Teams at Group
Group works on a wide variety of resources and experiences
for church ministry. Here are descriptions of each of our teams and
how they serve the church (in alphabetical order).
Camps
The camps team designs and executes summer camps for children,
youth, and adults. These camps are mission
opportunities, providing churches with faith-building
experiences by serving others. Thousands of youth and adults repair
homes and provide service to people in need in communities across
the United States and in international locations. Activities
include finding communities to lodge and feed up to 500 people per
camp, typically in high schools and local churches. The camps team
handles all the logistics, purchasing of supplies, recruiting the
participants and volunteers, providing registration functions,
designing devotional materials and evening programs, training staff
to ensure camp participants have a wonderful adventure of service.
Currently the Camps team works on behalf of the Group Cares
(formally Group Workcamps Foundation).
Children's Ministry Resources
Group offers a complete line of children's ministry resources to
equip churches in their children's ministry. Books, kits, and media
can either serve as stand-alone solutions for Sunday school,
children's church, midweek activities or can complement an existing
curriculum. Group also offers Children's
Ministry Magazine, and Parent Link: Children's e-newsletter to
keep children's workers and parents abreast of current trends. And
for those looking for training, we offer our KidMin conference is a national
conference (more like a conversation) for children's ministry
workers and volunteers.
Distribution
Our distribution team is made up of: assembly, distribution,
order management, customer returns processing, and facilities.
assembly is responsible for production scheduling, assembling
curriculum and VBS products, and performing other complementary
assembly line processes. Distribution performs shipping, receiving,
warehousing, transportation management, quality control, and
inventory control functions. Order management schedules and
generates shipping orders for the distribution team, assigns order
processing priorities, and entering "special handling required"
orders. Customer returns processing handles customer returns,
assigns returned material disposition, and issues credit for the
returned material. The Facilities team maintains Group's inviting
campus, including building maintenance, workspace management, and
grounds up-keep.
Finance
The finance team is responsible for accounts payable, accounts
receivable, payroll, cost accounting, general ledger, financial
reporting, financial analysis, and supply chain management. Supply
Chain Management (SCM) is primarily responsible for purchasing and
materials management. Major duties include finding and qualifying
suppliers, new product research, master scheduling, third-party
production management and just-in-time material delivery. SCM is a
strong partner with marketing and product development to discover
the most innovative crafts, toys, print, media, and specialty
items. The Finance team is also responsible for
401(k)/profit-sharing plan and general business insurance.
Global Innovations
The global innovations team both creates and executes Lifetree
Adventures - a vacation and Christian service project where
travelers directly help people in some pretty amazing corners of
the world. Most are international locations where adults and
families get the opportunity to travel and serve people in places
such as Africa, Alaska, Australia, Israel, Latin America,
Micronesia. Peru (Amazon), and more. Vacation and Christian
service, all in one. For individual travelers and
groups! Lifetree Adventures is a part of the Group Cares.
Lifetree Café
The Lifetree
Café team is responsible for providing content, training, and
marketing support for Lifetree Café branches located across the
country. This talented team of "experience creators" consist of
writers, editors, videographers, marketers, and sales
professionals.
Sales
The sales team is made up of sales representatives who sell our
products directly to churches, bookstores, special markets, and
international customers. Customer service, product support, key
accounts, outbound sales and inbound representatives provide
outstanding customer support.
Staff Services
Human resources and the Fireside
Cafe make up the staff services team. Human resources maintains
Group's fun, friendly, and mission-driven culture. This team is
responsible for recruiting and hiring our great staff, developing
policies, compensation and benefit administration, training,
employee relations, and greets our customers in person and via the
phone. Group's Fireside Cafe is a down-to-earth, welcoming, and
charming place to have breakfast, lunch, Elevation's coffee, or a
delicious midday snack. Our talented chefs, cooks, and baristas
provide a wonderful cafe experience.
Strategic Marketing
Strategic marketing team guides Group's overall marketing
strategy and provides marketing services to the company.
Strategic marketing develops and implements Internet
technology for the company including our e-commerce platform,
manages Group's customer database and is responsible for increasing
Internet sales for the company. Group's websites include Group.com,
YouthMinistry.com, ChildrensMinistry.com, and many others.
VBS & Women's Ministry
The VBS and Women's Ministry team is comprised of
creative editorial, design, marketing, and multi-media
professionals that develop our products from the ground up and
distribute them to churches in multiple countries. Our programs
provide churches with outstanding opportunities for outreach to
women, children and families as well as effectively ministering to
their members. Additional areas of specialty include volunteer
ministry, church safety, personal leadership & development and
strategic planning. This team is responsible for Church
Volunteer Central, Shepherd's Watch, and the LifeServe National
Conference.
Youth Ministry
Group offers a complete line of youth ministry resources to equip
churches in their youth ministry. Books, kits, and media can either
serve as stand-alone solutions or can complement an existing
curriculum. Group also offers Group Magazine, and Parent Link:
Youth e-newsletter to keep youth workers and parents abreast of
current trends. And for those looking for training, the Simply
Youth Ministry Conference is an annual event packed with great
speakers, engaging workshops, and great entertainment.
