179: Stop Using People: Volunteers Aren’t a Workforce—They’re Your Ministry

We’re kicking off our 4-part anniversary series: “Off Script: Five Years Later & Still Saying What No One Else Will.”

This series names what’s broken in church culture—and calls us to something better. From power dynamics to discipleship, we’re going there.

Today’s episode tackles a common problem: treating volunteers like a workforce instead of ministry partners. This mindset leads to burnout, disconnection, and people feeling used—not valued.

We’ll explore how to move from a task-based model to a relational one that reflects Jesus’ heart for ministry.

In this episode:

1. Why treating volunteers as workers leads to burnout
2. Helpers vs. true ministry partners
3. How to build a culture where volunteers feel valued
4. The power of shared ownership in ministry

If your church is stuck in a “fill-the-slot” mindset, this episode is your invitation to rethink volunteer ministry.

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Transcript

Laurie Graham: 0:01

Hey, welcome to the small church ministry podcast, where we help volunteers and ministry leaders experience less stress, more joy and greater impact as we share strategies that actually do work in smaller churches. I'm your host. Laurie Graham, let's dive in. You. Laurie, hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of the small church ministry Podcast. I'm Laurie, and we are kicking off today a special anniversary series celebrating five years of this community here at small church ministry, five years of pulling back the curtain, asking hard questions, saying what needs to be said, especially when no one else is saying it. So for this month, our special anniversary series, I'm calling it off script, five years of saying what needs to be said, and we pulled out four of I don't know, four big topics, four big themes that would transform our churches if we really grab them, if we really embrace them, if we really stop doing ministry the way we've been doing it for a couple generations now, which, in some ways, is not working well, in some ways is but we're seeing this cultural shift where people are saying, why are people leaving the church? Why did people not come back after COVID? Well, I'm gonna tell you why. Like, it's kind of been a revealing season of going like, what, what has been happening where we're not as effective as we could be with ourselves, with our own discipleship, with knowing Jesus, with loving him, with sharing him with the world, right? So we're going to cover volunteers. We're going to talk about dysfunction this month. We're going to talk about the word biblical and how I've seen it actually divide the church, the global church. We're also going to talk more about discipleship, but today we're starting with something super close to my heart, which is volunteer ministry. This episode title says it all. Stop using people. Volunteers are not a workforce. They are your ministry, because let's be real, volunteers are often treated like free labor. Many of you listening right now would consider yourselves volunteers. If you are a ministry leader or a pastor, we plan around volunteers, we assign tasks, we give binders. But what if we've been missing the whole point today? We're pulling apart the old mindset and building something better. So let's talk about what it really means to see volunteers, even if that is you see volunteers as ministry partners, not just task doers. So let's talk about the problem we don't want to admit all the time, starting here, most churches don't mean to use people. I really believe that. But when ministry gets busy, when we're stretched thin, when we're focused on survival, people can intentionally become a means to an end. You need nursery coverage. You need somebody to lead youth group. You need three Ushers and a potluck. Sign up sheet, you know what I'm talking about. But if we only see volunteers through that lens tasks that need to be covered, we start to lose sight of something so much more important, spiritual, health, ours, theirs, us together. Gifts, growth, stories. The humanness that God created in us. And honestly, I've been there. We have all been there when we put an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to run programs to reach people for Jesus, when we've got this fire inside, I get it. Honestly, it is normal to see volunteers as part of the machine to keep things going, because most of us were raised like that. Now I believe I have always appreciated volunteers. I do not remember a time in ministry when I was not grateful and I really believed I loved people. Well, yes, I made mistakes, but I believe my heart was loving people well, but I want to say I did not always engage volunteers as people with their own ministry calling. Not always. It's very easy to see people, including ourselves, as workers. I saw myself as a worker. I didn't always see volunteers as partners, and honestly, I didn't always see myself as a partner. That has changed for me, and I will tell you how, over the last few years, if you've been around for a while, you've heard me teach on many different things with volunteers, and I've noticed a pattern in how churches engage volunteers. For today, we're going to call it the four levels of volunteer ministry. But before we unpack these, I just want to walk through, or I should say, before we unpack the impact of this, I want to walk through the four levels and picture where you're at now. Picture the things. You resonate with or maybe ways you've grown as a volunteer or a ministry leaders level. One is volunteers as workers. This is where most churches start, where most of us are at. Volunteers are here to get stuff done. We need volunteers, and it's important. We need volunteers to serve coffee, to print bulletins, if you still have a printed bulletin, to teach Sunday school, it's very task driven. It's also very top down, but it also leads to burnout, and it is not sustainable. I can't separate this however, like as I'm talking about volunteers, like the US, them, like it's us, and then there's the volunteers. I cannot separate this from how I see myself, how I used to see myself, how many of us see ourselves, like God needs us to do work for him. Please understand. I believe that's where this comes from. I don't really think it's an us them thing. I think there's a correlation where we need to remove that shame around us that we're not doing enough, that we see ourselves as workers, because we cannot see people differently than we see ourselves. In that way, if you see yourself as a worker, that God needs us to get all this stuff done, we are naturally going to see other people as workers too. So please hear that if you've ever seen volunteers as workers, if you see them as workers now, most likely you also see yourself in that way, and it's normal, and we also can do better. So level one, volunteer as workers. Level two, volunteers as helpers. Now there's a slight shift here. This is where we appreciate their help. We thank them, we value their time, but we can still see ourselves as the one holding the vision we are leading, or we are committed, we are going to make sure this happens, and they are helping us do our ministry. Okay? Level three, volunteers as partners. This is so different, so most of us start again with the mindset the volunteers are workers, including ourselves. The next level is volunteers as helpers. The third level is volunteers as partners. Now we're talking good stuff. You start inviting volunteers into vision, setting conversations. Maybe you've heard about our planning parties. This is parting part of building up that partnership. You trust their insight, you allow them not just to serve or assist, but you allow them to lead. This is when we are co laboring. They share responsibility. There's shared ownership. Now churches that are here seeing volunteers as partners and moving in this way it is. It's great. This is also where, if you're a leader or you're a volunteer who's looking for more help, this is where we also start to feel some relief, where things are clicking. This might even be where we say we've got a great team. We have a team that's working and functioning. Well, that's what we often hear at this level. But I want to tell you, there's another level. There's a fourth level. It's called mutual ministry. And I truly believe very few people and very few churches actually ever experience this, and this is where it gets so beautiful, because we're not just using volunteers to execute programs. In fact, executing programs isn't even the end goal. This is where we're actually discipling. And more than that, we are also receiving from volunteers. It's a culture of mutual value, where everyone is ministering together, side by side, and this is possible. I was so sad. Actually, today on Facebook, I saw a pastor post some sort of meme, and I'm not going to quote it directly. I don't have it in front of me. But it was something like, pastors are people too. They get hurt also. The only difference is they have to process internally. And I just want to I wanted to scream. I I did not put my feedback into that post because I don't believe Facebook is the place to do that. But I wanted to scream and say, No, that is wrong. Pastors do not have to process internally. Pastors don't have to feel alone. That is not the way that God set up the church to be. I'm also not saying that pastors have to bleed all over the congregation, but there is support and there is honesty. And there is deep relationship that we can have in mutual ministry. Now here's the thing, getting to level four, mutual ministry requires emotional intelligence. Now please understand I'm not saying emotional intelligence as a catch word or as a pop culture thing or as some psychological mumbo jumbo emotional intelligence, Jesus modeled it. It's when we're not only aware of our emotions, but we are responsive to them and with them, and we're inviting God into that God created us, not just intellectually and physically as worker bees, there is an emotional and spiritual part of all of us, and often in the church, we've shut that down. So getting to this level of mutual ministry involves emotional intelligence. It requires trust, communication and oftentimes unlearning the idea that leaders need to control everything, but when we get there to mutual ministry, it changes everything. Now I want to pause and name something difficult here, transactional. Ministry feels safe. Let me say that one more time. Transactional ministry, feels safe. We offer this, we give this, we do that. There's feedback, right? Transactional ministry, you do this, I do this, it feels safe and it's measurable. It's very predictable. But can I also just say it's soul crushing when people feel like they are only valued for what they do, and I know you may also feel this in your heart with what how the church has responded to you as an organization, oftentimes we only feel valued for what we do. What happens when I stop serving? What happens if I join a church and I don't have the capacity to serve? Is there value for me? I want to say yes. 100% we are starting to unlearn this in our Christian communities, when people feel like they are valued only for what they do, they start to disconnect from their why. We feel used, we feel unseen, we feel dispensable. And isn't that the opposite of what the church is supposed to be when we leave a church or we leave a position, we should be missed, but not just because of what we did. And so oftentimes, when people leave, we just fill the spot and just keep moving on. People First, we are called to be a body, right? Not a business, not a factory, but when volunteerism is reduced to fill a slot, do a job, don't complain, suck it up for Jesus. We gotta get keep these programs running no matter what, when it becomes that we have lost the heart of ministry. We have to stop spiritualizing dysfunction. We have to stop calling it servant heartedness when it is really burn out culture. I'm going to say it again. We've got to stop spiritualizing dysfunction. We have to stop calling it servant heartedness when it is really burnout culture, and we can do better than that. So I want to give a few things today in this short episode on how we can begin shifting this culture. I do not believe in five quick steps, in any kind of quick like answers. I don't think Jesus modeled a microwave ministry. Okay, but I'm going to give you some practical things that I have learned, that we have taught, that many in our community come back and say, oh my goodness, this is changing our Church. This is the beginning of shifting the culture and moving through these four levels, these four levels of volunteerism, where we we see volunteers as workers, and then we begin to see volunteers as helpers. Then we see volunteers as partners, and if we build it, I personally believe the way that Jesus has called us to the way that he modeled it, we get to move to this level of four, the level four of mutual ministry. So how do we start doing this? Okay, so a few things I've learned. Number one, it's. So if you haven't done this, if this is not a regular part of your ministry, ask volunteers how they're doing outside of ministry, it might feel very foreign to actually not just call up or say, are you ready for Sunday or ready to teach your class. But how has your week been? Really? How are you feeling? What are you facing? Get curious about people's lives. Now, I know I said Ask your volunteers how they're doing. If you're a volunteer, you have so much power to impact your culture. Be the one that's asking other volunteers, how are they doing? How has their week been going be the one to ask ministry leaders to ask pastors, can we just be human in our churches on a Sunday morning, even please, to have those deeper conversations, how are you feeling, what's going on, and not to gloss it over, and not to move past it like we're all fine, but to really get curious about the lives of people that we're serving next to. So that's number one, ask people how they're doing outside of ministry, not just about where they're serving. The second thing I want to encourage you to invite their feedback. If somebody's been in a role for years, ask them what they would change, what's working, what's not. Create space for honest conversations. Now, if we create space for this, this means we need to create more time. We need to stop racing around. We need to build a little bit of space, a little bit of margin, a little bit of bandwidth, so we're not running into meetings, running into Sunday school, going to the next thing, flitting between running sound and doing this, and, you know, jumping back into the nursery if we're going to create space for honest conversations. We might need to do a little bit less as you invite their feedback. How about feedback? That's not just about the program, but about them in their position. Where do you want to grow? What would you love to learn? What would you like to try in this ministry area? So you're asking volunteers how they're doing. You're inviting their feedback. Here's another one. Celebrate spiritual gifts and passion, not just availability. How often do we stop right there when somebody's not available or doesn't have this capacity right now. Can we celebrate gifting? Can we celebrate even experimenting in different gifting areas? Stop filling slots with whoever says yes, let's start discerning where people would actually thrive. How many churches do this? How many times has this been? Have you been a receiver of this where somebody's not just trying to get you to fill a spot, but they actually want to know where you would thrive? We're not just staffing positions. We are nurturing calling. I believe that every single person who follows Jesus has a calling, not some super spiritual out there gift that they need. You know, Jesus to come and speak to them audibly in the middle of the night and say, You're called, okay, but a calling where they are going to thrive, where God is going to use them, where where passion and gifting and impact like all meets like, where do their eyes light up celebrating spiritual gifts and not just availability. Now I also want to just, hate to take a turn, but I'm going to, I'm just going to throw this out there. We're not going to totally unpack it, but I need to say it. It is nearly impossible to discern where people actually thrive to celebrate spiritual gifts. If you are in a place where your church is trying to staff too many programs, I may need to do another whole episode on this. But for now, I just want you to consider not just filling slots with people, but looking at people first as that beautiful piece to be curious about. What has God put in them? Where would they thrive? All right, another way to start moving toward building something better in our church cultures shifting to this is modeling mutual respect. Let volunteers see you wrestle with things and grow and even fail. Show them that you are human. This means. Means calling off when you're sick. It means admitting when you are wrong, or when you have overstretched, or when you have overstretched your team, if you have one. Do you know that vulnerability builds more trust than anything else? Being Human builds trust faster than any training you will ever lead. I think of Jesus in the garden weeping. This is human model, mutual respect, not just a top down level of leadership, but mutual respect, mutual humanity. Let volunteers see you wrestle with things. Trust them, all right? And the last thing I'm going to mention, as far as a way to get started on beginning to shift the culture, is to talk about ministry as ours, not mine. Now this is subtle, and as you use the language that communicates partnership, you also have to believe it, because when we don't feel that way and we're voicing something, it shows but if we can start seeing ministry as ours, not mine, a lot of things shift. We start saying things like, what do you think we should try? How do you want to shape this? What is God showing you? What are you experiencing? Where do you think we should go when we talk about ministry as ours and not mine? And believe it deep down, things start to shift. So I'm just going to review a few of those practical ways to start shifting this culture of volunteers and moving toward mutual ministry. The first one was just asking volunteers, asking co laborers, how they're doing outside of church, ministry life, getting curious. The second one was inviting their feedback. The third one is celebrating spiritual gifts, not just availability. The fourth one is modeling mutual respect, being human together. The fifth one is talking about ministry as ours, not mine. These changes might seem small, but they shift the entire culture of your church over time, and even if you would say, Wait, my pastor's not doing this, my ministry leaders not doing this, it doesn't matter right now, you can do this. You can shift the culture that's around you when you walk in a room. The funny thing is, is Jesus never told us to fix everybody else, to micromanage other people, how they're leading what they're doing. God calls us to be responsible for us. Every single thing I have mentioned here today you can do. You don't need to take this to anybody else and say, hey, you need to do this. These are all things we can do. When I look over the last five years of this ministry at small church, ministry.com, website, blogs, podcasts, conferences, this shift that we've been teaching, seeing volunteers, not as a workforce, but as my ministry, as our ministry. This really might be the most important transformation that we've been teaching, that we've been seeing, that people are coming back and saying, Wow, this is changing our ministry. It's changing our church. Now it is slower. Yes, it's slower. It's slower than putting a sign up sheet out, than filling slots, than growing big programs. It is more relational. It is less predictable, but it's also more real. It is more Christ like it is more sustainable. If you are a ministry leader, a volunteer, a Sunday school teacher, a pastor, and you are feeling stuck in the old model, if you feel the pressure to keep the programs going at all cost, I just want to encourage you, it does not have to be that way. You can build something better, something different, something more human, something that actually reflects the body of Christ. Isn't that beautiful? Start with the people right in front of you. It might even be your children, your family members. See them. Honor them, get curious about them, care for them, invite them into something deeper, because they're not just our helpers. And by the way, we are also not just God's helper, his worker bees, the people around you. You. There are ministry Jesus did this, John 1515, he said this. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I have learned from my father, everything, everything, everything that I've learned from my father, not just ministry skills, not just positions, not just sign up sheets, everything that I have learned from my father, I have made known to you. Can we say the same? Can we look into somebody's eyes and say, I don't call you a servant, I don't call you a volunteer, I don't call you a church member, I call you a friend. Can we say the same? Volunteers don't exist to do the ministry. They are our ministry. And if we can get to the place where we are in mutual ministry together, giving and receiving together, that is the body of Christ. If this episode hits home for you. Would you please share it with a friend? Leave a review, make sure to listen in next week as we talk about ready for this one why we need to stop calling dysfunction church and start naming what's actually going on in many of our church families, thanks for listening, and here is to the next five years of saying what needs to be said. Talk to you soon and until next week. Be a light you.