If you are part of a nonprofit or a church, then there’s a pretty good chance you have noticed a trend. To put it mildly volunteerism is down. There are a lot of things that have happened to get us to where we are currently. We could get all teary eyed over the way it used to be but that’s really not going to be of any value at all. I’m less the sit and whine type and more the let’s find a solution type, so let’s get to it.
Before we throw out a simple one – two punch of what seems to be working, it’s important to say that you first of all need to know your organization and culture. Don’t just grab something that someone else is doing and apply it assuming it will work. There has to be some sort of local cultural connection that makes it stick to your context. But there are some basic principles that I feel are transferable. Here are my two key filters when it comes to volunteerism.
Raise The Bar
The first thing I would say is that we need to raise the bar. And I know it sounds counterintuitive, but stick with me here. I look at this one like the whole chicken and egg scenario (which came first). Is it that people aren’t connecting so we lowered the bar, or we lowered the bar of expectations and now people aren’t connecting?
I think it’s a little bit of both but the lower we move the bar the less people will actually get involved. Think of it this way. When you tell a child to clean up their room, rarely will they not only clean the room but also volunteer to clean up the basement, toy room, and siblings rooms as well. We don’t usually do more than is expected. So if we keep the expectations high, then we allow a greater possibility for those we serve to stay heavily engaged.
Practically speaking, we have to set expectations for how much we want from the people we lead/serve. In the congregation I serve, we have a very clear set of expectations for everyone. The rule of the day is that everyone does something. Not everyone likes this mentality. As a matter of fact, I’ve talked to people connected to our congregation who didn’t want to get involved. They said they wanted to rest and not serve. Well unfortunately that’s not how it works. You can lessen your engagement but you can’t disconnect from service. Just not possible. Your hand can’t fall off your body for a few days because it’s tired, and still function properly. In the same way, you and I can’t disconnect from the organization where we belong and expect for all to be well forever.
We’ve even had to release people from the church because they did not see this as an important part of their lives. And to be honest, that’s ok. I’ve connected people who do not see service as important with other congregations who don’t put as high an emphasis on service as we do. And I pray that they are able to connect well in those locations!
So set the bar high and allow the people in your organization to move to a place of ownership and intentional, dedicated service.
Short Term Is Key
This is another problem I see many non profits and churches making. They make service in the organization seem like a lifelong commitment! From term limits to number of terms you’re able to serve, it just seems like we’re more interested in filling a role than actually connecting someone with their passion for the purpose of promoting their individual thriving. So we keep commitments short.
We only have two groups with terms and limits. They are our leadership team and board of elders. Aside from these two groups, we have no boards or committees or anything of the sort. Instead we have task forces or teams for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. When that goal is achieved, then they are able to go about business as usual or plug in somewhere else.
From Vacation Bible School to fall parties to trunk or treat to Christmas parade decorating, there are tons of ways a person can serve the church without standing in front of people or being a long term commitment.
Have short term service teams that are easy to onboard. This will allow people to jump on the service train at their interest and ability level and jump off the train when they need to without feeling super guilty.
I know this all sounds too simple to be true, but in the congregation I serve we have over a 90% involvement rate by those who call themselves members of the church.
Look it’s not magic and I’m not perfect at this by any means, but it’s also not impossible. Getting people involved and into service can be significantly easier than we might have imagined. It just takes reworking some definitions and reframing our mindset when it comes to volunteers!
In the next post I’ll give you a way that works wonders when it comes to seeking out and asking those volunteers that takes the pressure off of everyone. But for now step back and check your expectations and terms of involvement. Do they make it too hard to serve or not valuable enough? That’s something you can control easily.
I remember the first time I watched the cartoon around Christmas time titled The Island of Misfit Toys. It was almost like a Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer part two. I watched the movie and thought it was terrible. I mean why in the world would we highlight the misfits, not good enoughs, odd balls, societal outcasts? It just didn’t make sense to me. Not because these people aren’t important but highlighting someone as a misfit only makes the issue worse! Now we have a movie all about me being a misfit! Who wants that?!?!
That movie came to mind again the other day as I was reading through something in the Bible. And it made me realize that sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable and even preferable to be one of the misfits in life.
Ok so the Bible doesn’t use the word misfit. I don’t even think the Message paraphrase goes quite that far! But if you think about it, that’s exactly what we’re talking about here. In the part of the Bible where Jesus calls his disciples, we can see it. To me it’s as clear as can be. The men that Jesus called to be his front line workers, were societal misfits!
This is hugely significant! And ridiculously comforting to me. I know for a fact that I’m not the best at what I do. I’m not the most eloquent, gifted, good looking, popular, guy on the block. There are pastors who are far more talent than I am to be certain! But I’m not a tax collector like Matthew.
Don’t hear me wrong here. I’m not saying I’m better than Matthew was by any means! It’s just who likes tax collectors? And even worse is how poorly these people were looked upon by the men and women of their culture. So Jesus choosing a tax collector was a pretty bold move! And one that gives me a bit of hope.
Another thing that was really great about this section where Jesus selects his followers is that none of them were Harvard graduates! Ok so I know Harvard wasn’t around but still. They were regular, ordinary and largely uneducated men. Jesus didn’t send them away to disciple school or some formal institution to get more knowledge before starting them on ministry tasks.
It was very much a show and tell kind of on the job training which was super effective! We’ll probably highlight the strategy for training Jesus’ followers in a future post, but for now just let it sink in that Jesus chose people that weren’t already wrapped up in someone else’s discipleship group. He picked the ones that weren’t super well loved by the community. And he picked the not always brightest bulbs in the pack! All that to say, there’s hope for you and for me!
The long and short of this post is pretty simple. Don’t be an idiot just because Jesus can use the uneducated. But also don’t fret if you’re not the most powerful or popular kid on the block. Jesus can work some amazing things through faithful, humble men and women of integrity. It’s really that simple. So be a misfit, outcast, whatever you want to call it. But know that those who don’t fit in in the world’s eyes can easily have a place in the Kingdom of God.
Ever have two seemingly opposing ideas that you knew were both true but didn’t seem to match up? On a simple scale it’s like trying to balance my desire to be healthy with my love for pizza, tacos and chocolate cookies. It’s really hard to keep those two thoughts in a way that seems to honor both. It’s like there’s an unhealthy tension that exists that is almost insurmountable. We will call that the balancing act.
More life altering than the tension between dieting and a love for tacos and cookies, there is a key concept in Christianity that deals with something we call the sovereignty of God. This is the idea that God is infinite, always and everywhere. He is over all things, in all things and works through all things. This is actually a really big deal that I might have to tackle in a later post by itself. But for now try to imagine everything in the world under one microscope. Imagine a being that is able to see all things around the world in one picture at the same time. That’s a pretty significantly spectacular or in this case sovereign being.
Now match that up with the idea that the same being with all that power and size is so personal that he knows your thoughts, cares, worries and fears. He wants to hear about your day and provide for you in ways that no one else can. This is the balancing act we find ourselves in with the God of the Bible.
The Bible paints the picture that God is eternal and forever and all powerful and, well sovereign. But it also gives us the demonstration that God is personal and individual and very intimate. Such a cool balancing act that we get to work with as we navigate the truth of who God really is.
Sovereignty and intimacy are two ends of the spectrum of the identity of God.
Words like creator and redeemer and advocate for humanity are concepts that speak to this idea of sovereignty. He’s called Lord of lords and King of kings. He’s referred to as everlasting and eternal. All of this speaks to the vastness of God’s power and presence in the world.
As we embrace the sovereignty of God, we are humbled and left in awe. This is a power we can hardly fathom. The reality of this size and magnitude is something so vast it’s nearly beyond comprehension.
Then as we turn the coin of God’s character over, we see words like love and Father, adoption and child of God. This leaves us even more awestruck and dumbfounded than before! How can a God who’s so massive be so in to me? How can a God who’s infinite be so intimate? How can a God who is so powerful also be so personal?
This is the paradox in which we live. This is the balancing act we much wrestle with as followers of Jesus today. God truly is sovereign in every way while also remaining intimate and personal in every way. And it’s all because he loves us. When we can accept this reality about God, we’ll be able to better understand all he’s done for us. But for now, it’s a balancing act.
I knew a couple who were a fairly unique pair of individuals. Each one had their own quirks to say the least. But one of them was less unique than the other. Ok so I’ll shoot straight here – one of them was just a bit much and was a hard person to get along with much of the time. This individual would tend to over share information, and life needed to be their way all the time!
I often said that the less hard to get along with spouse was a saint for how they dealt with the other. A saint in this case isn’t someone who died centuries ago and is now remembered for all eternity. Rather a saint in this usage is someone who was willing and able to put up with a lot of baggage out of love for the other person. They were a good person.
In my experience it seems as if we tend to throw the saint word around a little bit too easily in my book. We tend to miss the point of what a saint really is. I don’t think a saint is necessarily a genuinely good person. That diminishes the real value of what a saint truly is. Instead a saint is someone who has experienced the goodness of God.
Do you see the difference? It’s not about my goodness that makes me saintly, rather it’s about knowing I’m not all that good and still experiencing the goodness of God’s great love for me.
There’s something kind of special about being this kind of a saint. When we can acknowledge our “not goodness,” it makes the grace of God that much more powerful and amazing. When I recognize the tremendous amount of grace I’ve required from so many people, the easier it is for me to see the goodness in others.
Being a saint doesn’t mean we have it all together, or even that we’re necessarily all that good of people. It means that we’ve experienced something that not everyone realizes. We’ve experienced the goodness of God in immeasurable ways.
So have you experienced the goodness of God? Then you too my friend are what I call a saint!
There has been a lot of ink spilled in books and articles on the idea of changing your mindset. Some call it self help. Others call it mind over matter. Some think it’s the best advice ever while others think it’s all a bunch of hocus pocus superstition. But if you really take time to think about it, what you think about and how you think about it affects how you approach something.
There’s a quote attributed to Henry Ford that says whether you believe you can or you can’t, either way you’re right.
The idea here is that of a self promoting or defeating mindset. Yeah I know, sounds kind of wizardish at first. It sounds like saying if we think about something one way then it’s sure to happen that way? Kind of but not really.
Think about the last time you didn’t feel well. There are two ways to react when you’re not feeling 100%. No I’m not talking about death bed feeling bad. I’m referring to the crummy, I have a cold and don’t want to do anything kind of feeling. If you’ve ever had one of those feverish, tired, achy kind of moments, did you realize that the more you just laid around and thought about feeling crummy the worse you actually felt? Then when you had something to distract you and take your mind off of the crummy feeling, you almost felt normal for a moment? Yep that’s what Ford was getting at I think.
There is a really powerful thing that happens in our brain. When we don’t think we can do something and when that’s the focus of our attention, then we pretty much set ourselves up for failure.
I love to workout. I like to throw heavy weight around. So I’m not a big dude by any stretch and I’m not a powerlifter or anything like that. But once upon a time I maxed out my benchpress at 350lbs. And I remember the first time I tried it. I got all settled and grabbed the barbell then told myself there is no way you’re going to lift this. It is way too heavy. You weigh less than half this amount.
Guess what…I didn’t lift it. It was too heavy. The moral here is that we can convince ourselves that something is impossible or too much or too hard or whatever the case may be.
So what’s holding you back? What are you wanting to do that you just can’t accomplish? What is it that you have been dreading? If we follow the mindset shift analogy, then we can approach things a bit differently and actually make a real effort to get the job done. Be honest with yourself but don’t sell yourself short. Change your mindset and watch as the possibilities open up!
For over 20 years now I’ve done pretty much one thing with my life. Some people say I’ve worked one day a week and it must be nice to have this kind of gig. And well they’re kind of right. Ok not the one day a week bit but it is a pretty nice gig! However, I have to admit, the 20 years have not been all roses and candy, and that’s largely my own fault. You see I had a wrong focus for the first several years that I served as a pastor and that caused me a great deal of grief. It also likely led some people to a bad understanding of who we really were. For that I must apologize.
For decades, we’ve seemingly missed a key point in what it means to be followers of Jesus. It’s evident in the way we talk and how we use some key words in our vocabulary. We’ve changed the meaning of words to fit our comfort levels. We’ve left parts out of the Bible. Maybe we did it because we didn’t know better. Or perhaps it was because we just weren’t comfortable with going that far.
This post is about going that far. I’m growing increasingly tired of lowering the bar to make life easier and that’s exactly what the church has done for decades. We’ve become the lovey dovey, sissified, passive but vocal group that really doesn’t do a lot. There are exceptions but from what I see this is more the norm than the exception.
Warning: What follows is not a lowering of the bar. It’s not an attempt to make the church feel better about itself and tell you it’s going to be ok. Actually it’s just the opposite. It’s not going to be ok. If things don’t shift, and we don’t start to take our calling more seriously then we’re doing a great disservice to the gospel and leading people into a false sense of hope.
Being the church cannot be a hobby for weekends when we’re bored!
Acts 2:42 is a powerful verse that provides insight into the early Christian church and its practices. The verse reads, They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. This simple sentence outlines four key practices that were absolutely critical to the early Christian community and should be seen as vital to the church today. I will even go so far as to say that without all four of these parts we cannot be the church.
The Apostles’ Teaching
The first practice that the early Christians devoted themselves to was the apostles’ teaching. This simply refers to the teachings of Jesus passed down by his apostles. These teachings were foundational to the Christian faith and formed the basis for the early church’s beliefs.
They knew that the only way to truly find meaning and power in life was through the word of God. Just like God created Adam in the Garden of Eden but he wasn’t alive until God breathed into him, so also we aren’t really alive until we have the life-giving words of God in our hearts and minds.
For the church today, the apostles’ teaching refers to the Bible. We need to be devoted to the reading, hearing and talking about the Bible. We need to spend time regularly in the Bible as individuals, couples, families, churches, Christians. All of us need the Bible, especially as we look around at the cesspool of crap the floating in the world today.
A special word of caution for parents: if we are not making the Bible a key part of our family diet, then what will our children do when they are met with challenge in their day to day lives? We should fill our children so full of the truth of the Bible that when the world cuts them, they bleed the word of God.
Fellowship
The second practice that the early Christians devoted themselves to was fellowship. This refers to the act of gathering together with other believers to share their lives, encourage one another, worship, and hold each other accountable. The early Christian community placed a high value on fellowship, recognizing that it was important for believers to be in community with one another.
Unfortunately we’ve watered down the idea of fellowship and simply toss the label on anything the institutional church does as a group. We have dart team fellowship, pickle ball fellowship, trash collection fellowship, fellowship luncheons, fellowship conferences, youth fellowship and the list goes on! But is it really fellowship? Or just a fun activity that we want to pretend is churchy so we throw the label on it to make ourselves feel better?
The concept of fellowship was so vital that it wasn’t about what each individual got out of the time together. Instead the point of fellowship was what you brought to the group. When they devoted themselves to fellowship they didn’t focus on themselves but on the rest of the gathering. They truly had a oneness to their community and it was evident to everyone around them.
The Breaking of Bread
The third nonnegotiable practice that defined the early Christians was the breaking of bread. This phrase refers to the act of sharing a meal together. The early Christian community recognized the importance of sharing meals together as a way of building community and celebrating their faith. They knew that eating together was a great way of building a bond that wasn’t easily broken.
This phrase is also about a very specific meal though – communion. The gathering together for the bread and wine, body and blood of Jesus, was a vital part of what it meant to be the church. When they gathered together, they expected to meet Jesus. They didn’t come to be entertained or given a feel good message. Nope! They gathered together expecting to experience the God of the universe right there in their midst.
When we gather for worship, bible study, small groups, fellowship gatherings and the like do we really expect to see Jesus? Or just have a mildly entertaining time, get a spiritual high, then go back to life as usual? If the church is really going to be the church that God calls out into the world we need to expect to see Jesus when we gather!
Prayer
The fourth and final pillar that held up the early church was a devotion to prayer. They didn’t shy away from the act of praying together whenever they met and we shouldn’t either.
There are so many times when we say we’re going to pray for someone but we just feel like we’re not capable, good enough, adequate in our vocabulary, educated enough and we shy away. But praying together should be like breathing. We need to be able to offer prayers for one another every time we gather. No one is better or worse at this task because we are not the point of prayer…God is!
So there you have it four key things that define what it means to be the church. You either have them or you need to make these part of your life! No time like the present. Being the church isn’t a weekend hobby or something for the faint at heart. God doesn’t lower the bar for us and we shouldn’t either. It’s time to be the church.
Wow it’s been a week to say the least. There’s a thing in a pastor’s life called the Easter Hangover. It’s the few days or week after Easter when we go into hibernation mode to just recover. I know it’s odd since we only work one day a week and just because we have an extra service or two over the Easter season shouldn’t make much of a difference. Yeah yeah yeah I hear you.
But the week following Easter is always a week for me to slow things down a lot and refocus on what’s really important. Sure I’ve taken things easy this week and gotten a little more rest than I normally would but I’ve still done the regular functions of my job. One thing that’s really sat on my heart this week is what about after Easter? What are we to do with all the hype?
You’ve probably heard the popular sermon that states It’s Friday but Sunday is coming. It’s the idea that Good Friday was so terrible and so awful and so horrifying, but it wasn’t the end. It had to happen in order for Sunday to have its power. So the message kept repeating that Sunday was just around the corner. But what about after Easter?
I recently heard someone ask what about Easter Monday? What happened the Monday after Jesus rose? What did the disciples do that day? What did Jesus do? What should we be doing?
I think there was a bit of an Easter hangover that happened even for the disciples. I mean look at the emotional toll that this weekend took on them! Their teacher and really good friend was just horribly beaten and died in front of them. They watched as his body was buried and guards were placed so no one could get to him. They mourned and cried and sat in sheer shock and bewilderment. They were terrified about would then happen to them.
But here we are, it’s after Easter. Nothing happened to them. Jesus is no longer in the grave. He’s risen and that’s truly amazing but wow are they exhausted! We don’t have a lot of specific detail on the actions of Jesus after he rose from the dead. We don’t know specifically what he did on Monday after Easter or how he spent his Friday this week.
Maybe they had a fish fry? Or took a trip on the sea with the guys in the boat. We know that he did spend time with them and appeared to them several times. We know that he was in large groups of people who all were shocked to see him alive. If I had to guess this week was spent letting the disciples get used to the idea that the resurrection was real. He didn’t require a lot of them. Or give them any really important information because they probably wouldn’t have remembered it in the first place!
You see the most important thing the disciples did after Easter was tell everyone what they had seen. It’s crazy easy to show up to church on Easter morning and hear the pastor and greet the people. We can sing the songs and get all emotional about the moment, but what do we do with it when we leave the building? What about the rest of the week? What about next Sunday?
This is a week to let it all sink in. Take time to get used to the fact that the resurrection is real! And it’s just as real for you and me today as it was for them that first Easter week. So get used to the idea that Jesus’ resurrection is real. But it’s time we start doing something with the reality of the resurrection.
In the early morning hours, before the sun began to peak above the horizon, darkness covered the landscape. The air was cool. No one was around. It’s almost as if the earth stopped for a moment. There was an eerie silence that was oddly deafening.
As your feet strolled slowly across the dew covered grass, you notice that nothing was moving. No animals were scurrying about. No birds were chirping. No rustling in the woods. Nothing. Not a single sound could be heard but that silence was so powerful it was almost audible.
The farther you walk, the more uneasy you feel. No noise around you is bringing feelings of fear to your mind. The air is heavy with humidity, yet it is cool on your lungs as you take in a slow, deep breath. You can smell the aroma of flowers cut through the moist air. But still no sound to be heard.
The only sound is that of your feet touching the ground as you make your way across the terrain. Step. Shuffle. Step. Shuffle. You stop walking to see if anything is out there, but alas nothing around you. Not a single moving thing on the face of the earth can be heard.
This sound of silence is reminiscent of the events of Good Friday and Holy Saturday (the day before Easter). It’s the sound, or lack of it, that had overcome the world. The disciples were no longer confident. They were cowering in fear. The soldiers were fast asleep. The enemies of Jesus were dreaming sweet dreams thinking they had won. Satan was even comfortable in the blow of defeat that he dealt to Jesus.
Now displayed lifeless in his tomb, Jesus was gone. No one was looking for him anymore. His cries from the cross were silenced in the moment his head fell. The silence of this moment speaks volumes in our lives today. It’s the sound of silence.
Most of the time we are somber in silence. We are fearful in dark quiet places. We think that victory is loud and boastful. But not today. Today the victory is found in the stillness of that morning. The triumph is experienced in the deafening moments of quiet.
On this Good Friday, pause for a moment. Enjoy the quiet of the early morning. Remember the silence the women heard as they traveled to the tomb. Focus on the quiet and dark of that Good Friday morning. Listen to the silence. What does this moment say to you?
The events of this week are powerful for those who live out their Christian faith. From Palm Sunday celebrations to seemingly business as usual until the special services on Thursday and Friday and then the big reveal on Easter morning, this week is filled with power and emotion. But it’s not just the big days that are important. There is something special about each of these days through the week that we call Holy Week.
Yesterday we dealt with having the case of the Mondays. And today we’ll move into that day often called Holy Tuesday. The word holy is a word designated for things set apart or different for a specific purpose. This Tuesday of Holy Week is a special one to be sure.
A few key things happened on this Tuesday of Holy Week that make it stand out from the other Tuesdays in life. First, we see Jesus on a trip which isn’t all that unusual. On the way he discusses what faith really means by killing a fig tree. I know it seems a bit odd to do this but the point was made in a bold fashion. The disciples, kind of like we are today, were a bit on the hard headed side and easily missed the often obvious!
So Jesus kills the fig tree for not bearing fruit and then tells the disciples that if they had faith they too could do similar things. The point wasn’t about killing a tree really. The key was faith. We say we have faith, but when it comes time to actually act on that faith there are often crickets! No action. Faith gives way to fear which gives way to freeze. But Jesus offers an alternative. Believe that the one who called you to do this is able to help you accomplish it.
But there’s more to this Holy Tuesday than a dead fig tree. Jesus makes his way to a mountain called Olivet. And here he gives a sermon that is often referred to as the Olivet Discourse. I know super original naming right?
Well on this mountain, Jesus starts to teach that things are going to change drastically over the next few days. He tells them he’s going to die. Then that he won’t be around anymore. Then that they will be in charge of keeping this movement going in his absence. This is really why he was teaching them about faith through the fig tree. He needed them to believe they were able to do what he was calling them to do.
Nestled in the middle of the Olivet Discourse is a section dealing with the end of the world. Insert ominous music in the background. Well the section dealing with the end is really a lesson on how the world will un-evolve when he’s gone. So Jesus is saying that he’s going to die and rise and ascend. But when he’s gone the world is going to be really hard. And increasingly so as we get further and further from His death and resurrection. The more time lapses between when Jesus was here the harder and more evil the world will become.
But there’s a glimmer of hope buried in that sermon. Not only will things get hard and we’ll really not like it at all while it’s happening, but when it runs its course he will come back. That’s the cool part of this whole week.
Jesus is hailed as King. Paraded through town. Then quickly abandoned for a more convenient prospect. Then killed and tossed outside the city to hopefully be forgotten. But his followers are supposed to carry this message just like he carried his cross. Until one day life will be so full of evil and death and wrong and sin that God will call it over. He’ll send Jesus back and collect what’s rightfully his. The rest will dealt with in what is called judgment.
So this week isn’t really about Jesus dying and rising as much as it is laying the foundation for something that is yet to come in the future for all of us. Holy Week is about Jesus coming back again to close the book on this sinful world and set us up in a place that is far better than anything we could ever imagine. And that’s what happened on a Tuesday.
