Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Equipping Volunteers

I was recently challenged by a friend to consider team building in the church. His point - well taken - is that churches often have the people they need to carry out the ministries the church feels led to do but they may not be as organized as they could be. I began to think about our church and I believe that is true of us. We have wonderful people with great ideas and abilities. They desire to serve the Lord, the church, and the community.

I also began to evaluate how we might better approach ministry and the first thing that comes to mind is how do you recruit, prepare, and maintain volunteers in church ministry. Ours is a small church but that's no excuse for not having active ministry participation. I've always believed and taught that God equips each local congregation with people who are equipped to do the ministry he wants the church to do. As members come and go, you might consider this God's way of re-tooling the church for other ministry.

When the makeup of our membership changes I always look forward to what God intends to accomplish through those changes. Of course, this assumes that people move from church to church for valid, spiritual reasons following the Lord's leading. I hope that's not too much of an assumption to make!

Anyway, I've started browsing for articles to help me lead the church in this way. I would appreciate your input and recommendations. Here's an article written by Thom Rainer that I read this morning that convicted and challenged me. Volunteers are both a blessing and a challenge, Rainer say. I believe it! I hope to be a better leader of the volunteers at Cross Road. Take a look and see if it will help you, too.

http://pastors.com/6-insights-for-leading-lay-volunteers/

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