Ministry Description

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Servant | Reflections| Tags: , , | Comments feed

Create Ministry Descriptions

Before people will commit their time to a ministry, they want to know what will be expected of them. Ministry descriptions that are specific and written are important because they give people the information they need to make a commitment.

Why not have a section on the Church’s website where there are ministry descriptions for volunteers. The idea is that this is a job description, but for a volunteer position. By reading through these, a potential volunteer would have a better idea about what is going to be involved. This usually helps people make up their mind to commit to a volunteer task. The Ministry Description could include any or all of the following sections:

  • Description of the Volunteer Position
  • Amount and Frequency of Time Commitment
  • List of the Skills Required
  • Ideas on Training (e.g. technical hands-on)
  • Benefits to the Community of Faith

In addition, there should be a table showing the number of volunteers that are needed in each area of the Church’s ministry. This could be the overview page showing all of the open positions. Hopefully, this would decrease as people volunteered, until all positions were filled.

God has blessed the community of faith with tremendous gifts and graces. Using Ministry Descriptions will help tap that resource, so that the mission of the Church can be fulfilled with excellence!

December 28, 2008 by servant

Gone are the days when you could just expect someone to volunteer as much time as it takes. You need to let people know what is expected of them in a volunteer position. And don’t let anyone volunteer someone else without that person’s permission. At best, this was an effort to expedite setting up volunteers by presuming that any Church member would agree; at worst, it becomes a cruel practical joke. Either way, it leads down the path to volunteer burnout!

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