Yes, it's almost the end of another school year, but that big "R" word often looms in the minds of children and youth ministry leaders. Recruitment. How will you go about recruiting joyful, Christ-exalting, servant-hearted, well-trained volunteers to fully staff your classrooms for the next school year? One answer is to consider how you might encourage your current volunteers to return in their current roles. In his seminar “Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers,” Pastor Gil McConnell suggests ways to do this by emphasizing the benefits of a long-term "investment" mindset within the same ministry team:
- Team camaraderie and unity grow from year to year as fellowship is fostered among the team members.
- Familiarity with using the same curriculum allows for stronger teaching and application.
- Team members become increasingly knowledgeable of a specific age group, enabling them to communicate more effectively.
- A sense of confidence increases as a person works with a particular age group.
- There is joy in God as you experience the growth that comes in your personal life, and in the preparedness and proficiency that increases over time in long-term ministry.
- It makes decision-making concerning where to serve less complicated, applying the idea of staying put until God moves me on to something else.
As someone who has spent most of my ministry time teaching in first-grade Sunday school, I can personally attest to all of the above benefits. For more great thoughts on this important topic, check out the
audio of Pastor Gil's seminar as well as this helpful
handout.
(Image courtesy of KiddaiKiddeeStudio at
FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)
