What would we do without them, so many leaders in Kids Church are so blessed to be joined by volunteers who know on their heart that they want to work alongside you, their leader, to help you deliver a safe, fun, vital message to the children of your church.

What’s your capacity

As a leader of Children’s Church, I would say that like me you are probably a high capacity person. You are probably doing this role either paid or unpaid alongside many other jobs and roles. Yet you still manage to cut out the craft, buy the snacks, do the photocopying and printing and have a massive smile on your face come Sunday. This alongside the fact that you work, you are a mum to your own family and you run a house and many other areas of life. That’s high capacity, however, we are all different, thank The Lord!

Volunteers come in all, and I am not going to say shapes and sizes, because that is not what I mean, volunteers come into your room offering a wide range of capacities. What I mean by this is you can have Capacity (a) - the volunteer who rushes in the room a wee bit late, but you just wouldn’t be without him or her, they may not be able to make it on time, ie. for set up of the room, but gee they are the last to leave and in between they give so much to the morning. We cannot as a caring organisation, which is what a church is, be regimented about what time people must arrive. We ask them to be at church at a certain time, however, it just may not suit their sleeping schedule or their husband that comes along at the same time and has to sit around and wait at both ends of the morning.

Capacity (b) - the volunteer who wants to be in the room but doesn’t seem to want to get too involved. A tricky one, are they church dodging, or thinking more deeply, do they just love to be around children, and we should just lead them gently into rolling their sleeves up a wee bit more so that they grow alongside everyone in the room.

Capacity (c) - the volunteer who wants to run the room, just as tricky, if you have a tried and tested routine and teaching plan that produces fruit and they want to take over; then I do believe it is very difficult to have two leaders in the room. The buck stops somewhere and it has to stop with one person. This volunteer may be ready to run/lead their own space/area so it’s either promotion or a difficult conversation to get on with.

Capacity (d) - the volunteer who turns up, keeps to the routine, gives so much of themselves to the children, supports, and backs you up and can be trusted to lead the room when you are not there. Oh my gosh, hug them often, gift them often, encourage them in every which way often, and thank God for them daily.

Every volunteer brings with them a different capacity, it may be high capacity, or a mediocre capacity, whatever they bring, I would say take it and always be grateful for it.

“There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptised by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. ……..So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.” Corinthians 12. 12-27

Accept and celebrate all the different parts that make up your body of a team. Never compare, never give out different thanks or appreciation for without all of those capacities making up one brilliant team we would be lost.

Keeping a Team

So how do we hold onto a team that is working really well together? Well, I used to teach people the “sales process” and there are two objections to people buying your product or service, a Standard Rejection or a Fundamental Rejection. Standard being, I just haven’t come around to thinking I need your product or service, or a Fundamental Rejection is one where you are trying to sell your product or service to someone who either already has it or is moving from the area and can’t use your service!

Well, the same goes for people leaving your team, Standard is - I just don’t want to do it anymore, that needs a sit down with a cuppa and a good chat to bring them to a place where you show them they value them. A Fundamental rejection is - we are moving churches, we are moving locations there is nothing but a huge thank you for all you have done. So first off, try to hold onto your team if the individual is working out well, you have invested time and training and love into them so let’s hold onto them.

Rewarding a Team

I cannot reiterate this enough, thank your team, take your team out, gift your team, text your team to thank them, grab your team a coffee/tea, ask how your team are, build a relationship with your team, have your team around to your house, do you get the idea. Smart people surround themselves with really good people.

Make it fun, these people/volunteers have come in and given their Sunday to the children and to you (but mostly to the Lord) let’s make sure they have a blessed Sunday, a fun Sunday, something they look forward to and not dread. You know the difference here, make that happen, they have to feel valued, give hugs often, give thanks all the time, give time to them all the time.

Here are some of the things I do with my team(s) - we go out for a curry (on me), I have them around to my house and feed them pizza, I buy them gifts at Christmas and Easter, I bring in cookies and cupcakes, I buy them coffees/teas. Be a great example of a giving person, we have been blessed so highly lets pass that blessing on.

Getting a Team on Board

Do you not have enough volunteers? Do your children outnumber your helpers (be careful of that one), here is how to encourage people into your room.

-Is your room fun, is it a fun place to volunteer, is it a boring morning with work, work, work, it has to be a happy fun place not only for the children but also for your volunteers.

-Have a call out for volunteers at the front of the church asking people that are interested in investing in children’s lives and meet with them all after church and have cookies and hot drinks and juice ready before giving them the talk about how great it is to work for God in the Children’s areas.

-Keep your area attractive, let people see that you have fun, you have routine and not chaos, that the area is well-led, let the people see your volunteers having cookies and cake and coffee, and keep your area attractive.

Remember your team may be young or old or hopefully a mixture of both, it will hopefully be a mixture of male and female as children need that, whatever your mix, let them feel the Love of God in your room when they are on, let them feel that they are not missing out on church, they are leading little ones in church.

Promote

Make sure you involve your team in the teaching, have them do the tasks, don’t do it all yourself, let them own the routine that you implement. Share around the leading of the room, especially lining those people up ready to lead the room when you are not there. When you see someone who could lead a room, suggest a promotion to those above you, if they agree, it may mean you lose that valuable person, however your church gains by having another strong leader running an area of Children’s church.

I was recently asked to give the Sunday morning message to a beautiful church that needed volunteers to step up for the children’s church/ministry. You can watch it here, the results were great they now have leaders to cover 3 rooms covering all the age groups from aged 3-12, a true answer to prayer.

https://youtu.be/L-51gBjGTb8