Drew Boswell

a place for us to share ideas, talk about life, and learn together.

Overcoming the Challenge of Recruiting

Some Rules For the Road

If you talk with any leader, at any level, at any size, they will always say they need more people. In the Bible when God called leaders in the Old Testament, they often responded by making excuses, demanding signs, or running away. Jesus, in the New Testament had outright rejection, people followed for a short time, and then abandoned or betrayed Him. So recruiting people has always been and will always be difficult. But, there are some methods that may make this difficult task a little easier.

In ministry we begin with the assumption that God will supply what we need, so we must trust God in this area, just as we trust him in other areas of our lives. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “I will build my church.” It is God’s responsibility to build his church and to provide the resources that the ministry needs to do the work. The leader must therefore, stay in tune with God’s plan through prayer and repentance of sin.

The following are some suggestions for the leader to apply to their recruiting effort:

Start with vision — what are you trying to accomplish that is so big that you need their help to accomplish it? and then. . . .

1. Cultivate a positive attitude and expect God to guide us to the people whom He’s already chosen. If you say to yourself, “I guess I’ll just do it all by myself,” you will stop looking for the people that God may have put right in front of you to help you with the work. So, when the person does come (finally), you can say to them, “I have been praying that God would bring you, and here you are!”

2. Pray before you approach someone. God will lead you to the person. Remember this is God’s work, and He has created a person to fit the role that His ministry needs, in His timing. So the person we may be imagining for the task, may look completely different than we imagined or were looking for. Listen to God for His plan (not yours.)

3. Create an atmosphere that is conductive to recruitment. Tell them why this position important. People don’t want to be involved in something that is not important. Why do we then tell them that, “this will not take a lot of time,” or “this will not really cost you anything,” or “this really isn’t that important, but we want it to be done.” You should have a ministry explanation or description of the every task you are seeking people to fill.

4. Tell the congregation about the great things that are happening in your ministry. Always publicize your success. How many of us have heard (or heaven forbid have done) of a person begging for people to come and help with a particular area of ministry and trying to guilt them into service.

The problem with this approach is that the commitment level is really low, as soon as the perceived crisis is over, so will the volunteer. But if they understand how important the role they are playing truly is, they will stay past the “recruiting pinch.”

People want to be involved in areas where God is moving and they want to be apart of that, not the ministry that is sinking and people are grabbing for anyone like a drowning man.

5. Introduce pizzazz into your activities. Is your ministry exciting? When the leader is already overwhelmed with tasks, and needs people to be apart of the ministry they must resist the temptation to downsize and take away those little things that makes the ministry shine. If you go back to bare minimum, then that’s what people see, show them that the ministry is important by adding special touches that make it shine. You are putting in extra effort, they will follow your example.

6. Emphasize the joys of ministering to others, you are not filling slots, but giving people opportunities to serve the Lord. This is not about a task to be done but a “ministering opportunity” for them to make a difference. You are presenting an opportunity for them to serve God, have an eternal impact on people, and a way for them to get connected into their church.

7. Make Your Area Fun! Serving in the church should be fun, encouraging, and life changing. Tell a joke, honk a horn, smile, laugh — make what you do fun. Volunteers want to use their gifts to serve the Lord, but they also want to make friends, build relationships, and feel like they are making a difference. Don’t always focus on areas that need improvement, celebrate success together!

Selecting Qualified Workers

You have now added some pizzazz to your ministry, talked about how wonderful it is constantly, and have your job descriptions together and people have stopped running away when they see you coming. One person has even approached you about “maybe” having an interest in helping,” so what do you do? Wait! Before you tackle them and handcuff them to the ministry, think about these things:

1. God wants quality, not perfection. God doesn’t necessarily choose the best and brightest to do His work (1 Cor. 1:26-29,31; 1 Cor. 2:1-5). Instead He works with those who love Him, and desire to de their best to serve Him. If you wait around for perfection, then you will be doing the ministry all by yourself forever (or until you burn out).

2. God doesn’t necessarily pick the most appealing: We will be working with “diamonds in the rough,” We may need to spend time challenging them, training them, guiding them, and encouraging them. God may have put a person in front of you so that you can mentor them and build them up into the role you need. That fully trained, mature, and perfect person rarely if ever parachutes into ministries. Look around and see who is willing to do their best, loves Jesus, and is willing to learn. Then go to work.

3. Jesus selected average men. It has been said that “God set the world on fire with low grade fuel.” Of course you would never say this about people in your ministry area, but you can see how it may be true for other churches. But, be on the look-out for an average person who is ready to go to work. Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors, everyday, average people to “turn the world upside down.”

4. Most important,  Put people in positions where they are gifted. If you do this then they will enjoy what they do, and those they minister to will be blessed. If you just fill slots with people who hate or dread what they are doing, that will spill out into the people they minister to, and the overall effort will suffer. The volunteer will be frustrated and will quit because they feel they are not effective. Even if a person volunteers (and you really need someone) don’t let them serve in an area where they clearly are not gifted. You may feel it helps right now, but it will not be very long before the mismatch will begin to cause other problems.

This is not to say that people should not be allowed to experiment with service in your area. People need to feel freedom to come in and try your area, and they should also feel the freedom to leave if it not a good match for them. While at the same time there must be an understood level of commitment (either for length of service or responsibilities).

Personal Interview
Before the volunteer begins someone (preferably the ministry leader) should sit down and talk with them about what is involved in the ministry position and ask them questions to determine if they would be a good fit. They should be given the ministry/job description and review it together. The interviewer may ask questions about their spiritual maturity, other places of service, or what they think about the church as a whole. Allow the potential volunteer an opportunity to ask questions, and have a plan in place for training before they begin. The personal interview also allows the leader to develop a relationship with the volunteer.

For more information on a personal interview with a volunteer see, Arlo Grentz, The Confident Leader: Getting a Good Start as a Christian Minister (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 113-16.

Some Last Thoughts on Recruiting and Volunteers

1) Most leaders go to what they know (first) — they will ask their friends, spouses, relatives, etc. to help in volunteers roles. While this is easy and potentially quick, avoid the temptation to do this all the time. Yes, they will help you, but you will burn everyone out around you if you don’t expand your recruiting circle. Don’t make them your first “go to” every time someone calls out sick, there is a hole in the schedule, etc.

2) Don’t burn out your faithful! There are those noble few who will be with you no matter what — their spiritual health is just as important as anyone else’s. Give them breaks, let them go to the service, etc.  They will help you build (Or rebuild), but avoid burning them out as you are bringing other new volunteers along.

3) If you are the new leader, don’t be surprised when your current volunteers want to step down as you are coming on board — they have been holding the line until you arrived, and now they are tired, and may have been tired for a long time. Let them rest, and recover, but let them know you want them to come back when they are ready.  When they come back back, take them through the process above so that they are serving where they are gifted, serving an appropriate length and amount of time, and are having fun!

A Path Toward Making A Difference

A Path Toward Making A Difference
Nehemiah 1
Let’s go through the first chapter of Nehemiah as a quick devotion together.  First go ahead and read the text.
1:1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the capital, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” 4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cupbearer to the king. (ESV)
Nehemiah receives word from his brothers that Jerusalem was destroyed, and his response was brokenness over its condition. But this was not a new occurrence; it had sat this way for over a hundred years.  His brothers bring him the news (again this was not “current events.”) and they also seem to upset – so our first question is why are they upset about something that has been that way for a long time and doesn’t really affect Nehemiah?
His response to the news is brokenness over the condition of the land, his own sin, and the sin of the people as a whole. He goes on to quote Scripture (vv.8-9) that says , if they turn from their sin their land could be restored and they could return. So what’s keeping the land in it’s current condition and their own exile was how they viewed their own sin.
He begins with consistent prayer, and the prayer is one of confession (v. 7).  He recognizes that his sin (and the sin of the people) have caused them to be “scattered” v.8.  He prays specifically for the meeting with the king.
So what do we see here? Nehemiah (and his brothers) is aware of his own sin and then repents. Then his eyes are opened to the spiritual condition of things around him. He can then “see” the condition of how the people are living, and it then breaks his heart.  So what keeps us “blind?” – our sin. When we deal with the sin in our lives, we are then able to see the world in a different way.
What was the spiritual condition of Nehemiah’s brothers? They “see” the issue first, and they bring it to their brother’s attention. God then uses Nehemiah to lead an effort to rebuild the city (and it’s walls in 52 days!)
So let’s look at it graphically: (because I am a visual learner):
(1) Information Received (visit from family)
(2) Broken (made aware of his own and other’s sinful condition)
• Recognition of who God is (v. 5)
• Confession of sin – the condition of man (v.6)
• A trust/reliance upon God’s Word (v. 8)
(3) Praying in faith the truths from Scripture
(4) Development of a plan (over days of praying)
• Nehemiah’s plan begins by talking with the king about his condition and the condition of his people.
(5) The (first) meeting
• God works in the king’s heart to assist Nehemiah in the rebuilding project. It is always God’s heart to “rebuild” people’s lives and restore them to a proper relationship with Him. But we have to go through a process of dealing with our sin, and realizing that His ways are always best.
Big Idea from Chapter One: It is God in His grace that makes us aware of our sinful condition and the need for change. He promises us in His Word that if we change, he will put us back on a redemptive path (see Psalm 51, and Ezekiel 18). When we deal with sin our eyes will become open to things we have never “seen” or cared for before. When we pray and fast God will show us what to do. Then we step out in faith.
May God bless your journey with Him, step out and do something great today.

Isaac’s Photo Adventure


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

A couple weeks ago Kimberly lost her camera. She had taken it outside to the garage during a yard sale at our home but she was sure that she had brought it inside and had taken it with her to the basement. We both looked all over the house but had essentially given up. I was sure that once we cleaned the basement we would find. So we went on with our lives.

A few days later, Isaac was sitting on the couch and had pulled it out from one of the cushions and was playing with it – but was not able to hide it again once we saw him with it.

While we were not looking he was going around and taking pictures, and then hiding the camera again. He did this with peanut butter m&ms a few months ago. He kept breaking out with a rash (because he is allergic) and we could not find out why – until we found his stash of candy.

So the pictures above are his photos, enjoy. He definitely has his own style.

Life Changing Opportunities


Kimberly went to Orphanage Emmanuel last year and I could tell it really was a meaningful and spiritually revitalizing time in her life. Upon her return she said that I had to go next year and I was very reluctant to say the least. I did not want to take away from her experience but I had no desire to go – I was dealing with comments in my mind like, “it just about broke us to pay for her trip, how could we both go?” and “How would we take care of the kids?” and on top of all that I knew that if I went, I would probably be “hooked” too.

The last thing I wanted was to fall in love with hundreds of children, and then have to leave them. So I stuffed the thoughts deep in my brain, and Kimberly started praying. Well a year rolled around, Kimberly started raising money so she (we) could go and sure enough, she raised her amount so that it didn’t break us for her to go again.

Then the dreaded phone call came – the pastor who had planned to go had backed out for personal reasons and all eyes seemed to roll on to me. I said, “I couldn’t get my passport soon enough (I did). I couldn’t afford to go (turns out it was already paid for.) Great, they needed a pastor, it was paid for, and Kimberly’s prayers had been answered.

So I went, and the trip was amazing. I had never traveled over-seas, so I was introduced to the Honduran poverty and corruption, but far more importantly I was introduced to a ministry that is truly making a difference in the lives of hundreds of children and has done so for over twenty years.

I could have “knuckled-down” and refused to go, but that would have been going against all the evidence that God had worked it out for me to go (in spite of me). I also, would have missed a spiritually rejuvenating experience that comes once every decade or so. God wanted me to “go,” because he was going to use me to minister in His name, and he wanted to move in my heart; to change a piece that was beginning to grow cold and hard.

After over a decade of pastoring God in mercy would not let me become bitter, hardened, cold, and sarcastic. He renewed my hope (not in Him, for He is always faithful) in myself. When the world falls down around us, we begin to feel crushed, that is when God reaches down and pulls us from the rubble and says, let’s build. And he begins the building process in our hearts. If this is how you feel, then look around; there is more than likely someone praying for you, and His hand may be reaching out to you. I am thankful for the gifts of God, my wife and His providence.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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