Every service-oriented organization in the world has realized that volunteer empowerment is both more important to their mission, and more difficult to accomplish. People are too busy to do anything that they are not motivated, trained, and fulfilled in doing. That means your first staff addition, after the pastor, is to add a full time human resources person (sometimes called a lay empowerment or adult faith formation position, or sometimes called a small group developer).

In the old world, the second full time staff person used to be an associate minister who contributed to visitation and worship, and focused on children and youth. No more. All that stuff can and should be handled by gifted, called, and equipped volunteers. But you won’t be able to find, motivate, and train those volunteers until you deploy a staff person to give it full time attention. And by the way … that staff position has got to be supported with a significant budget for lay training.

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