A year and a half after starting our church, we discovered that there was a guy in our church who had embezzled $80M, and the SCC came in and shut him down. He had donated money toward our building, but it wasn’t like he gave us all the money we needed for the building. Still, the SCC came after it. They came after everybody. We were tied up in a lawsuit for five and a half years. It was tough! Can I tell you, not one person in our pastoral network called or tried to help us? We went through it all alone except for when I’d reach out and attempt to get advice. It’s hard being in ministry and not having people around you who can offer wisdom or compassionate understanding when we’re facing hard-to-navigate terrain. This is just one of the many reasons why I love Significant Church and the way members share in each other’s lives and experiences.
Today, I want to share with you wisdom I believe God has given me to creating a culture of service within your church. There are just three main steps. Let’s jump right in:
- Establish a Servant Mindset. Over the years, I’ve tried to regularly interweave our church’s core values into my messages, the “why” behind the “what.” Our values influence and guide our behaviors, activities, and focus. Values define our identity and our choices. They’re the internal compass that guides us in life. If we want to get somewhere good, we first have to ensure our values are well-established.
Our church has five core values that have supported our growth into a servant-minded body of believers. The first is, “go outside.” The second, “authenticity.” The third, “mi casa su casa.” The fourth, “everybody does the dishes.” And the fifth, “a safe place.” Each one of these values has a teaching that goes along with it. For instance, with number four, “everybody does the dishes,” my example is that on Thanksgiving, while mama is cooking, the rest of us are helping to cook, clean, and do whatever else is needed. The holiday is enjoyable for everyone because the workload is supported by everyone. We drill lessons like these because we want every one of our members to have a servant mindset, to be willing to help wherever help is needed and not expecting others to carry the weight alone.
I’m almost in my 60’s, and there isn’t one church event that I don’t stay to help set up or tear down. My wife and I, we do everything. It’s not that we don’t have helpers; I just like the people to see us doing and serving just like they do. They know I’m not the kind of guy who would ask them to do something that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself. As pastors, I believe our members need to know that we’re there to serve them. We’re not above doing the hard things. And we don’t need others to do everything for us. We are part of the team, not just a figurehead.
How can you establish a servant mindset in your church?
- Create a Strategy for Mobilization. I’m sure you’ve heard that welcoming and serving begins with parking attendants. From the moment a visitor’s car enters the parking lot, we should be displaying our servant mindset. We had a church start next door to us that is similar to ours. One Sunday, a father and his kids went to that church. Nobody welcomed them. They just wandered around, trying to figure out where the children’s church was. Finally, the father stopped and told the kids, “Let’s go to the next church,” which was ours. When he came in, he was greeted and walked to where he needed to go. He told our Children’s Pastor all about his experience at the other church that day and how ours was vastly different. It was encouraging to hear! It shows that not only do we have a servant mindset, but we also have a strategy that has allowed us to mobilize our members in servanthood.
Part of the way we mobilize our teams is by calling out the exceptional service they give. We bring people up on stage from time to time and give them Serve Team awards. We have the Legacy Award and the Above and Beyond Award. We even have funny ones for those who change the most diapers, clean up the most coffee spills, and more. One of my favorites has to do with our vision, “a place where love works,” and it’s called the I Love My Church Award. Receiving these awards resonates with our volunteers because it shows them that it’s not about working in our church building but about serving with heart that gets us excited.
One of our ladies—I have to brag on her—she’s 103 and she serves twice a month as a greeter. She sits on a chair and welcomes everyone she sees. I’ve told the church many times, if this gal who’s 103 can serve, everybody can serve. Her testimony of service has brought in so many volunteers over the years. They see her giving her best, and they know they have something to offer too.
We also have a serving funnel that we’ve developed. If someone has never served with us, we try to get them involved in a simple way at first, like during our Summer to the Max outreach, where we ask if they will help watch the kids at our inflatables, give out popcorn, or run a sign-up table. Similarly, during our Mission Christmas, we ask people to go to the Salvation Army for us and buy toys. Then we have them count toys or man tables so that they can see what our serve team community is like and feel the excitement of the kids just by watching the room. After these events, we ask them if they’re ready to join one of our serve teams. It’s amazing how many people do! Just taking part in a bigger outreach mobilizes them to want to become a part of things on a more regular basis and in a more strategic way.
How can you create a strategy for mobilization in your church?
- Oversee Team Maintenance. A concept I’ve taught at our church is, “Serve one, attend one.” We have multiple volunteers and multiple services, so we have established this routine of serving during one service and then attending one service instead of wearing out our volunteers with nothing but volunteerism. We know that to maintain the health of our serve teams, we need them to keep priorities and stay connected to the congregation and our vision. No one can just give and give. We all need a break at some point. Occasionally, people have stepped down for a month at a time when needed. That’s okay! We’re very careful not to make anyone feel bad or ashamed if they need time off or can only serve once a month.
We intentionally train our team leaders to be aware of what’s going on in their team’s lives. This is an earmark of good team maintenance. If they see a member stressed out, they’re to give them a break. They’re to encourage self-care, not in a selfish way, but so that they can continue to be fulfilled. We all have to work on ourselves from time to time. We have to be of a mindset that we can keep growing in areas, and that’s not possible when we’re worn down. By being honest about personal things with our serve teams, we can be good stewards in overseeing them and helping them maintain healthy priorities.
I’d say that in our church, our children’s ministry team is the largest. We have over 200 people serving our children! Then it trickles down from there, from our greeters to those who keep the bathrooms clean. Each of our team leaders is really good at keeping his people rallied around their shared vision and sustained spiritually, emotionally, and physically. One big way that we invest in our volunteers is through the team fellowships we host quarterly. They are a wonderful time of bringing people together to celebrate and have fun. During these events, we leave time for break out small groups where each team can meet for a little bit on their own, but the goal is celebration and team building as a whole. And we give things away, vision cast, play some games, and honor our volunteers.
How can you oversee team maintenance in your church?
Establishing the servant mindset, creating a strategy to mobilize your serve teams, and then maintaining your teams in a way that keeps everyone involved healthy, happy, and contributing is critical to the church. No matter your size, no matter the age of your volunteers, you are able to create a culture of service that will welcome visitors and feel like home to the families that attend. You can make headway here, Pastor! But it begins with intentional thought, teaching, and training so that your members know your heart for service and can not only catch the vision but execute it to their best extent while maintaining healthy priorities. Give it some thought!
This blog was created using content from the webinar Creating a Culture of Service.
