Training New Volunteers and Keeping Connected to the Existing Ones

I’m not sure what this looks like for you, but I found it challenging to keep my volunteers all on the same page all the time.  Often times I would wonder if the system we had in place was really working at all. This article does a great job of expressing some of the difficulties involved in training and keeping ministry volunteers, while also offering some suggestions on the best practices.  

I hope it will help us keep healthy ministry teams around us, because doing it alone just isn’t a viable option long term.  

https://www.breezechms.com/blog/3-essentials-for-training-church-and-ministry-volunteers/ 

Starting a New Season in Ministry

Whether it is the weather that’s changing or a natural change in the lifecycle of your ministry, it’s important to notice winds of new seasons. Here’s an article to help us navigate a new season and what might catalyze new life around us. 

https://billygraham.org/story/5-ways-to-start-a-new-season-in-life/ 

Protecting Your Sabbath

A leader in a church was recently telling me of how his regular sabbath away from ministry work each week had been interrupted for the past 4 weeks. Whether it was the important work of visiting someone in the hospital, preparing for a ministry event, or dealing with an emergency, each interruption left this leader feeling even more wiped out. 

In our world of instant connection and information overload, it’s really important that we take the time we need to rest and refresh. Taking the time to rest requires us to be extremely intentional.  The writer of this article gives 7 ways that he intentionally protects his sabbath times.  

http://ronedmondson.com/2015/07/7-ways-i-protect-my-sabbath.html 

The Bi-vocational Pastor

In our context (Europe and the Middle East), most of our leaders find themselves in a position of being bi-vocational leaders and pastors. This article is the story of one pastor who chooses to remain bi-vocational and why he finds that important. Hopefully this article will encourage us to be present in our current situations and not miss the opportunity to share God‘s love with the people around us.  

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/chosen-bivocational-pastor/ 

Sacred Saturday

What days do you highlight in your Holy Week Celebration? 

Palm Sunday

Holy Wednesday

Maunday Thursday

Good Friday

Sacred Saturday

Easter Sunday

There are five churches that I have been intimately connected with over my life and ministry and each one carried it’s own traditions over Holy Week. A few of the churches held a Sedar meal, footwashing times, Good Friday dramas, sunrise services, and even a midnight sacred Saturday bonfire. While gathering with our faith communities is important during Holy Week, we often tried to find a balance of church community time versus family time. Each community differs in what they are able to offer their communities. 

Perhaps one of the ways to serve your communities best during this week is to offer resources or suggest an activity for your people to engage their family at home.  Here’s one resource I helped write back in 2012 that might spur your creativity this season.