FELLOWSHIP

Today, we express fellowship as a custom; a custom of shared bonding. Fellowship, therefore, is a ministry of communal hospitality. If fellowship is a ministry, then RPs must be as serious about the ministry of communal hospitality as they are about the ministry of worship.

As an RP, one of your most important jobs will be to support your chaplain in his or her efforts to provide fellowship. Your role will involve the following four distinct areas of responsibility:

1. Diagraming chaplain support requirements

2. Providing supplies and materials

3. Rigging and unrigging for fellowship activities

4. Recruiting, training, and supervising volunteers to assist in fellowship activities

In the following paragraphs, we will take a look at each of these areas.

DIAGRAMMING CHAPLAIN SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS

In diagramming chaplain support requirements, one of your jobs will be to design the blueprint for fellowship programs. Designing the blueprint for fellowship programs requires a knowledge of all aspects of what is expected from start to finish.

Figure 2-12 illustrates a program plan showing what diagramming for fellowship may look like. Make your diagram of the fellowship activity a program plan that follows a step-by-step general approach. Your plan should include scheduling and determining milestones, planning for supplies and materials, and evaluating logistics requirements.

PROVIDING SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS

Quality control and reliability in planning for supplies and materials for fellowship programs should be documented in your program plan. The fellowship program plan, such as the one outlined in figure 2-12, will become a tool of ground rules and guidelines for you and other RPs to use to manage fellowship programs. To develop your plan, you must perform a total task identification. Include every possibility as well as a cost analysis. Let the chaplain or fellowship program coordinator determine what is essential and what is not. The effectiveness of the fellowship program will develop from that point.

Figure 2-11.-Daily census report on hospital and brig personnel.

Figure 2-12.-Diagramming for a fellowship program plan.

RIGGING AND UNRIGGING FOR FELLOWSHIP ACTIVITIES

In planning for the rigging and unrigging for fellowship activities, you must consider the logistics required. By developing rigging and unrigging programs and planning for these tasks, you will maximize the usefulness of these tasks. You will also improve fellowship activity performance based on past experiences. By reviewing your RMF's documentation on past experiences, such as recorded comments and feedback in all areas, and passing down this type of information from previous activities, you may be able to ease the inherent strain associated with rigging and unrigging.