Childrens Ministry Online

Training timeliness: Volunteer edition

Posted on 02. Jul, 2008 by Kenny.

Since we’re talking about timeliness, I figured I’d breach this topic since we’re all thinking it.

So, how do you get your volunteers to show up on time? No really, how do you get your volunteers to show up on time?

Every church I’ve been at I’ve experienced difficulty in this area. We’d have volunteers show up just minutes before the kids… or sometimes several minutes after the kids. It frustrates the staff and key/committed volunteers like crazy. So, how do you get them there on time?

This is an issue that I think has a deeper root. It’s actually something that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about, especially in my role here at Gateway. I don’t think the real question is “how do I get my volunteers to show up on time?” I think the real question is, “why don’t my volunteers truly value their role in the children’s ministry?” Honestly, I believe that we show up on time for the things that we value. Even for me, getting to the movies on time to see the previews is a value. So I’m there on time.

Yes, I think it’s inconsiderate that volunteers show up 10 minutes late when they’ve committed to being there on time. However, I’m not convinced that they are the ones to blame. No, really! I think the solution lies with us. Too many of our volunteers are serving because in their mind they’re doing us a favor. They signed up because we needed help and the fact that they’re even showing up is a huge “blessing” for the children’s ministry (this also points to the ineffective recruiting strategies we use at times as well). I don’t think they show up on time because they don’t value their serving in the children’s ministry enough to show up on time. Whether they say it or not, every volunteer is asking the “what am I going to get out of this?’ question in relationship to serving. Right now, my best answer to that question is “to make a difference in the lives of kids.” For many volunteers, that is enough. For others, it’s not enough to make them get their on time. The thing that is challenging me right now (and maybe something for you to think about) is to further develop answers to the “what am I going to get out of this?” question. What if I could honestly answer that question with the following answers:

• You get to make a tangible difference in the lives of kids
• You’ll develop deep and meaningful friendships with other adults on your serving teams
• You’ll be challenged to grow spiritually and given the tools to take the next step in your faith
• You’ll feel like a part of a community you didn’t know existed

I don’t know, but I just think that if I could provide these experiences for my volunteers, they may just value their role enough to show up on time. What do you think?

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Training timeliness: Room closures

Posted on 01. Jul, 2008 by Kenny.

So, we’ve been talking about timeliness. As I’m hearing from others, it’s an issue everyone faces. On the weekend people show up late. So here is the big question or questions:

Do you have a “too late to check in” policy? If so, how late is too late?

Some of us have to close rooms because they get too full or there aren’t enough volunteers. I’m not talking about that though. I’m talking about closing rooms because service is halfway over. As children’s ministers, we know why we close the rooms:

• Letting kids in half-way through the service is distracting to the other 17 kids in the room.
• Kids coming in half-way through the service won’t get the full experience possible.
• Emergency/Evacuation rosters are already printed and kids coming in this late might not make it on the roster.

I know some of these excuses sound lame, but to those working so hard to make the weekend a quality experience, it’s frustrating to have kids coming in so late. However, there are several reason why we don’t want to “not” check in a kid so late.

• It could be a visitor and we don’t want to turn away a person who’s coming to check things out (I know, it’s not usually the visitors who are late, but do we really want to be the gestapo who determines who we do and do not let in?).
• Do we really want to keep the kids away as it’s not their fault?

Currently at Gateway, we do not turn anyone away. Our program is such that someone could come in late and it’s not going to be that big of a deal. However I’ve been at churches where it was a very big deal. I talked about it with leadership and they were never interested in going there… so we didn’t. Yes, it does bother me that people come late. It’s annoying and I feel bad that the kids are only getting half the experience that they could, but for me I don’t know that it’s worth doing it.

What about you? What is your policy and why do you do what you do?

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Training timeliness

Posted on 30. Jun, 2008 by Kenny.

The other day I wrote a post about timeliness here. Some of the comments added to the post in a way that I thought I’d write a little more. Interestingly enough, I wrote about this issue specifically about 14 months ago. Timeliness. It’s something we all struggle with. Kids are late. Volunteers are late. Parents are late. What do we do?

“I’m going to train my parents to be on time.”

Yeah, I’ve said that. Have you?

Unfortunately, I don’t think its necessarily right to think of it that way. It’s not my job to get parents to sign up for stuff on time. However, we all understand the value of timeliness. If we only get an hour a week with these kids, we want the full hour, right? Or when we’re planning camp, it totally throws us off when 40 registrations come in a few days before we leave for camp. So, it’s not really about “training our parents” but more about setting policies for the purpose of creating ministry excellence. Here are some examples:

Late registration price increases. A lot of times I’ll do this for camps. Initially I did this as motivation for parents to sign up their kids on time. However, I found that it really didn’t help that much. However, late registrations often cost more money. I’ll usually order t-shirts by the time registration closes. I always order extra shirts because you know someone else always signs up and I’d feel horrible if 140 kids got a t-shirt and one didn’t. So I order enough to handle late registrations and the price increase pays for the extra shirt. Sometimes extra supplies are needed at the last minute and we have to pay extra to get it on time, so price increases help with this.

Registration closure. At some times you have to just pull the plug. When I would do a lock-in with a couple hundred kids (and my last few lock-ins traveled a little as well), it was imperative that I had enough help and I knew exactly what kids were in what groups. So, I’d intentionally close registration 3-4 days before the lock-in so I could organize groups and be ready for the big night. Yes, I’d have parents get upset with me. However, most (if not all) of those parents signed their kids up early the next year.

Programming great stuff early. Sam mentioned this in my post. He creates the kinds of things kids really don’t want to miss at the beginning of the service. Honestly, if I don’t get to a theater in time for the previews, I feel like I’m missed half of the experience. I do everything I can to be there on time! Certainly the local theater doesn’t care what time you come as long as you pay, but what are things you can plan for the first 10 minutes of your program that the kids absolutely don’t want to miss?

I think that if we create these experiences and put these policies in place… and then stick to our guns, we’ll see a difference. There will be less stress and we’ll get more time with the kids.

Okay, I think that was a good start. I’ll hit room closures tomorrow followed by getting volunteers to be on time the next day.

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