Firing a Volunteer is Hard; 10 Things I’ve Learned About Firing Volunteers Properly

Firing a volunteer is a horrible experience. I remember the first time I had to fire a volunteer I was responsible for leading. I felt terrible and delayed having the conversation for a long time.

This person had been giving their time to serve under me for a while. They loved serving, but there were just so many things that weren’t working.

3 Red Flags

  1. While they loved serving, their poor attitude was a downer to the team.
  2. They showed up on time, but often came unprepared.
  3. They refused to learn the skills necessary for the role they were in.

After a couple moves to different roles within the same team, and even trying to move them to another team, it was clear that it was time to ask them to step down.

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Four Stages of a Killer Mobile Ministry Strategy

Lots of church leaders have been talking about mobile for at least 8 years. It’s logical; everyone has an Internet-connected device in their pocket now. Even my 90-year-old grandma has an Android phone (a JitterBug).

Most advice you see is about what features you need in your church’s mobile app or how to build a responsive website or the best tools for mobile giving. It can be tough to make sense of it all, especially if you’re trying to figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Based on my experience putting the Bible app in millions of pockets, I believe there are 4 basic stages you must go through to build a killer mobile ministry strategy.

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Assess Your Volunteers with These 5 To-the-Point Questions

Ron Edmondson wrote in 2011 about 3 Places to Find New Church Leaders. He makes the case that churches should be looking inside and outside for leaders. Inside, look for people that are “doing” who could be leading. And find people serving in one area that should serve in another. Outside, find leaders in the community.

Most young churches today trend toward hiring from within. They would rather find someone already serving and promote them. Rich Birch makes a great case for hiring from the outside. He wrote about it recently in 6 Reasons the Next Hire at Your Church Should Be External. Still, every church must figure out how to raise up leaders from among their many doers. If they don’t, hiring will outpace budget limitations.

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Email Automation for Churches

Email automation is a simple way to drive deeper engagement with people exactly at the right time. When done properly, the recipients of your emails should feel better, not worse, about giving you their email address.

What is email automation?

The simplest form of email automation is a scheduled email. For example, you may write an email to your church on Saturday night, but schedule it in Mailchimp to be sent on Sunday afternoon as a followup to your sermon. That’s a simple form of email automation.

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