Simply Strategic Volunteers:: Empowering People for Ministry [Paperback]

Tony Morgan (Author), Tim Stevens (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Group Publishing (CO) (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764427563
• ISBN-13: 978-0764427565
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Church Administration
  • #89 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Education

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Add this to your library!, February 22, 2005

By 

Mark L. Waltz (Granger, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Simply Strategic Volunteers:: Empowering People for Ministry (Paperback)

Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan understand volunteers. Beyond volunteers, they understand leadership of volunteers. In concise, snappy, story-loaded chapters, these hands-on authors offer practical, usable principles that will help you motivate, empower and create champions of the volunteers who make up your church (or any organization). This should be in your library and the library of every leader in your church. Highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource That Addresses Every Day Issues, April 21, 2010

By 

Lisa Copen "RestMinistries" (San Diego, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Simply Strategic Volunteers: Empowering People For Ministry (Kindle Edition)

I've had the honor of overseeing about 200 volunteers for my online ministry for those with chronic illness since 1996. It is always a challenge to be able to maintain "control" (for lack of a better word) while communicating how much the service of the volunteers is appreciated. I found this book extremely helpful in my own volunteer management, even though most of "my" volunteers are actually online.

While reading this book I was trying to decide how to make some necessary logistical decisions about online ministry programs, but not wishing to hurt the feelings of any volunteers who oversaw these programs. In no way did I wish to have them feel I was moving their ministry program around online without considering their experience in working with the people it served each day.

I have to say that this book helped me immensely. In some cases, my answer was to just wait, and God was faithful and putting it on the hearts of my volunteers to make some of the changes I have preferred-- but had not even spoken out loud.

Volunteers are extremely special people and those involved in ministry, despite their own physical pain and limited energy, can never fully be thanked enough. This book, unlike most volunteer management books, also mentioned e-volunteers or virtual volunteers.

Simply Strategic Volunteers was, and will continue to be, an excellent tool for me as I make decisions about programs and people and where the priorities of each are in the body of the ministry. This is one of those books every ministry or nonprofit leader should read through each year as a refresher course.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Forget Your Macro-Vision!, April 7, 2008

By 

John W. Pearson "John Pearson Associates" (San Clemente, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Simply Strategic Volunteers:: Empowering People for Ministry (Paperback)

Three cheers for Morgan and Stevens! When you place value on your volunteers, you marshal the full resources of your staff, the board, the budget and all the other management buckets to ensure volunteerism success. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

"It is easy to get lost in the micro-purpose of the ministry and forget the macro-vision of the organization," write Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens in their incredibly practical book (99 quick volunteer ideas).

Is your volunteer program in alignment with your organization's mission? Do you have a run-away program (led by volunteers, perhaps) that is no longer aligned with the macro-vision of your organization? Do your programs flow out of your mission statement and your Big Holy Audacious Goal? When they do, blast off with every gun blazing. Remember, your unpaid volunteers and paid volunteers are on the same team! (That would be Jesus' team.)

The Volunteer Bucket is one of 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit, and you must integrate all the buckets. Everyone who works with volunteers needs their own copy of Simply Strategic Volunteers.