Every church needs more workers. And often, some workers feel frustrated and probably aren’t in the right area. How exactly does a church find the right people for the right positions?
BuildingChurchLeaders.com asked Bruce Bugbee, president of Network Ministries International (www.networkministries.com) and coauthor of Network: The Right People in the Right Places for the Right Reasons (Zondervan).
Building Church Leaders: Every church has certain essential ministries, such as nursery and Sunday school. What do you do when you can’t get enough people for those?
Bugbee: There’s a difference between a “unique contribution” and a “community contribution.”
While each of us has a unique contribution to make that reflects our passions, gifts, and style, all of us are able to make what I call a community contribution. I can usher; I can work in the nursery; I can push a vacuum. That is about servanthood. A person may not be gifted to work in the nursery every week for a year, but he or she can step into the nursery once a quarter.
If you consistently don’t have enough people, maybe God wants you to do the ministry differently. A church says, “We don’t have enough teachers.” That’s true when they’re looking for one teacher for every seven kids. But maybe they could have one teacher for every 26 kids, as long as they also had two adult shepherds and encouragers in the room.
Building Church Leaders: Many churches teach on spiritual gifts and urge people to get involved, yet they still struggle to recruit workers. What’s missing?
Bugbee: We don’t recruit; we invite people. The church invites people to an opportunity to fulfill their calling.
Most people know they should serve. Most people want to serve. But most people do not know where or how they can best serve. As a result, they’ve been stuck in a ministry or position that didn’t work for them, and they got frustrated.
So we need a process that helps people understand:
– Who has God made me to be?
– How does this church operate?
– How do I uniquely fit in?
Building Church Leaders: People can’t answer those questions on their own?
Bugbee: Most people go to the church’s leaders to get direction on where and how to serve. And sometimes that means they get placed where the greatest need is, not where they have the greatest gift or passion.
I wasn’t raised in the church. When I came into the church at 19 years old, I didn’t know how the church was supposed to function. Purely out of ignorance, I asked, “Why are we doing things this way?” I discovered that a lot of people were frustrated. Out of a servant’s heart, they jumped into ministries, but it wasn’t a positive experience, and they concluded there was something wrong with them.
Building Church Leaders: What’s the better way?
Bugbee: Creating a system that helps people discover their passion, giftedness, and style.
When people serve in their area of passion, they are highly motivated. When they serve in their area of giftedness, they are competent. When they serve in their style, they are fulfilled. When they’re doing all three, ministry gives them energy.
–Excerpted from “The Right People in the Right Places,” a Building Church Leaders interview with Bruce Bugbee in the Training Theme “Volunteer Development.”
Comment here on your own challenges with recruiting and keeping volunteers, then join related discussions going on here and here.
