In my fourth week of my new job as Media Director at The First Family I find myself in the "lack of time continuum". You know what I mean, it goes something like this: "I need to work on a recruitment plan to get more people to help with ALL the things that need to get done. Oh yea, I don't have time to work on the recruitment plan because I need to get ALL the things that need to get done done. I really wish I had some great volunteers to help with ALL the things that need to get done. I should work on that recruitment plan because I need..........." and thus you have the "lack of time continuum".
I expressed this frustration to my Administrative Pastor and he said "welcome to the church world." I found some comfort in this, at least he is in the same place. But then I find discontent is this also. I don't want to live in the "lack of time continuum" and I don't think God wants us to either. For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. 1 Timothy 1:7. I do not want to live and work forever in the spirt of fearing there is no time to prepare and grow.
It is my prayer for myself and for you that God would give us "the abundance of time continuum."
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4 comments:
I disagree with most of the "welcome to church world" thoughts. My experience is that if you will work passionately for the first few months of your ministry on the recruitment side, it will pay off later on the other side. For the last 18 years of my ministry to students, I was committed to spending one lunch per week (a minimum of 45 times a year) sharing my vision for my ministry with someone in our church or outside the church. That required I get my vision process down to a manageable conversation. (I will be glad to help you with that if you like.) I would conclude the conversation by asking them if they would pray for God to raise up workers for my vision and if it resonated with them, I would like to have a followup conversation. AFter the first year, it allowed me the luxury of a pool of people that I was working with, not in an emergency "fill the position" way, but in a "let me find a place for you in our ministry that fulfills you" way.
Eh, true enough.
The secret is to find that ONE volunteer who will pick up the ball and run with it. Keeping up with 30 volunteers who want to help can be a little bit like herding kittens. So find someone in the church with an aptitude for media ministry, and if they have the time and willingness, let them manage some of the 90,000 things you're supposed to take care of in the course of a day.
In our churches case, the entire media department is volunteer operated, as the church can't justify the payroll expense yet for a full time media director. If there weren't some really sharp volunteers at church, the poor worship pastor (who is in charge of all things tech) would have lost his mind by now!
This is really one of the fundamental differences between doing this in a church environment and doing this in a secular/commercial environment.
My philosophy has always been that doing the job well, will attract those who can do the job well. In other words, if you have the kind of excellent technical ministry, you will naturally tend to attract talented people. This isn't necessarily a short process, but its how I have typically approached it.
You can always teach people to do the job, but the sad reality is that in the church environment, you can't really tell someone "you can't do it that way" and expect them to do so; they may decide to simply stop volunteering.
I do like what Pete said about making a point of having lunch with someone (at least) once a week. Even if they aren't and don't become directly involved, they will almost certainly pray for you and that alone can help with the time crunch. They might also know of someone who might help, or spread the word.
I guess the bottom line here is that there is no "short" answer. The reality is that if your job is easy, it means you aren't being effective. If you are being effective, you WILL be attacked by the Enemy. Flooding you with "little" things that take up all your time is just one of the many methods he can -and does- use to attack us.
Put the energy into recruiting for a while. Take good care of them once you've got them too.
Something I think my church fails out is continuing to recruit... We fill up all the slots, and then stop until things get terminal again. It's the same cycle every 12 months or so.
Accept that people are going to burn out, find other things to do, move, change churches, etc... Spend time recruiting every month. Even if you don't have any current openings...
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