Assimilating People Quickly

   

Just over two years ago i joined the ministry team of MountainLake Church.  At that time, the church had grown from an average attendance of 400 to over 900 people in just a matter of weeks. Less then two years later, that number has doubled again. How do you assimilate people rapidly in such a fast-growth environment?

    Today, we have added nearly 1000 peoplle and have over 800 adults and students volunteering on any given weekend. There are a number of things we are learning about rapid assimilation.

 · It is our job to qualify the unqualified. I think for many of us we have been taught that you need to look for people who meet a certain level of qualification before they can volunteer in the church. We are discovering that there are many places that people can serve regardless if they are new to the church, new to the faith, or even new to the search. While there are certain areas that need spiritually qualified people, there are many places in which anyone can serve.

· Volunteerism can be an important part of ones spiritual journey. Today many people begin their journey to Christ with their backs turned away from the gospel. For them, they need to experiment with and experience a faith community before they are willing to embrace the Gospel as the way. Volunteering in the right areas can provide a safe environment for the faith journey.

· We need to provide a simple, safe step that will connect people to volunteering. Our Volunteer Orientation provides a simple, safe step. Instead of committing to serve, people agree to meet with me during one of our worship services to experience volunteerism in the life of our church. At Volunteer Orientation, people get to connect with a few other people that are interested in serving while they hear about the mission of our church and how volunteering fits into that mission. Then I lead them on a tour around our campus so that they can get the “big picture” perspective of how all of these little teams work together to accomplish the same mission. Many times, people are introduced to areas of volunteerism that they didn’t even know we had! Finally, they have the opportunity to sign up for the team that they most want to be a part of. This simple, safe step into volunteering has helped to connect many people that might not have gotten connected otherwise.

 Now, hundreds of people have found a place to belong through volunteering. They not only attend our church, they know that they are playing a huge role in helping others to experience life change as well. They are truly making a greater impact with their lives. With this new sense of belonging they are far more likely to become...David