On the Trail in Volunteer Recruitment

It's Day 11 of a 30-Day Change Project to build a youth ministry volunteer team at Our Lady of the Valley. This is a sustained effort to recruit partners, define, and project the direction of youth ministry for the year. Each day has a task list. The tasks are mostly brainstorming who could help in the parish, contacting them, making a wish list of volunteer positions, describing the roles needed, fitting partners into places they can succeed, and following up, following up, following up with people.

My guide during this project is Building Your Volunteer Team: A 30-Day Change Project for Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries and Nate Stratman. Today's chapter struck me because it described my tendency to do things myself instead of trusting and empowering others. I thought others might relate too. Below is the chapter (it's short, I promise).

Day 11: Ridiculous Lines from the Chronically Ineffective Leader

"It's easier just to do it myself."

"A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs."

ROBERT TOWNSEND

When we find a church with an anemic volunteer leadership team, we don't have to look far before we stumble on to someone who lives by the motto, "It's easier just to do it myself!"

Well, of course it is. It's almost always easier simply to knock out a single task by ourselves than to have to coordinate with others. If easy is what we're looking for, its actually easiest to do nothing at all!

But can we just agree that easy is not primarily what we're looking for?

Most of us, if we're willing to admit it, are like typical contestants on cable TV's design or food competitions. You don't have to watch long to realize that the least favorite challenges on these shows are the team competitions, the ones that require contestants to work together. There's a reason the contestants hate these kinds of challenges. When it comes to creating or innovating, it's easier to do it alone than to have to compromise, co-create, or share leadership with others.

Beyond the drama it creates, the judges on these shows have a purpose. They know from experience that the highest-level work, the most significant accomplishments in almost any field seldom happen by a single individual accomplishing a task. The greatest discoveries and most profound innovations take place as leaders build teams, not only beneath them but beside them and above them as well. In short, the greatest fruit in life and ministry might just come in the form of a "team challenge."

But we can't successfully lead a team until we have one, which is why you've made it a priority to build your team in this intense thirty-day challenge.