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Mary Ann Sibley grew up Buddhist, and was 40 years old before anyone ever invited her to church and she was transformed by Jesus. Before long, she was a volunteer. Not too long later, she started a volunteer ministry from scratch, growing it into the thousands.
Mary Ann is the founder of MatterSpark, an organization all about helping churches build leaders to build healthy volunteer teams. She also is the Volunteer, Hospitality, & Guest Services Training Director here at 95Network!
This episode was so much fun. In this conversation, we’re talking about reenergizing volunteers this holiday season, the eternal impact volunteers can make on people’s lives, practical ways to communicate the joy of Christ to everyone who walks through the doors, and encouragement for every church leader. Listen in!
Links to Resources Mentioned or Related
- Use code PODCAST to get 10% off anything in our store!
- Read Stalled: Hope and Help for Pastors Who Thought They’d Be There By Now
- Small Church Strategies by Mary Ann: VICC The Volunteer
- Small Church Strategies by Mary Ann: The Heart of Guest Services
- Watch Podcast on YouTube
Key Takeaways
1) Getting our volunteers reenergized will have a ripple effect throughout the church. This ripple effect will extend to others who are attending and new people at the church as well. The energy and excitement will be contagious.
2) The work of volunteers matters so much. And that needs to be communicated. Mary Ann’s story of coming to faith really started because of faithful volunteers at a local church. The value of that can’t be overstated.
3) “Everything is contagious.” No matter if it’s good or bad, culture and energy are contagious and will replicate. As leaders, we have to be intentional about shaping what’s being replicated.
4) How are you communicating that people matter outside of what they do? Like Mary Ann talks about, the pandemic gave a lot of of volunteers an out as they felt burnt out from serving. As we have this conversation and rethink volunteerism this holiday season, let’s be careful that we don’t communicate that people who are giving of their time and of themselves are valuable because of tasks they get done.
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