More Slots Than Workers - Christianity Today

MANAGEMENT

Carla couldn’t find enough workers. With a growing Sunday school, children’s church, and full-scale Wednesday night program, Carla struggled constantly to staff the children’s ministries at Stillmeadow Church.

Carla needed 91 workers for the three major ministries. Or she would have, if she had found 91 people able and willing to work every week. She didn’t. So Carla divided some of the jobs into once-a-month obligations. Now she needed 187 workers.

At First Presbyterian Church in a north Indiana town, Gus felt stymied in his attempt to grow the adult Sunday school. As education director, he wanted most of the congregation’s adults to be active in a Sunday school class. That would mean increasing the number of adult classes from four to nine. Gus was finding little enthusiasm among potential attenders, and he was having trouble finding teachers to start new classes.

At the same time the associate pastor, Ron, was finding it harder than expected to grow the church’s small group ministry. He too was having trouble finding leaders. Both programs seemed stalled about halfway to their goal of total congregational involvement.

In most of the churches I work with I hear, “Every year we have trouble finding enough workers.” Rarely do I hear anyone say, “We have too many positions to fill.”

Whenever we have more slots than people to fill them, we automatically assume we’re short on workers. Could it be that the root problem is not too few workers but too many slots?

Case 1: Cut the pieces bigger

I asked Carla, “Do you have 187 people at Stillmeadow who feel called to work with children?” She rolled her eyes. If even 91 people had been eager to work with children, she would not have had to chop jobs into smaller pieces. Carla knew that some of her volunteers were helping with children only because of the worker shortage. Quite a few were mismatched to their assignments.

So Carla streamlined the children’s ministry. Though the church had grown to 650 in worship attendance, they were still using a small-church class structure—small classes with solo teachers. Carla combined the children into larger groups of 20 to 30 with each group led by a ministry team including a master teacher. That produced several important advantages.

The ministry teams allowed each team member to work in his or her area of giftedness rather than having to do everything (teaching, worship, crafts, care giving). The teams created a support system for workers. And the switch to ministry teams eliminated the need for seven department supervisors since each team became basically self-organizing.

In restructuring, the 187 slots were cut to just 60. Every volunteer was working every week, not every four or six weeks. The consistency was wonderful for building stronger relationships between children and adults. With fewer slots, Carla lined up all the workers for the fall programs by June—a first. Every position was filled by a person whose heart was in children’s ministry.

Case 2: 1 goal, 1 program

First Presbyterian had the same problem with a different age group.

When asked to name the primary goal of adult Sunday school and small groups, Gus identified “fellowship” as the main purpose of both.

These two programs addressed the same need and were competing for the same participants and leaders. People were saying they didn’t have time for another weekly meeting. That explained why both had stalled.

Which ministry served the purpose more effectively? Without hesitation, Gus said “small groups.” First Presbyterian decided to make small groups their primary setting for community-building and discipling.

This meant redefining the purpose of adult Sunday school, placing less emphasis on relationship-building and more emphasis on teaching. All adults would be encouraged to join a small group for discipling in a context of committed relationships, but they would be invited to take Sunday classes as short-term electives as they had time and interest—not necessarily 52 weeks a year. If older adults preferred to relate in their Sunday school class as a “small group,” that would be great. But they wouldn’t be expected to also join a weeknight small group.

This change in expectations removed the pressure to add classes, which also meant that those five new classrooms on the drawing board wouldn’t be needed.

The key to streamlining

How do you decide which slots to eliminate? If God is not calling anyone to do a particular ministry, maybe it shouldn’t be done.

A church in Ohio voted to remodel a house next door to the church into offices. They then asked for volunteers to serve as a task force to direct the remodeling. No one volunteered. A few months later a house on the other side of the church became available. This house was better suited for the intended use, and immediately volunteers came forward, eager to work with the project.

But doesn’t this call-driven approach endanger some existing programs? Indeed, it does.

As Elizabeth O’Connor writes, “If the church were true to herself, she would help all her people to discern and be faithful to call. In such an effort, however, institutions probably recognize a threat to their own structures. … If church people begin listening to call, those we count on most will likely be off on some wild adventures of their own. Some of the tasks that we have depended on lay persons to do may not get done.”

When a call-driven approach to ministry results in unfilled slots, those openings can show us where to streamline.

If God isn’t calling anyone to provide the key leadership for a given ministry, even if many of the “rank and file” positions have been filled, it may be time to let that ministry die with dignity. Called, passionate leadership is essential to dynamic ministry.

When a ministry has strong, called leadership but not enough volunteers, it is time for a new strategy. Consider these questions:

Are there ways to simplify the program, sharpening its focus on doing one or two things very well rather than doing many things?

Does this program compete with another ministry for participants or leaders?

If so, can the two ministries be combined into a single, stronger ministry?

Should enrollment in some programs be capped at a level that does not strain staff and facilities?

Of course, there will be times when an essential role has to be filled temporarily by someone whose primary call lies elsewhere. But if the arrangement goes on too long, we need to ask why:

Has the church erected conscious or unconscious barriers—expectations about education, social standing, gender, or membership—that may discourage those God is calling from considering the job?

Does the job description need to be reshaped?

Is the support system adequate?

Is this position less essential than previously assumed?

The most important question: what is God saying to the church through this vacancy?

Pruning for new growth

In the story of the vine and the branches, Jesus says that fruitful branches are pruned. What is cut away is not diseased, but the healthy growth that bore last year’s harvest. If it isn’t pruned, the coming harvest is diminished. The vine is pruned so all its energy can be poured into producing this season’s fruit.

Pruning hurts, because the loss is real, but its purpose is not to punish; it is to increase fruitfulness.

When we hold onto the structures and activities that produced yesterday’s fruit, we dilute the church’s energy. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to prune our ministries, we avoid spreading the church’s resources too thin. By pruning, we focus on what God wants to do now, in this season.

Listening to the callings of our members is empowering. It’s an essential aspect of what it means for a church to abide in Christ.

As result, Jesus says, we will bear much fruit.

Eddy Hall is a church consultant P.O. Box 365 Goessel KS 67053 eddyhall@future.goessel.ks.us

Is Your Church Overprogrammed? A self-test to determine if it’s time to get out the pruning shears.

1. Is it an annual struggle to fill all the teacher/worker positions in your education program? Yes No

2. Each year, are several people asked to serve because jobs need to be done rather than because people want to do that ministry? Yes No

3. Do you have two or more programs or ministries serving similar purposes that compete for participants or leaders? Yes No

4. Does it take 75 percent or more of your available adult workers to fully staff the ministries within the walls of the church, so that fewer than 25 percent of your people are investing themselves in ministries outside the church walls? Yes No

5. Does your church have meetings, services, or programs that people attend more from habit or duty than because they are life-giving? (Clue: Do the regulars complain about the lack of commitment of those who do not attend?) Yes No

6. Are leaders, other than paid staff, allowed or encouraged to take on more than two ongoing ministry responsibilities—one major and one minor? Yes No

7. Has some major new ministry stalled in its development for lack of workers? Yes No

8. Have you recently overheard lay leaders say that church meetings and responsibilities are taking more time than they wished? Yes No

9. Do you have ministry programs in which it is easier to fill the “rank and file” spots than it is to fill the key leadership roles? Yes No

10. Do you often see signs of worker burnout—people feeling overworked, resigning ministry positions earlier than they had planned to, or saying they need to take a break from ministry? Yes No

BONUS #1. Does your church have a system in place to equip every present and new member to identify spiritual gifts and personal calling, and then to help each one connect with a ministry that matches that call? Yes No

BONUS #2. Does your church encourage and support the birthing of new ministries when members identify calls to ministries not yet in existence? Yes No

BONUS #3. In the past year, have you witnessed the birth of at least one new ministry that was not started by a church board or committee, but by a member in response to vision God gave him or her? Yes No

BONUS #4. In the past year, has your church deliberately ended at least one ministry program or regular meeting? Yes No

BONUS #5. Has your church set a goal to have half of all adult members involved in ministries outside the walls of the church? Yes No

Scoring:

Give your church 10 points for each yes in response to questions 1 through 10. Now subtract 20 points for each yes in response to bonus questions 1 through 5.

Score _______

-100 to 0: Wow! A truly empowering church!

10 to 30: On track but could do better.

40 to 60: Time to get the pruning shears.

70 to 100: You need to clarify your church’s ministry vision before you’ll know where to prune.

—Eddy Hall