Developing an Effective Helps Ministry
in Your Church – Dr. Buddy Bell

For years as a young Christian, I searched for a sense of purpose. I thought, There has to be more to church than just sitting here listening to stories about God — because if this is all there is, forget it! Then one day I learned about the ministry of helps and saw my part. I exclaimed, “That’s me! I’m in the Bible!”

Everyone has the right to see his or her face in the Bible and to discover the importance of his or her role according to the Word of God. The truth of the matter is, the role of the majority of the Body of Christ is found in that little word “helps,” but no one has ever explained this to them. Many Christians see where the Bible talks about apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers; then they wrongly conclude that if they want to serve God, they have to fill one of those positions. So they run off and try to be something God never intended for them to be. Ultimately, they fail or become frustrated, never realizing their true role in God’s plan or the rewarding experience of serving in a capacity that they love and in which they can do well.

But when a person finds his place in the Body of Christ, the peace of God flows into his life — and if his God-ordained place is to be an usher or a children’s worker at his local church until Jesus comes back, that’s exactly what he should be. As that person settles into the role God has called him to fill, God’s peace settles upon him. More and more he begins to walk in that divine peace and to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. And as he responds in obedience to the Holy Spirit’s leading, great things begin to happen in his life!

Pastoral Principles for Finding Helpers

So when I go to a church for the first time, my primary goal is to get the pastor to see the importance of the ministry of helps. If he or she doesn’t see the value and purpose of that ministry, I can’t really accomplish anything more in that church because people never move beyond their leadership. The pastor must recognize that the people serving in his or her congregation are just as important as the prophet or the apostle they bring in to minister.

I have found that certain basic principles are always important to include when I talk to pastors about developing the ministry of helps in their churches.

1.   Look for those whose strengths will shore up your weaknesses.

When I started out in ministry, God said He would send me to three groups who need this message about the ministry of helps:

    Churches getting ready to explode in growth.
    Churches where pastors are doing everything.
    Churches where pastors are contemplating suicide.
    1700 Pastors a month in the USA walk away from their calling!

I’ve been to many churches in each of these categories, yet to this day it’s the third category that still motivates me the most. Pastors who don’t reach their goals sometimes end up feeling like failures because they have tried to do everything alone. But God never intended for the leader to do it all.

Consider what Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, said after watching the people come before Moses from morning till night to present him with their problems. Jethro told Moses, “The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself” (Exodus 18:17,18 NKJV).

What Moses was accomplishing was good, but the way he was doing it was not. Moses was trying to carry the full burden of the people by himself, but even Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus had the message, but the disciples helped Him get that message to the people. And when the multitudes gathered to hear Jesus, the disciples were there to help organize and tend to the people.

Many pastors are great preachers, but they know little or nothing about how to administrate a church. They love people. They preach great. But when it comes to administrating, they have no skills in that area. That’s why I personally believe it’s important for pastors not to hire just another preacher when they hire an associate pastor.

The Bible doesn’t talk about an “associate pastor” because there is no such office. The associate pastor is therefore first and foremost a minister of helps, for his role is to help the pastor. This is why pastors need to hire an associate who has the ability not only to preach, but also to help administrate the staff and oversee the business of the church.

Church splits often occur as a result of an associate who didn’t understand the supportive purpose of his role. Too often, however, the problem can be traced back to the pastor’s decision to hire another preacher  — someone who didn’t know how to administrate any more than he did and who was basically just sitting in the wings, waiting for an opportunity to preach.

2.  Teach regularly on the ministry of helps.

A pastor once said to me, “Brother Bell, when you were here last to teach on the helps ministry, my people really got fired up. But two weeks after you were gone, they went right back to the way they were!”

The pastor said this as though it were my fault, implying that I didn’t do a good enough job. Right then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Take him into his bookstore, and ask him if his people have problems with receiving their healing, walking in divine health and prosperity, or dealing with devils and oppression.”

So I did that, and the pastor replied, “Oh, no, Brother Bell. My people don’t have problems in those areas. As you can see by all my teaching series, I’ve taught for several weeks on each of those topics.”

I said, “Well, Pastor, if you’d teach on serving as much as you teach on healing, prosperity, or other areas, you wouldn’t have a problem with people serving in your church, because faith comes by hearing.”

Pastors realize that their people need to hear about serving in the ministry of helps, but often they don’t seem to understand that one time is not enough. People need to hear any truth over and over again— and they need to hear it from their pastor, not just from the traveling teacher.

Start searching out the Scriptures – I Cor. 12 v. 28, Heb. 6 v. 10-11, Acts 6 v. 1-8, I Chron. 22 v. 15, I Sam. 14 v. 6-14, II Kings 3 v.11-12, EX. 18 v.13-27, James 2 v. 14, Acts 9 v. 36-43. Find examples of men and women called to serve the minister of God or to help in the church. Then make it a top priority to teach on this subject to your congregation again and again until the vision ignites in their own hearts, compelling them to discover how God has called them to help in the ministry of the local church. Everyone has the right and the responsibility to discover the importance of his or her role in God’s plan for the Church. When people begin to operate in their God-ordained slot in the Body of Christ, the peace of God begins to flow into their lives. This is why it’s so important for pastors to help people find and settle into the place where God has called them to serve. Once that connection is made, the vision must then be made clear to them so they can run with it. That’s when pastors will begin to see their church members catch on fire with a sense of purpose that causes great things to happen in their personal lives, ignites a heart hunger in the lives of those around them, and causes exponential growth in the local church as well.

I shared two of the guidelines that I present to pastors who are endeavoring to develop a strong ministry of helps in their churches. Here are five more of these principles that will help encourage church members to discover their place and their purpose in their local church.

3.   Make sure people “fit” in their helps assignment.

The business world gives job applicants a personality profile to determine their temperament and skill strengths and to determine whether or not they would be a good fit for the company. An employer doesn’t want to invest time and money into an individual who is not a good fit or who may quit six weeks later. Unfortunately, a local church rarely takes this kind of wise precaution when looking for someone to help in the various areas of church ministry.

If people indicate they want to serve in the church, pastors tend to get so excited just to have some help that they stick the volunteers anywhere help is needed. But if a person lands in a slot he or she isn’t equipped to handle, the pastor suddenly has a problem and the volunteer starts feeling trapped. And if the person in this situation finally gets up the nerve to tell his pastor, “I really don’t think this is where God wants me,” too often he receives a response that provides a guilt trip rather than understanding, such as: “I thought you said you wanted to serve God!” However, this entire scenario can be avoided if a pastor will just take the time to sit down with people and find out what is in their hearts, letting them know up front what’s expected so they can determine right away whether or not they’re able to meet that expectation. ( Click here for Gifts Test in English and Spanish )

4.   Seek those who want responsibility.

I remember one instance along this line that happened years ago in a church where I served on staff. A brother came to me and said, “I want to be an usher, but the rules say I have to wear a suit and tie. I don’t have a suit and tie.”

I replied, “The bottom line is that you just want to serve, right?”

“Yes,” the man said, “I just want to serve. I love this church.”

“Okay, let’s find a ministry where you don’t need a suit. Meanwhile, I’m going to believe God for you to get a suit and tie. When you get that suit, come back and talk to me, and we’ll put you in the area where you’d like to serve.” He agreed and just got involved.

I’ll never forget what happened. About 30 days later, that man came running down the hallway, yelling my name. “Brother Bell!” he said, grinning. “Somebody bought me a suit and tie! Can I be an usher now?” That man proved to be one of the most faithful, devoted ushers we had in that church. He demonstrated the truth of a principle I’ve always believed: Be leery of those who seek authority, but grab hold of those who want responsibility.

5.   Write down the vision.

It’s amazing how many scriptural principles the business world uses to gain success. For example, Habakkuk 2:2 (NKJV) says, “…Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” Businesses write down their vision. Many churches do not.

One reason many churches aren’t “running” or making steady progress is that no specific goal has been written down. These churches crawl and inch along because every staff member and volunteer is making assumptions about what should be done and why. The confusion and misunderstandings that can result from this kind of situation is the reason that assumption is a primary source of fuel for strife. However, assumption can be eliminated simply by writing down the vision so that all the helps ministers — ushers, greeters, children and nursery workers, etc. — can run according to what has been set before them.

It’s difficult to tell someone how to do something if he doesn’t know why he is doing it. A person can’t put his heart into something he doesn’t understand. And if his heart isn’t into his helps assignment, he won’t fulfill it well.

6.   Teach your helpers how to be reapers in the harvest.

I’ve ministered in more than 3,000 churches over the years. One thing I’ve observed during my years of ministry is that an alarming percentage of churches don’t go after the lost. Instead, they operate like a little club, focused on their own interests.

Churches that vigorously pursue winning the lost for Jesus Christ are the churches that are making a lasting impact on their communities. They never let a service go by without giving an altar call because they are committed to bringing the unsaved into God’s Kingdom. People who serve in soul-winning churches are excited because they feel linked to a strong sense of purpose. They have a reason to usher, to direct traffic in the parking lot, or to work in the nursery. Winning souls is their purpose. When people are connected to purpose, it’s amazing what they will accomplish.

I’m a dirt farmer from Illinois, and I view the ministry of helps functioning a lot like the combine engine that generates the power and activity to reap and bring in the harvest. All of those in the ministry of helps — the greeters, the ushers, the nursery workers, etc. — join their efforts together for one purpose: to strengthen the ability of the local church to bring in the harvest.

How many times has the Church won — or failed to win — a soul because of how an individual or a family was treated or mistreated at the door of the church or when taking their child to the nursery? There’s no way around it. The ministry of helps is vital. The pastor can preach the best message in the world, but if unsaved people or their children are not well received, they won’t stay around long enough to hear the Word leading to salvation. This is why preaching the Gospel doesn’t start in the pulpit; it begins in the parking lot.

7.   Show your helps ministers their value and purpose.

Once I went on staff at a large church that had 14 of the meanest, toughest, roughest ushers you ever saw. You couldn’t really blame these ushers, because they were trying to move 5,000 people to their seats in a short period of time before each service. They had therefore developed the attitude, “Here’s your chair. Take a seat; don’t give me any lip; and God will show up in a minute.”

The first thing I did was to conduct an ushers’ meeting, which hadn’t been done for five years. I gave these ushers nine pages of guidelines and explained to them the value of their positions and how important they were to the church. This was something that no one had ever done. My goal was to get them inspired and motivated to recruit and reproduce other ushers.

After ten months, we had 85 smiling, friendly ushers serving that large congregation. These ushers recognized their value and weren’t embarrassed anymore about their role in the church. They understood their purpose and what was expected of them; as a result, they had begun to effectively reproduce themselves. ( Click here to order Usher 101 Training System )

Church growth is a team effort as each of us finds our purpose, settles into our place, and begins to serve with all our hearts. After all, Jesus said that the greatest calling is to be a servant. It doesn’t matter whether we are called to be an apostle or an usher — we should never be ashamed to be called servants of God. When we stand before Jesus, He isn’t going to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful apostle.” He’s going to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.” Hearing those words from the Master’s lips is the goal every one of us — whether we are in a pulpit ministry or in the ministry of helps — should be continually pursuing with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.