One of the toughest things for a leader in ministry to experience is when a really good volunteer or staff member leaves your ministry. It’s bound to happen. It just hurts when they do.
One of the best volunteers I had served on numerous teams for me. She grew up in strong youth ministry churches, both Catholic and another Christian denominational church. Because of her background, she was an ideal volunteer, having experienced many retreats, youth nights, social justice events, and camps. She had an amazing perspective of ministry to youth.
She added so much value to my youth ministry, it was unbelievable. She was really creative and was able to lead numerous events herself. She had the ability to motivate other volunteers and help them grow to become better volunteers themselves.
She was one of a kind. Then, she left. Ouch.
In the final segment of this series on Leaders Always Hurt and Get Hurt, this is the final way that leaders are hurt in ministry. I sometimes wish I could hold on to all my volunteers and staff forever. But, that is not the case. Good volunteers, good staff members eventually leave.
In fact, if you are training your team well, then they will leave. They will move to other leadership experiences within your church, or maybe move to other churches. Yes, they create a void when they leave, but hopefully they fill a gap when they move to another place to serve in ministry.
That’s what happened to my stellar volunteer. She became a director of youth ministry herself in another church. Although I was sad and hurt to see her go, I was ecstatic that she was now working for another church full-time and sharing her gifts and strengths with that community. And you know what? She had a tremendously positive impact in that other church.
That’s the way it should be. I can’t take credit for her leadership skills. But I hope I helped shape her to become the leader she is today, helping other churches grow.
Question: When have you lost a valuable team member in your ministry?
That’s it for this series, Leaders Always Hurt and Get Hurt. Here’s a re-cap of all the blog articles in this series:
- Leaders Always Hurt and Get Hurt
- Making the Tough Decisions
- Expecting More From Our Volunteers
- 2 Reasons to Fire a Volunteer
- How Do I Fire A Volunteer?
- Dealing with Uncommitted Volunteers
- Gossip, the Ministry Killer
- When Awesome Volunteers Leave Your Ministry
[...] blog replay was originally posted on July 10, 2012. This entire series of blog posts about Leaders Always Hurt and Get Hurt was one [...]