I’m not a big believer in the bulletin method of announcements. My church is one that can have between 5 and 10 pieces of loose paper in every bulletin every week- so they are easy to ignore.
But, last week, it worked. No joke. It worked.
I put a flyer that read: “We are missing a few pieces, and it just might be you.”
Below I listed 4 blue collar jobs and a brief description of the job that I needed help with. I specifically didn’t say it was for students because I didn’t want them thinking I needed youth or that they had to love kids in order to help. I asked for the following 4 people:
- CARPENTER/CABINET MAKER
- SEAMSTRESS
- ELECTRICIAN
- WELDER/PAINTER
By the time Sunday was over, God brought me everyone but the electrician. I’m not kidding. I had a welder/painter who owns his own car body shop come and tell me that he has attended journey for over a year and not served and this was the perfect job for him. He’s stoked to do it.
I had a grandma take a curtain home to repair it on Monday.
Then tonight I spoke with a cabinet maker on the phone. I have built 5 cabinets for our high school room so far: a sound booth, a check in booth, a game cabinet, and 2 kitchen lowers. But I have two sets of upper kitchen cabinets that have been waiting to be built in my garage. I’ve been tripping over for 18 months because I can’t find or make the time to finish it for church and now it’s going away. TOMORROW! I’m taking it to Journey and a professional cabinet maker is taking it off my hands.
I think I danced when I got off the phone. I might have even screamed. It was such a victory.
AS A RESULT, THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE LEADERSHIP LESSONS/REMINDERS FOR ME IN THIS:
- ASK FOR HELP. People really want to serve- especially those who think “God can’t use my skill set in the church.”
- ASK FOR HELP MORE OFTEN. I end up doing more than I should because I’m too quick to say, “I could do that”. (The honest truth is I can do all of those tasks. I can sew, paint, weld, wire lights, and build a cabinet. Problem is, based on my leadership demands, I shouldn’t be doing any of them right now.)
- WORK SMART FIRST, WORK HARD SECOND. It took work to find the help. It just took me working smarter, and in the end, it turned out to be way less work than doing it myself. I should know that by now. But it’s taken 14 years of knocking the stupid out of me to find this victory moment.
THANKS JESUS. THANKS JOURNEY VOLUNTEERS. YOU ROCK. I LITERALLY COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU.
Great post Brian. I don’t know if I’m more jealous that you got help in these areas (I need all of those things too) or that you actually know how do to all of those things. Regardless good point and something I need to remember and put into practice.
Wow! That is great!!!!! That is so encouraging because I feel like I need so much help now…But no one knows so I need to let people know. Thanks for the encouragement. 🙂
Such a great story! God really is at work amongst us.
Ed
That’s cool – you finally found: a painter, a tailor and a cabinet-maker! Seems to have a familiar ring to it.