Our fellowship with God moves through a series of steps, each one creating a deeper fellowship with Him:

1. Basic Fellowship – the believer understands the basics of their relationship with God. They go to Him when big things come up or big decisions need to be made (e.g. a new job opportunity, overcoming the difficulties of life, etc.). Time is spent with God in a Bible study or small group discussion and perhaps some time is spent one-on-one in prayer but it isn’t consistent or in-depth
2. Partially Dependent Fellowship – the believer has learned to trust God with more of their daily life. They go to Him on a daily basis, seeking guidance on big decisions and some smaller decisions (e.g. a big purchase such as a car, intercessory prayer for others, direction for possibly joining a ministry, etc). They are often seek God’s direction to ensure they are called into a ministry before accepting. While their prayer life is consistent, it is typically “all business”, meaning their emotions are left out and things are kept to simple requests or seeking simple guidance
3. Fully Dependent Fellowship – the believer has learned to give everything to God. They speak to Him on a very personal level as “Abba” (”Daddy”). He isn’t a distant God, He is fully involved in their life. They find that their day is fully Spirit-led, as they know His voice and how to quiet their own desires to allow His voice to get through the daily noise. They also understand where God is calling them today and how the skills they have been given can be blended with His calling to enable them to do things they never would have had the faith to do in the past.

Where are you at?

Where are your  volunteers at? Don’t know? It is time to get to know them better and find out.

The effectiveness of you and your volunteers isn’t based on skills, it is based on how close they are in fellowship with God and if they are trying to grow in their fellowship with Him. Make sure you and your team are improving your fellowship with God.

People do what they see others doing. That is why I often speak on using the “I do, you follow. You do I follow. You do, another follows” technique when growing your ministry. This not only extends to how you perform team activities, but also to the attitude of everyone in your church.

Is your church not volunteering enough? Are they not giving enough? Most likely they are failing to see it because they are failing to be taught the reasons why they should do so. I’m not just speaking of the personal benefits (more blessings, a joyful heart, obedience to God’s Word, etc). I’m speaking on the root issue of failing to have an active relationship with God.

Those actively pursuing God are more likely to give back. They stop, pray, and listen to God’s direction in their lives. If God calls them to give time, they will give time. The important thing is knowing what to do to prepare both them and you for when this happens.

You need to build into your church the idea of discipleship. Discipleship is the teaching of your local church body to become disciplined Christ followers. This means more than an invitation on a Sunday, attending 90% of your Sunday services, and giving 10% back. It means spending time to guide them in understanding how to develop their personal relationship with Christ for the rest of their life.

Discipleship starts with you. It starts with you taking them through a process that teach the basics and helps them to grow from infants to adults.

Disciple ends with them. It ends by them investing their time in others to disciple them.

Frustrated? Create disciples, not guilty church members. You’ll see a dramatic change in your local church.

Jesus demonstrates in Luke 10 how we are to train: by teaching them the core principles, allowing them to team up in groups of two or three, and letting them succeed or fail on their own. This is much different than what many of us consider training. Instead, many leaders train our volunteers as if they were 3rd grade students.

As an example, let’s consider a greeting ministry’s training procedures:

Classroom model: “Stand here. Smile. Hand them this flyer. Point them to the auditorium.”

Jesus’s model: “You are a reflection of light and hope. You are every visitor’s personal concierge. Assume everyone is a new member, even if they aren’t. Make them feel at home. Help them in any way they need it. It is OK if you make a mistake – just correct it as best you can. If they ignore you, smile and move to the next person you see.”

Which one of these people will most likely be able to use their gifts and skills to make your visitors feel welcome?

We need to allow our volunteers to have an opportunity to exercise their God-given skills and gifts to benefit the church. Creating drones that all do and say the same thing doesn’t make things special - they make them plain. They make church a commodity rather than a series of personal relationships and environment for growth.

It’s time to start training our volunteers like Jesus showed us to, not the way we’ve been been taught in our classrooms.

When you build a team, you usually have a purpose in mind. It may be to run the sound system for your church building. Or perhaps it is to reach out to a community or into those in your church that have a specific need. Whatever it is, the team is being built by you to address an immediate need. It won’t last forever.

You may ask, “yeah, but what about the sound crew – we’ll always need one of those, right?” True. You may always have a sound team. But the team itself will take on different needs and change shape over time. The team itself is dynamic – it will change based on the technology needs, the building needs, and the culture of the team itself. At some point, every team reaches a tipping point where it becomes something new – something different than its original intent and design. It is at that point where the team becomes something new and ceases to be the team that it was.

Volunteering is dynamic. It changes constantly. Needs change. Teams change. People change. More importantly, God’s calling on the team and team members will change.

As volunteer leaders, we must be willing to be dynamic. We must focus on how God wants us to build the team today, prepare for tomorrow, and be willing to let go of it in the future. We must be willing to stop saying, “But, that is how we have always done it!” and begin to ask, “How does God want us to do it today?”

Volunteer teams don’t last forever. Be willing to become a more dynamic leader. The only other option is becoming an irrelevant leader.

Here are some ideas on how to thank your volunteers:

1. Celebrate with a team lunch at a nice restaurant (no fast food, no pizza)
2. Send a thank you card to each team member’s home, signed by yourself and other leaders/staff
3. Find out from each team member’s friend where they like to hang out and give a gift card (this may require more time to track down, but pays off through a very personalized gift)
4. Create a hand-made gift basket with personalized gifts (again, more time but very personalized)
5. Send flowers or gift basket – bonus points if you include their favorite flower

Make a decision to thank your volunteers twice as much as last year – they’ll love it!

Being a leader of volunteers, you must to find a balance between allowing volunteers to try anything and not letting them do anything at all. My experience shows that many leaders gravitate to one end or the other – all or nothing. They become the martyr and try to do it all themselves for fear of their volunteers failing, causing their volunteers to leave them. Or, they become the “do whatever” leader and let their volunteers run wild, potentially harming others.

Like parenting, we must find a way to allow them to fail while preventing them from hurting themselves or others in the process. Failure must be an option to them. This is how our Father works with us and it is how we must model leadership to them.

Beyond letting them try, we must make them try. Many volunteers are timid and are afraid to make mistakes. Create an environment where they are allowed to try – perhaps even forced to try something new or different that stretches them just a little beyond their comfort zone. You may be amazed at how they do if given the opportunity. They might even find a passion they never knew they had!

The beautiful thing is that when they try and succeed, you have done more for their confidence than words could ever do.

Ready to let your volunteers try?

The first step is the most difficult. Most people don’t take the first step of leadership. They are too scared. They doubt their ability. But taking the first step opens your eyes to an amazing new world of possibilities.

The next few steps happen pretty quick. You have successes with your team. You may have a failure or two. But overall, things are going pretty well.

Then the middle steps emerge. You must learn to balance your time. You have more demands on you than ever before. Some choose to stop or even go back down a few steps. Here your leadership is really tested.

If you are willing, you take a few more steps. You can see the top of the staircase. You have experienced some tough lessons but it was worth it. Battle worn, you are leading some amazing change for your cause.

You reach the top of the stairs, only to look and see another set of stairs ahead of you. You realize that it is time to bring someone else along. It is time to prepare another generation of leaders to join you. The process starts again.

Learning never ends. Leadership never ends. It requires sacrifice and commitment. Just remember that with each step, you will see fewer people next to you. Make sure you help and seek help from those next to you and above you on the staircase. They know what you are going through. They know the joys already experienced and the joys to come.

Keep climbing.

You invest in a potential leader. You give your time teaching them the skills. Then the worse happens – they drop out or give up.

Or, you seem to spend time teaching the same things over and over. They just don’t seem to get it.

Perhaps they showed some signs of leadership capability, but then they seem to stall.

Why does these kinds of things happen?

Often, it is because we pushed on them too fast. Volunteers have other obligations, so the time they have to focus on growing as a leader moves slowly. Don’t assume that because they show a glimmer of leadership one week that it will happen again soon. Look for consistency instead of a single event. Be willing to give them the time they need to grow. Be willing to let them step back before they step forward again.

Also keep in mind that your volunteers are often untested. You haven’t worked with them at a full-time job. You don’t know their work habits, attitudes, and fears. This takes time to learn. It only comes after many hours of working together directly. It doesn’t happen through a couple of quick lessons and then telling them to “jump right in”.

Finally, remember that your leadership development took many small steps rather than a few big ones. Break challenges and learning experiences into smaller steps that can be used to grow them rather than burn them out.

Leadership is developed over time and requires patience from both you and the future leader. Are you willing to give your future leaders the time they need to grow?

The first step in dealing with doubt is to understand that you are not alone. Every leader deals with doubt. It may be doubt in the skills required for the job. It may be doubt around your ability to lead. Whatever it is, don’t let your doubt prevent you from leading.

The next step is to understand that God put you into your leadership role for a reason. It may be to grow you, to challenge you, or impact others – it may even be all three! Raise your doubt to God. Ask for direction. Seek His wisdom.

The final step is to start where you are today. Don’t worry about what you may be missing or don’t know yet. Step out. Take a risk. Be willing to show up. Most people don’t.

We are to give our best leadership to our team. This means that:

Giving your best leadership means that you build a team that is God-focused and God-driven.

Giving your best leadership means that prayer and Bible study come before getting things done.

Giving your best leadership means that we pray for our team, encourage them, listen to them, help them when they struggle, mourn with them when things go bad, and celebrate with them when great things happen.

We are also to give our best leadership to our supervisors and staff. This means that:

Giving your best leadership means you communicate fully, professionally, and consistently with your staff.

Giving your best leadership means you listen to their requests, understand their needs, voice your ideas, and execute their final decision.

Giving your best leadership means you build a team that produces more leaders for future growth.

It is time to ask yourself if you are giving your best leadership to everyone around you. If not, it may be time to challenge yourself to restructure how you think about leadership so that you can give your best.