Starting a fire is one skill. Keeping it going is another. In order to cook juicy burgers over charcoal, or toast s’mores to perfection over the campfire, or prolong the beauty and the warmth of fireplace flames, you need toRead more…
How to Delegate
Are you good at delegating? Most of us aren’t. We didn’t go into church work, or become a church volunteer, because we love to delegate. We serve in order to get things done. Delegating tasks may feel like cheating. We,Read more…
How to Fire a Church Volunteer
“You can’t fire a volunteer!” That’s the first thing many people think when reading this title. And their second thought is likely of a certain volunteer or two they’d like to fire. Just as volunteers will, rightly, leave a positionRead more…
Do You Know What You’re Doing?!
[This article first appeared in the May 21, 2004, Mission Moments newsletter from the Center for U.S. Missions. Permission is given to copy this article for distribution within your own congregation. Please credit the author and the Center for U.S.Read more…
Recruiting? or Equipping?
Volunteers seem to be in short supply in today’s church. Most discussions about volunteers focus on recruitment— we need more ushers (Sunday School teachers, board members, and so on). How can we get more volunteers? Pastors and other church staffRead more…
Also Called
In the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, most professional church workers can identify with the phrase: “struggling through the call process.” In our denominational placement system, a church or school extends a “divine call” to a ministry position to an individual pastor,Read more…
The Chip (ministry conversations)
A church ministry fair has both major benefits and side benefits. At a ministry fair, each of the church’s various ministries set up and man a table with information on their ministry. People browse the tables, seeing what the variousRead more…
A Good Good-bye (exit interviews)
How does a leader say good-bye to a volunteer? If the volunteer taught Sunday School every week for 30 years, the good-bye might well be with a congregational luncheon and an appreciative plaque. If the volunteer was a burr underRead more…
Go for the Gold
The Olympics are taking place: the stirring Olympic trumpet fanfare is heard, the five interlocking circles are displayed, and athletes are in the spotlight. Hence, today The Olympics are taking place: the stirring Olympic trumpet fanfare is heard, the fiveRead more…
In Sickness and In Health
“In sickness and in health.” In marriage, it can be a challenge to love and care for a spouse who is sick. Perhaps it’s the opposite challenge in our church family. When someone is seriously ill, when tragedy strikes, theRead more…
Volunteers Are Not Free
Are volunteers “free labor”? Of course they are. By definition, volunteers perform a task without receiving payment for it. So we find it easy to think of volunteers as free labor, the opposite of staff who are paid to work.Read more…
Love Shows
When someone’s in love, it shows. It may be that dreamy look or an absent-mindedness that gives it away. It’s certainly also revealed in the frequency with which the loved one is named in their conversation. And we’re most convincedRead more…
The Power of Together
When hurricane Katrina hit southeast Louisiana in late August 2005. It remained headline news for many weeks, not only due to the terrible devastation caused by the storm, but also for the aftermath of the inadequate and confused initial response.Read more…
An Equipping System
An equipping church builds a system for equipping people. There is no one perfect system. The best systems are designed by and for the people who will use them. But a good system will have these elements. Educational opportunities, forRead more…
An Equipping Culture
Spending extended time in a foreign country (with “regular” people rather than at tourist destinations) brings continual surprises. Things are done differently. You can’t take anything for granted. Food and clothing, manners and expectations, parties and transportation–all are different. EachRead more…