234: Great Volunteers Need More Than Spiritual Gifts

Great volunteers aren't just gifted. They keep growing. 

In this episode, we're talking about why practical ministry skills matter more than many churches realize and how growing yourself may be one of the greatest gifts you can give your church.

In this episode, we're talking about:

1. Why some volunteers create more impact than others
2. The difference between caring and effectiveness
3. Why practical skills aren't competing with faith
4. How communication, conflict resolution, and leadership skills shape ministry outcomes
5. Why healthy churches are built by people who never stop learning

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Join the Network for $6 for your first month here!

Join our free Facebook Community

Get the Ministry Bundles here!

Transcript

234: Great Volunteers Need More Than Spiritual Gifts

Laurie Graham Ertl 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.

​[00:00:00] 

Laurie Graham Ertl: Hey, hey. Welcome back to the Small Church Ministry podcast. This month, we are celebrating six years of Small Church Ministry, and we're talking about some foundational core philosophies and beliefs that really are part of why we even exist. A few weeks ago, we talked about influence and the distribution of influence between leaders and volunteers.

Last week, we talked a little bit more about that in a different angle, as far as people feeling like they're important and that phrase, just a volunteer. And also how sometimes churches reserve growth and development and learning more for pastors and staff and [00:01:00] leaders instead of developing everyone around them.

And today, I wanna talk about an important question, that I've been asked before, especially by pastors, is, "Why do some volunteers seem to create so much more impact than others?" Like, what makes a volunteer seem more valuable or have more impact? Because it's not that one person is more important than the other.

It's also is not at all about the title, and it is not because they're one of God's favorites or chosen, because we are all chosen. But to be fair, some people do start with some advantages. Some are naturally more outgoing, and that will lean towards certain types of ministry positions. Or some maybe are naturally better communicators because of the way they were raised or who they were around or even their education.

Some people walk into a room, and it feels like they naturally connect more easily with other people. And this is real, but I just wanna say this is not the whole [00:02:00] story. It might be the beginning of a story, but it is not the end. Because I have absolutely watched people who were incredibly introverted have amazing impact more than other people in the room.

I have also seen people who hated conflict, like they were conflict averse, a total avoidance, and they learned how not to just navigate conflict, but how to, like, work through resolution with people so that the relationships were stronger than they were before, and they also were able to teach those skills to other people in their church.

I've watched people who didn't think of themselves as leaders, actually recoiled at the word leaders or leadership, become much more effective than the people that we would call natural leaders. I have also watched naturally gifted people stop growing and eventually plateau. I've watched naturally gifted people fall behind, burn out, [00:03:00] fade away, church hop, not be as committed as others, not just because of things going on in their lives, but just with distraction. And so I just wanna say this as we talk today, really about that great volunteers need a lot more than giftedness. As we talk about that today, I just wanna say that gifts matter. Natural abilities matter, but they are not the deciding factor as to how much influence you can have. I think we put, like, these invisible ceilings on ourselves and also on other people, and they are not true because Jesus blew all those assumptions out of the water.

I can't even talk about how many times I have mentioned who Jesus chose, and you know who He chose. He chose tax collectors. He chose stinky fishermen. He chose people that no one else would have chosen. And I wanted to say He could have chosen the [00:04:00] natural orators of the time, the public speakers. He could have chosen people who were naturally natural leaders and respected and loved. Those people were around. But I think His example alone, like, if all we had to go on was Jesus' example, I think it matters, and that's what we're talking about today. Now, good intentions matter, too. Like, "Oh, I love kids," or, "I love worship," right? But good intentions and effectiveness in ministry also aren't the same thing.

Here's another assumption that I'm not sure that we make the assumption or if we just, like, go with it, but we assume that caring about something makes us qualified to be involved in those ministry areas. So I just wanna talk about this before we get into the guts of some of the things I'll be talking about.

But let's say we have a volunteer who loves kids. They seem engaging, but they really struggle to manage a classroom. Have you seen that? Or what about a ministry [00:05:00] leader who cares deeply about the men they're ministering to or the women or the young adults? They love those people, but they seem to create conflict everywhere they go.

Do you have one of those in your church? Or how about somebody with a huge heart? Like, we wanna have this person serving, but they have terrible communication skills. Or a well-intentioned team meeting that accomplishes absolutely nothing. These times when we either fall straight into the fact that this person's a natural leader, they should be leading, natural gifts, they should be serving, or they've got the biggest heart, so let's throw them in.

Now, we're talking about great volunteers, and I just need to say that we can't assume that if somebody cares enough, everything else will work out, or if something, somebody has natural gifted abilities in something, that everything's [00:06:00] gonna work out. Because it's not accurate. It's not how life works. It's not even how God created us to live and learn and be and lead.

A person can love Jesus or love kids or love their church or love worship music and still benefit from learning how children learn. Or how to sing on pitch or how to work well with humans who maybe are a little difficult to work with. We can care about people, we can have natural gifts, and we can still need help navigating a lots of ministry.

We just can. I mean, I love food. Can I just say, I love food. I love good food. I love finding a scratch kitchen. I can even become really passionate about thinking I'm gonna make these things at home, right? I love food. I would love to be able to create an amazing meal from random ingredients. But just because I love food and I want to be able to do this, [00:07:00] and I appreciate and even love the individual ingredients, 'cause I do, it doesn't make me a great chef.

Desire matters, intention matters, practice matters, too. A heart for ministry is totally important, but skills? Skills help that heart actually reach people. Now, caring is great. Caring is a starting point, but it's not the finish line. And honestly, I think we get stuck here. Too oftentimes, and I'll just take Children's ministry for an example, we see that somebody loves children, and we put them in a Sunday school room, and they fail.

And maybe people don't quite understand why, or maybe they can't manage a classroom, or maybe there's a conflict with relating to the parents of the kids that are getting dropped off. These people burn out. They might not ever do it again, and they feel like a failure. And the problem wasn't their heart or their giftedness. They might not have even been in the wrong [00:08:00] spot, but they did need some skills, right? It's kind of a ridiculous scenario if we put it in any other industry, any other situation, any other context. Somebody loves trees and they love to trim trees and we say, "Here's a chainsaw." We don't do that. Somebody says, "Hey, I wanna run the coffee shop," and we hire them and just leave them to run a coffee shop. It's a ridiculous scenario, and it's how a lot of us run our churches.

Maybe because we feel desperate, maybe because we just wanna trust, maybe because we think faith heals all things. But it's not true. We hand people responsibility, we hand people ministry, we hand people expectations, but oftentimes our churches, we are not handing them skills to succeed. And when we do talk about skills, sometimes we even act like they're less important than the more spiritual stuff, and I'll put spiritual there in quotes because I wanna talk about one more [00:09:00] thing that I think, we're kind of failing at in our churches.

Now, let me loop back to the whole point of this podcast. We're talking about great volunteers. What sets great volunteers apart? Why volunteers that have an amazing impact can be you, can be me, can be the person who's sitting in the pew uneven recognized right now. Because great volunteers are not set apart just by giftedness or by experience. We're gonna keep talking about what sets apart great volunteers, and by great, I mean they have a great impact. I mean, they're doing effective ministry, good relationships. What builds these volunteers?

As I get into that, I just wanna separate one more thing because I do think it's one of the reasons that keeps us a little stuck in some ways, or behind, or not reaching our potential, or not helping others to reach the potential that God created in [00:10:00] them. Sometimes we have separated discipleship from development.

I don't really know where it started or why it happens, but God created us spiritual, relational, emotional, intellectual, physical human beings. Like, we have soul and spirit, and a body, and a mind, and a heart, and emotions, and friendships. And for some reason, we've compartmentalized these things into different categories, and I think we've made the spiritual compartment too small.

Like, we've set spiritual apart. Like, it's Spiritual discipleship is learning, intellectually what the Bible means and memorizing Scripture, which is great, but it's no less spiritual than learning skills to have difficult conversations and come out better on the other side. Like, why is studying scripture considered discipleship but learning how to listen well, how to love well [00:11:00] isn't?

Or why is prayer considered really spiritual, but learning how to lead a meeting effectively somehow isn't as spiritual? Like, I don't think Jesus ever intended all these things to be compartmentalized. I think when we become better humans and grow in skills, we're, like, increasing our impact all around. I think studying Scripture is amazing. I think learning biblical principles is amazing, and I think God created our whole beings spiritual. I believe the way that we learn to listen, or handle conflict, or lead a meeting, or understand child development, or the ways that we can use our body and our voices with instruments, I think it's all very spiritual.

I think it's all connected, and I think sometimes we've shrunk discipleship down to a much smaller definition than it was ever meant to be. Like, even the emphasis on spiritual gifts. Like, what's your spiritual gift? What spiritual gift do you have? And we create [00:12:00] all these inventories. Okay, now in the Bible, when it talks about spiritual gifts, first off, I don't think it's an exclusive list, but there's a whole lot more Scriptures that talks about loving people well and forgiving, and even giving and generosity, than there are about spiritual gifts.

Now, spiritual gifts, I don't think it's wrong to study them or to do inventories, but could we get a little broader and think about skills? Because I'm just gonna list some skills that I believe the church needs every single day, and stay with me on this. Like, do you think the church needs these skills every day?

I think we need skills every day in dealing with conflict, in navigating difficult conversations, in developing volunteers, in leading board meetings, in planning meetings, in handling misunderstandings. And what, how I'm separating skills out are skills are things we all can learn. We all can get better at these things.

[00:13:00] So could we elevate skill development so we have more greater volunteers, and so that we are getting closer to our God-given potential in, like, navigating this human life that He gave us? Like, He put us here on the planet with all these dynamics around us. But if you think about how many church problems are not fixed by quoting a Scripture, okay?

I'm just gonna throw that out there. I'm not anti quoting Scripture. Typically, when I say these things, sometimes people like say, "Hey, hey." You know, the Jesus frosting on problems. But think about how many church problems might actually be communication problems, that maybe aren't heart issues or, or those deep spiritual sin type issues of submission or of treating people kindly or things like that.

But literally just communication problems. We're on a different page. We haven't learned [00:14:00] communication skills. Like, have you ever seen that happen? Like, if somebody just had more communication skills, that wouldn't be a problem? Or how many church problems are expectation problems or conflict problems or relationship problems?

Because a lot of church problems really aren't theology problems or doctrine problems. They're human problems. Human problems require human skills I honestly even, I cannot help but mention leading meetings. How many church meetings are led in a way that nobody wants to come to church meetings, and we get mad at people for not coming to meetings?

Well, if you understand humans this day and age. I mean, I was just at a training for adults, and there was Play-Doh on the table, and they gave breaks, and they had snacks, and they also had humor, and there was a point, and there was a result at the end of the meeting, and I thought, "Wow, if our church friends [00:15:00] could learn these skills in meetings, more people would connect and come and not drag their feet when they're asked to come to another meeting at church."

Do you see that this is, like, a human problem? It's also a human skill. Oh, most volunteer burnout doesn't happen because people don't care. It happens because they haven't learned skills for setting boundaries or even understanding how to lead themselves well. Most unhealthy meetings don't happen because people are selfish or, you know, trying to get their word out and stomp on other people.

It happens because, nobody knows how to facilitate a conversation well or to how to let all the different voices come to the table. Most youth group meetings don't end badly or lock-ins end with, like, disasters because the intentions weren't right. But when we learn skills of holding attention and leading a meeting and, and even worship leading [00:16:00] well, to make it about the other people and not just you on stage, being able to lead devotions in a way that expresses what you actually want to express, instead of maybe the opposite.

There are so many ministry skills, motivation, how to delegate things well. Most people don't follow through because they don't want to. We can learn skills in delegating, in leading, in boundaries, in emotional health, in honoring other people. There's skills here, not just spiritual platitudes. A lot of things that we call church problems that we're trying to heal in other ways or fix in other ways are really just very simple skills.

Like, can you imagine sending somebody onto a baseball field and just saying, "Just love baseball. No coaching, no practice, no instruction, no feedback necessary. If your heart's in the right place, it's gonna [00:17:00] go great"? And that causes so much conflict and failure and, even antagonism in our churches because people are letting us down and the expectations aren't right, and nobody would expect that to work, but we do it in ministry because God can totally use willing people.

What about that phrase? Like, God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. Okay, where is the equipping coming, everybody, right? I just wanna say this. What if the future health of our churches depends on people learning some skills? Like so many people today in our post-COVID culture and in our modern-day culture of busyness and the angst over people choosing sports and, you know, all kinds of stuff, which by the way, I do not enjoy that conversation of blaming other people.

Like, what if the future health of our church actually depended more on people learning [00:18:00] skills more than what's happening in our culture around us? The future health of our church. What if it depended on all of us learning better skills? 'Cause great volunteers need more than gifts and heart. They need skills. So this is where this gets really practical. Think about the difference between a meeting, a church meeting, whether it's elder board, ministry meeting, a training meeting, a meeting that drains people, and a meeting or a gathering that leaves people excited and literally can't wait till the next meeting. Or think about this.

Think about a conflict that explodes versus a conflict that gets resolved in a positive way that actually brings people together instead of pulling them apart. Or think about a [00:19:00] volunteer team that's constantly frustrated versus a classroom, a volunteer team that's really healthy.

I want you to picture a Sunday school room that's total chaos or a Sunday school room where kids of all ages, multiple ages, are engaged and excited to be there. Each of those scenarios I just threw out to you are not typically a difference in spiritual giftedness. They are oftentimes a difference of skill, skill development.

Every one of us can learn the skills that I just mentioned, to look, to lean into the issues that I just mentioned. Every one of us can learn those skills. It's not giftedness. It's not natural talent. Every one of us can learn how to facilitate, how to communicate, how to listen, [00:20:00] how to lead, how to organize, how to delegate, how to navigate conflict Ministry outcomes improve when people improve.

Like that is just straight up truth. Ministry outcomes improve when people improve, when they learn skills, The healthiest churches I have ever seen are not run by or filled with like superhuman people or superheroes or these three dynamic, amazing people. I have seen churches like that And some of them grow for a time, and some of them grow in interesting ways.

But the healthiest churches I've seen are filled with people, majority of people who are learning. This is not necessarily a new concept, but [00:21:00] here's where we take it sometimes. We put it on the pastor. We make it their responsibility to grow us. Like, many of us have not just started assuming that our growth is the pastor's responsibility because it just popped in our heads, but we've actually seen this modeled.

We've kind of been taught this, that if we need help with communication skills, the pastor should teach us. That if we need help managing conflict, the pastor should coach us. That if we need help leading volunteers or recruiting volunteers or finding volunteers, that the pastor should train us and help us or even do it for us.

And listen, I love pastors. That's part of the reason I'm sharing this message. Some of your pastors might have time to help you with that sometimes. Some of your pastors might even have the skills to help you with each of those areas sometimes. But your pastor cannot personally develop every [00:22:00] volunteer, every ministry leader, every committee chair, every Sunday school teacher, every small group leader, every worship team member on every instrument, whether it's the organ or the electric guitar.

Your pastor cannot develop every person in the church. It's too much. And honestly, I don't think that was ever the plan Healthy churches are built around people taking responsibility, catch this, for their own growth. 'Cause I know many of us probably, 'cause in my head, I'm also thinking, "Oh, but the pastor develops 12, and those 12 develop the next 12, and those 12 develop the next three, or the pastor develops three, and those three develop the next three."

What about if we took some responsibility for our own growth? This is what I see in the small church network and in our communities, and this is where I see the most growth happening, the most culture change happening. Your personal growth, my personal growth matters too much to [00:23:00] outsource it. Have you ever thought about how much of ourselves we outsource?

It's not your pastor's responsibility to develop your skills. They can help when they have time, when they have the capacity But it's not their job. They're gonna do their best to shepherd us, to teach us, to do the role that they've been given with the capacity that they have. But a pastor can't develop everybody.

What if we took some responsibility for our own growth, for our own ministry skills?

You know, none of us has to become a completely different person to have more impact or to enjoy ministry roles more or to have better boundaries or to move into areas where we feel called or to live more into the potential that God created us with that we don't even understand yet. We don't need to become completely different people. [00:24:00] 

We just need to learn one or two skills. Do you know that most people are one or two skills away from being dramatically more effective in any area of their life? Whether it's relationships or parenting or gardening or skateboarding or snow skiing or leading a Children's ministry or facilitating a group.

Do you know that most people are literally one or two skills away from being dramatically more effective, having more satisfaction, having more impact, having better relationships? Think about it. Think about you What if you learned how to have difficult conversations better? What area of your life might improve like, like a rock star?

What if you learned a skill on how to facilitate a better meeting or lead a more engaging [00:25:00] devotion or give a better church announcement? What if you learned how to recruit or develop a volunteer better? The skill, a skill of that. What if you learned how to set boundaries in a healthy way? By the way, I have a really different view of boundaries than is out in pop culture right now.

I believe that boundaries protect our relationships. I don't believe they cut them off. I believe boundaries also protect us. What if you learned a skill in how to communicate more clearly? Do you know how many people out there want better communication skills? Maybe public speaking, yes. Maybe speaking in a small group, but even interpersonal communication skills better.

Why don't we learn them? Because I'm telling you right now, you can. You can choose a new skill today, learn it, implement it, and watch your life change, and sometimes it's incredible impact or dramatic change in our lives, [00:26:00] in our ministry with the people around us. Because that's actually what happens when we learn a new skill.

Most of us are so frustrated over and over again by the same problems because we're, we keep doing things the way we've learned, a pattern we've learned, a model we've learned, and it's the same frustration year after year spinning out Just learn one thing, practice one thing, change one thing, and suddenly ministry even feels different. Not always easy, but different.

A volunteer learns how to facilitate a discussion, whether it's with youth, whether it's worth with the women's group that you're in, and a team starts participating differently. A ministry leader or a volunteer learns how to navigate conflict, literally learns new skills and starts practicing them, [00:27:00] and relationships improve.

Someone learns healthier boundaries and burnout starts losing its grip. That's exactly what happens. We see it all the time in the Small Church Network. Everyone has a different story, the skill they needed, the struggle they came in with, the situation they're in right now But growth happens one skill at a time.

A skill, not just a prayer, and I'm not negating the power of prayer. But let's stop over spiritualizing everything and learn some skills. God gave us a body and a mind and hands and feet and a voice. We can learn new skills This is often the difference. I honestly wanna say this is always the difference.

I stop myself when I look at absolutes like that. But [00:28:00] in the situations I've seen where church cultures change or somebody's heart changes in the middle of ministry where they thought they were a failure, or someone else thought they were a failure, when I have seen the biggest growth and change, it's been in a skill, learning a skill.

'Cause we shame ourselves when we blame everything on spiritual things. Like, if I only trusted God more, this would work out, or if I prayed harder for that teenager who's misbehaving. No, there's a skill to learn there. There's a skill and it's not always the discipline of practicing or preparing, 'cause sometimes the skill that we have that we're practicing over and over again isn't the right one. It is often about learning one new skill that changes everything. One of my favorite questions to talk to people when they are volunteering or serving in ministry or pastors is, "Where have you grown, and what's next?"

Like, I think we [00:29:00] should ask each other this all the time in small groups, in ministry teams, staff meetings. "So where have you grown this week, this month," whatever, "and what's next?" Instead of focusing on where are we failing or what's wrong with us. I've actually been asked, "What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? There's something wrong with you." Really? How about where have you grown? Changes the focus, doesn't it?

And what's next? What's the next skill? What's the next area? What's the next thing that would make ministry healthier, that would make you healthier in ministry, that would grow your skill set? What's the next thing that would help you serve people better, that would help me serve people better?

We talk about spiritual gifts a whole lot more in most churches than skills, and gifts matter. I get it. But sometimes we act like gifts are fixed and skills aren't available. Let me just say that [00:30:00] again. Sometimes we act like spiritual gifts are fixed, that you have that spiritual gift, so that's where you're gonna serve, and we also act like skills aren't available, like there's no growth.

We think, "This is what I can do, and this is what I was designed for, and this is what I'm good at," and we think that's it, that God created us with these gifts and not others, and that we have these skills and not others, but it is not true. We can keep learning and growing until our very last breath.

I started this conversation talking about the greatest volunteers. Why do some volunteers have more impact than others? There is a correlation between great volunteers having a growth mindset, being learners, being people who grow, who are looking for what's next, what can I learn next, for [00:31:00] not getting stuck If we can take natural giftedness out of the equation, I would love to, 'cause again, I've seen people with natural giftedness really become background, complete background, falling to the side, and the people who are working on growth and skill far surpass people with natural giftedness, so-called natural giftedness.

Most people dramatically underestimate how much impact one new skill can create over time, because growth compounds, and when we learn a new skill, there's inertia, there's, there's momentum to learn another new skill. But literally, one conversational skill, one new conversational skill, becomes 10 healthier conversations and more.

One new facilitation skill, I'm not saying that you've just become a facilitation rock star. I'm saying you're learning to facilitate better with one new skill. It will improve dozens of meetings. One leadership skill affects entire ministry [00:32:00] teams and all the people who serve there. None of us need to learn everything. We just need to learn what's next.

This is what the Small Church Network is about. So in the Small Church Ministry, so I don't know if you're new with us or you've been following us a while, you'll see a lot of different things. You'll see free online events, which are amazing. You'll see a free Facebook community, which is amazing, one of the most positive places on the internet.

You will see blog posts written by not just me, but tons of people in this community writing guest blog posts. You will hear a podcast. Again, I also love the podcast. You're listening to it right now. It is a fun place to connect, to be together, to build a community. We also have a Small Church Network.

It's one of our few paid products, or it's a membership that's paid. But this is why the Small Church Network exists, is because not everybody needs the same training. We don't all need the same podcast or the same blog post. We need something different. Everybody's next [00:33:00] step is completely different. The Small Church Network is a place where we can individualize, where we can reach into individuals and go, "Hey, what's your question? What's next for you? Let's talk about that very specific thing that's happening with a relationship or at a meeting or in that, that ministry area where you serve."

People come in needing help with conflict or communication or boundaries or sometimes public speaking, which is fun for me to talk about, or help leading volunteers or deciding what's next for them. This is often a reason people come in. Sometimes they need to quit a ministry or start a different one or make a change, and it's so hard 'cause there's so much pressure to stay where we are.

Growth doesn't just make us uncomfortable, it makes everyone else uncomfortable And over the last six years, we started the network almost immediately. It was called Better Together back then. But we have watched people grow in so many different directions. We would love for you to join us every month inside the network. Please hear this. A lot of people say, "Well, what's, what are [00:34:00] we paying for," right? Okay. You're paying for every month inside the network, every single month, there's three live coaching Zoom calls. You can come and join the group. You don't have to, they're optional, but we'll have 12 people on a call. We'll have four people on a call. We'll have fifteen people on a call. Three live coaching calls for individual feedback, for coaching each month. A ministry masterclass, which is a practical skill area that it is always something we all can apply somewhere.

We've talked about burnout, we've talked about conflict, we've talked about empathy, we've talked about speaking, we've talked about communicating better, we've talked about listening better. And each masterclass has a resource for you to have, for you to download, for you to print. Sometimes it's something to use with your team.

Sometimes it's something to use with another person at the church. It's always something to apply, that you can apply to yourself, and it also has transfer value for other people at your church. There's a live Q&A every single month, resources for you, [00:35:00] skills to share in your churches where you are, real conversations with people serving in churches just like yours who wanna grow.

Now, because we're celebrating six years of ministry, through June 30th, you can join for just $6 for your first month. Just come try it out for $6. 30 days for $6. It is already a crazy value at the $29 normal cost a month. You will not find one person out there to lead one coaching call the way that we do it for less than probably 50 bucks or 75 bucks, even if it's a group coaching call.

And, and just look at the benefits we give for $29. So for your first month, though, we want you to join. We want you to come try it out. What if one skill really did change how you felt about your role, your position, your church, yourself? What if one new skill helped you connect with somebody in a totally different way?

What if one new thing to practice changed your effectiveness or how you feel about a [00:36:00] role or a person or a team? Or how people experience you as a leader or a ministry partner. Like, what would that skill be for you? And if you're not sure, that's great too. Maybe that's exactly where we should start.

So go to smallchurchministry.com/network. Up until June 30th, we have the coupon already applied there, so you can join for 30 days for just $6. Truly amazing value. We'd love to see you. Come and grow with us. The link is also in the show notes. Thank you for celebrating six years with us.

We are not done yet. But let me just recap this episode just a little bit as we close out. Caring about a ministry, about a people group, about a ministry initiative, caring and effectiveness are not the same thing. Skills are not less spiritual. In my estimation, skills are part of discipleship. [00:37:00] They're part of our growth. They're part of our effectiveness, not just in ministry, but as human beings, as relational beings. And learning really is one of the ways that we love people well Ministry outcomes always improve when people improve as individuals, and we're the ones responsible for our own growth.

We've got to quit putting all of that. We've got to quit outsourcing our growth to the leaders around us, you, me, everybody. So just ask yourself, where can you become more effective? Not more important. We are all equally important. We are all equally valued. We are all equally loved by the God who created us.

But we can become more effective. We can learn new skills. We don't need to become more important or more impressive, but more effective, that's a godly thing. What's one thing that you could start learning even this month? One area. Next week, we'll be [00:38:00] wrapping up this little series that I've done about the anniversary, talking about volunteers and influence.

We're gonna wrap up by talking about something that both pastors and volunteers need because neither group, pastors or volunteers, were ever supposed to carry the whole church or get blamed for the whole church or be responsible for the whole church. It's not about just volunteers. It's not about pastors or leaders.

It's about all of us together. So we're gonna be talking next week about what volunteers need from pastors, about what pastors need from volunteers, about what shared influence really looks like in the life of the church. Ministry leaders, volunteers, pastors, we're all in it together. Thanks for spending time with me today.

Again, if you wanna jump into the network for just $6 this month, go visit smallchurchministry.com/network. I would love to get you welcomed in there. It'd be great to have a little [00:39:00] chat. Until next week, be a light.