Values -- part 4

Volunteer-driven ... everyone needs the opportunity to invest in eternity.

Our staff got very passionate and excited about this value and understandably so.  The Bible teaches in Ephesians 4 that the job of a church staff is to "prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."  (see Ephesians 4:11-13).   In other words, the staff's job is to help people in the church serve Christ with their gifts and according to their passions.  One of the great joys of our staff is to equip and empower volunteers to invest in eternity by serving.  This values explains why ...

• We offer environments like Inquirer's Lunch and GroupLink as simple ways to learn how to connect and serve at Rock Bridge.


• We are constantly investing in volunteers to encourage and support them in serving Christ.


• We evaluate our staff members in part on how well they build and lead volunteer teams.


• We have broken with the old southern tradition that church membership means "my name is on the roll."  We teach that membership means "I am involved in what God is doing through my church."


• We want teenagers to begin serving as students so we have student band, praise team, children's volunteers, and other serving opportunities.


• We have a relatively small staff for a church our size.  This keeps us focused on building up volunteer and ministry teams (Ephesians 4), instead of hiring staff.


• We involve volunteers in virtually every church decision.  Through our ministry teams, Elders, and other teams we ask our volunteers to help make wise decisions.