An Epidemic of Apathy?

 I believe there is an epidemic of sorts running through the Church in North America. And this time, I am not talking about one that involves social distancing or masks. It does, however, involve some very specific symptoms.

It is increasingly common for a pastor or elder to ask me: “How do we increase volunteerism?” or “What can we do to fill open leadership positions?” or “Why aren’t more attendees becoming members?” It appears that we have a problem. You could call it apathy, or disconnectedness, or any number of things. Whatever you call it, it is a struggle for local churches everywhere.

I believe there are many factors contributing to this sense of apathy within our churches. For instance, folks have way more competing for their attention than they used to – with tons of events to attend and social media screaming for their time. In short, folks are worn out. Too many commitments, too many pressures – and we cannot commit to one more thing.
As volunteerism has waned, the Church has responded in the most logical way: If we cannot secure adequate help from members, we hire more staff to tend to our needs. This is reasonable and generally healthy, but I believe we may unintentionally develop the mindset that it is the job of some paid person to handle ministry, and others are there to partake in or receive that ministry.
I think volunteerism is also hampered by what I would call the “pressure of comparison.” We have broad access to recordings and live streams of the best preachers in the world, the best musicians in the world, etc. It is easy to feel our meager gifting is not enough. Feelings of inadequacy are deadly to volunteerism.
While this may seem like an insurmountable cultural trend, I would propose a few areas in which we can proactively work to stem the tide:

Intentional development of leaders: Developing leaders should be part of your church’s culture. Every current leader should be able to tell you who they are training to do their job. Even paid staff members should be training lay people to teach, to visit, to run different aspects of administration, and so on.
Leader development begins with allowing someone to watch how you do it and learn from you. There is a big difference between “Will you teach this class?” and “If you help me teach this class, I will help you learn until you are ready to do it on your own.”
​

Intentional development of roles: I think we often develop leadership roles with the intent of finding the perfect person with all the gifts. We should be developing roles that fill needs while also being suited to the gifting and experience of our people.
God gave the job of tending the Garden of Eden over to Adam and Eve – not because he thought they were more qualified than he, but because he designed us to work. If there are things you are doing because you want it done perfectly, but someone else among your congregation could do it adequately, perhaps it is time to give them the privilege of serving.
​

Intentional recruitment: Keep advertising needs publicly but give priority to thinking about who among your congregation is suited to a role, and then personally inviting them to serve. Informing a person that you feel he or she is ready to step into a leadership role is a meaningful and important step in the process of discipleship.
Allow me to relate this concept to the FEBC. I think many of our churches announce publicly that Connect is coming and wonder if any of their people are interested enough to register. I would suggest a new approach. Pick a few folks that could be valuable assets to our Fellowship – perhaps as a future commission member or director, or just a supporter. Ask them personally if they would consider registering for Connect and being a delegate for your church.
​​Some of our best leaders are those who were invited to attend Connect and when they did, they caught the mission of “joining our hands to strengthen His church.”

Church Leaders - let’s be intentional about developing and recruiting volunteers.

Church Members - God has given you gifts that he wants you to use at your church! Please look for ways to serve.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 

Ephesians 4:15-16 (NIV)

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Stone has been in full or part-time ministry for over 30 years. Before accepting the position of President, he spent 12 years as the full-time Pastor of Worship at Crosspoint Bible Church in Omaha, NE - one of our FEBC churches.