Recruitment or cultivation? “He just quit, what do we do now?” At First Church, options were limited for volunteers to fill ministry positions. Sunday School teachers or children's ministry staff were hard to find. When a position was vacated, it typically created a crisis. The next step was predictable: examine the list of potential replacements, approach these people to see who could be persuaded to fill the position, and breathe easy until the cycle repeated itself once again. The main requirements for filling any position were availability and willingness. This type of recruiting was not unusual and had unfortunately become the norm for the First Church. In contrast, Community Church had no difficulty filling ministerial positions, as church members were aware of the needs, had received training for potential positions, and had a well-defined description of expectations and timetable for each possibility. When a volunteer's term expired, leadership had developed an updated list of highly skilled workers, and some ministries were assigned a rotation so that no one was overburdened. The descriptions above outlined two very different models for recruiting. Both are methods of managing volunteers for service work in preparing disciples in God's church. Recruiting volunteers in a system similar to the first is born out of desperation (Krych, 2006). If the vacancy was not filled immediately, a room full of kids would have no one to watch them. The second example, which implemented a leadership cultivation environment, used a well-defined discipleship process that helped prepare disciples for ministry in a methodical and prayerful manner. Enabling dis...... middle of paper ......, 28-43.Bays, P. (2006). The care and growth of volunteers. Clergy Journal, 82(7), 8-10.De Oliveira, J. (2008). A light touch: motivating and guiding volunteers. Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, 2(2), 68-73.Heflin, H. (2003). Theories of motivation and adolescent students of youth ministry. Journal of Youth Ministry, 2(1), 57-70.Krych, M.A. (2006). Church Snapshot: Recruiting and Training Volunteer Teachers. Clergy Journal, 82(5), 19-20.Peers, L. P. (2009). From Stressed to Blessed: A Conversation on Rebuilding Volunteer Service in the Congregation. Congregations, 36(4), 22-26.Severe, M. K. (2006). The pac-man syndrome: the lack of congruence between philosophy and practice in youth ministry. Journal of Youth Ministry, 4(2), 75-104. Smith, M. F. (2005). Recruiting and maintaining a corps of volunteers is not easy. Executive speeches, 19(6), 28-31.