Level 3: Mentor
As a Mentor, you are who the crew comes to. You spot when a Sunday is going to be different and prepare for it, you solve the problems the crew can’t, and you train the new people.
A Setup Lead already runs a normal Sunday perfectly well. What you add isn’t more skill, it’s investment in other people and in the equipment itself.
You are expected to reasonably predict problems: the speaker that has been cutting out for a month, the extra mics a special service will need, the week the room is laid out differently. If nobody prepared for it and it was foreseeable, that’s part of your responsibility.
Trusted with
Section titled “Trusted with”Foresight
- Looking a few weeks ahead, not just this Sunday
- Spotting the Sunday that needs more equipment, more people or more time
- Preparing the unusual bits so the crew’s Sunday feels normal
- Telling the lead when a Sunday needs a stronger crew on it
- Having a backup plan ready for the items most likely to fail
- Noticing the slow problems: aging equipment, a bag that’s never complete
Technical
- Setting up in a room or venue we’ve never used
- Solving problems that aren’t in the checklist
- Fixing things you didn’t set up
- Working out why it went wrong, not just fixing it
- Knowing the limits of what our equipment can do
Communication
- Chasing what’s needed from worship, preaching, audio and visual before the week
- Briefing the crew on anything unusual, in writing
- Agreeing deadlines and chasing them
- Saying no early, and offering what would work
- Speaking up for whoever is carrying the equipment on Sunday
Training
- Taking a volunteer up in levels
- Working beside them and talking them through it
- Handing over one thing at a time
- Giving an honest debrief afterwards
- Saying kindly when someone isn’t ready yet
Recovery
- Being reachable and calm when it breaks
- Being the phone call the crew can make
- Sorting out what the crew couldn’t
- Knowing when a problem belongs to the lead instead
Heart
- The crew’s Sunday is your responsibility too
- Taking the blame that was yours, not theirs
- Building for whoever is on the rota, not for yourself
- Giving credit away
Modules
Section titled “Modules”M3.1 Preparing for a special service
Looking a few weeks ahead and spotting which Sundays are actually different: baptism, all-age, carols, an outside venue. Then working out what it needs from us, sorting the equipment and briefing the crew, so the day feels like a normal Sunday to whoever is running the room.
M3.2 Setting up somewhere new
A room or venue we don’t normally use: reading the space, finding power, deciding placement, and knowing what we can’t do there.
M3.3 Improving the setup
Making next Sunday easier than this one: labelling, repacking a bag so it makes sense, shortening a cable run, writing up a page in the setup section.
M3.4 The handover
Preparing a Sunday that somebody else runs, and briefing them well enough that they don’t need you on the day.
M3.5 Training someone start to finish
Taking one new volunteer all the way from introduction to Level 1: their modules, their Sundays, their debriefs.
M3.6 Learning to teach
How we train before you train anyone: one thing at a time, honest debriefs, and how to say someone isn’t ready yet.
M3.7 Saying no
Turning down the request that arrives too late, needs equipment we don’t have, or isn’t safe. And offering what would work instead.
M3.8 Knowing the whole inventory
Knowing every item we own, its age and its condition, including the things we never use. You’re the person who should know what’s possible with what’s in the car.