Recruiting Volunteers

The biggest challenge for many children’s ministries is recruiting volunteers for the ministry.

So here are some things I have learnt over the years.

1.        Recruiting methods

Recruiting people through announcements is not usually effective. It may work for you (and if it does, go for it), but generally I found it created a lot of interest but few committed people.

If that’s what doesn’t work, what does work?

Personal invites. The personal approach is by far the best way. Prayerfully consider who the Lord is calling to be a part of the team and then approach them to invite them to be a part of the team. If you have key members of your team, encourage them to join you in thinking of who to invite. Sometimes I have been led to ask surprising people, who others would overlook but they have blossomed as they stepped into the role.

After two years of speaking with someone he finally accepted the invitation to join the team.  He only lasted with us a year before moving back to his hometown in New Zealand. I was so disappointed when he said he was moving back as he was such a good team member and it had taken longer to get him to join than he had spent with us. But his calling had been activated. He shared how he never expected to enjoy working with children but he was returning home to become a teacher. When I heard this, I could not stay disappointed for long – he had found his purpose.

2.        Recruiting for a purpose

Most people (especially men!) do not want to provide childcare while missing the ‘main’ service. If the purpose is simply to look after the children many people will not be interested.

But when you start to talk about the purpose of the ministry – the desire to help children encounter the Lord and grow to know Him more, to raise up a generation who will be radical for the Kingdom of God this peaks people’s interest. After all we are not in the business of occupying children, we are in the business of equipping saints. Not saints-to-be, but saints who are in training for reigning with the Father. What better age is there to work with than ones who are still developing – for them to learn the ways of the kingdom before they are old enough to have to unlearn the ways of the world.

The more you can share the stories of what God is doing the more

3.        This is a privilege

In desperation to have enough people it can be easy to get stuck in a rut as a team, where some of the volunteers act as if they are doing you a favour just by showing up. They may be late, they may not be prepared, but at least they are there, and you should be grateful. (On a side note, it is much harder to manage volunteers than employees – ultimately an employee is paid to be there but a volunteer chooses to be there and has to keep choosing to be there!).

As we recruit people for a purpose we flip the script – you are not doing us a favour, you are being given an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to serve God. Jesus said, if anyone welcomes one of these little ones in my name they welcome me. (If you were to welcome Jesus ot the Sunday School you would not be late!)

It’s an opportunity to invest in the next generation rising up.  It’s an opportunity to pour out all you have discovered of the Lord to people who want to receive it. This is a privilege.

4.        What about parents?

When talking about recruiting, people often ask if they should recruit parents?

Yes! When parents see children encountering God at church it builds back into their family, it serves both to encourage and direct them with their own children and they know children. It builds community as parents look after each others children, especially when they are young. Of course parents are busy and at full stretch. Their commitment levels will often reflect this, but it’s good to have parents on board.

In that case, you may be wondering if it is okay to recruit single people?

Yes! All people have something to offer. Single people often have more time, younger people have more energy, older people bring experience to the table. God’s structure of church is to have family at the core with the wider community around them, and he sets the lonely into families. Being part of a ministry team is a great way for people to feel like they belong.

5.        People will be willing

When God is moving people are willing to join in.  The Psalmist puts it this way, ‘Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power.’ Psalm 110:3.

The most successful recruitment strategy I have found is to be in prayer. Asking God who to invite to join us and in prayer that God would move powerfully among our children.  Who would not want to be a part of this?

Indeed, each time we have seen people come to an end of their season of volunteering (and you are allowed to stop – it’s not a life sentence, though for some it is a life calling) we have found that God sends volunteers who are ready to help take the ministry to the next level.

You may even get to the place where you are able to have a backup group of leaders who are ready to step in for emergencies and where people can be gradually integrated in.

6.        Safe recruitment

No article on recruiting new volunteers would be complete without signposting to the need to recruit leaders safely. Take up references, interview people to hear their story of faith and their reason for wanting to be involved, allow them to experience the ministry. In the UK it will include doing a DBS check on all volunteers (looking for any police record, or history that would suggest they are unsuitable to work with children). All this process will be laid out clearly in your safeguarding policy.

But I encourage you also to think about the whole process of bringing people on board. How can you ensure that they hear and share the vision of what you are trying to achieve? What kind of induction, training and shadowing will be required so that new team members can be confident and effective in the ministry? What giftings do they already have that they could bring to the ministry? How can you develop leaders to take on different roles in the team?

A good application form will screen for all of this as a starting point but this is just the beginning of building and developing your team.

As a young leader, aged 19, I was passionate to see the children encounter and grow in the Lord. I knew their spiritual capacity to be used by the Lord and was laser focussed on seeing them thrive. The Lord had to speak to me to point out, ‘Adults are part of the church too!’ Gradually I began to see that the greatest resources for the ministry (second only to the Holy Spirit and the Bible) was not my gifting but the team God raised up to join me on the journey. Watching them grow and develop and seeing the children thrive under their care was the greatest privilege in ministry.