How would you rate the effectiveness of your volunteers? Are they helping you run a program or are they helping you create a movement? It’s your responsibility to make them the latter.
You don’t need volunteers to manage a program, you need them to take your ministry to a new level. While meetings and planning can help your team work together if you want them to work better:
A team that prays together is one that allows Christ to work through them. It centers the team and reminds them who they need to trust the most.
Pray before and after meetings. Make it a part of a training and prioritize it on every agenda. If your team doesn’t know how to pray from the heart teach them. Get them comfortable relying on God because they’ll need it if they want to make an impact.
On top of prayer, your volunteers need to be disciples who are constantly growing in their own faith. To help them in their own faith formation:
Give them the tools you use. Invite them to join you as you grow and hold them accountable to go beyond serving in youth ministry. The deeper they go the further they can take students looking to connect with Christ.
Why does what they do matter? That can be a daunting question when you are caught up in building attendance and planning activities. As their leader, you need to make sure you are constantly preaching vision.
Remind them that what they are called to do is changing lives. They are helping the next generation connect to something bigger than the world can offer. Include vision casting in every point of communication. Get them excited about what they do.
Too often we have our volunteers corral the teens instead of investing in them. Your volunteers are there to make disciples and that doesn’t come from just making sure they stay safe.
Give them permission to lead the next generation. Encourage them to invest in the families, to build relationships and to share their own story.
Invest in your team and make them more than just volunteers. Build them up as advocates and remind them that what they do is more than just activity planning and adolescent babysitting. The impact of your ministry depends on it.
[reminder] How are you investing in the development of your volunteers? [/reminder]Looking for ways of developing your leaders? Check out MYM One on One Coaching HERE