A few weekends ago I met one of our volunteers who was operating the stage camera.
As I got to know him, I was surprised that it was his first time serving at Beulah—after attending for 23 years!
Oftentimes because of the pace of ministry, and a lack of contributors, leaders, coaches, and ministry catalysts, we end up doing ministry, rather than equipping our church to do the work of ministry. We do this because it’s easy. We know how to get things done. We have the responsibility for the ministry and it’s sometimes just faster to get it done ourselves.
However, here’s the catch-22. The more we do the ministry, the less time we’re going to have to equip our church to do the work of ministry, which then unintentionally creates a culture of professionalism where our church doesn’t think there’s a place for them to serve!
The responsibility of recruiting volunteers is NOT all on you.
In fact, the only people that you have the direct responsibility in recruiting are those at your level on the leadership pipeline, or one level underneath. Other than that, you need to be a part of cultivating this culture of recruiting on your team and the teams that you’re serving on.
Now you might be wondering, “What about contributors and leaders? What about guys like Mike? Who is the best person to recruit guys like him?”
It’s other contributors and leaders. The best person to recruit a contributor is another contributor. The best person to recruit a leader is another leader. The best person to recruit a coach is another coach. And the best person to recruit a ministry catalyst is another ministry catalyst. This is how a leadership pipeline functions best.
So this week, what would it look like if you asked each of your contributors, leaders, coaches, and ministry catalysts to identify a friend or someone else in the church who can serve alongside them in the same role?