In this episode, Sandra Peoples shares how the disability ministry at her church is transitioning from being led by a volunteer to having a part time staff position. As the disability ministry leader at your church, you can learn how to communicate your limits so you can maintain healthy boundaries.
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Quick Links:
Special Needs and Disability Ministry Leaders Forum (Facebook Group)
Transcript:
Hi friends, I'm Sandra Peoples. And as of this week, I'm no longer the disability ministry leader at our church! I'm officially retired from my volunteer position of inclusion coordinator for special needs families. Yay! I thought it would be interesting today to talk about ministry leadership since my church has recently made a big change. There are common factors that show it may be the right time for your church to make the switch from a volunteer leader or having it fall under the children's minister to making it a separate, paid position.
Let's start off by me sharing the history of the position at our church and then when we knew it was time to make a change. My husband became the pastor of our church 5 years ago. When we were interviewing, we asked the church if they had a special needs ministry. They said they didn't have anything formal. We said, well, if you hire us, you'll have a ministry! Our son James needs a more comfortable environment than the typical Sunday morning children's ministry class. And he needs curriculum and activities that are on his level of ability and understanding. The church was happy to do what needed to be done. We got some available rooms, got a budget, and had a volunteer who took the lead.
We intentionally didn't pair it with the children's ministry at the beginning. If a child with disabilities came, they were in the sensory class and that was separate from the children's ministry classes. But as the ministry grew, there was more overlap between the ministries. The first volunteer leader stepped away from the role at that time, and I stepped in also as a volunteer leader. While I led the ministry, we expanded into having buddies and working more closely with the children's minister. And even though I was a volunteer, we did add a paid ministry assistant to be the consistent teacher in our classes so I could also fulfill my role as pastor's wife. This was a huge help for the students and for me. But as the ministry continue to grow, I wasn't able to keep meeting the needs we had.
On a typical Sunday morning, our ministry needs ideally 10 people to be everywhere there's a need. That covers both our Sunday school hour and our worship service time. We have a teenage and young adult class that meets both times and needs two leaders each time. We need at least one buddy in our typical Sunday school class both hours. And we need two people each hour in our sensory rooms. That got to be a lot of volunteers to coordinate, on top of caring for the families and working with the staff to solve any issues that came up. The number of hours required to do well was more than I could put in as a volunteer leader.
We decided it was time to make my volunteer position into a part time position, and we decided someone besides me would do best in that role.
Now, your church may have a different story of how your ministry developed. I talk to many children's ministers who are taking the lead on inclusion and accommodations. I encourage them to talk to their pastor about how much time they are spending on this area and decide together when they have reached a point it's time to get a new volunteer leader or create a part time paid position. I tell them to set a percentage they don't have the capacity to go over. Maybe that's 15% of their time, or 20%. Whatever that limit is, it's best to plan ahead with your pastor so he knows there needs to be a transition plan in place at a future date.
There are other factors in play as you decide to make a change to the leadership of the ministry. Your church's budget is always a big factor. The structure of your leadership now is a factor. But a big part of it is communication of your limits as a leader and the priorities for your time. Saying yes to one thing saying no to something else, so your yes has to be worth what you're say no to. I got to a point where I couldn't keep saying yes to missing church and spending hours on ministry-related tasks because I wasn't getting paid and it was taking me away from other priorities.
There's also the transition from part time to full time person to lead your disability ministry. I know of three churches right now adding to their full time staff. And those conversations are also built on the same questions of how much time it's taking and what your limits are.
A church role is going to fill up as much of your life as you allow it to fill up. They are going to keep expanding the expectations and taking up more time. It's up to us to set limits with kindness and clear communication.
I'm excited about the future for our ministry! The person our church hired is a friend who has served as a faithful volunteer. She is strong where I am weak, so the ministry is going to grow and flourish under her leadership and the support the other volunteers and I can continue to be for her. And I'm very thankful our church sees the value in the position and the hours it takes and has made it a part time paid position.
I hope this conversation about the change our church has gone through is helpful! Let's keep talking about it in Key Ministry's Facebook group this week! I'll put up a poll to ask if you're a volunteer, part time, or full time ministry leader. If you aren't in our Special Needs and Disability Ministry Leaders group, we call it SNAD for short, you can find the link in the shownotes at keyministry.org/podcast and click on the link to join us! There are over 2,000 ministry leaders in the group, so it's a great place to ask questions and get feedback!
Thanks for listening! We'll meet you back here next week to hear from Beth Golik. She always has great, practical tips to share. Make sure you've subscribed so you don't miss it!
