Category Archives: Staffing – Recruitment

Many churches have problems recruiting. We might be quick to fault people’s busy lives or lack of spiritual maturity, but is it always their fault? Perhaps we should put ourselves in each other’s shoes. Both ministry leaders trying to recruit and the people they seek to recruit can experience recruitment blues. The recruitment problem may go both ways. We need to understand each other’s perspective.

Put Yourself in Each Other’s Shoes

Imagine being a ministry leader who can’t get enough people to serve. They feel a weight of responsibility for effective ministry but can’t do it without enough volunteers. What are they to do? Do they discontinue programs, combine classes, etc.? How do they accomplish other responsibilities when they must put so much effort into recruiting? Should they resort to begging or bribing people to serve? Imagine their frustration. — How quick would you be to get discouraged when you can’t get enough people to volunteer?

Now imagine being a church attender constantly sought after in recruitment efforts. They may feel manipulated, guilted, or coerced into serving. Perhaps they don’t feel their time, needs, and interests matter. Imagine their frustration. — How quick would you be to get discouraged about the value of serving due such recruitment efforts?

Some Reminders When it Comes to Recruitment Blues

Roleplaying to see how each side feels, leads to heart reminders we all need.

Ministry Leaders: The way you approach recruitment affects people’s opinions about serving and the effectiveness of recruiting. Be careful to approach recruitment with integrity and with high regard for people. — “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. – Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” (Prov. 4:23, 26)

Read: Motivating People to Serve

Church Attenders: Serving is God’s idea. Your first concern should be loving and glorifying Him, regardless of how your church handles recruitment. Make it about the Lord. Anything done in His name is worthwhile! — “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Rom. 12:11)

Read: Reasons for Serving

For help getting beyond recruitment blues, check out the Staffing Ministry Manual. Therein you’ll find help with recruiting and much more to help you get the right people into the right ministry at the right time.

People often make a distinction between laity and the professionals (i.e., clergy/pastors and other paid staff members). When we start talking about volunteers versus paid church staff, we often move into a “them versus us” perspective. But, is that biblical? How do the two fit together?

What God Says About People Who Serve in the Church

Page through Scripture about the Church and you won’t find a distinction between volunteers and paid staff. Consider these four points:

1. God calls leaders (many of which in today’s church are paid) to be servants (Mk. 10:42-43; 1 Pet. 5:2) but He also calls all members of the Church to do the same.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Gal. 5:13)

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Phil. 2:5-7)

2. In the Church we all belong to each other based who we are in Christ, not whether paid or volunteer. We simply have different functions, some of which may also be a person’s livelihood.

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Rom. 12:4-5)

3. Everybody in the Body is to be valued. It isn’t based on position, function, or whether paid or a volunteer.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable … But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (1 Cor. 12:21-25)

4. Everybody in the Body is important to the on-going work and growth of the Church, whether paid or volunteer. In Scripture we find a priesthood of all believers.

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph. 4:16)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Pet. 2:9)

An Example of a Biblical Perspective of Volunteers Versus Paid Church Staff

In his book, Unfinished Business: Returning the Ministry to the People of God, Greg Ogden shares an example of how a church bulletin lists paid staff:

“Ministers: all the members of [church name]. Assistant to the ministers: the church staff“

So often churches function the opposite with the paid church staff at the top and the ministering members below them. The above example, however, does the following:

• It removes hierarchy of professionals at the top and laity working for them.
• It puts the responsibility for ministry in the hands of everyone.
• It makes it clear that paid staff aren’t doing all the work.

What is your church communicating?

For More about Staffing, Go To: Staffing Ministry Resources

Anyone responsible for overseeing staffing knows the struggles of recruiting enough people to fill all the needs. So, when we do get people to volunteer, we don’t want to lose them. And, we should do what we can to train, encourage, and support them in ways that let them know they’re valued and appreciated. But, what do we do if they aren’t a good fit? Or, what if they aren’t coming adequately prepared or have a negative attitude? We may be tempted to apply a quick solution rather than seek real change.

The Objective Will Determine if We Seek Real Change or Apply a Quick Solution

If our objective is solely filling ministry positions, then we won’t want to hurt the person’s feelings or upset them in any way. We don’t want them get frustrated and quit. We may cover for their inadequacies or make excuses for them so those affected don’t complain or at least cut them some slack. We may pull on more reliable people to fill in. These are quick solutions to try to keep everybody happy.

When our objective goes beyond the immediate situation to the long-range effect of people’s attitudes and behavior, we will be more concerned about helping the person serve in accordance with God’s heart and ways. We will then take steps to spur the person on to give of their best to the Lord in attitudes and actions (Heb. 10:24). This is about real change for God’s glory (Ps. 79:9).

The Results in How We Deal with Staffing Issues Reveal the Best Approach

Quick solutions fail to look at the big picture like how their actions or attitudes affect other people. It could possibly stir up negative feelings in others, dampening the morale of everyone and diminishing effective ministry.

Pursuing real change, however, challenges the person to look outside of themselves and brings them into accountability to the Lord, not us. Everyone benefits if the person changes from the inside out.

Need Help with Staffing? Check out the: Staffing Ministry Manual

Training Category: Staffing Ministry

Do you want to get beyond merely filling positions in your staffing efforts? Then you need to make it about getting the right person for the right ministry at the right time so you can most effectively accomplish God’s work His way.

Read Get Church Staffing Right to learn more about getting the right person for the right ministry at the right time.

Objective for Church Staffing Ministry Must Include Accomplishing God’s Work His Way

To aim at this objective we need a good understanding of the way God accomplishes His work which includes these elements:

1) God’s design for the Church

2) God’s purpose for the Church

Until we get to the core of his design and purpose for the Church, we’ll be more likely to merely spin our wheels in staffing so take time to learn more by clicking on the above links.

To learn more about staffing in the Church, order the Staffing Ministry Manual. It looks five different elements of staffing that can help you accomplish this objective.

God recruited mankind from the beginning to participate in His work as we see in His assignment of people to rule over His creation (Gen. 1:28-29). In addition to specific Bible verses, we can learn from His example in recruiting people. Following are some examples:

• Moses to lead the exile (Ex. 3-4)
• David to be king (1 Samuel 16:1-13)
• Isaiah to be His spokesperson (Isa. 6)
• Jesus’ Twelve Disciples (Matt. 4:18-19, 21; 9:9)
• Paul to be His Apostle (Acts 9:3)

Learn from Relevant Bible Verses for Ministry Recruitment

The following Bible verses have relevance to ministry recruitment. Applying these principles to the way we recruit should positively affect the way we approach the task of recruiting.

God’s criteria in recruiting differs from the world’s standard.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Cor. 1:26-30)

We need to communicate the value of everybody’s part in ministry, no matter what we’re recruiting them for.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Cor. 12:21-27)

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph. 4:16)

Recruitment should take people’s spiritual gifts into consideration as God expects them to be used.

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. (Rom. 12:6-8)

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Pet. 4:10-11)

Prayer should be an integral part of our recruitment efforts.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matt. 9:37-38)

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles . . . (Lk. 6:12-16)

Think about recruitment in terms of passing on an entrustment, not merely filling positions.

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:2)

For More Help with Recruitment and Other Staffing Issues, Go To: Staffing Ministry Manual

As in anything we do, the best way to recruit is God’s way.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8-9)

Even in recruiting workers, let’s seek to get in alignment with Him.

4 Points to Ponder in How God Recruits Workers

Take some time to read the Scripture referenced with each point for a better understanding of how God recruits workers. The Staffing Ministry Manual briefly expounds on these points and also asks some additional questions to get you thinking more about recruiting God’s way.

1. God chose to use people to accomplish His work. (Gen. 1:28; Eph. 4:16)

2. God has empowered people to do His work through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in giving spiritual gifts. (1 Pet. 4:9-11)

3. God did not sit back and wait for people to volunteer but often went to extraordinary measures to recruit workers. (Ex. 3; Acts 9:3; Matt. 4:18-19, 21; 9:9)

4. God sees every ministry as important. (Matt. 25:14-30; 1 Cor. 12:21-26)

Will Staffing God’s Way Make a Difference in the Results of our Recruitment Efforts?

If you haven’t been recruiting in alignment with God’s ways and make needed adjustments to your recruitment efforts, you should see a difference in the results. But, remember that not everyone will answer the call. Look at Jesus’ life on earth. Some people were even antagonistic but that didn’t stop Him. He continued to do the work the Father had given Him to do.

We need to likewise be faithful in following God’s ways and leave the results to Him. When we recruit God’s way, we can then use whatever the results might be as a guide for where God wants us to go from there. And, always, let’s heed Jesus’ exhortation to His disciples as He looked over the sea of human need. He said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt. 9:35-38).

For More on Recruitment:

• Effective recruitment
• Why people should serve
• How to motivate people