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Connect: How to Double Your Number of Volunteers
What if your church had more volunteers than you knew what to do with? Sound far-fetched? It doesn't have to be. Now consultant, pastor, and author Nelson Searcy unveils his secret to doubling your volunteer base in as little as one day. Yes, you read that right.
This step-by-step guide shows church leaders how to create a culture that attracts, keeps, and grows volunteers. Taking a comprehensive approach to the often frustrating issue of finding and retaining volunteers, Connect gives leaders the practical insight and tools they need to effectively involve people in serving the local church. It details how to help people see the importance of serving, how to continually raise up new volunteers, how to really delegate, and even how to "fire" a volunteer. Every church leader who has struggled with getting and keeping people active in the church (and that's all of them) will love the practical, workable strategies found here.
This step-by-step guide shows church leaders how to create a culture that attracts, keeps, and grows volunteers. Taking a comprehensive approach to the often frustrating issue of finding and retaining volunteers, Connect gives leaders the practical insight and tools they need to effectively involve people in serving the local church. It details how to help people see the importance of serving, how to continually raise up new volunteers, how to really delegate, and even how to "fire" a volunteer. Every church leader who has struggled with getting and keeping people active in the church (and that's all of them) will love the practical, workable strategies found here.
232 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
40 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 29, 2013
Searcy, Nelson, and Jennifer Dykes Henson. 2012. Connect: How to Double Your Number of Volunteers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
When it comes to a church’s volunteer ministries, the Pareto Principle seems to apply: 20 percent of church members do 80 percent of the work. This unbalanced ratio is both unbiblical, because all church members should be ministers, and inefficient, fostering burnout among the few and passivity and consumerism among the many.
Pastors and other church leaders who teach every-member ministry have solved the first problem, but the second problem often goes unsolved (or badly solved) because they don’t have a system in place to move members into ministry.
Nelson Searcy’s new book, Connect, outlines just such a system to “mobilize people for significant ministry” (30). Searcy is founding pastor of The Journey, a multisite church with locations in New York City and Boca Raton, Florida. He is also a prolific author and church consultant whose advice for pastors and church leaders can be accessed at ChurchLeaderInsights.com.
Searcy structures his advice for mobilizing people around four steps:
Clarify your theology of ministry (chs. 1, 2).
Create first-serve opportunities (chs. 3–5).
Cultivate a ministry ladder (chs. 6–8).
Celebrate and reproduce servants (chs. 9, 10).
His advice is empirically grounded, eminently practical, and systematic. The appendices include 40 pages of volunteer-related resources from The Journey. Readers can also register on his website for additional free resources.
The strength of this book is its presentation of a system for teaching voluntarism and recruiting, resourcing, and rewarding volunteers. The book’s most controversial recommendation is letting non-believers volunteer at certain levels in your church’s ministries.
I recommend Connect for pastors, church planters, and other ministry leaders who exercise significant oversight of a church’s volunteers. Whether or not they adapt all of Searcy’s recommendations, they will appreciate his insights into moving their church closer to the ideal of every-member ministry.
P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.
When it comes to a church’s volunteer ministries, the Pareto Principle seems to apply: 20 percent of church members do 80 percent of the work. This unbalanced ratio is both unbiblical, because all church members should be ministers, and inefficient, fostering burnout among the few and passivity and consumerism among the many.
Pastors and other church leaders who teach every-member ministry have solved the first problem, but the second problem often goes unsolved (or badly solved) because they don’t have a system in place to move members into ministry.
Nelson Searcy’s new book, Connect, outlines just such a system to “mobilize people for significant ministry” (30). Searcy is founding pastor of The Journey, a multisite church with locations in New York City and Boca Raton, Florida. He is also a prolific author and church consultant whose advice for pastors and church leaders can be accessed at ChurchLeaderInsights.com.
Searcy structures his advice for mobilizing people around four steps:
Clarify your theology of ministry (chs. 1, 2).
Create first-serve opportunities (chs. 3–5).
Cultivate a ministry ladder (chs. 6–8).
Celebrate and reproduce servants (chs. 9, 10).
His advice is empirically grounded, eminently practical, and systematic. The appendices include 40 pages of volunteer-related resources from The Journey. Readers can also register on his website for additional free resources.
The strength of this book is its presentation of a system for teaching voluntarism and recruiting, resourcing, and rewarding volunteers. The book’s most controversial recommendation is letting non-believers volunteer at certain levels in your church’s ministries.
I recommend Connect for pastors, church planters, and other ministry leaders who exercise significant oversight of a church’s volunteers. Whether or not they adapt all of Searcy’s recommendations, they will appreciate his insights into moving their church closer to the ideal of every-member ministry.
P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.
September 18, 2019
I've read four of Nelson's books in the past two weeks because they have been so practically helpful to me as I think through the systems of our church. The first three were amazing (Fusion, Activate, Maximize), but this book had a particular area of concern I just couldn't get past.
Nelson does a fantastic job explaining the benefits of serving in the local church, and as a pastor I completely agree with him and aspire to have the people of our church see it this way. However, in one particular section he speaks of a man, Stuart, who has a very successful career outside the church. Rather than embracing the fact that God had planted Stuart in this line of work, and specifically in his position, for God's glory (Col. 3:17 - 'whatever you do in word or deed...') he went out of his way to say that him folding bulletins on a Thursday evening was more meaningful because "he was making a difference for eternity instead of just making money."
This type of theology labels church work as sacred, and any other career path as secular.
A.W. Tozer said, “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular; it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.”
I wish this book would not have only shared how to get volunteers to do church work, but also how the church can serve people in their ministry to the people they work with in their jobs on a daily basis. I feel an opportunity was missed and a very poor theology of the value of work was presented.
Nelson does a fantastic job explaining the benefits of serving in the local church, and as a pastor I completely agree with him and aspire to have the people of our church see it this way. However, in one particular section he speaks of a man, Stuart, who has a very successful career outside the church. Rather than embracing the fact that God had planted Stuart in this line of work, and specifically in his position, for God's glory (Col. 3:17 - 'whatever you do in word or deed...') he went out of his way to say that him folding bulletins on a Thursday evening was more meaningful because "he was making a difference for eternity instead of just making money."
This type of theology labels church work as sacred, and any other career path as secular.
A.W. Tozer said, “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular; it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.”
I wish this book would not have only shared how to get volunteers to do church work, but also how the church can serve people in their ministry to the people they work with in their jobs on a daily basis. I feel an opportunity was missed and a very poor theology of the value of work was presented.
March 20, 2013
Connect has easily become one of my favorite books Nelson Searcy has written. I really enjoyed reading the insight that he provides on the role of serving. I also appreciated the theological and scriptural foundation that he bases his perspective on. Even though I think Nelson is totally on point in this book, I can see how it isn't a book for everyone.
For those not familiar with Searcy, he tends to take an incredibly practical perspective on ministry, and though it totally tickles the strategic and systems building part of the brain that my personality craves, I know that there are plenty of people out there who may try to claim that there is a lack of spirituality found within. Personally, I think that it is ridiculous to suggest that there has to be some kind of divorce between well-thought execution, logic, and reason versus heart-felt spirituality, love, and emotion. If you can get past that, then I think anyone could learn a great deal from reading this book.
There are a few related minor topics that I would of loved to have seen Nelson tackle, but they are mostly minor secondary issues. He does a pretty good job of covering the bases in the amount of pages he uses.
I definitely recommend giving this book a read, especially if you serve in some sort of leadership or pastoral role where you work with volunteers.
For those not familiar with Searcy, he tends to take an incredibly practical perspective on ministry, and though it totally tickles the strategic and systems building part of the brain that my personality craves, I know that there are plenty of people out there who may try to claim that there is a lack of spirituality found within. Personally, I think that it is ridiculous to suggest that there has to be some kind of divorce between well-thought execution, logic, and reason versus heart-felt spirituality, love, and emotion. If you can get past that, then I think anyone could learn a great deal from reading this book.
There are a few related minor topics that I would of loved to have seen Nelson tackle, but they are mostly minor secondary issues. He does a pretty good job of covering the bases in the amount of pages he uses.
I definitely recommend giving this book a read, especially if you serve in some sort of leadership or pastoral role where you work with volunteers.
June 19, 2013
Typical Searcy. Light on doctrine. But filled with practical ideas for getting members plugged into a place of service in the local church.
August 21, 2013
Helpful
June 16, 2016
Lots of good ideas and a clear theology of ministry. Definitely a good book for anyone working in church systems to read.
June 27, 2016
Lots of practical advice that I plan on implementing with our interns. Bought them each a copy. Looking forward to applying many of the steps.
February 22, 2020
Great book on practically developing a healthy system and process for increasing church volunteer engagement. The only reason it’s not a 4-star for me personally is the randomly placed, corny storytelling and the frequency of shameless self promotion. Felt like almost every other paragraph ended with Nelson pushing the reader toward another one of his books or his website — so I have no reason *not* to believe that book purchases and website traffic generating his income is a higher priority than he’d like to let on. Don’t tease is with content that’s not there, just include the content!
June 1, 2025
There was nothing here that was revelatory? It was pretty basic for a book about volunteers in the church. The one-star rating is for equating serving in church with discipleship. It's stated several times and is either an incredibly low bar for disciples or Jesus.
July 28, 2020
Pretty good.
May 21, 2024
As a nonprofit volunteer coordinator for a Christian ministry I was hoping to gain more from this, but it’s really truly meant for just pastors.
December 1, 2013
The major encouragement I found with this book is a simple point: Christian service is a wonderful and good thing, therefore helping more people serve more is also a wonderful way to help their growth in godliness.
It's not a drag to serve, or ask people to serve. There's no need to apologise for providing opportunity, not for expecting believers to contribute. We follow the Lord who came to serve, and who taught that the greatest among us will be the least.
This is a reminder I needed.
Searcy's book is largely practical in outlook. It is a 'how to' as promised by the subtitle. He has some theological and biblical material - and helpfully insists that the starting point is to clarify our theology of ministry. But most of the book is about systems, and tips on using those systems.
He writes of getting people to make the first step of service, of the need for clear expectations, of 'ladders' of service from the simple to the most dedicated, of celebration and thankfulness, and of many other practicalities.
The systems might work in your church setting, or they might not quite fit. In either case, reading Searcy's principles and practice should help you reflect productively on your local situation.
Sometimes I found the practical bent unduly influenced the theological reflections. For instance, Searcy noted that human bodies have systems, that people are made in God's image, and therefore God loves systems. This is backwards Bible-reading (humans image God therefore God images humans).
So don't be naive about the theological rationale offered - a true warning for any writing! - but benefit from Searcy's love of getting people involved in humbly serving the Suffering Servant.
It's not a drag to serve, or ask people to serve. There's no need to apologise for providing opportunity, not for expecting believers to contribute. We follow the Lord who came to serve, and who taught that the greatest among us will be the least.
This is a reminder I needed.
Searcy's book is largely practical in outlook. It is a 'how to' as promised by the subtitle. He has some theological and biblical material - and helpfully insists that the starting point is to clarify our theology of ministry. But most of the book is about systems, and tips on using those systems.
He writes of getting people to make the first step of service, of the need for clear expectations, of 'ladders' of service from the simple to the most dedicated, of celebration and thankfulness, and of many other practicalities.
The systems might work in your church setting, or they might not quite fit. In either case, reading Searcy's principles and practice should help you reflect productively on your local situation.
Sometimes I found the practical bent unduly influenced the theological reflections. For instance, Searcy noted that human bodies have systems, that people are made in God's image, and therefore God loves systems. This is backwards Bible-reading (humans image God therefore God images humans).
So don't be naive about the theological rationale offered - a true warning for any writing! - but benefit from Searcy's love of getting people involved in humbly serving the Suffering Servant.
April 2, 2013
If you have read any of Searcy's other books you will know he is into systems and processes. In this book he explains his volunteer system for his church. Part of the problem with reading about another church's system is that it is not immediately transferable, not even the principles that he outlines (and assumes are transferable). Unless your church is in a similar context the model will break down. Searcy's model seems to be one of a modernist culture being reached by a church which assumes a Christendom paradigm of ministry. This is not a critique of his methods but is is a critique of applicability. I did not really enjoy this book.
This book has been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communiations adn Baker Books in exchange for an honest review.
This book has been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communiations adn Baker Books in exchange for an honest review.
March 18, 2013
Nelson Searcy is one of today's top church strategist. Connect is a continuation in his series of Church Systems and has challenged me and our leadership team to rethink the way we approach volunteerism. I recommend this to any leader who is looking for common-sense, biblical solutions for improving the way the process of gaining and retaining volunteers in their church.
February 7, 2014
This was a great read for our leadership team. We had discussions about several practical inspired by this book that will help reach our goals for better and deeper commitment levels among church volunteers.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews