Summer seems to go by so quickly. Perhaps you took some young people away on a residential, maybe you helped to run a holiday club for the children in your parish, hopefully you managed to get some time away yourself. But it probably feels like you’ve blinked and you’ve jumped from July straight to September. And you might not feel all together prepared for the term ahead…
Well, let me reassure you, you’re not alone. Across the Diocese, indeed across the country, children’s and youth teams will be frantically trying to finalise plans, gather volunteers back together and relocate all the resources and equipment that has curiously gone walkabout during August. Some will have started their programmes last week, others are getting ready to kick off this coming Sunday.
Recruiting volunteers is perhaps the trickiest thing to do at this time of the year. The end of the academic year in July is a time when some choose to retire. It’s a natural break and they don’t feel like they’re abandoning children or young people in the middle of something. And that’s great. God calls us to ministry and calls us away. We want volunteers who are committed and passionate about working with children and/or young people. We don’t want people who think they can’t stop because they’d be letting us or their group down. (And we certainly don’t want people to drop out of ministry at short notice halfway through a term!)
But that does often leave us with a gap that it’s hard to fill. People are away over August, you are away over August and your chances to recruit new workers are few and far between. So here are a few suggestions to help out, when July rolls around again.
- Start early. Don’t wait for people to tell you that they’re stopping. Always be on the lookout for people with the skills and passion that you’re looking for. It’s always better to have too many people than not enough! And with extra volunteers, you can do more things or do the activities you already do in greater depth.
- Make a personal approach. The age of general volunteering is gone – you’ll probably know this if you’ve made an appeal for help from the front of church and received no interest. Identify those people who might be good to have on your team and ask them face-to-face. Don’t pressurise them or stand over them until they agree! Be open about what you’re asking, and make it clear that they can say no!
- Sell the vision. People are much more open to joining a team when they know what they’re working towards. If you tell people about what you (individually and as a church) are hoping to achieve in your children’s or youth groups, then they are more likely to buy in and share your vision.
- Give them an end date. This might seem to be a strange thing to do when your potential volunteer hasn’t yet agreed to join your team! However, giving an end, or review, date helps them to see that you don’t expect them to sign up for life. It means that, if they don’t like it, or in the end you don’t think they’re suitable, you’ve got a chance to say so and move on amicably. It’s likely though, that people will keep going beyond that date!
Hopefully, these suggestions will help you add new members into your team. There is more helpful advice in Mark Yaconelli’s book, Contemplative Youth Ministry. They’re not guarantees of success, but might set you on the way to replenishing and building a team!
Alex Taylor is the Children’s Ministry Trainer for the Diocese of London and a huge fan of sticky toffee pudding.