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5 Ways to Get Volunteers Into the Game

Finding and releasing volunteer leaders is an essential part of every church leader’s role. We all need to constantly find ways to check out new leaders who can take a piece of the ministry and run with it, but what can we get potential leaders to do that won’t jeopardize the ministry to our guests?

I think church leaders can often feel paralyzed because we want to give some of the ministry away, but don’t know if we can trust new leaders.

Just this summer, my parents visited a church where the pastor did everything in the service … greeted people at the front door, led the music, did announcements, the children’s message and the main message. That pastor is limiting the growth of his church because he is bottlenecking everything to go through him.

We all need to find ways to release other people into leadership! Here are some basic tasks you could give to a new volunteer leader to “test them out” and see if they could handle more.

1. Invite Someone to Evaluate.

A great way to engage someone who you might want to move into leadership is to ask them to evaluate your weekend services. If you already have a regular evaluation meeting, invite them to attend. (If you don’t … start one up!) You could also start a quick weekly meeting using a free conference call service and invite some potential leaders into that.

Hearing people’s feedback is a great way to build trust with them … and a pathway to start handing them responsibility!

2. Give Up a Team Huddle.

Do your teams meet for a few minutes before each “service shift” to talk about the vision for the day and to pray together? (They should!) Find a leader in the group and ask him or her to lead the team huddle this weekend.

This is a lower risk activity to give over because it’s an “insiders crowd” who will be supportive of the new leader. Plus it’s a great way to indicate to the rest of the group that you see this individual as a leader among them.