04Nov 2015 by Nigel Ring

Your Questions answered… 1. Volunteers

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Serving, Volunteer
Recently I offered to answer questions related to church administration. While responding direct to the enquirer I felt that some answers might be of wider interest. Question It is increasingly difficult to motivate people to join a team and to stay on in that particular team; most people leave the team or lose interest in serving within 4 weeks. Is that down to poor leadership, poor recruitment or is there a deeper issue with the attitude of serving? Answer Clearly there is something seriously wrong here. Lets look at it together and see if we can diagnose the problem. 1. Understanding Do people in the church understand what serving is about? It is not just about getting a job done but about vision and a desire to be like Jesus.…
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08Jul 2015 by Nigel Ring

Mobilising Volunteers pt 7 – Accountability and Feedback

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Volunteer
Last time we saw the importance of having clear definition of a role or task with agreed expectations. How do we ensure that these expectations are being met? Accountability A vital part of managing staff, whether paid or unpaid, is communication and support. There can be a tendency to ‘cast off’ a volunteer and let them ‘get on with it’, particularly in the midst of a busy schedule. But accountability is very important both for checking that progress is being made and to assure the individual of your commitment and interest. It also encourages reliability if someone knows that they are being monitored in a constructive way. I once led a Stewarding Team in our church, many years before I served on the welcome team mentioned in part 3. I…
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01Jul 2015 by Nigel Ring

Mobilising Volunteers pt 6 – Mutual expectations

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Volunteer
So far in this series we have seen how fulfilment, satisfaction and motivation are key aspects of serving, particularly in a ‘volunteer’ (unpaid) capacity. But, just as in a paid job, management and accountability are essential for achieving satisfactory outcomes these are also true for the ‘volunteer’. So what are some of the key management or leadership features that will produce good results and a happy team? Job descriptions Although a job description sounds a bit formal for a volunteer position its purpose is the same as for a paid role – a clarity of expectation. As leaders it can be very frustrating if we delegate a job and then find that it has not been completed to a satisfactory standard or in the way we had intended. Whose fault…
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27May 2015 by Nigel Ring

Mobilising Volunteers pt 3 – Where to serve?

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Volunteer
Last year I wrote at length in this blog about serving in the church and gave guidance about the course Discover and Serve. There is also a book of the same name. Please read that for more detail about how to help someone develop a Serving Profile. In this series I am addressing the issue of volunteering from the perspective of a leader – how to mobilise volunteers. So far we have looked at what ‘volunteer’ means. Now we shall consider some of the practical day-to-day matters about identifying and managing a volunteer team within the church. Vision In Prov 29:18 we read ‘Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law’ (ESV). Written in the context of the fruit…
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20May 2015 by Nigel Ring

Mobilising Volunteers pt 2 – What does the Bible say?

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Volunteer, Volunteers
Last time we saw how the word ‘volunteer’ often has the associations of ‘charity’, such as helping those who are in need, or of ‘essential service’, such as the volunteer reserves in the armed forces. Both these aspects can be found in the Bible. Old Testament In the Old Testament translations there are several occasions where ‘volunteer’ is used (more in the NASB than in the ESV, which I normally quote from). Ps 110: 3 ‘Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power…’ (ESV), '…volunteer freely…’ (NASB) Judges 5:2 (Song of Deborah and Barak) 'That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly…’ (ESV), ‘…the people volunteered…’ (NASB). Judges 5:9 'My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered…
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07May 2015 by Nigel Ring

Mobilising Volunteers. Pt 1 – Who are they?

Equipping, Volunteer
Passionate people The practical energy of the local church comes through the membership. Where else can one find a body of such committed, passionate and unified people who are willing to give of their time and energies so sacrificially for the sake of a cause they believe in? We are a privileged people when we are part of such a living vibrant community of focussed and purposeful individuals. This passion is perhaps first felt in the early church where we see the way they lived together in Acts 2. Immediately after being filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, the church’s birth day, we find that the people ‘devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’ (Acts 2:42). This sentence embodies the very essence of the…
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