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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780687466412 |
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Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
Publication date: | 10/01/2007 |
Series: | Abingdon Press & the Church of the Resurrection Ministry Gui |
Pages: | 64 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.16(h) x 0.18(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Recruiting Volunteers
By Adam Hamilton
Abingdon Press
Copyright © 2007 The United Methodist Publishing HouseAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-687-46641-2
Chapter One
Addressing the Pinch Point
Whether you attend a church of ten people or ten thousand, God has provided you with a valuable resource that is untapped. She sits in the pew next to you every week. He joined the church last year. They just entered into their retirement years. She was just confirmed and is eager to apply what she learned. They each yearn, whether they know it or not, to become involved, to give back, to make their lives count. God created them for this—to spend their time, to give their lives—for something bigger than themselves, something that will make an eternal difference. While your church already has volunteers (you may even be one of them), you picked up this ministry guide because you are ready to see your church become more effective.
Whether you are a staff member, lay leader, or a faithful volunteer, you have a mandate to equip the people of the church for ministry (Eph. 4:11-13). Not because the church must fill volunteer positions, but because on its best day the church is a movement of people following God into an adventure of ministry. And, enrolling Christians in the mission of the church is imperative.
A Pass-Fail Challenge
A few years back, I was in a meeting to discuss volunteerism in my church. We were struggling and we knew it. We lamented about a lack of volunteers across several of our church's key ministries. As a church with thousands in attendance every weekend, and well over half our members volunteering, we still couldn't seem to adequately resource our ministry dreams. So, as leaders in the church, we knew this was a pass-fail challenge—one that we had to address. I stepped to the whiteboard and drew a picture resembling an hourglass turned on its side. On the left side of the hourglass I wrote "The potential." On the right, "The resources."
A closer look KEY CONCEPT * The potential: God desires to do something through your church that is far from mundane. You are engaged in the mission of God—full of surprises and wonderment. In children's ministry, you aren't babysitting. You have an opportunity to shape the lives of children, teaching them to pray for the first time, providing safety and trust in an unsure world, shaping their lives with hope and grace, and helping young ones discover God's mission for their lives. In evangelism, you aren't making members. You are introducing lost people to the One in whom they will be found, offering hope to hurting folks, and introducing them to a life that really matters. In music ministry, you aren't performing for the audience. You are leading God's people in heartfelt worship, helping them experience the gospel in ways words alone cannot, and providing a foretaste of heaven.
God has bigger dreams for our ministry than we can see; our mission isn't completely fulfilled yet. The church isn't too big to accept your friend's sister who is a spiritual seeker. Your missions ministry hasn't entirely undone the ills of poverty in your community. Your ministry with teenagers hasn't yet shaped the life of every high school student in your community who is eager to discover what God has prepared for his or her life. What will it take for us to press into this future?
Resources
* The resources: On the right-hand side of the hourglass are the resources. Ministry dreams will be realized with God's greatest ministry resource, people. This is how it has always worked. Consider Abraham, Moses, Mary, Peter, and Paul. Scripture is chock-full of seemingly ordinary people empowered to do extraordinary things—world changers each with their own mixture of self-doubt and confidence. People who, perhaps, could have done a hundred other things but instead were found worthy of participating in God's work. They were inspired by a vision and empowered by the Spirit. Your congregation has people too. They, too, can make the difference. Sure, the potential is vast and the resources are within reach. But there is a pinch point in your church, just like mine.
* The pinch point: There are limits. In the narrow section of the hourglass we find ourselves restricted, just like a garden hose turned on high with a kink in the middle. This is the pinch we aim to address in this guidebook. We desire to unleash the potential of our churches: a ministry with healthy volunteer practices holds greater potential for success. We are called to stretch wide the narrow part of the hourglass, to unkink the hose. And if we succeed, ministry has the potential to flourish like never before. What is called for are people who are invited into ministry, connected to a significant role, equipped for service, and sustained in their efforts. So, in the following chapters, let's take a look at each of the four key components of volunteer management: invite, connect, equip, and sustain. (Continues...)
Excerpted from Recruiting Volunteers by Adam Hamilton Copyright © 2007 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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