Recruit or cultivate? “She just resigned, what do we do now?” In the First Church, there were limited opportunities for volunteers to fill ministerial positions. It was difficult to find Sunday school teachers or children's ministry staff. When a position was vacant, it usually created a crisis. The next step was predictable: go through the list of potential replacements, approach those people to see who might be convinced to take the job, and breathe easy until the cycle repeats itself again. The main requirements for holding a position were availability and willingness. This type of recruitment was not unusual and, unfortunately, had become the norm for the Early Church. In contrast, the Community Church had no difficulty filling ministerial positions, since church members were aware of the needs, had received training for potential positions, and had a well-defined description of expectations and of the calendar for each possibility. By the end of a volunteer's term, leaders had developed an updated list of highly skilled workers, and some departments actually had an assigned rotation so that no one was overworked. The descriptions above present two very different recruitment models. . Both are methods of managing volunteers for service work in preparing disciples in God's Church. The recruitment of 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 children would have no one to watch them. The second example, which implemented a leadership development environment, used a well-defined discipleship process that helped prepare disciples for ministry in a methodical and prayerful manner. By activating the dis...... middle of paper ......, 28-43.Bays, P. (2006). The care and education of volunteers. Clergy Journal, 82(7), 8-10. De Oliveira, J. (2008). A light touch: motivating and directing volunteers. Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, 2(2), 68-73. Heflin, H. (2003). Theories of motivation and adolescent learners in youth ministry. Journal of Youth Ministry, 2(1), 57-70. Krych, M.A. (2006). Church Overview: Recruiting and training volunteer teachers. Clergy Journal, 82(5), 19-20.Peers, LP (2009). From stressed to blessed: a conversation to recompose volunteer service in the congregation. Congregations, 36(4), 22-26. Severe, MK (2006). The pac-man syndrome: the missing 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.