Have you ever thought of your church as a volunteer organization? Most of us have not. We think of the church as a divinely created body composed of individuals who believe in God as revealed in Jesus Christ. And it is.
But the local congregations to which you and I belong are volunteer organizations. They are composed of believers who voluntarily bind themselves together to do the work of the church in a particular setting.
Baptist membership practices illustrate the volunteer nature of the church. Each Sunday, some churches gain members and some lose members through transfer of membership. In other words, each week, some people voluntarily decide to quit volunteering at a certain congregation in order to voluntarily identify with another local body of baptized believers.
When one recognizes that on any given Sunday, only about 40 percent of the average church’s membership attends worship, the volunteer nature of a church is again illustrated. A church has no coercive power to force people to join, attend or serve. A local church exists because people volunteer to help it exist.
Some volunteers provide direct services. Sunday School teachers are direct-service volunteers. So are church choir members, ushers, missions leaders and all the other people who help the church perform its ongoing ministries.
Those individuals with the spiritual gift of evangelism can be considered connectional volunteers. These people lead the visitation program, always inviting new people to worship at church and sharing a verbal witness about God’s love made known in Jesus. These connectional volunteers provide the link between people who need a church home and a local congregation.
Some volunteers are cause-oriented. Churches are blessed with individuals dedicated to missions. Some have taught Girls in Action for decades and cannot imagine life without the opportunity to invest in girls through missions education and involvement. Some have kept the nursery for years and years, helping babies identify church as a safe and happy place filled with love. Whatever the cause, these volunteers are its champions dedicated to a particular outcome because of their service.
Most cause-oriented volunteers are more interested in the cause than in the particular organization through which it is accomplished. Churches have seen that firsthand. Some churches have eliminated a church program or ministry and found faithful members moving to another congregation where they can continue to work for a particular cause.
Some volunteers are better suited for working with church policies and providing the infrastructure and decisions that help the whole church function. These are called decision-maker volunteers.
As Baptists, we understand that spiritual gifts vary from individual to individual. Some people are happiest immersed in one-on-one ministries. Some are better suited for work behind the scenes. All are important and every local church needs them all.
That is why churches need to pay close attention to two findings about volunteers from the secular world.
The first comes from a study conducted by the UPS Foundation, which found the main reason volunteers quit serving is poor management. The study found that volunteers need clear goals. They need to know what is expected of them. Volunteers also need adequate training and supervision.
When these were in place, volunteers generally had a satisfactory experience and continued to serve, the study found. When these were absent, volunteer tenure was short.
Now consider the church that thinks anyone who can change a diaper is qualified to work in the nursery or anyone who is mobile can serve as an usher. Such a church gives little thought to the atmosphere a volunteer might create.
Will the nursery worker help the baby identify the church as a happy place? Will the usher create a positive, friendly and helpful atmosphere for those attending?
Too often, Baptist churches seem more interested in filling all the slots than helping volunteers succeed. The first quarter of the church year recently ended in most Alabama Baptist churches, and many churches have volunteers who are uncertain about continuing as a teacher, missions leader or committee member. Oftentimes it is because these volunteers did not have a clear understanding of the expectations, were not properly trained and have had minimal support in their place of service since they accepted the volunteer position.
Volunteers have limited personal time to devote to any place of service. They do so because they believe in the cause to which they give their time and energy. Churches need to maximize the efforts of their members — their volunteers — by making sure each knows what is expected, is properly trained and has readily available support.
The second finding comes from the academic discipline of political science. Political scientists point out that a volunteer organization functions effectively only when it shares a reliable source of information. Remove that common base of information, and the organization begins to falter.
For church members, according to a study by The Barna Group, a common theology is important. Remove that common understanding and the commitment to the group begins to fracture. Barna also said it is important for church members to know the church cares for others. That information cannot be known without a common source of information.
Church programs are another area Barna cites as important to church members. Again, without a reliable channel of communication, information about what the church does cannot be known.
A common base of reliable information helps shape the worldview of the congregation. It enhances effective and efficient working together. A reliable communication channel expresses the church’s commitment to including all its members — its volunteers — in the life of the congregation.
In these days of tight budgets, churches need to understand that when they cut back or eliminate their channels of communication, they are sowing the seeds of disintegration for their own congregation.
Because churches are volunteer organizations, it is imperative that we learn more about the dynamics of volunteerism. If we fail to do so, then many of our members may end up as volunteers in churches where these lessons have been learned.
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