How we speak about serving shapes our culture:
Serving is the privilege of being part of God’s eternal gospel work in the world. We don’t talk about doing tasks but serving God and his kingdom. It is an honour to be invited to serve God’s people. Begrudging attitudes and “martyr language” might signal that people need to be asked to pause from serving as part of a reset.
We serve as a response of gratitude and thankfulness to God; we guard against language of guilt and obligation in our recruitment and motivation. We guard against attitudes that prioritise getting the task done at the expense of how we treat people.
We serve as a contribution to the mission. All roles matter because they support the mission of sustaining believers and reaching unbelievers with the gospel of Christ.
Serving is an act of fellowship. We get to know others shoulder to shoulder. It is an important part of connecting new people and sustaining a sense of belonging. We talk in terms of teams rather than rosters.
Serving is a way to love people, not perform a task. (EG. Morning tea is not serving food, but serving people).
Serving is the privilege of being part of God’s eternal gospel work in the world. We don’t talk about doing tasks but serving God and his kingdom. It is an honour to be invited to serve God’s people. Begrudging attitudes and “martyr language” might signal that people need to be asked to pause from serving as part of a reset.
We serve as a response of gratitude and thankfulness to God; we guard against language of guilt and obligation in our recruitment and motivation. We guard against attitudes that prioritise getting the task done at the expense of how we treat people.
We serve as a contribution to the mission. All roles matter because they support the mission of sustaining believers and reaching unbelievers with the gospel of Christ.
Serving is an act of fellowship. We get to know others shoulder to shoulder. It is an important part of connecting new people and sustaining a sense of belonging. We talk in terms of teams rather than rosters.
Serving is a way to love people, not perform a task. (EG. Morning tea is not serving food, but serving people).
We are committed to doing a few things well rather than overstretching our teams and doing things poorly.
In a huge, strategic mission field, there will always be more to get done than we have the resources to do – we need to make peace with the idea that some things will be left undone.
We pause teams rather than burn out our volunteers.
We don’t put volunteers on high rotation.
We don’t run teams understaffed.
We are wary of people belonging to too many teams –
cumulatively, they are overworked.
They aren’t across the details of any of their roles. Things are done poorly.
By being spread thin, they don’t get to know anyone on any of their teams very well.
We need to keep coordinators free from other roles so they can deal with last-minute unexpected things and be freed up to encourage their teams, have recruiting conversations – to work on the boat, not in the boat. If coordinators are regularly rostering themselves on, we have a problem with team numbers.
As a rule of thumb, aim for new people to have at least 3 weeks in 4 where they are present at church without any official task. Individual capacity varies, and as you get to know your team, you can adjust accordingly. Over time, this can increase to 1 week in 4 where they are present at church without any official task. Use the multi-week viewer to scan their overall commitments. (Staff, trainees and interns are an exception and will usually have responsibilities every week.)
Recruitment
We recruit new people into entry roles with less responsibility (Morning Tea team member, Greet Team team member, AV team member).
We don’t recruit new people directly into leadership roles or roles with higher responsibility (Kids Church, Platform roles, leader roles) but only once they have proved to be:
reliable (they turn up on time, stick to the job description, don’t “go missing” in the middle of the task, treat team members well with their words and actions, they can use Elvanto to tell us when they need to decline and are unavailable),
teachable (can take direction),
aligned with our mission and culture,
knowledgeable (they know how the ministry runs – running the dishwasher, operating the AV desk, where to find the A-frame and the broom).
Serving in entry roles also provides time to assess giftedness. Where possible, we will encourage people to serve in areas of strength. However, giftedness matters less than reliability, teachability, and alignment. Serving by gift is only a consideration once these other qualities are evident.
We recruit new people into entry roles with less responsibility (Morning Tea team member, Greet Team team member, AV team member).
We don’t recruit new people directly into leadership roles or roles with higher responsibility (Kids Church, Platform roles, leader roles) but only once they have proved to be:
reliable (they turn up on time, stick to the job description, don’t “go missing” in the middle of the task, treat team members well with their words and actions, they can use Elvanto to tell us when they need to decline and are unavailable),
teachable (can take direction),
aligned with our mission and culture,
knowledgeable (they know how the ministry runs – running the dishwasher, operating the AV desk, where to find the A-frame and the broom).
Serving in entry roles also provides time to assess giftedness. Where possible, we will encourage people to serve in areas of strength. However, giftedness matters less than reliability, teachability, and alignment. Serving by gift is only a consideration once these other qualities are evident.
In practice, entry roles like Morning Tea, Greet, and AV are recruited from the pool of new people not currently serving; other teams recruit from the pool of people who are currently serving. In other words, they plunder people from existing teams. This means teams like Morning Tea, Greet, and AV constantly feel like their best people are being poached! These teams need to be helped to remember that in letting people go, they are serving the overall mission.
Experience suggests that once teams become thin, it costs us in several ways. Usually, when teams get thin, it is not just one of these things that happens; it’s all of them at about the same time.
We burn people out.
Teams can begin to focus on their own survival and become tunnel-visioned – they see themselves in competition with other teams rather than partners in the overall mission.
Teams become focused on the immediate task of getting through another Sunday rather than recruiting, training, pastoring, and improving the ministry. In the long term, things run down.
Tasks are done poorly because people are trying to hold down several roles on the same Sunday. Corner-cutting results in conflict, WHS issues, and BTS technical breaches.
When Coordinators start to wear multiple hats, team members feel unsupported.
When we have reluctantly paused teams in the past like Morning Tea, Kids Church and Music, one positive is that everyone notices and it usually results in a fresh burst of new volunteers. When we pause “hidden” teams like Pathway or Alpha, important things stop happening, but nobody notices. The other positive is that it provides a “reset” for the Coordinators in how they organise the ministry and the team.
A large church needs lots of people serving in different ways for its Sunday gathering to function. A new arrival at a large functioning church sees lots of people already serving and may wrongly assume there is no immediate need to volunteer. As churches get larger, they need to recruit people more deliberately. Smaller churches often attract people who sense they will be needed, like the idea that they are needed, and can start serving immediately in a way that makes a difference. Larger churches tend to attract people for various reasons, but less often because the church needs someone to volunteer immediately.
No offline documents. Work through Elvanto and online Job Descriptions—not emailed spreadsheets or hard-copy rosters—to keep all our information together.
No hidden curriculum. All our information is available online. Face-to-face meetings are for creating culture not downloading information. Provide clear job descriptions supplemented by on-the-job training from Team Leaders.
No one is indispensable. Work in teams wherever possible so people are equipped and everyone is redundant. Break roles down into smaller units. As a rule of thumb, no role should involve more than one hour per week.
Nothing is uncancellable. Make do with what we have—especially people resources. Do a few things well. Don’t burn people out for the sake of the program.
No leaks. Guard people’s privacy and contact details.
If you have Team Members under 18, there is to be no direct electronic communication with them that does not include their parent or guardian.