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25 April 2011
Get a vision for each volunteer. Think about some of your key volunteers. Where do you see them a year from now? Do you see them always doing the same thing or can they grow into a new position? Do you see them overcoming their weakness?
As I am writing this, I am thinking about a young man named Bill who started to help me when he was 12 years old. I saw that Bill was creative and had a gift for puppetry. I asked him to join our outreach team. (We traveled to do Kids’ Crusades at other churches.) Bill loved it and was a real asset to the team.
Bill also had some negative qualities. Sometimes he was cocky, which came off as disrespectful when he would talk to adults (causing embarrassing moments), but I never gave up on Bill. Some of the church leaders would say things like, “Why do you take Bill with you on the road? I couldn’t stand being with him for five whole days.” When I resigned four years later, Bill was 16 years old, and people were saying, “That Bill sure has a lot to offer.”
A good leader is someone who knows how to develop gifts in others when there is little to be seen on the surface. A leader is someone who will dig to find the treasure that is already there.
Ask God to show you how to develop individual gifts in others and, in doing so, you will get a vision for each volunteer.
