No matter the size of your church, recruiting, training, and maintaining volunteers is a huge undertaking. You may only have 5-10 volunteers on rotation for a given Sunday task, or you may have hundreds. No matter the size, you need coordination and the right mindset to make it all work. Read on to learn about recruiting, training, and maintaining a healthy volunteer community.
Building a Team
The easiest course of action for finding volunteers is probably to stand up on stage on Sunday morning and tell the congregation which areas of the church are in need of extra help. But we would actually advise against that. While there’s nothing wrong with asking for help, asking in such a public way can attract the people who are either already serving in different areas and may be stretched too thin, or the people who will say yes out of a sense of obligation.
What we want to cultivate instead is a culture of volunteers who feel truly called to their particular area of service – not those who feel like they “have to.”
So how can a church find volunteers in other ways? Your greatest asset may be the volunteers you already have! Ask them to pay attention to those in their church community who may seem predisposed to the particular set of gifts you need help with (i.e. childcare, greeting, music ministry), and have yet to get involved in another area.
Continued Support
Once your volunteers are recruited and trained, a great way to continue to encourage them on mission is to cultivate community among volunteers. If you have a large number of volunteers, you could encourage monthly dinners or a weekly Bible study within particular volunteer groups. If your congregation is small, maybe your volunteer dinners or times of encouragement would include every volunteer in the church.
The goal of cultivating this community is to show volunteers how crucial their work is, and to continue to encourage them as they serve on mission for the Gospel. Constantly point them back to their “why” behind their service, and watch your volunteers flourish as they take ownership over their particular ministry area.
Training Volunteers
There’s nothing worse than signing up to volunteer and showing up, only to realize that you have no idea what to do. Loving your volunteers well means that you will have a plan in place that sets them up for success. This can be accomplished through day-of instructions and guidance, but also through training when your volunteer first signs up.
If you have a larger team, it might be a good idea to hold 1 or 2 large-group trainings once or twice a year, to catch any details that may have fallen through the cracks.
Above all, a great focus as you train your volunteers is to help them understand why they’re volunteering in the first place. Work with them as they uncover their unique calling for service within the church.
We hope this advice about finding, training, and supporting volunteers will serve you well as you seek to build a team ready to serve the Lord with joy!
