Turning an Audience Into an Army
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Every year our church hosts a number of training conferences for pastors and church leaders. These conferences normally attract 3,500 leaders to our campus for 5 days and require an enormous amount of logistical preparation. Literally thousands of volunteer service hours are invested. Without an army of lay ministers, our church would never be able to offer these events.
Recently, a group of several hundred excited volunteers showed up to help prepare for a conference. Some were using their vacation time to help; others had rearranged work schedules in order to assist in assembling packets, preparing name tags, setting up tables and chairs, serving food, and cleaning up. Barbara, a volunteer, summed up the group's attitude: "It's a great way to meet people and serve the Lord. We can never do enough for our church family."
What motivates people to serve sacrificially through their church? What do they need from you to move into ministry? It's not enough just to hope and dream that people will get involved. Your church needs an intentional strategy for leading people to deeper commitment and greater service for Christ.
Our church has commissioned over 4,000 lay ministers through a strategy that includes consistent communication, a practical process, and a simple structure. Your church can use these same elements to mobilize members for ministry.
PROVIDE A PROCESS FOR GETTING INTO MINISTRY
Moving members into ministry should be an ongoing process that focuses on empowering people, not on filling positions. We never create a ministry position and then try to fill it. It doesn't work. You'll have a much higher success rate of placing people in ministry if you focus on the unique, God-given "shape" of the individual, rather than on the needs of the institution. Our ministry placement process involves six steps:
Step 1: Attend Class 301: Discovering My Ministry. This class is one of four classes that form our Life Development Process. Each month we offer our basic classes—101: Discovering Membership, 201: Discovering Spiritual Maturity, 301: Discovering My Ministry, and 401: Discovering My Mission. These 4-hour classes are taught simultaneously on the second Sunday afternoon of each month. Each class builds on the previous one. We provide dinner and children's programs to make it easier for people to attend.
In Class 301 we teach what the Bible says about service, what ministry opportunities are available, and about the SHAPE concept. SHAPE is the acronym I developed that stands for spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences. The SHAPE process helps a person determine what his or her ministry should be. Every person is uniquely designed, or shaped, by God to do certain things. By identifying and understanding the five SHAPE factors, we can discover the unique way God intends for each of us to serve Him.
Step 2: Commit to serving in ministry and sign a ministry covenant. People want to be committed to something that gives significance to their lives. They respond to responsibilities that give life meaning, and they are attracted by a challenging vision. (See sidebar, Sample Ministry Covenant.) Step 3: Complete a personal SHAPE profile. This is a simple form that helps people seriously look at how God has uniquely designed them. There are questions covering each of the five elements of SHAPE: What spiritual gifts do you think you have? For what or whom do you have a heart or passion? If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you do for God with your life? What skills and abilities do you have? What is your personality type? What has your spiritual journey been like? What kinds of experiences have you had—school, work, and ministry? What painful life experiences have you had that you could use to encourage someone else? Step 4: Have a personal interview with a SHAPE ministry leader. We have trained individuals to serve as ministry placement counselors. Their job is to help people identify three or four possible areas of ministry. People need individual attention and guidance as they attempt to discover their ministry. Fruitfulness is the result of a good ministry fit, and simply taking the class won't accomplish this.
Step 5: Meet with a leader of the ministry you are interested in. Each of the 150 different ministries in our church designates someone to welcome and explain to new volunteers the particular ministry they are interested in.
Step 6: Be publicly commissioned at a SALT meeting. SALT, which stands for Saddleback Advanced Leadership Training, is the most important meeting in our church. It is the centerpiece of our lay ministry training program. The 2-hour rally includes worship, recognition of all ministries, testimonies from the field, and church news. In addition, we present a Giant-Killer Award to the lay minister who has tackled the biggest problem in the previous month.
My message is a teaching on values, vision, character qualities of leadership, or skills needed for ministry. These training messages are called Lessons on Leadership and are available on cassette tape.
During the commissioning time, we ask new lay ministers to stand, and we invite everyone already involved in ministry to lay hands on them and pray for them.
After taking these six steps, people start serving immediately. We don't overload them with a lot of preservice training. A long, drawn-out training course can wear people out before they get started. We want them to dive right in while they are highly motivated to learn.
A decision to serve in a particular ministry isn't written in stone. If people realize they are mismatched, we don't make them feel guilty for resigning. We just urge them to keep looking for their niche. Many books on spiritual gifts say, "Discover your spiritual gifts, and then you'll know what your ministry is." We believe the exact opposite: Start experimenting with different ministries, and then you'll discover your gifts.
COMMUNICATE THE VISION
The starting point is to invest time teaching your members what the Bible says about why they should be in ministry. (See sidebar, Why Use My Life To Serve Others?) Lay the foundation in classes, sermons, seminars, and home Bible studies. You should never stop teaching the importance of every Christian having a ministry.
Serving and giving are the defining characteristics of the Christlike lifestyle (see Mark 10:45). The Bible states that it is every member's responsibility to minister, and it is the pastor's job to equip them for ministry (see Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:11,12). It's a life-changing experience when someone realizes, I am a minister of Jesus Christ. All believers, not just pastors, need to experience the fulfillment that comes from having God use them to change lives. It will change their whole attitude.
For example, we have a greeter named Van who is gifted in reaching out to newcomers. Ken, who was Jewish, came to our church with his wife. They had visited several churches looking for a church where Ken would feel comfortable. On his first visit, he was welcomed by Van. Van shook Ken's hand, looked him in the eye, and said, "I'm really glad you came." Years later Ken explained, "Nobody had ever welcomed me to a church before. Usually, we just silently marched in and marched out." Today, Ken is a believer and an invaluable leader in our church. Because of Van's simple ministry of welcoming people, Ken testifies that he came back to church each week and eventually found Christ. This example reinforces the premise that there are no useless parts of the Body and no unimportant ministries.
MINIMIZE MAINTENANCE TO MAXIMIZE MINISTRY
If you are serious about mobilizing your members for ministry, you must streamline your structure. One major reason many church members aren't active in ministry is because they are so busy attending meetings that they have no time left for real ministry.
The most valuable asset people can give to your church is their time. If a man or woman comes to me and says, "Pastor, I have 4 hours a week to give to my church in ministry," the last thing I do is put him or her on some committee.
Committees discuss while ministries do. Committees argue while ministries act. Committees maintain while ministries minister. Committees talk and consider while ministries serve and care. Committees discuss needs while ministries meet needs. We must minimize maintenance in order to maximize time for ministry.
Maintenance is church work: budgets, buildings, and organizational matters. Ministry is the work of the church. The more people you involve in maintenance decisions, the more you keep them from ministry. We have no committees at our church. We do, however, have 150 different lay ministries. The number has doubled in the last 3 years. Our paid staff does the maintenance, and our lay ministers appreciate that the time they volunteer is given to actual ministry.
In streamlining your structure, it is better not to vote on ministry positions. There are several good reasons for this: (1) It avoids personality contests and attracting people who are only interested in power or prestige. (2) It allows new ministries time to develop slowly, out of the public spotlight. (3) It allows new members a chance to get involved more quickly. (4) It makes removal easier, should people fail in a ministry. Not voting on ministry positions also allows you to respond more quickly to the Holy Spirit's leading. Once a woman came to me and said, "We need a prayer ministry."
I said, "I agree. You're it."
She said, "Don't I have to be elected or go through some approval process?" She had imagined having to jump through all kinds of hoops first.
I said, "Of course not. Just announce a formation meeting in the bulletin and start it." She did. You shouldn't have to vote on whether or not a person can use the gifts God has given him or her in the body of Christ. I'm sure you realize how radical this approach is. In the typical church, members handle the maintenance (administration) of the church, and the pastor is supposed to do all the ministry. No wonder the church can't grow. There's a bottleneck.
The secret to motivating people to serve over an extended period is to give them ownership of the ministries they operate. Allow the people leading each ministry to make their own decisions without a lot of interference from your board. When you give authority with responsibility, you'll be amazed at people's creativity. People respond to responsibility. Expect the best of your people, and trust them with ministry. Give them a challenge, give them control, and give them the credit.
CONCLUSION
In this article I have used the terms lay ministry and lay minister so readers would not think I am talking about paid staff. Honestly, I don't like the term lay minister because it can imply second-class citizenship and incompetence. Do you want a lay doctor operating on you or a lay lawyer defending you?
In a biblical church there are only ministers. We should treat those who serve without pay with the same respect as those who are paid for their services.
Always keep the vision of ministry before your people. Communicate the importance of their ministries. When you recruit, emphasize the eternal significance of ministering in Jesus' name. Vision motivates people. Guilt and pressure discourage them. Help people see that they are investing for eternity and that there is no greater cause than the kingdom of God.
The church's best-kept secret is that people want to make a contribution—to do something significant with their talents. The church that understands this and gives every member a chance to express his or her SHAPE in ministry will experience amazing vitality, health, and growth.
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Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, Mission Viejo, California.
The following tapes are available from The Encouraging Word: "Empowering Your Core for Ministry" (PDC7), "You Are Shaped for Significance" (A62), "Keep the Structure Simple" (PDC12), "Class 101, 201, and 301," and "Lessons on Leadership" (LL3 through LL70). For more information, call 714-888-2500 or visit www.pastors.net.