring group – confidentiality, open-mindedness, equal sharing, etc.

Suggested Topics

We encourage others to present a presentation of either something they’ve learned about church communication, something that has gone well, or something that they’re interested in.

A few conversation topics include:

  • Avoiding burnout during a pandemic

  • Graphic design 

  • Social media platforms

  • Communications requests

  • COVID-19 Response

  • Keeping your sanity

Sign Up for Placement in a Peer Mentoring Group

By signing up, you will be paired in groups of no more than 5 peers together and group members will be emailed with each other’s contact information provided below. Groups are not overseen; it is simply up to you to work together to find times to meet, to select topics to discuss, and to build relationships with one another. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure peer mentoring experience!