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Recruiting When No One Wants the Job
Creative ways for enlisting people in ministry.
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For three years Jeff Thompson's recruiting system had run well. He'd had occasional problems, but not one major Christian education position had gone without a qualified person on promotion Sunday. The secret was his annual, churchwide recruitment survey followed by personal interviews that allowed Jeff to match people's gifts with ministry needs. But now he was stymied. Mary Jenkins had retired from children's church for preschoolers. She was a legend at Walnut Heights Bible Church (churches and people named are composites of true situations). For eighteen years, even when the silver-haired lady was the only adult present, children had been touched by her love. Mom Jenkins's longevity, though, was part of the problem now. Potential leaders balked at the idea of being held captive by 3-year-olds for the next two decades. Now, four days from promotion Sunday, the position was still unfilled. Dozens of people had been considered, and eight had been approached. Their responses were classic: "I simply cannot lead that department." "I'm going to have surgery in the fall." "I'm going back to work." "I need some time off." He was ready to accept any warm body that would say yes. He wasn't sure he even could find one of those. Worker Deficiency SyndromeUnfortunately, virtually all church leaders or committee heads face a similar problem for some position: the junior high youth sponsor, the vacation Bible school director. Most vacancies represent thankless jobs in which the only comments heard are from unhappy parishioners. In some churches the worker deficiency syndrome seems chronic. Often, these churches haven't developed a year-round strategy for recruiting and developing volunteers. Or they have a declining membership and a static but aging pool of workers. Or they contain many new Christians who cannot yet be placed in teaching positions. But even the healthiest of churches inevitably faces a time when no one wants a particular job. Then church leaders try a variety of recruiting strategies. Ineffective StrategiesCalvary Church is one such healthy church with a recruitment problem. The church has seen rapid growth. An articulate young pastor has involved adults in home Bible studies. People exhibit a genuine excitement about the future of the church — everyone, that is, except the Christian education workers. Frances Clancy, the chair of the Christian education committee, has tried everything she can think of to provide enough teachers. First pleading. Then buttonholing. Then announcements in the bulletin and from the pulpit. Finally, she got the pastor to give one of his patented "volunteer for the Gipper" messages. But even it yielded only meager and short-term results. In the meantime, Frances has gone to part-time helpers in children's church—one month on, two months off. The problem with the system is best illustrated by the crying of the DeHaan twins on the Sunday of the change in leaders. Preschoolers need the security of familiar faces every week. |             |
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