4 Pools to Recruit Volunteers


Photo by Jeff Dunham on Unsplash


Volunteer recruitment is hard. One question asked most often is, “How do you get volunteers?” There are a whole lot of different strategies, but I'll cover those in a different post.

Since the Pandemic, I’ve had the responsibility of finding volunteers for our Wednesday Preschool ministry. We changed our strategy for Wednesday nights to groups instead of an adult service, and I can tell you it has not been easy. I love the model and our people are growing but finding adults who are willing to leave their group to serve is a tough ask.

Recently, I found myself with only one volunteer on a particular Wednesday night with less than two days to find new volunteers. Closing the ministry for the night was not an option, but it was looking like it may happen. It’s not a fun place to be. As I thought about who I can recruit, I found that there are four pools of people I can ask to serve.

1. Parents


I looked for parents first. But as I went over the roster of all the kids who attend Wednesday night and the parents that currently serve, I realized for this service it wasn’t a viable option. I discovered that 98% of parents who attend Wednesday night currently serve at least once a month. If there aren’t any fish, go somewhere else.

For NextGen ministries, your parents are your best resource. They are the most engaged and interested in what you’re doing. In addition, they’re the primary influence on the kids in your ministry. That said, not everyone who has kids is cut out to work with them. That’s one of many reasons why I’m against mandating parents serve. However, if you can get a parent to serve, they may be with you for years to come and your best resource for ideas and other serving opportunities.

2. People who attend that service


The next group of people I asked were the people who attend that service but aren’t parents. I asked my Small Group Pastor with help on this one because she knows these people better. I’m frequently in the elementary room and don’t see the other adults, much less have relationships with them. Thankfully, she found some people, but my problem wasn’t completely solved.

Whether you have one service or five over the weekend this is the next best pool of people to find volunteers. They’ve already adjusted their lives to fit the rhythm of coming at that time and you’ll have more opportunity to interact with them during the service.

3. Youth


One thought was to bring in teenagers. The Youth don’t meet on the first Wednesday of the month and attend our monthly adult service. I’ve asked a few to serve with me on First Wednesdays, however my problem was on a different Wednesday, and I didn’t want to take them away from their service.

Many children’s ministries are run on the backs of our teenagers. I’m all for it. They bring a level of energy, creativity, and joy that’s missing so often in older volunteers. They can be the most committed, and what’s more, you have an opportunity to invest in their spiritual growth as they try new things and discover who they are. They’re some of my favorite volunteers.

4. People who attend other services


I finally filled all my spots with this pool of people. I pulled volunteers who serve in preschool on Sunday mornings and asked a few if they would be willing. I also approached some people who don’t normally attend on Wednesday, but I knew would probably come in and serve as a onetime thing.

Sometimes you need to start another service, or one service is larger than another and you need more volunteers to handle more kids. Finding these people are harder and a bigger ask than the previous pools because you’re asking them to adjust their schedule to make room for a new service time. The people in this pool usually serve best when you have back-to-back services. This way they can worship one and serve one and not have to come back at a different time.


There is no easy way to recruit for volunteers and when you’re staring at that roster with so many holes it can be daunting. Nevertheless, if we know where to look, we can be successful. And sometimes you’ll find that diamond in the rough of a great ministry partner that stays with you for years. Ministry was never meant to be done alone, so don’t try it. Cast great vision and ask people to join you in the mission. Your life and your ministry will be so much better for it.
Location: Sarasota, FL, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Numbers You Should Track in Your Ministry and Why

Image
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash I’ve heard business entrepreneurs say that you have to know your numbers. The same is true with your ministry. How many attended this week? Last week? How many volunteers? First time guests? Baptisms? Small Groups? If you don’t track it, and by tracking, I mean write it down in a spreadsheet, you’re losing out on valuable information that can help you keep your ministry healthy and growing. I’ll admit I didn’t always do this. In fact, my first few years in ministry it was an afterthought. Sometimes, I would remember to count how many were in the room and tell my pastor, but I never wrote it down. Then after one Easter, my pastor came into staff meeting agitated. I could see it all over his face. He told us that we didn’t have as many show up for Easter as we did the year before. He counted the weekend as a failure. I was shocked at first and then began to wonder, how many did I have? How many last year? Or the year before? I had no Idea. I h...
Read more

A Discipline Plan That Works

Image
When I first became a children’s pastor on my first Sunday, I sat and observed how the volunteers were managing their service. These were college students with little to no training, just a heart for kids and doing the best they could. Their stories and games were good. Their energy was excellent during worship, but they had one glaring problem. Discipline. The kids did whatever they wanted; whenever they wanted. I asked the leaders what their discipline plan was, and it was a convoluted three strikes and you’re out system, but the only consequence for any infraction was less candy. Essentially, a kid could misbehave all service and instead of getting three pieces of candy, they’d only get one. It didn’t take much for some of the kids to figure it out and exploit it. Rules and consequences were the first thing I changed when I took over, and the leaders were thankful. I was a certified teacher and spent many, many hours studying classroom management. I knew their system was neve...
Read more

How to Have a Kids Lead Team

Image
Maybe you’ve seen this. You have a fifth or sixth grader completely checked out. They may have been engaged a few years before, but it’s getting close to their time to move on, and they have senioritis all of sudden. You thought it was only for 12th graders, but now you see it in 12-year-olds. But what do you do? Do you encourage them to engage? Talk to their parents? Let them move on to youth? In my first ministry, this problem was rampant. I was the fourth kids pastor for those sixth graders, and they were over it. They didn’t care and a few of them did whatever the wanted causing major distractions. Putting a discipline plan in place helped a little, but it didn’t solve the problem. That’s when I decided to begin a kids leadership team. We still had Sunday School, so for the ones who came, I’d teach a little about the Bible, and then train them how to run sound, lead worship, and do puppets. They helped me make videos to remind kids of the rules and to go to the bathroom...
Read more