Attracting, Retaining, and Empowering Volunteers to Serve with Joy

What if managing church volunteers could feel less like herding cats in a hurricane and more like guiding a passionate and dedicated team? Learn how to transform your volunteer program into a well-organized and joyful experience with seven essential strategies. As the host and co-founder of ChemistryStaff.com, Todd Rhoades breaks down the secrets to attracting, retaining, and empowering volunteers who serve with enthusiasm and purpose. From casting a compelling vision to creating a culture of appreciation, Todd offers practical advice to make your church's volunteer program thrive.

Discover how to clearly communicate the impact of volunteer service, streamline your onboarding process, and match volunteer talents with roles that align with their strengths and passions. By providing proper training, support, and recognizing their contributions, you can ensure your volunteers feel valued and motivated. Whether you're grappling with volunteer engagement or seeking ways to enhance your existing program, these insights will help you elevate your church's volunteer management game. Don't miss this opportunity to make your volunteers feel like the heroes they truly are!

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Is Your Church Hiring?
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hey there, welcome to this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, your host for today and one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffcom. Today we're going to talk about kind of the unsung heroes. At least I think these are volunteers. These are the people that show up week after week. They're giving their time and their talents and their energy to serve God and others. And let's be real, we couldn't do what we do as a church without volunteers. And leading volunteers can sometimes feel like we're trying to herd cats in a hurricane. You need them, they're essential, but wrangling them, keeping them engaged and ensuring that they're actually contributing positively to your ministry that's a whole other thing. We're going to talk today a little bit about how to transform your volunteer program from this chaotic vortex into a well-oiled machine. I don't know that we can make it well-oiled all the time, but here are some tips I think that will help you not only attract and retain volunteers, but also help you have volunteers that feel empowered and serve with joy. Okay, so seven things here I'm going to go through really quick here that I think will help if you're having trouble attracting and retaining your volunteers.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Number one cast a compelling vision. Don't just volunteer just to fill a slot, and I see this so often in churches hey, we need three people to work in the nursery, or we need two people to do this, or one person to do that, or do you have Wednesdays open? We have this. It's a slot. People don't want to fill a slot, they want to be a part of something meaningful. So, if you can, when you can and try to whenever you can, always do if you can clearly communicate the impact that their service is going to have on individuals, on the church, on the community, show them that their contribution makes a real difference and it's not just filling a slot. How do you know if you're doing this? If you're asking people to fill slots, it's usually because you're asking people pretty blatantly to fill slots. So if your main goal in getting someone to volunteer is to fill an opening, you're probably not casting a real compelling vision. So take a look at that. That's first and foremost. Number two how easy is it to be a volunteer at your church? Streamline your onboarding process. First impressions matter. Make it easy for volunteers to get started with a smooth onboarding process that gives them clear expectations, that gives them a good training and support. How many times do you hear volunteers say they just threw me in here and didn't really give me any instructions? That's one way to make sure that they don't volunteer again. So make sure you streamline the process. Give them the training and the support that they need.

Speaker 1: 3:07

Number three create a culture of appreciation. Remember these people are volunteering, they don't need to do this. They've got a 40-hour, 50-hour, 60-hour-a-week job and they're actually giving time to the church and to the Lord. So appreciate them, say thank you early and often and genuinely Celebrate when they just knock it out of the park. Man, we all have people in our churches that are just regular, they're volunteers and they're regularly just absolutely hitting it out of the park man, we all have people in our churches that are just regular, they're volunteers and they're regularly just absolutely hitting it out of the park. Celebrate that, recognize their contributions, and this is going to help volunteers feel valued and appreciated for a long time to come.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Number four match their talents. Not everyone is cut out to volunteer in every role. Not everyone is cut out to volunteer in every role. Assess your volunteer skills and passions and match them up with tasks that align with their strengths, and sometimes you just have to ask, and sometimes the thing that they volunteer for really they're just trying to be helpful. It might not be their thing, but you need to dive in, get to know the person and make sure that you can align them with not just what you know again, not to fill a slot, but align them with areas that they're interested in, align them with areas that they're skilled in and, most of all, align them in areas that they're passionate about. That will, if they feel like they're making a huge contribution and doing something they enjoy. That's a huge step along the way to getting a really satisfied volunteer.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Number five empower and equip. Give volunteers, as we said, give them the training and the resources that they need, give them the autonomy that they need as well. Trust them to do their jobs and give them opportunities to grow and develop their skills in these areas. A great volunteer is an equipped and an empowered volunteer. Okay, number six volunteers need to feel that they're a part of a community, so foster community as much as you can. Volunteering should be fun and it should be fulfilling, so create opportunities for volunteers to connect with each other, to build relationships and to really experience that sense of belonging that will make a volunteer really stick and feel valuable. And then just the last one, just this almost goes without saying but provide that ongoing support. Regularly check in with your volunteers, offer encouragement, feedback, address any concerns or challenges that they may be facing. But provide that ongoing support, because here's the bottom line in this Volunteers are the backbone of your church, but they won't stick around if they feel undervalued or they feel underappreciated or unappreciated or unsupported. These strategies, I think, will help you hopefully create a volunteer program that not only attracts and retains talented people but also empowers them to serve with joy and passion and purpose.

Speaker 1: 6:11

And if you're listening to this on the day it was recorded today's Friday, and we've got a weekend coming up and you're going to be working with volunteers what can you learn from these seven steps? What can you do, even this weekend, to have somebody on the back and say, hey, thanks for what you're doing? I'm telling you it makes a world of difference. Remember, volunteers aren't just free labor. We couldn't do it without them. They are really our partners in ministry. They're co-laborers in the gospel and we need to treat them as such. And when we do, man, our weekend and our churches will flourish. Hope you have a great weekend. We'll be right back here on Monday with a brand new episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope you'll join us then.