Some of your churches are like mine, and you encourage some of your volunteers to “take a breath” during the summer months. We push the pause button on our small groups in June and July so that our faithful volunteers can vacation, rest, and be ready to jump back into investing in junior highers once the school year begins. Honestly, our ministry is less effective during those months, and I miss those volunteers like crazy, but for us, it’s the best choice in the long run. (It probably explains why so many of our volunteers have stuck around for years and years!)
So last week, I was anticipating the “re-arrival” of our school year volunteers. I said to our staff team, “Who’s one person that you’re really, really looking forward to serving alongside this year?” It was fun to hear people’s answers… and look forward to this fun we’re going to have together this year as we point middle schoolers towards Jesus.
Later that day, I decided to take four minutes and jot a note to one of those volunteers… and tell them how much they’re valued around here and why. It’s a habit I’m trying to “re-create” – because honestly, I’ve gotten a little sloppy with it! (Which is crazy, because when I get an encouragement note, sometimes I’ll carry it around with me for a few days!) Thoughtful words are really meaningful to me — and in about four minutes, I can put some fuel in someone’s tank just by jotting them a snail-mail note. In a mailbox full of credit card offers and cable-tv-advertisements, a card from you would be a welcome sight!
