10 Best Strategies for Recruiting Volunteers
Every children’s pastor I’ve met and talked to over my 30 year ministerial career have a few great things in common. They are passionate about what they do and at heart, they are hard workers. They want to engage parents in the spiritual leadership of their own kids and deeply believe in raising a young generation of Christ followers.
They also face a common challenge, independently of the church size: having more volunteers to minister to those same kids. I have yet met one that has told me: “I have too many volunteers. I don’t know what to do with them! God stop sending me people!”.
If you’re a normal, yet still exceptional, children’s minister or director, you have pronounced the dreaded sentence “I need more people” and someone probably gave one of these two answers: “Pray, God will send you the people you need” or “Go get them! You can do it”. So, what happens when you’ve done both and the results are not what you want them to be? Though there are no easy quick fix solutions, there are solutions that can help you in the recruiting department. If you’re ready, let’s jump in.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN RECRUITING:
Here are four steps you need to follow before you ask new people to join your team.
- PRAY: You’re certainly one of those that hope to see people join your ministry. Yet, some people forget praying is still the first step! Go pray, ask God to put some people on your path, to give you the needed words when you talk to potential volunteers.
- EVALUATE: More is not an answer to the question of how many new volunteers you actually need! Evaluating this is an often forgotten step, yet it is nonetheless necessary. It will allow you to have the most accurate picture of what you need. In assessing your needs, think of the overall figure but also which areas need to be populated first. When you try to uncover the exact number of volunteers you need, take these 3 criteria into account.
- 1. The number of kids you have a typical weekend experience (N)
- 2. The ratio of adults / kids per environment you follow at your church (R)
- 3. The absentee rate. In most churches, you have 25-30% of your volunteers that will not show up for service. It could be for reasons ranging from sickness to vacation time, including forgetfulness! (A)
- Use the formula N (number of kids) divided by R (ratio adult per kids) multiplied by A (absentee rate, 25% usually) equals the number of needed volunteers
- 20 preschoolers / 6 adult-kid ratio X 1.25 absentee= 6.25 volunteers or 6
- 10 babies / 4 ratio X 1.25= 3 volunteers
- 35 elementary kids / 9 ratio X 1.25 = 5 volunteers
- CLEAN UP: Before you add people to your team and have them visit your environments, clean stuff up, literally. Bring some order in your rooms, throw away clutter, make it visibly appealing. Make your house a home! Since you in a cleaning mood, how about clearing your rosters out too.
- POPULATE: Recruiting is a military term and it also means to add or have someone join you on a venture. What is that adventure your new potential volunteers (NPT) is thinking of joining? Is it serving at a welcome counter, speaking in a large group setting, caring for a small group, singing on the worship team or leading people? This is all about knowing who you are looking for.
Now that you’ve done the work upstream, get ready to do add volunteers!
1. CHANGE YOUR MINDSET AND LANGUAGE
One may argue this is not a recruiting strategy but let me state the point. As young pastor Timothy was struggling while leading the church of Ephesus, the apostle Paul, his mentor, uses metaphors to change his mentee’s mindset. Paul wants to renew Timothy’s calling by comparing his pastorship to a soldier’s duty, an athlete’s race and the hard work of a farmer (2 Timothy 2:1-7). As Timothy had to change his ways of thinking, you should do the same on your approach to recruiting.
Enrolling new volunteers is not a task you have to attribute, it’s a conversation to give opportunity. You’re not telling people to serve, you’re giving them an opportunity to make a difference. You're not asking people to fill a hole in your schedule, you’re allowing them to fulfill a role. It’s not about the fact that you need them, it’s about you want them with you.
As you change the way to think about recruiting, your language will change too. Recruiting is not so much about adding people to a roster as much as connecting people to a team. Modify your attitude, your language and start talking to people.
2. TALK TO PEOPLE
There is no other way to look at it: you will have to talk to and with people. Sounds pretty obvious but it is often hard to do when you’re knee deep into serving moments on a Sunday. You're running production, teaching, registering families and what else! It’s hard to connect with people when you’re doing so much.
As you plan a recruiting push, design your schedule in order to be free to engage with people. You will need to set the example. Paul states “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1). This is the most important step of any good plan. As you set the tone, your team will see how important this is to you.
Talk about your ministry, the life-change happening in your kids, how the babies are loved on. Mention how great your people are, exchange with others how amazing it is to serve together. You’re promoting the 3Fs - fun, faith and friendships - that occur in your children’s ministry.
3. AIM CLOSER
Aiming closer is choosing who you decide to start engaging with in a conversation and connecting time. Anyone who has given their life to Christ and has a clear background check is a potential new volunteer. Yet, we can both admit it is harder to connect with someone you barely know than a friend of yours. So, aim closer, initiate conversations with people you know more. This is how Jesus got his first disciples!
“When (John the Baptist) saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.” (John 1:36-37 NIV). Jesus’ first followers were friends of his cousin.
In this sense, aiming closer will mean connecting with people in your circle of influence: family members, close friends, neighbors, small group member. These are your peeps, offer them the occasion to change their world! Then, start shooting wider.
4. SHOOT WIDER
This seems contradictory to the previous point but it’s not, it’s complementary to it. Shoot wider is launching your volunteers to actually go initiate contact with other folks from their circle of influence. Jesus and John the Baptist were related to each other and had common friends, one of them being Andrew. Read here John 1:40-42 (CEB) “One of the two disciples who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”. He led him to Jesus.” (emphasis mine)
This is exactly what shooting wider is: let other people from your team reach out to groups of individuals you don’t have access to. Andrew went to his brother, then to friends of his. He was the first recruiter for Jesus! Release and launch your leaders and volunteers to do the work of proclaiming the news of your ministry. It will have a multiplying effect.
5. HAVE A TARGET
Besides the people I just mentioned above, there are groups of people that most children’s pastors actually neglect to target in their recruiting strategy. Parents are often forgotten. They could certainly join your team on a bi-weekly or monthly schedule.
What about former volunteers? Many of them actually loved what they did and took a break without coming back. Listen to their concerns and address them.
I am sure you’ve thought of the seniors in your church. Those grandmas will L O V E to rock babies in your nursery, play with toddlers.
Stay-at-home moms may be able to cut some cardstock during the week, so the kids have a great craft to work on for the coming weekend.
Give all of them the opportunity to live out Scripture: “as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to our family in the faith.” (Galatians 6:10 GNB). Anyone else? You would know your church!
6. EQUIP TO MAKE AN OFFER
Since you have changed your language from “ask to volunteer” to “offer an opportunity”, create a training program on how to connect with people. It’s easy to tell people “go get them” but it’s more efficient to train them on what and how to offer joining your team. Providing coaching will allow everyone to have the basic skills to approach and communicate with potential volunteers.
Train your team on the language change:
- From “asking to serve” to “offering opportunity”
- From “we need you” to “join us”
- From “helping us out” to “ministering to kids”
- From “doing” to “accomplishing”
- From “filling a hole” to “fulfilling a role”
- From “volunteer” to “teammate”
Proper coaching will allow everyone to have the basic skills to approach and communicate with potential teammates to propose serving opportunities that change lives.
7. OFFER VARIOUS AND PURPOSEFUL OPPORTUNITIES
Did you know some studies suggest that up to 80% of people suffer some form of glossophobia, the fear of speaking in public? Yet, for many serving opportunities in children’s ministry, there is an important part of…teaching or speaking in front of kids! When you think about this, remember you could actually be asking your friends to face a major fear of theirs? That may not always be the best strategy to attract potential teammates!!
Instead, suggest purposeful openings like small group leader (care and prayer with kids), production (run the computer for worship and videos), registration area, craft prep during the week, data base management (scheduling, data entry for new teammate information) and so on. Be creative.
Micro volunteering could also be an option. Some individuals might have a hard committing to a set-in-stone serving schedule (weekly or biweekly for example) because their own responsibilities don’t allow that flexibility. But they can make a difference in small increments of time in your yearly VBS week, Harvest festival day, back to school project or even a child dedication moment. Micro service could be a possibility for many. This is an easy port of entry on your team. Plus, since they’re joining your team, they may actually make friends, connect and discover purpose in what they do.
So just offer and ask, let people tell you their YES and availabilities. Please, don’t say no for them!
8. MAKE YOUR MINISTRY VISIBLE
Many children’s pastor I know (solely) rely on the lead pastor’s communication and promotion to be visible. Though a good publicity push from the pastor is very appreciated and useful, it is not the only way to make your environment known to your prospective teammate. Visibility can be attained in many different forms.
Whether it is the church’s or your own accounts, posting pictures on Instagram and/or Facebook is a good way of promoting your kids’ team. Your entourage will scroll through pictures of smiling kids and parents, praying teammates and life-filled moments. Share a kid’s water baptism on your IG or FB account.
Be in as many parents and kids’ pictures taken on Sunday. Photo bomb them if needed! Challenge parents to post the pic on their social media account and tag you or your ministry.
Decorate your registration area when it’s not Christmas! Add some colors in September, a palm tree in the summer, balloons on child dedication day.
Have everyone wear their colors (your ministry t-shirt) and hand out popsicles on a hot summer day. Better yet, have the kids help you do so!
Add a slide in the church’s announcements presentation for pre and post service.
Ask to make the announcements on a Sunday. You’ll get a chance to say who you are and what you do.
Once a year, maybe two at the most, build a stand in the community space of the church to advertise your ministry. Have handouts ready like posters, business cards or flyers. Put your most sociable teammates at the table and make sure you have a sign-in sheets when people decide to minister alongside your team.
Life always attracts life and joy draws the joyful. Don’t only make your ministry visible, make it positively joyfully, lively, and attractive.
9. ORGANIZE A GIVEAWAY
“I don’t like giveaways” said NO ONE EVER! Everyone loves them. Plan a 10 week recruiting team wide challenge where each teammate can (and should!) participate in. Budget a 2-night retreat in a nearby resort for the person who brings in the most new teammates that stick to the team. Have other prizes like a gift cards to a local restaurant or coffee shop. Movie theater tickets are a good go-to. A date night package that includes a meal, entertainment, pictures and childcare if needed, is also an attractional reward. If you have a professional sports team in your area, affordable tickets could do the job, as well as concert vouchers.
You set the rules, everyone connects friends to the team and many win prizes. But mostly, the whole team lives out a great success by seeing new faces added on the team.
10. PAY YOUR TEAMMATES
Wait, what? Pay volunteer teammates? I don’t have that budget you may say to yourself. What if I guaranteed you actually could pay? I know, you can’t give them a money salary, but you can still reward them with a money that is not US dollars.
Here are a few currencies you can use. Care and time will go a long way with some of your peeps, specifically if it’s in their time of need. Lending a helping hand with a leader’s project is a form of payment. Use the old school method of sending positive individually written notes to your colleagues. Trust me when I say they’ll be more than happy to know it’s not a bill! Celebrate a teammate publicly for what he accomplished privately. Finally, pray with your people. Don’t say “I’ll pray for you this week”, pray for and with them right there, right then.
Caring and loving on people is a currency that many people don’t get, even at church. Paying with those the becomes priceless.
AFTER YOU’VE RECRUITED A NEW TEAMMATE:
Once you added someone on your team, make sure to follow each S.T.E.P in order to keep them on your team.
- S as Simplify your process. Don’t make them jump through innumerous hoops before one can serve. By simplifying it, it will also quicken the procedure itself.
- T as in Train your teammate. Onboard correctly by giving out the needed tools and expectations for the ministry.
- E as Evaluate. Make sure the new teammate has a place to give feedback on his experience and evaluate how to make it better.
- P as in Pair. Match your teammate with a trusted, dependable and gifted leader. This will make the onboarding process friendlier and warmer.
General Patton, during WW 2 is quoted as saying “A good plan, (violently) executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” Start implementing some of these strategies today, not tomorrow, and you will surely add people to your teams with these result-proven approaches.
Related Resources:
3 Fresh Ways to Recruit Volunteers in 2024
10 Best Strategies For Recruiting Children's Ministry Volunteers
How To Retain Sunday School Volunteers
Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Volunteers
Children's Church Volunteer Resources
3 Devotions To Encourage Volunteers In Your Children's Ministry
How To Train Children's Ministry Volunteers - 12 Essential Tips
