Cultivating A Healthy Volunteer Culture

At Safe Ministry we are passionate about keeping your church or organization safe and on mission. We know you share that passion too! However, the truth is you can’t do it alone. Every organization needs both well thought out policies and people willing to serve with their whole heart. Let’s spend a few minutes considering how leaders can help cultivate healthy volunteer cultures.

Expect Excellence

Culture is what a majority of people do a majority of the time. It is more caught than taught. When a volunteer shows up for the first time to serve he or she quickly picks up on the unspoken expectations placed on them. Are volunteers on time? Do they follow important policies of proper touch with youth such as giving only side hugs or high fives? Are they mentally present and engage with the people around them? As a leader we get to both model these behaviors that set culture as well as inspect and expect them from others. This means we sometimes initiate difficult conversations and repeat policies until they stick. Maintaining a high expectation of all volunteers to serve with excellence will ensure that new volunteers feel a responsibility to do the same and happily rise to the opportunity.

Develop Don’t Just Delegate

Leadership development expert Mac Lake often shares how growing leaders need both resources and coaching to go along with opportunities. Often we are quick to offer opportunities to serve and delegate tasks but neglect the proper resourcing and feedback loop needed through a coaching relationship to truly develop our volunteers so they can grow into leaders. As leaders, our goal is to not just delegate tasks to other adults so they can help us finish a task. We must activate gifts that lay dormant in the people we serve and help them grow into their calling as collaboration occurs. At Safe Ministry, we have developed The Learning Zone as a resource for you to share with every volunteer to quickly train them in child abuse prevention while inspiring them to be committed to the mission of the ministry.  Instead of using precious time on nights and weekends to train your volunteers, this on demand resource will allow your volunteers to complete an hour long training led by national experts that will get them up to speed on what is expected of them as it pertains to child safety. Now, you can use that time on nights and weekends to invest relationally with your volunteers as you are able to provide support and help them grow into leaders with influence.

Appreciate Privately and Publicly 

What your volunteers do matters and they need to hear that often! Think of creative ways to thank them privately and on a personal level. From handwritten thank you cards and small gifts at Christmas to text messages and phone calls when you hear of them going above and beyond, consistent personal tokens of appreciation reinforce just how important they are to the mission of your organization. In addition to private acts of appreciation, work with your ministry team to ensure gratitude is practiced also among the larger body. Tell inspirational stories from stage at large gatherings, give shout-outs on social media, or consider throwing a yearly appreciation event that is shared publicly so everyone knows just how much your volunteers are cherished. This culture of appreciation will be contagious and is a sure way to help keep your volunteers encouraged and inspired. 

Everyone at Safe Ministry is beyond appreciative for all you do to help keep your organization safe and on mission. We want to continue to equip you to serve and love. Please reach out to us at any time so we can share more about all we can offer as we partner together.