Leadership Challenge

There truly is a current general shortage of capable and willing leadership for just about every facet of our lives, effecting churches, charities, companies, and governments. Volunteerism is suffering, with people willing to exert effort for short term involvement in activities where they perceive great value, with no long term or repetitive commitments of time or energy. The changing demographics of society result in people having little or no time to offer, and little energy to contribute during whatever time is available. In church, programs suffer from a lack of support and involvement, and exhaust the few who are willing to serve. This demands that church activities and programs be well planned and prepared, and being as effective and efficient as possible in their practice.

One must eventually ask some hard questions. If there are programs that are so unsupported, why are they continued? If those people expected to support and participate in the programs do not, why is it that they do not see sufficient value to offer their commitment and effort? If volunteer support and staff funding isn't available, the programs only continue as a forced burden on a weary and eventually unwilling group of stewards.

Generally speaking, today's volunteers appear to be seeking deep personal value in return for their energy and contribution. When an activity is complete, they don't want to look back and simply see it as done, they want to see that their investment of time and effort made a difference. The effort must eventually manifest itself somehow in action toward a goal. The goal may be simply making situations better for one or more people (mission trips and projects), fundraising (where there is a net substantial multiplication of resources above the cost of the exercise), teaching people how to teach or witness, improving one's ability to serve an important need, or clarifying within the individual what is personally important. Leadership begins through the role of "servant leader", and the satisfaction of that experience leads individuals to continue, repeat, and grow their involvement.