Do you need more volunteers? Of course you do. I have never met a children's ministry that didn't need more volunteers.
The big question...how can I get more volunteers to join our team?
Let's talk about this. I am going to share some strategies you can use to get lots of new volunteers. You can even double your volunteers in one month.
Strategy #1 - Everyone bring one. What if you challenged your volunteers to each bring one more person to volunteer? They know people you don't know. They can influence people you can't influence. If you decide to do this, you need to make it a big deal. Present it. Promote it. Passionately pursue it.
And of course, you need to lead the charge. As the leader, you should enlist many people to join the team. If you are effective in this, the volunteers will follow your lead.
I remember when I presented this challenge to our volunteers. One of our volunteers enlisted 85 new people to serve. Yes, you read that correctly. 85 new volunteers. One volunteer. Fired up about bringing people on board to volunteer.
Strategy #2 - Church-wide push. I normally encourage churches to steer away from making stage announcements for more volunteers. It can come across as needy or desperate. People are not drawn to desperation. No one wants to get on the Titanic. But they will get on board when you present a compelling vision. This is where the church-wide ask comes in to play.
Let's say you have a big family event coming for the entire church. Fall Festival. Easter. VBS. Christmas services and happenings.
As you prepare for these big events, have the Pastor make a big ask for people who are not serving to step up and serve one time. Present the impact they can have for serving at the big event. Have people sign-up. After they serve, do a push to enlist them to serve all the time. I have personally saw retention rates as high as 85% when using this strategy.
Strategy #3 - Make direct asks. Personal one-on-one asks. You have not because you ask not. Make asking people to volunteer one of your top priorities each week. If you will be consistent and make it a priority, you can bring multiple people on the team each month.
Stategy #4 - Dream board. It helps to have a visual picture of what a full team looks like. Take some poster-boards and write down all of the volunteers you'd like to have. Dream big. What would the board look like if you could have all the volunteers you could ever want?
Once you have that vision in place, start working to fill it up. One spot at a time. One person at a time. Ask. Ask. Ask. Week in and week out. Do that and one day you will look up and have lots of new volunteers in place.
In one of the churches where I was the children's pastor, we used this strategy. In 9 years, we went from 300 volunteers to over 2,000 volunteers. We built it one person at a time. One ask at a time.
Strategy #5 - Pray for divine appointments. I believe God has people in your church that He has already been working on. Ask God to lead you to those people. Time after time, I have seen God do this. When I asked Him for divine appointments, He has led me to people who had already been thinking about serving.
Try these strategies. You will be amazed at what God will do.
Children's ministry is all about volunteers. God has told us to ask (pray) for more volunteers. He has them ready for you. Build your team through His strength and power.
p.s. Have you read my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams?" It has lots more great tips and strategies to build and lead a great volunteer team. It is available at this link. It has been called the best book ever written about the subject.
