Love your VBS volunteers? Wish they’d stay after vacation Bible school is over for the summer? Then consider these five helpful suggestions for volunteer retention.
Once the dust settles following VBS, you may worry whether your weary volunteers will stick around. Never fear! They will continue serving when you employ a strategy for volunteer retention that works.
So let’s look at five critical elements of lasting teams.
5 Ways to Retain Your VBS Volunteers
1. Create a culture that cultivates leaders.
Veteran children’s ministry leaders develop team leaders from their full pool of volunteers. These are people you can count on and delegate to so the ministry functions and so team members, including you, avoid burnout.
It takes time to cultivate leaders among your volunteer teams. And it may not be easy to get into the habit of regular meetings with team leaders. But by carving out and spending time with your leaders, you encourage them to develop the same kind of relationship with their team members. Those volunteers deserve the same level of time and attention but may not be able to get it from you. (There are only so many hours in a week!)
Also model praying with people you lead. This is another important piece of doing ministry together and with God!
2. Make sure volunteers know their roles and responsibilities.
Delineating clear roles provides greater ownership and enables people to excel in their areas of responsibility. Before VBS begins, find ways to let team members spend time getting to know each other. Understanding team members’ strengths, weaknesses, and personalities helps teams better determine who should fill which role.
Training and equipping are key components of this. Never assume that an onboarding training session will cut it. You increase your team members’ buy-in and passion when you equip them through regular, palatable, engaging, and effective training.
3. Value loyalty and commitment.
One of your volunteers’ primary needs is to be needed—and not only during the heat of VBS. Year round, send this message: “I need you to reach children. God works through you uniquely!” People want to feel that they’re making a valuable contribution to the team. You’ll retain volunteers longer because they feel valued and know there’s a place for their unique gifts and talents.
In addition to hearing positive feedback from you, it’s also important for teammates to communicate to one another how important they are. You can do this in team meetings where team members regularly share “words of appreciation” about what they value in teammates.
Follow up VBS with a team debrief. What went well? What needs improvement? And how did volunteers shine? Encourage “holy gossip,” where teammates report to others the great contributions they’ve seen.
