How to Recruit Church Volunteers

When you realize you'll need to recruit some volunteers, does your heart leap for joy? Or does your stomach get tied in knots?

Most of us don't enjoy finding people to teach Sunday School or help with the rummage sale. We feel we're putting pressure on people, begging, wheedling and maybe even stretching the truth ("There's nothing to it!"), because those tactics often slip into our recruiting. And the result is sometimes like wolves encircling a herd of buffalo, where the weak become the prey.

Such tactics are:

Unkind. We wouldn't want them used on us.
Ineffective, in the long run. Those who say 'yes' soon quit, and people run and hide when they see us coming
Unbiblical. They don't fit the picture of the church as the body of Christ. (I Corinthians 12)

There's a better way.. . .

Continue this article.

Sections of this article include: Who to invite? An Inviting Invitation; An Inviting System and Culture; and more

Additional tools you can use:

Handout: How to Recruit

"Is Your Church a Good Steward of Its People's Time and Talents?" - a simple survey. . The third page of this survey is a list of resources on church volunteerism.

Additional recruitment resources are listed here.

Resources from a Reader

An Equipper newsletter subscriber is generously sharing some resources with other Equippers. Alice Klement, Director of Equipping Ministry at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, San Antonio, Texas, and her Equipping team gave two presentations to congregational leaders earlier this summer. She took material from some of the presentations on this site, added creative and humorous skits, and now is sharing them with us for our adaptation and use. Way to go, Alice! Thank you!

Access Alice's resources here

Good Stuff on the Web

"Three Things I'd Say to Volunteers" - Some heartfelt words of wisdom from a church youth minister to his volunteers, on a website that offers "youth ministry from a volunteer perspective."
Did you know that next year 78 million baby boomers will turn 65? In "The New Old: Unleashing a Generation of Kingdom Workers," author Amy Hanson discusses how to involve this generation in ministry.

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