Leading with a Purpose: A Mindset of Leadership

Summary

The Collage Podcast

Episode: Leading with a Purpose: A Mindset of Leadership
Date: July 9, 2026
Host: Feed My Sheep (Jeff)
Guests: Casey (Cafe Manager), Nancy (Assistant Director)
Produced in: Temple, TX

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the unique challenges and rewards of managing a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization—Feed My Sheep—in Temple, Texas. The team discusses the complexities of leading without traditional authority, cultivating purpose, balancing expectations, and maintaining high standards while honoring the calling and diversity of each volunteer. The conversation provides insights on leadership, human dynamics, and community service that apply far beyond just nonprofit or faith-based contexts.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Landscape of Volunteer Leadership

• Diversity of Volunteers:

  • Volunteers range from those with economic affluence to people experiencing homelessness who want to give back.
  • Some fulfill community service requirements; others are driven by gratitude.
  • Main challenge: “How do you work with this vast array of people… and not lose your sanity?” (A, 03:40)

• Managing Without Traditional "Authority":

  • “You can’t necessarily fire somebody who’s a volunteer.” (A, 03:21)
  • Leaders must encourage, redirect, and empower rather than command or discipline in the corporate sense.

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2. Greatest Daily Difficulties in Leading Volunteers ([04:24]–[10:58])

• Casey:

  • The hardest part is “not letting your frustrations lead you.”
  • Emphasizes that leadership here involves serving the volunteers as well:

    “Whether you think that someone’s here for the right reason… really just not letting your frustrations of the day lead you and really being intentional about showing the kindness of God to people.” (C, 05:11)

• Nancy:

  • Struggled initially with the lack of structure vs. her city government experience.
  • “We have to really work with what God sends us.”
  • Points to the need for discernment in finding the place for each unique volunteer:

    “It’s really our responsibility to look at the people… and discern what their talents are and how they would fit best within the organization rather than the other way around.” (B, 09:00)

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3. Does It Matter Who 'Chooses' the Volunteers? ([13:37]–[17:38])

• Casey:

  • Advocates for seeing purpose in each person’s presence:

    “The more people we have here, the more people we have seeing what’s going on… with that comes more ideas, more vision, more creativity.” (C, 13:48)

  • God brings people for reasons “maybe we would never think of.”

• Nancy:

  • Volunteers can have their hearts changed through serving, spreading impact beyond the organization itself:

    “God’s business plan is for her heart to be changed and for her to show love to these people in their lowest moments and then go and talk about it…” (B, 17:06)

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4. Purpose Over Task: The Deeper Meaning of Service ([19:33]–[25:36])

• Mission Beyond the Obvious:

  • People seek out Feed My Sheep for needs—"they come here for what they think the reason is, but that's generally not the reason that they’re actually here.” (A, 19:33)
  • Leaders are called to discern, "what are they longing for and what are they missing… that Feed My Sheep might possibly be able to feed.” (A, 20:12)

• Expectations and Standards:

  • Rejects the notion of accepting mediocrity:

    “It is wrong for me not to expect excellence out of anybody here who is doing anything.” (A, 24:16)

  • Volunteers thrive when held to meaningful, not impossible, standards.

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5. Demanding Excellence with Compassion ([25:56]–[32:00])

• Quality Matters:

  • Casey uses making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as an example:

    “Would you be happy being served this sandwich?... Those little bitty things matter.” (C, 26:24)

  • “The people that we’re serving deserve to have those things. They deserve to be the best.” (C, 27:39)

• The True Product is Dignity and Love:

  • “Is the sandwich, per se, really the item that we are serving? No... We’re serving love. We’re serving dignity. We’re serving that we show people respect.” (C, 28:15)

• Different Experiences, Different Measures of "Success":

  • Nancy discusses the difference between one-time “chaotic” group volunteers (like at the farm) versus regulars, and the need to redefine success:

    “The accomplishment of whatever the task is, isn’t always the main goal for it… more important than making sure the container garden is built right.” (B, 29:13)

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6. Placing People and Responding to Mismatch ([38:19]–[44:37])

• When Someone’s Giftedness Doesn’t Match Their Role:

  • “We will empower them to go serve in other ways in other places.” (A, 38:35)
  • There are non-negotiables—especially regarding safety and vulnerability (e.g., predatory behavior means immediate removal).

• Gentle Directness:

  • Casey suggests transparency and offering choices or new challenges, guided by prayer and discernment:

    “As leaders… really praying for wisdom… I know you really enjoy doing this, but would you ever consider doing this…?” (C, 41:23)

  • Nancy references her city experience:

    “I was able to just say, we really need you to serve over here instead of the place where you signed up.” (B, 43:06)

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7. Advice to Aspiring Volunteers ([44:37]–[50:48])

• Come With an Open Mind and Heart:

  • “Just come with an open mind and an open heart… to serve people, whether that’s people in the line… or volunteering… having an open mind to whatever needs to be done.” (C, 45:30)

• Look for Human Connection:

  • “Will you meet somebody and learn their name?... Ultimately it’s the people.” (C, 46:19)
  • Nancy emphasizes that service may not feel busy, but “the real opportunity is meeting these people and getting to talk to them.” (B, 48:04)

• Expect to Get Uncomfortable in Good Ways:

  • “Expect for your comfort zone to be kind of broadened here all around.” (C, 50:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Casey:

  “Not letting your frustration lead you… really letting that [intention to serve] lead you rather than the frustrations of the day, because it can be really easy… there’s frustrations.” (05:11)

• Jeff:

  “Nobody comes here to Feed My Sheep… by accident. We don’t seek out people that come here to eat… They are brought here independent of us. We don’t determine who comes or doesn’t come on that given day.” (18:39)

• Nancy:

  “God’s business plan is for her heart to be changed and for her to show love to these people in their lowest moments and then go and talk about it…” (17:06)

• Casey:

  “If we were to say, oh, this isn’t the most efficient way… there are more complexities to it than maybe we’re not seeing. So that’s where wisdom from God comes in.” (41:23)

• Jeff:

  “Money don’t get you nothing… Mediocrity is not an acceptable level that we should rest upon.” (24:52)

• Casey:

  “We’re never going to put you in a situation to where you’re in danger… But just come with the mindset… your comfort zone may be expanded.” (50:09)

• Jeff (on "fit" in volunteering):

  "We are not the best fit for them and they're not the best fit for us. And we will empower them to go serve in other ways in other places." (38:35)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:40 — Framing the challenge: managing a diverse volunteer base
• 05:10 — Casey on daily frustrations and intentionality
• 07:00 — Nancy on transitioning from structured roles to volunteer unpredictability
• 13:37 — Does seeing volunteers as "sent by God" change your guidance?
• 19:33 — No one comes here “by accident”—recognizing deeper reasons for service
• 24:16 — Can you demand excellence from volunteers?
• 26:24 — The importance of “the little things” (PB&J as love & dignity)
• 29:13 — Rethinking “success” with one-time, chaotic groups
• 41:23 — Handling mismatched skills with prayer, wisdom, and honesty
• 45:30 — Advice for new volunteers: open mind, open heart
• 50:09 — Broadened comfort zones and the growth in service

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Conclusion & Takeaways

The panel emphasizes that leadership in a volunteer context is fundamentally about people: understanding their stories, honoring their presence, and balancing compassion with high expectations. Excellence is not about efficiency alone but about dignity, love, and community impact.

If you want to volunteer:

• Come open to whatever task and conversation awaits,
• Be ready to grow personally,
• And remember: the “work” is as much about the human connection as it is about the immediate task at hand.

Or, as Jeff sums up in the episode’s final minutes:

“They are not things that you can just use to help benefit you… God puts people in our lives for reasons… And we can choose not to see, but it’s on us.”

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For those in leadership (of any kind):
Feed My Sheep’s experience is a case study in how purpose, dignity, and expectation intersect to create powerful, life-changing community—for those who give and those who receive.

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Welcome everybody out there to another edition of the collage podcast. We're going to just hop right in it today. Just to clarify for everybody out there, if you're new to this, we are recording this in a little place called Feed My Sheep and that is in a little town called Temple, Texas. Feed My Sheep is predominantly. We work with a lot of people that are unhoused or probably live below the poverty level, lack of a better term. It's what we do every day. Volunteer based organization is how we do all the stuff. We won't go in all the details of that. We provide lunch every day, we provide housing. We've got all kinds of different resources that people could use. That's who we are. So today the discussion we have got Casey and we've got Nancy here. Casey works here. He is, works with a lot of the areas here at Feed My Sheep, kind of overseeing it. So that. And Nancy is the assistant director here at Feed My Sheep. So she works with a lot of different areas is here as well. My name is Jeff and then happen to be the executive director here. So we're just going to have a discussion today because everything we do, everything we're about is, is we are a volunteer based organization. We work with a whole lot of volunteers from all over the place, all over the spectrum of the map. We have some that have economic affluence that come here and they volunteer because they want, I guess, whatever, give back, which they have a right to. Okay, so they come here. So they're of that background. We have some that are all over the map. We have people that are volunteering, we're going to use the term loosely because they need to work off community service hours. We have people here that have come through the line that feel grateful for what has been given here and so they want to give back. So we're going to kind of look at the difficulties and what it is because they're trying to navigate these. We don't have paid employees, we don't have things. You can't necessarily fire somebody who's a volunteer. So how to work with this vast array of people that are here to serve, that are serving a population that we would say we're trying to provide community, how to navigate within that and not lose your sanity. So it's a very difficult deal. And so we're going to look at some of the different aspects of that and out of that you may be going, why in the world do I want to listen to this? This has nothing to do with just Having to be a volunteer organization, this is just Human Dynamics 101. How to work with people, how to. And then to understand, we're going to look at this, we're going to come back to the conversation of what is really your obligation in an organization like this. Are you a boss? Are you a minister? Are you something in between the two? And who, if you are a minister, no offense to anybody out there. Okay, we're not inferring that we, we are ministerial important people, like all y' all pastors out there. We have. We're not saying that. Okay, but we're saying if you're, if you're calling yourself a minister, who are you ministering to? What is your ministry to? How do you work with the people that are volunteers within that? Okay, so we're going to start there. I've got Casey and we've got Nancy. The male voice will be Casey, the female voice will be Nancy.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And so we're just kind of, kind of go, I'm going to pose some questions and we're going to have a discussion. Discussion. So we'll just start right off the bat, whoever jumps in first, Casey or Nancy. Okay. What is the single greatest difficulty in managing each day? Because we have to have outcomes. Managing each day with a group of people that is working for you, under you, that is voluntary based. They do not have to be here. Okay, what is the single most difficult thing in your opinion?

[C]

Hey, this is Nancy.

[A]

Just kidding.

[C]

Oh, there's a lot of difficulties. I think, like you were saying, it's. They don't have to be here and you can't just fire people. Not that you want to do that, but sometimes it's like, man, it would. This is bad talking about volunteers. But no, I mean, you want everyone here. Every. You want everyone here. We say it all the time. We want as many people here as possible. Honestly, I think the biggest struggle is not letting your frustrations lead you rather than realizing that every single person that is here, you're not just serving the people that come through the line, but you are serving the, the volunteers as well. And a lot of times when I'm getting frustrated, I have to slow down and think. God usually corrects me. It's like, man, you kind of do the same thing sometimes. So a lot of times it's just not letting your frustration lead you and realize that whether they're, whether you think that someone's here for the right reason, what it, what even is the right reason for someone to volunteer, but really just not letting your Frustrations of the day lead you and really being intentional about showing the kindness of God to people, whether they're in the line, whether they're serving, whether they're volunteering, but really letting that lead you rather than the frustrations of the day, because it can be really easy to. Just from the moment you get here, there's frustrations. Um, and so not to. Not to let that lead you rather than really being an intentional.

[A]

Okay, good. Nancy, same question.

[B]

Okay. So I'm relatively new to this. Been, I think, two months now, almost, maybe coming from the private background, you know, private or government kind of background. So when I have assembled teams in the past, and I was a department head at the city, so in. In that capacity, assembling a team, like, I would. I would find people who have the talents to accomplish whatever the goal is. So, you know, we start off with a job description, and then, you know, what type of character traits do we think that this person needs to have in order to accomplish this. This job successfully? And then assembling the people in all of those different positions to accomplish some kind of common goal. Here, though, I'm seeing that we have people that come from a variety of different backgrounds. There's not really a job description per se, or even a real solid list of expectations for them. And we. So we have to really kind of work with what God sends us. And I'll say God sends them here because I. I do feel like, that is the case that, you know, Jeff and I, you have had. You and I have had conversations about people coming here for a reason, like, there's a reason why they're here. And so looking at it from that perspective, like, God is sending us these folks, and they are qualified in his mind to do something,

[A]

which I would disagree with in some cases. I said that is a joke.

[B]

And it's really our responsibility to look at the people that come through the door and discern what their talents are and how they would fit best within the organization rather than the other way around. So it's not like we're. We're going through the typical, you know, interview process or process of finding them. They're coming to us, and then we really have to kind of fit them into the organization in a strategic sort of way. So that brings its challenges, you know, in and of itself. And then also just the. The. This. That we still have to accomplish the goals that we would have to accomplish if we were going through an interview process and finding people that could fill these roles that were best qualified, like all of the goals that we would. We would lay out for a paid group of staff. People still have to be accomplished every day. But. But we're doing it from this sort of. I don't want to say backwards kind of way, but a different type of way of accomplishing the goals with whoever God sends us to accomplish the goal. So it has been very challenging for me to wrap my head around it and understand that like Casey said, I mean, you can't just arbitrarily say you're not doing what you. What I need you to do to accomplish whatever goal it is that they didn't even really know that they were gonna try to accomplish when they came here, nor understood the. Really, the expectations before they started. And, you know, so we can't just say, you're. You're fired. We can't use you. We have. We have an obligation because these are people that God has sent us to make sure that we're providing them with every opportunity to fulfill whatever task that was that God saw that they could fulfill.

[A]

Okay. And then we're going to come because they're interesting. They're both on the same realm. We don't seek out and find certain people to come in here based upon their skill set. But like, I would like to head hunt and now with it, in certain levels of leadership here, Casey was sought out because of his ability and giftedness. Ah. Worked in a cafe, did this. Passionate about, nonprofit. Except. Okay, has that. Okay. Nancy. Oh, Worked in the city, municipality, has skill sets at certain levels that you go, okay, this is a leader in that. But for us, the day to day is the volunteers change every day to a certain degree. Every day, the resource office, there's going to be a group of people that are here on Tuesday that aren't going to be here on Wednesday. There's going to be some here on Wednesday that aren't here any other day of the week. Some are going to be brand new, some have been here forever. All the group dynamics are changing. Casey's running a cafe up at the front. Okay. That serves. We're going to do 200, whatever, roughly 200 meals today, give or take on the side. But that's what you're preparing for. You got that? And every day it's varying degrees of how do we got to get this done? How do we have to run? And you're dealing with food, so you got to make sure everything is done properly. All the tough. And then we say that. That we don't get to. It'd be easier. Easier if you had the same volunteers every day. Like the same five people are in the cafe every day. And you work with them and you learn team dynamics and you got all this stuff. The same three are in the resource area every day. And then you're saying, I got great employees, I just don't have to pay them. Yeah, okay, we don't have that luxury. So this, this group, some will. Some will be constants. You know, we got this person will be here every day, but that runs its course, and then in a month or two months, then they're gone, and then the next one comes. Okay, but you've said this. Okay, what is the difference in mentality if you believe that God sent the people here rather than you went and got volunteers to come help? Is there a difference in the two sentences?

[C]

Yeah, I think. I mean, I know, like when we give tours and stuff, I know one of the things that I always say is, you know, we want as many people here as possible.

[A]

Why?

[C]

Because the more people we have here, the more people we have seeing what's going on here at Feed My Sheep, we have people seeing what's going on in their own community that maybe they didn't see before. And with that comes more. More ideas, more vision, more creativity. They're going to have a different perspective than what we have already. And so, I mean, some days up in the Cafe, we have 20 plus volunteers, which can seem chaotic, and it is. But at the same time, we do believe that God brought those people here to see something, to maybe to be able to speak to someone that, you know, maybe they have a. They have a story that can talk to someone at. Sit and have lunch with somebody. They can talk to somebody. They can go to the well and they can talk to one of the ladies over there because they've been to the same thing. And so if we were to just go out and say, okay, this person's highly skilled at this. This person's a really good baker, this person's a really good administrator, which we need those things. But also, are. Is it as good as if God has a certain purpose for that random volunteer coming in for that day? You know, I mean, like, yes, the world would tell us we need to have the most skilled people here, but Scripture says that, you know, God chooses the foolish to shame the wise, and he chooses the weak to shame the. Not to shame the strong. So he uses these things. And maybe we would look at somebody and say, they don't have all of these skill sets, so they're probably not great at this, but God has a different purpose for it. You know, we may be looking at it as we need to get this done, this done, this done, but God's saying, no, we need to get. This person, needs to be in contact with this person.

[A]

So fair. Okay. And we're going to look at that. What do you think, Nancy Glover? Same thing to you.

[B]

I mean, I. I would agree. I think, you know, looking at it from the standpoint of when I would assemble a team and, and, you know, we would have specific goals to accomplish, the goals get accomplished here. Like, we still do everything in the resource office. There's not a person that goes unserved that I'm aware of. You know, everything gets done that needs to get done. But at the same time, we're. We're seeing these people. Like, I know one that's in there now. She hasn't been with us for very long, maybe just a couple of months. I think she started around the same time I came full time at Feed My Sheep. And her perspective has changed. Like, she came from a background of teaching and now she's, you know, volunteering pretty regularly with us. And her perspective about the people that we're serving has changed. And I know she's going out and she's talking to her family about it, she's talking to her friends about it. Like, this has become an important part of her life and she's spreading this message that she wouldn't have had known about prior to coming here. I see that. Yes, she's talented at, you know, making sure the paperwork is done and filling out all the forms and all of that, but she's also a sweetheart to the people. Like, she doesn't treat them like they're less than. And she takes time to really hear them. And it's precious to watch it. You know, just from my perspective, we didn't seek her out. She didn't answer an ad. Like, I mean, she just, you know, I think she told me that she just heard about what we were doing here and decided to come and check it out and.

[A]

Just crazy.

[B]

Yeah. Just kind of randomly out of the blue. And I feel like God put it on her heart to come here and to show love to people that need love in the worst way in. In the worst possible moments of their life and. And she has just fulfilled that. So if so, the goal might be, you know, we're going to run 30, 40 people through the resource office today, and we're going to see who can. Who needs a birth certificate and, you know, get people into housing, you know, and all of these metrics that we could build around it. That would be like a normal business plan that I would have built before. But that's not God's business plan. God's business plan is for. For her heart to be changed and for her to show love to these people in their lowest moments and then go and talk about it to her friends and her loved ones and hopefully inspire them to service.

[A]

Okay, interesting question there. And this is one I often ponder. I would say this. I believe it more and more every day. Never did. Didn't believe it. Okay. But more, nobody comes here to feed my sheep where we're at by accident. Like, we don't seek out people that come here to eat. We're not going down all the streets of temple going, hey, get your scalloped potatoes today and ham. We got it. Okay. They seek us out. They are brought here independent of us. We don't determine who comes or doesn't come on that given day. Okay. So they seek this place out for a reason. They come here for what they think the reason is, but that's generally not the reason that they're actually here.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay. They do need food. So that I would say the same occurs for volunteers. It always amazes me. And we would look at that. We talked about it yesterday. Okay. In my view is you look at the person upon introduction like, so this is mine. Like, if I would look at. And I don't claim to know. Okay. So I'm not being arrogant of that. First thing, if somebody says they want to volunteer and you're walking them around is you're not trying to figure out what can I milk out of this person as far as their skill set that's going to help the mission of feed my sheep the most. So I'm not talking to this person going, oh, looks like this is a great computer programmer person. I am going to figure out how I can get the most computer time out of them for free that I possibly could. Instead, you are looking at this person. You are communicating with this person upon interaction. And you are trying to ponder and discern through the Holy Spirit, why did God send them here? What are they longing for and what are they missing with inside of them that feed my sheep might possibly be able to feed. Different mindset. Yeah, different mindset. Like if I'm okay, so then you look and you're going out of that. And then the obligation as a manager, supervisor, leader, whatever the term we would say leader, okay, is it's a whole other bowl of wax is you're looking at. I won't pick the name, but you're going, okay, we have so and so in the baked good department. Oh, good gracious. What does this place provide that she needs to be here every day for this? What is the person who is serving breakfast and every day more and more, and they are finding joy out of it. So they are getting this obligatory, I hate this sentence. You know, you go on a mission trip and you go to the poorest of the poor place and the church is going to go, oh, I got more out of it than the people I served. Well, that's kind of stupid. But here you can watch it. When it is done properly that does occur is this acknowledgment of hunger and starving to death, this interaction that occurs. Okay, so then let me ask you, because leading people, volunteers, and then we did say we're going to make it even more complicated, okay? I don't pick who comes here, okay? Again, I'm not necessarily. I got to get the task done, and it has to get done well, because they will both tell you, I. It is wrong for me not to expect excellence out of anybody here who is doing anything. Okay? So if we don't settle for mediocrity, like where it's not an excuse, feed my sheep ever, that somebody could go, well, golly, Jeff, what do you expect? I just got a bunch of volunteers. Of course this is mediocre. That's what it's going to be like. Give me some real employees, give me a lot of money. Pay a lot of people will do it better. And I'll say, baloney, bull crud. Money don't get you nothing. Okay? Doesn't get you nothing in this deal. Okay? So then you go, ah, okay, Mediocrity is not an acceptable level that we should rest upon. So let me ask you, volunteers in your area, your obligation is, we would say you did not get the ones you necessarily wanted for that day. Okay? You may have got some that are going to be terribly difficult to work with. I mean, we'll go walk down the hall and I'm going to hear my name 52,000 times and somebody, this one's going to tell me about the plaques he's buying or this or that. And you're like, what in the world? You know, it'd be so much easier if some of these things weren't occurring. So you look at that and you go, it's so complicated, so frustrating at times. But then we say, our obligation is to everybody that Comes through the doors and feed my sheep. What are fair expectations that you can put upon and ask upon a volunteer, Is it acceptable and good to accept mediocrity? Is it acceptable and good to demand excellence? Which one is like, is it? Is it all right? Hey, they're just giving me free time. I can't ask them to do this because they're just giving me the time. Are they giving us time? Is it their time that they're giving? Or did God send them for a great purpose? And are we doing a disservice if we just treat their time as. I can't ask anything of them because they're just here for free. Where's it at in that internal dialogue of what you ask upon a person that is here, like the one you just mentioned? Okay, so down there, won't say her name. Okay, but I know. Okay, I would say on that one, if we do not demand excellence and put a high standard of high expectations upon her. Yeah, she gone for sure. She gone. Okay, so then those. I would say another one that's down there today, only one day has zero. Zero financial gain from this, Zero professional gain from it. If she is not fulfilled to a high level. Gone.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Doesn't come back.

[B]

Agreed.

[A]

So tell me about that. How do you mitigate that of demanding excellence out of somebody in a caring, good way? Is that a just thing to do anybody?

[C]

So I'll use a couple of examples, actually. So, like, in the cafe, you know, I made it. Sometimes you get little kids in there and they're making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and it's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So at the end of the day, is it, like, super important how you make the peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

[A]

I beg to differ on that. I know, because I've seen wrong ones up there. Back in the day, we won't go back.

[C]

Yeah, but I mean, like. But to take the time and show them, like, hey, when you're making this sandwich, you want to take. You want to put the peanut butter and jelly, and you want it to go from crust to crust. You know what I mean? You want to cover the whole sandwich in a peanut butter. In the peanut butter and jelly. Seems silly, but. And this is, like, in restaurants, and here I always say, if you were the customer getting this, if you were somebody getting this, and would you be happy with it? With this? Like, would you be happy being served this sandwich? And so if you got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and there's just like a little blob of peanut Butter in the middle and there's nothing on the outside. Those little bitty things matter. And so not like, yes, it does. It does matter. To expect excellence, to expect this, because, one, you're showing them a new way to do things. But two, the people that we're serving deserve to have those things. You know, I mean, they deserve to be the best. It's easy to say, like, yes, they're volunteers, but it's also easy to come up here and say, like, oh, it's a soup kitchen. Like, the food doesn't have to be, okay, great. You know, but it's like, no, it does. Like, they deserve.

[A]

Why?

[C]

Because people deserve to have good quality food.

[A]

I mean, 100. Okay, so then out of that drives me crazy. Okay. And you'll hear. You'll hear. And these volunteers don't last long. They should be happy. It's free. So what if the sandwich is not the best, right? It's free. It's better than the other option. Okay, so then we're going to make this circle. Okay. Is the sandwich, per se, really the item that we are serving? No. Okay, what are we serving?

[C]

Serving love. I mean, honestly, we're serving love. We're serving dignity. We're serving that. We show people respect. We're just showing people a different way. We're showing people kindness through the things that we do.

[A]

Okay, agreed. What do you think, Nancy?

[B]

So I think just from my very limited perspective, you've got several different animals. So we've got the ones that come every week regularly to do things like.

[A]

In the volunteer realm.

[B]

Yes, in the volunteer realm.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Those. I think we have a responsibility to try to figure out, like, where they fit best so that just the fact that they come and they say, I want to work in the resource office, that might not be the best place for them. And I know of one particular.

[A]

We're gonna. And we're gonna go down that path. Okay. Because this is also in the volunteer.

[B]

Then I'll stay on a different path. So the other ones that I see are like one and done type of groups, like coming out to the farm, for instance, and like working for the day at the farm. I have had to really work on what my definition of fair success is for a day of working people out there and to also accept. I don't want to say accept mediocrity, but also understanding that the accomplishment of whatever the task is, isn't the goal, isn't always the. The main goal for it. Like having people out there to experience it and to fall in Love with it. And for it to be a meaningful and fruitful experience is more important than, you know, making sure that the container garden is built right or something.

[A]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I beg to differ on that.

[B]

That was a bad example,

[A]

man.

[B]

Making sure the weeds are pulled correctly or something like that.

[A]

I beg to differ on that one too.

[B]

It has been. It has been a difficult thing for me to grasp because I'm very task oriented. I'm very goal oriented. And, you know, we're gonna, like, at the end of the day, we're gonna have this room painted and it's gonna be great. And there's not gonna be a speck of paint. Paint on the floor. And everybody, you know, will have done what they were supposed to do. And it's like herding cats, ultimately.

[A]

Wild ones too.

[B]

Yeah. And they're all over the place and, you know, nobody's focusing. And you just really have to come to terms with the fact that it just is chaos. And that's just gonna have to be chaos. And what we get done, we get done. And what we don't get done, I will do myself later.

[A]

Great model there. No, we're gonna tell you so that

[B]

out of that, like I said, I'm still learning.

[A]

She's new.

[B]

I'm still learning.

[A]

So some of this verbiage coming out of her mouth is still in the infancy.

[B]

But it's hard. It's hard to. It's hard to take the team that you are given that God has sent to you, still accomplish the goals that you need to accomplish, still do them well, while also making sure that the experience is meaningful and that they're learning something, that they take something from it.

[C]

Agreed.

[A]

So it's fair to say volunteer experience. Somebody volunteered at the farm. Elizabeth farms what she is referring to. We have a farm that's a working farm. Six acres or whatever, five point, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Acres outside of town, close to town, sort of a working farm. Nancy's gonna go and say it. It's cuddle animals now, whatever that means. Okay. But we have animals.

[B]

Cuddle with them.

[A]

You can cuddle with them. Yippee. Okay. Yeah. Good luck. But it's a farm. But in out of that is going to be a place for per. Transitional housing for women coming out of abusive situations. Okay. That's its animal. So volunteer experience at the farm looks very different than the volunteer experience in the cafe.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. Two different animals. Okay. And the volunteer experience in the resource center here looks very different than the volunteer experience in the cafe and the farm. Volunteer Experience in the resource center looks very different than the volunteer experience in the Sunrise Center. Yeah, all very different. All with different things. So, like, Sunrise center, little bit more docile, a little bit more tame. But Elizabeth Farms, it's the volunteers that show up. There it is. You're going to get a whole bunch of people that want to come out to the farm and want to be outside. Okay. Less interaction with the people of Feed My Sheep per se, because there's not a bunch of out there. And they're coming out there because it's a farm. And then at the end of the day, this learning curve of realizing I really want these people to learn about the mission that's going on with the people at Feed My Sheep. This is a soft entry point in that. And then also to watch. Great metaphor out there. Volunteers, like, now Nancy's got pumpkins and Nancy's got tomatoes, and Nancy's got all kind of different stuff. Mostly were planted way back in the day by a group that came from the Catholic home school type group. Okay. And I mean this. Nicely watching the event. Absolute chaos. I mean, I would have thought nothing was accomplished on that day other than some kids, I would say on that one. Okay. So my memory of that whole event, okay. There was a young boy, probably on the spectrum. I'm not a doctor, I'm not diagnosing it. Had headphones on and was with the group and was not part of the group per se. And walking around with him and getting him to show and to get to see normal interactions, you go, man, that was one heck of a success of a day.

[B]

And I think we had 30 kids that day. Yeah.

[A]

Out of that, out of the chaos. So then what I would have watched. I remember that event. I can see them all there. I see the father had all his kids and they worked on this and that. Okay. You'd go, ah, okay, man, it was great success because of this. This chaos occurred. Things happen. And then God, these seeds that they planted. Nancy has now did nothing since. That group did take care of the stuff. We got the. But God himself watered the stuff. And we are now reaping the benefits of what that group did a long time ago. That was chaos. Yeah, we're eating tomatoes. We've got pumpkins. We've got all these things that were planted here that God watered and did. And then it led to fruit here.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. And then. So that's that picture. Now Casey's at the end of the day, this volunteer group. We're recording this right now. His volunteer group Is down there doing this. 11:30, there must be a lunch that comes out today. Okay. So Casey's got the weight every day of. Yep. Want a good volunteer experience. Okay, great. I want all the people this. But at 11:31, Jeff's going to come down here and there better be a lunch out there or he's going to be not happy. There's also pressure and expectations and finite deadlines. We're going to serve these people good quality food. Okay. At 11:30 because that's what time we do it. So very frustrating in that and to go. Okay. This is tough, you know, but then the higher expectations upon people, okay. They tend to rise to them with not unattainable deals. Not putting a carrot in front of the horse to keep him going higher and higher and more and more. Okay. But having expectations, empowering people with their giftedness. Like we watch right now. The lady who is serving, I won't say her name, who's serving at the breakfast line. Every time she has come, she stepped up. What she's doing even more and more and more and more. High end achiever wants to be pushed that way. Okay. And she's just going to go. More and more interactions. Okay. We've seen some like one of your. Well, she may be out of town that doesn't feel empowered. They don't come back. They'll find somewhere to use their time well. So I would say one thing we do decently well. A lot of nonprofit volunteer groups, churches included, do not allow people to do things with excellence and have high level of accountability to it. They're just happy they showed up. Some of our most inefficient groups that come here are church groups. I don't mean this rude like at some of the stuff serving because there's no expectations on them. Well, they just showed up and that's great. And this is what it is. Just show up. No. Jesus himself asked high levels of expectations on his disciples and such like that. Not saying that we are of that level, but still. Okay, here's one volunteer group. So we're in it difficult.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

What do you do if like we mentioned this, we got somebody. This person's giftedness is not necessarily where they want to be serving.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What do you do there? Can't fire them. We said that. But we can. I mean we have had some volunteers that we don't fire. But their servedness and giftedness I just made up servedness, whatever that is. But their we are not the best fit for them and they're not the Best fit for us. And we will empower them to go serve in other ways in other places. There's some non negotiables. I mean, like just because somebody wants to serve here, if they are predatory upon our people, your serving has come to an end.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. That's simple. Okay. Whether or not, I mean, we've got some that have tried to help bake and there's some learning curve. Okay. Yep. We burned some cookies. Okay, we'll try it again. That's not a non negotiable we can do on that. Oh, maybe they didn't slice the stuff up right. Okay. The heart was good. Predatory, gone. Can't do it. Can't put people in vulnerable situations. So what do you do? Okay, let's. We got this scenario. Tell me how. But we're going to handle this one. Doesn't fit. Doesn't fit. Doesn't do a really decent job even at what they are tasked to do, but want to be here. They are here for a certain reason. What do you do? What can you do with that person? How do you have the conversation? Or do you. Are you doing a disservice to them by having the conversation of saying, yeesh, you're not really able to do this? Because I'm thinking of two examples in my head. One, mental capacities are diminishing and is probably not functioning very well at all. You take away the opportunity to serve in this, that might be the final nail that the person goes up. So you keep them knowing possibly that the job could be done more efficiently and better by somebody else. Okay. Maybe that's the justification in the head. You got this other person that they're just not doing a good job, but they're here and they're seeking something. They can't figure out what they're seeking here. How do you have the difficult conversation and do you have the right to have a difficult conversation in your area saying, hey, I'm just not sure this is working out? How does that occur?

[C]

I think that's where, especially as leaders, we've talked about it a lot lately, but just really praying for wisdom, like it's kind of. It has to begin with that. And I know that seems like a kind of a simple answer, but it's got to begin with that to get wisdom from God on how to deal with these things. I mean, even Jesus disciples probably weren't great at what they did.

[A]

Pretty bad.

[C]

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, he had. I mean, he did. He had to correct them a few times. But like, I mean, like those Instances. I mean, because if we were to say, oh, this isn't the most efficient way, let's just find you a different area, that's our way of doing it. But like you said, there is more complexities to it that maybe we're not seeing. So that's where wisdom from God comes in. But I think, I mean, there's been times where I've given people choices, like, hey, I know you really enjoy doing this, but would you ever consider doing this? Because we need help over here. And a lot, a lot of times, especially the ones that are passionate about being here, they are willing to try new things. But then sometimes it is the, if they're not, if they don't want to do it, then okay, you are, you're just kind of, you're thankful that you do have people that are passionate here and you just continue to try to do the best. You know, I mean, you continue to continue to try to teach, you continue to try to help them grow. But sometimes it is, it's just that they stay in that position and you just hope for the best.

[A]

Fair, Nancy?

[B]

I've had situations in the past just like with event coordination. You know, when I worked for the city, we did different events and stuff. And I've had volunteers that were just not like they signed up for something that they were just not, just wasn't in their wheelhouse. And with, with all of them, I don't think it was ever an issue. But with all of them, I was able to just say, we really need you to serve over here instead of the place where you signed up. So I'm going to go ahead and just move you. You know, it wasn't really like I didn't have the, the luxury of being able to just sort of ride it out. You know, I had to have the people in the places where they were going to be the, the most productive and least, least disruptive. So I would just arbitrarily move them around. Now that isn't a ministry and it's not, you know, a service based organization, it's an event. So it's, it's just a different animal. But I mean, there, there have been times where I, you know, just forced to, even if they, they think that they're, they have the, the skill set to do this, that or the other thing, and they don't. To show them other opportunities to serve.

[A]

Okay, final question. Easy. Okay, Easy. Okay. Somebody out there listening thinks they want to be a volunteer here. Okay. Which I don't even like that word necessarily, like so they come here because God has called them here and they want the opportunity to serve. Okay, so. So that person sitting out there going, man, I'd like to come be a part of this. What advice would you give that volunteer who doesn't even know anything about here? So what advice would you give to that person about coming here and what should they expect and what should we expect out of them? Just give me the words to volunteer, to go, hey, come here with this mindset and expect this and blah, blah. What do you think?

[C]

I think sounds kind of cliche, but just come with an open mind and an open heart of what you may see here today. I mean, I hate to say don't come with expectations, but it's hard to come with expectations here because you have no idea what's going to be going on for the day. But really, just to come in with the mindset of to serve people, whether that's people in the line, whether it's just to. Just to love on people, but just to come with a mindset of service, whatever that looks like. A lot of times people come, oh, I want to do this, I want to do that. But service is constantly changing and there's always. You're always adapting to what needs to be done. And so the biggest thing is just having an open mind to whatever needs to be done.

[A]

Like, it's.

[C]

It's being asked for a reason and. But also to come with not just what am I going to do today, but what am I going to see today? Who am I going to see today? Who am I going to meet today? So more than just like, oh, am I going to make sandwiches? Am I going to do this? And like, our expectations here, and I tell this to groups all the time, is you may have four hours to come here, and we have stuff to be done. We have sandwiches to be made, we have lunch to be prepared, we have laundry to be done. But more than anything, we have people that need to be spoken to. We have people that need to be met and their stories to be heard and just someone to listen to. And so whether you have 4 hours or 10 minutes to come and have a cup of coffee with someone, that's really what we're looking for. Like, our expectations here is, will you meet somebody and learn their name? Will you come here and listen to someone? Because that's really the end goal. Like, obviously we have lots of things to do here, but ultimately it's the people.

[A]

Okay? At the end of the day, this is just. And it will get Nancy's interpretation. Casey, are you looking for somebody who is really good in culinary skills? Are you looking for somebody who is really caring to other human beings?

[C]

Both.

[A]

Yeah, knock it out of the park with that one.

[C]

No, I mean, obviously, I mean, caring. You can have. You can have someone that's the best chef, whatever it is. This isn't. I mean, this is. In any restaurant, or you can have the most skill, but if you're not good with people, then it's not gonna last. You're not gonna last here. That, you know, we're just gonna be frustrated for anybody.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

And so the skill set isn't as important as what the heart is behind them.

[A]

So fair. Nancy Glover, same questions.

[B]

So I would say just thinking about the person that you mentioned earlier, the friend of mine that I go to church with may or may not be back. I think with her and with. Not just with her, but with. With some others that I've met along the way. They'll come in and they'll say, okay, there's. There was nothing for me to do. I got bored. You know, I don't feel like I'm being utilized. My thought on that is, I mean, I've. I don't think I've ever come up here and have just sat idly in a chair. You know, I mean, there are people, like Casey said, there are people that need to be talked to. Like, just if you're. If you come up here to volunteer, be of the mindset that, yes, you know, we want you to be a blessing to the staff and to help with whatever, you know, needs to be done on the task list. But the real. The real job, the real opportunity, I'll say instead of job, the real opportunity is meeting these people and getting to talk to them. So if you come up here and, you know, for whatever reason, you don't feel like you're being utilized enough or that, you know, there's. You're not staying busy enough or whatever the case may be. Like, with that. With that particular one, walk out the door, just walk outside, be on the sidewalk, talk to people, go to the cafe, sit and listen and just be a friend. I mean, there's so many people that just need that, you know, so if. If you're coming to volunteer, that's great, but just understand that. That. That there are a lot of. Of people here that just really need you.

[C]

Yeah. And I think one thing just with that, because that's not everybody's comfort level, but I would say with that, be. Expect. Like, expect for Your comfort zone to be kind of broadened here all, all around. So you're going to do things that you're not necessarily used to or you know, we never want to. We're never going to put you in a situation to where you're in danger or anything like that, or if you know you're going to have an anxiety attack or whatever. We're not going to do that. But just come with the mindset of, hey, I may have to talk to people that I may not necessarily be comfortable with or do things that I may not have ever had to do before. So that comfort zone maybe expanded a

[A]

little bit like I always like on that. Like even we talk about the disciples and all that and all the people that followed Christ, they didn't get the picture he was doing. And you look at so many stories, you know, he goes and have dinner and what are all the people that know him, Jesus, him being knowing, well, why does he eat with such scum as that? They would look at the people and they didn't get how big the scope is. And so even here you can expect to go, man, I didn't meet that member of my family before and they're friends and they're this. And so out of it for mine is to hear maybe in the circular nature of the conversation, if you come here and believe you have everything figured out and you are just serving because you've won the lottery of life and you got it all figured out, you're probably missing the mark, you know, probably missing the mark. So we'd say we have a group of people that come here together that are hungry and that are starving to death and a desire to be fed. So you're looking here and to see in feeding we have expanded our definition. We still are in an obligation of ready. And then that's a whole other discussion of what is your responsibility for these that you care about that you would call friend. I don't know. There ought to be some scriptures out there that said something along lines, while you were yet sinners, I called you friend. Reference to us. But so then you look at to go, man, all these different things. What does it mean to call somebody a friend and to truly care about them? What is your obligation in that? Is it solely enough to just be got to make sure everybody likes me? What is that A whole other discussion but whatever of what it means to truly care for people. So today we're going to look at. We just did a little bit of volunteering here. So out of it, everybody we're not asking for volunteers. We're asking for people that are listening to hear the whisper that God says. I think you need to go there to see what he has to say to you here. Okay. We need volunteers every day. There is. But we're not necessarily seeking out solely just task handlers. But everything we do out of this does not occur without unbelievably good volunteers. That's what we have and that we care about. So. Interesting discussion. You go. I don't work in a nonprofit, but it does. Even in. I would say even if you are a boss or a manager in like I would think. Not that Nancy wasn't a good boss. She was a good boss. Great boss. I guarantee you she went back in the secular world with the knowledge of how to manage people that are just volunteers now working in the realm of what your obligation. People are actually getting paid to work under you and you're getting benefits and all this stuff. And you understand the burden of responsibility and managing these people and caring about them and trying to navigate. Why are they really here? Because here you have the beauty and this wonderful thing. You take out the aspect. They're here because they need to pay the bills for their family. That's gone. They don't need anything per se.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They're here because they chose to be here. And then you work under that. Or they are trying to get things figured out. So. Interesting. Interesting thing to look at that. But even everybody out there, how you manage people, your first deal is to understand what is your obligation to them and how are you managing them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, army generals are just simply, I need this person to run up that hill. They're going to get shot. But then that's going to provide another space for somebody to step on that body to get to the place that we need to get. That's a management style. Okay.

[C]

Come volunteer a few months. Yeah. You might get stepped on.

[A]

Yep. There you go. Hey. That. Now we're circling back to the volunteer that doesn't fit in this area. Hey. Yep. Run that direction and lay down perpendicular to the fire, please, if you could. So. But out of that we're going to continue this just interesting look. Just try to give people glimpses into our world. Not that our world's good. Not that our world is bad, just different. And how we have to manage people and how we have to navigate in the complexities of this road and don't have some of the luxuries in managing. You know, I'll go like for Casey there probably at the End of the day there's very few restaurants in temple that will serve more people at lunch than we do today. Very few. I would think there's. We pick them. They're not going to be many people. They're going to serve 175200 meals today at lunch we don't do dinner. Okay. And we have to do it with no employees per se. Volunteers come prepare the food and we want it quality in good astronomical task. We're in the city with this partnership deal with Nancy and the resource area does they are tasked with navigating much of the rental assistance and getting all the resources to the community of temple that the city's putting out there with a non profit volunteer based group.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Huge.

[A]

Huge. Shouldn't work. Okay. But we stick to the core of we believe our ministry is to everybody that comes here. So interesting deal. Hope you all have a great day. Nancy's about cooking up here like she's burning up.

[B]

It's so hot.

[A]

It's so hot. Okay. Hey. And then tell everybody the exciting news out there in the world. What happened this morning I booked my

[B]

hike on Mount Kilimanjaro. Nancy officially going January 2027.

[A]

Yep. Because she is a member of the fourteeners.com I am actually she just joined that and she's got the dogs doing fourteeners.com hear Lily is part of that 14 or puppy 14erpuppy calm. So you'll be seeing her post on that. So exciting on that grand adventure coming up on that. So that's neither here nor there. Hope everybody has a great day and just remember those that you come in contact with. Okay. They are not things that you can just use to help benefit you people. Put God puts people in our lives for reasons. They come into our place for plan and a purpose. Whether we see it or not that's on us and we can choose not to see so in it just trying to figure out how to navigate and be a great business class of what we try to do in this or that and I think you know I don't know interesting model every day totally different. Totally different. So that is that. Hope everybody has a great day and we sure appreciate you and we will talk to you next week later.