Saturday, April 16, 2011
The Y Factor
The Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church called a meeting of his senior staff to discuss the lack of financial resources to meet the growing spiritual needs facing the church. During the meeting one of his staff members used an algebraic equation, X+Y=Z, to address the problem they were facing. His reasoning behind the equation was John 15:8, “the way to bring God glory is to bear much fruit.” Bearing fruit is the end result, the Z, of the equation. The variables are X, as the paid staff, and Y, as the volunteers. Since the Pastor related that the resource line is flat, there could not be an increase in paid staff. If increasing the paid staff was not an option, then the spiritual needs being met depended on recruiting volunteers, which is the Y Factor.
In incorporating the Y Factor, it led the staff member to reflect on Ephesians 4:11-12, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers in order to prepare God’s people for works of service.” The article related that the beauty of applying this passage to the equation is that everybody wins. The paid staff is able to see the volunteers they have recruited, loved, trained, and equipped being used by God. The volunteers have the joy of becoming instruments in the hand of God. The culminating effect is the community is impacted with a “unified, multi-gifted force for good.”
www.christianitytoday.com/global/printer.html?/le/2003/winter/10.74.html
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One of the best things about having volunteers at church is that these people are giving and serving simply because they want to. They have nothing to gain from volunteering in terms of monetary gain or employment benefits, yet they seek to exercise their gifts at church. I often think that volunteers are more valuable than paid staff because their hearts can sometimes be more into their work. They are not bogged down by the details and pressures of leading a ministry, and are free to work in one or two areas that they feel called to work in. A paid staff person might be doing a lot of different things, not all of which they feel called to work in or are equipped to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe challenge for leadership in this article is that genuine leadership must empower others. Leaders must be able to equip others for the work of ministry. Too often the solution for churches who want to bear fruit is to add another paid staff person. This is not always necessary. One hundred volunteers equipped to do work is better than one paid person simply because of the fact that the mission of the church has been owned by its members. This is necessary.