Volunteers… we can’t do effective ministry of any kind without them. I’m sure 99.9% of you would agree with me. However, does the time we spend on our volunteer strategies reflect that importance level? My guess is… that’s a “no” in most cases. One of the mistakes I made especially early on in ministry was not focusing enough on my volunteers. If that’s you, don’t beat yourself up! Ministry leaders wear many hats and often lead several different groups of people. It’s easy to focus most of your attention on one group, neglecting the other groups in the process. What can we do to change that?

Let’s talk about a three-part process to help you focus up on leading this crucial group of people: volunteers. The three-part process can be summed up in three simple words: recruit, retain, and reproduce.

1. Recruit

The best volunteers I have had on my teams were the ones I recruited to join. Why is that? I recruited them to my vision and leadership style. They wanted to get behind me and support the vision I sold to them. That’s why the way you recruit matters and affects the other two parts of the process.

Recruiting Tips:

Make the individual ask. The ask will always be more effective when you make it individually. I have received very few “nos” from people when I take the time to ask them individually to serve.

Make it personal.  Don’t try to just fill an empty hole in your schedule. Look for things they are good at, and if you don’t know, ask them. Recruit them to a position that will be a good fit for their personality, gifts, and interests. If volunteers love what they do, they don’t quit.

Make it challenging. Outline the responsibilities for the position right away. Don’t brush them under the rug or “forget” to mention them in hopes they will stay on the team later when they find out. Instead of just listing off the requirements for them to serve, remember to give the why behind everything you do.

Make it encouraging. Taketheopportunity at the beginning of the meeting to tell the person why you want them on your team (it helps if you bought their favorite coffee). Even if they do say “no”, they will leave the meeting feeling encouraged and fully caffeinated.

2. Retain

If there was ever something harder than recruiting a good team, it would probably be retaining them. I have seen a lot of good leaders, including myself, put in a lot of effort to recruit solid volunteers, only to lose them because we don’t put in the same effort to keep them on the team.

Retention Tips:

Give them ownership. Ask your volunteers what they like/dislike and what they would change about the ministry. Create a core team of the most invested volunteers who you can brainstorm ideas with, ask their opinions, and involve in the planning process.

Give them time. Make time to have one-on-one and group time with your volunteers. Create a list of your volunteers and make an effort to rotate through taking them to coffee, lunch, dessert, or have them over to your house. Meetings and trainings are great, but make sure you are taking the time to just get to know your team and have fun together.

Give them gifts. Everyone loves gifts, but gifts are far more effective when you make them personal.

Hand out a short little survey to all your volunteers to get some basic likes from them: i.e. favorite color, candy, soda, restaurant, dessert, store. That will help you tailor your gifts more to their individual preferences.

Give them more. When you notice a volunteer who always shows up on time, volunteers for everything, and is exceling in the position they are in, ask them if they want to do more. It is possible to lose high-capacity volunteers because they feel bored, under-used, and like they aren’t being challenged by their position anymore. Always give volunteers the option to take on more ownership or change up their position.

3. Reproduce

The third part of the process is one of the ultimate goals for all ministry leaders. Always be preparing to replace or reproduce yourself. Now, reproducing yourself doesn’t necessarily mean that you are training up your actual replacement. It means you are training up and raising up leaders who can do everything you do and maybe even better.

Reproduce Yourself Tips:

Invest time. Be on the lookout for those volunteers who are really invested in the ministry and invest extra time in them. It’s not favoritism, it’s wisdom to invest more in the volunteers who are the most invested.

Invest responsibility. Give the volunteers who have proven they are faithful more responsibility. You can give them a little bit at a time and see how they handle it before handing a whole ministry over to them.

Invest relationship. Your volunteer team should be way more than a bunch of names to fill positions. Ask yourself this question: “Would my volunteers think I would still care about them if they quit my team?” Take the time to really get to know your team. Show them you care about them and their families more than you care about what they can contribute to your ministry.

That’s the 3-part process: Recruit, Retain, Reproduce – Repeat!