014: Create a Volunteer Culture of Loyalty & Longevity | Volunteer Series Part 5

Transcript
Episode 014: Create a Volunteer Culture of Loyalty & Longevity | Volunteer Series Part 5

Intro 0:01
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to The Small Church Ministry Podcast.

Laurie Graham 0:15
Hey, welcome to part five of our series all about volunteers. We’ve been walking through the four I’s of volunteers, and we’ve already covered the first three. The first I is identifying volunteers; has to do with expanding your pool of volunteers by focusing on the 80% who are not already serving. Often, they are the unlikely and the overlooked. 

The second I in volunteers is inviting, maybe unlike your first thought, this inviting has to do with giving them a sample or a taste, not asking them to volunteer. This invitation is just a come and see, the third I we covered last week is involving. We talked about the importance of a great job description, their agreement to it, and a four-step process to involve them serving in a way that sets them up for success. 

Today, we’re talking about the last I: investing. We’re going to talk about what investing in volunteers looks like and why it is absolutely essential if you want to develop people like Jesus did. 

I am constantly drawn to the simplicity of Jesus, the way He lived and moved on the planet. The way He invited people to follow Him. He wasn’t slick, or teaching a Five Steps to Joy handbook or talking about the eight keys of the kingdom, like the way He lived was the invitation to the Father. He never rushed. He embraced interruptions as divine appointments and teaching moments. And He stayed so connected with His heavenly Father, by practicing what we might today call self-care or soul care, in the form of spiritual disciplines. 

Laurie Graham 1:52
So as I grow and learn things in my life, I cannot help but look straight to Jesus, how He treated people who He hung out with, how He spent his time, how He lived. And, I want to encourage you to take everything you hear from me back to Scripture and back to Jesus. My ways are not the only ways. After 30-plus years in ministry, I am still learning, growing, and making changes. I see how different seasons of my life have led me into different systems, and how my unique journey brought me to where I am today. 

What we have in common is this. If we look at the principles, the priorities, the deep foundational stuff, filling in the details can take different forms and different shapes. I love the community we’ve created at The Creative Little Church. We represent hundreds of Christian denominations spanning over 60 countries and six continents. I think we’re missing Antarctica, that’s a continent, right? 

What works in my church might not work perfectly in yours. We have rural churches who have no internet access, not just across the oceans, but right here in the US. They can’t follow five steps to streaming their online services. We have churches who have full on electric worship bands and others who don’t use instruments at all. We represent denominations who ordain women and those who do not. So when you look at our community, we have more differences than what we have in common. But what we do have in common is a biggie. 

We love Jesus, we are all working to be more like Him, and resting in Him too. We’re trying to live in the Kingdom as we make our way together. We’ve chosen to focus on what unites us and not what divides us. Although we might have different worship styles, different translations of the Bible, we might run different programs and use different curriculum, investing in volunteers. This is one of those foundational things we should all have in common. It’s what Jesus did, He invested in people. 

Laurie Graham 4:02
As we explore today, what it means to invest in volunteers. I may use some examples that don’t work in your church or with your personality, and that’s okay. Just use the creative brain that God gifted you already to substitute what would work. The most tragic thing I can imagine for this podcast is that someone walks away discouraged saying that won’t work in my church, or I can’t do that. Because the person of Jesus works for everyone and our main job is to point people to the person of Jesus. You don’t have to be talented, educated, or follow a certain system. 

When it comes down to the series on volunteers, or really anything I teach or speak about, the core of my message is loving Jesus and loving people. Ask for volunteers. Hopefully, you may already be starting to see your volunteers as friends. If we just treat them like Jesus, see them, hear them, listen to them, love them, offer compassion and grace and empathy. Invite them into our circles, share our lives, help them grow, point them to Jesus. If you’re doing that, then we’re doing great.

Today, we’re going to dive into some practical details of what it means to invest in volunteers, what it looks like, why it might be a little different than what you’re doing, or what you’ve experienced. Plus some really practical, actionable steps to put this into place, even this week. I just wanted to start by saying, as long as we’re loving Jesus and loving others, that’s our main job. 

Here are some practical ways to love people like Jesus, to invest in your volunteers, to help them feel loved, seen, valued and supported too. These four things I’m about to list is exactly why people stay on ministry teams. It’s what builds longevity into your volunteer culture. Here’s the four things, number one: relationships. I’m part of a team, a family, I have friends. The second thing is significance. I’m making a difference. I share the vision, the work, the success. Number three: growth. I’m developing, I’m learning new things, I’m getting better. And number four: recognition. I feel appreciated, I feel valued, people thank me. 

Laurie Graham 6:28
Now, these four things are not like love languages. If you’ve read that book, or done those studies, where one thing is important to one person, and another thing meets somebody else. All four of these things are put into all human hearts by God. It may look different with different individuals, it may take different forms. But, each of these four things, relationships, significance, growth, and recognition, these are all things that Jesus himself offered to people. They’re all offered in Scripture to those who follow God. So let’s follow the best example we’ve ever had and figure out how to do relationships well, how to offer significance to people, how to develop them, and how to celebrate and recognize people too. 

Here we go. Number one, invest in your volunteers by extending authentic, genuine relationship. Now Jesus did not pour out to His disciples just as ministry projects or assignments. There was depth, there was also a mutuality that existed. Clearly, Jesus did a lot of pouring out but He still received from them. He received friendship, love, kindness, and support from His disciples too. 

Here’s a few ways to grow your relationships deeper with volunteers. Start building more time into team trainings, to touch base, to chat, to ask questions to get to know your volunteers, your friends. Next, stop what you’re doing and listen to people, more than just hearing what they’re saying. Listen to their hearts as questions about hopes, dreams, fears and struggles. Get beyond the facts on the surface, and listen to emotions, offer empathy, be trustworthy with what is shared, go deeper.

Also, be vulnerable yourself. Of course within reason, but a lot of leaders struggle with this. A lot of people struggle with this, but I want you to share your tough stuff. Share when you’re tired, share when you’re sad, allow others the gift of being in relationship with you, of knowing you.

Laurie Graham 8:43
And of course, eat with them, hang with them. Jesus did this. He did not just gather His disciples solely for work and service. Look through the Gospels, you will see Jesus spending time with them for the sake of being together, not just doing together. Alright, so that was number one: relationships. 

Secondly, offer people significance. We humans were created to make a difference. We want to know we mattered and we are needed. How many people on this planet are depressed right now today because they feel like their life doesn’t have purpose? This is something we can offer. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably already finding significance and serving, there’s purpose. Let’s share with others the gift of significance. 

Here’s a couple tips on this one. Quit hogging all the significant work either because you’re more talented or experienced or because you don’t want someone else to bear the weight or feel the burden. We are created to find joy and significance in work, all of us. Jesus said to be a light, so share significant work with others in ministry.

Also, invite others to teach, even if you’re better. Allow others to help you when you are overstretched or over-committed. Don’t be a martyr in the ministry, this is not pleasing to God. Now, you might be thinking, “I can’t get anyone to volunteer, I want to give them significant work.” I just want to mention that what we’re talking about here and investing in volunteers is about changing a culture. 

Most volunteers haven’t experienced this, they have not been asked to do helpful tasks, or given the freedom to create new ideas and new ways. They have not been raised up as partners in ministry. So their past experience might be really coloring this as well. So just do the baby steps and build a new culture and be ready. If people aren’t ready to take on significant ministry tasks, or you can’t even get them to say yes, then plan. 

Laurie Graham 10:56
Plan how you are going to gift them with significant ministry. Have steps to move them toward that. Sometimes it’s not as easy as it looks because we hold certain things very dear and we don’t want to relinquish our babies, even in ministry. That’s what I’m talking about here. Gifting significant ministries to your volunteers.

As this episode is talking about investing in volunteers, these are the four things: invest in your volunteers with the relationships, invest in your volunteers by offering them significance. Third, invest in your volunteers by helping them to grow, to develop skills. None of us were created grownups on this planet with fully developed skills and talents with fully developed brains or even emotions. So, why did God create us to come to this planet as babies? Have you ever thought about that, because He didn’t have to do it. Weird, I know, but these are the things I think about. 

The Bible is full of teachings on growth. Think about the tree planted by streams of water, it’s not stuck being the same tree. From its inception until the end, it’s growing. It’s bearing fruit. It’s going through seasons. Human beings were made to develop too, to be constantly learning, to grow in confidence and skill, even our brains. Do you know, our brains grow new brain cells until the day we die? Clearly, God made us to keep learning to develop new skills to know Him more until the day we leave this planet. Small church ministry is such an amazing place where we can help facilitate growth. So, don’t just take people as they are and leave them there. See the potential and call them to more. 

What does this look like? How do we do it? Here’s a few ideas. Have intentional conversations, ask this question a lot. “What else do you want to learn? How did it go? Is there anything you’d like to change next time? Then help them figure out how they can learn those things. How they can do it. What resources would help? 

Laurie Graham 13:07
Another thing, develop a consistent training program. Just sit down and make a list of all the skills anyone would need to excel in your ministry area, including skills you don’t even have yet. Then create a plan to develop these with your volunteers along the way.

How about this idea? Example, your own growth and development, share and model. Share the books you’re reading, the articles you found, this podcast you just listened to. Don’t tell me you’re not growing and learning because you’re listening to this podcast. Not only is it good for you spiritually to be growing, but mentally, physically, socially, emotionally, we were not made to remain the same.

Another way to invest in volunteers is with recognition and praise. Here’s the thing. Human beings crave being noticed, being valued, and being recognized. I see you, I see what you did. I’m grateful. Now, this is not the same as pride. I am not a theologian at all. But I want to share that recognition and being prideful are very different things. Some people are so cautious to give praise to others or to recognize their contributions, because they don’t want to contribute to the great sin of pride. Please, do not withhold recognition and praise for this reason, because it’s not correct thinking.

I want to quote C.S. Lewis here. I love how he explains pride. He says this: “Pleasure in being praised is not pride. The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, and the saved soul to whom Christ says, ‘well done,’ are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are, but in the fact that you’ve pleased someone you wanted and rightly [so] to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, ‘I have pleased him; all as well,’ to thinking ‘What a fine person I am to have done [that.]’ The more you delight in yourself, and the less you delight in praise, the worse you are becoming. When you delight wholly in yourself and do not care about the praise at all, you’ve reached the bottom… The real black diabolical pride comes when you look down on others so much that you do not care what they think of you.”

Laurie Graham 15:39
I know that is deep. You may even want to rewind and replay that; C.S. Lewis takes me a few times of reading and processing to really get what he’s saying, but I hope you absorb that. The gist is this. C.S. Lewis says that the prideful person actually doesn’t care about recognition because they are already full of themselves. They don’t need to hear it from you. Pride involves competition. It’s very anti-God, anti others. It is not related to being thanked, or recognized for doing something sweet or amazing. So please, don’t not recognize people, because you’re cautious, they will become prideful. We humans love being loved and appreciated. God is the one who made us like that. 

How can you recognize people in ministry? How can you celebrate them, the people you serve with? First off, you can thank them privately, you can thank them with notes, with gifts, in conversations, in texts. Second off, you can thank them publicly, at an appreciation banquet, at church, in conversations with others. Now, I’m all for gifts and appreciation events of all kind. But, I have to tell you, I think one of the sweetest places to recognize people is when it’s unexpected. We expect to be thanked after a big event or at the annual volunteer appreciation dinner. But when you’re in the middle of a meeting or a conversation with your peers, and someone says you know Laurie is the best, she just stepped up the other day and made a difference. Can I just tell you, that is so sweet. It’s like an impromptu public recognition. Jesus actually did that a lot.

Here are the four things again to invest in volunteers, relationships, significance, growth, and recognition. They may seem very different, but here’s a few things that all four of these acts of investing in volunteers have in common. They take time, they take attention, and they also take your heart. If you do not have time to invest in people in your care, this is volunteers. These are team members. Please stop trying to expand your ministry. Instead of doing more things. set your heart on investing in doing the things you’re doing better, investing in the people you do have helping.

Laurie Graham 18:12
I recently was completely blessed to spend a week on a retreat with The Soul Shepherding Institute. I gotta tell you, spending five days with incredible people who love and serve Jesus was a deep inner blessing to me in so many ways. We had rich conversations that I’m still holding really close in my heart. One discussion we had focused on a great prayer of asking God not to grow your ministry, beyond what your character can handle. Isn’t that deep? 

So many times we hear prayers to God “Grow our ministries, bring more people in.” The better question might be, can I handle more people? Am I being faithful with what God gave me or who I’ve been given? Am I loving the people I do have well? Am I serving them like you did Jesus? Am I offering people relationships, my volunteers, significance, growth, and recognition? 

Instead of a prayer, asking God to grow your ministry, maybe the prayer should be more like this; “God, please do not let my ministry grow beyond what I can handle.” That is so beautiful, isn’t it? “I want to stay close to you, God. It’s not about influence. It’s not about prestige. It’s not about numbers. It’s about loving people like Jesus, building disciples like Jesus, being present with the people you’ve given me God, and working together to expand your kingdom.”

So, if you do not have time to invest in people in your care, please don’t pray for more people or a bigger ministry. Loving God and loving people comes before programs because the ministry Jesus calls us to is people. I want to be a good steward of the people He brings me, don’t you? Let’s not stretch ourselves beyond the capacity God has given us. It simply cheapens what we do, and it leaves it empty. Keep love first, and love is what takes so much time. I personally think I’ve spent more than enough time in ministry being a banging gong and a clanging cymbal, making lots of noise for Jesus, when I could have been walking more like Him, investing in those He placed in my circle. 

Laurie Graham 20:42
As you probably have already thought about it, in this podcast, investing time in people is risky. In fact, investing in volunteers isn’t that unlike investing in the stock market, here’s a couple ways it’s the same, you need to be in it for the long haul to see any benefits, you’re gonna experience emotional ups and downs. It’s gonna cost you something. But, you don’t have to start with much. It is a little risky and there’s no guarantees, but the potential, that is amazing. 

Since we’re talking about people and not money in the stock market, I have to bring up the biggest difference. Although investing in the stock market is optional. If you want to live like Jesus, investing in people is a must. It’s how He showed us to live. You see, Jesus didn’t build a church, not like we know it today. He didn’t run regular programs. He didn’t hold ministry, staff meetings, or budget meetings, He didn’t even fundraise for causes. What He did was invest in people. 

I’m not saying that any of our normal church things today are wrong at all, it is totally fine to have a building, to have budget meetings is responsible, to run programs, to stream our services. Hopefully, our programs are meeting real needs of people. That’s what Jesus calls us to. However, having buildings and programs does not negate or replace the way He taught us to live. the way He showed us to live. Clearly, people come before programs, and our being comes before our doing.

The four things I covered in this episode, these are what Jesus did. He spent time with people building relationships, He invited others into significant ministry not just helping. Remember when He said to Peter, “Upon this rock, I will build my church.” Jesus facilitated development and growth of people. He didn’t leave anyone the same. He taught them, invited them, empowered them, sent them. He was a master at leadership development. Lastly, Jesus himself recognized and praised people. He told Mary who poured out costly oil in the presence of naysayers, He said, “You have done a beautiful thing.” He told the Centurion “No one has more faith than you.” And, let’s not forget about the parable when He said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Let’s celebrate.” 

Laurie Graham 23:31
Let’s get really practical. Do you have what you need to invest well in volunteers? When we talk about investing or giving today, Christians often, often name three things: time, talent, and money. Have you heard that; time, talent, and money? People even talk about that concerning tithing and giving, you know, to the church. How do these three words: time, talent and money relate to our investing in volunteers? Sometimes, when we think about investing in volunteers, and building teams, our minds go quickly to money, like “I don’t have enough money to do that. I can’t afford volunteer banquets or sending our teachers to conferences, or paying for a training program. We don’t even have enough money to give token gifts to our volunteers.” 

It makes sense that we think about money first, often, because in our society, we put a lot of focus on money. If you’re in a small church, which is my context too, you don’t have that much money. So as far as I know, Jesus didn’t have much money either. If you’re in a small church, once again, you’ve got company. We are a lot like Jesus. If that’s true, and He did this volunteer thing well, then we must also have what it takes, right? As far as talents go, that’s really not where it’s at, either because we’re called to be faithful with whatever we’ve been given. Whatever you’ve got in the talent category must also be enough. 

So, here’s the tricky thing: Time. We all have the same amount of time. 24 hours in a day. Jesus also was limited by time on this planet. Time is probably the one thing we are the most stingy with. We don’t like getting interrupted, because it interrupts what we plan to do with our time. We don’t want to write handwritten thank you notes, even though they’re tons less expensive than gifts because it takes more time. Often we can’t settle our minds, to listen to a person who’s struggling with something that just doesn’t seem like a big deal to us. Why? Because we have other things we’d rather do with our time.

Laurie Graham 25:34
Jesus, though, was not stingy with His time. He treated interruptions like complete God moments, He stopped what He was doing for Zacchaeus in a tree. For the woman who reached out and touched His cloak. Jesus was quick to listen, He never rushed. Yes, time is so valuable, and it’s limited. This is one of the reasons we hold it so tightly. But, let’s just consider investing more time in people, in our volunteers who are becoming friends. Let’s consider spending more time there, and less time fretting over program preparation, decorating, giving gifts, worrying about the stuff of life and the stuff of ministry. 

The core of ministry, plain and simple, is people. Our biggest priority is the people who God brings our way, and being faithful with the gift of each other. Human beings who are walking on this planet but are eternal. The other ministry stuff is gonna burn. But the people, wow, we need to honor each other as just a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor. Because that’s what God says of humankind.

Bottom line, if you want your volunteers to stay, if you want a culture of longevity, that comes with caring and with relationships. People do not stay on a ministry team because you give them a Christmas gift. They will not even stay for an amazing annual appreciation banquet. This is why people stay. People stay because they have relationships. They feel loved. They belong. There’s mutuality of friendship. People stay because they’re making a difference because they’re part of a mission because they are significant. People stay because they’re growing and developing in knowledge, in skill, in character, in hope. People stay because they are recognized and celebrated. They feel seen, valued, and noticed. 

If you can create a culture of friendship with your volunteers like this, wow, that is ministry like Jesus. In fact, John 15:15, Jesus says this, “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends.” He said that to His disciples, we should be echoing that, not just in words, but in our behavior, our choices, our actions, we should be echoing that to our volunteers. The disciples did not hang out with Jesus because they wanted the keychain or the candy bar that says “your sweet”, the disciples were invested in relationship with Jesus, because Jesus invested in them.

Laurie Graham 28:19
Before I leave you for today, I want to loop back to something I mentioned earlier, that investing in people is a little risky. It’s a little risky, and just like the stock market, it might not always pay off. You may spend time pouring into people who leave you, even somebody who betrays you, it’s happened to me, too many others I know. It might even already be part of your story. The thing is, it happened to Jesus too. So don’t let that stop you from taking the risk and investing in volunteers. The reward is so great. Not only is it just so like Jesus, but as you invest in others you grow as a leader, you grow in your reliance on the Father. And I hope you are growing in your reliance on the Father. Because that’s our main call to know God to love Him and walk with Him.

So tune in next week to hear what I really think about spiritual gifts, inventories, personality assessments, the Enneagram, and more. It might not be what you expect. Thanks for spending your time with me today. I truly feel honored that you chose to spend it with me. If you found any encouragement in this podcast would you leave a rating or review? Wherever you’re listening from it means the world to me. Enjoy the rest of your day, whatever God brings your way. And as always be a light.