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Volunteer Week – Developing Leaders

Posted on 21. Feb, 2009 by .

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So, this week we’ve chatted about a number of volunteer topics:

  • Assessing our volunteer culture
  • Recruiting new volunteers through expos and cold calls
  • Providing an orientation process for new volunteers
  • Training volunteers

Now it’s time to examine the leadership structure within a ministry.

WHY HAVE LEADERS?

You cannot do this job alone. Why? Because you are limited. You have weaknesses. If you don’t believe me ask your spouse…or your teenager.

With a team of leaders you have a team of increased time to pour in the ministry. You have more hands and feet to do the work. And you have the collective strengths and talents of many people.

You will be more effective if you develop leaders.

THE PATH TO LEADERSHIP

Here are a few things to consider:

1.… Read the rest

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Volunteer Week – Training Volunteers

Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by .

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A couple years ago, Kenny and I and our colleagues experimented with training volunteers. We did a big expo and recruited nearly 100 new workers in January. At the end of February, we held a seminar-style training on Saturday morning.

Why did we choose seminar-style training? We wanted to give our volunteers the chance to dive a little deeper into topics that really interested or concerned them. Also, we were a multi-site church and we wanted our volunteers to see and feel the energy of the entire team assembled at once. We hoped this might encourage those who felt isolated in their work.

SCHEDULE

Our schedule looked something like this:

8:45 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. – Continental Breakfast and Roundtable Discussions

9:30 a.m.… Read the rest

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Volunteer Week – Welcoming New Volunteers

Posted on 19. Feb, 2009 by .

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One day I called to check on a volunteer. He’d agreed to volunteer, but according to the ministry director, he’d never showed up. Our call went something like this:

Me: “Hi. Can I speak to Mr. Jones?”

Him: “No Mr. Jones lives here. Only a Mr. Johnson lives here.”

Me: “I’m sorry. Is this <insert phone number here>?”

Him: “Yep.”

Me: “Well, perhaps I have the wrong name. Do you attend <insert church name here>?”

Him: “Yep.”

Me: “Hmm…have you volunteered in our kid’s ministry?”

Him: “Yep. I signed up a couple months ago and worked every week for about a month. But no one ever spoke to me, and I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to be doing, so I stopped working about 2 weeks ago.”

WHAT???!!!!!… Read the rest

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Volunteer Week – Cold Calling New Recruits

Posted on 18. Feb, 2009 by .

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Cold calls.

Do those two words make the blood run cold in your veins?

Don’t be scared! After all, you wrangle large classrooms of energetic children week after week. If you can do that, you can take on the challenge of a few cold calls.

I found in my volunteer recruiting experience that a friendly phone call to parents worked wonders for my volunteer rosters. Here are a few things to consider:

WHO TO CALL?

How does your church record children’s ministry attendance? If you’re lucky enough to work at a church with a robust database, chances are you have pretty good records of what families are regularly attending.

Each quarter, I would run reports of all my kids who’d attended regularly over the past quarter.… Read the rest

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Volunteer Week – Examine Your Volunteer Culture

Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by .

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What kind of culture does your ministry have? Did you create that culture on purpose? Did you get there by accident? Did you get there by poor decisions?

The Bible talks often of the church being a body. Have you ever considered the human body? The pieces and parts work together. One is not more important than another. All have purpose and meaning. Is this how your ministry functions? If not, how do you turn the tide?

Examine your culture. Here are a few questions to consider:

Does your ministry have a stated purpose? Do volunteers know where the ministry is going? If you stop and ask any volunteer, do they know what the common goal is?

Does your ministry have a clear structure?… Read the rest

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Volunteer Week – Attitude Check

Posted on 16. Feb, 2009 by .

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In the summer of 1998, I’d been dating Kenny for nearly a year. He convinced me to work at a kid’s day camp with him in Germantown, Maryland all summer. We had a little drill there that has served me well as a life lesson.

When we’d see our kids’ energy dragging, the camp director would yell: “ATTITUDE CHECK!”

The kids would snap to and shout back, “PRAISE THE LORD!”

Cheesy?

Yes.

But it worked! Immediately the energy of the camp was once again buoyant and happy.

Sometimes, I think we in children’s ministry need an attitude check, particularly regarding our volunteers. Misery likes company.  Here are a few common sob stories I hear children’s ministers griping about:

1. “I can’t get enough volunteers.”

2.… Read the rest

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Volunteer Expo (Part Two)

Posted on 11. Feb, 2009 by .

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Here is “part two” of the blog post from yesterday.

5. BE ORGANIZED.
Think through the details of your event and plan accordingly.

We recruited for three ministries at our recent expo. Each ministry was assigned a color. Banners, balloons and booth paperwork in these colors quickly visually distinguished the ministries from each other.

Each booth was equipped with sign up cards, trifolds listing job descriptions for volunteer positions, pens and clipboards. The children’s ministry booth also had applications and background checks available for every recruit to fill out on the spot.

6. PLAN FOLLOW UP.
As a recruiter, I hate to see people fall through the cracks. By Sunday night following the Expo all the data entry of our prospective volunteers was complete.… Read the rest

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Volunteer Expo (Part One)

Posted on 10. Feb, 2009 by .

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Hi Friends!

My sweet hubby Kenny invited me to chat with you about a subject I love dearly – volunteer recruiting.
My, oh my. Children’s ministry is a hungry beast when it comes to volunteer recruiting huh? Ever feel like you’re nonstop asking for volunteers? I’ve been there.

Today, we’ll specifically chat about Volunteer Expos.

Recently at Gateway Community Church I was hired as a contract employee to plan a volunteer expo. Our goal was 150 total new volunteers for three ministries in the church. Guess how many people signed up? 350! Can you believe it?! We had more sign up than we hoped for! Wow!

This was not my first Expo. I’ll share with you a few things I’ve learned.… Read the rest

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