Perhaps there would be less burnout if more churches could adopt some of the training and support techniques that volunteer organizations use.
—Virginia Vagt

"I don't want to go to church tomorrow," I moaned to myself Saturday after Saturday during my final months at Resurrection Church.

It wasn't the pastor, his sermons, or a lack of warmth in the congregation that caused me to dread driving up the church's gravel driveway every Sunday. I was twenty-six years old and trying to find my place in church life. My problem was that I was in over my head in a program called Women's Outreach.

The founder of this program, Margaret Schiller, did lay mission work in Honduras every summer with her dentist husband. Her lifelong commitment to outreach was exciting. When she asked me to be one of her workers, to make weekly visits to a poverty-stricken young widow, I eagerly said yes. The extrovert in me and my need to find a meaningful ministry seemed to have found a good match.

Margaret put me in touch ...