Recruiting volunteers who have a true passion for discipling children is one of the most difficult challenges you face as a kids’ ministry leader. At the same time, you might feel like there’s not much you can do without owning the process for getting people plugged into ministry. 

Three Ways You Can Play a Role in Your Church’s Connection Process

As a children’s pastor, you might not be able to formulate your church’s assimilation process, but there are definitely things you can do to speak into it. Here are three ways you can play an active role in your church’s connection process and recruit volunteers who are passionate about kids’ ministry.

● Equip your connections team with resources beyond information about open volunteer opportunities. One of the easiest ways to get people excited about volunteering in kids’ ministry is to make it exciting. It sounds obvious, but this is something we often forget. Rather than simply letting your connections team know about the volunteer positions you need filled, what if you created resources they could share that highlight all the incredible things that are being done in your ministry? It could be something as simple as a few testimonies from kids in your ministry or an engaging video that highlights all the various ways to get involved.

● Train your current volunteers to actively recruit new volunteers. You’ll never have a volunteer problem if you train volunteers to constantly look for others to serve. What if you had to worry about finding roles for volunteers to fill rather than finding people to fill essential vacancies? That’s what happens when you create a culture of multiplication where volunteers understand the importance of being involved in ministry and are always actively looking to recruit others to serve. For example, what if you challenged your volunteers to recruit one person every six months who’s not volunteering in another capacity, to serve in your children’s ministry? By the end of the year, you could possible quadruple the number of volunteers in your children’s ministry. 

● Develop a process to learn more about the people in your church. Can the characteristics you are looking for in a volunteer be discovered through conversation, personality assessment, or other methods? If so, develop an intentional process for gathering this information at events or other connection points. It could be something as simple as observing church members on Sunday to watch where they might be naturally gifted. Another opportunity is to work with your pastoral team to create a survey that asks people about the areas of ministry they are interested in. 

A healthy, growing kids’ ministry will always have new opportunities emerging—and it will always need new volunteers. As a kids’ ministry leader, the best way to support your church is to equip your connections team and volunteers with tools that help them steward people through the process and help them get plugged into the volunteer role that’s right for them.