Watch Out for Summer Exposure
Memorial Day has passed, school is out, graduations have wrapped, and we’ve officially hit summer vacation season.
For those of us in church world, we’re in the months where the pace is slower*, weekend attendance is thinner, and quality standards might feel lighter.
The summer months always expose certain things in our lives: You should’ve given those white legs a test run before going all-in on shorts in public; You missed a spot while rubbing in sunscreen, Lobster Boy.
And the same summer months expose things in our ministry teams. Because the pace is slower, attendance is thinner, and standards feel lighter, summer is a great time to step back, look around, and figure out what seems to work during the school year that doesn’t actually work.
Here are three things summer exposes:
1. Volunteer numbers ≠ volunteer culture
During the school year, it can be relatively easy to get volunteers to show up, at least compared to the summer months. School is in session, families are around, vacations are infrequent, so vols are more likely to step up.
And that’s a good thing. A strong roster makes for a strong Sunday. But a strong roster doesn’t necessarily mean a strong culture. Summer not only exposes a volunteer’s commitment to show up, it will reveal how they feel about the importance of showing up. If a volunteer disappears for weeks with no communication, that’s an indicator that they don’t view their role or their team as valuable to the church as a whole.
2. “What we do” ≠ “Why we do it”
I’m all for a slower pace in the summer. Staff and volunteers and – yes, even our guests – intuitively expect a slower pace where we take our collective feet off the gas for a natural rhythm of rest.
But when standards drop precipitously, that can be a sign that we know what to do, but we’ve lost the heart for why we do it. If we shut down the first-time guest tent for the summer because it’s a little toasty, it says more about how we feel about our comfort than that of our guests.
If our standards disappear the moment our rosters dip, they may not have been standards at all.
3. Caring about guests ≠ caring about volunteers
Let me circle around to point #1 above, because even though I knew this point #3 was coming, I still felt a bit icky writing that one.
I’m all for planning for the summer months and scheduling volunteers appropriately. I believe that vols should be responsible to let you know when they’ll be away. I think that we should maintain high standards for our guests even during the slower summer months.
But that does not mean that we elevate the experience of our guests over the long-term health of our volunteers. The two are not mutually exclusive. You should expect and encourage time off for your volunteers and your staff. They should hear you say “Have a great week at the beach!” with no underlying bitterness. They should not be guilted into cutting their vacation short to cover you on a low Sunday.
Leaders, summer exposure happens. Summer doesn’t create these issues, but it does reveal them. We don’t need to fear it, but we do need to prepare for it, watch for it, and respond to it.
Have a great summer, y’all.
*Except for you, NextGen staff member who is about to subsist on Uncrustables and Glacier Freeze Gatorade while sleeping on a hard bunk with a questionable odor for the next 97 weeks at summer camp. We see you. We’re glad we ain’t you, but we see you.
