If you’ve taken St. Peter’s new member class in the past 10 years, you remember meeting with one of our volunteer ministry guides for a friendly conversation about your gifts and interests and ways they might be used at St.Read more…
Simplify Your Serving
Some of us don’t need to be encouraged to serve. We’re serving at church and elsewhere so much so that we’re running nonstop. If you’re overwhelmed by obligations, if a relaxed family dinner is a rarity, if you say ‘yes’Read more…
Time & Talent & Spiritual Gift Surveys
Time and talent surveys and spiritual gift inventories are two common data-gathering tools in churches. Information about a volunteer’s skills, spiritual gifts, and preferences is always helpful. It allows us to direct our recruitment effort to those most likely toRead more…
Good Stuff: Helping Men Serve
What percentage of your volunteers are men? What types of volunteer opportunities do we offer for men? I asked myself these questions while reading “Men Adrift,”a thoughtful, and lengthy, article on how cultural and technology changes have affected men withRead more…
Going to the Dogs?
I’m not a dog person. Due to family allergies, we never owned a dog, much to my sons’ disappointment and my relief. But now my church owns a dog. Last November, in a “passing of the leash” ceremony, we receivedRead more…
He’s Calling You
How many calls did you get yesterday, through phone or text or email? If you’re a Christian, you get one particular call every day — a call to serve. But you’re probably already serving at church, as volunteer or staff.Read more…
Building a Family
He had been coming to the same church for over 30 years. A quiet man, no one noticed him much. Not knowing how to go about meeting new friends in a church, he stayed on the sidelines, going right homeRead more…
Lord, What are You Calling Me to Do?
Life is full of decisions, big and small. Shall I homeschool my children? Can we afford the time and cost of Jamie being on that elite sports team? Shall I look for a new job? What career is best forRead more…
In the Store: Putting Spiritual Gifts to Work
Putting Spiritual Gifts to Work: Equipping Saints for Service is a short book (80 pages) by Karen Kogler. It’s available in The Equipper store in two versions: Electronic version: as a download; $8.00 Print version: mailed to you, with aRead more…
When Dreams Should Die
Hold fast to dreams For when dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. by Langston HughesWhen people talk to me, I listen for their dreams. I do it especially when I’m serving as one of the peopleRead more…
Christmas Gifts
The Christmas gifts were unwrapped a while ago. A few might already be exchanged or broken, but hopefully most are used and enjoyed. The best gifts keep on giving. My church received some wonderful gifts in early December when 47Read more…
A Culture of Serving: Immanuel, Macomb, MI
“There’s no magic bullet.” Dr. Gary Pawlitz, Minister of Fellowship and Service at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Macomb, Michigan, doesn’t mince words when talking about how churches help their people serve. “No system is perfect. And what works in oneRead more…
St. Peter Lutheran, Arlington Hts, IL: Beginnings
Background: I began working 2 days/week at St. Peter Lutheran Church, Arlington Heights, Illinois, in October 2007, 9 months ago as of this writing. St. Peter had been without a long-term senior pastor for almost a decade until the arrivalRead more…
How to Discourage your Church’s Volunteers
(From the Lutheran Witness, March 1998. Reprinted with permission. Print version. Imagine your church with no volunteers for one week. The organist may play the organ, but there are no choir members or other instrumentalists. Everyone eventually finds a worshipRead more…
Our Father Lutheran: The Process
How Our Father Lutheran Invites Members into Ministry, part 2 The Process At Our Father Lutheran Church in Centennial, Colorado, the getting-people-connected process is coordinated by the Member Integration Team. That team is headed by Jan Burmeister and Elaine Hamburger,Read more…
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