1. Do add more volunteers when you have a defined need and a job description that describes the specific need you are trying to fill
2. Do add more volunteers when your church is going to move to a new building, as there will be a spike when those from the community come to visit
3. Don’t add more volunteers if you are not prepared to train them
4. Don’t add more volunteers if you won’t be able to honor their time requirements
5. Don’t add more volunteers “just because”

From: Agile Ministry’s Handle With Care eBook

Recruiting volunteers is often at the top of the list for any leader. It also requires the previous disciplines: people, purpose, structure, process, and balance. Recruiting can only be as successful as the health of the team you have built.

Are you reaching out to those not involved in ministry today to grow your team?
Recruiting requires more than a job posting at the events center or an announcement from the pulpit. Have a plan.

Does your team have a list of current job openings, with descriptions, that is shared with the church?
If people don’t know what will be expected of them, then they won’t sign up. If they do, they likely won’t stay and both you and the new team member won’t have an agreement on expectations.

Is your team prepared to integrate and train new volunteers if they show up today?
How do you train new team volunteers? Can anyone on your team train a new volunteer effectively?

Does your team have a documented interview process?
How are you ensuring that those joining your team have the proper skills and heart/attitude? Interview them first.

Does your team welcome new members, spending time and praying for them as they do long-time members?
Never allow your team to become a closed group (clique). Encourage existing team members to spend time with newbies.

Ministry leaders must deal with a variety of things at once. They must ensure all volunteers are kept up-to-date, the tasks they perform are of high quality, their team is trained, and they are moving together in one direction. Balancing each of these things can be a challenge.

Does your team encourage direct communication between members?
Are you getting in the way or making a way for your team to be successful?

Are you defining what quality means for your team?
Defining quality ensures that everyone is focused on delivering the best solutions in the time given and challenges them to give their best every time.

Are you providing authority with the responsiblity that you delegate?
Delegating responsibility without authority prevents people from being effective.

Does your team have a roadmap that provides the big idea or big picture of the next several months?
Communicate your team roadmap early and often. Keep it up-to-date.

Are you depending upon your whole team rather than a few heroes?
Depending on a few heroes prevents allowing everyone to participate. It also makes you vulnerable to losing your team’s effectiveness if those heroes leave your team.

Are you sacrificing your family on the altar of ministry?
Family comes first, for both the leader and the team. Never expect others, or yourself, to give up family for ministry. It is isn’t healthy and never ends well.

Your process should include typical procedures for conducting tasks, scheduling volunteers for service, and determining how your team serves other ministries within your church. It should be documented, taught to future team members, and flexible enough to allow for updates when needed.

You should review your process with church staff. Make sure they agree with your procedures, as they may have a different point of view. It may be that you place high value on a task that they may not – spending the time to verify this upfront can prevent you from undoing hours of training later. It also allows the staff to learn about how they can support you, perhaps putting you in contact with someone that would greatly help your ministry.

From: Agile Ministry’s Handle With Care eBook

Every ministry that intends on sustaining healthy growth and effectiveness requires a process. Your team’s process will define how your ministry functions day-to-day and whether it works well with other ministries.

Does your team have a documented process for each job role it performs?
Documenting each job role will help ensure consistency across your team and help train new volunteers.

Does your team have a documented process for scheduling your volunteers?
Having a stable schedule allows team members to balance work and family life with the needs of your ministry or cause.

Are your documented processes assembled into a guidebook and handed to new team members?
A complete, up-to-date guidebook makes a great first impression with new team members and provides valuable information to everyone on your team.

Does your team have a documented process for training new volunteers?
Consistent training of new volunteers empowers them and ensures they become comfortable with the tasks at hand.

Without structure, your ministry will not effectively meet the needs of others. Selecting the wrong structure will not only impact how you execute as a ministry, it often leads to dysfunction across the church.

Does your team have a well-defined structure (peer-based, team-based, or depth-based)?
Without structure, your volunteers will not know where and when to go when they need help. They’ll feel helpless and give up.

Is your team structure documented (organizational chart or outline)?
Your team needs to know where to go when they need help, so make it easy on them by keeping a chart available and up-to-date.

Does your team have job descriptions for each job role your team performs, including the duration required for new signups?
How can your team do their job if they don’t know what their job is? Make short, easy to understand job descriptions that help everyone stay focused.

Do you have a process for locating new managers and leaders to grow your team?
Developing structure helps you to see where future managers and leaders are needed. Develop a simple process for locating these future team members.

• Someone may be a few steps from losing their job
• Someone may be dealing with a divorce
• Someone may be struggling with an addiction
• Someone may be one step closer to cheating on their spouse

A people-centered leader takes the time to stop and pray for someone on their team, even if it means delaying completion of a task. This doesn’t mean they aren’t concerned with making progress. It just means that they are not focused on checking off the tasks on their to-do list rather than making the time to pray with someone who is struggling with an issue. As a leader, you must make the choice: being a task-centered or people-centered leader. Based on your recent actions and words, which one are you?

From: Agile Ministry’s Handle With Care eBook

Your purpose is why you and your team exist to support your local church. Think of your purpose as the lens in which your team should view everything that they do and don’t do. Your vision is a picture of the result. Purpose helps decision; vision ignites passion.

Does your team have a short, easy to remember purpose?
Having a short purpose or mantra will help keep everyone focused and prevent going the wrong direction.

Does your team have a vision that paints the future of where your team is going?
Painting a vision helps motivate when things get busy or difficult.

Are you filtering your team’s tasks through your purpose and vision and rejecting things that don’t fit your team?
Saying ‘no’ to opportunities that may be interesting but won’t contribute to your team’s purpose is a critical discipline for every leader.

Everyone has been given gifts. Leaders are to train others in skills to effectively serve the church and to help them to grow into spiritual adults. The result of this training is to create a rhythm: everyone working in step, depending upon Christ for breath and life, depending upon one another, telling others of the gospel truth in love.

Are you focusing your team on tasks or people?
This means that your team is willing to take longer to get things done if there is a ministry need in or around your team.

Are you meeting with your team members in person on a regular basis?
Time spent building relationships lasts longer than any completed task.

Are you keeping a prayer and praise list for your team members and praying for them consistently?
Praying for your team sets the proper mindset and prevents you from seeing them simply as resources to get things done.

Are you meeting the needs of each person in your team by understanding and focusing on what they want out of their time?
Volunteers need to get back, not just give. Each of us have a different love language, so discover what motivates each team member.

Are you meeting with your entire team on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, quarterly)?
Group meetings help remind everyone that they are part of a bigger team. It also helps to create better communication and motivation when they see everyone working together for a common goal.

Instead of doing everything at once, take smaller steps. Implement only what is needed, not only because you may not know tomorrow’s exact needs, but also because people dislike change. It is easier to introduce slow change and get buy-in at each stage, than to put it all out there.

The other side effect: you can get input before assuming the way someone plans on consuming your ministry or a service of your ministry. Then, adjust as you go rather than forcing people to use what has already been implemented or throwing away a lot of effort. This is the biggest problem with software development (my profession): developers assume they know what the customer wants, and customers assume the developers can read their mind and/or intent.

Deliver early, deliver often, get buy in each step of the way, and don’t assume you know what people want or that people will tolerate the change.