Years ago I took on a full-time, volunteer role in my church. Within the first few weeks, I sensed the chemistry going bad between my supervisor (the senior pastor) and me.
For instance, I would state a new idea and receive a lackluster response. When he would ask about the progress of certain projects, he didn’t offer any input. But he seemed dissatisfied.
It felt as if he was holding something back.
When I asked him if something was wrong, he admitted, “I don’t know how to treat you because you are a volunteer. I can’t hold you accountable.”
“How about if you just treat me like a paid person,” I said, “and let’s get on with it!”
He laughed but honored my suggestion.
How does a church hold its volunteers accountable? Only by rethinking your entire approach.
From volunteer to minister
I first served at the church on the stewardship committee. I wasn’t excited about it, but my husband was an elder, and he had asked me to help. I filled the role of planning dinners to celebrate Recommitment Sunday. Afterward I felt I had served the church well but was relieved it was over.
Several weeks later, my pastor was talking about the upcoming new-member class, and I mentioned that when I took the class, it was one of my favorite experiences in the church.
He invited me to help him welcome visitors in the class, and I said yes on the spot. I found I had a knack for making newcomers feel at home. The morning after the new-member class, I called my pastor to tell him tidbits about people I had met and to thank him for inviting me.
I asked him how new people got connected into the church. He gave me the name of the elder responsible for the ministry and suggested I ask her. I called the elder and asked if I could serve on her committee. Helen laughed and said that was the first time anyone had asked to be on a committee!
That was the beginning of my transformation from a volunteer to a minister.
Sometimes the word volunteer has the wrong connotation. I volunteer at the Red Cross or at the PTA. I serve in my church. Any discussion of overseeing lay people in the church starts by recognizing that distinction.
Fully engaged self-starters
We also need to distinquish between a volunteer-management mindset and a Christ-centered ministry mindset.
A volunteer-management mindset evaluates the church’s needs and finds someone willing to take on the task, with little or no regard for the gifts, talents, or passions of the individual.
A Christ-centered ministry mindset makes every effort to discover a person’s unique gifts and calling, and to encourage each person to serve where God has equipped him or her to do so.
Interviewing a new member, I discovered a young man with a burden to serve the homeless. My role was to connect him with a community agency that had a place for him to serve, to send him off as a representative of the church, and to commission him in worship to be a minister in the community. I resisted the temptation to try to plug him into an opening in one of our church programs.
A ministry mindset starts with the assumption that a local church already has all the gifted people it needs to accomplish the ministries God intends it to have right now.
Bruce Bugbee, who developed the Network resource for lay ministry, says that mobilizing the laity “is about the right people in the right places for the right reasons.” When that happens, people want to succeed, just as much as pastors need them to succeed. That makes motivation and effectiveness much easier.
The freedom to fail
To reorient a church’s mindset starts by assessing how the church currently relates to the people who serve there. The tip off is often what you overhear. For instance:
“Volunteers just aren’t dependable.”
“Using volunteers will cause the level of quality to go down.”
“What can you expect? She’s just a volunteer.”
That sort of language signals a volunteer-management mindset.
Another issue is trust: Does your church communicate that it really trusts lay people to accomplish the ministry?
People who are placed in the right ministries will “live into their commitments.” This can be undermined when a church leader delegates a responsibility only to take it back if it is not being handled the way he or she expected.
Once during a stewardship campaign, a pastor came to a stewardship committee meeting already in progress. The leader of the committee was not present because of a prior work commitment and had appointed a committee member to chair the meeting. The pastor assumed the lay leader had not followed up on a few details for the meeting. The pastor expressed his concerns to the group and then later made several follow-up calls. Each call proved him wrong. That embarrassed him and offended the lay leader.
In contrast, another pastor trusted several lay leaders to develop a plan to address the needs of the pastoral and support staff. While many of the staff felt anxiety about their roles being redefined by laity, the senior pastor didn’t meddle in the process. He believed in the talent and commitment of the lay leaders, and that the Holy Spirit would work in the process. The result was a plan that honored and protected the pastoral staff, freeing them of much administrative responsibility.
When the work doesn’t get done
Yes, trusting people means allowing them to fail. Accountability is often learned by experiencing the impact of “what I didn’t do.”
Jim kept our church’s food pantry stocked. Shortly after he assumed that responsibility, he went away on a brief trip, failing to inform anyone. Nor did he make arrangements for others to stock the pantry. Upon his return, he arrived at the church just as we were turning away hungry people who were relying on that food as their only meal of the day.
Jim was stunned; he had assumed someone would cover for him.
I talked with Jim afterward and listened to his surprise that no one picked up the ball. I reminded him that we accepted his yes as a commitment and that we believed in his heart for the ministry and trusted him with full responsibility for it. I reiterated our value for ‘every member a minister’ and that he was the minister responsible for the food pantry.
When Jim left, he said, “I understand, and you can count on me from now on.”
When no one signs up
There will always be times when no one’s gifts or passions seem to match what needs to be done. When then?
When you must ask people to do something outside their interest, it is important to remember that people serve in the church out of their faithfulness to God, not out of obligation.
Several years ago, our church needed to rebuild its children’s ministry. No one stepped forward to lead it, so we asked Sharon, who had the talent, though we knew her interests were elsewhere. We explained our need and asked her for a one-year commitment. With the invitation came our acknowledgment that she preferred serving elsewhere. We offered to redirect her when the mission was accomplished. She said yes out of her faithfulness to the church.
Service to Christ will always be a combination of faithfulness to Christ and stewardship of our gifts. The goal, however, is to grow toward a gifts-based ministry, where people serve out of their gifts and passion. At times that means church leaders must be willing to let a ministry die.
One church asked a lay leader to design a workshop on better ways of providing hospitality. Hospitality was defined as “a job”—coffee server, usher, and greeter. People did those things, but with little sense of mission.
The workshop leader suggested a new model, calling for people to commit to each other in prayer for the purpose of welcoming and serving new people more effectively. They would hold each other accountable for the mission. The workshop leader said, “If this committee does not take responsibility for the ministry of hospitality, it will not happen.”
The pastor said, “What if people don’t respond?”
The question was put to the participants: “Are we willing to let it go? Are we willing to keep doing ministry if people are not willing to take responsibility for it?” The pastor’s fears were never realized.
People tend to take responsibility when they are given authority to create ways to accomplish the mission, especially if they know that without them, the ministry will not happen.
Lifting up the value
Nothing happens in an organization until someone takes responsibility for it. A critical question is: Who is going to lead your church’s lay mobilization effort? Who is going to see that people are recruited, trained, supported, resourced, managed, and celebrated?
Is that the pastor’s responsibility?
I would argue not. The pastor’s role is to preach and teach the value of gift-based ministry—not just occasionally but repeatedly and in many ways. The pastor’s role is also to model the importance of accountability with key lay leaders and, if the church is big enough, with staff. That means calling for ministry covenants and expecting people to fulfill them. This is the stuff of periodic leadership retreats.
A small, declining, racially diverse church decided to make the shift from “recruiting live bodies” to a Christ-centered ministry when its leaders gathered to pray about the future of the church. Over a period of four years, the pastor discussed it with key influencers and leadership boards. He brought in outside facilitators to moderate the discussion and process.
The church prayed for God to lift up a person within the body to lead this ministry. The leaders also committed themselves to grow their people by preaching and teaching gift-based ministry and developing a process to live it out. This year, the first time in many, they had 15 members in a class for discovering their gifts. They’ve begun seeking leaders based on their unique gifts. The energy and unity in that church are visible.
Your point person
So who should be the point person for implementing a Christ-centered ministry?
At Leadership Training Network, we suggest that a church identify a “director of lay mobilization”—someone with the gifts, talents, and passion to help others succeed, to run a ministry to lay ministers. That person will likely need training and to be connected with peers in other churches to learn what is working elsewhere. In smaller churches that person will be unpaid. In larger churches, he or she may be given a stipend or a full salary.
One pastor, upon taking a new call, brought with him the value for lay ministries. The church had a large percentage of senior citizens, and he feared their resistance. Much to his surprise, they liked the idea of being valued as gifted servants. Within a year they called a director of lay ministries.
The right people in the right places for the right reasons communicates to your church, your neighborhood, and the world that Christ lives in and through every person. Indeed, gifts-based ministry is ultimately the fulfillment of the Great Commission: God’s people living out their discipleship in ways that proclaim that the Savior changes lives.
Sue Mallory is executive director of Leadership Training Network 8055 West Manchester Ave. Suite #735 Playa Del Rey, California 90293 sue.mallory@leadnet.org
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