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The question many church leaders have is, “how can we find and keep motivated and reliable volunteers?”
Two key words there – motivated AND reliable. We’re trying to get people involved but millennials are too flaky and they’re not reliable and they’re not motivated and that goes for every generation, of course,
There are six motivation ideas that I have to keep people motivated and also to keep them reliable and before we jump into those, it’s important to note that there’s only so much that you can control.
We are concerned with personal responsibility and finding individuals that exercise it.
It’s just better for your default state to always be taking responsibility for everything but you can also recognize that it takes two to tango and there’s another person in this dance of volunteering and as much as you implement these ideas for motivation that we’re going to talk about, there’s only so much that you control, so don’t beat yourself up too much.
We all want people in our church to volunteer who are motivated so we don’t have to drag them along but, even when they are motivated, do they wanna go where we’re going to?
And we want to know that they’re reliable so that when we actually hand that job over to them, we know that we can rely on them to do it and do it well. These are the people that church leaders dream of to volunteer in their church
There is a way to model this and actually create motivated and reliable volunteers who otherwise, you know, maybe not be volunteering at all and this is how.
When you send out that planning center invite, you want the confirm. – You want it real bad. – Not the decline.
Motivation idea number one, tell your volunteers exactly what you want them to do.
For example, if you’re looking for kids volunteers, don’t say something like we’re looking for kids volunteers who can give up their time. What you do wanna say is something like we’re looking for five kids volunteers who can volunteer for one Sunday each month from 10:30 a.m. until noon in this specific classroom.
The reason this motivation tactic is so powerful is that the way that you should not be doing this where you just say looking for kids volunteers who can give up their time, that’s a very open ended request with a lot of ambiguity and there’s this fear and reservation with people who have maybe given before and felt like they were taken advantage of.
This may lead them to think, “if I just sign up, I’m gonna be doing this every week forever and then I’ll never be able to get out.”
For the hearer when they’re sitting in the congregation, they’ll hear you say that on Sunday and maybe they’ve been burned before in a church and if you ask an ambiguous ask like that, they have room to assume maybe it’s gonna be like it was before. Maybe they will be serving every week and it is more of a commitment than they are ready to make.
But if you’re explicit with what you’re requiring of them, like in this example, once a month from 10:30 to noon in this room, this is what we’re looking for, then someone can hear that and say, “Oh yeah, I can do that, I can give up myself once a month, you know, sacrifice one week a month and volunteer in this room, I can do that.”
You will see more next steps taken at that call to action than if you were just to have that open-ended notice, “we’re looking for help.”
we just need to show them how.
Motivation idea number two, demonstrate your own sacrifice.
Be sure no one outworks you. Let your volunteers see you do the same tasks you ask of them. When I managed restaurants, I worked the dinner rush at every position at least once a month. The crew saw me cook, run register, clean the dining area, do prep. They also saw me clean restrooms, mop floors.
Be the example in your ministry. Tackle each ministry job yourself often enough so your team knows you aren’t just delegating, you are doing.
Motivation idea number three, acknowledge jobs well done.
Another thing that I have learned because I expect things to be done and when they’re done I go yes, you did them. Yes, you did your job.
I’ve had to learn and continue to learn, when someone does something, I need to acknowledge them and say great job, you are contributing, thank you so much.
An easy thing that you can do, reaps big benefits when you do it.
Motivation idea number four, focus on progress and goals.
Churches can learn from this so much. You know that saying Sunday is just a day away or it’s Friday now but Sunday is coming.
That’s used in the resurrection weekend as a glorious thing but for those that serve in church, it is also somewhat terrifying because Sunday is always way sooner than you expect
If you’re not focusing your team of volunteers on an actual goal, it’s very difficult to motivate because nothing is being worked towards and it’s just always the same thing, same thing, same thing.
It’s important to have purpose.
- Why am I tearing down and setting up every single week?
- Why am I cleaning these toilets?
- Why am I stacking chairs?
- Why am I running sound?
- Why am I getting up at six o’clock to arrive at the church at six o’clock to do, run through and sound check?
You need to get people involved, here’s what we’re working towards: this month, this quarter, and this year. Take your goals and write them on your chalkboard wall, everyone sees them and every single month they say this is what we did well, this is what we didn’t and so there’s this kind of idea that we’re all moving towards something
You need to set this for your volunteers, it’s so much easier to get buy in when everyone knows you’re working towards something together.If you don’t set specific goals, you can’t track progress.
You’ll never know if you have forward motion without it. And if you can’t track forward motion and everyone can’t feel it, it just feels like you’re treading water.
Avoid the rut and treadmill feeling. It’s Sunday again, it was just Sunday and I’m still tired from last Sunday, I’m tired from the workweek, it’s Sunday, and we gotta set up, tear down, and do it all again next week, it just feels like treading water. It’s monotonous.
But to be able to see that forward motion because you set a goal is so helpful for the health of your team.
Motivation idea number five, admit mistakes.
Similarly to praising people and acknowledging a job well done or even just a job done, you, as the leader, need to be quick to admit your own mistakes no matter how small they may be.
I have found that empathy and motivation go hand in hand and you can create empathy, not purposefully, but it’s a byproduct if you are just willing to admit your own failures, being a little bit self-deprecating.
It’s so much easier to follow somebody who is self-centered and arrogant. Be willing and ready and quick to admit your own mistakes.
Motivation idea number six, the most important one, build a compelling narrative.
People wanna be a part of something important, unique and outstanding. We wanna be a part of something bigger and better than ourselves.
We say we’ve got the greatest story of all time and yet we can’t get motivated and reliable volunteers? There’s a disconnect there.
We have so many tools at our disposal in this generation that others didn’t. We have so many ways to communicate with church family, team members, and so many ways to share the message in the classroom.
Why do you do what you do? It’s not just to get through another Sunday. You need to develop your vision and goals and cast this vision to your team. When you get your team excited, when they see the goal and feel part of what you are doing, their excitement will spread throughout your church.
You will find it gets easier to get volunteers when the ones you have are excited to share what they are doing with others.
The first five things that I shared are mostly tactics and they will work but there’s a certain lifespan to them that can only work so well.
The most powerful thing that you can do is create and cast this compelling narrative because we all want to know that we’re a part of something bigger than us, contributing to something that’s gonna have eternal impact.
We actually have a great foundation to do it, now all we need is to actually do it.
