Questions We've Heard

Q: I recently was asked by my pastor to take on the responsibility of equipping volunteers. Our church is over 4,000 in attendance, and this is not the only ministry I am involved in. I'm now being asked to help recruit volunteers for open positions within children's ministry and for a special event that is coming up. Can you help? I don't know where to start!

A: Wow! I can definitely understand that you might be feeling overwhelmed at this point. But let me assure you that there is hope. There's no overnight solution, but that's good news. As we say in our Multiplying Your Ministry workshop, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." It's the same with developing an equipping culture. To fully develop this culture takes between three and five years, so you can relax and not expect yourself to solve everything immediately.

So where do you begin? First, determine if you can be effective with your time divided between ministries. We suggest that a church employ a full-time equipping director once church attendance goes over 800-1,000 people! Next, map out what areas of responsibility should and should not be included in your role. Without this understanding, you can quickly become the "volunteer getter" for your entire church-which should not be one of your roles. In our CVC Live! workshop we discuss what should and should not be included in the role of equipping director. Let me share a few of those with you.

To start with, let's talk about the roles you should not take on:

• Being a one-man band-You cannot do it all. Although you need to be able to oversee multiple projects, you really need to empower others to do the work. In an equipping culture the staff learns to move from "doing" to "equipping."

• The responsibility for creating all the ministry descriptions for each ministry area-Your role is to provide information and guidance on how to develop the necessary forms for placing the right volunteers into the right roles. Church Volunteer Central has many forms already developed you can use and customize for your church.

• Being the gatekeeper for all the program ministries-Not all volunteers need to filter through the equipping team. If someone knows they would like to serve in your children's ministry, then they should have the freedom to interview with that ministry directly.

• Analyzing and tracking people's movement in the church-Your role is to help the church determine a system for tracking, but not to be the administrator of the system.

Knowing what roles not to take on allows you the freedom to focus on the areas directly involved with developing an equipping culture. These include:

• Developing a core team of individuals who share the vision and passion of seeing all members as ministers of the church-This team has members gifted in various areas of an equipping culture, such as system development, gift discovery, recruitment programs, and so on. Your role is to provide leadership and direction to this team.

• Development and facilitation of the core team's mission and strategic plans-As a team you work together to develop goals and objectives for the next one to five years.

• Providing ministry leaders with the information and training they need to be successful in equipping volunteers.

• Developing materials to promote service opportunities-People cannot begin to serve until they know what's available. Work with your ministry leaders to develop a brochure or handout that lists the areas of service and the requirements for the position. Church Volunteer Central has a form you can give to your leaders for this purpose. The form can than be used to develop the handout and help in the development of ministry descriptions.

• Collaborating with the senior and/or executive pastor to continually promote an equipping culture.

Each church needs to determine what will work for them and the best path to take to get there. An equipping culture is not a program. Therefore, it takes time and the collaboration of the staff and church members working toward the same goal, one step at a time.

Valerie Renville had 10 years of experience in executive management and team building in the business world before devoting herself to ministry. She has served in volunteer leadership development positions in churches in California and Colorado. She is now a consultant and trainer with Church Volunteer Central, and still serves as the volunteer coordinator for her home church in Broomfield, Colorado. For help with your volunteer questions, contact one of our ministry experts by clicking here.

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