Hold on to Your Volunteers by Letting Them Go

by Reba Collins

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Is your church suffering through a season of volunteer drought? Are you frustrated because your church has hundreds of potential volunteers show up each Sunday, yet you can’t find just three more people to help with children’s Sunday School?

It happens everywhere. No one steps up to help with ministry. Veteran members say they are worn down from years of grinding it out. Busy families are too busy to consistently commit year after year. Young adults are finding meaning and purpose somewhere else.

Take heart. As the teacher of Ecclesiastes reflects, every season shall pass. But that doesn’t mean you can just sit and wait. You can help define your ministry seasons by applying three time principles to reclaim volunteers who have walked away from ministry, but not from your church. 

Don’t try to stop them from moving on; help them through the season that will bring them back.

Build these three principles into your church’s volunteer culture and into your recruitment, retention, and retraining processes, and you’ll see that letting your volunteers go is the best way to hold onto them.  

TIME PRINCIPLE 1: THERE IS A TIME OF LEARNING AND A TIME OF LEADING UP. 

·         Volunteer Issue: No longer being challenged. Many walk away because they simply don’t feel challenged any longer. They have outgrown their roles or feel underutilized in their gifts and abilities. One of the best ways to reclaim an under-challenged volunteer is through honest dialogue. Ask why the volunteer left, acknowledge your mistakes, and invite them back to the table with other opportunities, even in other ministries, that fit their skill levels, passions, and gifts.

·         System Issue: No upward growth opportunity. Assess your system for volunteer growth. Does your ministry offer ways to “level up” as volunteers learn to use their gifts and abilities most effectively? Do you need to add more leadership levels in your ministry areas? Define for volunteers how they can utilize their skills and abilities in your ministries, or some other ministries, at higher levels of commitment or responsibility.   

TIME PRINCIPLE 2: THERE IS A TIME TO REPLENISH AND A TIME TO RENEW.

·         Volunteer Issue: Rest and renewal required.  Sometimes volunteers simply need to rest before they can go again. Respect their need to step away, but don’t let them drift away. Go one step further and offer groups and tools for tired volunteers to replenish their energy, and then suggest ways they can renew their involvement in ministry. Help volunteers practice the principle of rest when they are tired, and then help them find a new role when they are renewed.

·         System Issue: Ministry Assessment. Are you asking people to serve in some tired and worn out ministries? Is it time to renew your ministries before you replenish your volunteer pool?  What’s changed in your ministry landscape in the past five years? What’s going to change in the next five years? The seasons for ministry are getting shorter as the world is changing faster. Constantly assess ministry fruitfulness and adjust accordingly. Reclaim volunteers by re-engaging them in an area they know, but with a new challenge and a different role.

TIME PRINCIPLE 3: THERE IS A TIME OF CALLING AND A TIME OF COMPLETION. 

·         Volunteer Issue: Feeling Stuck. Expecting volunteers to feel called to the same ministry for more than five consecutive years is unrealistic. God made us to be creative and constructive. People, by design, need variety and forward momentum. When volunteers begin to drift off, help them plan exit strategies through which they can find their next callings in ministry. Reclaim their hands by recapturing their heads and hearts, and you won’t lose them altogether.

·         System Issue: Vision Alignment. Assess your ministry’s calling. Is each ministry still needed to achieve your church’s vision? Or are you creating sideways energy that could be re-channeled to achieve more forward momentum? Nothing wears down volunteers more than to work in ministries that they don’t see contributing to the greater goal. Redirecting volunteers to more fruitful ministries reclaims their desires to make a difference. 

Churches that ignore these three principles over time, help create their seasons of volunteer and ministry drought. 

Churches that build them into their church’s volunteer culture, recruitment, retention, and retraining processes make their volunteer systems healthier and stronger.