“Subject=Consistent Language”

S1=”We equip churches with the right tools to help recruit volunteers and place them in a ministry that best utilizes their gifts and talents.” – this is a quote from your getting started page. From video blog you make the point its about “servants” not “volunteers.” To be consistent may I humbly suggest you change your wording here? You appear to have a great process as I am checking things out. I have a personal passion as a mission coach about helping people discover their purpose.”

I first want to thank this minister who took the time to carefully read and reflect upon our website.  Secondly, I want to explain the apparent inconsistent use of “volunteers” vs. “servants” on our site.  We recognize that most churches use the word “volunteers” in recruiting members to serve in various positions within the church.  I wish this were not so, but it is what it is.  My desire is to change the word from “volunteer” to “servant”, but in order to communicate to those who are seeking to use our tools, resources and process I must start with what is familiar to those wanting to learn about PLACE Ministries.

I stated in the video blog http://www.placeministries.org/videoblog/ the words volunteer, volunteers, volunteered are only used 4 times in the entire Bible while the words, serve, servant, servants are used 1010 throughout the Bible.  I passionately desire that churches would move away from using the word “volunteer” and talk about those who serve as servants like we see in the New Testament.  Jesus stated in Matthew 20:28 that “…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…”.  Paul encourages us to follow his example as he follows the example of Christ (I Corinthians 11:1).

I would like nothing more than one day to not have the word “volunteer” listed on our website as something someone does within the Body of Christ.  But until the culture and language is changed at times I am stuck with using words like “volunteer”, “volunteers”, “volunteering” or “volunteered”.  Consider being a part along with our ministry in changing the language from “volunteer” to “servant” in your culture.

The first quarter of 2011 PLACE Ministries and I will be focused on how to help church leaders intentionally get the right people in the right seat on the bus. This past summer I rewrote my original PLACE Implementation Guide from 1999. Honestly, the new Implementation is entirely different from our original.

After years of working with churches across the country and some overseas I have found there are four steps in getting the right people in the right seat or connecting people to meaningful ministry. The four steps are:

Step 1 – Determine Your PLACEment Purpose
Step 2 – Communicate Your PLACEment Purpose
Step 3 – Execute Your PLACEment Purpose
Step 4 – Evaluate Your PLACEment Purpose

Missteps in Implementing Your PLACEment Purpose
While I pondered throughout the late spring and into the summer what is involved in effectively connecting God’s people to meaningful ministry a set of steps kept coming up in my mind. Imagine a set of steps with your destination at the top. Then imagine trying to skip steps and as quickly as possible reach the top. What might happen if you try to quickly skip steps to make it to the top? You’re right. You would fall down and might even hurt yourself. If you did this enough you would most likely give up on trying to get to the top where you wanted to go and settle for never reaching your ultimate destination. I have seen this scenario play out hundreds and hundreds of times in churches our ministry has worked with over the year.

The reason most churches never effectively connect their people to meaningful ministry is they skip Steps 1 and 2 (Determine and Communicate Your PLACEment Purpose). Secondly, they never ever get to Step 4 – Evaluate Your PLACEment Purpose. The next fad from the latest celebrity church shows up and there is no time to evaluate. Sadly two steps are skipped (Determine and Communicate) and one is never taken (Evaluate). And if Step 3 (Execute) is made most are stuck there and eventually jump back down never to step again, but settle for mediocrity in connecting people to meaningful ministry.

Staff Experience
I knew the order for my four steps were correct based on working with so many churches. I learned from my first consultation with a church after the Implementation Guide was completed in the fall how easy it is to skip Steps 1 and 2 even when the purpose is to develop them first. After completing the Guide it was exciting for me to be the scribe for a church staff as they worked through developing their purpose for connecting their people to ministry. Right in the middle of the discussion the staff member directly responsible for their intentional connection process (PLACE) started getting into the execution (Step 3) of their process. I started laughing as I realized she was not even allowing the group to complete Step 1 (Determine) much less address Step 2 (Communicate). I asked was this typical of their staff meetings. The staff members nodded in agreement that it was typical. Right in the middle of Determine their PLACEment purpose (Step 1) she started talking about logistics like when they should offer PLACE, how many should they allow in the class, when she should train their PLACE coaches, etc (Step 3 – Execute). This scenario is played out time and time again in churches.

How, When, Where and What are answered and so often Why is never is brought up much less answered and even less communicated in a winsome way to the people in the church that leaders are trying to connect to meaningful ministry. Sadly, the end result is an ineffective intentional process to connect people to meaningful ministry. An ineffective process often leads to an abandoned process and going back to just asking those on the bus to take a seat wherever they want to sit. Even more disappointing than taking a seat is too many are going from bus to bus (church to church) or even sadder getting off the bus (church) entirely.

I look forward to writing more on getting the right people in the right seat on the bus. If you would like to fully unpack the four steps I encourage you to order our Implementation Guide – Steps to Implementing Your PLACEment Purpose.http://www.placeministries.org/c-4-leaders.aspx?pagenum=5