Is your church screening the volunteers who work with kids? How about those who work with vulnerable adults? Is your screening thorough? Confidential? Ongoing?
Two years ago I wrote "Protecting People and Ministry" on how our church, St. Peter Lutheran in Arlington Heights, Illinois, created volunteer screening policies as part of a risk management plan. Implementation took longer than expected, but it taught us much and reinforced the importance of addressing these issues. Perhaps our experience can help you. We'd love to learn from your experience, too. (The brochures, documents and other items mentioned here are on our church website.)
Continue to view notes on our initial implementation, process, compliance and the bottom line!
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Kudos to Protestant high schools! Recent research, summarized in Christianity Today, found that "graduates of Protestant high schools out-volunteer peers from Catholic, secular, public, and home schools�all by significant margins" and that "the type of high school people attend influences them more than any other factor�including religion, socioeconomic status, or family type." The academically-minded can read the full research article from The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion which studied the volunteer involvement of young adults.
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Volunteerism how-to guides for churches are few. "The Engaged Congregation" is a set of four free downloads written specifically for Jewish synagogues. The practical suggestions, and the tools and activities are useful for any faith-based group.
Having mentioned how-to guides for churches above, and since self-marketing has been absent from this newsletter for some time, it's appropriate to mention the three (count 'em!) products in The Equipper Store.
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Putting Spiritual Gifts to Work -- an 80-page book that covers church volunteerism in a nutshell with practical help on developing a system and culture that equips people to serve. $8.00 in download PDF format.
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Two presentation toolkits. Each toolkit contains two PowerPoint presentations on the 'why' and 'how' of the topic. Each kit also contains a script and participant handout for each presentation plus a leader's guide. Use the presentation to teach yourself, and then to teach others. $8.00 for one toolkit or $12.00 for both.
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Job Descriptions Toolkit
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Training Volunteers Toolkit.
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