8 Capture ... The Power Of Involvement

You have seen the pictures of the good old days of the agricultural society with fewer and much smaller engine driven implements than we have today. Perhaps you have imagined how hard the work was. I expect you have seen pictures and perhaps reenactments of harvest time on the farm. These seem like they were such energized events. However, I think we sometimes forget that once they finished taking the crop off one field the whole community needed to move down the road and do it all over again. The level of cooperation and integration was remarkable. Everyone knew their role. From the youngest to the oldest there was something to do.
We tend to idealize these pictures of extreme involvement. But when you stop to think about it you have to realize that there were tense moments. You can be quite sure all the women didn’t see eye to eye about the menu for the meals in general, or in specifics such as how much salt to use. At the primary business end of the operation, no doubt there were right and wrong ways to use the harvesting equipment. When something broke because of misuse you just have to know that there were some strong words spoken. And yet some things were certain. Everyone was there. The job had to get done. It was a matter of survival. The job did get done.
We might wish for the same level of intensity in church, but we don’t see it is often as we would like. In recent days I have had several people remark to me that it isn’t like it used to be. They were referring to their perception that commitment is much weaker than it used to be. It is hard to get people to take on a job and then show up and do the job. It is even harder to get them to continue to do the job with commitment week by week. I have been trying to figure out if that perception is correct. I find myself fighting off the conclusion that people are simply not dedicated enough.
Perhaps us old crusty types sitting on park benches while leisurely watching the younger generation mess up are right. But perhaps we are wrong. Perhaps it was never as good as we think it used to be. Perhaps we were so busy with our sleeves rolled up that we didn’t notice the old crusty types sitting on park benches complaining how incompetent we were. And we didn’t have the time or inclination to focus much on those who weren’t involved.
For Better or Worse
It really doesn’t matter if things are better or worse today. What does matter is that we find the ways to make things better today and tomorrow.
One of the things we can do to capture the power of involvement is to understand what creates involvement in the first place. It is very easy to believe that a personal commitment is the best seedbed from which to grow involvement. That is incorrect.
If you take a few moments and ponder how you got committed to a particular things in your life you will realize that the commitment followed the involvement. You got involved first and the commitment grew. If you are married, you probably had a first date. That was involvement. The rest is now history. You are committed.
One of the greatest tactical errors we can make in church life is to degenerate into perennial public rants about how we need higher levels of commitment. Such appeals when repeated too often fall on deaf ears. The best way to recruit people is always one at a time. Asking for volunteers is a good way to put people on notice; it is not an effective way to get the volunteers we need. They must be recruited one at a time. And there are effective and ineffective ways to attempt that.
You have to sneak up on them. That means you should always avoid asking the question in such a way that is likely to get the opposite response to what you desire. For example, if you ask someone to take over a role permanently that is likely to meet with rejection or hesitation. On the other hand, if you ask someone to sit in and observe a particular role, you are much more likely to gain an affirmative answer. Of course, that doesn’t get you to the end but it could be a beginning. From there you can ask the person to be a helper for one part of one event. As an example, you could ask someone to supply refreshments or help with setup on a one off basis. If that goes well, you could ask the person to help on a semi regular basis. Take it one step at a time. Get the person involved and perhaps the involvement level will expand step by step. Once the involvement level expands and they catch a vision for the opportunity commitment will not be an issue.
Involvement Leads to Commitment
There is tremendous power in capturing this principle. Involvement leads to commitment. Constantly encourage people to new involvement on a time limited or occasional basis. Church leaders often complain that 80% of the work is being done by 20% of the people. However, our research on a broad basis indicates that one third of the people in a typical local church would be happy to be recruited for a task if it would fit with their schedule and they were given adequate training and support.
People have to start somewhere. Don’t make the mistake of asking them to dive off the diving board into the deep end. Let them put their toe in the waters of the shallow end and get used to that first. Some people take longer to get their feet wet. Others will always stand on the deck and fear the water. But nobody who is totally committed didn’t first get wet. Expect that everyone will at the minimum put their toe in the water at one place or another. Don’t let it be normal for anyone to attend your church who doesn’t get involved.
Get In Fast
There should be a very short time period between the time that an individual first attends an event of your church and the time they experience involvement in the working life of your church. Build the cultural expectation into your church that everyone has a job at some level or another and you will be well underway to building and growing a healthy church.
It is relatively easy to start this cultural expectation in a new church start. It is more difficult in an existing church. You can’t just start with the newcomers or they will notice that they have been set up. You must start by expressing the expectation that everyone will do something of service in the life of the church. You must create a long list of small responsibilities and recruit everyone to cover something. It is also prudent to be sure that an untested person is first given a responsibility that isn’t crucial or that has a backup plan if they fail to deliver as promised. You must also be sure that you recruit people to appropriate roles. Obviously, you will not put a newcomer in charge of teaching or supervising people, especially children. And you will always do better if you recruit two people to accomplish one task. They will probably build a friendship. And they are more likely to hold each other accountable.
Put together a brainstorming list of all of the safe jobs that could be accomplished. Break the jobs down into the smallest possible segments. For example, avoid asking one person to be in charge of the coffee, tea and juice. That is at least three jobs. Actually, you can probably brainstorm that into many more than three jobs. You need a coffee buyer and you need a dishwasher. Make the list as long as you can make it. And don’t forget your children and teenagers they all need jobs as well. A child can’t purchase the coffee but she can put cups on a table. A teenager can learn to make coffee. Better than that, two teenagers can learn to make coffee as a team.
In creating involvement you must overcome the belief that it is easier to do it yourself. All of the people you recruit will not instinctively divide up their responsibilities and ask others to help but you must teach them to do this and notice when they fail. In fact, failure to delegate should become a fireable offense! Everyone must understand that the main job is not the obvious part. The main job is always building people. People grow best when they have others around them to lend support.
The Bad Episode Doorway
There’s another doorway to commitment that isn’t pleasant but it is common. It is the bad episode doorway. When an individual goes through a difficult time in their life it opens their awareness to the fact that others may be just like them. I have a good friend whose wife is just finishing a very scary episode with cancer. Through that episode my friend has realized that the spouse of a cancer victim has their own set of difficulties which often go unrecognized. Last week he told me that he has three people in mind with whom he is going to initiate conversation to minister to them. I just love it when that sort of thing happens. Instead of whining that nobody cared for him, he is going to take his experience and use it as a springboard to get involved in helping others.
We see this effect reasonably often on the public stage. Someone who has survived a tragic chapter in their own life takes on the challenge to start a ministry to people in similar circumstances. And that is a very good thing. However, more often than not the local church is not a primary recipient of that benefit.
I am much more interested in the health of the ordinary local church. Whenever you see someone in your church responding to a particular wound in their own life, explore the possibility of getting them engaged in developing a personal ministry. This could be a formal program. In a larger church that is more likely. It might even get to the point of having a support group for the spouses of cancer survivors. But just let that evolve. Make sure that people understand it is your expectation for them to turn their negative experiences into positive ministry on an informal basis.
A healthy church is a church where high percentage of people believe they are significant to the life of the church because they are involved. Focus on the involvement. Make it your practice to recognize and appreciate that involvement regularly. One of the ways you can do this is through a card ministry. You can send a thank you card to everyone several times a year and you won’t be overdoing it. Think about it. Was there ever a time in your life when people thanked you too much? The easiest possible way to do this, and also the most economical way, is to use a system developed by a company called Send Out Cards. I want you to go to my wife’s website www.WendyCarter.name and sign up for a gift account. At our expense we would be happy to let you send out a few cards to experience the quality of this program. Wendy would enjoy saving you time by explaining this system over the phone with you. It is absolute dynamite.
Back in those days of yesteryear on the farm when harvest time came everyone knew that their involvement was essential. We look at those pictures with great fondness without recognizing the beads of sweat that created that total involvement. Church life is like that. The fond memories created while people work shoulder to shoulder outweigh the tiredness in the muscles that completed all the work.
You must learn all of the techniques that you can possibly learn to get more involvement out of people. It is much more probable that this is the shortest route to their commitment to service for the Master.