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8 Reasons Why People Don’t Volunteer at Your Church

Sunday, November 17, 2013

I’ve never worked with a church that has said they don’t need more volunteers. But I’ve worked with a bunch of churches that have trouble getting people to volunteer and stay engaged volunteering. This is a critical issue for churches to figure out. The reason why this has to be a front-burner issue is because at the heart of it, volunteering is an essential component of the discipleship process in someone’s life. Plainly put, volunteering is discipleship. Understanding that, here are 8 reasons people aren’t volunteering in your church…and subsequently aren’t growing in their relationship with God.

1. Don’t Feel Needed

Many people come to church week in and week out, they have an incredible experience and go home thinking, “All of this happens every week without me, what do they need me for?” Churches need to provide vision for people to volunteer and tie it to the spiritual growth process of the church.

2. They Think Staff Should do it

Some people simply have an unbiblical view of church…that the Church Staff should do everything. And unfortunately many churches have only reinforced this with a heavy staffing model and in so doing unfortunately built a culture that says, “Only professional Christians can do ministry.” Churches need to equip, empower, and release their volunteers.

3. Poor Past Experience

Many people have volunteered in the past and had a bad experience. They weren’t supported, encouraged, cared for well, or set up to succeed and they’re not sure they want to put themselves in that position again.

4. Don’t Feel Qualified

Many people don’t feel qualified or worthy to volunteer at a church. I’ve met incredible business leaders and military leaders who won’t volunteer in their churches because they don’t feel spiritually worthy. You need to help people understand that they are gifted and created to serve…even in the church.

5. Too Much Commitment

Some people are either at a stage of life or are over committed with other things and don’t have the time to volunteer. Churches need to provide these folks with easy low commitment opportunities to volunteer and perhaps a bit of coaching to move towards a sustainable pace in their lives.

6. Fear of Commitment

Some people simply are afraid that if they volunteer once then they’re in it for life. They’re afraid of making a commitment that never ends. So provide them with short term opportunities to experiment with volunteering and easy outs or off ramps from seasons of volunteering.

7. Difficult to get Involved

The number one complaint I hear from people who want to volunteer in churches who don’t is that they’ve tried to volunteer, they’ve signed up, they want to but they don’t know how to get involved, it was hard to get involved (they had to take multiple classes or be a member of the church prior to volunteering), or no one ever called them back.

8. Criminal Record

Yea, so you know that background check you run on people who volunteer with minors (and you should)…some people don’t want their past brought up on the results of that background check. So, help them get volunteering somewhere else.

I want to help your church get on the solution side of this conversation. That’s why I want to point you to one of my ministry partners: The Volunteer Rocket. These guys will help resource you with the appropriate tools, systems, and processes to help your church win, when it comes to building a volunteer culture.

Posted in Volunteers

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Is Your Church Average?

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Over the last couple of years at The Unstuck Group we’ve been paying attention to and collecting data from the churches that we consult with. One of the key questions we were interested in has to do with serving. We wanted to find out how many people are volunteering in one of the church’s ministries either inside or outside the walls of the church. Here’s what we’ve discovered:

As you can see from the whiteboard the average church engages 45% of its adult and student population in some sort of serving role. But here’s the question. Understanding that volunteering is directly connected to discipleship and spiritual growth, are you content with average? Here’s another tough question: Do you even know if your church is average? I want your church to take ground and be above average when it comes to mobilizing volunteers. That’s why I want you to know about a FREE online event hosted by my friend Tony Morgan that will help you build a stronger culture of volunteering at your church. You’ll hear from these great nationally known church leaders:

Chris Hodges – How to consistently attract new volunteer.

Perry Noble – How to create eliminate burnout in your volunteers.

Reggie Joiner – How to engage students in volunteerism

Derwin Gray – How to turn volunteers into leaders

Wayne Cordeiro – How to create healthy volunteers

The event is on October 29 at 1pm EDT. So time is running out to register you and your team so follow this link to register for this FREE online event today! Don’t miss it!

Posted in Volunteers

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Five Reasons People don’t Volunteer at Your Church

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Do you need more preschool workers to serve children? Do you need more greeters to greet? Do you need more ushers to…ush?

If so, you’re in familiar territory.

I’ve never met a church that said, “You know…when it comes to volunteers, we’re good. We’ve got plenty. In fact, there’s a waiting list for the nursery.” Churches everywhere need to mobilize more volunteers to get ministry done. But before you start signing people up and filling slots, it might be helpful to take a look at why people are NOT volunteering.

Here are FIVE REASONS people might not be volunteering at your church.

 1. You’re not asking correctly.  It takes more than blurbs in the bulletin and pleas from the pulpit to move people into volunteer positions in your church.  If you want people to serve, you’ve got to learn how to ask correctly.

2. It’s hard to sign up.  Signing up has to be simple and immediate.  Hidden tables in the lobby don’t work.  Remembering to email so-and-so isn’t a good strategy.

3. It’s not clear.  If you want people to do a job, they need to clearly understand the expectations and requirements.  Pull back the veil and show people what’s it like before you ask them to get involved.

4. You’re not saying thanks.  People don’t want to toil away in a thankless role.  Just because someone’s reward is in heaven doesn’t mean they don’t need to hear “thank you” on earth.

5. It’s too hard.  The super-committed will do whatever it takes, but if you want to mobilize a bunch of people, you need to make it easier.  Take care of their kids, provide food, and make sure they have everything they need to succeed.  A little planning on the front end goes a long way.

To learn how to build a larger volunteer base, I’d like to invite you and your team to sign up for the FREE ONLINE ‘Get More Volunteers’ Event.

Posted in Volunteers

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Does Your Church Need More Volunteers?

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The best churches don’t hire ministers to DO all of the ministry; they equip and inspire volunteers and leaders to get ministry done. Check out this quote from Wayne Corderio.

“I’m convinced that the influence of a church has on its community will be determined in large part not by the personality of the pastor, the size of its building or how long the ministry has worked in the community. It will be determined instead by the percentage of involvement in the ministry of each member. This marks the transition from attendance to ownership, from being consumers to contributors.”

You may be a gifted speaker. Your church may have a beautiful building. Your team may lead large ministries. But without healthy volunteers, your church will struggle and you will be stressed. You’ve got to decide…will your church be led by a small band of superheroes or a large army of servants? The best churches don’t hire ministers to do all of the work. They mobilize volunteers and leaders to make ministry happen.

This is why I want to introduce you to Get More Volunteers

Whether you’re a seasoned pastor or brand new to the ministry, you can learn what’s working to attract new volunteers to your church and lay the foundation for a healthy volunteer ministry. This online event is designed to help you attract new volunteers to existing positions, mobilize more people for ministry, and sign up people quick.

My friend Tony Morgan and the team at The Rocket Company interviewed five leading pastors and will give you the latest ideas and the best strategies for bringing new volunteers into ministry roles in your church.

Here are 5 compelling reasons you should sign up to watch Get More Volunteers 2013.

#1:  It’s Fully Online

No travel required! I know you’re busy and your time is valuable. Gather your team around a computer or watch from your office.

#2:  It’s Free

Not only are there no travel costs, the event itself is totally free. You’ll have access to all of this great content without having to spend a penny. Finance Teams rejoice!

#3:  Fresh Ideas

You’ll hear from leading pastors and learn what they do in their churches to mobilize volunteers. This isn’t inspiration….it is practical help and new ideas to help your church.

#4:  Respected Pastors and Speakers

My friend Tony Morgan is hosting the event, and along the way you’ll hear from Perry Noble, Chris Hodges, Wayne Corderio, Reggie Joiner and Derwin Gray. Each of these leaders knows how to lead volunteers.

#5:  Rave Reviews

Thousands of church leaders around the world have completed free training events with the Rocket Company. They have trended on Twitter and been turned into eBooks.

Follow this link to register you and your team today!

 

Posted in Volunteers

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What the Church can Learn from Southwest Airlines about Volunteers

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

I was recently on a Southwest Airlines flight and witnessed one of the most amazing volunteer moments I’ve ever seen. When it came time for the midflight snack of pretzels and peanuts a woman on the flight stepped up and volunteered to pass out the snack. And here’s the amazing thing…they let her! No application, no waiver, and no complex training classes. They simply handed over the basket of snacks and said go for it! Watching this whole thing go down I couldn’t help but think about how difficult we make it for people in the church to volunteer. Here are a couple of observations from that moment that I think are worth the church considering.

1. Create Entry Level Volunteer Opportunities

Handing out snacks isn’t the most complicated job on the planet. Just about anyone can do it, right? That’s kinda the point. Creating simple opportunities for people to jump in on allows them to safely test the waters and take another step at their own pace. Don’t worry; leaders will always rise to the top. And it’s important to keep in mind that volunteering is different than leading. Who knows, that woman may end up as the next great flight attendant at Southwest Airlines.

2. On the Job Training

It took very little to no training for this woman to perform the role of handing out snacks on that flight. Realistically she’s probably seen it done a hundred times before. Modeling and coaching in real time is a great way to train, and it doesn’t take hours of time out of the lives of your volunteers and take them away from their families.

3. Throw Away your Complex Volunteer Application

The flight crew didn’t make this woman fill out an application to work at Southwest prior to letting her hand out snacks. I know you think that having a multipage thorough application is responsible, places a high value on volunteering and is helpful. But it’s actually creating an obstacle to people volunteering in your church. While there may be a few volunteer roles that require a background check, for example working with minors. In actuality there’s only a very limited amount of information that you need from potential volunteers, which can be quickly collected in the on ramping process. Especially if you’re intentional about creating easy access entry level volunteer opportunities (like handing out snacks).

4. Make it Fun

Southwest is notorious for being a fun place to work. And when the Staff has fun the people on the flight will have fun too. And hint, hint…they’ll want to join in. If your Church isn’t a fun place to work and your Staff isn’t having fun, chances are you’re going to have a difficult time attracting volunteers.

Disclaimer:

Dear Southwest Airlines,

If you’re out there and reading this, and I just got the flight crew who allowed this woman the opportunity to volunteer in trouble by outing them, I apologize. Really I guess I should apologize to the flight crew. But I think what they did was stellar!

Posted in Volunteers
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