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Church Video Ideas: Firing A Volunteer

Orginally published on Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 8:25 AM
by Greg Atkinson

This is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and finally blogged about it. Recently, I had to ask one of my tech team members to step down and stop serving - so now this topic is fresh in my mind. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. In my 12 years as a church staff member I’ve had to ask others to step down before, but it doesn’t get any easier. It’s something that I felt God was leading me to do, but it’s tough to not feel like “the bad guy”.

What it boils down to is protecting the spirit, health and unity of my tech team and seeing the need for someone to grow and have a change of heart and mind before they can serve in a healthy way (for them and for the whole team). You would think with all the excitement at my church surrounding the new worship center and renovations that all would be fine and dandy, but life happens. Ministry is people and sometimes as a leader, you have to make tough calls to properly minister to the individual, as well as be a good shepherd of the team as whole.

If you haven’t read it already, I encourage you to read “The Heart of the Artist” by Rory Noland - it’s a classic that I refer to and give out often. I’m going to give a copy to the tech team member and ask him to read it before he returns. I hope to meet with him and discuss the book in the future. How have you handled situations like this in your ministry? What steps did you have the person take before returning to serve?

Greg Atkinson lives in Dallas, TX with his wife and their three small children. Greg served previously as the Director of WorshipHouse Media, after having served as a worship pastor for 11 years. Greg is now the Technical Arts Director at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship and continues to consult, teach and write about worship, media and creative communication. You can connect with him through his daily blog, Church Video Ideas, his podcast, Creative Synergy , or his email: .

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There are 2 Comments:

Posted by Jermayn Parker

Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 6:42 PM

Good topic!
Very hard to do…

I have been on the receiving end (for various reasons) and I think what helped me was honesty and coming from the person himself. If you have someone who is shifty, uses excuses etc you will not respect their decision.
Posted by

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 11:14 PM

I have not fired any volunteers at my Church. But, I sure want to. I sure need to. I have struggled with this. I have prayed on this. However, I still don’t have an answer. I have team members who show up 1 minute before service begins. I have team members who have been on the team 5+ years and can not run all of the equipment.

I implemented the rule that you have to be in place 15-20 minutes before service begins. The 8am (first service of the day) team must be in place 1/2 hour before service begins. I met with the team and told them if this no longer works for your schedule let me know and I will move you to another service. Nothing, same problem, same people consistently late! We just got a new switcher. I told them there would be mandatory training. You will not be placed on the upcoming schedule without being trained. I thought this would be my way of getting rid of my most challenged volunteers. I was successful in letting one volunteer go as a result of this mandatory training. But, he was one of my most computer savvy volunteers. So, why do I say I was successful? Because he was one of the volunteers who were notoriously late. When he was present he did not put in energy into his work. If I asked him to do something he would do it. But, if something went wrong while he was working he would not put any effort into trouble shooting. Although I am NOT sad he’s off the team, honestly he is not the one(s) I was hoping to let go. When I sent the reminder for mandatory training the guy with the least skills, shows up late and slow to comprehend was the first to respond. He even left his job early the day of the training. So, what do you do? He is dedicated. but, not dedicated enough to enhance his skills. Not dedicated enough to show up on time. I beg you, somebody tell me how do you fire volunteers???

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