Friday, February 1, 2008

Volunteering...It's Not Just Stuffing Envelopes Anymore - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

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On to volunteering...

If your ministry is anything like most of the organizations I help, you need more volunteers. In fact, you'd love to have a few extra pairs of hands around, even if it's just for an hour a week.

But what is your volunteering strategy? How do you use volunteers? I bet if you stop to think about it, you could use more than just an army of envelope stuffers?

Whether you realize it or not, there's a new wave in volunteering, mirroring the recent seismic shifts in giving and ministry involvement. For those of you unaware, many donors are no longer content to simply write a check and pray for you. They want to be hands-on with the ministries they're passionate about and financially supporting...a very good change indeed.

And now even volunteers are looking to do more than help with the latest mailing or play part-time janitor. They want to volunteer strategically. That is, they want to give skilled time to your cause e.g., web design, plumbing, financial consulting, strategic planning, and more.

In response, ministry leaders need to prayerfully consider ways to use skilled labor to further the work God's called them to. Remember Paul's wonderful Spirit-led exhortation: "...we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, cause the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love," (Eph. 4:15a-16). Paul wrote other great stuff on the Spirit-led workings of the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:11-27 and elsewhere.

Reality check: if ministries would put to Kingdom use the skilled labor of the people whom God has partnered with them, literally billions of dollars could be saved! You need to stop looking for people simply willing to do your grunt work and start praying and thinking about what your key needs are and who you know that might be able to fulfill them. (If you don't currently know somebody who can fill your needs, pray that God will gather those strategic volunteers to you.)

As you consider your needs and prayerfully recruit folks to meet them, be sure to design opportunities that are manageable for folks who presumably are seeking Christ wholeheartedly and therefore already time-committed to their personal walk with Him, their family, and their church. Practically-speaking, you should aim for skilled laborers to help you an hour a week. If they want to give more time than that, great! But don't lean on them until they break (or snap!).

Shameless plug alert! MinistryHour.com is a new free service that connects biblical ministries with Christian professionals willing to offer skilled service, starting with an hour a week (a ministry hour). Just fill out their simple form, which remains confidential, and MinistryHour will do its best to connect you either with a like-minded ministry with a need you can fill, or with a Christian professional willing to serve.

Churches and parachurch ministries must completely revolutionize their volunteering scheme and make it just as much a part of their strategy as prayer, leadership choices, and more. Volunteering...it's not just stuffing envelopes anymore.

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