#3 – Unclear roles.
There is a huge difference between a leader and a volunteer. Recognizing that difference might just be the key to getting people in the right spot.
This might be an overly simple distinction, but a volunteer moves stuff around while a leader moves stuff forward. Volunteers and leaders are both important and necessary in your church, but they meet very different needs.
A volunteer wants to serve because they love the church, believe in the mission and want to play a part. They want to do something.
Leaders also love the church, believe in the mission and want to play a part. But they want to use their gift of leadership. They don’t just want to do things…they want to lead things.
If you ask a volunteer to be a leader and they don’t want those extra responsibilities, it could be a disaster. And if you ask a leader to stay in the lane of volunteering, they will not be fulfilled and will never reach their full potential.
Here’s another way to look at it:
Asking a volunteer to be a leader often results in burnout. Asking a leader to be a volunteer often results in boredom.
If you sit down to make a list of leaders in your church, the first people who come to mind will probably be hard working volunteers who are always present. You’ll naturally gravitate toward people who are present and visible.
But a hard working volunteer who shows up at every church event is not necessarily a leader. Because leaders don’t just do tasks, they have followers.
That’s why your job is to create clarity of roles.
What exactly does it mean to be a volunteer at your church? And what exactly does it mean to be a leader? Can you articulate the difference? Is there a path between the two?
This type of clarity comes from a commitment to work on your leadership system. We’ve got resources to help and plans you can implement, but it’s up to you to do the work.
The Ultimate Leadership Development Tool
One thing we’ve noticed about leaders in the church is they typically crave training. Leaders love opportunities to get better and develop their skills. Yet too many churches don’t provide any leadership training to their people.
This resource will help you:
- Learn how to lead yourself because it starts with you!
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With Train Your Team, you can invite some of the top leadership coaches including Jeff Henderson, Jenni Catron, Sam Chand and more right into your team meetings. Or you can share the videos with your staff, elders and leaders and they can watch on their own schedule.
Train Your Team will be launching soon, but by signing up below to stay updated you’ll not only be one of the first to be invited to get access, you’ll also get a special introductory price not offered to the public. You don’t want to miss this!
This article originally appeared here.
For more great articles on leading volunteers, check out 25 Best Articles on Leading Volunteers (That Get Them to Stay and Thrive!)
