Guest Post by Chris Wesley
It’s nice when your ministry is growing on all fronts, not only when you see new teens walking in through the door, but when you attract adults who want to get involved. Now you have someone to set out the pizza, stack chairs, and help out with any needs that may arise. (YEAH!)
But then stacking chairs, serving pizza and greeting students gets a little stale and that minister that you’ve been waiting for misses a week, then two, then doesn’t really show up anymore. It’s a little upsetting: it’s like losing a student.
Why do these volunteer ministers leave? Can’t they see that we need them?
I think the reason why volunteer ministers leave isn’t because they don’t see a need. When they walk in, they can clearly see the need! They see us running around, putting out fires, herding cats . . . The need is there. I think the reason many volunteer ministers will walk away from ministry is because we haven’t given them a CLEAR VISION and a PIECE OF THE INVESTMENT.
When volunteers walk into our ministry, most of them want to do more than chaperone. They want to be a part of the excitement. They want to be a part of a story, a part of the life-change taking place in students. To allow them to be a part of all of this, there are a couple things you can do.
Paint the Vision
When you recruit a volunteer minister, you’ll discover that they may be serving for a number of reasons (i.e. want to be closer with their child, want to give back, etc.). No matter why they come to serve, you want to give them a reason to grow in that ministry. What you want to do is give them the reason your ministry exists. After a volunteer minister serves for the first time at one of our student programs, I like to sit down with them and one of our point people and talk with them about what we are looking to accomplish. I love to tell them that they are helping us create irresistible environments and a consistent opportunity to connect in authentic relationships.
You want to give your volunteers the vision of your ministry over and over again so that it becomes a part of their vocabulary. The more you think about your vision, the more you think of ways to fulfill it; therefore, why wouldn’t you share that with your team?
Share Success
When volunteers take ownership of the vision, they become mindful of success. And you want your volunteer ministers thinking of the different ways that your ministry can succeed. In fact you want to breed a culture that promotes that mindset. At the three month mark, and again at the end of the year, we like to get the new volunteers together to help evaluate our ministry. There are at least two benefits to this process. The first is that we allow them to tell us (with fresh eyes) what is matching and not matching with our mission, goals, and vision. It also tells them that we care about their opinion.
When you can paint the vision, they are going to think about how the entire ministry can win. If you encourage your volunteers to evaluate the ministry, they are going to want to own the problems and own the success. Volunteer ministers aren’t chaperones, they are active investors in our programs. As such, we need to grow the number of investors we have and that comes from giving them clear vision and allowing them a piece of the investment.
Chris Wesley is the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. With over 6 years of youth ministry experience you can read more about his journey on his blog Marathon Youth Ministry.
