Recruiting is a ministry of discernment. It is the holy act of helping others discover their gifts and discern God’s will.
—Roberta Hestenes
Some years ago I was responsible for recruiting someone to oversee a pastoral care program involving over two hundred adults. It was a big job, and I was looking for a couple who could commit a great deal of time and energy to the program.
I prayed about this problem literally for months, wondering who would be willing and able to take on such a challenge. Eventually I sensed the Lord pointing me to Bill and Terri, a couple in their late thirties. I stopped them in the hall at church one Wednesday evening and said, “I have a new opportunity for ministry in mind for you. Would you be willing to meet and discuss it?”
The following week, they and I sat down together in my living room, and I laid out my proposal. I spelled out the importance of the program to the life of the church and told them all the reasons I felt they were the right couple for this ministry.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat this job,” I added. “It’s going to be tough.” And I carefully sketched in all the downsides I could think of. The church staff was already stretched too thin, so they wouldn’t get much in the way of help or additional resources. The hours would be long, and the job largely thankless. Yet the opportunity was significant.
I was beginning to think I had oversold the downside when Bill and Terri looked each other and then at me and grinned.
“In the car on the way over here,” Bill said, “we were wondering what sort of job you had in mind. And we said to ourselves, ‘If this is another one of those Mickey Mouse church jobs, we don’t want it.’ But you’ve given us something that really counts! We’ll do it.”
“Well, wait a minute!” I cautioned. “Don’t say yes so fast! Pray about it, think about, then get back to me.”
“All right,” said Tern, “we’ll pray about it—but the answer will still be yes!”
And it was. In fact, this couple invested a total of fourteen years in that position, and the program was enormously successful under their leadership.
That to me is the prototype of recruiting, and it’s the type of conversation and long-term success I want to have when recruiting workers for the educational ministries of the church.
It doesn’t always end up successfully, of course. Sometimes getting people to teach is tough: too many jobs to fill and not enough people, the recruiting conversation is awkward, people make excuses. And then when you finally recruit someone, they quit early or refuse to sign up again.
There will always be challenges in recruiting. But over the years I’ve found a number of practices that help make recruiting less of a chore and more of a ministry, and a successful one at that.
Finding a Ministry, Not Just Doing a Job
People get excited about ministry; they get scared off by jobs. So I don’t recruit to jobs; I recruit to ministries, as with Bill and Terri.
Although we are tempted to fall back on “duty” to motivate when recruiting, duty is a very poor motivator compared with the adventure of ministry. People are not inclined to take on jobs for the sake of “duty.” But they will take on ministries when they see a chance to make a significant difference in the lives of others.
Consider this recruiting appeal: “I’m asking you to take this teaching job because we need somebody in the classroom every week.” Now compare that with this: “We’re looking for someone to lay a lasting foundation of faith in the life of young Christians.” Which would you find more persuasive?
And it’s not just a matter of finding the most persuasive words. I genuinely want to help the potential teacher see how his or her effort in the classroom connects with something larger, with something eternal, with God’s plan—but I want to do so with integrity.
That means letting prospective teachers know as precisely as possible what to expect and what’s expected of them. I don’t hesitate to present the challenges as well as the joys of the assignment I want them to take. After all, if it’s a ministry, it will have challenges. But challenges motivate. What de-motivates is a sense of “I’m underemployed. I’m in a Mickey Mouse job.”
To a prospective adult teacher, I might say, “You will be responsible to produce a well-written study guide and to spend a minimum of three hours a week preparing for your class. From September to May, this task is demanding. But we have a replacement lined up for you from May through August. You’ll be expected to attend teacher training next month, and the leadership conference in May.”
Of course, people have different energy levels, different gifts, different lifestyles, different interests, all of which affect how much time and energy they can commit to teaching in the church. In fact, the best way to avoid volunteer burnout is to make sure we challenge a large number of people to share the ministry burden so that the full weight of the work doesn’t fall on too few people.
I find, however, that the real problem for most churches is not that people are overworked but that they are underchallenged. So, instead of saying, “Give whatever you can spare,” “I say, “Give your best to the Lord,” asking them to sign on for nothing less than the challenge of ministry through their church.
Recruiting Is Relationships
All recruiting amounts to matching people to needs: you have a class that has certain goals and you find a person who will be able to fulfill those goals.
In order to find a good match, however, the recruiter needs to know the people in the church. It cannot be done in an institutional way. It can only be done in a relational way. We have to know what makes people tick, what gets them excited and enthused, how they enjoy spending their time, and what their passions and motivations are.
For example, let’s say I’ve noticed a young mother who’s been attending church for some time. I may be tempted to ask her to babysit in the nursery. But when I get to know her, I discover that she is gifted in relationship skills and has a desire to evangelize. So, instead I might ask her to design a meaningful outreach program for young mothers.
Or let’s say there is a lawyer who works with refugees on immigration law. He might be recruited to lead an adult seminar on Christian responses to changing neighborhoods.
The point is we cannot help people find a ministry if we don’t know their gifts, abilities, and interests. So good recruiting is an ongoing process of getting to know people at coffee fellowship, at church retreats, in small groups, in Bible studies. As a recruiter of teachers, I believe in visiting people in their homes and at work.
And I believe in using the small-group programs in helping me recruit. If I need a certain kind of teacher for a certain class, I sometimes will call up a small-leader, describe the need, and ask if she knows anyone who can fill the bill. Small groups can be an effective avenue for uncovering and unleashing hidden potential in the church.
The Recruiting Team
I find that the most effective approach to recruiting—particularly in a large church—is a team approach. Hierarchical relationships cannot supply the broad network of relationships, the pool of ideas and imagination, or the depth of mutual support that team relationships provide. Moreover, teamwork—that is, community—is the biblical model for almost all Christian ministry.
A team represents a variety of interests, backgrounds, gifts, and passions. One member of the team has a passion for deep biblical scholarship. Another has a heart for the needs of seniors and retirees. One has a special interest in junior high and high school youth. Another is closely involved with children’s ministry.
The best recruiter for a ministry is the person who is closest to that ministry, the person who is the most excited about it. So the person who is enthusiastic about working with second graders is a better recruiter for second grade teachers than even the pastor of the church. With a team approach, individuals can be delegated to contact prospective teachers for the areas where they have the most interest and enthusiasm.
In a comparatively small church—say, 75 to 200 members—the pastor can work closely with the recruiting committee. The pastor knows people and their circumstances, so he or she can submit names to contact and steer the committee away from inappropriate volunteers while protecting confidentiality.
There may be certain classes for which the pastor should be involved in recruiting, such as classes in Bible, theology, or church history. The pastor’s request can sometimes be used to inspire teacher participation by underscoring the importance of a certain class. The pastor can convey the overall vision for the class, showing how the course fits into the larger ministry of the church.
But the most important question is “Who has the relationship with the prospective teacher?” In most cases, that’s the person who should make the contact. Sometimes the pastor should make the contact. But if a lay member of the recruiting team has a close friendship with a prospective teacher and the pastor only knows that prospective teacher on a casual basis, the lay person should make the contact.
The Recruiting Conversation
A lot of people seem to prefer Sunday mornings as their recruiting time. I think this is a mistake. I don’t mind making an initial contact with someone on the church lawn or by the coffee urn, but that is hardly the best place to conduct such an important discussion as a recruiting conversation.
If the stakes are low—say, if I’m recruiting helpers for a banquet next month and I anticipate a friendly answer—then a quick conversation between worship services may be adequate. But if I’m recruiting teachers for a two-year commitment to a class, I don’t want to catch someone on the run in the hall on Sunday morning. I don’t want to be interrupted at a crucial point by other people. I want a quiet, unhurried environment. A Sunday morning contact should serve only as an invitation to a conversation, not the conversation itself.
I try to schedule recruiting conversations well in advance. For most people, teaching is not just an add on, it’s a major rearrangement of their lives. So in April I’m already looking at my needs for September and beyond so I can give prospective teachers the time they need to plan, to pray, and to prioritize.
Ideally, the recruiting conversation should involve sitting down in quiet, comfortable surroundings and sharing the vision, explaining the objectives, spelling out the expectations, and detailing the support you’re willing to give. I ask people what they think they will need to do the job. I start thinking through the outline of the course with them, and I ask what books, tapes, or other resources would help them prepare for the class.
“What would you need to function?” I ask. “And what sort of encouragement would you need? For instance, would you like help in recruiting a support team for the class?”
We discuss the “job description”—not a formal written document but an understanding. I believe the recruiting experience should not be a contract negotiation but the creation of a partnership between friends, an informal time of thinking and praying together and reaching a decision. I don’t say, “Please respond to the terms on this piece of paper.” I say, “Let’s seek the will of God together.”
I try to recruit people for two-year commitments, with time off during that term so they’re not working every week for two solid years. I often tell people, “During the first year, you’re learning the job. During the second year, you should be training your successor.” Teachers sustain two year-commitments fairly well. Some last much longer, especially if we are careful to schedule breaks, breathers, and vacations.
I try to give the prospective teacher room to sense the authentic guidance of the Holy Spirit. The danger of recruiting is that we can easily become manipulative. We can become so convinced of the rightness and importance of our agenda that we try to bend the will of another person to the needs of our program.
I believe some of the most important time I spend in the recruiting conversation is not the time I spend talking, but the time I spend listening. I listen to the prospective teacher’s questions, fears, and apprehensions. I listen for signs of excitement and enthusiasm. And when there is reluctance on the part of the prospective teacher, I listen to discern the difference between reasons and excuses.
Reasons and Excuses
Dealing with excuses is one of the most delicate aspects of recruiting. For one thing, “excuses” are sometimes valid reasons. Learning to tell a reason from an excuse is part of the discernment that goes with recruiting.
If a prospective teacher says to me, “Gee, I’d really love to teach a class, but I’m president of the pta this year, and I just can’t take on another duty right now,” my reply would be, “President of the pta is a strategic position, and I want to support your commitment. Perhaps when your term is up, we can take another look at the possibility of teaching.” Then I would stay in touch and show a genuine interest in that person’s duties with the pta.
When people feel your authentic support, you frequently gain a teacher over the long haul. I believe an effective recruiter thinks long term and builds relationships.
If someone just doesn’t want to get involved, anything can be an excuse: “My mother comes to town every other weekend” or “Our family likes to go hiking and I just couldn’t make a commitment.” Those are excuses, pure and simple. If a person really believed the class was worthwhile, such activities would soon take second place.
Confronted with an obvious excuse, I try to discern whether I should take the excuse as a no or change the job description. Sometimes an excuse simply means, “I can’t make that big a commitment. If the commitment were smaller, I would consider it.” So sometimes I will suggest breaking the job into two or three parts, offering the prospective teacher a portion of the job.
Of course, that doesn’t always overcome the excuses. And when I solve the person’s “problem” three times, and he or she still thinks of another reason not to do it, I know the person is saying, “I am unwilling, period.”
The Inadequacy Excuse
One response that requires some special attention is “the inadequacy excuse,” which says, “I don’t have the gifts, experience, or knowledge to teach this class.”
When you consider it, the inadequacy excuse is actually a good place to begin. People should be intimidated by the job of teaching, whether it is teaching children, youth, or adults. It’s a profound responsibility.
No one is adequate. The apostle Paul didn’t feel adequate, Moses didn’t feel adequate, and I sure don’t feel adequate. But we can often answer the inadequacy excuse by offering help, training, prayer support, and resources to the prospective teacher.
One of the most common inadequacy excuses is “I don’t know enough to teach this subject.” In that case, I might ask, “Would you feel more confident if I helped you learn the subject?” or “How about if I give you some excellent resources?” or “Would a co-teacher help?” Then I listen carefully to the answers so that I can determine if that person just needs help and encouragement in order to say yes—or if I need to find another teacher.
If after probing, I see that their lack of confidence would hinder their teaching, I try to redirect them to get involved in learning. “Maybe you’ll feel better about teaching a class a year from now,” I might say, or “Maybe there’s another subject you’d be interested in teaching.” Many times I have recruited capable, permanent teachers by waiting a year and keeping in touch with them in the meantime.
Naturally, the teacher training offered will make a difference in people’s response. If they see that it will answer their concerns and be ongoing, they will more likely have the confidence to say yes to teaching.
Another factor that sometimes elicits “the inadequacy excuse” is the language used when we recruit. I said earlier that I believe in helping the potential teacher see how his or her effort in the classroom connects with something larger, with something eternal, with God’s plan. Yet it is possible to overwhelm and intimidate a person by over-stressing the ministry outcome.
If I paint too grandiose a picture of the eternal significance of teaching college students, my prospective teacher is likely to respond, “I’m not a good enough Christian to have that kind of impact!” Instead of inspiring and motivating, I’ve scared that teacher away!
The language of vision and ministry should be appropriate to the level of the person we’re talking to, and appropriate to the level of the teaching task.
Don’t Take Yes for an Answer
Another principle I always follow in recruiting: Never let people respond in the initial conversation. My job is not to rope people into my program but to help them discern the will of God. The question is always, “Is God truly calling you to this ministry?” If God has not called that person, I don’t want that person to teach.
So I always close with words to the effect, “Let’s pray and think about this possibility for the next few days. Then let’s get together a week from now and talk again.”
Even if the person says, “Yes, I’ll do it,” I always say, “I’m glad you feel so positive about it, but would you pray seriously about this? Would you talk it over with your spouse? Then let’s get together again and talk.”
In this way, I avoid the appearance that I’m simply trying to manipulate people into a position. I also insure that recruits are volunteering after thoughtful and prayerful reflection, so there’s a much greater chance that they will stick to their commitment, even through the Elijah Syndrome.
The Elijah Syndrome
Teaching is draining. After a class, many teachers fall into “the Elijah syndrome”—a sense of energy depletion, dissatisfaction, and malaise, often accompanied by spiritual attack in the form of self-doubt and doubting God. We look back on our class time and think, “Who am I kidding? They’re not getting anything out of this class. I’m a failure.”
I always try to warn new teachers about “the Elijah syndrome,” and I suggest ways to counter it. Adult education teachers, for instance, can ask for feedback from their classes. People rarely tell you how the class is affecting them unless you ask. So I suggest that teachers pass out a response card with a few simple questions such as, “What is one thing you learned that has helped your relationship with Christ?” It is encouraging when someone tells you that your teaching made a difference in their life—especially when that person is the quiet one in the back corner who never says a word in class.
Another way to protect teachers against “the Elijah syndrome” is to make sure they have an emotional lifeline securely plugged into the recruiting team. At our church we delegate members of the recruiting team to keep in touch with teachers, asking about their needs, helping them with problems, offering encouragement, and bringing any particularly difficult issues back to the recruiting team for discussion and resolution.
Particularly in the case of new courses or new teachers, I believe in putting a friendly person in the classroom as a support person. This way I can get an independent report on how the class is going, but more importantly, that person can support the teacher by affirming what’s going well. It’s hard for a teacher to be truly objective about a class, so it’s helpful for me and the teacher to draw on an independent viewpoint.
I once had a teacher in an adult education class who always taught to the clock on the back wall; he never looked at his students. So when his class dwindled from fifty to three, he didn’t even notice! I would ask him from time to time how his class was going, and he would reply, “Fantastic! I’m really enjoying this class!” For weeks, I took this teacher’s report at face value. Then I learned what was happening from one of the few remaining students. That experience confirmed for me the importance of getting friendly but honest independent reports!
Another way to keep in contact with teachers and fend off “the Elijah syndrome” is by sending teachers encouraging notes. I once had a woman on the recruiting team who said, “I can’t stand up and teach, but I can write notes to the teachers.” That became her ministry. During the middle of the term, when most teachers begin to hit a slump, she sent dozens of handwritten notes sprinkled with honest affirmation. Scripture, and prayer. A number of teachers later told me how those notes gave them a needed lift just as they were slipping into “the Elijah syndrome.”
At the end of the term, this woman also wrote thank-you notes to all the teachers. It means a lot when someone comes back just to say, “We genuinely appreciate what you did.”
I also believe in rewarding teachers, buying them books or other small gifts, especially gifts that will help prepare them to teach the next class. I gave our Bethel teachers, for example, atlases or Bible handbooks to aid them in their studies. I also like to acknowledge teachers in public by bringing them before the congregation and by printing their names in the bulletin.
Watch Out for De-motivators
Once we have brainstormed our classes into existence, designed them, recruited our gifted and capable teachers, put out our enticing brochures, there is one more thing to watch for. A deadly reef, out of view, hidden beneath the surface, awaits our little boat. It is the reef of de-motivators, details easy to overlook but which can wreak havoc on our educational program. I have seen teachers threaten to quit over de-motivators that could have easily been solved. For example:
• Week after week, an adult education teacher enters the room to find it set up for children. Every Sunday she has to wrestle with furniture in order to create an environment for adults.
• A teacher complains (to no avail) that audio visual equipment doesn’t work or isn’t available, that the bulbs in the light fixtures are burnt out and never replaced, that there is never any chalk for the blackboard.
• A teacher is discouraged because her class is tucked away in some invisible location in the church, and there are no signs to help people find the room.
I believe it’s the teacher’s job to teach, and it’s the recruiter’s job to make sure that the mechanics are taken care of. A teacher should not have to do janitorial and maintenance work in addition to the task of teaching.
Another serious de-motivator arises, particularly in adult education, when the teacher is faced with a class member who has overwhelming emotional or psychological problems. The average teacher just doesn’t know what to do in such cases, so the recruiting team must become a backup system to help the teacher deal with those with extraordinary problems.
Teachers should never feel they are dangling at the wrong end of the fishing pole, like a worm waiting for a catfish. Every teacher should have the security of feeling plugged into the larger network. Whenever there’s a problem, somebody is ready to find a solution; somebody is available, somebody cares.
What If You Can’t Find Anyone to Teach?
During one summer Sunday school session, we couldn’t find a teacher for the children’s program. People wanted a summer program for their children, yet most of our teachers had left town for the month of August, and we had no volunteers.
Our committee discussed the problem and decided, after some debate, not to hire someone to run the children’s program. (I’m not saying it’s wrong for a church to do that, but in our situation it wouldn’t have worked.) So we put a notice in the church bulletin and announced that there would be no children’s classes in August.
This was not an attempt to blackmail people into volunteering. It was simply a solution to the problem, or part of it anyway. In addition, the worship services were altered to be less formal and to better meet the interests of children. Parents took their children with them to worship, and many people thought having the children in the worship service for a few weeks was a benefit rather than a hardship.
Often there is a creative way to solve the problem of no teacher, although it takes flexibility. But before going too far afield, I usually begin by investigating why there are no volunteers. It may be that too many potential teachers are vacationing. It may be that no one wants to be in the 4-year-old room because there is a budding young terrorist in that class.
If the problem simply turns out to be that no one wants to volunteer, then I would probably put an announcement in the bulletin that says, “We have no teacher for this class. If, three weeks from now, we still have no teacher, we will phase out the 4-year-old class.” Again, that’s not an attempt to manipulate, just telling it like it is.
If there was no response, I would brainstorm with my children’s ministry team. Together we would wrestle with the question of why parents or other adults don’t feel they have anything at stake in this program, why they feel they should be provided for without any cost to themselves in terms of time and involvement. We would consider recruiting short-term teams to serve one month each, or other creative possibilities. Then, if all else failed, we might merge the 4-year-old class with the 5-year-olds. But we would continue to seek a long-term solution.
The Ministry of Recruiting
There are two passions that motivate people to teach. One is a love for the subject. The other is a love for people. The satisfaction of the recruiting ministry comes from finding people who exhibit this twofold love and from putting their passions to good use. Recruiting is hard work, it’s frustrating, it’s even painful at times, but it brings great satisfaction to the person who understands the eternal significance of the task.
In the end then, recruiting is a ministry of discernment. It is the holy act of helping others discover their gifts and discern God’s will. It begins with prayer; it is facilitated by building relationships. The recruiter’s focus is not just on the task but on the person. We are not just running a program; we are building people. We are recruiting for the sake of the teacher as well as for the sake of the church. It’s an exciting privilege to be used by God as his instrument to call others into ministry.
Copyright © 1991 by Christianity Today
