Equipping Volunteers into Leaders

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. -Dwight D. Eisenhower

To be successful in ministry, the art of leading and empowering your key volunteers into ministry leaders is vital to your success. Like business, your ministry and initiatives succeed or fail by your leadership. When done well, this will alleviate your time, energy and provide the proper volunteer with a renewed feeling of ownership and purpose.

Easy traps that ministry staff can fall into:

· Just filling a hole; not equipping a ministry with leaders.

· Not properly matching a leaders’ passion with the position you are seeking to staff.

· Matching the passion properly, but micromanaging the job they are doing or the decisions they make.

· Not being completely honest up front with the duties that the leadership position will entail.

· Not asking for help from others around you that empower well.

A church growing in this economy is probably not adding staff left and right. The staff’s duties will grow as the church grows – and without added staff it will become very difficult if the time is not put in now to have a proactive team of ministry leaders under you.

When down well, you can empower passionate leaders over your ministry teams to:

· Be an initiator not a reactor

· Recognize problem areas before you do

· Feel fulfilled by serving with purpose

· Ownership brings success

· Take stress and responsibility off of your plate

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER – THE LOWER YOUR LEADERSHIP ABILILITES AND CAPABILITIES, THE LOWER YOUR TEAMS WILL BE. You control the bar, as you raise your abilities, there’s should follow.

Happy Birthday Evelyn!

This post is in honor to Evelyn, who we lost this week to Heaven.  She was such an example to me.  I wrote this on her birthday in 2009.  

I have a confession to make. 15 years ago, I was a teenager who did teenager things. My buddy Benny and I could really give adults some stress. Our actions actually helped originate the phrase, "shock and awe".
As teenagers in the youth group we came to be constant pests to Grace's faithful custodian. She learned to always worry(and rightfully so) when we were around. I am sure she grew to dislike summer when kids were off school because of us.

Some headaches we graced her with:

• racing wheelchairs down the hallway
• shooting water balloons off of the roof of the church
• water fights in the hallway
• food fights in the hallway

I know what you are thinking. What was wrong with me? Good question.

Don't worry, I think I turned out okay. As God would have it, after a long stretch in the business world - He planted me here at Grace as Director of Staff and Ministry Development AND her supervisor. (Not quite sure how she felt about that at first)
I would like to publicly say what an honor it is to learn from her and watch her service and dedication in action.

Some lessons she has graced me with:

• What a servant of God looks like
• What is means to be a dedicated hard worker
• The work you do when no one is watching speaks volumes about your integrity

Happy 74th Birthday Evelyn! You are the heart and soul of Grace. Please thank Evelyn for all she does when you see her in the hallways. Over 30 years of faithful service!
“Dedication is not what others expect of you, it is what you can give to others.”