God’s people are talented, faithful, and servant-hearted. Out of love for God and others, God’s people do jobs for which they are not trained, suited for in terms of temperament and strengths, or passionate about—they do jobs for they are not sufficiently qualified. And God uses them. Good.

Or is it?

It’s good that God uses His people. It’s good that God’s people are talented, faithful, and servant-hearted. But it’s not good when these same people are assigned tasks for which they are not sufficiently qualified in terms of training, temperament, strengths, or passion.

How would you feel in the following 4 scenarios?

• Scenario #1: You’re a teacher. You’re teaching kindergarten, but you have been trained as a high school math teacher.
  
• Scenario #2: You’re a consultant. Due to limited office space, you’ve been assigned work alone at home, but you work better when you have a steady diet of social interaction.
  
• Scenario #3: You’re a strategist. You’re working as a secretary, but you’re at your best when developing policy, procedures, and systems.
  
• Scenario #4: You’re passionate about stewardship. You’re in charge of personnel, but you really enjoy numbers, charts, and helping your organization use its financial resources wisely.

Response #1: I’d be willing to serve, and I’m pretty sure I’d experience frustration in all 4 scenarios. How about you?

• In Scenario #1, I’d experience frustration due to being assigned tasks for which I am not trained. I can hear my supervisor saying, “We really need you to do this. And we think you can do this.” But I know that if someone with training were available, my supervisor wouldn’t be assigning the task to me.
  
• In Scenario #2, I’d experience frustration due to being assigned tasks for which I’m not temperamentally suited. I’d be lonely, and lonely doesn’t feel good.
  
• In Scenario #3, I’d experience frustration due to being assigned tasks that don’t play to my strengths. Secretarial work involves a myriad of details and requires accurate data input, two things I’m not good at. I know I’d make mistakes, the kind others won’t like.
  
• In Scenario #4, I’d experience frustration due to not being passionate about the work itself. When I’m not passionate about the work itself, I have to put in extra energy to perform well. So instead of being energized by the work, I’m going to be drained. Not much fun.

Response #2: I recognize that leaders of Christian organizations do their best to make effective staff assignments and that it’s not always possible to assign tasks that fit people in terms of training, temperament, strengths, and passions.

Response #3: Leaders of Christian organizations are stewards of the staff God provides. As such, they should be aware of and have documentation of each staff member’s training, temperament, strengths, and passions. And they should raise the awareness of each staff member regarding his/her training, temperament, strengths, and passions.

Response #4: Leaders of Christian organizations must consider their options before assigning tasks:

1. Assign tasks to qualified staff, to staff with the appropriate training, temperament, strengths, and passions. Before making assignments, (1) review staff qualifications (training, temperament, strengths, and passions) and (2) review the qualifications needed for the tasks.
   
2. Get your staff qualified, then assign tasks. How? After reviewing staff qualifications (training, temperament, strengths, and passions) and the qualifications needed for a tasks, provide training, modify the work environment so it suits temperament, modify the tasks so they play to strengths, and cultivate passion by talking regularly with staff about how the tasks contribute to the achievement of the mission. Then, assign the tasks.
   
3. Recruit qualified staff.

Christian leaders, steward the people God has given you. Assign qualified staff, get your staff qualified, or recruit qualified staff. And balance this with the fact that God can use anyone to accomplish His purposes.

Pursue excellence. Today.

P.S. Christian staff members, get qualified for the tasks you’re assigned. Get training. Find ways to modify tasks so they better suit your temperament and play to your strengths. Cultivate passion for the work by focusing on how it contributes to achieving the mission. And remember, God can use you to accomplish His purposes.