Tag Archives: training

3 Reasons for a Happy Dance

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Happy Danceby Carol

Between Medium and Mega lies the land of the Large Church and the Very Large Church.  For many church volunteers, this is the Land of the Happy Dance for at least three reasons:

1.  Volunteers leaders are needed and supported.  By the time you get to the mega church, many volunteer leadership positions have been taken over by pastoral staff, support staff, and even interns.  But the large church still relies on volunteers to lead volunteers.  These leaders often work closely with the support staff (ministry assistants and shared secretaries).  In fact, it is not unusual to see volunteer leaders hired onto the staff as the church grows to the next level.

2.  Volunteers can develop an area of interest.  Unlike the small church, where the jack-of-all-trades is crucial, the large and very large churches have room for specialists.  Musicians who aren’t professionals, for example, can shine in a variety of roles without feeling guilty that some other ministry of the church is struggling.  Volunteers gain experience and expertise, but they don’t have to be exclusively dedicated to a niche.

3.  Volunteers appreciate participating in programs that are done well.  Benefits come from having more people, the leadership of well-trained staff, and more resources (financial and otherwise).  The church doesn’t hesitate to foot the bill for training and workshops.  And the volunteers get positive feedback from church members who appreciate the quality of the music, children’s activities, teaching, interior décor, etc., etc.

Right Fit
Volunteers don’t always know what they are looking for, but they feel the difference when they find the right place to serve. Large and very large churches aren’t right for everyone, of course.  I always think about the question of whether you want to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond — assuming that being a big fish in a big pond isn’t one of your options.

So a few questions are in order:

Are you a jack-of-all-trades?
Are you a professional in some field and do you want to use that expertise in a volunteer capacity at church?
Do you like feeling that you have made a difference in whether a ministry will continue to function?
Do you put a high value on excellence above other things?
Are you more concerned with finding a place for everyone, even those with limited skills?

These are the trade-offs that volunteers consider, whether they think about them consciously or not.  It helps when the volunteers and their leaders are aware of what the trade-offs are.  In fact, they may even launch their happy dance!

The Twilight Zone of Transition

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— by Carol

We’ve looked at volunteers in small churches.  Before we move on to medium-sized churches, let’s pause to look at volunteers in the transition zone.  More than any other transition, volunteers make the difference going from small to medium (or medium to small, but let’s not go there…).

For our purposes, the dividing line is an average attendance of 100 in worship each week.  Volunteers, though, can push this number higher or lower.  Experts point out that a small church is organized around family-type relationships, while a medium church is structured around programs.  Here, too, volunteers can change the picture.adult programs

Watch for some of these signals that tell you that numbers alone don’t tell the whole story:

  •  Volunteers who are strong leaders, helping to organize and direct other members.  They can lead programs — especially start-up programs.
  • Lack of strong leaders.  In some churches, the volunteers don’t get the leadership training or experience at work or in other community organizations.  The pastor has to be more involved in everything, which may lead to burnout or turnover.
  • Talented / skilled volunteers who pick up some of the roles (music, for example) that other churches hire part-time staff to fill.
  • Volunteers who “push back” against growth.  They prefer the close relationships of a small church, even though they may want the church to grow.

 

Try these keys to a successful transition from small to medium:

• Help volunteers to understand and buy in to the medium church structure (where relationships grow in small or medium-sized groups rather than across the entire congregation).

• Develop and use volunteers’ skills in positions that staff would otherwise fill.  (Caution: Don’t treat volunteers unfairly when you can and should be paying them for the time and skills they bring to the church.)

• Make training in Christian leadership skills an on-going, intentional process.

graphic of kids' church programs

It’s no wonder that experts can’t agree on the cut-off point between “small” and “medium” churches.  When you are counting noses, the noses of volunteers can make a world of difference.

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!

Big Church / Little Church

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by Carol

What size is your church?  Are you sure?

For many years, I was in a church that I called “a small, neighborhood church.”  We lived in the shadow of a super church (bigger than a mega church) that was the size of a zip code.  As we considered relocating, though, we realized that we had members from 10 different cities!  And, according to experts in church size, we were at least a medium-sized church.  By some standards, we were large!

Big church little church

You can imagine the difference that made in how the members of the congregation viewed outreach, staffing, budget, and a host of other issues.

The concept of size has an impact on volunteers, too.  Have you seen one of these scenarios?

  • Volunteers visit a larger church.  It doesn’t have to be a “mega” church — everything else looks mega to these volunteers.  They underestimate themselves for being “only” a small church.  They “can’t” do the things they see in this big church.  They are overwhelmed at the supply rooms (compared to a supply cabinet) and enormous murals.  They feel like grasshoppers in a land of giants.
  • Volunteers attend a church that has television outreach and a well-known pastor.  Their ministry year always begins with in-house training and retreats led by highly educated staff members.  Although these volunteers are invited to training sessions outside of the church and have access to all sorts of ministry workshops, the volunteers in this church assume that the resources are for smaller churches that don’t have the expertise of their church staff.  They are missing out on the benefits of learning from (and fellowshipping with) folks with a different perspective.

In both cases, it would help for the volunteers to adjust their mental image.  Too often, we feel like small is inferior and big is self-sufficient.

For the next few posts, we are going to explore the categories of church size and what we can learn about the strengths / weaknesses of each — and what that means for volunteers.