Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Lewis Center for Church Leadership at The Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., United States - From the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary: Leading Ideas: "Setting the Right Expectations for Volunteers - Is Your Parking Lot Helping or Hurting Your Church?" for Wednesday, 9 May 2018

Lewis Center for Church Leadership at The Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., United States - From the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary: Leading Ideas: "Setting the Right Expectations for Volunteers - Is Your Parking Lot Helping or Hurting Your Church?" for Wednesday, 9 May 2018
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Setting the Right Expectations for Volunteers by Doug Powe
Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe Jr. says it can be difficult to hold volunteers to high standards of job performance, but clear position descriptions, mentoring, and regular evaluation and feedback can help assure that volunteers will do their jobs well.
What can churches justifiably expect from volunteers? It is one thing when someone is getting compensated to perform a task, but can a volunteer be held to the same standard? This is a particularly challenging question for congregations that depend heavily on volunteers, especially in smaller churches. The fear is that no one will step forward to do the job if the expectations are too high. But the flip side is that mediocracy may rule the day if appropriate expectations are not set. How can you navigate the dilemma between too much and too little?Setting the right expectations for volunteer positions can reduce the likelihood of the wrong person taking on a job while directing appropriately gifted people into key roles so that ministry thrives.
Position descriptions
Every volunteer role in the church needs to have a clear position description. For example, the position description for a greeter might read something like this:
  • The position of worship greeter requires an enthusiastic person who enjoys engaging others and helping them experience God’s presence. Greeters are expected to dress appropriately for our church context; wear an usher’s name badge; be at their posts 20 minutes before and ten minutes after the service begins; greet warmly all those entering the service; give a special welcome to visitors, pointing them to the guest book and visitor information; and direct people to the restrooms, the nursery, or Sunday school rooms, as necessary. 
A helpful position description creates a positive expectation of what is needed, but it does not attack the personality of an individual who may not be a match. Sharing the position description with anyone interested in the role addresses the question of fit, without requiring an immediate conversation about whether the individual is right for the job or not. The goal is to encourage those who are a good fit to pursue it and to guide others to consider other ministries.
Mentoring
After reading the position description, some individuals may feel they have gifts for the role, but they are afraid or anxious about moving forward. A good mentor can lessen that anxiety by supporting the person in the new position. The role of the mentor is not to tell people what to do, but to support them while they are doing it. Many of us have benefited from good mentors and the best ones understood the difference between taking over and supporting. The extra benefit to the volunteer who has experienced a good mentoring relationship is the possibility of becoming a good mentor for someone else.
Evaluation and feedback
Yes, it is important to evaluate volunteers! The purpose is not to point out everything that they are doing wrong. Nor is it to make them into saints. The purpose is to hear how they feel things are going and to share in a loving way both positive and negative feedback pertinent to their positions. For example, a volunteer financial secretary may be meticulous in assuring that all the reports are up to date and that the meeting minutes are in order but doesn’t get annual giving statements mailed out until March. This individual needs to be affirmed regarding what went well, but also be reminded of the importance of mailing out giving statements by January 31 for tax purposes. If evaluation never occurs, then the person just continues to send the statements out in March, frustrating many in the congregation. Some people do not like evaluations, especially if it is for a volunteer position. Others will be encouraged to know that someone is paying attention to what they do and taking their work seriously. But evaluating performance is always important in ensuring that expectations are being met.
Setting the right expectations for volunteer positions can reduce the likelihood of the wrong person taking on a job while directing appropriately gifted people into key roles so that ministry thrives. Taking time to have clear position descriptions, mentors, and periodic evaluations can aid in this process.
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Is Your Parking Lot Helping or Hurting Your Church? by Rich Birch 
Believe it or not, your parking lot could be the thing that is holding back the potential of your church, says church growth expert Rich Birch. He describes how a tired-looking parking lot creates a poor first impression and offers five tips for launching a parking lot team.
The first thing that most people typically see about your church is your parking lot. This is the case not only on weekends when your guests arrive but all week long as people just drive by your parking lot.
I’ve seen some churches with a small forest growing between the cracks in the parking lot. This communicates that it’s been a very long time since anyone parked there. We’ve all seen a worn-out parking lot that hasn’t been painted since the Spice Girls were on Top 10 radio, and it all looks far too depressing.Stand back and look at your parking lot. If it were the only thing that people knew about your church, what would it communicate?
Stand back and look at your parking lot. If it were the only thing people knew about your church, what would it communicate? It is the only thing most people know about and identify with our churches because they simply drive by and don’t come inside. Ensure your parking lot communicates that your church is welcoming and open for one and all!
On a related note, have you ever stopped to consider what your parking lot communicates if it’s empty throughout the week? Most church facilities have their heaviest usage during the weekends, but does that mean they’re completely empty during the week? Does an empty parking lot throughout weekdays implicitly communicate that your church isn’t relevant to people’s lives the rest of the week? Just wondering.
Why Launch a Parking Lot Team?
If your church doesn’t have people serving on a parking team, there are people within your church missing out on a perfect service opportunity. Over the years, I’ve found that churches that have parking teams are actively engaging a group of volunteers that lots of other churches seem to be unable to engage. I love the churches that have parking teams that espouse an almost superhero-like ethos as they serve outdoors all year long. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this team from the swift completion of their appointed service.” Even the postal service can’t claim that anymore!
Your church grows when more people get plugged in and spread the word among their friends. As you get this group of volunteers involved, they will start telling other people. Also, churches develop faster when they see more people getting active. As you move a group of people from anonymity to community through serving on a team, the church is inevitably strengthened.
Tips for Getting Started
1. Start with the who.
The team leader is critically important for this team. Find an outgoing team builder who doesn’t mind asking people to join the team. Typically, these are high energy folks because it takes a lot to persuade others to stay outdoors all year long!
2. Launch in a mild season.
Please don’t launch this team in July if your church is in Florida, or in January if you’re in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Launch the team in a “shoulder season” where your team can effectively do its task before the heat or cold sets in.
3. Consider the uniform.
Give the team something to wear that will help them stand out while serving. Think about the various kinds of weather when considering the uniform.
4. Training! Training! Training!
Make sure to think through exactly what kind of experience you want your guests to have upon their arrival. Talk it over with the team before they start. Draw it out on a diagram or two for the visual learners. Theme parks often do a fantastic job of parking people. What can we learn from them?
5. Celebrate Lots!
This team needs lots of public celebration and admiration. These people are heroes of the church because of what they do for you. Talk lots about them and celebrate their service. You can’t overemphasize how amazing this group of people really is!
This material is adapted from a longer resource that appeared on Rich Birch’s blog “unSeminary” and used by permission.
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The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
Nelson Searcy asks a good question for any congregation hoping that visitors return.
  • What happens during the first seven minutes for a visitor at your church?
Want more Right Questions? Read Right Questions for Church Leaders.
Learn to Increase Active Engagement in Your Church
What can you do when 20 percent of your congregation does 80 percent of the serving, learning, and leading? The Increasing Active Engagement Tool Kit includes videos, narrated presentations, outlines of key points, and supplementary materials to help you get and keep people involved and engaged.
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Stop Complaining about Sunday Morning Sports by Keith Anderson
It's a common complaint among clergy types. "Sundaymorning sports are taking people away from worship!" Clergy can be consoled by remembering that Christian vocation is to be lived out though the entirety of people's lives -- not just in church, suggests "To the Point: Stop Complaining about Sunday Morning Sports."
Editor’s note: This is adapted from an article by Keith Anderson which appeared in Leading Ideas on January 30, 2013. This To the Point version has been edited for brevity and is accompanied by a one-page PDF that may be downloaded and shared with others.
It’s a common complaint among clergy types, “Sunday morning sports are taking people away from worship!”
The exasperation that accompanies it goes deeper than just whether a family shows up on a Sunday. It’s the lament of loss of the privileged place that the Church — and clergy — once enjoyed in our culture. But in our lament we risk alienating the very young families we seek to engage.
The emergence of Sunday morning sports is just a symbol of a shift that’s happening in society where the church is no longer given deference. Clergy resent this loss and mourn our diminishing cultural position. That’s what I hear just under the surface when clergy complain about Sunday morning sports — it’s the loss of our place, privilege, and position. Notice we never complain about activities scheduled for Friday evenings for Jewish people or Saturdays for Seventh-Day Adventists, much less Hindu or Muslim conflicts? Others have dealt with this a long time.
Frankly, it’s not a bad thing for the Church to stand on its own, apart from cultural props. I don’t want the Church to be dependent on the world saying it is important. I want us to say that this is important because of Jesus, the persuasiveness of the Gospel, for its own sake, on its own terms.
Help Families Reclaim Their Vocation
The problem is that our frustration, grief, and anger slip out in our preaching, conversations, and recruitment. It is guilt inducing, and we lose the grace we seek to extend to people. We have to watch our language, assumptions, and expectations, because most of them were formed in a culture that we don’t live in anymore.
We should save our lament for the families dependent on dual incomes, working two or more jobs, slammed with the cost of healthcare and education, who are consumed with kids’ activities. Sometimes in our institutional need for attendance, volunteers, pledges, and relevance, we miss the needs and realities of our people.
The antidote is an understanding of vocation through which people see their entire lives as their ministry. Martin Luther argued that “a holy calling” belonged to everyone. We call it the “priesthood of all believers,” but we often reduce the meaning of that to ministry done by lay people at, with, and for the church. Luther extended it far beyond church into our homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods.
Rather than wishing away the changes in culture, but far from simply accommodating them, let’s find a third way to talk about the life of faith, one in which parents can see all the shuttling around they do, the homework help, getting kids dressed, and, yes, even watching their kid play hockey on Sunday morning as ministry in and of itself. Let’s make their time at church something that renews and strengthens them for their ministry of family and parenting, rather than making them feel guilty for wanting to be at their kids’ games. Here are some questions to spark your planning.
  • Can we help people see their daily work — jobs, parenting — as holy, sacred work? Can we help them claim their life’s work as ministry, as spiritual practice?
  • Can our programming support this through ministry beyond the church to reinforce that God is present in pubs, coffee shops, play grounds, social media — anywhere people spend time and gather?
  • Can we help people to volunteer remotely, via phone or laptop, when they can grab a few spare moments between activities or when the kids are down?
  • Should we have an alternate worship time outside of Sunday morning?
  • “Godless Harvard”
My mentor Peter Gomes used to talk about the controversy that erupted at Harvard in the 19th century when Harvard stopped requiring its students to attend chapel. People mocked the decision and gave the school the moniker “Godless Harvard.” But many people continued to worship, and they knew why they were there — not because they were required to, but because they wanted to and Harvard continues to have a vibrant worshipping community today.
We risk making the same quick judgment in our time — that this is just godlessness all around — for we too would be wrong. While the church and its clergy may have been displaced in our culture, God has not. God is where God has always been — embedded in the lives of God’s people. So, let’s stop complaining about Sunday morning sports and start helping make the connections between their faith and their daily work, their vocation.
Keith Anderson, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor, is author of The Digital Cathedral: Networked Ministry in a Wireless World (Morehouse, 2015).
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Quotable Leadership
Unless you work to prevent it, eventually the people inside the church become a higher priority than those outside the church. (Tony Morgan)
Adult Education Study: "Women Speak of God"
From the earliest days of the church, women have spoken and written of their faith. This eight-session study introduces us to the voices of six women who struggled with issues of identity, character, and calling and who attested to God's living presence amidst their struggles. Women Speak of God is ideal for women and men in your congregation's small groups, adult Bible studies, and Sunday School classes who want to grow in faith and see how God works in difficult times and places.
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Pastors Moving to New Churches Need the Right Start
Are you a pastor preparing to begin ministry in a new setting? With The Right Start Video Tool Kit, you'll learn how to end your current ministry well, develop a personal transition plan, and make the most of your first days, weeks, and months in your new congregation. The Right Start is available in both Pastor's and Group Training Versions.
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