Interviewing Volunteers

Now that you are starting to recruit, you’ll begin to get some interested people to sign up. The next step is to conduct an interview to determine if the recruit is a good fit for your ministry. Here is my approach from the time that someone indicates that they are interested until you have made your decision:

1. Obtain contact information – email, home, and mobile phone at a minimum, and provide yours as well. There is nothing worse than missing out on a volunteer because of a communication gap
2. Establish a time to meet just to get to know one another informally – I like to meet before or after the service they attend most often, making it convenient and giving you a chance to meet their family if possible
3. If they seem to be a good fit, proceed to the next step – this may be a background check for security reasons, inviting them to the next all-hands meeting, or immediately introducing them to someone on your team as to establish a team relationship with others, rather than solely with you
4. If they aren’t a fit, tell them why and try to connect them with someone else that they may better fit with ASAP. If they took the time to meet with you, more than likely they will be a valuable contributor somewhere. Don’t let them slip away!

Questions I commonly ask include:

1. What is drawing you to this ministry? Why this ministry and not another one?
2. How long have you been attending this church?
3. How and when did you come to a saving faith in Christ?
4. How many hours per week do you estimate you will be available?
5. Do you tend to work a little each day or a specific day of the week?
6. Do you prefer to work with others or individually?
7. Are you currently involved with any other ministries? What about family involvement?
8. Have you discussed your involvement with your family? What was their reaction?

Some things to avoid when considering a new volunteer for your ministry:

1. People who have been at your church less that 6 months – they probably aren’t familiar with your culture and may not be settled enough to stay (this can be mitigated by assigning them very simple tasks as a way to entice them to stay, but be careful as this can be distracting)
2. People that don’t attend your church on a regular basis – sometimes a friend of a family member in your church may recommend someone. Thank them, but move on – if they aren’t a regular attendee, there may be a cultural or priority mismatch
3. People that are already serving in a service-based ministry – your volunteers should only be involved in your ministry and a small group, otherwise you will have conflicts
4. Volunteers that have a very active family service – members of a family that have spouses or children actively involved also tend to have scheduling conflicts and are otherwise unreliable

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