Don’t Miss this Opportunity to Recruit Church Volunteers

For many of the ministries in your church, the ministry season is coming to a close. Your student ministry, kids ministry, young adult ministry are all tied to the school year. Some churches shut down these ministries in the summer and others adjust their programming schedule during the summer. However your church handles this, a bunch of volunteers will step back from their normal volunteering rhythm during the summer months. 

You have a huge recruiting opportunity right now, before they step away. Don’t miss it! 

While you still see these volunteers every week, invite them to help recruit more volunteers. Here’s the question to ask: 

“Who can do what you do?” 

Or,

“Who do you know who should be serving with you?” 

You see, your volunteers are your best pipeline for recruiting more volunteers. There’s something about a friend asking you to serve alongside them that is just different from a ministry leader asking you to start volunteering.

Also, your current volunteers already understand what it takes to be an effective volunteer in your ministry. They are already bought in. They have insider knowledge. They are the most strategically positioned people you have for recruiting.

So, here’s the opportunity you need to take advantage of before your regular volunteers take a break over the summer: Invite them to recruit someone to serve with them in your ministry. and give them tools to make it easy. 

• Provide them with invite cards. 
• Give them two free t-shirts from your ministry. One for them, and one for a friend who really should be volunteering with them. 
• Offer to buy lunch or coffee for them and one of their friends who should be volunteering. 

All I’m saying is, don’t miss this opportunity before the ministry season wraps up and your regular volunteers disappear for the summer. 

One last thought on the importance of this season. The best recruiting is actually retaining. What I’m saying is that if you keep your best volunteers, you don’t need to recruit new ones. 

So, as the ministry season wraps up, take the time to do two things:  celebrate and recognize. Celebrate the wins of the last ministry season. Remind your volunteers why what they do matters. Also, recognize your volunteers. Tell them how much you appreciate them. Thank them. Many of the volunteer roles in your church come with significant time investment. Make sure they know that you see their efforts and appreciate them. 

Celebrating and recognizing will help you retain your volunteers and retention is the best form of recruitment. 

Wrap Up

As the ministry season wraps up, you have huge opportunities to recruit and to retain. My encouragement to you is that in the midst of the busyness of this season, create space to take advantage of these opportunities.