The other day I saw a youth minister on Twitter ask what should he do with an immature Christian who wanted to be apart of his ministry. Now of course, there is always more to the story and this is no way a stab at him or the decision that he has to make in the best interest of his ministry. This problem comes up plenty in all of our ministries and though they may never approach us, when we are short on volunteers we face it as we discount people who just aren’t there.
So the dilemma is finding the right volunteers, the right amount of volunteers and creating a pipeline of volunteers for the future that already understand your DNA and culture.
So what are the options?
-Do nothing
This is where most ministries find themselves as they hustle at the last minute to plug warm bodies in to holes in our programs. I’ve been here. It’s not a pretty or healthy place to find yourself year after year. People are people, so we will always have times where we have to plug people in at the last minute. But this is not the right option.
-Search & Destroy
Every year we have ministry fairs and display our ministry goods seeking new volunteers or suckers that don’t what our ministry is really like. We ask people to sign up and then go through the list and talk with those we think fit in our ministry and ignore the rest. Maybe they aren’t right but how many in all actuality just aren’t there yet. For the record I was a sucker for youth ministry and fell head of heals in love with ministering to youth.
-Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships is ultimately a better option. To many times people come to our ministries who aren’t ready to be a lead volunteer. A lot of times we just place them in that lead role (warm bodies) and some succeed but others fail and miss the opportunity to serve. So people will click and some people aren’t gifted for your ministry and need to be encouraged and have help finding a place to serve with the gifts God gave them. Some people who see something in you, your ministry, or who you are ministering to and want to be a part of it but just aren’t ready. Why dismiss these people when we can mentor them into the volunteers we need and ultimately the Kingdom needs. Apprenticeships are great opportunities to create a leadership/ volunteer pipeline who are trained the way that you would like them to be trained, have spent time being taught and understanding your ministry’s DNA and culture. This takes that immature volunteers and gives you an opportunity to dangle the carrot in their face and here is where you want to be and this is what it is going to take to get there all while building in accountability.
What if every small group leader had an apprentice? Every ministry leader had an apprentices? What if you had an apprentice? How better off would your ministry be, how prepared you ministry be for the future and just think of the Kingdom workers you would have prepared whether they stay in your ministry or move away to another.
I’ve done the first two and believe me it was not fun. But today is a new day and 2010 is a week away. Why not start the year off with a new plan for developing new leaders through apprenticeships ?
