Leith Anderson - The Volunteer Church: Mobilizing Your Congregation for Growth and Effectiveness

The Volunteer Church is an immensely practical and hands-on guide to encouraging, recruiting, motivating, and caring for the volunteers who make our church ministry possible. It is an invaluable tool in helping the members of our churches discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

REV. PAUL JORGENSEN, Cornerstone Church, Litchfield, MN

The Volunteer Church is a must read for every ministerial and lay leader in the church. I only wish I had had this book early on in my ministry.

DR. GEORGE O. WOOD, General
Superintendent, the General Council of the Assemblies of God, Springfield, MO

I met two pastors within the last week who lamented their lack of volunteers. Both wondered what God could do if they had more well-trained volunteers to accomplish their mission. And both werent sure how to solve this problem. They needed this book. You need this book. Read it and discover how to create a culture of volunteering at your church.

JASON STRAND, Teaching Pastor, Eagle Brook Church, Minneapolis, MN

This is a now needed book. The Volunteer Church captures the imagination of what church should and could be now and in the future. People are longing to volunteer but need a pathway. Here it is! The weaving of the biblical and historical stories of volunteerism with contemporary examples is a compelling call to action. This is a watershed book for our time, coupled with specific guidance on how to lead a much needed volunteer movement of the kingdom of God on earth. Should be in the hands of every Christian leader!

JO ANNE LYON, General Superintendent, the Wesleyan Church, Fishers, IN

The New Testament paints a vision of the church where every member is equipped for the work of ministry. Ministry is not just for a few paid professionals. Ministry is for every Christ-follower, and this means that ministry is for volunteers. In The Volunteer Church, Leith Anderson and Jill Fox provide us with the theological foundation for developing a volunteer culture and the practical advice needed to effectively recruit, train, and care for volunteers. This book should be required reading for all desiring to develop and maintain a volunteer culture in the local church setting.

JUSTIN A. IRVING, PhD, Professor of Ministry Leadership, Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, MN

As a pastor, Ive grown to appreciate the value of volunteers and the role they play in the life of a church. In The Volunteer Church, authors Leith Anderson and Jill Fox discuss the culture of volunteerism and give practical tools for volunteer recruitment and development. This book is a welcome resource for anyone serving in church leadership.

JOHN K. JENKINS SR., Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Glenarden, Upper Marlboro, MD

ZONDERVAN

The Volunteer Church

Copyright 2015 by Leith Anderson and Jill Fox

ePub Edition June 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-51916-4

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Anderson, Leith, 1944

The volunteer church : mobilizing your congregation for growth and effectiveness / Leith Anderson and Jill Fox.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-51915-7 (softcover)

1. Church personnel management. 2. Lay ministry. 3. Laity. I. Fox, Jill, 1979- II. Title

BV652.13.A53 2015

253 dc23

2015002786

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Brand Navigation
Cover photography: iStockphoto
Interior design: Denise Froehlich

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

The church. A place where the lost are found, the tired are renewed, the lonely find community, and the brokenhearted are healed. The place where the family of God worships together. The church changes lives, and those changed lives change the world. The heart of the church large, small, or medium is its people.

Especially those known as volunteers.

Working with volunteers can be a rewarding and exciting experience for them as well as for those who recruit, train, and maintain their services. However, if we are honest, we know there are times it can be frustrating. But we also know that volunteers are essential, even vital, to creating growth and new ministries. They are the key to introducing youth and children and adults too to Jesus Christ. They have the welcoming smiles at the door, and they serve the food, pray for needs, teach Bible classes, mentor others, stuff bulletins, organize missions trips, and on and on. If you want to see your church grow, it must be a volunteering church, a church that functions on volunteers.

If you lead a church or parts of its ministry outreach and are exhausted by the lack of volunteer help, this book is for you. If you are a volunteer and dream of adding numbers to your team, this book is for you. If you are on a church staff and know that a new ministry is needed, but volunteers and training are required to make it happen, this book is for you.

So join us on the journey to build the volunteering church.

Learn how to effectively recruit and train volunteers.

Discover how to build sustainable, long-lasting ministries led by volunteers.

Find methods for encouraging and maintaining your volunteers.

Know how to build teams of volunteers.

Understand how to find the right service that fits a willing volunteer.

Whether you are delighted with your volunteers, flustered at the lack, or simply want to improve on what your church is already doing, we invite you to become the volunteering church. Youll see your teams of workers be fulfilled, ministries grow, and the church staff excel.

CHAPTER

LEITH

Google the phrase why people volunteer and about seventy-three million websites and articles will appear. If you read any of them, youll quickly conclude that people want to volunteer. Thats good news! And even better, youll be pleased to learn that religious volunteering tops most of the lists. (Well, some of the lists. I confess I did not have enough time to read all seventy-three million sites.)

Instead of researching on a computer the motivation behind volunteering, though, try looking for the answer in the Bible. Youll find lots of volunteers. Youll find them in the Old Testament book of Judges individuals who stepped up and answered Gods call during some of the troubled times in Israels history. For example, God raised up an amazing leader named Deborah, who was a prophetess, judge, politician, and military strategist. She was also a songwriter and singer; heres some of her song: