Tag Archives: communication

Where were we? (more on church size)

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by Carol

Where were we?  Oh, yes.  We were looking at the impact of church size on volunteers.  We had just looked at the large and very large churches, but we didn’t look at the difference between them.

IS there a difference between large and very large churches when it comes to volunteers?  The size categories we’ve used are small (up to 100 in worship attendance), medium (101-350), large (351-750), very large (751-1800), mega (over 1800) and super (more on that in a later post).

So, what’s the difference when you go from 600 up to 1,500?  You are going to have a larger campus, more staff, more programs, more diversity in the congregation, higher quality in everything you do, and more distinction between skills of staff and volunteers.

If you ARE a volunteer, you are going to see these differences in the church.  But, honestly, you might not feel the difference in terms of how volunteers are led or organized.

Staff members and volunteers who lead volunteers, though, will find that it requires
**more intentional communication,
**more intentional recruiting, and
**more lead time for events.
By the time you get to 1,500 in worship, the staff members are learning from the mega churches — the tips, the tricks, and the systems.

For the volunteers, other things matter more than mere numbers.  A church in the midst of explosive growth (because of relocation, a new pastor, etc.) may not have all of the policies, programs, and systems in place yet.  The newly-large will look much different from a church that has been large for a decade.  A church that has been slowly succumbing to outdated leadership may be an unpleasant atmosphere for volunteers, even if it has all of the bells and whistles of the very large church.

Yes, there are differences between large churches and very large churches, but they aren’t as easy to spot  — which is probably why you don’t see many books and articles about their unique characteristics.  In fact, they often get lumped in together.  It could be that more people just means more of what you’ve been doing, rather than requiring anything distinctly different.

If you have some ideas about how volunteers are influenced by the unique features of large or very large churches, leave a comment.  Let’s explore this together!

Middling, but Not Mediocre, Part 2

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by Carol

Be careful when you describe something as “medium.”  The Big Thompson River in Colorado is sort of a medium river.  It flows steadily throughout the year, swollen with mountain runoff in the spring and showing its rocky foundations in the summer heat.  I remember the canyon as a tourist attraction, with its old-fashioned motels and comfortable little cabins along the banks.

But one Saturday evening in 1976, the river turned into the most deadly flood in Colorado history, killing 143 people and injuring 150 more.   (See http://content-static.coloradoan.com/news/thompson/)

We’ve said that volunteers in the medium church (101-350 attendance in worship) tend to be steady, tolerant, numerically challenged, good (or great), contented volunteers who make competent leaders.  Like the Big Thompson River, the medium church can be a peaceful destination for fishermen or unimaginable power (destructive or positive) ready to be unleashed.  What makes the difference?

Think about the relationship between volunteers and the church staff (the paid kind).  Two words come immediately to mind:  vision and equipping.

Vision
In Part 1, we mentioned that volunteers need to be challenged.  Volunteers can keep on doing whatever they’ve been doing, whether it’s good for the church or not.  The paid staff needs to have the time and theological training to explore what the congregation ought to be doing.  Then the pastor and staff need to communicate these things to the members.  It’s called vision casting, and it should happen in any size church.

Equipping
The other important thing that the pastor and staff need to do is to equip volunteers. This includes spiritual growth, training, and managing “stuff” for them.

In the medium-sized church, “stuff” is where it gets tricky.  As soon as you start adding staff members, the pastor and staff have the opportunity to communicate on a day to day basis and get things done while the volunteers are not around.  Some things that volunteers were doing (or not doing) are done by staff without the input or participation of volunteers.

Let’s give a simplistic example:

The pastor sees a certain staff member every day, so the pastor asks the staff member to check the supplies in the children’s area.  The staff member sees a large tub of broken crayons.  The staff member assumes that the volunteers are not making good use of their limited storage space, so she throws them away. The volunteers come in the next Sunday night to find that the crayons they had expected to melt down for an art project are gone.  Ouch.

“Stuff” can also be dates on the calendar, equipment in the rooms, decorations on the walls, and on and on.  In the small church, the pastor doesn’t have time to look at crayons.  In the large, staff-driven church, the staff manages the materials and a whole lot of other stuff.  Between the two extremes, though, the staff and volunteers have differing expectations.  Let’s just say that, without really good communication, volunteers can be blindsided and caught off-guard — with very unhappy results.  It’s just human.

The Big Thompson flood was caused by an unusual weather pattern over the canyon.  The flash flood caught up trees and boulders.  But it was much more deadly because the rising waters also picked up cars, propane tanks, cabins, and even entire bridges along the way as the water came down the narrow canyon.  Human stuff.

Bottom line:  Don’t let human “stuff” destroy the dedication of volunteers in the medium church.  Clear the debris and keep the channels of communication flowing freely.

A Few Things About Volunteers in the Small Church, Part 2

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by Carol

As we started this series on church size, I mentioned the poor-little-me syndrome that occurs with volunteers in many small churches.  But there are some definite positives to being in a small church.

POSITIVES

Making a Difference
For one thing, it is easier for volunteers to see where they make a difference.  The same volunteer who is chairman of the deacons may also teach the only children’s Sunday morning Bible study class.  At Christmas, the choir has to have all hands on deck or there is no program.  It’s harder for people to fall through the cracks — everyone is needed for something — and people seldom wander the halls unattached.

Generalists
It is easier to help, too.  Volunteers don’t have to be experts since jobs in a small church are less specialized.  A jack-of-all-trades is highly valued.

Haven for the Young and Old
Although generalists are valued, many small churches are blessed to have older members who bring expertise and wisdom.  Some small churches are blessed with young members who are highly enthusiastic and willing to find a way to get a job done.  These same younger and older members are attracted to the small church when they get crowded out by staff or mainstream members in a larger church.

Unique
The skills and interests of the individual members of small churches tend to shape the church’s personality and strong points.  As a result, each small church is unique — sometimes novel, sometimes innovative, sometimes quirky, sometimes bordering on cultish.

This uniqueness can be a strength that carries volunteers through hard times.  But it can also insulate them from beneficial change and engaging the culture around them.  A good antidote to this drawback is to interact often in training workshops that draw an attendance from multiple churches.  Denominations, Christian publishers, and non-profit ministries offer lots of options to cross-pollinate with participants from other churches.

UNEXPECTED

There are a couple of unexpected things about volunteers in a small church:

Core, Not Clique
First, small groups that hang together in a large church are known as a clique (with all the negative connotations).  In a small church, that same group is the church core.  Yes, they may need to soften their edges to let newcomers in, but the solid relationships they have forged over time are the foundation of the church’s resilience.

Volunteer Pockets
Second, the budget in a small church may look miniscule and locked in, but that is not the whole story.  Volunteers in small churches often reach into their own pockets — because they can, with such small numbers — to fund things that really matter to them.  And sometimes they foot the bill for the fun fluff!

KEY TAKE-AWAYS

The key to taking advantage of the small church is to find the up-sides of having a small campus, small numbers, and a close network.

  • Use chatter in the network to encourage others in a round-about way.  Example: Talk up what some volunteer did and share your appreciation for them.  Positive attitudes spread even faster than gossip!
  • Use the instances where economy of scale works in reverse.  Example: Meet off-campus at a local ice cream parlor.  Example: Buy a fun (or inspirational) book for all of your volunteer team.
  • Use the established familiarity.  Example: When you need help, tap into what people know of each other and their talents.

Small churches are great, and the volunteers in them matter!

Who is doing what?

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by Carol

Any time there is a position, whether paid or volunteer, there should be a written job description.  It spells out the expectations and responsibilities.  It should reduce the confusion and miscommunication.  Sometimes, though, it doesn’t.  Why is that?

At times, the written job description does not match the real situation.  But let’s say that the job description is up to date.  The volunteer coordinator and the volunteer literally have the same page of job description.  You have several other possibilities for confusion:

Possibility 1.
There is a difference in interpretation.  A volunteer may be bending over backward to do a job as he or she understood it, while the supervisor expected something totally different.  It’s painful on both sides!

Solution:  Ask what is going on.  Don’t assume, especially when you think you have discussed this before. Explain what you expected and find out why you are getting different results.

Possibility 2.
There are overlapping jobs and job descriptions.  This happens when you have a multitude of volunteers (instead of a few paid staff members, who are more likely to have specific roles and clear lines of supervision). Volunteers will jump in to do far more than their specific job — especially when they are conscientious and don’t want anything to fall through the cracks.  They can step on each other’s toes.

Solution: In ministry, we need to communicate more.  We need to let one another know why we are doing what we are doing.  People who communicate are better equipped to find a way to work in overlapping areas and fill the gaps with a minimum of personal friction.

Possibility 3.
Volunteers are unaware of the job descriptions of other volunteers — or even that other positions exist.  This also crops up when a new program is created without involving or informing a leader whose ministry is caught in the cross-current.

Solution: Keep in mind that job descriptions are not a private matter between an individual volunteer and the supervising leader.  Other people negotiate the terrain — needing to know who does what, who has a role, who needs to be asked, who will have the details.  Job descriptions don’t have to be widely distributed (which probably wouldn’t help anyway).  The information, though, can be distributed it bite-sized chunks that help people create a mental map of all the moving gears in your volunteer apparatus.

Bottom line:  If you notice that communication and information are common elements in the solutions, you are on target.  Church volunteers work together best when they have solid, reliable information.  New things don’t take them by surprise and they don’t have to guess at intentions.

Job descriptions don’t replace communication.  They themselves are a small piece of communication in a much larger mosaic of giving and receiving information.  Use job descriptions as a starting point.  Then get the communication flowing.