When I work in a church with a large staff invariably two of three of the staff have all of the volunteers they need while the rest of the staff complain that no one in the church will volunteer to serve.  If there are ten full time paid staff, two will have lots of volunteers, two will be just hanging on and six will be working longer hours than the rest and will be at various stages of burnout and frustration.

After some training on how to recruit, one or two of the six will be able to make the adjustment, which leaves four or five who will never be able to multiply themselves and will always be near exhaustion.

In each case the individual members of this staff are getting what they look for.  The staff with the most volunteers go about their day with their eyes alert to any new person or any person who shows the slightest bit of interest in their ministry.  While the rest of the staff, with varying degrees, have their noses so buried in doing actual ministry they wouldn’t recognize a potential volunteer if they bit them!

You get what you look for.

So why not spend some of your day actually looking for volunteers?  It might surprise you.

Here’s a tip. Instead of checking off items from a “to do” list, why not begin a “to be” list where you will list the names of people you meet next week who are interesting and who might be open to serving along side of you?  This would mean you have to leave some time for actual conversation. You spend all of your time doing ministry.

I know. It is easier to just go ahead and do the ministry yourself. After all, you can do it better than anyone else. But you will be doing it from now on with no end in sight. Are you really in for that?

Begin looking for more leaders and God will send them your way. It always happens.

Bill

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