Recruiting The Priests

There is a lot of frustration in churches of 150-300 people at times. It seems that in churches this size you can advertise all day long for people to get involved in ministry and nothing seems to happen like we want it to. I have been one of those who have been frustrated in the past, but have turned over a new leaf concerning this dilemma. I found a solution recently that has been a great help.

So what is the solution? It is the simple and time tested approach of recruitment. Even though people here there is a need for more people to be involved with ministry over and over again we can't expect people to come running. That includes those who would really like to be involved as well. I am not a psychologist, but one thing that I have learned about people in the Church is true for just about every facet of life. People want to be needed! People want to know that others need them to accomplish goals. It is true in life and most definitely true in the Church.

In 1 Peter 2:8 it says "You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, His very own possession (NLT)." That is a wonderful piece of scripture that talks about how God views His people. The problem is that even though we preach and teach this truth to God's people they still need to be approached. When someone is personally approached to do ministry they know that they are viewed important and needed. You are telling that person that they are valuable in the eyes of the Church.

Over the past several months I have put into action what I am proclaiming to you now. We have approached 2 men in our congregation who are younger and both have great leadership skills. They were both involved in ministries, but it was time to get them to take on greater responsibility. By doing this we help fill in a couple of gaps where leadership was needed and we have hopefully shown theses 2 men that people need to be approached. Now I would like to note that this is not just about men for leadership either. Both men and women need to be involved and need to be approached. It just happened to work out that both areas we needed to fill were just right for the 2 men that I mentioned. The recruiting process should always be an ongoing event and should be done by everyone in leadership. The Pastor cannot do it all by himself and that is not a model of the NT Church. Blessings.