9 Questions to Ask When Needing Volunteers
How can we get more volunteers?
- Are our mission and vision clear and compelling? A clear mission and compelling vision will motivate people toward action or help them see how they don’t fit. A lack of clarity breeds confusion, which leads to inactivity.
- Do most people know our strategy? If they don’t know the plan, it’s harder for them to see where they fit in.
- How many volunteers would it take to staff every role on every team and ministry? Do an inventory of the places you have filled and the places your need filled. Do you have job descriptions that are easy to read and that are inspiring?
- Is our leadership made up of doers or leaders? We need to be both, but leaders who lean toward doing everything themselves will be a barrier to volunteering.
- How do we communicate about opportunities to serve? If we don’t share the opportunities, people won’t know to step up. If we talk too much about need, they may run for the hills. It’s also important to remember that the stage is not the only way to communicate; some people need to be asked in person. THE best way to gain volunteers is having volunteers personally recruit someone to ‘work with them’. This has the potential to DOUBLE your ministry immediately.
- Do we really encourage students to serve? Have you thought about talking with Pastor James about activating students in your ministry?
- How do we talk about serving? If we do not talk about serving as a critical part of discipleship, then we are missing out. Sharing stories that celebrate volunteers goes farther than talking about needs.
- What do our environments look like? The reality is that many people will not serve if their first impression of the environment is a bad one. Their mind may already be made up.
- Does serving in your ministry mean that I am stuck for life? Think about setting ‘seasons’ of serving. Ask for a certain amount of commitment that allows volunteers a way to change to other ministries is needed. Also, think about offering ‘time off’ for some volunteers that are near burn-out or struggling with other areas of life. It could make a huge impact if a leader told a volunteer to ‘take off for a couple of weeks or even a month’.
39 years. 54 million…
“Pro-life” and “Pro-choice” both seem to have such a negative connotation. I immediately think of extremists. Why do I think of that? Because when ever pro-lifers are shown on television, they only show the strange, extreme, and often illegal protestors of abortion. I have a negative vibe with pro-choice people, because I completely disagree with them. This has left me and many others in my generation sitting on the sidelines doing…nothing. Saying…nothing.
‘There is nothing we can do.’
‘I don’t want to be associated with those people.’
‘We can’t change the laws.’
Thoughts like these resonate within our minds. I see pastors and leaders around me (that believe abortion is wrong), doing nothing on the topic. It is almost like it is a ‘late 80s/early 90s’ topic. We don’t see it fitting in our glossy sermon series. We don’t want to be controversial. We don’t know how to talk about it in a practical way. We might not even care.
Margaret Sanger Interview
Mike Wallace interviews Planned Parenthood creator Margaret Sanger.
Click here to hear that. (very interesting intro about smoking as well)
See her philosophy that created this multi-million dollar industry that eliminates life.
13 years
Today, Erica and I celebrate 13 years of marriage. We started dating 2 and a half years earlier, so we are celebrating around 15 and half years of being ‘together’.
Although, the first 6 months was a bit rough. We weren’t necessarily only dating each other. I was slow to make that dating commitment. Looking back on that whole scenario, I don’t know how right that was. I think the whole dating paradigm in our culture is messed up. However, we are conditioning our kids from kindergarden to follow in our footsteps. (but I digress)
Erica and I have a fantastic marriage. We love each other deeply. God has created in us a relationship that is authentic, raw, intimate. We are best friends. When I want to spend time with one person, it is Erica.
Over 13 years, we have traveled up and down on the path of relationship. We have seen amazing personal success, friendships, God move in miracles. We have received difficult phone calls, bad diagnosis, and tough conversations with parents.
You Obey God?
It is amazing to me that the things we see as insignificant are glaring to the eye that sees everything in the entire past, present, and future of the whole world.
God gave King Saul a very specific directive in
1 Samuel 15:3 ” Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
Saul gets to Amalek and makes an executive change decision. In essence, Saul says, “Let’s destroy all the worthless things/people and save all the good animals and people (like the king, “Agag”) He uses human thinking and reasoning and actually thinks his idea is better than God’s.
When Samuel catches up to the army, Saul says, “Hey, what’s up Samuel…I did what you said and destroyed everything.” Then, Samuel says something that gives me chills every time I read it.
Robin Steele 