Called or Invited?

I think a very important question worth taking some time to answer is: As Christians, are we called by God to serve or invited? Let me explain...

If God invites us to serve then "yes" or "no" are equally acceptable answers. But if God calls us to serve, if it's more a command than an invitation, then a "yes" equals obedience and "no" disobedience. Since so many Christians show by their actions they believe we're invited and not called, I think it's worth the time to answer this question biblically.

Let's first look at the passage I was originally reading that made me ask the question we're now trying to answer. In Exodus 3:10 God says to Moses, "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." Notice the command "...go." This is not a suggestion. There's only one answer here that is pleasing to God. A "yes" or "no" are not equally acceptable responses. God called Moses to serve. He didn't invite him.

As I thought about this Old Testament example and it's implications ("no" equals disobedience) I wondered what I might find in a New Testament example, and who better to look to than Jesus. In John 13:14-15 he said, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." Notice again the command. This is not a suggestion. There's only one answer here that is pleasing to God. A "yes" or "no" are not equally acceptable responses. Jesus calls us to serve, making how we respond a matter of obedience or disobedience. A "yes" is not the same as a "no".

I read just this morning, "George Gallup once took a survey and discovered that only ten percent of American church members are active in any kind of personal ministry. He also discovered that 50 percent of all church members have no interest in serving in any ministry. No matter how much a church promotes involvement in lay ministry, half of its members will remain spectators." Clearly there is great confusion in the body of Christ over whether serving is a command or a suggestion!

Listen up New Day...I'm your pastor and I love you so I need to tell you the truth...The Bible teaches if you're not serving, you're sinning. To not serve is to ignore the example set for us in Scripture and disobey a direct command of Jesus. To summarize: Saints serve, sinners don't.

We are in the midst of our bi-annual ministry fair where we've been showcasing the various ministries of our church, the needs we have and how you can get involved. Let me ask you...Have you responded as if Jesus invites us to serve, or have you responded as if Jesus calls us to serve? 

If you'd like to sign up to serve online, just click here. 

When a Volunteer Steps Down

Volunteers step down from their roles of service for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the role they were serving in wasn't a good fit, other times its simply due to an upcoming busy season in life, sometimes its for personal reasons, etc. Regardless the reason, its very important to honor the sacrifice and efforts of the volunteer for the time they were able to give. Sometimes it's easy to focus on the work they will no longer be able to do vs focusing on and celebrating the work they have already done. A church is a non-profit and works primarily though volunteers. That being the case, volunteers will come and go. That's the nature of the beast. Sometimes they will go and never return. Other times they will go and after a bit they will come back. And we never know which it will be. That's why it's so important to never burn any bridges when someone steps down from a volunteer role. We honor what they have done. We thank them for what they have done. We leave the door wide open in case they ever want to return. And we speak highly of what they've contributed thus far and look with hope to their involvement again in the future. Paid staff don't have the luxury of coming and going, but volunteers do. I'm not trying to promote a lack of commitment on a volunteer's part. I'm not saying a volunteer can just show up to teach or serve or sing when they feel like it and you, as a department leader, should just take what you can get. That's not at all what I'm talking about. That's not following through on their commitment when they've agreed to serve. I'd be highly in favor of uninviting such a volunteer from serving if they acted like that. What I'm saying is when someone steps down, you should try not to take it personal, you should realize this is the nature of non-profit work, and you should express gratitude and the utmost appreciation for services rendered. This is New Day way of responding when a volunteer steps down.

Requirements for Promotion

In Nehemiah 7:2, Nehemiah appoints his brother Hanani over Jerusalem once the walls are rebuilt "for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many." Hanani proved himself over time and he had a reputation of a God-fearing man. Consequently, he was promoted. And these two things are exactly what we look for at New Day before promoting someone into a high level of influence within the church (or before hiring someone on staff). We don't just appoint/hire people to influential positions before they've proven themselves in lesser tasks and demonstrated a sincere love for God.

Every single one of our staff (Rachel, Peter, Bethany, Lester, Tracey) volunteered in roles of lesser responsibility before coming on staff. Why? They needed to prove themselves faithful in little before being entrusted with more. This is the bibilical pattern. Luke 16:10 says "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."

And each one of our staff (before they became staff) proved their heart for God (and the things of God) through their faithful attendance, through their dedicated service and through through their generous giving. You might ask how their giving proves their heart for God? Matthew 6:21 says "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." There are certain positions of service that are not available to non-givers at New Day. Why? Because we don't want people serving in high levels of influence if we aren't sure their heart is invested in the work we are doing.

So when you're looking to promote one of your volunteers, you have to first ask yourself two questions: 1) Have they been faithful? If they haven't been faithful in little, don't entrust them with more. If they haven't been faithful in little, paying them won't change anything. Don't even consider paying someone if they haven't been faithful. They are not staff material. Past performance is the best indicator of future success. If they haven't done well in the small responsibilities they had, they won't be successful with greater resonsibilities. 2) Do they have a reputation as a God-fearing person? Do they demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit in their life (Galatians 5:22)? Are they kind and patient with others (1 Corinthians 13:1)? Do they faithfully attend church (Hebrews 10:25)? Do they talk about the things of God? Matthew 12:34 says "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." When they talk about the things of God, that's an indicator of what's in their heart. And if they are being hired on staff or put in an influential volunteer role we also must ask "Are they givers TO NEW DAY CHURCH?" Again, someone will develop a heart for whatever they give to. We want peoples hearts to be invested in New Day, so it's not good enough to be a giver - one must be a giver TO NEW DAY CHURCH.

If you'll make your criteria 1) They must be faithful and 2) They must really love God, you'll make much better promotions.

Why Good Enough is Good Enough

Here's a great article by Rick Warren that I had to pass along.

A survey done last year, with the United States already deep into the current recession, showed that churches and nonprofits were increasingly turning to volunteers to help them do more for less. According to J. David Schmidt & Associates, 1 in 5 churches and nonprofits had increased their volunteer use to offset the economic downturn.

Unfortunately, many churches have set the bar so high striving for ministry excellence that they can’t find volunteers to step up. Some churches have fostered this myth by making “excellence” an idol, which makes people of average talent hesitant to get involved. Many Christians never serve because they fear they aren’t good enough to do so. They believe the lie that serving God is only for superstars.

You may have heard it said, “If it can’t be done with excellence, don’t do it.” Well, Jesus never said that! The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it—that’s how we learn.

In fact, the Bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done” (Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT). That perfectly describes many churches today.

Yet, our growth at Saddleback has happened because we hold to the “good enough” principle,” which allows far more people to get involved. We simplify everything and accept less than perfect performance in order to mobilize more people. It doesn’t have to be perfect for God to use and bless it.Some churches hold up such a standard of excellence that they basically say to volunteers, “If you’re not a professional, you don’t need to apply, because we only want the very best.” That creates a congregation of passive spectators.

At Saddleback we would rather involve thousands of regular folks in ministry than have a perfect church run by a few elites. We’d like to be a model for other churches, so we aim for average people doing average activities in order to get extraordinary results. That’s how the typical McDonalds succeeds while being staffed by high school students. The system works; it doesn’t require unusual talent.

In fact the good-enough principle was the concept behind our P.E.A.C.E. Plan, too: “Ordinary people doing what Jesus did, wherever they are.” If we’re going to defeat the giants of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and rampant illiteracy, it won’t happen by just mobilizing the superstars and experts in those fields. There’s just not enough. We’ve got to mobilize everyone.

That’s why good enough beats ministry excellence – hands down!

"We simplify everything and accept less than perfect performance in order to mobilize more people. It doesn't have to be perfect for God to use and bless it. " ~Rick Warren

Every Job is Important

Every serving position at New Day is important. Not all roles are prominent, but every role is important. I never want anyone at our church to underestimate the importance of their role. Every job is important. To help that truth sink into your heart I want to share the following story...

Years ago two teenage boys came to an evangelistic meeting that was meeting in a tent. They tried to get in but it was packed out. It was wall to wall people. These two teenage boys couldn’t get in to hear the speaker. But there was an observant usher and he saw these teenage boys trying to get in and he said “Let me help you, fellows.” He took these two teenagers and personally escorted them down to the front row and got them a seat. One of those two boys was Billy Graham. That night when Billy Graham gave his life to Christ it set him on a course for ministering the rest of his life and the world was changed.

Sometimes we think the role we play at the church isn't as important as another role. But we can't think that way! Every role is important. We never know the impact we'll have on all eternity when we serve faithfully - even in roles that don't seem as significant as others.

Recruiting Volunteers

I read an article by Nelson Searcy and the following is a mix of that article and my own comments...As you dream big dreams, cast big visions and strive for big goals, it becomes necessary to have others join you. Smart leaders invite others to join them by following these five steps: invest, engage, invite, empower, and insure.

The consequences of not asking for help, far outweigh the risk of rejection. Your rejection rate can be reduced by following this process of invitation:

1. Invest: those you have invested in are the ones most likely to join you in achieving your goals.

• Many people have faced rejection because they invited before they invested.
• If you are not consciously investing in people around you today, you will have difficulty finding people to join you tomorrow.
• Make sure you invest in someone relationally (i.e. take them out to eat or have them over, spend six weeks building relationship) before you ask them to join your cause

2. Engage: when looking for someone to join you in a project, ask "Does what I'm doing engage this person on an emotional level?"

• An invitation that ignites the passions of the other person is sure to be accepted.
• Regardless of what we’re asking a person to help with specifically, we are ultimately asking them to help us fulfill our mission of leading people to become mature followers of Jesus. Not everyone will get excited over being asked to help with set up, tear down, nursery, etc. but everyone should be able to get excited that ultimately they are helping others come to faith in Jesus. And THAT is what we need to sell people on.

3. Invite: share your vision, explain what part the person will play in that vision, and ask for a specific commitment for a specific period of time

• General invitations give mediocre results
• You must know what you want, believe it is worthy, believe you can get it, be passionate about it, and be perceived as determined to get it
• After doing the first two steps, don’t fail to actually ASK

4. Empower: once an invitation has been accepted you must empower the person to do his/her part

• You must clearly define what a “win” is for the new recruit and then let them run with it
• The “win” should be written out and clearly explained

5. Insure: do not relinquish the right to follow up with your new recruit

• Remember, that which gets measured gets done
• Remember, people do what you inspect, not what you expect
• You must follow up to insure that the desired results are being achieved
• You must give feedback and instruction when desired results are not being achieved

Your ability to successfully invite others to join you may be the biggest measure of your leadership potential. Choosing to go it alone is a certain formula for failure, but partnering together with like-minded people brings success.

What Your Church Volunteers Need

1. They need to know they are making a difference in peoples lives.

Your volunteers aren't just doing a task you've asked them to...They are helping lead people to Jesus and ultimately making the world a better place! The last time you asked someone to volunteer/serve at your church, did they get the impression that if they said yes they'd be helping lead people to Jesus and change their world for the good? If not, you're not doing your job as a leader.

2. They need to know they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

When someone says yes to serving they are agreeing to partner with God in impacting the world for the kingdom of God. That's BIG! And people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

3. They need to see in their mind's eye what the future COULD be if they get involved.

We've got to cast vision to our volunteers. Vision is a picture of what the future could be and should be. You've got to paint a picture of what the future COULD look like if the person steps up to the plate and uses their time and energy for the purposes of God.

4. They need to be asked by a leader that's excited about what he/she is doing.

No one wants to say yes to a passion-less request. If you aren't 100% sold on what you're doing and what you're inviting others to get involved with, they are NOT going to respond positively. On the other hand - if YOU are passionate about it, the chances are much higher that potential volunteers will get sucked into and share your excitement.