The Mind of a Volunteer
9/11/2008
I realized the other day how being a point person of a ministry can drastically change your perspective of a situation compared to a volunteer adult leader.
I was talking with my sister the other day. She lives in a different state, so she has no connection to my ministry, and she is a volunteer leader in her church’s student ministry. She was telling me about a situation that had arose the week before with some of the students she is discipling as well as a few other situations and how the youth pastor had handled it. Let’s just say that she was not pleased… In fact, she is considering stepping out of her role because of it.
As I was listening to her, I kept thinking to myself ‘how would I have handled this, would I have made the same judgments if this was one of my volunteers?’
Her church has just recently hired this youth pastor, and I can definitely see some ‘rookie’ type mistakes on his part. Yet, I also think I would have, and have in the past, reacted in very similar ways. It does not take very long as the point person before you have someone mad at you, or you make a mistake in how you react to a situation.
I have no ground breaking leadership ideas to share, or huge epiphanies of student ministry. But, it has definitely made me think a bit harder about the way I interact with volunteers, the assumptions I make, and how wrong they can be. I know that my ministry, or any healthy ministry, cannot survive without a volunteer team of Godly men and women who like students. Yet, they need to understand that their actions will be tagged onto my reputation.
With all that said, obviously the key is open and honest communication between the point person and the volunteer team; me hearing them as much as them hearing me (some of my best student leadership lessons have come from volunteers on my team). As well as good training, Christ centered relationships, encouragement, and a lot of God’s grace.
I just encourage you to remember, whether you are a ministry point person or a volunteer leader, the other persons perspective in a situation. And also, that we all need each other to reach the goal God has put before us in student ministry; we are on the same team!
I was talking with my sister the other day. She lives in a different state, so she has no connection to my ministry, and she is a volunteer leader in her church’s student ministry. She was telling me about a situation that had arose the week before with some of the students she is discipling as well as a few other situations and how the youth pastor had handled it. Let’s just say that she was not pleased… In fact, she is considering stepping out of her role because of it.
As I was listening to her, I kept thinking to myself ‘how would I have handled this, would I have made the same judgments if this was one of my volunteers?’
Her church has just recently hired this youth pastor, and I can definitely see some ‘rookie’ type mistakes on his part. Yet, I also think I would have, and have in the past, reacted in very similar ways. It does not take very long as the point person before you have someone mad at you, or you make a mistake in how you react to a situation.
I have no ground breaking leadership ideas to share, or huge epiphanies of student ministry. But, it has definitely made me think a bit harder about the way I interact with volunteers, the assumptions I make, and how wrong they can be. I know that my ministry, or any healthy ministry, cannot survive without a volunteer team of Godly men and women who like students. Yet, they need to understand that their actions will be tagged onto my reputation.
With all that said, obviously the key is open and honest communication between the point person and the volunteer team; me hearing them as much as them hearing me (some of my best student leadership lessons have come from volunteers on my team). As well as good training, Christ centered relationships, encouragement, and a lot of God’s grace.
I just encourage you to remember, whether you are a ministry point person or a volunteer leader, the other persons perspective in a situation. And also, that we all need each other to reach the goal God has put before us in student ministry; we are on the same team!
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