Latest Blog Entries 

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Project Management for Ministry Leaders 

How to apply a simple to maximize your ministry and volunteers

Project Centered Ministry

In this first installment in a new series on project management, I want to start out by defining what I view as a project...

Define Your Project

Before a project can begin, we must define it...

Project Milestones: Setting the Pace

The pace you set for your ministry will be defined by a number of factors, but often the key factor is the milestones...

Project Risks: When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects

Some days, things just go wrong. Servers fail. Computers crash. People don't show up...

Project Compromise: The Iron Triangle

Once you have your milestones and risks assessed, the next step is to begin to chart the project timeline. The first step is determining the time, scope, and cost...

Project Planning: Creating a Strawman Plan

It may be early in the life of your church project, but often you have to provide a timeline for a project to your stakeholders...

Strawman Project Plan: An Example

An example of a strawman plan and tips for creating one...

Project Requirements: Know What You Need To Do

This phase describes more about how your project will be conducted, and requires that you capture more detailed requirements from those involved...

Project Work: Buy vs. Build Basics

Everything is a trade-off: time vs. money, low-cost vs. high-cost, high-tech vs. low-tech. Before you start, perform a buy vs. build to determine what purchasing decisions need to be made...

Project Work: Performing a Buy vs. Build

How to start perform a buy vs. build...

Recruiting Volunteers for Projects

Projects provide the ministry leader with a very strategic recruiting strategy...

Projects: Managing the Tasks

Whenever you are ready to execute a project, you must be prepared to manage the tasks...

Milestone and Project Wrap-Up

As your milestone or project ends, schedule some time to learn what worked and how to improve the next project...

Recruiting Volunteers 

Learn to recruit the right volunteers for your ministry

Recruiting Volunteers

One of the patterns I've seen constantly in ministry is the use of the same list of people when a new volunteer is needed. Often, the need is very short term (reactive) instead of medium-to-long term (proactive). So, who do you go to first when you have a new position to fill? Let me guess - the same people that always say 'yes', right? If not, give yourself a pat on the back. If so, brace yourself.

Targeting the Right Volunteers

If you are building your team early on, you need volunteers that have a strong walk with the Lord, a heart to serve, and some basic understanding of your ministry. The most difficult part of starting a ministry is building a team of people that will allow the ministry to thrive rather flounder...

Interviewing Volunteers

Now that you are starting to recruit, you'll begin to get some interested people to sign up. The next step is to conduct an interview to determine if the recruit is a good fit for your ministry.

Integrating New Volunteers

Now that you are actively recruiting, you will begin to locate new volunteers that match your ministry. The next step is to integrate them into your team. Here are some suggestions...

Saying "Goodbye" to Volunteers

Inevitably, the time will come when a volunteer decides to move on...

Volunteer Management 

Apply volunteer management best practices to maximize your ministry

Volunteers Have Higher Priority

the average volunteer may have around 5-10 hours of time per week to put forth into helping out your ministry (assuming only 1 ministry involvement). So, how do we, as lay or full-time leaders, treat them and utilize their time? Here are some ideas...

Managing Volunteers

Day-in, day-out. Week-in, week-out. Month-in, month-out. What is keeping your volunteers going? How does a leader keep their volunteers happy?

Preventing and Dealing with Burnout

Anthony Coppedge has a great 3 part series on dealing with burnout in the tech arts.

Volunteer-Centric or Staff-Centric?

Many churches like to think that they are volunteer-centric. In fact, many will say something like "Sure, we love volunteers! Who would turn down volunteers?" But in fact, many churches rely on their staff to do a large portion of the weekly work.