Steps to Creating a Successful Volunteer Ministry
If the vast majority of your church parishioners or congregants do not volunteer regularly, it communicates something about your church’s mindset. At least one of the following three things is probably true:
- You need to increase their understanding of the value of volunteering.
- You need to help them grow in their commitment to what your church is trying to accomplish.
- You need to expand their awareness about ways they can contribute.
If you want to mobilize your congregants for service, you have to do things to address each of these issues. First, there needs to be a way to increase understanding about volunteering. Many people misunderstand the church’s role in their lives. They see church only as something that serves them and don’t realize that it is also where they can benefit by helping others.
Second, there needs to be a way to strengthen commitment. Congregants may feel that giving their money is enough, so they do not need to provide more of their lives to the church. Perhaps they are busy with other pursuits and serving others through the church is not a priority. There may also be some who were involved at one point, but their involvement faded for some reason.
Third, there needs to be a way to increase awareness. People might be more willing to volunteer if they knew about opportunities that would fit their skills and interests they could get excited about. Maybe they just do not know how much they are needed and how quickly they could begin to have an impact.
Using RealmⓇ, you can achieve understanding, commitment, and awareness with your volunteers. Volunteer management gives your group leaders the ability to communicate in multiple ways with their volunteers. This both helps volunteers understand how they can serve as well as enhance their commitment by ensuring they feel involved and connected even when they are not serving. With volunteer management, your group leaders can use teams and roles to see who’s currently serving, who’s served in the past, and who hasn’t served.
In addition, staff members can view skills and interests on profile pages or run reports to find people. That gives your leaders and staff members the information needed when recruiting new volunteers — no matter what the role. Plus, your congregants can add their skills and interests (allowing them to find opportunities that fit their interests) as well as access their serving information.
Recruiting and managing volunteers is easier when you can provide more information so people understand the importance and value of volunteering. Sharing your goals and mission as a church strengthens members’ commitment to fulfilling them. Finally, offering opportunities to serve teams and roles while encouraging members to update their skills and interests helps increase awareness about how people can contribute to your ministry.
