Right People, Right Places, Right Time, Right Reasons

When you are looking for volunteers for your CM program do you have a profile of what the right person looks like? If you do not then how will you know when you find one? How can you tell the difference? As we discussed in earlier articles, every believer has a ministry it may just be that the ministry they are geared for is not CM.

Wrong People

·      They take forever to train: Why? Because they are the wrong people.

·      They do not do a very god job: If you have the wrong people in a job what do you expect?

·      They keep the right people from participating: If your positions are all filled with the wrong people, where will you place that new gifted person who is obviously geared for CM?

Wrong Places

Sometimes we place the wrong people in a job. Instead of really discerning where they should be we slot them into an open position to basically fill a hole. This is a recipe for failure, guaranteed.  Sometimes it is due to volunteers telling us what they like to do but in reality that cannot do it.

Wrong Time

If a busy mom is serving on several committees but has no time or energy left for her family, If a dad is willing to spend hours working on a lesson but has no time to do family devotions, this is the wrong time for them to be serving in CM. All of us have seasons in our lives when it is best to step away and get our own spiritual lives in order before we even contemplate teaching others. When you ‘play hurt’ or ‘play through the pain’ you are not doing anyone any favors. You are not giving yourself time to heal and you will not give your best to the team.

Wrong Reasons

The one reason anyone should want to volunteer in CM is to serve God and kids. End of story, period, exclamation mark. Serving in CM is not an antidote for being bored nor is it a place to hide out to avoid dealing with someone or something in church that one does not want to deal with. Someone may be fully capable of doing the job but if they are not there for the right reasons it will eventually become clear.

Jim Wideman likes to classify volunteers into three groups: foremen, roofers and building inspectors.

Foremen are those who love seeing results. They have the blueprints and schedules and love to solve problems. They are organized and love ‘to do ‘ lists. If you want these types of individuals to stick, give them an entire arm of the ministry to manage.

Roofers never work alone, they interact with other roofers. Provide opportunities for them to meet new friends and maintain existing friendships. Give them personalized training and frequently touch base with them.

Building Inspectors care about power, about influence and having a say in the outcome. Let these volunteers teach or lead a meeting, give them a chance to serve as a ministry liaison with other groups. A word of caution however: make sure this power is not misused.

In the next few articles we will discuss recruiting and some tools that can help you find volunteers who will stick and will be the right person, in the right place, at the right time for the right reasons.

In Him

CJ Schindler

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