Comments on: Quit Boring Your Volunteers!

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Great post. Even greater question, one every ministry leader should ask every week.

By: Matt Steen

Matt Steen — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:52:00 +0000

That is exciting to hear, Joseph! Thank you for your kind words, and sharing your story!

By: Is Church Work Boring? | Joseph M. Cole

Is Church Work Boring? | Joseph M. Cole — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:58:54 +0000

[...] called “Fulfillment Is a Right, Not a Luxury” by Simon Sinek and the second “Quit Boring Your Volunteers” by Matt Steen. I follow Simon because he wrote a landmark book entitled Start with [...]

By: Joseph M. Cole

Joseph M. Cole — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:28:00 +0000

I love this post! This is one of the fundamental things we are changing in our volunteer life at Tabernacle of Praise. “Removing the noise” and overcommunicating the vision behind the work has done wonders for volunteer morale. Now, instead of us whipping our volunteers onward with the “don’t grow weary in well doing” clause, our office is busy trying to keep up with all of their suggestions, improvements and desire to do more!

By: Matt Steen

Matt Steen — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:03:00 +0000

I am glad that someone picked up on the Simpson’s reference… thanks for noticing!

I think you get it… the regular connection is HUGE. In each of the ministries that I served in, whether I was the youth pastor or executive pastor, my leadership development budget was larger than any other part of my budget… sometimes it would be half of my entire budget. I used that to grab lunch with my leaders, leadership retreats, and training events. The leadership retreats were probably the best thing I ever did as it helped really develop a close knit team… and I had an AWESOME team.

I’d love to hear how it goes as you ramp up your investment in your leadership team…

By: Nick the Geek

Nick the Geek — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:30:00 +0000

First, loved the Simpsons reference. Once thing I started doing with my volunteers was having a regular meeting with them. Regular works out to quarterly because I hate meetings and assume that everyone else does too. The meetings involve lunch, talking, feedback, and info about the upcoming events for that quarter. It’s an opportunity to get to know them more than just tell them what we are doing.

One thing I want to implement, is to take time between the quarterly meetings to take my volunteers out. I started doing this with my student leaders, and I need to start with my adult leaders.