Better Choices, Better Churches: How to Prevent the Volunteer Drain

by Reba Collins

Congratulations – you’ve got ‘em now! They’re fresh and they’re eager to volunteer in your ministry. Now what?

Whether it’s one or 100 new volunteers, once a person says “Yes” to your ministry, you’re responsible for shepherding their experience. Done well, your volunteers will grow and flourish under your care, and your ministry will retain most of them.

Too often, though, we see volunteers disappear down the drain to places unknown and forever out of reach. This happens because ministry leaders forget a basic premise:

To retain a volunteer, you must have

a strategy to SUSTAIN a volunteer’s passion and purpose.

Much too often, we rely on the volunteer’s initial passion for our ministry to keep them motivated “to serve God by serving others.” We forget that when people don’t know what to do, they get confused and frustrated. When people don’t feel appreciated, their fuel tanks run low. When people aren’t asked to use their gifts, skills, and abilities to advance a vision, they feel useless and used up.

But you can avoid the scenarios that ultimately drain your volunteer ranks. Make just four adjustments in retention strategy, and you’ll build a better long-term, life-affirming experience that is so fulfilling that they simply can’t resist sticking around for more:

1. Apprentice them. The most common reason why people volunteer is because they want to make a difference in the world. They volunteer for your ministry because they believe it is making a difference. But here’s the kicker – their “want to” isn’t going to work without your “how to.” New ministry volunteers don’t know the strategy, process, or plan for your ministry, so they are unsure of how to execute it. A one-shot training might create a fast start, but it stops short of preparing volunteers for long-term impact and commitment. Just as Jesus, Paul, and the other Apostles modeled, it takes time and a personal investment. You can’t personally guide every volunteer – Jesus took on only 12 – so your strategy should include enlisting your veteran volunteers as apprentices.

2. Appreciate them. The writer of Hebrews encourages those in the body of Christ to “Think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” (10:24) Camaraderie, collaboration, and celebration should be the hallmarks of a ministry volunteer’s experience. Personal satisfaction alone isn’t enough to encourage volunteers. Intentionally call out and celebrate how volunteer efforts have moved God’s vision forward for your church and ministry. Big parties, short conversations, small gestures of appreciation, and everything in between are powerful motivators for passion and purpose.

3. Recognize their potential. How well you retain volunteers is directly linked to how well you recruit volunteers. (See our blogs linked below for tips on recruitment.) Front load your potential pool by recruiting volunteers based on specific abilities and gifts, not on who has time to give. Paul highlights this strategy when he tells the believers in Corinth to “Earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.” (1 Corinthians 12:31) Not everyone comes naturally equipped for every ministry. When a person’s potential is placed in the right ministry, a volunteer’s passion ignites and their purpose becomes clear. Then, you can steward them through coaching, challenge, and collaboration to help them feel useful, not used.

4. Respect the right limits. We often make the mistake of reducing a volunteer’s limitations to time and life stage. We begin with a qualified, “It only takes one hour a week to ...”or “Childcare provided while you serve.” But as important as time and family commitments are, they don’t cause burn out. Burn out is a result of a volunteer serving beyond the strength of their abilities, capabilities, and gifts. When we properly steward these, we respect the limits God has given them. Peter’s advice to Christians living in foreign lands was: “God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so God’s generosity can flow through you.”(1 Peter 4:10) This is still good advice to remind us not to ask volunteers to serve beyond their limits.

Our hearts soar when we enlist a new volunteer, and they break a little each time we lose a volunteer. We fly even higher when we see one doing things they never thought they could do, and we crash and burn along with them when we see them trying to do things they weren’t made to do. We all want to see more of our volunteers soar instead of sink. They will when you apprentice, appreciate, recognize, and respect them with a strategy designed to fuel their passion and purpose.

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