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If you’re looking for strategies to get more volunteers for your children’s ministry, you aren’t alone. Children’s ministry takes many hands, even if you have only a handful of kiddos. An additional challenge facing staffing in small churches is the varying number of children and the mixed-age factor. One week could require a fully staffed nursery and an extra volunteer in Sunday school, while another you find yourself fully staffed, but no kids show up. It seems impossible to predict who you’ll need, when you’ll need them, and how difficult it will be to recruit staff members when needs vary by season and week. Keep reading to learn:
- A few unexpected, quick wins to add a few more volunteers to your roster.
- Some long-term strategies to work toward building a committed team of potential recruits for the future.
- Why taking better care of your current volunteers needs to move up on your priority list.
- One common, but often overlooked, reason your recruiting methods might not be working
While this topic is focused on children’s ministry, the underlying principles hold true in most of the areas of ministry too because we’re talking about volunteers. Volunteers make up the leadership, the behind-the-scenes, and the onstage. Small churches wouldn’t exist without volunteer work.
Solutions For Today And The Future
I’m guessing that you want a few quick wins to add some volunteers to your roster. Here’s the thing, the quick wins usually aren’t the things that sustain long-term changes. If you want lasting change, you’ll be better off embracing the long-term strategies. These long-term strategies are the slow routes to foundational changes. However, I know you need volunteers right now, and you need some solutions for today. So, I want to give you both. I’ll share a few quick wins that can be a part of a longer strategy. Keep in mind that you don’t need to struggle with recruiting volunteers forever. Team building is more fun when you have a long-term plan and tools that work.
My Philosophy On Small Churches And Volunteers
I believe that you already have all the volunteers you need in your church to do exactly what God has in mind for you to do. Philippians 4:19 says that God will meet all my needs according to Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” I’m not saying that we have things because we declare them. I’m saying that we have it because God set up the body of Christ that way.
In 1 Corinthians, when Paul illustrates the body of Christ as a physical body, he says “God put the body together.” God made the church to be a light in the world. I believe the church is supposed to function as a representative of Christ to the world. This means that God’s given us what we need to do that.
In addition, the Bible says they’ll know that we are Christians by our love and fruits. It isn’t our programs or our events that do this. This is why we can’t measure our success by a volunteer progam, or any other program for that matter. If we’re doing what God has provided and equipped us to do, I think that’s lining up with His Kingdom, and that will draw people to Christ.
The Quick Wins
1. Make Jobs Smaller And More Fun (look for specialists)
If you’re new to children’s ministry, it can be intimidating. There’s a lot of responsibility here, and it is a big commitment. Unfortunately, it’s our fault that many people run for the hills when you ask for potential teachers or prospective volunteers. People have a lot of negative experiences in kids ministry either as a volunteer themselves, or as a kid in church.
The average Sunday school teacher has as many jobs as a parent, and they’re supposed to be good at them all. A Sunday school teacher serves as a behavior specialist, an educator, a comforter, a Bible scholar, a janitor, and so much more.
Inviting passionate volunteers to do less is a great way to find a quick win. Break down the jobs and make things easier for your dedicated volunteers. Rather than asking a teacher to do it all, try finding different people to fulfill individual volunteer roles. Try finding a greeter, a craft leader, and an empathetic listener to do the prayer time. It’s all about finding specialists in specific roles I know this requires more people, not less. However, you’ll find more people willing to do less!
If everyone happens to say no, you may be trying to do more than God wants you to do at your small church, at this moment in time. Remember, the goal isn’t to mimic the big churches. It is to mimic Jesus. There are beautiful things only small churches have to offer. Small church ministry isn’t less than, it’s just different!
2. Make Serving As Partners The Norm (always a team)
One of the best ways to do this is by changing up your structure to ensure that people are always serving with a partner. If your children’s ministry positions are always partner positions, it’s a lot easier on people. They can share the load, and they often feel more supported. So many volunteers feel like they’re on their own. If you change the culture, and volunteers always serve in teams, you’ll be able to keep your volunteers happier while also developing new volunteers by default.
I want to propose one quick safety standard for you to keep in mind when picking a partner. One of the safety considerations in children’s ministry is not having only family members serving in a closed room. The reason for this is the protection of your existing volunteers and children. In the case of abuse, if there is an abuser in the family, family members typically enable the abuser or look the other way.
This is valid, so please don’t ignore the safety standards. They exist for a reason! If two family members are on your team, there should also be a third unrelated adult in the room. I know safety standards can often feel limiting or restrictive, but if we can understand and communicate why they are necessary, we can turn standards into celebrations. It can be freeing to know that we will do whatever we need to do to ensure that this is the safest place on the planet!
3. Shorten The Time Commitment
When we talk about shortening the time commitment, I’m referring to the start and end dates of a term of commitment. Any time you ask a volunteer to do something, there should be a clear start and end date. If it’s an ongoing position, the end date can be the time when you get to renew the commitment if it’s a good fit, but it also gives volunteers permission to be done. This ensures a positive experience for volunteers.
This is another reason why a lot of churches can’t get children’s ministry helpers. Historically, it’s been an eternal commitment. However, this isn’t right, and it’s not healthy. Shorten time commitments to a month-to-month basis, or even a season.
Strategies To Get More Volunteers
Taking Better Care Of Your Volunteers
If you aren’t taking care of your great volunteers then you aren’t going to be able to build the team you want. You need to take care of your current volunteers because they are the most accurate representatives of your ministry. If they are burnt out and overstretched, your ministry will also reflect that. Take care of the volunteers that are on your team so that they are happy to serve.
This is the first step toward successful volunteer recruitment. People shouldn’t serve when they’re sick, and they should be able to take time off to go to adult worship when they need to. You should be growing as disciples, growing in skill, and building friendships! This is a healthy ministry.
It is important to understand that the state of your current volunteers has a direct correlation with the new volunteers you recruit. For future volunteers, what they see of your ministry is much more impactful than what you say!
If you’re saying that working with kids is a gift from God and that they’ll have support and find joy, and all they see are ragged, bitter volunteers, how do you think that will impact potential volunteers? If you’re thinking that people should serve miserably because a job needs to get done, I totally disagree! That isn’t the way Jesus did it, and I don’t think He wants that for you. So, take care of your volunteers. Make it a priority!
Build Better Relationships In Your Church
Love people! Don’t love people for the sole purpose of getting them to serve or join your team. This actually would fall under the nasty word, manipulation. I’ve learned more about that word in the past year. I always thought that was an extreme word, but it turns out that we do this a lot. If you’re doing something to get someone else to do something, that is manipulation. We all have free choice, and if your goal is to get someone to choose differently, that is manipulation. Unfortunately, it’s common in the church.
However, the opposite of manipulation is loving people without an agenda. This is pretty awesome, and it’s God’s church. What if your goal in loving people is to get to know the image of God in them? Wouldn’t that be amazing! If you believe that God puts the body together for a purpose, then God will bring it all to fruition.
As we all grow and start to fit together as the body of Christ, we’ll find our places in ministry as God designed. We’ll see opportunities for an invitation, and we will honor people’s decisions. To do this well, we need to trust that God’s got it. By trusting His plan, we are releasing our desperation, our need to be needed, and our control.
You, my friend, are responsible for your heart, and your health. No one else is. Volunteers burning out and serving in a state of unhealth is not a sign of their commitment, and it isn’t an accurate representation of the body of Christ or how God set it up. These two long-term strategies are very related. Both of them will serve you well. They are a little counter-culture in our modern small church mentality, but I believe they are aligned with Scripture and the examples of Jesus Christ on earth!
Read More:
Increase Commitment, Longevity, & Passion In Service: For Leaders & Volunteers
