Volunteer Essentials
A strong volunteer program increases your church’s ability to have a greater impact, develop disciples, and build a leadership pipeline.
How to “fire” a church volunteer
One question I frequently receive when talking about recruiting and retaining church volunteers is what to do about a volunteer who isn’t working out. In other words, how do I “fire” a volunteer? This is obviously a delicate situation and needs to be handled with great care. This individual is donating his time and efforts; […]
3 Steps to Reclaiming Your Schedule
What are your top priorities? I’d guess that your relationship with God, your family, friends, church, and health all make the list. One of the challenges in ministry is that these priorities often feel like they’re competing. Do you stay late to finish a project or leave tasks incomplete to get some rest? Do you […]
Are you wasting your talent?
One of the cool things about my job is that I get to talk with leaders from a variety of churches. In talking with a pastor last week, we got on the subject of high-performing members of his congregation. These are folks with specialized skill-sets. Many of them either have their own business or are […]
Why I’m Passionate about Volunteering in Church
You may have noticed that I have a few things to say about volunteers in the church. It’s a hot topic for me and there’s a reason for that passion. I’ve been a member of my church for about eight years and I only knew a few people when I first started coming to this […]
10 Commandments for Being an All-Star Volunteer
In my last post, I offered 10 Commandments for Leading Church Volunteers. Today I’d like to offer tips for my fellow church volunteers. Here are 10 ways volunteers can go over-the-top in serving their church: Thou shalt be a consistent, faithful volunteer who shows up prepared each week Thou shalt communicate to leadership early […]
10 Commandments for Leading Church Volunteers
We’re all familiar with the 10 Commandments, so I thought I’d have some fun and create a version for leading church volunteers. I also have a set for how to be an all-star volunteer. Stay tuned for that one later this week. Check these out for happy and faithful volunteers: Thou shalt plan ahead and […]
Warning: Change Can Scare Off Your Volunteers
Have you ever announced a change to your volunteers that didn’t go over too well? Have they ever resisted implementing a new process and you couldn’t quite figure out why? I’ll let you in on a little secret: The issue probably wasn’t the change itself. The issue was probably in how the change was rolled […]
How to Turn Volunteers into Raving Fans Who’ll Recruit for You
If you’ve been following along with my last two posts, we’ve walked through how to prepare for recruiting and then how to recruit and assign new volunteers. That process works quite well, but wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to do much recruiting at all? What if your current volunteers loved serving at […]
3 Keys for Recruiting and Assigning Volunteers
Congratulations! You’ve decided what your ideal volunteer team looks like, identified what motivates them, and considered why folks may want to serve in your church (in case you missed it, here’s my previous post). The next step is to start recruiting and then connecting new volunteers to roles that combine their interests and energy with […]
3 Ways to Prepare for Recruiting Volunteers
From the parking lot to Sunday school, church leaders are looking for faithful volunteers to serve the congregation. Yet many leaders are frustrated by the lack of commitment and willingness to serve. On the other hand, volunteers have grown weary of poor communication and minimal instructions. What should be a situation that truly benefits everyone […]