Invest in your volunteers
Volunteers, some churches have them by the dozen, others long for help. Whilst there can be a myriad of factors involved in which camp your church falls under, often this can happen due to a lack of enthusiasm.
The week is hard for everyone, giving up a weekend to help at the church, or even a weekday evening is not going to be met with a ready eagerness. Providing that motivation is where some churches are doing better than others in gaining momentum with volunteers, rather than creating the feeling of guilt.
No one likes to feel like a workhorse, enduring a hard week should be met with a relaxed day off. The process that volunteers take should be as easy as possible and provide plenty of ongoing support, there are many in church who understand why they should help and would like to help but the process of doing so seems daunting. When a minority are feeling the burden of over-serving, it can be easy for tension to start building amongst member.
To ease the tension and make sure that feelings of guilt are kept at bay, you may need to tap into other sources of inspiration in order to build up new energy.
Find the source of the problem
When large store chains start losing customers or staff they will bring in professional undercover teams. Find someone you trust and know, perhaps from another church, who is not known to your members. Ask them to come and experience it as a visitor, ask them to go through the membership processes and to try join a team. Use their feedback as a starting platform. It may be that the church needs set systems in place to ensure a good flow of communication.
If you are implementing new processes and systems into the church, iKnow can make this easier through our dedicated ‘Processes’ area. Contact our team on the details below if you would like more information on this.
Invest in your volunteering teams
There are numerous marketing companies that specialise in helping organisations to gain a rapport with customers but successful companies also spend considerable effort gaining a rapport with their staff. They understand that unless the staff are happy, they are going to create a bad atmosphere for customers. A committed church requires leaders to show a commitment to its members, which in turn builds up the church with a healthy atmosphere.
How much effort are you investing into your teams?
Everyone is tired and weary after a long week, it would be unwise therefore to assume that all members will pitch in with serving just out of obligation. Those that do volunteer out of obligation alone tend to become overburdened and burn out quickly.
Investing in your teams and the various processes involved will make volunteering an easier task and also help bring in new help as the church grows. However, keeping the momentum up is an additional challenge. Therefore, providing courses for members and volunteers to attend should be something every church provides.
There are numerous Christian resources and organisations that lift the burden off the church leadership by creating ready made courses that can be implemented easily in the church, so that you don’t have to recreate the wheel. Invest in your volunteers, give them something in return for their dedication, such as training material and courses and you will create a dynamic church that is passionately serving its community.
Would you like to share something that your church is doing? We want to hear your stories. Get in touch with us on the details below, we may even feature your story in our next newsletter!
Call us on 0121 651 1125 or email hello@iknowchurch.co.uk
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