The core members of any church do most of the work. They are dependable, faithful and visible to the nominating committee. They serve in many areas. They can become overwhelmed and become less effective. They begin to drop the ball. Yet we on the nominating committee or in positions of leadership in the church are also afraid to ask for a real commitment from those that aren’t yet in the core. We bring in lots of workers to staff the Nursery, Children’s Church, or what have you with the promise that “It’s only one hour per month.” Then we wonder why workers don’t show up for duty. None of them feel important or committed. And of course it's a burden to coordinate many workers.
There are likely people serving in your Nursery that would like to own another ministry like Children's Church or the special needs ministry but will not sign up because they already serve in the Nursery.
Why do we do this to ourselves? We should have our core church members serve in fewer places but increase their commitment to those areas in which they serve. We should have the rest of our members do likewise. No more weak commitments.
Tell me what you do. How do you solve this? Do you limit the number of roles a person can play?
Too many organizations try to water down what it takes to volunteer thinking it will draw more. That's a huge mistake. Quality of commitment over quantity. State up front the work needed and state it loud and don't flinch. There are people that want that kind of involvement.
ReplyDeleteI attend a very large church where we have an amazing number of volunteers. Some of the commitments are quite heavy, some not much. Having done both extremes, I can tell you that I stopped volunteering for the lighter ones because I was bored or could have done a lot more to help, but they were going for more people, less work. They were not using my time effectively so I felt under utilized.
If I am going to be there, put me to work!