Volunteers are the backbone of any church. Most churches—if not all of them—wouldn’t survive a week without the ministries of volunteers. From greeting newcomers to leading music to running the tech booth, your church likely couldn’t host a worship service without them.
But keeping volunteers engaged and motivated is tough. And serving week after week in underappreciated roles leaves many feeling burned out and ready to quit.
That’s the story at an overwhelming number of churches today.
It’s time to imagine a different story.
- A church that loves to serve.
- A church where volunteers see service as an opportunity rather than an obligation.
- A church where members grow spiritually because they’re constantly stepping out in faith to serve.
- A church where leadership naturally emerges as volunteers grow into new ministry roles.
That’s the kind of church any of us would like to participate in. It’s not out of your reach, either. The practical steps described below can help you move toward a culture that naturally leads to this kind of church.
The Heart of a Volunteer-Friendly Culture
Think of your church’s culture as the collective atmosphere, values, and behaviors that shape your ministry and how people engage with you. It influences everything from how people worship to how you engage your local community with the good news about Jesus.
Your church culture can either help or harm your volunteers. In churches where volunteer leaders are seen as second-class participants in the mission of God, the culture will hold the congregation back from building a thriving volunteer system. In those churches, getting people to serve in ministries of the church will feel like an uphill battle every time. Volunteers burn out quickly. New volunteers are tough to find.
But a strong culture has the opposite effect. They make it easier to recruit new volunteers and keep them for years to come. A volunteer-friendly church makes service a fulfilling and rewarding part of the church experience.
At its heart, a volunteer-friendly church fosters a culture of service as members see volunteering as a natural expression of their commitment to Jesus.
So, how do you build that kind of volunteer-friendly church culture?
Start by following these four steps.
1. Make Volunteering Easy and Accessible.
Anyone who’s been at your church for more than a month should have no trouble explaining how to get involved as a volunteer. Even if they’ve never actually signed up to serve, they should still know the process. Why? Because you’ve talked about serving so often—and made the steps so clear—that it’s second nature to them. It’s easy for them to share with others because they’ve heard it enough times, and the path to getting involved is simple.
Technology is your friend on this. A quick and easy sign-up tool on your website or mobile app means people can sign up to serve wherever they are — whether that’s in your worship service or watching their child’s baseball game. Limit how much information volunteers need to provide before they can serve. Stick with the basics (name and email address or phone number should be plenty).
With church management tools like Realm, you can leverage minimum information to quickly place volunteers in the right roles, send automated reminders, and track their engagement over time. Simplifying this sign-up process reduces the barriers to service and ensures potential volunteers don’t get discouraged before they start.
2. Value and Appreciate Your Volunteers.
Organizations eventually become what they value. For your church culture to embrace volunteers, you need to make it clear how much you value them.
Your volunteers should be seen as heroes in your church. Their selfless sacrifice for the good of others literally fuels the mission of your congregation. So…
- Brag on them from the pulpit. Highlight specific volunteers in sermons and tell everyone the impact they are making. Note their value nearly every week in some manner.
- Give them small tokens of the church’s appreciation (note the word small). They don’t expect you to go overboard. They want you to be a good steward. Just let them see you’re thinking about them.
- Share volunteer stories on social media. Let people see the impact they can have when they serve.
- Celebrate volunteer wins as much (or more!) as you do staff wins.
When you show appreciation and value to your volunteers, they learn quickly that what they do matters. You’ll see fewer no-shows and a much better attitude along the way.
3. Provide the Right Training and Support.
One of the most important reasons people hesitate to serve is because they feel unqualified. They are afraid they will fail, embarrass themselves, and ultimately let down God.
When you provide training, you show volunteers they aren’t serving alone. You have their back.
Don’t over-complicate it, though. Think in terms of “just-in-time” training. Give them the training they need when they need it. Don’t force them to endure hours of training for something they might face three years from now (that will interfere with the first point).
4. Foster a Sense of Community.
In a volunteer-friendly church, service isn’t a task; it’s a joy. One of the most important ways to ensure that is to build a sense of community among those who are serving.
Too often, we think of community as something built in a church’s small group ministry and not elsewhere. But the reality is that a few opportunities to serve together will probably build relationships much faster than any other aspect of your church.
Encourage your volunteer teams to plan social activities together, whether eating together after or before serving or special fun activities away from church.
This is another area where tech can help. Your church management system can help you organize and communicate with your ministry groups in ways that build relationships and allow them to communicate with one another as well.
The Ripple Effect of a Volunteer-Friendly Church
Creating a church that’s welcoming to volunteers isn’t just about getting more people to serve—though churches with a strong culture of service usually have an easier time finding volunteers. It’s really about shaping a church where caring for others’ spiritual, emotional, and physical needs is a natural part of following Jesus. When serving becomes part of what it means to be a disciple, people don’t just volunteer out of obligation—they do it because it’s who they are as a disciple of Jesus.
If you’re looking to develop a more meaningful volunteer culture in your church as you head into Easter, download The Ultimate Easter Volunteer Toolkit, which contains a number of free tools to help.
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