Why Can’t You Get More People To Volunteer at Your Church?
- Posted on January 25, 2010
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- (4) comments
Vibrant churches are very reliant on the power and number of their volunteers. Mark Beeson, the pastor at Granger Community Church has written a piece on why good people volunteer. His insights may help you in building a successful volunteer base at your church. See if you are offering your people these opportunities...
Here (in a nutshell) are Mark's thoughts:
1. People volunteer because they want to see done the thing that you're trying to do.
2. People volunteer because they see a need and want to help meet the need.
3. People volunteer because, deep down, they want to be involved.
4. People volunteer because they are invited to volunteer.
5. People volunteer when they see how their personal involvement improves the work.
6. People volunteer because they want you to succeed.
7. People volunteer because they love working with you.
8. People volunteer because they love working with the other volunteers.
Click here to read more of Mark's thoughts.
How is your volunteer base? Are you championing something that volunteers would "love" to be a part of?
Todd
Comments
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Judy Urban on Mon, January 25, 2010
I wonder if your readers are aware that there is a profession whose sole focus is to build effective, inviting, and supporting volunteer systems in churches.
While your article presents a lot of good ideas, it seems based on putting the whole responsibility on the charisma of the pastor, his/her ability to present a vision, her/his attracting and sustaining personality to draw people in, his/her knowledge and energy in paying a lot of attention to the intricacies of volunteer management. While the leadership of the pastor is undoubtedly very important, there are professional directors of church volunteers who know how to construct the systems that will invite people into your ministry, assist them in matching their gifts with the ministry opportunities in your church, build processes to train, support, supervise and evaluate the work being done with an accent on the spiritual growth of the volunteer.
Here in Minnesota we have an ecumenical state association of directors of volunteers in churches that has been encouraging the profession for over 20 years, To our knowledge we are the first and possibly the only such organization dedicated to church volunteer ministry systems. Our title is Directors of Church Volunteer Ministry (DCVM). To learn more about our organization go to http://www.dcvm org.
The value to pastors is that they don’t have to add volunteer system building to their already very full plate of responsibilities. By bringing a skilled person on board who knows how to build a self-perpetuating system that will support volunteer ministry, the struggling new or older church can move ahead much more quickly with its own unique mission. The wheel will not need re-inventing.
We welcome any networking possibilities with interested folks out there.
I can give you other very helpful resources if you contact me at my email address.
Judy Urban
Peter Hamm on Mon, January 25, 2010
Judy,
Kinda cool, but most churches are probably too small to be able to utilize your services, and in the day-to-day, we who are pastors are called upon in Scripture to equip the saints. So it is our job to do this…
Steve Long on Mon, January 25, 2010
I suspect the reason it is so hard to find volunteers is because God is not looking for them. Only profession Church people are. The greatest in the Kingdom of God is not a volunteer but a servant. When people are taught that then servanthood becomes part of their own maturing development and not the local churches strategy for expansion.
Scout Masters volunteer, so do RFD (rural fire department) workers. Volunteers help with the Highschool prom or track meet. The N.T. doesn’t really talk about volunteers or volunteerism but it does talk about servants and servanthood. They (volunteerism/servanthood) are two MAJORLY different concepts and reflect different attitudes of the heart.
Jesus was not a volunteer. He was an obedient servant. If we are really related to Him we should be too.
JAN on Fri, February 05, 2010
Why can’t we get more people to volunteer…?
I think our culture has become very very me centered.
We don’t want to make commitments that might limit our ability to take off and have fun for the weekend. So, it’s a lot easier to get people to work a one shot deal or we have arrange volunteers on a rotating basis.
We wait til the last minute just in case something better might come along.
I know I sound cynical! But I see a distinct difference in ministry 20 years ago. It is a lot more difficult to get commitment for anything. And even if you do, they often bail at the last minute.
I think most of us would say this is true. Just look what we have to do to get someone to attend a retreat or event. We can’t take tthe word of someone anymore, we have to collect their money before we sign them up or get stiffed.
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