Leadership matters. Whether in the military or the family or business, the leadership influences outcomes. In the church, Jesus Christ is our leader, the one we follow. You, our local pastors, are His under-shepherds, guiding us as we gather for worship, for learning, and for serving in our communities. In addition to leading word and sacrament ministry, pastors influence a church’s vision, priorities, and finances. Intentionally or unintentionally, they also influence their church’s practices regarding volunteers. 

It’s natural and easy to assume that since the problem is ‘we don’t have enough volunteers,’ the solution is finding ways to ‘get’ people to fill the empty volunteer slots. But we end up using guilt, pressure, arm-twisting, desperate pleas and even bait-and-switch. You and I would run from such techniques, and our volunteers do, too. Changing our goal to helping people serve as God has gifted and called them opens up a world of different techniques and life-changing results.

 Why should pastors help people serve?

After word and sacrament, the people are God’s greatest gift to the church

• I contend that after word and sacrament, the people of the church are God’s greatest gift to the local congregation. Pastors have immense influence on the leading and managing of that precious resource.
• Pastors certainly need to prioritize study, sermon preparation time and ministry to individuals in need. Other staff generally have more direct contact with individual volunteers. But pastors influence what staff members do, and therefore, through them, on what volunteers do and how it is done. 
• Pastors have a major role in casting and carrying out the overall mission and vision of a church. That major role includes if and how volunteers in particular and the people in general are involved in that vision.

Before the practicalities, let’s keep in mind:

It’s not rocket science

• My Ten Things Anyone Can Do to Help Others Serve and Top Ten Things Church Staff Can Do to Help Others Serve also apply to you as pastor. But the items below are uniquely yours.
• Don’t get hung up or overwhelmed by these lists. They’re simply suggestions to get you thinking, to start a conversation and to present options. 
• Improving volunteerism health is not rocket science. It’s mostly common sense. But the daily routine, ‘the way we’ve always done it’ and making people happy tend to prevent us from healthy change. Taking one step toward healthy change, then another, and another, can change any organization.  
• Volunteers can help you by bringing in fresh viewpoints, making changes, and providing accountability, particularly if you create a ‘volunteer champion’ position and team. (If Every Church Had a Volunteer Champion…)

Top Ten Ways Pastors Can Help People Serve

10. Have a ‘dream big’ conversation. If a newly-retired and highly skilled and experienced professional offered to volunteer, would you direct him/her to being an usher or to data entry? Have you ever created a new volunteer role based on the specific skills of a person who desires to serve? Are you open to doing so? A volunteerism expert contends that “more volunteers are underutilized than are overburdened.” Do you have people stuffing envelopes who could and would design publicity brochures or build you a website?

Who reports to whom?

9. Look at, or create, an organizational chart for your church, one of those ‘who reports to whom’ charts. Are volunteers included? Including them in an org chart tells them who supports them, and to whom they are accountable. 

8. Take 15 minutes to look at one or more Church Volunteerism Resources. To be very daring, put it on your calendar to do that once a month.

Is volunteer recruitment and support discussed in staff evaluations?

7. When did you last have a conversation with one or more staff on volunteer recruitment or management? When did you direct a staff to a volunteerism resource, or encourage them to seek such a resource? Are conversations about volunteer recruitment and management included in staff evaluations?

6. Calculate the percentage of time your volunteers spend in meetings. Do they see that time as well spent? Ask them.

5. When staff deliberate on major changes to major programs or events, is there a voice at the table bringing up how the changes would affect the volunteers involved in these events? Are volunteers ever asked for their input?

4. If your church has some record of the skills and abilities people would like to share with the church, see how current it is. Find out when someone last contacted anyone about these gifts being offered. Compare that to how long you’d take to respond to someone offering a large monetary gift.

Why volunteers?

3. Have a “Why volunteers?’ conversation. Taking time, personally and corporately, to wrestle through this question, reveals how much the ‘why’ influences our practices, our problems, and our solutions. Do we have volunteers because we can’t afford staff? Because it’s what we’ve always done? Because certain people want certain tasks? A clearly defined vision/mission comes first; but an oft-overlooked next step is clearly defining how volunteers connect to the vision. 

2. Count how many volunteers work directly with you. When did you last invite a volunteer to come along with you as you made a pastoral call, or attend a training conference?

1. When did you or a staff member last have a conversation with a volunteer about a problem or issue with their volunteer work? If asked, would staff say that you would help them with “problem” volunteers? 

The best–and most surprising–resource I’ve found on the pastor’s role in leading healthy church volunteerism wasn’t written for pastors. Pastors and churches are not even mentioned in it. The book From the Top Down: The Executive Role in Volunteer Program Success was written by Susan Ellis in 1986 for leaders of small and large nonprofit organizations. It has been updated and reprinted several times since. Some of its content does not apply to churches. But pastors who’ve read it agree with me that it’s surprising how much of it is very applicable to our churches, of all sizes and shapes. The quote in item 10 above, and the “why volunteers” suggestion in item 3 are from this book. If you want to stretch your brain, and if you really want to max your church’s volunteerism, read or at least browse this 200-page book. 

In hard times, acts of service are especially noticed

History shows that the church thrives in hard times. And we live in hard times. God’s got this. And he’s got us in His hands. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Another fact about hard times is that acts of service are especially noticed and appreciated by the people around us. The more we as the church serve our communities, the more we are noticed and respected, the more easily doors open to spiritual conversations. It pays to invest in helping people use their gifts in God’s service.

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Related resources

Church Volunteerism Resources
How to Fire a Church Volunteer
If Every Church Had a Volunteer Champion…

Top Ten Things Anyone Can Do to Help Others Serve
Top Ten Things Church Staff Can Do to Help Others Serve

More Intentional (and Less Crazy) Everyday Serving
More Joyful (and Less Dreary) Everyday Serving
More Impactful (and Less Ho-Hum) Everyday Serving
More Faith-Full (and Less Disjointed) Everyday Serving
More Serving? Or Better Serving?