by Kim Jessie
Why? Why? Why? Have you spent time around younger children or teenagers who always ask “Why?” Children and teenagers want to know the reasons and purposes behind most everything. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to clean my room? Why are you making me do this?
Volunteers sometimes ask or think or wonder why. Volunteers don’t always understand what the big picture is. For ministry effectiveness, it is our responsibility to make sure those who work with us understand what our vision is, what the why is. To do this, we need to communicate with them a vision. A vision is what we are called by God to do.
We need to know what God has called us to do. Time spent with God in prayer, Bible study, and fasting brings an awareness of what God is calling us to do – a vision of what could be.
After the Why, we then need to ask How? The How is answered with a plan.
A plan has several parts: goals, action plans and details. For example, if your vision is to reach children with the message of Christ, a goal may be to host a VBS in the summer. An action plan associated with that goal is to line up all the volunteers. A detail for that action plan is to make calls to people who would be good children’s teachers. Fulfilling a vision is easier when you have a plan in place.
To help church ministry effectiveness, we offer a workshop to help people create effective plans for their visions. Please call 757-938-9793 or email kjessie@thebridgenet.org for more information.