Welcome to Part 3 of our series of “Simply Strategic Stuff”.  As I have mentioned , these are taken, with permission, from the book Simply Strategic Stuff by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens.  I strongly recommend that you pick up the book as there are 99 great insights…and we will only be addressing a handful as part of this series.

This lesson is one that is near and dear to my heart…and one that anyone that has been involved in ministry can relate to.  Voluntarism is a wonder element in church life.  In fact, it should be the heart beat of the church. I am a firm believer that ministry is to be done by the church (i.e. the congregation as the hands and feet of Christ) and that as such they are led and equipped by the “paid staff”.  Given that, let’s see what Tony and Tim have to say:

SIMPLY STRATEGIC STUFF #32 – You Can’t Fire Volunteers When the Construction Project Stalls

Many times churches place too much emphasis on availability and not enough on ability. This may be the primary mistake I hear when I talk with church leaders about their building projects.

It’s not an intentional mistake. In fact, it comes from pure motives. Members of the church are excited about the growth of the church and are eager to volunteer their skills in areas in which they have interest, training, or expertise. The church leaders are excited about saving money on the project. they enlist available volunteers without appropriate reference checks, written agreements, or accountability systems and then find themselves in trouble.

Here are some of the typical difficulties the church encounters:

• The volunteers can’t keep up with the schedule. WHY? Because the nature of the word volunteer. They may be doing the work after hours from their “real” jobs.  They may be retired but have other responsibilities. And yet you have hired contractors that are scheduling their work around your volunteers.  Once a contractor pulls off your job to someone else’s project, its difficult to get him back.
• The ability of the volunteer isn’t what you expect, and the quality of the project suffers. It’s a sad day when you walk in and see that the rooms that were just painted by your volunteers have to be repainted. And, worse yet, you have to tell the volunteers, “your work isn’t good enough. Go home.” But really, it’s not their fault – it’s yours.
• The volunteers feel used by the end of the project. They have great hearts and just want to help, but now they feel pushed. It’s not very fun anymore. It’s not very gratifying to give when the giving is expected. Even so, you have to push them because they aren’t moving quickly enough for your contractor.

Here are some suggestions for handling volunteers in thgis situation:

• Utilize their gifts and availability on smaller projects…that don’t require coordination with a contractor or are not time-sensitive.
• When you have skilled and reputable contractors in the church who want to donate services to the church, encourage them to submit their discounted bids to the general contractor. Take yourself out of the loop.  Make the general contractor responsibile for quality and schedule.
• Check references. Always. Always. Always. Even if you’ve been attending church with these people for twenty years, you need to check their professional references.

Tim Stevens (who wrote this section) ends by saying, “Working with volunteers on your project doesn’t have to be a problem. Implement some of these suggestions, and you’ll create a win for the volunteers as well as for the project.”

Another good lesson to remember.  I can speak from firsthand experience that they are dead on.

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