Summary: Do not allow the hardships of your calling to fuel discontentment. You get to labor for the Lord. Be happy. This life is short. Eternity awaits us.

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Philippians 3:1 says “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.”

Imagine a wonderful summer day. The sun is out. The temperature is pleasant. The screen door, however, provides a sad juxtaposition. You see the painful contrast between two flies on either side of the screen. The flies seem desperate to switch places. The fly on the inside just wants to be “out” and the fly outside just wants to be “in.”

I have seen ministry leaders develop a disdain for their calling and just want “out.” Yet, I have seen discontented lay leaders who want nothing more than to quit their marketplace job and be “in” ministry. I wanted “out” of my teaching job and wanted “in” so badly. Therefore, I want to praise God for the sacred opportunity to serve Him vocationally.

Do not allow the hardships of your calling to fuel discontentment. We get to do this thing called ministry. You get to labor for the Lord. Be happy. This life is short. Eternity awaits us. You have something that so many others only dream of having. Rejoice. Again, I will say rejoice.

Summary: In leadership development, you will have moments of confirmation - defining what you are already doing well - and moments of realization - defining where you need to stretch, grow and up your game.

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Lead Volunteers is a proven process. In this process, you will have moments of CONFIRMATION, defining what we are already doing well. However, through this process, you will also have moments of REALIZATION, defining where we need to stretch, grow and up your game.

I want you to have moments where you exclaim, “DUDE, we are doing that! We are doing something right!” That is confirmation. I want you to have those moments and I want you to let the endorphins roll. I want you to have that natural high and confirmation from the Lord that you are on the right path.

But I am not here to just tickle your ears. I also want to push you PAST what you are currently doing. I want you to get stronger leadership legs. I want you to do hard work. I want you to have eye opening realizations that you have blind spots in some areas. However, we have provided you with instantly implementable resources to support you through those realizations.

Let’s go. Let’s do this. Join in with me. Let’s have some CONFIRMATIONS and some REALIZATIONS. I created this Master Level course out of the real life ministry experience I had. I was a pastor for over 10 years. I had to figure out a way to survive and succeed. Over those years and through those experiences, I created some unique tools that have been benefitting leaders internationally.

I want you to have some of the same realizations that others have had. I want you to have some of the “Ahh-Haa” moments that leaders have had. I want you to exclaim, “Wow, that is a good idea and I can do that right away.” Let’s have some moments of confirmation together. But let’s have some moments of realization together as well. Join the Lead Volunteers community today.

Summary: Volunteers need to know what is expected of them. This is the least we can do as leaders.

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56% of pastors reported they do not provide job descriptions for their volunteers. This was supported by 59% of volunteers confirming they were not given a job description for their role. This blows my mind. Volunteers need to know what is expected of them. This is the least we could do as leaders.

I worked at a church that had existed for 25 years. However, in those 25 years, there was never a church-wide push to have volunteer job descriptions. People were just recruited and jumped into a role with no written job description. Why does this happen? Simply stated, Sunday is always coming. The urgent always pushes out the important. Therefore, year after year, that church carried on and did not have job descriptions.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a starting point and not have to create job descriptions from scratch?

Lead Volunteers has 71 completed job descriptions for every area of the church. Children’s Ministry Job Descriptions - Done for You. Junior High and High School Job Descriptions - Done For You. Special Needs Ministry Job Descriptions - Done for You. Women’s Ministry, Usher, Greeter, and Parking Lot Attender Job Descriptions - All Done For You. It’s as easy as Copy, Paste and Modify. Your volunteers deserve a job description. Lead Volunteers is a fast-track system to get you there.

LEADVOLUNTEERS helps you get organized, stops the revolving door of volunteers and prevents burnout.

Join LEADVOLUNTEERS.com today!

Summary: There are times that a volunteer should be released or move on. But you, as a ministry leader, need to know what is really happening in someone’s life. It takes time and discernment to accurately see what is really happening, and which of the 4 C’s is the true issue.

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There are times that a volunteer should be released or move on. I think the first step in releasing or moving a volunteer is to correctly identify what is REALLY happening. Before you seek to make a change, understand what is truly at play. What category are you actually dealing with?

Volunteers need four key ingredients: character, chemistry, competence or circumstances. If one is missing, a change is needed. Now, as we say all the time at Lead Volunteers - EVERYTHING in ministry comes down to relationships and people skills. You as a ministry leader - or more accurately stated - you as a shepherd of people, need to know what is really happening in someone’s life. It takes time and discernment to accurately see what is really happening and which of the 4 C’s is the true issue.

We shouldn’t jump to quick conclusions. We have to use discernment to determine why this situation is not a good fit for the volunteer or for the staff, right? Let’s imagine someone “Not Gifted” in an area. This happens to us all in ministry. We’ve recruited someone only to find out they are not gifted in this area. How do we know if someone has a competence issue? Bottom line: “Right Person + Wrong Role = Wrong Person”.

Ok, let’s stop right here. Notice that I said “Right Person.” If someone is the “Right Person”, that means that this person is godly enough to serve. They have character. That should be the first gate or check point they need to pass through. Basically, they are qualified Biblically. Yet, being biblically qualified, maybe their life circumstances or maybe their giftings aren’t in the right position. At the end of the day, they have to hit all four of those areas.

Before you release someone, make sure that you know what is actually going on. Take your time, and don’t pull the trigger too fast.

Summary: Some people, at best, are not a good fit. At worst, they could be dangerous to your mission. You need a plan to navigate this leadership challenge, but more importantly, to prevent this situation from happening.

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Sometimes a volunteer might be lacking one of these four key ingredients: character, chemistry, competence or circumstances. What do you do? It may be crystal clear that a change needs to be made. But bringing this up to a volunteer and telling them that a change needs to be made can be dicey conversation. It’s risky to open that can of worms with a volunteer. I get some nervous butterflies just talking about it. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a serious leadership challenge.

Honestly, having hard conversations with volunteers used to be a horrible thing for me to contemplate. Conversations like this are filled with landmines waiting to blow up in your face. But the reality still exists: some people, at best, are not a good fit; at worst, are dangerous to the mission. You know what needs to happen but you chose the dangerous path of avoidance.

How does someone release or move a volunteer and not lose your job? Bottom Line: you need a plan to navigate and hopefully preemptively prevent this situation altogether. Personally, I like to view myself as a soccer coach. If one of my players has a royally messed up ankle, I should never put them back into the game, regardless of how “good” they are.

Remember, we need a strong “yes” in four areas: character, chemistry, competence and circumstances. If one of these is missing, a player may need to gain some direction on the sidelines from their loving coach. Would you put a player in the game with a swollen ankle? Would you put them in if they were fighting badly with other players? Would you put them in the game if they were utterly inept at a particular skill position? Or would you allow them to exhaust themselves in the game when their off-field life is a circumstantial train wreck? Think about it.
Be sure to check out LeadVolunteers.com as your one-stop-shop to help you recruit, train and retain volunteers.

Summary: People need to have a strong YES in four areas to become a volunteer on your team: character, chemistry, competence, and circumstances. If a volunteer is missing any one of these four items, they may not be a good fit right now or maybe ever.

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What qualifications should someone have in order to become a volunteer on your team? Potential people need to have a strong YES in four areas: character, chemistry, competence and circumstances. If a volunteer is missing any one of these four items - character, chemistry, competence, or circumstances - they may not be a good fit right now or maybe ever.

If a volunteer is lacking biblical character, they should not be on your team. If a volunteer doesn’t have team chemistry or they don’t click with how you do things, they should not be on your team. If a volunteer lacks competence or skills in an area they should not be on your team. But there is one remaining area. You see, a volunteer may have strong character, a wonderful chemistry with the team and be highly competent. However, there is still one factor that might preclude them from serving right now: Their current life circumstances.
Volunteers need a strong yes in each of these four areas: character, chemistry, competence and circumstances. I want to touch on each of these areas in brief.

#1 - Character. Or, in reality, a lack of biblical character. This would include Issues of sin. There are things in people’s lives that are simply not in line with God’s word that should preclude them from serving SO they can spend energy addressing those issues.

#2 - Chemistry. This includes issues of disagreement, disunity or destructive differences of opinion. People have differing views on HOW we should do ministry.

#3 - Competence. Or, in reality, a lack of competence in a particular area. This is the idea of misplaced gifting. You might have the right person in the wrong seat.

#4 - Circumstances. This is simply a challenging life stage. Listen, life is cyclical and has its normal ebbs and flows. There are times where the best of volunteers has things arise in their life and it is just the best idea to not serve for a season.

As you move forward as a leader, begin to consider four gates through which every volunteer should pass in order to be on your team: character, chemistry, competence and circumstances. Be sure to check out LeadVolunteers.com as your one-stop-shop to help you recruit, train and retain volunteers.

Summary: Emailing people might seem easy for you, but it also makes it easy for people to say no. The easiest way to recruit is also the easiest way to fail.

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Do you want to fail at recruiting? If you do, I have the perfect way to fail and to fail super fast. The fastest way to fail at recruiting is mass emailing people. If you are looking for the easiest way to recruit, you will likely stumble into the easiest way to FAIL. And today’s video is urging you to stay away from any type of mass recruiting emails.

Let me tell you a story. I had been at the church for seven or eight years, and I was in the process of duplicating myself in many areas of the ministry. I was pouring into other people and training them how to recruit for their own areas. I, along with two other seasoned leaders, came up with a healthy list of names to pass along to our friend and new ministry associate. We wanted to give him some easy wins and people we felt confident would say yes.

Now, let me tell you, these were quality people and quality names. In other words, we were giving up quality people to allow this new associate to have some easy recruiting wins. He took that entire list of names, put them into an email and proceeded to send a bulk email, recruiting everyone on the list through one email.

Within 36 hours, 100% of those people had emailed back indicating that they would NOT be volunteering this year. Game over. There was no way we can reach back out to these people and ask for a redo. No personalized conversation. No relationship development. No individualized approach based on the person or anything like that. This was an easy button epic fail.

Now, before you start to place this young fellow under the bus I want to tell you that this was MY bad leadership rather than his faux pas. In my busy-ness I did not educate him as to how our team recruited high-end people for high-end volunteer roles. I just made the assumption that he knew what to do. This was simply not the case. This was my fail, not his.

Emailing people might seem easy for you, but it also makes it easy for people to say no. Be sure to check out LeadVolunteers.com as your one-stop-shop to help you recruit, train and retain volunteers.

Summary: Acousting people in the hallway is not a relationally healthy strategy for recruiting. It is a guilt-based, quick fix move from a position of desperation. Your goal is to get people to see the value in serving and join you.

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You want to win at recruiting. Me too. There are things that will work. There are things that will not work. Last time we talked about cute videos. Generally, they are a fail. And remember the high failure rate of the“Senior Pastor Pleading”. There is no recruiting easy button.

Today I want to share a particularly sinister and likely the most ineffective tactic for recruiting. I call this one “Acousting People in the Halls,” otherwise known as “Drive By Recruiting.”

Let me explain. You see someone that you think would be a viable candidate for serving in your area. You lower your head slightly, like a bull getting ready to charge the matador. You walk with an aggressive stride. You have zeroed in on your target. You likely have tunnel vision. Listen, you look like a stalker. BECAUSE you are! You know what I am talking about, right? I have been there and I have done that!

The last thing you want to do is have people see you in the hallway, CRINGE and want to duck down a different hall. Your goal is to get people to see the value in serving and join you. And the anti-goal is people RUNNING AWAY from you. Think about that for a moment. Acousting people in the hallway is not a relationally healthy strategy for recruiting. It is a guilt-based, quick fix move from a position of desperation.

But listen, I get it. You may be thinking, “I never see them unless we are at church. Here we are! Let me talk to them about serving.” That is what you think. Here is what they are thinking: “I am here to connect with God and hopefully connect with others. I don’t have my calendar on me and I am not forced to think about commitments.” Trust me, snagging people at church may seem easy to you. It is a bother to them.

Quick Tip: don’t hunt down people to try to get them to serve with you on a Sunday morning. It may be quick but it is less effective. Bottom Line: it all comes down to relationships and a personal ask. Be sure to check out LeadVolunteers.com as your one-stop-shop to help you recruit, train and retain volunteers.

Summary: Cute videos in the main service simply do not produce results. A video spotlight can be good for your ministry, but don’t depend on a promo video to do the heavy lifting of recruiting for you.

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On our last video, we talked about an important “Never Do” when it comes to recruiting. We discussed how the failure rate of the“Senior Pastor Pleading” is very high. Remember, there is no easy button when it comes to recruiting.

I want to share another particularly ineffective tactic for recruiting. Today’s reminder: cute videos in the main service simply do not produce results. You know what I am talking about, right? You might be sitting in your office with a box of tissues, but your average person sitting in the chair on a Sunday morning sees this as white noise.

It is just less effective. A cute video on a Sunday morning is the ineffective second cousin to having the senior pastor make a plea from the pulpit for volunteers. Now, do I want “stage time” for my ministry? Sure. Do I want a focused commercial about my area, absolutely. Do I want a brief shout out about my ministry area or a 30-60 second video spotlight? Sure! Why not? But I am placing little-to-no-stock that this will generate any lasting volunteers. I am just being realistic from a lot of experience.

The cute or emotional video shown during the service asking for volunteers has NEVER resulted in a mad rush of people looking to sign up in the atrium after service. I want to put out a quick caveat, however. Let’s say that there is a new family, a new couple or a new single at your church. They are looking for a way to get involved. A video could peak their interest and more. I get that. I want that and so do you. However, I have watched my team and teams all across the country put so much hope in a 30-second promo video and be disappointed that it seemed to fall flat.

Quick tip: Don’t depend on a promo video to do the heavy lifting of recruiting for you. It just doesn’t work. Bottom line: It all comes down to relationships and a personal ask. Be sure to check out LeadVolunteers.com as your one-stop-shop to help you recruit, train and retain volunteers.

Summary: There is no easy button when it comes to recruiting. It is hard work. Asking the senior pastor to make a plea for volunteers won’t get you near the results that good relationships and a personal ask will.

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I want to talk about an important “Never Do” when it comes to recruiting. First let me say, there is no easy button when it comes to recruiting. It is hard work. Now, you can do things to make your work more effective, but it is work.

Now all of us tend to shy away from things that take work. Seriously. I get it. I am a man of many efficiencies. I work extremely hard to find repeatable and simple structures to avoid unnecessary heavy lifting. Therefore, I am not intending to shame anyone when I call out this common pitfall we have all used to try to gain volunteers.

This particular tactic that I am going to tell you to NEVER use, I must admit, I have used it and received very poor results. I call this an “Easy Button Recruiting Fail”. Here it is: The senior pastor pleads for more volunteers as a part of their sermon. Been there done that. People either feel emotionally guilted or emotionally charged up.

Here is the thing. It is just too easy to check a box on a welcome card that you are willing to serve in children’s ministry or as a greeter every 4th Sunday.

Here is my story. One time we begged the senior pastor to make the plea. He did. Here’s the thing. Ninety-one people checked that they would be willing to help in children’s ministry. Sounds great, right? Not so fast. Folks, there is a difference between the QUANTITY of names and the QUALITY of names. Now, don’t hear me wrong. I am not saying these PEOPLE were quality or not quality people. Not even close. I am saying that there is a difference between a quality volunteer lead vs. a large quantity of bad volunteer leads.

We spent 5 weeks chasing down these 91 people. Emails, phone calls, texts. You see, none of us on staff really knew ANY of these people. There was no relationship. So we wasted our time. We literally tracked it and discovered that after 3 months, two of those people were serving with us. After 6-months, not a single person was still serving with us.

Quick tip: Don’t ask for your senior pastor to plead for you. It just doesn’t work. Bottom Line: It all comes down to relationships and a personal ask. Be sure to check out LeadVolunteers.com as your one-stop-shop to help you recruit, train and retain volunteers.