When it comes to doing ministry, the church is filled with dedicated volunteers that selflessly act as the hands and feet of Jesus.

Occasionally, ministries do encounter seasons of volunteer shortage or have church volunteers quit. We want to dissect the main reason why church volunteers quit and explore how to disciple volunteers better. In this first part of our church volunteer series, we’ll introduce the volunteer discipleship framework and focus on volunteer recruitment in church.

Why Church Volunteers Quit

If you google “why church volunteers quit”, you’ll be bombarded with dozens of blog posts listing out the top reasons. Some of these reasons include...

• “Volunteer Burnout”
• “I feel like a cog in the machine”
• “It’s too stressful”
• “Not enough training”
• “No community”
• “No appreciation”

These are very valid reasons. But, they’re mostly symptoms of why a church volunteer quits. The underlying cause is almost alway one thing...

Lack of Discipleship

Volunteer Discipleship Framework

You probably know this verse by heart...

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” -Matthew 4:19

Instead of reinventing the wheel of discipleship and trying to come up with a fancy acronym or chart, we thought Discipleship.org already did a great job of breaking this down...

You can easily divide this verse so that it becomes a framework for the three key parts we find in the rest of the New Testament on what it means to be a disciple. These three parts include:

“following” Jesus (head)
“being changed” by Jesus through the Holy Spirit (heart)
“fishers of men” being committed to the mission of Christ (hands)

A disciple is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus and committed to the mission of Jesus.

The disciples were committed to their mission in following Jesus. Being “fishers of men” wasn’t some grandiose commission reserved for Bible speak... it was a call to serve. This service came in the form of distributing food to the thousands, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, or simply getting the boat ready to sail.

The 12 disciples were volunteers for Jesus. In the same way, our volunteers are disciples of Jesus. Now it’s time to use the discipleship framework from Matthew 4:19 and apply it to our volunteers.

“Follow Me” [How to recruit volunteers for church]

Recruiting volunteers is as simple as declaring “follow me”. How you ask people to follow can come in many different forms. Here are some of the most effective ways...

From the pulpit

Have the pastor weave an announcement for volunteers into the sermon. For example, let’s say the sermon is on having faith like a child. That’s the perfect Segway into mentioning volunteer opportunities for the children’s ministry. Preaching on giving? That’s a great opportunity to mention that giving goes beyond money, but also servitude.

Email or Text

Send out an email or mass text message to your people letting them know about volunteer opportunities.

On your website

Post a link to your volunteer signup sheet on your church website. If you don’t have a church website, learn more about Church Connect, a free church website that’s included with ChurchTrac.

Social Media

Posting volunteer opportunities on social media is a great way to build interest from would-be volunteers. When doing this, try to be as visual as possible. You could create a meme or post a video to gather attention. If you’re using a video in Facebook or Instagram, create subtitles so that people can still read what’s being said if they’re unable to listen while viewing.

Volunteer Board

Do you have a board for announcements or volunteer opportunities that’s located in a high traffic area of your church? This is a great place to post volunteer opportunities.

Pro Tip: Insert a QR code on the ad you place on the board and have it point to an online volunteer signup or webpage.

A call to action

As you advertise volunteer opportunities through various mediums, provide a single call to action. The best call to action is a volunteer signup form. The benefit of having this single call to action is consistency. No matter how your volunteers get to the form, they are all filling out the same information

The best volunteer signup form

When it comes to making church forms for volunteer recruitment, make one tailored specifically to its purpose. If it's a volunteer form for the Children's ministry, you may include fields for a background check and details specific to the children's ministry. If you’re creating a master form that filters volunteers to specific ministries, It may be more generic and look something like this...

Takeaway

Recruiting church volunteers is the first step of their discipleship journey. It starts with calling them to follow and giving them a simple way to respond. From there comes the next step of discipleship: Training.

Need to make a church volunteer signup form?

Church Connect is the best way to create a signup form for your church volunteers. You can create your own custom form fields and have form responses emailed to a specific leader or volunteer. Not using ChurchTrac? Start your free 30-Day trial and see why thousands of churches trust ChurchTrac to simplify their church accounting, online giving, worship planning, church website, and more!