How To Unlock Greatness In Your Church Volunteers (Part 2)

Recently, I shared five strategies for unlocking greatness in our volunteers.

(You can check out these first five strategies here.)

In this post, I’d like to share strategies six through ten.

Again, these are lessons I learned from my friend Jon, who taught me almost everything I know about caring for and developing volunteers.

So, here we go. Five more strategies for unlocking greatness in your volunteers.

6. Fun

Something that I’ve discovered is that telling people, “What you are doing is important” only goes so far in motivating them.

The same is true for telling people, “You are really good at this.”

In my experience, people who engage with a task or role at a high level for a long period of time are not just good at the task, they enjoy the task. They are having fun.

When I think about the experience of a volunteer, what I don’t want to hear is:

"I do this because it matters."

"I do this because I’m good at it and I want to give back."

Sure, these statements are nice but what I really want to hear is:

"I do this because I love it!"

Think about the things that you love to do. You probably love those tasks or roles because you’re good at them, they are meaningful and because they are incredibly fun.

They bring you joy.

So, here’s the million dollar question for your volunteers: Do they love serving?

Is it enjoyable?

Do they laugh?

Is it fun?

If you want to unlock greatness in your volunteers, the experience has to be fun. They have to love it.

My hope is that as you read these words, a few fun ideas have already popped into your head.

If not, I would recommend surveying your volunteers with a simple question:

What would make serving here more fun?

7. Community

I’ll never forget the first time I heard a volunteer say,

I have been attending our church for years but it never felt like home until I started serving.

Over the years, I’ve heard this statement in varying forms time and time again.

The truth is, it’s hard to get to know people in most churches, especially in larger churches.

And, one of the fundamental needs, deep inside of all of us, is the need to belong. We all need community.

I’m guessing that most of the volunteer roles in your church are part of a team.

Each of these volunteer teams is an opportunity to create community.

This is a really good thing for two reasons.

First, volunteers who discover a sense of belonging in their volunteer team are typically more effective volunteers. Community often brings a sense of accountability and encouragement.

Second, volunteers who discover a sense of belonging in their volunteer team usually stick.

Volunteers in our student ministry have a high retention rate and I believe that the community they experience is a huge part of this.

When people find meaningful community, they don’t like leaving it!

What I’m trying to say is that if you are interested in unlocking greatness in your volunteers, emphasize relationships and community in the serving experience.

The easiest way to do this is to create space for team building within the volunteer teams that already exist.

8. Ownership

Recently, a team from our student ministry spent a week in Houston serving in areas that were devastated by the recent hurricane.

After the trip, one of our volunteer coaches sent this email (I’ve edited it a bit) to the parents of students who were in her and her husband’s work team:

"Good Afternoon Parents!

My name is ****. My husband, **** and I, had the privilege of leading your son or daughter during our Houston trip. I wanted to send you a note and tell you how amazing your child is.

We had ten students on our team and not only did they impress us, but they impressed the organization we were partnering with. They were surprised that the students did not say "bad" words, complain, or take a lot of breaks or stop working completely.

They truly wanted our team to remain in Texas for another couple weeks or longer. More than once, they commented on the team's work ethic, workmanship, and positive attitude.

Not only did the team learn how to drywall, they rescued a dog (Stan), led worship and led a group game on our last night, and many prayed for meals in front of the entire team.

They began to call us their Houston mom and dad, got **** a Father's Day card and gave us a gift at the end of the trip. How thoughtful is that?

During our small group time and debrief time everyone participated. They shared their thoughts about what happened that day, encouraged one another, laughed, cried, and poked fun too.
 
We did not have to tell the team when to go to bed or to help clean up. I can't tell you how many times we witnessed them offer to help with meals, clean-up, and many other tasks. They were polite and caring to everyone they connected with.

I know leaders say this all the time, but this truly was the best group we have ever worked with. You did a tremendous job raising these kids. We thank you for your parenting skills because this made our week easy.
 
Here is a link to some photos. Enjoy!"

First off, if I received this email about one of my kids, I would have cried my eyes out.

Secondly, no one asked these volunteers to write this email. They just did it.

Why?

One word: Ownership.

They feel freedom in their role to do what they believe is best to lead and care for students, volunteers and parents.

There are two ways to lead volunteers. One way is to tell them exactly what they need to do and ask them to do exactly that.

The other way is to paint a vision and then empower them to take ownership of their role.

When you give volunteers ownership, you’ll get energy, creativity and passion.

If you’re interested in unlocking greatness in your volunteers, find ways to give them ownership of the role.

9. Swag

Alright, this mind sound a little crazy, but I am big believer in giving your volunteers swag.

If you’re unfamiliar with the word, let me give you a simple definition.

Swag: Cool stuff

Over the years, we have created a brand around our student ministry through swag.

Every year we give our volunteers t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, bumper stickers, sun glasses or whatever with our logo on them.

You might be thinking,

Who cares…sounds like a waste of money.

Here’s the thing: People love our stuff, whether they are volunteers, parents, staff members or whoever.

There is an energy and momentum around our ministry because the volunteering role is meaningful and fun but also because the stuff we give out in appreciation of our volunteers is really cool stuff.

I’m just saying, give it some thought.

Consider including a really comfortable t-shirt with a ministry or church’s logo to your volunteers this year.

If you want to unlock greatness in your volunteers, swag isn’t the most important thing but it does matter.

10. Rest

Ok. One last strategy for unlocking greatness in your volunteers.

Rest.

Here’s the thing, if you’re asking your volunteers for greatness week after week, they will get tired.

In addition, in many of our churches, our best volunteers serve in two or three different ministries.

Can we be real for a second, this is a short-term solution that usually leads to burn out.

If we are serious about greatness in our volunteers, and also longevity and sustainability, we must help our volunteers rest.

In both our children’s and student ministry, we give our regular small group leaders the summer off.

Yes, this a messy and creates a near volunteering crisis through the summer in our children’s ministry, but the positive is that our regular small group leaders come back in the fall refreshed and ready to pour themselves out.

If you are interested in unlocking greatness in your volunteers, you must find ways to help your volunteers rest.

Maybe it’s one weekend off a month?

Maybe it’s the summer off?

Whatever it is, find ways to give your volunteers the rest they need.

Wrap Up

Well, there you go, over my last two posts, I’ve shared 10 strategies for unlocking greatness in your volunteers.

I’m sure there are other strategies out there that are highly effective.

If you know of one, we’d love to hear about it.

Also, if you have any questions on the strategies I shared, leave us a comment.

I’d be happy to share more. Thanks for reading.