There are many conversations that I get into during the course of a week that really get me excited about leadership and ministry development.  When it comes to talking about how we are discipling our people, I get excited.  When the conversation goes the way of how can we develop students to be active in ministry, I get excited.  If the conversation ever goes the direction of Apple Inc., I get excited.

One question that I continue to face as I lead a new team and as I work with guys all over the midwest who call talking about student ministry.  Is, how do you get enough volunteers and keep them.  Now this question is not just asked in the student ministry circle but that is my greatest network at this time.

I have been in ministry for 19 years and truly love working with people.  I can honestly say that outside of my first couple of years in ministry I have never been at a loss for volunteers.  I do believe that there are many reasons why that is the case and will share the process that I think one should be aware of when it comes to leading someone into a new ministry position later this week.  The one thing that I think is the single most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to recruiting and keeping volunteers is that they have learned to do ministry in whatever role they have have been volunteering in.

I have leaders I know that are still in the same ministry positions that they were in when I developed them and moved on from that church to another.  They are still serving at every capacity they were developed to serve at.  The reason is that they have understood the bigger picture of the role they play and the Kingdom of God.  They have been developed to do ministry not just be my gopher, sidekick, person to do the things I don’t like to do.  No one is just filling a role!

No, those who have worked with me in ministry have learned what it means to love students, to lead students, to be accountable, to not be their friends but rather to be the one who is ministering to that group of individuals.

Maybe I am off here but what do you think?  What is the one key aspect to the way you develop leaders/volunteers?  I will share more this week on the process of developing those leaders/volunteers.

Be Sociable, Share!

•