The Transfer of Commitment

I once heard someone say that the goal of parenting is to gradually transfer your child’s dependence on you to God.  And in many ways, I think that’s true for volunteers in the church.  There are steps that most volunteers in the church take.  It looks like this.

1. They do it for you.  They may not know much about the vision of the church and they may not even be sold-out Christians.  When you’re planting a church, people first buy into you.  They like you, so they want to help.
2. They do it for the ministry.  They are comfortable with a particular ministry because they have made some friendships and they see the importance of what they do.
3. They do it for the church.  They realize that the church is bigger than any one ministry and they buy into the mission and vision of the entire church.
4. They do it for God.  Ultimately, they realize that they are serving God.

Many church planters never gain traction because they fail to understand that people will first sell out to you personally before they buy into the vision organizationally.  If you can’t convince people to jump in based on your relationship with them, there’s a good chance that they won’t take future steps.  If they are committed to the ministry or the church, then there’s a good chance they will leave when they get mad or something doesn’t go right in their eyes.  But if they are doing it for the Lord, then they will stick.