The Best Way to Build Your Volunteer Team

There are lots of ways you can try to build your volunteer team. I've tried them all over the years.

Church announcements.

Bulletin ads.

Video appeals.

Handouts to parents. 

Most of these attempts fall short and are not effective ways to build a volunteer team.

So what is the best way to build a volunteer team? 

I believe it is personal, 1-1 asks.

Did you know that 93% of people who are serving are there because someone personally asked them to serve?  Think about it. There's a great chance that you are personally serving in children's ministry because someone asked you to join them in serving.

This is the way Jesus built His team. He went to the disciples one at a time and asked them to follow Him. 

Yes. This means what you may be thinking. It takes a lot of hard work to build a great volunteer team. 

Volunteer enlistment can't be a one and done. 

You will always need more volunteers.  You will always need to be enlisting new volunteers. 

Building a great volunteer team means enlisting people 52 weeks a year.  That's it plain and simple.

Personal asks works. At one of the churches where I served, we had around 300 volunteers when I arrived. As a staff team, we decided to make volunteer enlistment our top priority. We did this and started asking people to join our team each week. Week in and week out, we made the asks.

After 9 years of doing this, we looked up and we had over 2,000 volunteers on our team. We didn't set out to have 2,000 volunteers. We set out to be faithful to ask people to serve. One ask at a time. 

I don't mean to sound harsh, but if you aren't asking people to join your team on a regular basis, then stop complaining about not having enough volunteers.  You have not because you ask not.  

If I looked at your personal calendar, would it reflect that asking people to serve and investing in them is one of your top priorities?  

Set a goal to personally ask a certain amount of people each week to join your team. Does this mean everyone will say "yes?" No...of course not.  But I will promise you this...ask enough people and you will get some "yeses." 

This past weekend, I asked 3 people to serve with me in children's ministry.  Two of them said "no." But one of them said "yes." In the last 8 weeks, I have personally asked 21 people to join our volunteer team.  14 of them have said "no." But 7 of them have said "yes."

To get some "yeses" you have to step up to the plate and swing. Trust me...make enough asks and you will get some "yeses."  Keep doing this week in and week out. If you will do this consistently, a year from now, you will thrilled with how your team has grown. 

When you make the asks, first pray and ask God to lead you to people He has already been speaking to about serving.

Here's an example. Two weeks ago, I was in the auditorium before the service started.  I was looking at the back rows. I have found that people who aren't connected or involved yet tend to sit in the back of the auditorium. I saw a man sitting in the middle section by himself. I felt the Holy Spirit say, "there is the person I have prepared."  I obeyed and sat down with this man and began to talk with him. I asked him if he was serving anywhere."  He replied, "no."  I asked him if he would serve with us in children's ministry. He replied that he had been thinking about getting more connected by serving somewhere. He said "yes" to serving in children's ministry.

It was a divine appointment. See...I believe there are people in your church that God has been already been working on about serving. Ask Him to lead you to those people and you will be amazed at what will happen when you start asking people to serve. 

Have you read my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams?" It is filled with proven ways to build and equip your volunteer team. You can get it at this link.