Confession time for me here. I have been a leader, minister, staff person for many years in local churches in MO, TX and TN. I have led 100s of training conferences for student ministry and discipleship leaders in almost every state and in 12 or 13 countries. I have encouraged leaders who were about to quit due to frustration, depression, burn out; leaders just getting started in a new venture; and others who are on the backside of their sweet spot in ministry years and people in between. But . . . this past weekend I got a fresh, new perspective on how to treat volunteers.
IRONMAN Chattanooga took place on Sunday, 9/28 with about 2600 participants and who knows how many volunteers. I would say a whole bunch, would be a pretty accurate number. Each volunteer was given a green shirt with all the appropriate IRONMAN Chattanooga and sponsors logos plastered on it and a huge VOLUNTEER written on it. Volunteers served the races in many various ways from water stops to handing out bags, catching and releasing bikes, providing sunscreen and cleaning up thousands of cups and trash. There were oh! so many different volunteer roles that people filled. I served by releasing bikes to the athletes or their family/friends at the end of the race. If an athlete was picking up their bike after the race, I ran and got their bike for them. I pointed family/friends to the appropriate spot where they would find their bike. All-in-all about 2300 bikes were racked in numerical order. The picture gives you at least one view of what that bike transition area looked like on Sunday.
During my shift 3.5 hour shift I am not certain how many bikes I personally released but conservatively the number was in the 50s at least. Some of those bikes were racked about 300 yards away so it made for some pretty good running exercise. The overwhelming part of the whole experience for me was this - Athletes, family and friends were so very appreciative of the service the volunteers were giving. I met so many nice people who were genuinely thankful for the volunteers as we served them. They verbally told us again and again how much they appreciated us serving as volunteering.
After the volunteer shift was over, Dave, Gregg and I headed to grab us some dinner. As we walked along, we congratulated finishers and without fail, they thanked us for serving. People who were there just spectating, thanked us as volunteers. It was very affirming but in reality, we volunteers had just done something that we enjoyed. We did not do it to get any kind of recognition, but it sure was fun to be thanked.
It got me to wondering . . . How come this is not the norm at most churches? Many times it seems that volunteers are seen as a commodity, a means to an end, to accomplish something that really has very little to do with them. We beg for volunteers and then seldom genuinely thank them. I walked away Sunday affirmed and convicted at the same time. I have been guilty of overlooking volunteers and not thanking them for all that they do.
Lesson learned/remembered this past Sunday at IRONMAN Chattanooga. Genuinely thank those who serve. Not really so much for what they do, but because of who they are as people.
IRONMAN Chattanooga took place on Sunday, 9/28 with about 2600 participants and who knows how many volunteers. I would say a whole bunch, would be a pretty accurate number. Each volunteer was given a green shirt with all the appropriate IRONMAN Chattanooga and sponsors logos plastered on it and a huge VOLUNTEER written on it. Volunteers served the races in many various ways from water stops to handing out bags, catching and releasing bikes, providing sunscreen and cleaning up thousands of cups and trash. There were oh! so many different volunteer roles that people filled. I served by releasing bikes to the athletes or their family/friends at the end of the race. If an athlete was picking up their bike after the race, I ran and got their bike for them. I pointed family/friends to the appropriate spot where they would find their bike. All-in-all about 2300 bikes were racked in numerical order. The picture gives you at least one view of what that bike transition area looked like on Sunday.
After the volunteer shift was over, Dave, Gregg and I headed to grab us some dinner. As we walked along, we congratulated finishers and without fail, they thanked us for serving. People who were there just spectating, thanked us as volunteers. It was very affirming but in reality, we volunteers had just done something that we enjoyed. We did not do it to get any kind of recognition, but it sure was fun to be thanked.
It got me to wondering . . . How come this is not the norm at most churches? Many times it seems that volunteers are seen as a commodity, a means to an end, to accomplish something that really has very little to do with them. We beg for volunteers and then seldom genuinely thank them. I walked away Sunday affirmed and convicted at the same time. I have been guilty of overlooking volunteers and not thanking them for all that they do.
Lesson learned/remembered this past Sunday at IRONMAN Chattanooga. Genuinely thank those who serve. Not really so much for what they do, but because of who they are as people.
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