How to celebrate and care for your church volunteers.
We know that without a doubt, our churches could not run without volunteers. They give of their time and energy so freely. They’re often the first faces that people meet when they walk through the doors of your church. They lead worship and minister to our kids. And because they are so impactful, it can be easy to overly focus on recruiting more of them. (Don’t get us wrong, recruiting volunteers is super important. We even wrote a blog post about how to do it!)
But what’s even more important than recruiting is celebrating and caring for the volunteers you already have. A church will cultivate what it celebrates! Here are three ways you can show them how appreciated they are:
Celebrate!
Throw a party! Shout them out from the stage and through your social media efforts. Give them awards, certificates, etc. Create times where all volunteers can come together to appreciate and celebrate each other.
This is a great way to build and support community. It also can inspire everyone, reminding them that their work truly matters.
Create Rhythms of Care
Your volunteers are often the ones who show up in the trenches. But how is your staff actively caring for them? This can be simple like making sure they have a chance to worship each weekend. Or scheduling mandatory breaks from their volunteer duties every few weeks.
What if you encouraged them to prioritize family events? Or created time for them to build deep and meaningful relationships with the other people on their volunteer team?
All these things contribute to them being whole and healthy people. Help them know the work that they do matters and they matter as a person even more.
Offer Training & Development Opportunities
You want to be careful that you’re not asking your volunteers for more time to attend mandatory seminars or trainings. However, having opportunities for development is a great way to show your volunteers that you care about them and want to help them grow.
This could be a bigger investment like purchasing tickets for a conference or lower barrier options like bringing in a speaker to help them develop their skills. You could even partner with an outside organization to offer free digital resources they could use anytime.
Whatever you decide to do, make it as genuine as possible and continue to connect it all back to your mission. The most important thing is that your volunteers leave feeling like who they are and that the work they’re doing is truly making a difference.
We love helping churches grow in these areas! If you need help planning and implementing new ways to celebrate and care for your volunteers, our team would love to support you in those efforts.
