“The Church may be the most leadership intensive organization in all the world.”

I’ve been reading John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and that quote stuck out to me…and I completely agree with it.

It’s hard to work with volunteers because you have little to no leverage. You don’t hold their well-being in your hands. You aren’t the key to that next promotion. Sometimes you’re little more than an acquaintance. And you still have to lead and ask more from them than they’re readily willing to give.

It’s a huge leadership challenge.

But it’s worth it.

I can’t think of many things better than seeing a volunteer connect into an area of passion. Watching volunteers grow and take ownership of the mission of the Church is incredible. If you’re not asking your people to give – and to give much – then you’re missing out on so many opportunities and so many things God wants to use to raise up His people.

How does it feel to be used as part of God’s plan for His people?

I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

In production leadership, and ministry in general, it’s not uncommon to fear not having enough volunteers. In fact, you may have already noticed something: we’ll never have enough volunteers.

At least not enough to make us comfortable.

Confident, yes.
Effective, yes.
Comfortable, probably not.

So what do we do? We set the bar low and beg anyone we can to help. It’s a natural reaction. We can’t find enough high-capacity, passionate volunteers to help us with our ministry so we lower our expectations and beg people to help us. And while this may make us fully staffed, it doesn’t make us good. In fact, it is a recipe for disaster. Here are 3 common problems and their solutions.
(more…)

Ok. So have you ever looked back on college and laughed? I just did that. This is my Senior Research Project for my Electronic Media degree. I entitled it:

The Revolution will be visualized: a research study of media in church worship.

Although, I didn’t write well (probably still don’t), the content in there is really interesting…especially for you visual worship guys. Enjoy. (more…)