The Job: Volunteers
Being a Children's Minister is a lot of fun: VBS, Camps, Roller Skating Parties, Slip and Slides & Water balloons. These are the visible fun aspects of children's ministry this summer. But there is a hidden part, the part there is little or no training for is volunteer recruiting. When we did the math we saw we needed about 250 volunteers a week to staff Sunday AM, Sunday Pm and Wednesday PM classes! Yikes! That means that at any given week we'll get lots last minute cancellations, sick families, and open spots that need to be filled. We find replacements and keep things moving, but nobody ever sees a complete breakdown in the system so everyone assumes things are going fine. We've learned to cover our bases.
I thank God every week that we have soooooo many dedicated volunteers, but I also spend time praying every week for God to send more! So if you are thinking about being a children's minister forget training for the fun stuff, which comes easy. Instead work on the following things: recruiting, arm-twisting, prayer, guilt-tripping, more prayer and bribery.
Labels: Church, Kids Events
posted by Trey Laminack @ 7:11 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
One thing that I have learned about getting people to volunteer is this: Never expect people to put in more hours volunteering at church, than any hours over 40 that you do. I hope that makes sense.
I would not ask most volunteers to put in 10+ hours a week over 40 that I do. There are some who take on that much but I would never thrust that upon someone. I'd like to have like 20 more volunteers who commit two hours a week. This would give them one hour to prep a class and another hour to teach it.
Now that I think about it some of my VBS crew is spending 8 hours a week of rehearsal time! These people are amazing, and most of them are the same one I can count on to be there the rest of the year.
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