About Time and Talent Surveys

Time and talent surveys are the first thought of many people who want to improve volunteerism at their church. Or who want to find out the gifts and abilities of their members. Or who are talking about stewardship of time and talent.

But they often have questions. What do we put on the survey? How do we prepare people for it? What do we do after people fill it out? These are good questions; important questions. In fact, asking these and other questions, and thinking through the answers in advance, determines whether or not the time and talent survey will be a blessing to your church, or result in no change at all, or perhaps even create problems for your church.

Continue this article for the questions that should be asked.

Make it a conversation:

Responses will be shared on the website and in the next newsletter. (You can opt out of the sharing if you wish.)

Volunteers & Resumes

Lots of people are writing resumes in this down economy.

1. Remind your fellow church members to include pertinent volunteer experience on your resume. Look for skills you used as a volunteer that can transfer to the workplace. Did you organize a large event, build a shed, or create documents or forms in Word or Excel software? Do you transport seniors, install cabinets or cook meals for the homeless? Volunteer activity also demonstrates your reliability and character.

2. When one of our members, currently unemployed, came by to talk to me about volunteer opportunities, he brought a complete resume of his volunteer work, and gave me permission to share it with you. It was amazing and eye-opening! He is an engineer, so his volunteer resume is highly detailed. But even scratching out a quick one can have great value:

to help the church get to know the experience, training, skills of its people
to help an individual realize what they've learned and accomplished through volunteering
to help someone trying to choose a place to serve currently

See www.theequipper.org/resources/resume.asp for links to his sample resume, a worksheet on how to write a volunteer resume, and a blank volunteer resume form.

Good Stuff on the Web

Training: Do ministries in your church train volunteers to be ushers, to serve in the ministry to the homeless, to teach Sunday school? This article, "Training Can Make You a Better Volunteer," describes a social ministries training in Louisiana that attracts people from around the country. Could collaborating with sister churches in your area open new opportunities for training?

Excitement = a volunteer + their passion. When you think no one wants to serve in the church, read this person's blog. What if we asked each other in what ways we'd REALLY love to serve?

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