Volunteers Have Higher Priority

Put yourself in the shoes of a volunteer: in a 24 hour work day a volunteer will hopefully get 8 hours of sleep, work only 8 hours, and have 8 hours personal time. Of that 8 hours of personal time, some is spend driving, running errands, eating, and spending time with family. Weekends may be spent working on the house, visiting family, or running other errands. In the end, the average volunteer may have around 5-10 hours of time per week to put forth into helping out your ministry (assuming only 1 ministry involvement). At least, that is what I’ve found to be the case, with singles or retirees coming in at 10-20 hours, if they have big a heart to serve.

So, how do we, as lay or full-time leaders, treat them and utilize their time? Here are some ideas, some of which may appear in greater detail in the future:

• Pray with them – spend time as a group and individually over coffee or lunch, ask about their personal lives, listen to what they say, and pray for them on the spot and throughout the week
• Thank them – this is, afterall, a ministry and no one wants a second thankless job
• Listen to them – they are in the trenches, they know what’s going on
• Cast your vision with them – their lives are busy and often they need to be reminded of the purpose of their task(s)
• Communicate clearly what is required of them, what the purpose of the task is, and what the exit criteria/success factor(s) are that they will be weighed against. For reoccuring duties, draw up a simple page that everyone agrees upon are the expected duties (e.g. a job description)
• Ensure their path is clear – make sure they have every bit of what they need to achieve their goal. This requires more time on the leader’s part to perform the setup and validate it
• Ask upfront, and verify often, their willingness to commit time – how many hours per week, how long, and blackout dates
• Show respect for their time by assuming nothing and giving them as much notice as possible when they are needed – emergencies happen, but most churches run in reactive mode which can place more stress on your volunteers. Also, there is nothing worse than assuming that they can give time all of the time

Now, compare this to the way some churches (maybe even your own) treats your volunteers. Do you treasure them or consider them secondary to your services? We all know that the few staff members can’t do it all and that without volunteers, church services and outreaches would be difficult, if not impossible, to manage without them. So, why do we settle for treating them as second class citizens? In fact, if you compare a volunteer to a paid staff member, who has the most incentive to stay? Probably the staff member, who is drawing an income as well as considering it their profession. The volunteer is giving of their spare time and their talents to serve. So, when a volunteer needs something that is critical in their eyes, then drop everything and help them. That phone call can wait, and so can that meeting with your staff – they’ll be back again tomorrow. Your volunteer may not.

Popularity: 1% [?]