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Leadership Development

Volunteer Recruiting

Q

What should I consider as I recruit women to serve in the church?

A

First remember that serving in the kingdom of God is neither a choice nor an option for the Christian. "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve" (Matthew 20:28). He is our model. Yet, the Church of the twenty-first century often struggles with an understaffed Sunday school department, a handful of Missionettes leaders, small choirs, and a skeleton staff of Ministry Group leaders. Despite the biblical mandate, the reality is that the church is a volunteer organization totally dependent on volunteers.

Our society is one of hectic schedules and advance calendars with a consumer mentality. Selecting when and how to spend time has become more sophisticated than in times past. Yet, current statistics indicate that volunteerism is popular, but this means that the church is competing with community and national organizations for the "unpaid staff worker." In addition to understanding the biblical mandate to serve, the church recruiter should consider the following trends.

• Volunteers are selective.
  
• Volunteers desire purposeful and meaningful tasks.
  
• Volunteers will say no if they are not trained.
  
• Many volunteers are single parents.
  
• Volunteers meet their own needs when they serve,

(i.e., socialization, training, decision-making, feeling useful, career exploration).

As a motivator, it is your job to encourage believers to see that God has uniquely gifted each one for a strategic purpose in His Kingdom. They need to know that the church provides an atmosphere in which they can hone their skills and discover their distinctiveness in an environment where it's safe to fail.

In this kind of environment the church can be inclusive rather than exclusive—a place where every believer is viewed as a minister with a ministry. In this atmosphere of growth—modeling an attitude of value for one another—more people will become involved and the ministry will be more successful.

Through Women's Ministries every woman should have opportunity for ministry and every woman should be ministered to according to her needs.

ARLENE ALLEN is national director of the national Women's Department and editor in chief of WTOnline.