Recruiting and Equipping Volunteers
Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much
Helen Keller
I love that quote. Helen Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate and a political activist! When just a toddler, an illness meant she lost both her hearing and her sight. Undeterred, she achieved a huge amount - but this quote sums up her approach to life.
What is your approach to the ministry you are leading?
We cannot do youth or children's ministry alone. We need to serve in teams, be accountable to each other and work in such a way that we can spread the burden and the commitments so that much more can be achieved. In youth and children's ministry, there is also the requirement that we must not be working alone - part of our responsibility to keep children safe rests on us building teams of people who do the work with us. We are not lone rangers.
Starting Right
'Leader' is a word which seems to have replaced priest, pastor, minister in the church - we are all leaders now. Yet, the word leader can be emotive and mean different things to different people. If we look at the five fold ministry template explored by Paul (Ephesians 4), he doesn't mention 'leadership', it is hard to track it down in scripture. The nearest we might come is 'overseer' - the point I'm making is that have incorporated the word and determined a set of criteria for what that looks like, but I'm not sure we've explored what that looks like fully.
John the Baptist says this when Jesus begins his ministry,
He must increase, I must decrease
John 3.30
If we are to start right, we are to remember that a leader is one who is called to serve. Philippians 2 bears this out, and whilst Paul focuses in on Christ - his teaching is that
we need to have the same attitude as Christ. It isn't a passage for us to simply read and think, 'wow, wasn't Jesus amazing' - Paul is saying 'you do the same.'
What flows through the passage is the focus on the self giving, sacrificial love of Jesus. We need to ask ourselves a question, 'Do people follow our lead because of what we say or because of who we are?'
Primary Role
In looking at how we might raise others up to serve we need to ask ourselves an important question, 'what is my primary role in ministry? What am I spending most of my time doing? Yes, there is the 'doing' of youth and children's ministry that involves a whole bunch of stuff like outreach, schools work, discipleship, looking after rotas and budgets, being a craft expert and resource guru - the list goes on. You might also have a full time role doing something other than youth ministry - and all of this has to be squeezed in to your 'extra' time. However, if we are to raise up others and grow ministry and develop the opportunities both young people and adults can have then recruiting and investing in team needs to be right up there as one of our primary roles.
Some things can be delegated, some things can be on our 'wish list' but this isn't one of them. If we are aiming to raise servants to minister alongside us, then we are raising people who deserve our time, energy and commitment. I have honestly never seen people raised up effectively when it has been seen as just one more thing to do.
The Tension
The key tension in getting this done then is that of people vs. tasks. Many of the things we can list as part of our role are jobs that need doing, things to keep a ministry happening and a programme running. People aren't a task. Jesus spent three years modelling, teaching, equipping the same bunch of guys who continued to struggle to 'get it'. That is the job of working with people!
We can avoid that by focusing on the jobs and tasks, just moving people around like pawns to make things happen - but, in the end, they will not be developed and empowered people, they may well leave your team feeling frustrated and burnt out.
Create the environment
As a leader, are you a thermostat or a thermometer? The difference between the two - one sets the temperature, the other takes it. The question for us then is are we proactive or reactive? Do we make things happen, or wait and see what happens?
Do you have enthusiasm for what you do? This is a key question. If you want to raise others up to join in with what you are doing, or take a lead in serving others, can they see your passion for ministry? If you are enthusiastic about what you are doing it is attractive - if we loathe something and are trying to offload it this will come across to others!
Take the root from the word enthusiasm - 'entheos', it literally means 'in God'. It is also where we get the word infuse from as in 'to infuse a pot of tea.' When I was a child I had a go at making my mum a cup of tea. The only problem was I forgot to boil the kettle. It didn't matter how much I stirred in the teabag, not a lot happened - it looked worse when I added the milk, just milky water rather than tea.
If you imagine the the Holy Spirit to be the tea bag, we only get a decent cup of tea with hot water! It is the same with us, are we hot, passionate, enthusiastic for the things of God? If we are, then this will be obvious to those around us, the Holy Spirit in us will be free to work.
Is your attitude right? I get up some mornings, stub my toe, and the day is a write off. It doesn't take much . . . our attitude has an impact on those around us, our ability to build and sustain team, our approach to our work and to those we work with. An aeroplane has an altimeter, but it also has an attitude meter - which tells the pilot whether the nose of the plane is pointing up or down. How is your attitude? Philippians chapter 2 is the litmus test for any leader; ultimately, what are you aiming for – fame and adulation, or do you want all the glory to go to Jesus?
Do we recognise our need of others? If we realise that we cannot do this on our own we are already half way to growing a team and raising leaders. It isn’t enough to prefer others as people, we need to prefer them with opportunities to do stuff. Half the battle is with us. We need others to be involved in the ministry to children and young people. Jesus gathered disciples - but even within the 12 he had a special 3. I believe these guys became two things 1) his best friends on earth. 2) Those he chose to particularly invest in for the future of the Church.
Who is on your team? Who have you called to join you? Jesus didn’t leave it to chance - yes we have to work with what we have got, but do we even know what (and who) we have got? The challenge sometimes is 'what if they are better at stuff than me?' - The answer here should be 'praise God!' - This will depend on whether our security as a servant leader is in our relationship with Christ or in the work we do for Christ. While there might not be a 'template' there are some steps as we raise people up.
Steps for raising up others
I do it - yes you do it, make sure you really know how to do what it is you are going to raise someone else up in - if you don’t, get someone else to do the raising up.
I do it and you watch - get the person who you are investing in to watch you when you do it (lead a small group, take an assembly . . . etc) - de-brief after, make sure to highlight the things you could have done better, hadn’t thought about, don’t just say, 'that is how to do it - watch and learn matey, watch and learn!'
You do it and I watch - get them to do it, while you watch (or do it together as an interim) then de-brief, focusing on the positive whilst gently mentioning the stuff that needs work.
You do it and someone else watches - the whole process can end with your input to someone unless you pass on this crucial message. When they have honed something and become really good at it - who are they going to raise up?
Continue to create a culture of raising leaders by making sure the leaders you raise up do the same thing. The key thing to remember is to be in the business of raising others up long term. Don’t experiment with peoples lives – seriously invest, seriously pray, as we gain perspective that looks across years rather than weeks we start to ask the question, 'where will those I am working with now be in a decade' – we might even get a glimpse of what God has in store, and nothing is more exciting than seeing something take root in another person’s life and God begin to grow it, nurture it, and use that person – as you step back and create space for them to lead – it will thrill you!
Ali Campbell Founded Paraklesis in 2022 after conducting research in to the terms and conditions of salaried children's, youth and family ministers across the UK. The Association focuses on three key areas : wellbeing support; employment and good working conditions; advocacy and vocational call. Ali established The Resource in 2014 to serve the church with consultancy, training and mentoring.