The Secret to Recruiting Volunteers

My latest blog post for LeaderTreks

The struggle is real when it comes to recruiting youth ministry volunteers. At some point, most of us have felt like we’ve tried everything only to have nothing work.
Our list of frustrations looks something like this:

• I’ve asked, and no one has expressed interest.
• Everyone is too busy to volunteer their time to work with students.
• Our church just isn’t excited about what’s happening in the youth ministry.
• We don’t have any young people in our congregation who can handle our energetic students.
• With all that’s on my plate, I don’t have time to recruit volunteers.

In spite of what these frustrations would lead us to believe, “solo youth ministry” is not the only option. Here are five suggestions to help grow your volunteer team and further your ministry’s impact:

Read More Here

Our Team Values

Last Saturday our student ministry volunteer team gathered together for several hours with two goals in mind:

1.  Have fun together

2.  Come up with our team values

We met early afternoon in a vacation rental that had a movie theater room and game room in the house.  We spent the majority of our time together in the game room having fun together.  After we ate supper we moved up to the living room by the fireplace and took some time to work together to come up a with a list of values.

Our values are broken down into two areas:

Team’s Spiritual Values:


1.    Spending time studying the Bible
2.    Fellowship with other believers
3.    A consistent prayer life
4.    Actively involved in Discipleship/growing
5.    Accountability
6.    Serving Christ and the Church
7.    Sharing our faith
8.    Encouraging others
9.    Obedience to God
10.  Corporate Worship

Ministry Team Values:


1.    Dependability
2.    Investment in student’s lives
3.    Praying for our students
4.    Worship with our students
5.    Be an example
6.    Unity/on the same page as a team
7.    Friendly
8.    Build em up!  Encourage students.
9.    Strategic in helping them grow spiritually
10.  Minister to parents

We spent hours playing games and having fun together and spent about an hour working on our values.  Great way to spend and afternoon and evening with those I serve along side with.

The "Catch All". Learning to say "No"

Every home has a “catch all” place.  It may be a desk, table, top of a dresser, a drawer, a place where stuff gets dropped.  Some of those things have a place they should go but the person doing the placing is too lazy to take the extra moment to put the item in its proper place.  Some items we just aren’t sure where to put it so we put it in the “catch all” place.  If you don’t have one of these places in your home I applaud your OCDness.



In many churches the youth pastor can become the “catch all”.  Often youth pastors find themselves doing many things outside the realm of student ministry.  “Oh, you know how to operate a Mac!  Great!  Can you set up the Pro Presenter in the auditorium?”  The guitar in your office gets noticed and next thing you know you are on the platform in big church leading worship and you only know three chords.  You become 411 for the church.  Remember 411?  That was the number you would call to get a phone number of an individual.  So you get texts, emails, phone calls from church members who are looking for another member’s phone number even though all members have access to the church’s online directory.  Why?  You know how to work a computer and you work for the church.

There is a danger when youth pastors don’t learn to say “No”.  The danger is they soon find themselves inundated with tasks that have nothing to do with their position.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t all pitch in and help and think about the team.  What I am saying is when you find yourself so busy doing tasks that are unrelated to student ministry that you don’t have time to actually do student ministry you have become the “catch all” of the church.  It’s no one else’s fault but my own when I end up as the “catch all”. 



Find freedom from the "catch all":

1..Remember your calling.  God has called you to minister to students and their parents.  This is your number one priority at work.  If you become the “catch all” you cannot put in the time and energy necessary to do quality student ministry.  Your position is motivated by your passion.  When you find yourself pulled from student ministry you find yourself no longer serving in the zone of your passion and then you become a miserable.



2.  Say “No”.  Remember your purpose.  Does the request fit the purpose of your church’s student ministry?  If not the answer is “No.”  Learn to say “no” in a kind way.  “As much as I would love to play my guitar on Sunday morning it will pull me away from doing what I need to do to minister to students this week.”



3.  The ministry idea.  When you get approached about a ministry idea you need to have your response planned and practiced in advance.  “That’s an awesome ministry idea, “That’s an awesome ministry idea.I think you would be the perfect leader for that ministry.”



4.  The closed door.  I practiced this yesterday afternoon.  I was working on the message and small group discussion for Sunday night so I closed my door.  I let our volunteer in the office know that I wan’t being rude but needed to work on my message and Sunday night’s youth worship service.  Creating this habit creates a “do not disturb” signal to the staff and members who might just pop in.  When we are planning and working on our student worship service we need to give that planning time our full attention.



5.  Keep office hours.  Make sure there are times set aside that you are in the office and that members are welcome to drop in and see you during those times.  Post it on your door.



6.  Texts don’t have to be answered immediately.  If you are home with your family or during your “off” time you don’t have to reply to the text or email immediately, if it’s an emergency that’s different.   Just because texting exists doesn’t mean that immediate response is required.  Let your voice mail catch the call, listen to the message, if it’s an emergency call back, if not call the member back tomorrow when you are in the office.

7.  Do what you do best and delegate the rest.  I don’t have to be the one that fixes the bathroom stall door, honestly I would probably mess it up more.  There are people in your church who have that talent.  God has equipped your church with all types of gifts and talents, tap into the members and let them experience the joy of serving.


Take some time and evaluate if you are a “catch all” in your church.  What steps can you take to be free from the “catch all”? 

Pursuit

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.
Proverbs 21:21

We all, except the laziest of humans, pursue something in life. The wisdom found in Proverbs tells us what to pursue. When we pursue something, that pursuit is in hopes of a certain result. I pursued Misha in college with hopes of a date. I pursued education in hopes of a graduate degree. I pursued the ice cream truck, you get the picture.

Whoever means anyone who wants to pursue righteousness and unfailing love can pursue those things. This pursuit is not reserved for a special group of people. God accepts anyone, the "whoevers", who pursues Him, not pursues religion, not pursues an ideology but pursues the real deal relationship with the creator, the Father.

In all our pursuits in life their is a goal, a result in mind. This verse tells us that if we pursue righteousness, a right relationship with God, we will find righteousness. Some of life's pursuits are a gamble in hopes for a desired result. Proverbs tells us this pursuit's result is a guarantee. 
Pursuit of unfailing love brings life. There is only one unfailing love and that is the love that God the Father has for us. He loves us so much He sent His one and only Son to die for us on the cross in payment for our sins. Something we could not accomplish on our own, none of us, this is for "Whoever". This life is eternal life (John 3:16). This life is overflowing, abundant, beyond satisfying life (John 10:10)

The pursuit of being right with God and experiencing His unfailing love also brings honor. When we truly live out our faith and live in such a way that others notice the difference that come from this life of relationship with God honor will be the natural outcome. Think of the person that you would label the "Godliest person I know" and how much honor you, and others, has for that person.

We don't pursue righteousness and unfailing love because we desire honor. Honor is the bonus in life that comes from a right relationship with our loving God.

What will you pursue today?

(the above was taken from my FB page.  Most, not all, mornings I take Biblegateway verse of the day and type out my thoughts as my morning quiet time.  Below I'm applying it to us in student ministry)

In student ministry, as leaders, our pursuit should not be:

• Numbers
• Popularity
• Notarity
• Pleasing everyone
• Greatest Bible Teacher Ever
  
  Our pursuit needs to be a right relationship with the one who loves us with his unfailing love.  When He is our pursuit there will be a difference in how we minister to students.  We won't be focused on what the elders, deacons, parents, community think about us.  Perhaps the key to success in student ministry is that we first as leaders pursue this righteousness.  When he is our pursuit we won't be led by emotion but led by the Spirit.
  
  He must be our pursuit then everything else will fall in place.

A Three Step Discipleship Roadmap

At some point this month, you likely found yourself evaluating the old year and planning for the year ahead. And like me, you probably pondered, “Where are we at, and where are we headed?”

For my part, I’m somewhat frustrated that we have fewer students than in past seasons, but I’m excited that we do have a great student to leader ratio. And rather than enter the New Year with complaints, I’m headed into 2017 saying, “These are the students Jesus has given us, and these are the students we need to be investing in.”

I want discipleship to be the focus of our 2017 ministry year, and here’s my roadmap to get us there:

Read More HERE

Are you tired? Exhausted?

Great blog post from Dan Colwin at LeaderTreks.

Take a gander HERE