This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from purchased products at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Volunteer Series: Part 2

The first step in getting volunteers starts well before ‘the ask’. If you’re like most small churches struggling with getting volunteers or hoping to do better, you can’t keep doing the same things you’ve always done. Keep reading as we learn about the often-neglected step of identifying volunteers. Here’s what can happen if you adopt this process of identifying volunteers:

  • Your list of potential volunteers becomes greater than you ever realized 
  • The 80/20 pattern in your church gets a kick in a new direction
  • Your leadership becomes more thoughtful, prayerful, and effective 
  • Your ministry grows healthier as you get more of the right people in the right positions

The 4 I’s of Volunteers

This is a crucial step in the process of working with volunteers. We’re going to go deeper into the need, along with some specific strategies that you can use to begin identifying new volunteers.

Throughout this series, we will be covering all of the 4 I’s of volunteers, plus a few bonus topics. The 4 I’s include:

  • Identifying Volunteers
  • Invite Volunteers
  • Involve Volunteers
  • Invest in Volunteers

As we journey through each of the 4 phases, we will go over the biggest mistakes that most churches make as well as how to do it better! Whether you’re a ministry leader, a volunteer, or even a pastor’s wife, these are skills that everyone should master. 

This will not only help your ministry area, but you can greatly impact your church culture as people start to notice you doing something in a new way. Instead of constantly searching for new volunteers, you’ll find more volunteers staying longer and serving with more passion and loyalty. On top of that, as you practice the things we’re going to go over, it will become effortless and the standard for how you operate. 

Identifying Volunteers

This step typically gets overlooked in most small churches. In fact, if I ask most to outline the steps of working with volunteers, they start with the ‘ask’, because no one really thinks that there should be anything before asking them. However, there is and it’s important. If you don’t start with the intention of identifying volunteers before you ask, a lot can happen.

Four Mistakes That Happen When You Don’t Start By Identifying Volunteers

1. We ask the same people who are already serving.

It’s understandable to ask these people first because they are often in the front of your mind, and you know them. We go to what’s familiar. However, if we keep asking the same people who are already serving, they get overstretched and divided. 

2. We invite the wrong people and it hurts our ministry areas.

It’s a little awkward and difficult to remove people once they start. Sometimes, to avoid this we allow people to continue in an ill-fitting spot. This damages our ministries, puts strain on relationships, and causes other volunteers to quit. 

3. We set up people to fail.

Sadly, this is so common. Volunteers end up feeling like failures, and that causes them to not want to serve again. The reality is, they aren’t failures. In this case, the leader may have been the link to failure because they invited someone into a place that was never right for them. We need to do better, and be more careful with the humans God created us to be. 

4. We run the risk of surrounding ourselves with people like us.

Rather than surrounding ourselves with people who make us better and create diversity in the church environment, we make the mistake of surrounding ourselves with people who are too like-minded.

How Do We Prevent These Mistakes?

It’s important to start by trying to understand what qualities our volunteers need to possess. For example, if you need a person in the nursery, you don’t just need someone. You need someone kind, patient, and safe. Each position in the church requires a person with specific skill sets. It’s important to remember that you do not simply need a body to fill a spot, this isn’t biblical. This is the quickest way to hurt your ministry and hurt your people. If you don’t have the right person, you probably don’t need that ministry area. If God hasn’t provided the person, don’t take it upon yourself to force something before it’s time. 

This doesn’t mean that you should only get experts, it just means that there should be potential. There should be a heart turned to serve people with pure motives, and a desire to learn and grow. I want to encourage you to identify what you need. Write it down. Then figure out where those things will come from. Once you’ve identified what you need, you can start identifying volunteers.

How Do We Do Better?

Start by making a list of the 80 percent. These are the people that aren’t serving, or who sit in the back row. These people aren’t as involved and don’t have as many ties to people at your church. Make it your mission to start building relationships with them. That’s what Jesus would do! As you build these relationships, rather than thinking of your ministry or what position needs to be filled, get to know them without your agenda. 

Keep in mind that this is not going to be a quick or sure thing. You aren’t inviting people to serve with you yet, you are just making lists and identifying the possibilities. Please remember that you’re not looking for people to fill your spots, you’re building relationships with God’s children. 

I want to encourage you to start a list now. Grab a sheet of paper and jot down the people who are already coming to your mind. These might be people that God brought to mind. 

Focus on the Right Positions Within Ministry Areas

I want to broaden something for you when it comes to identifying volunteers. I mentioned how ministries often hurt people by not identifying the right people and by putting people in the wrong positions. I truly believe that every ministry area can include people with a wide variety of talents, skills, and passions. Rather than thinking about who the right people in the right ministry areas would be, consider what the right positions for these people are. 

This is where we need to broaden our minds and step away from the one-size-fits-all ministry model, where the person who serves on the creative team needs to be good at all things creative. It’s not true. As you get to know the 80% who aren’t over-involved and over-committed, you’ll start finding specialists and uncovering where they could serve and contribute to something amazing! We may all start like the fisherman that Jesus recruited, but along the way, we develop a love for people, for the word, and for a ministry.

This is something that Jesus was so good at, and I want to be good at it too. I want to see the potential in His people, not just their presence or their progress. Jesus developed people. He didn’t recruit people who were already skilled and talented.

Look At People Who Aren’t Like You

Looking for people who aren’t like you is tough unless you’ve developed this habit, because it isn’t a natural thing to do. We tend to naturally surround ourselves with like-minded people, with people we identify with. If you’re a visionary, you don’t need a team of visionaries. You need someone with you whose feet are planted on this planet, someone who grounds you when you’re up in the clouds. If you’re a facts and figures person, you could find someone to bring some levity and lightness to the picture!

God created us to be interdependent. One person’s strength fills in for another’s weakness. Yes, it is easier to work with people who are like us, we get along better! That means that it’s going to take growing in people skills and expanding your capacity for grace and forgiveness. You need to develop a team culture that excels in curiosity and compassion.

When the body of Christ is working as God intended, it’s diverse. Diversity lies in gifts, maturity, personality, and weakness. It’s beautiful! The beauty is not in a collection of people who have it all together, and who are abounding in maturity. The beauty is in the rag-tag group of us, who are focused on growing up together in this journey of knowing and following Jesus. 

Valuing The Individual

Keep in mind that there’s a difference between unity and uniformity. Uniformity is when we are all the same. It’s not about the individual, and you can’t even tell them apart. However, in the body of Christ, the individual is so important.

I think where we go wrong as a church is, instead of working to elevate each individual to their importance in the body of Christ, we limit what God does in and through us. I’ve seen church leaders shut someone down someone who shares an opinion or an unpopular idea by saying “it’s not about you.” I hate that phrase because it is about you. It’s about every individual.

I understand that if I’m demanding my own way, that I need to submit sometimes, or if I’m putting someone down I need to look at them like Jesus would. However, I do believe our relationship as a group is about each of us as individuals. The group’s purpose or goal doesn’t negate the individual or make them less important.

The strongest teams I’ve ever seen are the most diverse. They learn to work together, to value the input that is unlike their own, and they reach deep to try and discover what God might be doing. So, before you ask people to serve, let’s spend some time identifying volunteers who we need and who God might be nudging to step into something new!

Read More:

How To Get Church Volunteers Back In The Door

Hey Church Volunteers! Quit Trying To Find Your Passion

A “Thank You” That Your VBS Volunteers Will Treasure – Small Church Ministry