This is a personal post. In the several decades I’ve been at Princeton United Methodist Church, one of the congregational traits I value the most is an understanding attitude regarding personal schedules. We don’t play the blame game. If something comes up and you can’t do what you signed up to do, we’ll manage somehow. If you say you don’t have time to do a particular task, we won’t guilt you into doing it.
But perhaps we aren’t reaching everybody with the right message. The opportunity to be “hands on in Christ’s service” can be so exhilarating, even life changing. It’s just a matter of finding the square holes for the square pegs. Maybe we aren’t being savvy about offering volunteer opportunities.
So I was intrigued by a post in the national United Methodist weekly digest: How to recruit volunteers when begging and badgering doesn’t work. And was delighted to find that at least one committee is already using one of the tips.
Take a look at the article (click here) and see what you think. If you think one of these strategies will work at PUMC, email the communications committee at communications@PrincetonUMC.
But how you are “hands on in Christ’s service” is up to you — and Jesus! We promise — you won’t have to take charge of your idea unless you want to!
Barbara Fox