Volunteer Management

11 Ways to Retain Volunteers

If you’ve been leading in Children’s Ministry for very long, you’ve probably figured out that one of the best ways to build your volunteer team is to keep the ones you’ve already got!

Retaining volunteers is critical to continued health and growth in your ministry.

But sometimes it seems like we’ve got a revolving door with our volunteers, with many coming and going all the time. How do we stop that? In some cases, it’s just going to happen, but in most cases, volunteers leave because there’s some dissatisfaction – or lack of satisfaction, at best – with their involvement.

Here are some ways we can to offset that and keep the volunteers we have:

1. Make it matter

We all are short on time. When we give our time, we want it to matter. The best way to do this with your volunteers is
to focus on vision. Recruit them to vision. Talk vision constantly. Guide them toward fulfilling the vision of your ministry.

2. Care about them

This seems obvious, right? What I’ve experienced and observed, though, is that sometimes we care more about the role they play in our ministry than we care about them as individuals. We need to make sure we know them and care about them as individuals first.

3. Create community

Creating community can be a big part of caring for our volunteers. As we make sure they are connected, not only to us, but also to others within our ministry, we begin to create unique community with and for them. Creating shared experiences away from church can play a huge part in creating community with our team. And when someone has shared experiences and feels community with a group of people, they are far less likely to leave.

4. Give them breaks

Everyone needs a break now and then. My approach to this is two-fold. First, design your volunteer commitments with a built in break. This might be having them take the summer off, or taking the 5th weekend off when a month has 5 weeks, but you can easily build breaks in to the commitment. Second, I strongly communicate flexibility. I create a system to managing times when volunteers need to be gone, and I communicate that I understand this is OK – life happens!

5. Equip them

There is really no better way to lose a volunteer than to place them in a role that they don’t know how to do and leave them to figure it out. Design an equipping program that offers basic training/orientation and on-going training through various avenues (in person, online, email, etc.).

6. Solve problems for them

One of the best and quickest ways to gain influence (leadership) is to solve problems. It’s also one of the best ways retain volunteers. You don’t have to be the one who actually solves the problems, just be the one that makes sure the problem gets solved for your volunteers.

7. Resource them

One of my pet peeves is ministries that expect volunteers to a) create their own curriculum; b) pay for any supplies they need to do what we ask them to do, and/or c) not offer to reimburse them when they want to do something extra for their kids (within predefined guidelines)!

If a volunteer refuses reimbursement or insists on purchasing supplies, then great. But don’t make buying stuff necessary to serving in your ministry – some people simply can’t afford it and it won’t be long before they walk.

8. Appreciate them

It’s amazing how far a simple thank you will go! A simple note of appreciation can do wonders. A pat on the back in the hallway. A shout out in front of their team. A public recognition of over-and-above service. Appreciation goes a long, long way to retaining your team.

Need ideas? Here are 20 ways to SHOW appreciation.

9. Tell them stories

About the parents who told you how much their child likes this volunteers class. About the child who never liked coming to church until they got into that volunteers class. About the teenager who serves alongside them and seems to really be engaging in their faith now. You get the idea – we love to hear how we are making a difference in people’s lives. Listen for stories, have a method for collecting them, and be intentional about telling your volunteers what you are hearing. You might even ask parents to share their stories with their childs’ leaders.

10. Invest in their personal growth

One of our great privileges as children’s ministry leaders is investing in the personal and spiritual growth of our team. They are there not just to serve, but to grow. When we take time to individually and collectively invest in their lives to help them grow, they appreciate it.

11. Increase their responsibility

Many times (but not all), volunteers need new challenges, especially those who are more inclined to be leaders. When leaders continue to do the same thing (especially if we’ve brought them in on a pretty basic level), they can get bored. Many people need new and greater challenges, so make sure you identify the ones who are stepping up as leaders and find ways to give them new and great responsibilities in your ministry.

What do you do to retain volunteers in your ministry?

What are SMART Goals and how to set them

By Pedro Leave a Comment

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I’ve always struggled with setting goals. I think that most of my life, subconsciously, I’ve been afraid to fail and therefore, have erred on inaction. Part of taking no action means that you don’t really set goals or hold yourself accountable. There are numerous sayings that talk about aiming higher than you really want, so you can still achieve great things. Or aim and nothing and you’ll hit it every time. I think that’s true.

However, in the last 10 years or so I’ve learned that you must hold yourself to a higher standard and if you want to succeed in something, you have to take a chance, work hard, and aim high. Part of that process is setting goals for yourself and learning to stick with them.

Believe it or not, SMART goals have been around for decades. Not the idea of SMART goals, just the development of them.

I first learned about them in a Business Administration class at Florida International University. Since then, I’ve put them into practice for myself. The concept of SMART goals originated with General Electric and is widely studied in business schools. So when it was brought up in that business class, it wasn’t new to anyone except for the few of us who were social science majors. I began putting SMART goals in to practice and then when I started working at Operation Christmas Child, I was pleased to learn that SMART goal setting is a constant practice.

Goal setting is an extremely valuable practice. Too often, people either don’t set any goals or set too many! I tend to set too many for myself and then end up abandoning most of them. In the last year though, I’ve been better about setting only a handful of goals for myself.

Before we get into the specifics of SMART goals, let’s look at DUMB goals.

DUMB Goals

Most people end up setting bad goals or DUMB goals. Here are some examples:

Lose weight
Start a new business
Work harder

These are all good things to achieve, these are honorable goals, but they’re dumb goals. Why are they dumb goals?

They’re vague, they’re not specific, and they’re not measurable.

Can you achieve goals like that? Maybe, maybe not. Does losing weight mean one pound or 10?

Goals like that tend to not work.

Dumb goals don’t work because they’re easy to make, easy to forget, and have no steps to help you achieve them, if you even know what you need to achieve.

GE developed the concept of SMART goal setting in the 1940s and by the time the 1960s came around, they had perfected it. By 1961, all GE employees wrote out their objectives for the following year and gave it to their manager.

The letter required the employee to indicate what the goals and time frame were for the next year, how the goals would be met, and what standards were to be expected. The manager would accept this letter, usually with some editing, and it became known as the work contract.

Next up – SMART Goals

SMART goals are:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time Based

The SMART goal system works so well because once you go through the thought process of creating a SMART goal, it’s much more clear how it will happen. You’re forced to think critically about the process of achieving these goals.

You know what the next steps are and when you need to do them. Dumb goal setting allows you to skip the steps of critical thinking.

It’s harder to set a SMART goal than a bad one. That’s purposeful. It takes longer to think through all the details to plan things out. It’s also ok to be agile and pivot midway through a plan. That’s actually a Project Management framework called… AGILE.

Setting a SMART Goal for losing weight

Using one of the most common goals, weight loss, as an example, let’s look at the SMART goal system in action.

Let’s think about setting a DUMB goal for this:

Lose weight

It’s easy to see that you can completely ignore that goal and never set out to do anything necessary to accomplish it. Some people can can lose weight without even trying, but not most of us!

Let’s turn it into a SMART Goal

Specific – Lose 10 pounds by March 1.

Measurable – That’s approximately 1.25 pounds a week.

Attainable – I can do cardio 3 times a week and lift weights 3 times a week, I can also lower my calories. Write out all the steps necessary to attain this goal.

Realistic – I can set aside time 5-6 times a week to make time for training. I can get up early in the mornings before work to train. I can trade in my work lunches for salad in order to cut calories. I can also cut out soda and sweets.

Time Based – I have 8 weeks to make this happen, I need to see these results by March 1. That means cutting calories by 10%, cardio 3 times a week, and weightlifting 3 times a week.

SMART Goals For The Win

What if things change or you see that by Week 3, you’re not hitting the 1.25 pounds per week mark? That’s why we’re flexible. Plans are here to serve you, you’re not here to serve your plan. If you need to change your plan, or your goal, then you have the flexibility to do that.

Adaptability is the greatest skill to have.

If you injure yourself while training and your doctor sidelines you for a couple weeks, you may have to push back or lower your goal, that’s not losing, that’s adapting.

On the flip side, if you find yourself losing 2 pounds per week, there’s nothing wrong with upping your goal! Be agile!

Don’t be afraid to adapt as needed.

SMART Goal Action Items

Think about a few short term goals that you’d like to accomplish in the next month.
Use the SMART Goal framework to set one of these goals for yourself.
Start working toward this goal. Document your steps toward your goal.
Build slack into the schedule and be realistic about how long tasks really take.
Work towards achieving your goal starting week.
Document your success and use that forward motion to push you toward bigger goals.

20 Tips on Recruiting Volunteers

By Pedro Leave a Comment

20 tips on recruiting volunteers

Have you ever been “recruited” for something? What was that thing? Was it a ministry? A job? The military?

In ministry, we use the term “recruiting” when referring to volunteers all the time. Honestly, I don’t like it very much. I think the word carries negative connotations for many people. I think recruiting can turn people away unless those people are already highly interested.

I’ll give you an example. I knew a church who used to hold recruiting meetings for missions trips. No one ever attended those. They switched it to info meetings and attendance skyrocketed. You see, most people don’t want to be recruited but a lot of people do want to know more information about what’s going on. That one simple change of a word had a dramatic change on their ministry.

Looking back on my own life, as I was thinking about attending graduate school, I attended a TON of info sessions for different universities before I settled on the University of Miami.

What exactly is recruiting?

As a Children’s Ministry Pastor, my primary responsibility was to serve my volunteers as they serve kids. Recruiting was a big part of that. At first, I viewed volunteers as a means to an end. Meaning that I needed volunteers to accomplish my mission. That was a HUGE mistake. That led me to tend to use volunteers without really caring for them.

Things changed, though. I began to view volunteers as individuals with unique gifts and skills who were called by God to serve in a specific way. My responsibility was to recruit and select those individuals who were called to serve in Children’s Ministry. It was at this time that I really began to see fruit in the ministry I was leading. Not only did we begin to develop leaders but those leaders began to develop leaders.

Recruiting Volunteers is never about begging

Begging for volunteers is never acceptable. Begging or guilting people into serving puts the individual in an awkward position and ultimately sets up your ministry for failure. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem convincing someone to serve, but I will never beg someone to serve and I’ll never beg someone to stay. Honestly, I’m more likely to overestimate the work required for the job. I don’t ever want to put someone in a spot where they felt misled about what they’ve accepted.

Succeed in Recruiting Volunteers with these 20 tips

1. It’s all about vision

A big, compelling vision that’s well defined and engaging. I believe that’s what makes so many volunteers join us at Operation Christmas Child, a clear vision.

2. It’s not all about the need

Vision trumps need every single time. You may not think it’s fair, but that’s the way it is.

3. Make the ask

Have you made the ask? It’s not enough to talk about what your vision or needs are. If you haven’t actually asked someone to serve, then you’re likely missing out on a lot of people who think that you’re already good to go.

4. Fully define your structure

What would happen if you received an influx of applicants? Would you know where you need them or will you have to makeup spots? Know what your structure is and where the holes are. Just like a business can clearly identify what the vacancies are, your ministry should be the same. Where are the holes?

5. Don’t be a one man (or woman) show

Here’s an oxymoron. Some leaders are so high capacity that it seems like they have it all together. They’ll have to be a lot more intentional about recruiting other leaders. On the flip side, people view someone who’s doing great things but is obviously dropping the ball sometimes and want to support that person.

6. Stop typecasting people

Don’t be afraid to take a chance on someone and don’t typecast people. Regardless of how that individual has served in the past, God can certainly work in people and equip individuals for new roles.

7. Empower others

The fastest way to lose leaders is not empower them to make decisions. I’m not talking about decisions where you have the final say, that’s not really empowering. I’m talking about decisions where your volunteer has the authority to say yes or no to something. When volunteers realize that you hand out authority coupled with responsibility, you’ll hardly ever lose a leader and it’ll be easier to recruit leaders.

8. Create efficient systems

How do you take someone from interested in volunteering with you to fully onboarded and trained? That’s what systems are for and the larger you are (or want to be) the more efficient system you need.

9. Be clear about volunteer opportunities

When I was a Children’s Ministry Pastor I was notorious for closing down a classroom if we didn’t have a teacher for it. This was an obvious decision for me but it confounded parents and others. I also realized it was something that very few Pastors do.

Why did I do it? If there’s not teacher available, then there’s no trained individual to teach and take care of the kids, so it’s better for kids to stay with their parents. It also lets all those parents know that we have staffing shortages. Very often, parents themselves would want to become volunteers when they realized there are opportunities to serve.

It was also common for us to announce openings in services, within other ministries, and on social media.

10. Equip others to recruit other volunteers

Recruiting is not only your responsibility! It’s also the responsibility of all of your volunteers. Equip them to recruit!

11. Personally recruit

On the other hand, recruiting is not only the responsibility of others, it’s also yours. You need to personally recruit!

12. Don’t rely on mass invitations or social media only

It’s so easy nowadays to rely on social media campaigns, email campaigns, or announcements. Don’t rely on these. At the end of the day, the most effective recruiting is face to face. Nothing will ever replace that.

13. Start showing appreciation to your current volunteers

Stop saying “Thank you” and start showing appreciation to your volunteers. It’s far easier to keep the volunteers you have than to constantly replace them with new ones.

14. Train your volunteers better than ever

A trained volunteer is a happy volunteer. Not only will they do better in their roles, but they’ll tell others about how they’re valued and trained.

15. Learn to be flexible with people

Ministry is about people, once you start prioritizing processes over people, you’ll start to experience problems. If one of your leaders needs a month off, do it. People appreciate it and flexibility breeds goodwill and increases volunteer capital.

16. Don’t focus on your problems

It’s great to communicate vision and it’s good to communicate need, but that doesn’t mean that you should communicate all of your problems. I promise you, communicating your problems to potential volunteers won’t get them to start serving.

17. Start sharing stories

It’s not only about sharing vision, but it’s also about sharing how God is moving in your ministry. Share stories not only in person but all over your social media.

18. Stop going beyond your capacity

If you’re constantly redlining it then honestly, you don’t have the capacity to bring on someone else. You just won’t have the time to properly onboard and train them. Therefore, in this self fulfilling prophecy, you’ll keep redlining it.

Break the cycle by slowing down. That will give you the capacity to properly invest in others.

19. Stop making excuses

I’ve heard all kinds of excuses. People in the city don’t serve. People in this country don’t serve. Millennials don’t serve. We ask too much. I’ve heard it all and I’ve seen ministries that have countered every excuse possible. I’ve seen young professionals serve in New York city, Latinos serve in Latin America, and Millennials serve all across the country. There’s really no excuse to not have a dynamic volunteer ministry. If you’re not attracting and retaining volunteers the problem is you or your ministry.

20. Start praying

Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, and to pray that the Lord sends more workers. So do that, start praying for more volunteers.

YouTube or Vimeo and what’s Ooyala: Which is better for your Ministry?

By Pedro Leave a Comment

If you’ve been in ministry in the Western world for any length of time, you’ve already asked yourself this questions. Which is better for my ministry, YouTube or Vimeo? Or, is there a third option?

The debate has raged on since Vimeo came on the scene. It seemed to provide an alternative to YouTube. The YouTube versus Vimeo debate is kind of like the debate between Mac and PC. Who wins? Macs may seem “cooler” but by sheer volume, PCs outpace Macs in every single way. As far as volume, PCs are the winner. Is that the only category, though?

When it comes to technology, volume doesn’t usually matter. I declare Macs the winner because of their reliability, durability, and resiliency. Not to mention their simplicity, which is important for ministry. Right now, I’m writing this on a 7 year old Macbook Pro. That kind of longevity is impossible on a PC.

Does volume matter when it comes to YouTube versus Vimeo?

Yes. And no.

YouTube’s volume is incredible. It reaches 1 Billion unique viewers per month, and growing. Vimeo gets 60 million.

Many ministry leaders like to use Vimeo because it’s cleaner and sleeker. However, YouTube’s reach and impact far exceeds Vimeo’s, and that gap is increasing in YouTube’s every month.

Ministry leaders are called to reach and impact people with the Gospel, so why use a platform that is much more limited? YouTube is where the people are so shouldn’t that be we ministries are at? Yes.

Staying away from YouTube is like deciding to remove your ministry website from Google because you like the Bing experience better. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?

So does that mean that you should stay away from Vimeo and stay exclusive to YouTube? Not necessarily.

Let me explain.

Vimeo provides a much better and cleaner viewer experience. Vimeo’s strength comes when it’s videos are imbedded in your website or when you drive someone there for the sole purpose of viewing a video. I know ministries that do their entire Volunteer training exclusively through Vimeo.

On the other hand, YouTube is great for people searching and finding your videos.

So what should my ministry use?

Both and.

1. YouTube beats Vimeo when it comes to volume

YouTube is the hands down winner over Vimeo when it comes to volume.

Right now Vimeo gets 60 million unique visitors per month. YouTube gets over 1 billion unique visitors. That’s 1,566% more visitors per month. YouTube is where the people are.

2. YouTube’s search capabilities beat Vimeo’s

Having a powerful search feature is what made Google the undisputed King of search engines. It’s no coincidence then, that Google owns YouTube. It also means that your website is likely to receive more visitors through Google if you have a YouTube channel pointing to it.

It also means that your videos are more likely to show up on page 1 of Google if you have a lot of videos on YouTube that point to your website and vice versa. Google likes cross contamination. I can’t think of any other way to say it. Use all Google platforms and you’re more likely to receive visitors through Google.

3. Sharing is caring – YouTube beats Vimeo again

Sharing videos you enjoy is a strength of YouTube’s. It’s also a platform that everyone knows and everyone trusts. You can send anyone a YouTube link to your favorite cat video and people will watch it. Vimeo isn’t nearly as known and therefore, not as trusted, especially outside of the United States. Because of this and its search feature, it’s possible to receive views on a video for years to come. Social sharing is also optimized on YouTube, making it easy to share across all major social media platforms.

4. Easy to use – YouTube wins again

They both have great features and both have pros and cons. However, YouTube is SO EASY to use that anyone can do it, and everyone does do it. It has a subscription feature that allows viewers to see subscribe to your channel, it allows you to promote on other people’s channels, it makes uploading and editing videos a cinch, and if you get a ton of traffic, you can even bring in some serious money from YouTube!

5. User Experience – Vimeo wins!

I admit, it depends what you mean by user experience. Assuming that since you’re leading a ministry, you don’t want your viewers to be redirected to Adult content or questionable content. Because of that, Vimeo wins.

You can embed a Vimeo video on your website and it can be a great user experience. YouTube won’t give you the same benefit.

Both YouTube and Vimeo are social networks. Both have integrated commenting systems, as well as legitimate communities. However, YouTube is much larger and a much more social, social network than Vimeo.

6. How much is YouTube and/or Vimeo? – YouTube wins

You can upload unlimited HD videos of any length or stream HD content on YouTube for free. Vimeo has a monthly or yearly membership fee that increase if you add more content than you are allowed. Therefore, many ministries choose YouTube as their main video channel.

7. Censorship? – Vimeo will NOT censor your videos (maybe)

Censorship of Christianity and/or Conservative thought is becoming more and more common. Unfortunately, both Vimeo and YouTube have been found guilty of this type of censorship.

YouTube has been known to censor videos that embrace Libertarian and Conservative points of view. YouTube has even censored videos that talk about how the US Constitution is relevant to Americans today! YouTube is currently censoring 34 PragerU videos!

Vimeo has censored videos that speak of homosexuality as being a sin, although, in Vimeo’s defense, they cited it was because of a copyright infringement.

Is there a third option? Kind of.

Vimeo may be great to embed on your site – and I recommend that you do that. YouTube may be great if you wish to reach people outside of your circle – and I recommend that you do that. Both of these platforms should be your go to budget solution for delivering video content.

However, for ministries who have a healthy budget and a couple tech savvy individuals on staff, start displaying your own videos using Ooyala. Ooyala was started by a couple YouTube employees. They wanted to provide a better experience for companies seeking to display videos.

Still, YouTube is a great way to reach outside of your circle and possibly grow your church or ministry. However, because of YouTube’s history of censorship, don’t upload any videos that you don’t have copies of somewhere else!

What’s your experience been with YouTube and Vimeo?

7 Ministry Principles Your Volunteers Need to Know

By Pedro Leave a Comment

7 Ministry Principles Your Volunteers Need to Know

If you’re in church ministry, then you are absolutely dependent on your volunteers. You won’t survive a Sunday without them! This isn’t just true for Children’s Ministry, but for any ministry in your church. Leading volunteers isn’t what they can do for you or for your ministry, it’s about partnership. At Operation Christmas Child (A Project of Samaritan’s Purse), we have thousands of volunteers who serve with us every day, every week, and every month.

As I think through the types of things volunteers should know, there are hundreds, if not thousands of them. However, here I’ve boiled it down to 7 high level principles that your volunteers need to know in order to be successful. This isn’t an exhaustive list, I could’ve gone on forever, but knowing these 10 principles will move your volunteers toward success.

Predictions for the 2020 Church

By Pedro Leave a Comment

Way back in 2012, I wrote a series of blog posts titled “Predictions for the 2020 Church.” The purpose of this series was to explore the ways working at churches will have changed over the following 8 years. In this post, I’m going to go through all 11 predictions and let you judge how close I am to accurate predictions.

Here’s a list of the 11 blog posts and links to the original posts.

They’re short blog posts, probably averaging about 200 words each. So in this post I’m going to put them on here in their entirety and quickly recap what the results are.

Predictions are in H2 (large font) in order to make them easy to scroll to.

Results are in H3 (slightly smaller than H2) for the same reason.

Let’s get started.

Simple Ministry versus Easy Ministry

By Pedro 1 Comment

I once heard a pastor friend of mine describe the difference between Apple and PC as this. Using an Apple product is like driving an automatic car, it’s what most of the population needs. Using a PC is like driving a stick shift, it does much more but is more complicated that what the majority of people need.

When speaking of volunteer management, what you really need is simple ministry, not easy ministry. Don’t mistake simple ministry for being easy and don’t mistake easy ministry for being simple. There’s a stark difference.

I’d like to share with you the difference between simple ministry and easy ministry. The difference is stark but still easy to miss.

5 Steps to Equipping Volunteers

By Pedro Leave a Comment

The above image is of two Navy Seals. Navy Seals are elite American Special Operators who are not only volunteers, but who are recruited widely, selected from the many, and then equipped with the best. Leading volunteers isn’t only about recruiting the right individuals, leading volunteers is also about those equipping volunteers to succeed. There are a variety of ways to equip volunteers. Volumes could be written on the subject. However, I’m going to share with you 5 Steps to Equipping Volunteers. These steps are not in order of importance, they’re all important and all must be done in order to equip your volunteers well.