How often do you train your volunteers? This has become quite the buzz question for children’s ministry. As we know, basic laws and guidelines are always changing, but so are the kids we are ministering to. So with all this in mind, do we truly equip our leaders to be effective in what they do?
I have heard of online trainings, paper handouts and actual meeting formats. The question I am most often asked is “how often?” As with any program or ministry, I think it depends on your format. For example, we operate in seasons; our children’s ministry runs traditional Sunday school and kids church from September to June. We then switch gears to summer Sunday blast for the summer, which makes up a separate team of volunteers. So our trainings are geared for the season that they will serve in.
While I appreciate this model, and love the fact that my team does effective training for what is to come, the danger here is losing the basics. We have discovered that as the seasons change, we update the ever changing elements but have at times failed to bring the basic elements along for the ride. This is an easy mistake to make, especially if you have returning volunteers that you feel know this information already. Repetition is your friend in this case. You may be wondering, what are the basic elements?
Basic elements: (elements that need to be known regardless of when they serve)
- safety policies
- discipline in the classroom
- fire drills
- first aid
- mandated reporting
- ratio rules
- pick up/drop off policies
- dress code
- special needs training
- curriculum shift/how to prepare etc.
- format change
- sets/skits/music
- volunteer scheduling
