Blog | How To Have Beneficial Church Volunteer Meetings
How To Have Beneficial Church Volunteer Meetings
Volunteers are truthfully the backbone of success in a church. Volunteers cover more ground than any church plant leadership team can imagine, from worship to children’s ministry, ushering, first impressions teams, managing social media, tech, and so many other ministry operations. So it’s no wonder why meeting with volunteers is such an incredibly important practice as a pastor.
The issue that comes up with volunteer meetings isn’t whether or not to have them, but rather how to make them beneficial. We all know the “Another-Meeting-That-Could’ve-Been-An-Email” attitude regarding church meetings, so understanding the intent and practical actions you can put into practice with church volunteer meetings is super important.
Church Volunteer Meetings: What to Address
There can be a variety of underlying reasons why you may hold volunteer meetings. Volunteer appreciation, constructive criticism, addressing issues, touching base to connect, or simple ministry and church goal updates are a few of many reasons you may meet with a volunteer.
However, there are key practices in meetings management that can serve as determining factors between beneficial and disadvantageous conversations. Here are a few:
Make It Relevant by Role
We know that church planters are incredibly busy, and sometimes holding a single meeting for all involved volunteers may be “efficient”. But when you have volunteers in completely separate sections of ministry, you don’t want them to waste time sitting in meetings where 90% of the information is irrelevant to their role in the church.
Whether it means several meetings with different subsets of volunteers by role, or individual one-on-one meetings for churches with fewer volunteers, having conversations that are entirely relevant and directed towards their role can make volunteer meetings way more productive.
Make It Practical
Don’t have a meeting for the sake of having a meeting. What’s the purpose for the meeting? If you can’t put your finger on a definitive reason, don’t have it. Meetings may seem like a necessary task as a pastor, but they should only be insofar as they are done for a reason.
Are you just catching up? Is there an issue or change you’d like to address? Is it for a review and constructive criticism? Before holding the meeting, ask yourself if the intent of the meeting could easily be communicated via an email or phone call. If it can, the meeting isn’t practical.
Helpful Advice
Volunteers still want to be coached and led by their pastor. That doesn’t mean nit-picking and criticizing anything you can find, but meet them where they’re at. Recognize the things they excel at and offer advice for areas you think they could be more vigilant of. Encourage and empower them to come up with their own ideas but guide them towards the vision you have for their ministry.
Final Words
For some reason, churches are notorious for holding unnecessary meetings. There’s nothing wrong with meetings, but when you’re meeting with your church’s volunteers, recognize that there needs to be specific intent and productive reasoning behind the meetings. Whether it’s in a group setting or one-on-one, make sure that the meeting is practical and relevant for their specific role. With volunteers who are sacrificing their time for the church, you want to be direct and efficient with the conversation. If that means changing it from a meeting to an email or phone call, do it! The primary focus should just be to make the meeting beneficial for the volunteer, taking into consideration their improvement, interests, and role in the church.
About the Author
Chris Fleming is a professional musician from Minneapolis, MN who has played with artists such as Kari Jobe, TAYA, Aodhan King, and Jason Gray. He is actively involved with the CCM scene and has contributed as a drummer, music director, song writer, and producer for various worship artists and churches locally and nationally. Chris is the Motion Designer at Motion Worship, helping to create motion background collections and countdowns for our subscribers.
Thank you for this blog about the meeting with church volunteers. It was very helpful!
Blessings