A Noble Work ...
Intentional Recruiting for Service in the Church

A congregational recruitment approach is beneficial to the life of the church as well as individuals who desire to serve as a minister of the church. The following approach offers an opportunity to participate in the recruitment of future workers for the church. Each congregation is encouraged to do something intentional to recruit future workers.

The life of the church is distinguished by the quality and competency of its workers. To achieve the level of excellence desired, a church must intentionally search out and identify individuals with the characteristics that provide for good church leadership.

This is an intentional process, and the responsibility for identifying future workers for the church must lie not only on the pastor and the teachers, but also on all the members of the congregation.

While there is a tendency today for more adults to serve the church in a second career, the future of the church is dependant upon its youth for its future vitality. The encouragement for service in the church may begin at home, but the affirmation of other peers and leaders is vitally important to confirm an individual's intent.

How does a congregation accomplish an intentional approach to identifying and recruiting individuals for full time service to the church? Certainly individuals can and should be motivated on their own to assist the church in maintaining a constant flow of prepared workers to serve in ministerial roles throughout the church. A supplemental approach is to organize a committee that meets on a regularly scheduled basis, in order to perform three primary functions:

• Identify individuals with commitment and potential for service in the church;
• Regularly encourage individuals to consider church work as a career;
• Develop a system of support, including financial support, that affirms individual willingness to serve in the church.

1. The Committee
The congregation can choose to appoint committee members in any number of ways, but what has been found very effective is a committee of couples (husband and wife). This provides for a good mix of male and female representation as well as input from different perspectives. Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and parochial school teachers certainly should be included as participants.

2. Identification
The development of a statement of characteristics to assist in identifying individuals with interest and potential to serve the church in ministry is significantly important. Certain aptitudes and abilities must be present in order for an individual to function effectively in ministry to the church. Important for identifying individuals for ministry are the components of spiritual, vocational, professional, and academic aptitude.

3. Affirmation/Recruitment
The committee's list of characteristics will identify individuals with whom committee members will want to make contact and specifically identify themselves as "intentionally recruiting for ministry." The committee is not only recruiting but is also affirming the special gifts and talents observed in the individual and desires to direct his or her attention to a specific career in life.

Certainly it is an offer to assist an individual to become better acquainted with possibilities for ministry as well as dealing with the personal process of developing a maturing faith. Prayer for the individual is an important component in this area of support.

4. Support
Financial support is an opportunity for the entire congregation to participate in providing an ongoing stream of workers in the ministries of the church. To accomplish this most effectively, it is recommended that the congregation develop a scholarship endowment fund to support students in preparation for ministry. Such an endowment fund has already been designed by the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Foundation, with all of the necessary documents to both establish the fund and provide investment management. The committee may call the LCMS Foundation for the specific documents that support the organization of such a fund (800-325-7912) or write to the LCMS Foundation (1333 S. Kirkwood, St. Louis, 63122).

There are variations on all of the suggestions made above. What is shared has been developed, implemented, and discovered to be very effective. Perhaps the words of Jesus best describe the intentionality of this approach: "ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened."

Some Suggestions for your Church Worker Recruitment Committee
Divide names of potential future church workers among committee members; pray for them and talk to them once a month about their gifts and church work; include reports of church worker students in newsletters and bulletins; adopt a Concordia each year to be the recipient of a week's/month's offering.

For more information...
Contact the University Education office for materials (use the "Orders" link at the left of this page).

• How to Set Up an Endowment Fund
• Information about professional church work occupations
• Information about a Concordia
• Descriptions of professional church work occupations
• Information on making a donation to a Concordia