221: Mistake #6: Recruiting (Yep, Just Stop It) | Church Volunteer Series

In Mistake #6 of Stop Doing This to Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making, we rethink recruitment altogether. Instead of building programs and then scrambling to fill roles, what if our people shaped our ministry? 

This episode explores the difference between recruiting and developing - and why unique churches grow when we build around the gifts already in the room.

In this episode, we cover:

1. The difference between recruiting to fill roles and developing people over time
2. Why cookie-cutter ministry models keep us stuck
3. How to let the people God brings determine the direction of your ministry
4. Why development builds long-term health (and recruiting often protects our programs)

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Transcript

Laurie Graham  0:01 
Hey, welcome to the Small Church Ministry Podcast, where we help volunteers and ministry leaders experience less stress, more joy and greater impact as we share strategies that actually do work in smaller churches. I'm your host, Laurie Graham. Let's dive in.

Laurie Graham  0:23 
Hey, hey, welcome back to the Small Church Ministry Podcast. We are winding down with mistake number six. We've got one more after this one in our series on Stop Doing This To Volunteers: Top Mistakes Our Churches Are Making, talking all about volunteers. 

So far in this series, we've stopped locking people into roles. We've stopped making it easy in a way that deflates all energy. We've stopped building hierarchy, defaulting to meetings and planning without them. Every episode has been about opening the system back up, inviting people in different ways, and today we're talking about recruiting, which might be one of the worst habits of all. 

Okay, this is bold and I'm saying it. Recruiting is a mistake, plain and simple. Mistake number six is recruiting people. Now, before we all panic, I'm not saying we don't invite people in to serve, but I want to differentiate today what recruiting means, the beliefs that are behind it, and why we can and should do better. What we need to stop doing is building cookie cutter programs and then scrambling to try to fill them in, because recruiting assumes that the plan is fixed, that the roles are set, and that we need bodies to fill the positions. 

But what if that was backwards? Because, honestly, I believe it is, by the end of this episode, we're going to flip it all on its head, because maybe the question isn't who can fill this role? Maybe the question is, who has God brought here and what are they built to do? I'm just gonna say that one more time. Maybe the question isn't who can fill this role. Maybe the question is, who has God brought here and what are they built to do? And I think we can include ourselves in that. 

What are we built to do? Because many times those of us listening to this podcast right now, those of us who've been serving hard for a lot of years, sometimes we're serving in spots that we weren't built to do, and we've been happy and content, filling roles. But what if there's something more? 

Let's talk about what recruiting actually is. Recruiting looks like this. We have a nursery rotation, we have a youth program, we have a calendar, we have a structure, and now we need teachers, greeters, helpers, tech. So we put up, sign up sheets, we make announcements. We use urgency language. We hint that if no one steps up, this ministry will die, and this recruiting process sounds responsible, but underneath it, the belief is this, if this program doesn't run, we have failed, and that belief, it keeps us chasing effort and bodies and role-fillers, instead of building and developing people, so recruiting, it does fill roles, if you can be effective at it. 

But development, development shapes people. These are not the same things Jesus did not walk around looking for fully trained synagogue leaders to plug into a pre-built system. He gathered people, he developed them, he invited them, he shaped them, and then the ministry grew out of who they were becoming. 

It's the same in the Old Testament. God didn't drop a program on Israel and say, Okay, now let's find the people who are trained and ready to do these things. God worked with the people he formed. It went hand-in-hand and us, we often borrow somebody else's ministry model, the church model that we've heard of, that we've seen with a Children's program and a Sunday school, and a Men's Ministry and a Prayer Team. 

We copy what works in other churches or a bigger church or a different church. We build a calendar, then we panic when we can't staff it, or we feel like we're failing when we don't have a children's program, or we don't have a nursery, or we don't have a Live Worship team, and this is how churches started looking identical, because everybody's copying all these models around them, not because God made cookie cutter churches. 

Most of the programs that fill our churches. They weren't part of the early church. They weren't mandated by Jesus. Think of the program, now the purpose. The purpose is good, developing people, sharing the hope that we have in Christ, building leaders, discipleship. The purpose is good, but what I'm saying is those cookie cutter programs, I think we're a little bit off when we start with the programs instead of the people. 

So what if we flip the question? What if, instead of asking, who can fill this role, what if we asked, who is here? What are their gifts? What lights them up? What capacity do they have? What capacity do we have? What if the people that were around us determined our ministry, instead of the other way around? 

Because the other way around means our ministry programs determine the people who follow us, and I'm sorry, but that's often true, the people who end up staying in our churches are the people that fit into the ministry programs. What would happen if we did it differently? What if the people around us determined our ministry? I've seen churches like this. I've been part of ministries like this. And you know what? They're very unique. Some of them we've had on the podcast. 

Ruth Popkin was on the podcast not too long ago, talking about neurodiversity and the people who ended up at her church and how it has curbed the way that they do things, from a homeschool group that meets in the church, to having Fidget Busters out in the congregation, to the people that they are discipling, to the way they do ministry, to people who are staying in their church who didn't stay in other churches. 

That's a unique ministry. The people we've had on talking about food pantries and how this food pantry becomes an outreach. Not just the church is doing outreach to the community, but people in the community are part of the outreach. They're serving in the church. This is uniqueness. 

So who is around us? What are their gifts? What lights them up? Do you know what happens when we start asking these questions? We don't, we're not recruiting. We don't have to recruit, because the ideas and the ministry that develops is from the people who are sharing those ideas. This partners pretty well with the episode we had last week about not planning first and then asking people to help second. 

But what if people determined the ministry and not the other way around. Imagine a church with artists, where creative ministry grows. Imagine a church with intercessors, where prayer shapes everything in a completely different way. Imagine a church full of teachers or full of builders, people who work in construction and contracting. Imagine what impact, what unique ministry could be happening. 

Imagine unique churches, not cookie cutter churches, not four churches on the same corner, competing for Vacation Bible School, but one offering a Music Camp and one offering a cooking experience or sewing, and one speaking into the sports culture. Yeah, and one speaking into technology or construction, beautifully shaped by the people who God actually brought into your community. Can we stop recruiting? Can we start developing people? I think that's a pretty beautiful thing.

Laurie Graham  10:25 
Let's talk about the concept of recruiting, and what it does to us if we are the ones recruiting, if it's your job to recruit people to fill these roles, can we just talk about the responsibility of that, and if that's really a God-given responsibility, are we supposed to find people to get people to say yes? What if people say no? Are we failing? 

There is so much pressure with this thought that we are supposed to be recruiting people to fill roles in our ministries. Have you ever had that feeling when you couldn't find somebody to fill the spot? Like, what does it do to us? We may feel like failures. We may feel like people don't like us. We may just feel like now we have to do it because they won't do it. 

Sometimes bitterness grows, sometimes pride grows, because we're the people who are going to do it, and they're not the word recruiting, the term recruiting, the concept of recruiting, there is so much in there that goes in such terrible places. Recruiting can involve a lot of manipulation, usually not intentionally. Recruiting often involves like, selling the benefits, selling this and that, sometimes twisting people's arms, but sometimes just convincing them in the most positive light, but there's always an agenda with recruiting. 

You know, when there's not an agenda, when we love people, when we build relationships, when we try to understand them, and even sometimes help them understand themselves, when we don't have an agenda on our own, when we just get to know someone and think with curiosity, how cool it would be if each of us was serving in their God-given gift and passion area. Now it's not quick, it's not a quick fix, and nor do I think that Jesus in the New Testament, or the God of the Old Testament ever taught quick fixes. 

You may not have a fully staffed nursery. And you know what you call a church without a nursery, a church. You may not have the music program that you want, because maybe it involves recruiting, and maybe those people aren't around right now. And you know what you call a church with a music program that isn't amazing, a church. 

If we really believe that a church is the people, and that Christ is the head of the church, and that God provides what we need, and that God uniquely brings a community together with all these pieces and parts like the body of Christ, then what would happen if we spent time exploring that, getting to know ourselves and the people around us, and developing, being part of developing each other, like as a community, seeking out what we're excited about. And can I just also say those things aren't always on a gifts inventory. I think inventories can be helpful. I think it's sweet sometimes, when we give people ideas of, Hey, are you passionate about these ideas? Check the box. 

What skills are you bringing to the table? Check the box. But do you know what happens? And I'm betting it's happened to you at one point or another. Sometimes we don't fit one of those boxes. And we look at those passion areas and we're like, uh, those aren't,  none of those are my passion area. Or we look at the skill sets and we're like, wow, I want to serve in this area, but that's not my skill set. That's what often happens with inventories, the people who are used to succeeding places succeed very well with inventories and gift tests, and you know, all of these processes we put people through to figure out what spot in the church they fit in. 

But you know who doesn't fit? The people who are unique, the people who have different callings outside of the typical programs, the people who want to start an art studio, the people who want to bring their experience healing through trauma into a different space, the people who have unique callings that I can't even think of right now because they've never been done. That's the God that we serve. God is anything but predictable. So maybe if we step out of trying to have a predictable, and I'll say, cookie cutter type of a church, where we have roles that we're trying to fill, because there's a closed system there, there's a system of what we believe a church should look like. 

What if, instead of focusing on that, we stopped recruiting people and started developing. Instead of asking who will cover this, we start asking, Who are we growing and how are we growing? What if we just had some practical shifts? Maybe it's not all or nothing. Maybe we just get rid of a few of the preset roles. Maybe we move into some more of gift discovery, more mentoring, more apprenticeships, more conversations, more one-on-one development, yes, this is slower. It's not necessarily efficient. 

It's not going to get you somewhere fast. And again, I'll go back to that quote. If you want to go somewhere fast, go alone. But if you want to go somewhere far, go with others. God didn't call us to do anything fast. In fact, so many dreams God-given dreams weren't even fulfilled in the lifetimes of those who had those dreams. Let's go slow. Let's go together. Let's go deep. Let's go real. Let's go with honesty and authenticity and real connection and discovery. Yes, and sometimes this means in our churches that we would have to simplify a little, because if we have to twist arms to keep something going, if we have to recruit hard and do those urgency please from the pulpit, please stop those, by the way, they are so manipulative. If we have to do those things, maybe that's not what we were meant to carry. Now, I don't think our intentions are usually wrong. 

I think our intentions are good, but I think sometimes we recruit because we're attached to a program. Sometimes we recruit because we don't want to cancel, we don't want to look small, we don't want to look like we're failing us or our church. We don't want to admit that our capacity has changed, or maybe the people who are here now have a different passion than the people who were here in the last season. Recruiting protects our pride. If we can recruit well and keep something going, we succeeded, but development, development builds other people and ourselves recruiting and developing they are not the same thing. 

Now I will still always answer the question, how can we recruit more people? Because this is a term that we know, that we're familiar with, and I will always answer that question with how to develop people, because there's skills, there's skills in leadership, there are skills in developing people. There are skills that we can learn to be effective communicators, to talk about our passions, to invite people in, to plan together, to plan well, to learn to team build better, to learn, to develop people better. There are skills. We're not throwing out the purpose. We're not throwing out the ministry impact. But I would like to throw out the term recruiting. It's just not where I want to land. 

And I would love to invite you into this discussion. Maybe I said things you don't agree with. Maybe I said things you're questioning. Maybe I said things that feel shocking to you. Maybe I said things that you've been trying to name yourself. But I do think it's worth the conversation. And imagine if we develop the people that were around and our churches started to take on some uniqueness. Can you imagine churches that look really different from each other? Can you imagine churches that were moving at different speeds? Can you imagine churches different churches that reflect the gifts in their unique settings. How about this one? Can you imagine churches that serve from capacity instead of pressure, because to me, that looks a lot more like Jesus, and it's not smaller, it's wiser and it's deeper.

Laurie Graham  20:24 
And it is highly impactful and it changes lives. I hope you have enjoyed this series on maybe a new look at churches and volunteers, some top mistakes, some ways we could do differently, maybe better. Next week, we will close this entire series. We're going to talk about something that might feel scary to talk about. We're going to talk about quitting and why volunteers should have vacation days. I don't say should very often, and I am saying it today, why volunteers should have vacation days, sick days, and they should have a really clear way to exit without guilt. We're going to talk about why healthy endings build stronger churches. 

So we're talking about quitting next week. It's a perfect way to wrap up this series. So whether you are a pastor, a ministry leader, a volunteer in any ministry area, we are totally here for you, so until next week, be a light.