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10 Principles to Get the Best From Volunteer Church Leaders
Volunteer leaders are the backbone of the Small Church.
In bigger churches, most or all of the first- and second-tier leaders are hired (Namely, the pastoral staff and department heads). That’s a great thing. When you hire someone, it’s much easier to require certain tasks and enforce your expectations. After all, they have a financial stake in how well they perform as a church leader.
But Small Churches are led by volunteers. Volunteers who can quit at any time. And when they do quit, it doesn’t hurt them financially, it actually frees up more of their spare time. So we need to give them good reasons to stick around.
It’s one of many aspects that make pastoring the Small Church a unique challenge.
I’ve been in Small Church ministry for almost three decades – over 22 at my current church. In that time, I’ve learned a handful of great principles that help our church attract and keep the best group of volunteer leaders I’ve ever worked with.
Here are 10 of them:
Morality Has No Expiration Date
I have a confession to make.
I watch Downton Abbey.
And not in a “my wife makes me watch it” way, but in an “I can’t believe how good this is!” way.
Yes, I actually like it.
For those unfamiliar with the show, Downton Abbey (Not Downtown Abbey. Pronouncing it that way makes fans cringe) is a British drama that was set in the 1910s when it started several seasons ago, but has since moved into the Roaring 20s.
I seldom talk about my TV viewing habits in this forum. But I’m bringing it up today because in last night’s episode there was a fleeting moment where an argument was made which always sets my teeth on edge.
Innovative Churches Have Pastors with a Healthy Curiosity
There are some really boring pastors out there. Boring pastors of bored churches.
At least I assume so, because I’ve heard the tales from their church members – usually former church members.
But, despite all the stories, I haven’t actually met many boring pastors.
Because boring pastors tend not to hang out with other pastors. They don’t come to conferences. They don’t read books or blogs. They don’t do much of anything, because they lack one vital ingredient that’s found in pastors who are always open to new ideas and vibrant relationships. A healthy curiosity.
(To be fair, that’s not the only reason many pastors don’t read the latest books or go to conferences. Many Small Church pastors would read the latest books if they could afford them, and most bivocational pastors would go to conferences if they could get the time off. They’re not the boring ones. They’re the unsung heroes.)
Church Methods Don’t Matter – Until We Do Them Wrong
We won’t change the world by adopting new methods in the church. We won’t even save the church that way.
What will change the world is a praying church. A loving church. A worshiping church. An outwardly-focused church. A Jesus-centric church.
The Great Commandment and the Great Commission are all that matter. They haven’t changed in 2,000 years because they don’t need to.
But.
I’m going to use new methods anyway.
I’ll tell you why in a moment. But first, a lesson in typesetting. (No, I’m not crazy. My mother had me tested).
Yes, the Church Can Still Reach “Kids These Days”
Disrespectful, thoughtless, destructive and selfish!
That’s what kids these days are! Including the youth in our neighborhood.
My church had a new sign installed just before Christmas. It took three years to design, raise funds and build it. It looks great. But the day it was installed, teenagers from the neighborhood were flipping their skateboards along the base of the sign, threatening to gouge holes in it.
My youth pastor caught them red-handed, and do you know what he did? He told them we love having them here, he asked them not to skateboard on the sign, then he invited them in for the church – and they came in.
What he didn’t do was get mad at them. Or call them any of the names in my first sentence.
When We Treat Small Churches Like a Problem, We Get More Problem Churches
Church leaders are always wringing their hands about the problem of Small Churches.
I heard it again recently. A church leader complained that 90% of the churches in their group had less than 200 in attendance, then introduced a plan for getting those numbers up.
(Never mind that the “90% under 200” figure is shockingly consistent across all church groups – which should make us consider that maybe God is up to something with that.)
I watched as many of the pastors in the room tried to hide their “here we go again” faces. Then I left the room wondering again about what happens when we do what that church leader did.
As I was pondering the implications, this question hit me over the head like a hammer.
If Small Churches weren’t seen as a problem, would they stop being a problem?
Think about it. When we treat people like they’re problems, they become problems. When we treat them like they’re a blessing, they often become the blessing we see.
Churches are the same.
“A Healthy Church Will Always Grow” – Or Will It?
A friend of mine pastors a wonderfully healthy Small Church.
One of the ministries they have invested in is a partnership with a nearby halfway house for men who have recently come off of drug and/or alcohol dependency. Each week, faithful church members drive 8-10 of these men to and from church.
The people in the church invite these recovering addicts in with open arms and hearts. They befriend them in many ways, including inviting them into their homes for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Through this church, these men receive tangible evidence of the love of Christ during a particularly difficult time of their lives. Many of them come to faith in Christ.
This wonderful, Jesus-style ministry to “the least of these” is just one evidence of the compassion, health and outward-reaching attitude of this great church.
But the loving care they’re showing towards these men has not and probably will never add one single permanent member to the rolls of their church. And it certainly doesn’t add to their financial bottom line.
A Simple 5-Step Discipleship Process for Any Small Church (That Won’t Wear Out the Pastor)
For many Small Churches, discipleship just becomes one more item on a pastor’s already full agenda. Few Small Church pastors are happy with the way discipleship is being done in their church – if it’s being done at all.
But it doesn’t need to be that way.
If you pastor a Small Church without a discipleship program, or with one that’s not working well, I have some good news. You don’t need an expensive, staff-heavy discipleship program to do great discipleship. And it doesn’t need to kill your already-over-busy schedule either.
After a few hit-and-miss attempts, our church has discovered a simple 5-step process that can work for any Small Church. And it looks suspiciously similar to what Jesus, Paul and many other early church leaders did.
Should the Church Be About Transformation? Or Stability?
Transformation or stability.
Sometimes it seems like every pastor I meet lives in one of those two camps.
On the transformation side are churches with names like Catalyst, Thrive and Elevation. They’re led by pastors who are constantly driving for their church to be an agent of change. Some have even changed the title of “pastor” to “lead catalyst” to reflect that. These churches thrive on finding new, innovative ways to present the Gospel.
On the other side are churches and pastors that are digging in. They’re fighting what often feels like a losing battle against waves of negative societal change. They like to describe their church as bible-believing, fundamentalist, and/or “First (insert your denominational name here) Church”. One church sign I saw recently told everyone who drove by that they were Old-Fashioned, Hymn-Singing and Bible Believing.
So who’s right? The church as change agent? Or the church as a stable foundation?
Both. And Neither.
Both are right, because the church needs to be a transformative community. And the church needs to stand for eternal truths.
Neither are right if they’re picking one side to the exclusion of the other, because we’re not called to be one or the other, but both/and.
Any church that sacrifices eternal truths for current trends is making a big mistake. And any church that refuses to change their methods to reach a new generation with eternal truths is just as wrong.
One is too trendy to last. The other is too stuck-in-a-rut to be relevant.
