Volunteers are the lifeblood of churches
Volunteers are love in motion
Volunteers are the backbone of our community
All of the statements above are true and they are why having a great volunteer base at your church is so important. SALT Conference could not run without volunteers so we understand how important volunteers are. As a kid, I remember my parents volunteering at church. They loved it! My dad eventually moved into volunteering with the media team at church because he love all things video and cameras.
So how to we recruit volunteers, especially in our media teams. Here are a few tips to recruit volunteers (straight from our SALT Community).
Organization and Support
To me nothing is worse than volunteering with a team that is unorganized, clueless, lacking in communication etc. Not long ago I worked with a team that “outwardly” had all the right attributes of a great team. However, I found out very quickly that they were so unorganized when it came to scheduling and emailing updates. For example, they had my email address wrong and I tried getting them to correct it multiple times (and when I say multiple, I mean 6 times before they got it corrected). It made working with them very frustrating and I found myself withdrawing from the team. So make sure your team has some processes in place which will help entice people and help you recruit volunteers.
Engage the “Ground” Game
The best way to recruit is to create and lead a volunteer team where the volunteers feel included. You can find several articles on appreciating volunteers, which is important because it helps with moral within your team. Additionally, by showing appreciation and by leading your media volunteer team your team will help you recruit. The dynamics of your team are important because if your team loves volunteering with the team they will encourage others to volunteer too. It’s all about the “ground” game.
Use Social Media
This is something that I think can easily get overlooked. The church social media account is a great way to show off what you are doing. For instance, Long Hollow Baptist (host church for SALT Conference), has several social media accounts. One in particular is Long Hollow Film. Their feed is full of fun stories and projects and the goal is to showcase those projects. This is a great way to get volunteers. It accomplishes 3 things: showcases your content, educates your followers on your team’s “why” and it allows you to communicate consistently.
Just “Ask”
As I was reading through the comments and suggestions, from our community, several mentioned mass text invites. Most of us are already spread thin so making direct phone calls isn’t really an option. Additionally, adding a call out on a monitor before the service is pretty passive. By sending a mass text several people mentioned they were able to gain anywhere from 5-10 people for the team.
Vision Cast
One of the things I appreciate about my church is their commitment to help people realize their gifts and goals. Several years ago they instituted a program called Place. This program helps people engage their calling and realize where their gifts could be used in the church. Not only does this include doing a spiritual gifts assessment it also assesses a person’s DISC profile. Once a person takes the assessments they will then sit down with a Place coach and discuss the findings. This can do a couple of things…. 1) It helps the person define areas where they might enjoy serving 2) This information can then be passed down (if the person agrees) to the different areas and allow them to reach out with volunteer opportunities.
Prayer and Food
These 2 things really need no explanation but they are important (especially the pray part). Anyway, getting your team together to Pray is so important. When all of you align to pray about finding the right people great things happen. Additionally, by providing food to the media team (especially considering they probably got their really early), you create an environment of appreciation.
To sum this up, if you feel you’re struggling when it comes to volunteer recruitment for your church, consider calling on others in the community to help. There are many FB Groups available to those that serve in the local church and I feel the people in those groups can provide some great feedback and ideas. Additionally, if you are a SALT Alumni you are welcome to join our FB Group, the SALT Community Alumni. This is a private group only for those that have either 1) been to a SALT Conference 2) have or have had subscription to SALT University.
