“Just Tell Me What To Do.”
In many years of leadership, I’ve learned that volunteers are not fans of micromanagement. They like to have the freedom to be creative, to use their God-given common sense, to add a bit of panache...
Category: Volunteer Culture
How Young is Too Young to Serve in Guest Services?
Recently I received an email from a long-time friend in our congregation. She was reaching out on behalf of her ten year old daughter, who wanted to be a part of the Set Up Team...
Dance With the One Who Brung Ya
Imagine for a moment a man who has been the recipient of great grace at the hands of his church’s volunteer teams: every Sunday, he’s directed to a parking spot close to the building. A...
Broad Expectations vs. Narrow Conversations
From time to time (and by time to time I mean maybe 42 individual instances before this day is out), you’re going to run across team behavior that you’re not necessarily a fan of: a...
6 Best Practices for Your Skeleton Crew
We’ve talked before about the importance of a skeleton crew: a small team of volunteers who are fully present for the full service, caring for guests who show up late. Your skeleton crew is a...
Are Your Volunteers Too Habitual?
I’m currently reading Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, an excellent book that combines research and remarkable stories to get to the bottom of why we do what we do. Early in the book Duhigg...
Triage Your Team: How to Make the Most of a Low Weekend
Every leader has been there: the Saturday night phone call. The Sunday morning text message. The inexplicable half-dozen who obviously collaborated and decided they were picking this weekend to be no-shows. At some point, we’re...
The Team You Think You Have Is No Longer the Team You Have.
Back in the fall, some of our campuses sent out surveys to volunteers, gauging their readiness to serve again. Up to 40% of team members said they’d be back when weekend services relaunched. But once...
How to Challenge Your Volunteers
Sometimes a volunteer needs a break. In a previous post, I shared five ways to care for a tired team member. And I still stand by what I said from that previous post: “If they...
How to Lead Quarantined Volunteers
As the global pandemic continues and tighter restrictions are being enacted, many of us just completed the second weekend of online services. I found a certain sense of togetherness when I saw people sharing photos...
