Change is inevitable. Eventually, your systems and strategies and specific areas of focus are going to get adjusted…maybe overhauled…perhaps stripped down to the foundation and rebuilt from the ground up. And when that happens, our volunteer teams are often the ones who feel the …
“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do next.” “Is there anything else you need from me?” “What are you asking of me, exactly?” “Just tell me what to do.” I’ve had a long-running battle over the issue of job descriptions for volunteers. Early in my time here at the Summit, I was the job description ninja. Every team and sub team and sub-sub team role had an obsessively-drafted, finely-tuned, …
What happens when your team changes horses mid-stream? What do you do when your original job description gets dismantled? How do you maneuver the challenges of an ever-changing organization? There are times that volunteer teams switch courses. And when that happens, it can …
Recently my family and I stayed at Home2 Suites in Opelika, Alabama. One morning of our stay, I spent some time in the hotel lobby (hello, continental breakfast!) as the rest of my crew caught up on their sleep. As I was doing a …
If you work with people, it’s only a matter of time before you’re going to find yourself disappointed, frustrated, and angry. People fail. They mess up. And when that person is a volunteer, it can be uniquely frustrating. After all, a volunteer doesn’t have to be there, …
If I were to ask you the question, Does your church need volunteers?, I’m confident the answer would be a resounding YES. In fact, I’m somewhat confident that your “yes” would follow a series of chortles, guffaws, and ROFLs, because of course we could all use some more …
If you’re a ministry leader, you’re eventually going to create a practice, policy, or procedure that’s not all that popular. And chances are, your volunteers are going to be the ones to enforce that policy on the front lines: A leader:student ratio in your …
It was Ephesus, and it was spring. Which year, exactly, we don’t know, but we know that it was spring, and we know that the apostle Paul was putting the finishing touches on a letter to his friends at Corinth. It hadn’t been a …
As I type, I’m sitting in my sometimes-remote-office, Starbucks. It’s Tuesday, May 29, in the year of our Lord 2018, and we’re 90 minutes away from The Shutdown. If you’re in the distant future and this post is being read to you from the …
This post originally appeared on December 9, 2010. It’s the post so nice, I named it twice. If you’re a leader of people, part of your job is to help people help people. In the church world, volunteers tend to volunteer because they …