Empowering People, Part 2

I woke up this morning thinking again about what compels people to stay at a church. As I shared in the previous email, the answer one of our volunteers gave was "they empowered me to be a leader so quickly."

I think it boils down to two things: relationships and responsibility. When a person feels connected to people and feels ownership of the vision, they are going to stay. Leadership at NCC gives people relationships-- with other leaders, group members, zone leaders and coaches, etc. And leadership at NCC gives people responsibility-- their job is strategically and integrally tied with the larger vision of NCC.

But compelling people to stay does not have to begin at the leadership level. We should look for ways to foster relationships and delegate responsibility at every level of church involvement. Think about it. A person who runs power cords on the production team is going to feel more compelled to get to church on Sunday morning than a person with no ministry involvement. A person assigned to bring snacks to small groups will not re-consider going to small group because they are tired and don't feel like it.

I am not talking here about tricking people, coercing them, manipulating them or anything like that. I am talking about making the church what it should be-- relational (people connected to others) and missional (every person playing their God-ordained role with their God-given gifts).