One of the greatest assets in a healthy church are the volunteers who make things happen every week. Many churches find it a struggle to keep and motivate volunteers. We tend to see a revolving door when it comes to our volunteers. Yes, we have those who have dedicated their lives to giving their time to the church and its areas of ministry. We don't, however, usually have a 100% return ratio on all of our ministries and areas of action.
Our ministry leaders who rely on volunteers tend to wear a lot of hats. I want to share some ways in which you can reduce the number of hats that you wear by increasing the number of heads attached to a particular area of ministry. The only way to really produce the level of volunteers you need is to reach out to them at the heart level. If you attract someone by their heart strings they will be more apt to feel an ownership to what you want them to do. I am usually moved by what tugs at my heart and what my passions are in life.
By attracting me by my heart, you are more likely to also get a larger commitment level from me. I will put my head in the game and be more creative and put more ideas on the table. I will be a greater asset to you as a leader and then reduce the number of hats you have to wear. The juggling will begin to slow down and you will be able to focus more on what you are called to do rather than doing everything at one time and burning out fast.
When considering to move in a direction of increasing the volunteer level in any church, you must first evaluate the "volunteer atmosphere". Your volunteer atmosphere can be measured much like the temperature in a room. There are two different perspectives on your atmosphere at all times, those who use volunteers and those who are volunteers. Here are a few questions to ask your leaders.
- How do feel about being the leader of this ministry?
- What are the things that excite you about your volunteers?
- What are the things that you struggle with when managing your volunteers?
- What do you expect out of your volunteers?
- How do you go about getting your volunteers to do what you expect?
These few questions will give you a large amount of insight into your volunteer program in your church. It will shed some light on the first perspective and let you know where the cold and hot spots are in the volunteer atmosphere. This is only half of the whole perspective. The most telling part will be the next few questions that you ask your volunteers.
- How do you like being a volunteer here?
- How well does your leader communicate with you?
- What does your leader expect out of you?
- Based on your experience as a volunteer, would you recommend to someone else to become a volunteer here?
This will show you if there are any gaps between the ministry leader and their volunteers. It will expose any challenge spots and let you know what the strengths are as well. Don't worry because I don't believe that there is a church out there with a 100% satisfaction rate on this area.
Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses you can begin to develop a working strategy to increase the number of people willing to volunteer in the ministries of your church. Remember, it all has to start at the heart level. Don't get caught where most churches get caught when needing volunteers. Churches who need more heads don't always think about how a persons heart plays into this process.
Many churches start like a rancher who needs to buy more cattle. They see a need and try to fill it. They approach a congregation like they just arrived at the sale barn and start looking them over for defects and level of value. People don't like to be cattle. They are, however, sheep but that is another topic for later and would take me off current topic. Your approach to volunteers is to start with how being a volunteer would impact the kingdom on an eternal level. Then what kind of impact being a volunteer can have on a community level and even being a change agent for the future.
Tell stories of other successful impacts your volunteers have had and build an atmosphere of value and belonging. Share the successes always. As soon as a story unfolds before your eyes don't hesitate to leverage that story for the whole church to be impacted by their heart strings. The more effort that you put into the atmosphere, the easier it will be to actually get volunteers.
For me it seemd simple enough of an answer but I want to ask it anyway. Do you like asking for volunteers? Do you like to tell succesful stories about how a ministry in your church impacted a life? My gues is that the first answer swings closer to the no side and the second question swings closer to the yes side. If that is the case then why not start today by creating an inviting volunteer atmosphere with much less inviting and much more heart, emotion, and passion.
Share your stories here so we all can begin to feel each others hearts and learn from each other. Tell us what your atmosphere is like and what steps you have taken or will take to help improve it. What is your impact?
