The Making Of The Volunteer Ministry
10 tips to keep in mind

By Jonathan Catoe

Volunteer ministries take the pressure off activity coordinators and provide a reliable volunteer base. They also give church members the chance to grow personally and spiritually, so it's no wonder they're gaining popularity. To organize yours as effectively and efficiently as possible, follow some tried-and-true advice.

1. Seek and ye shall find. When searching for people to fill particular ministry positions, look around you first, especially in the church's youth, singles and senior adult ministries.

2. Get serious about volunteers' qualities. Make sure your volunteers are teachable, confident, dependable and most of all, flexible.

3. Adopt the right attitude. Get out of "crisis mode." Do not overwhelm potential volunteers with tasks or make them feel guilty. Communicate your needs without pressure or manipulation.

4. Hone your assessment skills. Look especially for volunteers' skills, gifts and passions. Discriminate for spiritual gifts, personality styles, general abilities and relevant experience. Gather clues during interviews using well-crafted questions.

5. Be an all-star interviewer. Ensure detailed personal responses by rephrasing your questions. "What would you do if...?" and "Tell me about a time when you had to..." are usually effective approaches.

6. Play the match game. Plug people in where they fit.

7. Train, train, train! Each volunteer should understand the "why" and the "big picture" of their job. Thoroughly train them, then delegate responsibility.

8. Keep them motivated. Every volunteer you keep means one less person to recruit, and every excited volunteer increases your recruiting ability. Follow through on what you say you'll do. Practice positive affirmation.

9. Learn how to really manage others. Do your homework. Plan and prepare. Establish a system in which everyone is accountable to each other. At all times, be professional but have fun!

10. Learn to manage yourself too. Keep an organized record of the information you gather in interviews. Use a software program that is specially designed for volunteer ministry management.

Jonathan Catoe is a trade writer specializing in the nonprofit technology industry. He represents ACS, headquartered in Florence, S.C., maker of the Volunteer Manager software program. For more information, visit www.acshome.com.

5 Fun, Effective Outreach Ideas

By Steve Sjogren

I've always loved to do evangelism but noticed most members of my congregation didn't. My book, 101 Ways to Reach Your Community, is an "interactive cookbook" designed to be read and then done with a few friends, a small group, or an entire church. Some of my favorite ideas include:

1. Gasoline Buy-Down

What You'll Need:

• Signs stating the price of gasoline
• Connection cards
• Squeegees (one per person)
• Towels (one per person)

This project needs to be set up a week or two in advance by connection with the station manager first. Although national chains are usually bound by organizational policy, locally owned stations are usually very open to the idea.

Lower the price of gasoline for a set time (usually an hour or two). If it's normally $1.50 per gallon, lower it to $1.25 and pay the difference to the station at the end of the time. Provide services during that time. Offer to wash customers' windshields while their gasoline is filling. If time allows, check oil levels. Put a big sign over the normal price sign, but also have some people holding hand signs that read, "$1.25 Gasoline!" to get attention.

While doing the serving, explain what you are doing and why you are doing it, and give out connection cards explaining the project.

2. Stamp Giveaway

What You'll Need:

• Stamps
• Folding tables
• Signs: "Free Stamps"
• Connection cards

Set up a table by the front door of the post office with your sign unfurled. Ask, "Do you need one stamp or two?" Don't receive the mail; let them post it themselves. Receiving the letters is taking responsibility for getting the letters to the right place at the right time--more responsibility than you want to take on.

This is a popular project on April 15, Tax Day. Our church has been doing it for several years, and we go all out with several tables of cakes with cappuccino machines humming along. It's a party-like atmosphere, and we usually make the local news as a bright spot on that not-so-cheery day.

3. Student Giveaways

What You'll Need:

• Coupon cards
• Floppy disks/stickers
• Toaster pastries

PHOTOCOPYING. Purchase prepaid cards worth 15 to 20 copies each to make your gift worth something to students. Imprint your church's information on the card so that it becomes your connection card.

COMPUTER DISKETTES. Purchase disks in large quantities. Place stickers on these that list your church's name and phone number. Give them out door-to-door in the dorms or along with pens and pencils during registration.

BREAKFAST PASTRIES. Most students don't eat a proper breakfast, so you can provide it for them. Attach a connection card to the foil wrapper, or if you want to get a little fancier, set up a serving stand on the student center near an electrical outlet.

4. Polaroid Photos

What You'll Need:

• Polaroid cameras (one camera per team of three to four people)
• Plenty of film (four to six rolls per camera will last about two hours at a good location)
• Connection cards or stickers

Instant photos are affordable when the film is purchased in bulk. Place the photos inside matte frames that are color-coordinated to go with the season. Place a sticker with your group's or church's name on the back of it. Be sure that in addition to the photographers and crowd control people, you have a number of designated evangelists to explain your project to the families who are gathered.

5. Christmas Gift-Wrapping

What You'll Need:

• Tape
• Wrapping paper
• Roll carousel
• Scissors
• Bows
• Folding tables (waist height to avoid causing back problems as people stoop over to wrap)
• Connection cards
• Post-It-type notes
• Pens

For more than 10 years, my church has had great success reaching a lot of people as we wrap their presents between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Malls are great places to locate, but they are sometimes fearful about liability issues, or a community group already has their foot in the door. A good alternative to locating at the mall is a chain store like Sears, Target, Kmart or Wal-Mart.

When wrapping presents, open up the conversation with those you're serving by saying, "You know, we aren't employees of the mall. We're here on our own. We bought and paid for all of these materials and we're doing it all for free to show you and the community the love of Christ."

Steve Sjogren is the founding pastor of 6,000-member Vineyard Community Church and the author of numerous books on evangelism, church planting and leadership. Excerpted from 101 Ways to Reach Your Community (copyright 2001). Used by permission of NavPress-- www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.

Toolbox
Ministry's Best Little High-Tech Helpers

Dean Evans & Associates recently released its most powerful resource scheduling and calendaring software program, Event Management System (EMS) Enterprise 2.1. It features a redesigned Web interface, drag-and-drop reservations, automated e-mail change notification and Calendar exchange for easy cross-platform scheduling. Also new to EMS Enterprise 2.1 are pricing tools that let users copy and update entire rate schedules, plus other easy-to-use enhancements, including advanced security features, improved inventory control functions, new billing and pricing tools, and detailed audit history capabilities. To learn more, visit www.dea.com.

Made available to the public only a few months ago, the Church Community Builder (CCB) Web-based church management system lets staff, members and visitors find and track information, enabling them to get more fully involved in ministry. In addition to an integrated content-management system for website construction and a letter mail-merge system, CCB features a volunteer matching system that pairs up gifts and talents with positions and people. The program also permits small group leaders and volunteers who do not work at the church office to access data from home. For more information, visit www.churchcommunitybuilder.com.

Just last month, Helpmate Technology Solutions introduced its new Helpmate Scheduler^™ 2002 system, a program designed to function as a stand-alone or in conjunction with Church Helpmate^™ 2002. Scheduler offers resource and asset tracking, resource and event scheduling and registration/signup (including payment tracking). User-friendly components include graphical monthly calendars, scheduling time-bar charts and day-timer controls. It also features a Palm Pilot Export Utility and networking capability. Visit www.helpmate.net for more information.

Automated Church Systems (ACS) Version 5.0 is designed specifically for religious and nonprofit organizations and includes more than 20 modules. Its People Suite tracks an unlimited amount of member information--attendance, contributions and ministry participation among them. Specialty Suites include The Ministry Scheduler and Church Growth Tools to schedule people and facilities, analyze attendance patterns, and help save money on bulk mailings. For more information visit www.acshome.com.

One of the most recent offerings to the church management software (CMS) market is Jairus: Ruler of the Synagogue^™, a Web-based management program from Raven Software Systems, Inc. According to Raven, the program is similar to many CMS packages but has "a little lagniappe"--it requires no software installation, freeing up valuable hard drive space. No costly upgrades are necessary either, since Jairus is Web-based. Visit www.jairus.net for more information.

According to software developer By the Book, ROLL CALL v7 is the culmination of the increasing demands of both large and small churches. Its key features include e-mail messaging, unlimited personal phone number and e-mail address storage, duplicate record-checking functions, ready-made picture directory, barcode attendance recording for classes and groups, donations entry, and a new and improved database engine. The program is available on a "Pay As Your Grow" price structure. The program manual may be downloaded for free at www.bythebook.com.