Many churches have a vision for getting more people to volunteer and serve in the ministry. Fewer churches actually make it happen. One of the reasons is because they lean on staff to do ministry.

A few weeks ago I was at Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Their ministry needs to be on your radar. They’ve grown by over 50% in the last 12 months. But that’s not what’s most unique about this ministry.

What’s unique about Lifepoint is their commitment to giving ministry away to volunteers. They have several strategies for making that happen, but let me highlight the most obvious one — they don’t hire staff to do ministry.

Of all the churches I’ve worked with over the last couple of years, Lifepoint has the lowest staff to attendance ratio. They only have 1 full-time equivalent staff member (that includes all staff, not just ministry staff) for every 150 people in attendance. Only about 35% of their budget is spent on staff expenses.

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As we recruit volunteers, typically we ask them to sign up for a ministry or a program. We highlight opportunities like being a junior high leader or helping with the hospitality team.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how we might connect more volunteers if we offer folks the alternative of serving on a per-project basis. I know of one woman who travels extensively because of her career. Because she was out of town often, she could never commit to a long-term or ongoing volunteer opportunity. The church’s communication’s director saw an opportunity for this woman, who used to be a journalist, to write for the church’s monthly newsletter. The woman was able to serve her church in a way she was gifted without having to be in the walls of the church on a weekly basis.

In the Bible, there are several times people were assigned projects rather than asked to commit to long-term ministry opportunities. Nehemiah was to build the wall. Noah was asked to build the ark. Simon carried Jesus’ cross.

Are there people in your church who have maybe shied away from serving, but could plug in to a project that uses their gifts and connects them to playing their part in the Body? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

One of the questions that popped up on Twitter recently was related to hiring a campus pastor. The senior pastor who contacted me was curious to know what to look for in a campus pastor.

It probably won’t surprise you to know that I don’t think there’s a magic formula for finding that right person to fill this type of role at every church. The “right” person at one church may be completely the wrong person at another church.

For example, if your multi-site strategy includes trying to replicate everything exactly the same at every campus, you probably don’t want a strong visionary leader. Instead, you need more of a manager. If, on the other hand, you need someone to act more like a church planter to help shape the ministry in a different community than your current campus, then you probably need someone who is more entrepreneurial. You don’t want primarily a person who is always waiting for specific instructions from the top leadership team on what to do next.

That said, I think there are a handful of common characteristics you need to prioritize when finding your next campus pastor. The right campus pastor will:

1. Embrace the DNA of your church. Every church is unique. Your campus pastor needs to both embrace and champion your mission, vision and values. That’s why it’s best if whoever you’re sending out to lead your next campus has had some time to learn who you are as a church.
2. Communicate well. It doesn’t matter if your teaching is on video. The ability to communicate is still essential to this role. Two big things the campus pastor has to talk about are vision and money. If they can’t do that well, they are the wrong person for the role. (more…)

Tim mentioned on his blog a few weeks ago that Simply Strategic Volunteers has recently been translated into Korean. I received my copy in the mail today. I’m going to have to find a Korean friend to confirm this is actually our book and not one of Ed Stetzer’s many books that they put our pictures on by mistake.

Interestingly enough, I’ve written four books, but Simply Strategic Volunteers has sold far more copies than any of the others. Leading volunteers is so critical to healthy churches, you’d think there’d be many more resources on the topic.

If you are looking for practical ideas to encourage your ministry leaders, here’s my Amazon link. If you want the Korean version, it looks like you can order it here.

By the way, I also work directly with churches to help them increase the number of volunteers engaged in ministry. I’d love to work with you to empower more people for ministry. As a side note… I happen to think “serving others” may be the missing link many churches experience in their discipleship process.

What about you? What’s some practical advice you could offer other churches to help them increase volunteer engagement? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

Twice in the last week I’ve had the opportunity to talk with great staff teams about engaging high-capacity volunteers in their church. It’s a good example of how we need to change our behaviors in order to change behaviors. People with huge leadership capacity or specialized skills will not fit into our current volunteer structure and systems. We’ll have to change in order to create opportunities for that type of engagement.

One example of a church and a high-capacity leader that get it is reflected in the story behind Bellevue Church Management System (BVCMS). I introduced you to this free, open-source church management suite a couple of weeks ago. Let me share a little bit of their story.

David Carroll has a background in developing financial software. He’s been a faithful member of Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis for many years. As a member of the church, he saw a need to improve upon their church management system. This tapped into his God-given talents. By the way, I think this offers a few clues to engaging high-capacity volunteers: (more…)

There are certain common refrains I hear as I’m talking with growing churches across the country. This is one of them. I’ve heard many leaders in recent months acknowledge that they’re trying to shift the ministry to volunteers rather than continuing to hire more staff. Likely, the economic challenges have precipitated that shift in strategy. Whatever the case, I think it’s a good thing.

Today, over on MinistryStrategies.com, Eric Geiger offered this thought as is relates engaging volunteers in ministry. He explains how pastors and other paid staff may actually be hampering spiritual growth by holding on to ministry:

“People who are gifted by God and called to serve Him are put on the bench as they watch the professional ministers make the ministry happen. Instead of fostering a serving posture among believers, this kind of “ministry” develops consumers. By keeping ministry from the majority of the people, they are taught to be moochers and consumers of the faith rather than participators and contributors. As their spiritual gifts go underutilized, they miss the joy of experiencing Christ by serving others.”

Wondering where your church stands on this topic? Do a little math. Take the number of people who volunteer somewhere in ministry at any given time each month. Divide that by the total number of students and adults at your church. That’ll give you a percentage. Here’s my suggestion:

• If the percentage of students and adults serving is over 45%, you are in a healthy range for engaging volunteers in ministry.
• If you are in the 30% to 45% range, you’re doing okay but there’s room for improvement.
• If you are under 30%, you need a volunteer strategy adjustment.

Now, I can hear the critics and skeptics already. You’re probably thinking, “The larger a church gets, the more likely they are to have a big staff team handling the ministry of the church.” It might surprise you to learn I see the direct opposite. For whatever reason, smaller churches I work with have a tendency to rely on the pastors and paid staff to carry the ministry load. In fact, the highest percentage I’ve ever seen (close to 60%), comes from Granger Community Church — a church of several thousand people.

Check out the rest of Eric’s article on this topic. If you’re interested in coaching on how to improve your volunteer strategy, contact our team at MinistryStrategy.com. We’d love to help.

Eric Geiger just contributed a new article over at MinistryStrategies.com. He addresses an issue that’s consistent with just about every church I walk into — churches “need” volunteers. Here’s what Eric at to share:

Typically pastors or staff persons are hired to minister to people. The number of children increases, so the solution is another staff person. The number of sick people is on the rise; therefore, someone is hired to visit people in the hospitals. The typical approach is both illogical and unbiblical. The view is illogical because a church will never be able to afford to hire the entire ministry away. The view is unbiblical because it violates the essential doctrines of the priesthood of believers and spiritual gifting.

Check out the rest of the article.

A few months ago, I asked you to participate in a survey from the Leadership Network on lean staffing. The results are in. Some of the findings might surprise you. For example:

• Lean staff churches do a better job with volunteers and lay leadership development.
• Lean staff churches invest a noticeably higher percentage of their budget beyond the walls of their church.
• Growing churches spend a smaller percentage of their budget on staffing costs, so they’re “leaner” than plateaued or declining churches.
• Staff costs become leaner with size — as overall weekend worship attendance increases, but not dramatically so.

Visit the Leadership Network blog to find out more about the results. There you’ll have the opportunity to download the full report for free and to participate in some additional next steps.

So, what do you think? Should spending less on staff be a priority for churches? If so, what would you do to help make that happen?

I’ve had some interesting dialogue with Warren Bird, research director for the Leadership Network, in recent months. He shares my passion to pursue new models of ministry that raise the level of lay leadership and volunteer empowerment in ministry with the hopes of, among other things, reducing staffing expenses.

Warren has designed an online “lean staffing survey” to learn about healthy ways churches are keeping staff costs down. We’d like for you to participate. Here’s how:

• Take the “lean staffing survey” online.
• Only take the survey once.
• Complete it before midnight on January 25.

If you complete the survey, you’ll also get a free copy of the results. Contact Warren directly if you have questions.

In the mean time, will you commit to the “Ephesians 4:12 Challenge” and use your leadership influence to empower more volunteers in ministry? Personally, I think it’s a simply strategic idea.

This week we’re focusing on volunteering. The first couple of posts have been on serving inside the church. Today, we’re going to take a look at a church that is also strongly encouraging folks to serve outside the church. With that in mind, here’s an interview with Dino Rizzo, the senior pastor of Healing Place Church.

TONY: What’s the serving culture like at Healing Place Church?

DINO: Our culture of serving here at Healing Place Church really just began with felt-needs. We’d see a widow in need, and do what we could to help her. Today, widows, single moms and the elderly are still a big part of how we serve, but now it has taken on a “Second-Mile” mentality more than ever. One of our teaching pastors wrote about this mindset (The Second Mile by Mike Haman) and it has truly become a picture of the culture of serving here – always looking to go to extra lengths to address needs. It took what we were doing, and shifted us into the next gear.

TONY: Why is it so important to you to move people into serving roles at the church?

DINO: I believe it is the difference between life and death in the Church. When a church turns inward, it is only a matter of time until they become a non-factor in their community. We have a mandate to move people to serving the cause of Jesus.  Serving that cause can happen in a thousand different ways, but we must not allow Church to turn inward.

TONY: What is a “servolution?”

DINO: A servolution is a significant change in the course of history sparked by simple acts of kindness. It is a revolution; not one that is fueled by anger, violence and revolt, but one of compassion, love and service.  This revolution has a clear mission to answer the cries of the poor, the hurting and the forgotten, and is made up of revolutionaries willing to lay down their lives to reach out to people in their city, their nation, and throughout the world.  This is a revolution aimed at initiating change, but not by overthrowing a government; this change comes by bringing healing to a hurting world, and by loving people to Christ.  This is a revolution of serving others…a servolution.  The troops are followers of Christ, the companies of soldiers are churches, and the weapons are towels for service.

TONY: Now that the book, Servolution, has been out for a few months, what’s the best story you’ve heard from another church?

DINO: Well, it’s tough to say one is “better” than the rest, but here’s one that really gives a good picture of what is happening over and over at churches across the world. It is from a volunteer named Curt at a church in Austin, Texas.

Curt said they decided to plan “a Servolution-style event, not only for the benefit of reaching the local community, but also to show our staff and members by example what could be done if we really focused on community outreach.”

So they did a free car wash, and gave away free hotdogs and cold drinks. “Less than halfway through, we had already done 75 cars and blown through all 150 hotdogs and all cold drinks.  Runners were sent to the store to buy replacement food.  By the end of the four hours we ended up washing 160 cars… Volunteers came out like I would not have imagined.  We had 49 adult volunteers, all wearing the bright red Servolution shirts….”

He continued, “The people we were serving just couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a catch.  It was SOOO much fun telling them that there was no catch, and that we wouldn’t take their money if they tried.  Many called their friends and family to come get their car washed, which was perfect!  ….More often than not, the guest would end up asking questions about the church, which we were more than happy to answer.”

He said at least one family that had learned about the church through the event was at the church the next Sunday.  And he said, “Probably the biggest surprise of all was the response from the volunteers.  Most people said that it was the MOST fun they’ve ever had at a church activity of any kind.”

Getting people to experience the joy of serving, helping people see that church is a place they can feel welcomed to, meeting people where they have a need, and giving them the chance to encounter Jesus – that’s what servolution is all about. And what’s cool is that Curt’s story is one of many that are happening all over. We’ve got a steady stream of Servolution stories coming in. You can check them out to see for yourself.

TONY: What specific advice would you give senior pastors to encourage folks to step into serving roles?

DINO: You have to lead by example. We’ve all heard the saying, “As goes the leader, so goes the church.” It is so true. We have to be out front. Pastors must lead the way in sweating, crying, praying, cheering, encouraging, and telling the story of the heart to serve. And, you really can’t delegate it away, either.  A servant’s towel must fit the hand of the pastor as well as the college and high school students.

TONY: What’s next for Servolution?

DINO: We’re already in the planning stages for a special nationwide Servolution in Spring 2010. It’ll be similar to the “7 Days of Servolution” earlier this year. Stay tuned to Servolution.org for details.