Blog | How to Keep Volunteers Excited About Church Goals
How to Keep Volunteers Excited About Church Goals
In leadership roles, it can seem like you spend equal amounts of time directing or guiding the church’s mission as you do getting everyone on board. But that’s the essence of being a leader – if you’re going to craft the mission and goals of the church, you’re going to be the one responsible for building a supportive culture around it.
That might be easy to a certain degree when working with employees. After all, before they were hired there was (hopefully) a level of trust and agreeance on viewpoints and mission. But when it comes to volunteers, they may not feel the same level of commitment to your goals. So how do you get volunteers on board with the direction you want to take the church?
Keeping Volunteers Excited About Church Goals and Mission
It’s important to make two key distinctions – convincing people of your mission to get them on board, or making them aware of the mission and goals. If you feel that volunteers aren’t operating in a way consistent with your and other leadership’s goals for the church, it may have nothing to do with their willingness to follow. It may simply be a matter of miscommunication.
We say that because communication is paramount in church ministry. There are too many moving parts to make assumptions about church volunteers’ or employees’ intents for actions. With that said, here are our recommendations for keeping volunteers excited and committed to your church’s goals and missions:
Communication on Key Aspects
You of all people know that the entirety of your vision for the church as a whole is difficult to communicate. Beneath every major point is a plethora of “fine print”. Who you’re talking too should dictate how much of that is necessary to discuss. People have attention spans, areas of interest, and memory limits that will control what they retain.
Essentially, each person needs to hear different information. And they don’t always need to know the entire “why” behind everything. If you have a vision for a particular section of volunteer ministry, communicate the major points only. It will drastically decrease the risk of miscommunication or misinformation.
Mission vs. Vision vs. Strategy
Key distinctions here… A mission is different from your vision, and both are different from the strategy. In laymen’s terms, a mission specifically refers to the “what”. What is your church called to do? What is the purpose for how you conduct your ministry, the various ministries your church has, and the long term goals of each?
A vision is the “why”. Why are the above goals important? Why should your ministry behave a certain way?
A strategy is the “how”. Now that you have goals and purpose set in place, what are the practical steps your church can take to fulfill its mission?
Volunteers need to be educated on the above. A strategy without reason doesn’t get people passionate. They need to know how you plan to see God work through their ministry to benefit the Kingdom. Walk them through your thoughts, but as stated above, not to such minute detail that you lose them.
Engagement Creates Involvement
What a volunteer is involved in will naturally become their mission. They feel committed to it and so the direction and goals (or mission) of their section of ministry become increasingly important.
That said, people are most engaged in what they are involved in. If you want a volunteer to get on board with a new mission, don’t try convincing them of it or educating them on it if they are not involved with that subsection of ministry. People will often only feel committed to the mission direction insofar as it affects their role and involvement.
The Simple Truths
Getting people excited about church mission and goals is not always easy. By nature, everyone is concerned with their own corner of ministry involvement. If a new mission doesn’t directly affect that which they’re involved in, you can’t expect them to be passionate about it.
Communicate clearly and concisely “how” the new goals affect a particular volunteer’s involvement and be cautious of what information is necessary. People are naturally excited about the things they’re involved in, so if you’re trying to get volunteers passionate about church goals, find a way for them to get connected, involved, and engaged with it!
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.