How to Prepare Your Children’s Ministry Volunteers: 5 Tips

 

Volunteers are crucial to your children’s ministry. Thanks to their hard work and dedication, you can provide a safe, engaging, and spiritually enriching environment for the children in your ministry.

 

But the success of your volunteers largely depends on how well you prepare them to fulfill their roles and how you manage and support them throughout their time volunteering with your ministry.

 

In this post, we’ll explore five practical tips to help you prepare your children’s ministry volunteers, ensuring they have the tools, knowledge, and confidence to positively impact young lives.

 

1. Clearly lay out volunteer roles and expectations.

 

Say a church member passes a flier on their way out of Sunday School advertising the need for more children’s ministry volunteers. When they scan the QR code to sign up, what do they see?

 

Ideally, potential volunteers will have all the information they need about open roles and the expectations your ministry has for them. Here are a few things to consider adding to the volunteer page on your website:

 

• An overview of your ministry’s mission and vision: Explaining the purpose and focus of your children’s ministry provides volunteers with context on why their service matters and helps contribute to your overall goals.

 

• Detailed role descriptions: Break down each volunteer role within the ministry (teacher, nursery caregiver, event planner, etc.), providing a list of duties, responsibilities, and specific skills that would be beneficial.

 

• Training and orientation requirements: Outline required training programs like safety and child protection training or curriculum familiarization. This can also incentivize more sign-ups from those who thought they wouldn’t be able to handle the role!

 

• Time commitment requirements: Clearly state the time commitment expected from volunteers, listing out the specific dates and time frames they would need to be available. This is especially important for significant one-off initiatives or events like summer Bible school.

 

• Communication protocols: Provide contact information for the staff member who manages your volunteer program and encourage potential volunteers to reach out with questions or concerns.

 

Being crystal clear about what you need from your volunteers before they even start is key to recruiting the right people, moving your ministry’s goals forward, and staying aligned with your organization’s overarching objectives. Plus, it sets the tone for an organized, positive volunteer experience.

 

2. Provide training on safety and child protection.

 

Maintaining a safe environment is essential to having a thriving and successful children’s ministry. Training your volunteers in this area is not just important for complying with legal standards but also for protecting volunteers and providing peace of mind for parents.

 

Start by requiring volunteers to pass a background check. Communicate the steps of the background check process with new volunteers to ensure they understand the importance of vetting volunteers who work with children.

 

Beyond background checks, you’ll also need to cover topics in training sessions such as:

 

• Standard safety policies and procedures, like who is authorized to interact with children, what kind of supervision is required, and drop-off and pick-up procedures

 

• Proper boundaries to have with children, such as limiting physical contact and only interacting in public or supervised areas

 

• Signs of child abuse, neglect, or distress and mandated reporting policies

 

• Emergency procedures for various situations, like a child getting injured at an activity or an evacuation taking place

 

After training volunteers on these topics, provide documentation they can review whenever they have questions or need clarification. Also, emphasize that your volunteers can turn to organizational leaders for support should any safety concerns arise.

 

3. Equip volunteers with curriculum and other resources.

 

Whether they’re telling Bible stories, facilitating a relay race, running a fundraiser for a local church, or encouraging children to pray daily to strengthen their relationship with God, your volunteers are always teaching and influencing the children in your ministry in some way.

 

To ensure that what your volunteers are sharing with the children is aligned with your ministry’s larger message and rooted in the Word, ensure that your volunteers have access to resources like:

 

• Your children’s ministry curriculum: Your curriculum serves as the foundation for everything you teach in your ministry. Wonder Ink recommends using a curriculum that’s fully rooted in the Bible, putting Scripture at the forefront of everything you share.

 

• Printed materials: These might include worksheets, coloring pages, or craft templates.

 

• Bible and devotional materials: A children’s Bible, devotionals, and Bible verse cards can all help children internalize and learn scripture.

 

• Visual aids for teaching: Volunteers can help teaching moments become more memorable by using aids like storytelling props, whiteboards, and projectors.

 

• Music materials: Volunteers should have access to music and lyrics for worship time and even simple instruments like tambourines or maracas to help children engage more deeply with worship music.

 

Ensure that volunteers have adequate time before starting to review and familiarize themselves with your children’s ministry resources. This will help them not only know how to best plan to use the resources but also establish the core truths they should focus on in day-to-day interactions with the children in your ministry.

 

4. Tap into volunteers’ unique skill sets and strengths.

 

In 1 Peter 4:10 we read, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (ESV). In other words, each of us has God-given talents and gifts that we should use to serve and bless others.

 

This is especially true of your volunteers, who bring all sorts of different experiences, skills, and characteristics to their role in your children’s ministry. By encouraging them to apply their talents to their volunteer work, you can make their experiences more fulfilling and see your ministry blessed in countless ways.

 

To identify your volunteers’ gifts and put them to good use in your ministry, take the time to get to know them. During initial interviews or onboarding, ask them about their professional and educational backgrounds, hobbies, and interests. Some volunteers may have experience in areas like education, art, or music, which can be directly applied to their work in your ministry. With others, you may need to get more creative.

 

For example, say the young women in your church want volunteer opportunities that allow them to learn from women in the Bible. You could invite them to develop a lesson plan about their favorite female Bible heroes to use during a future Sunday School class or worship service for your ministry. Another volunteer may love to bake sourdough bread. Encourage that volunteer to share their skills with the children in your ministry by teaching them to bake bread and deliver it to people in need.

 

5. Foster a supportive environment.

 

When your children’s ministry volunteers feel that they are giving their time in a supportive and collaborative environment, your whole ministry will benefit. Volunteers will feel encouraged, connected, and valued and work to provide the best experience possible for the children they serve.

 

Here are a few ways to ensure the environment you’re cultivating is welcoming and supportive:

 

• Check in regularly. Take the opportunity to schedule regular visits with your children’s ministry volunteers. Ask them about how their volunteer work is going, but also get curious about their spiritual lives and other personal priorities. This will help volunteers feel seen as individuals and give you the chance to provide one-on-one support as questions, concerns, and ideas for improvement arise.

 

• Ask volunteers for feedback on their experience. Your volunteers are on the front lines of your efforts to teach children about God’s Word. As time goes on, they will likely have ideas for how to improve your ministry and the volunteer experience itself. For example, a volunteer may suggest that it’s time to invest in a new Bible curriculum or ask for further training on teaching skills.

 

• Recognize their accomplishments. Celebrating your volunteers not only helps you strengthen your relationship with your current volunteers but can also bolster the reputation of your volunteer program in the eyes of potential volunteers. Spotlight your volunteers’ hard work on your website, in your organization’s email newsletter, and on social media.

 

At the heart of your work to create a supportive environment for your children’s ministry is an effort to help share God’s love. Regularly remind your volunteers that God sees and recognizes their work to serve His children—this will help your volunteers remember their “why” even when they encounter challenges in their ministry work.

 

The success of your children’s ministry depends on how well you prepare your volunteers to teach, serve, and uplift the children you work with. Use the tips above to equip your volunteers with the skills, resources, and knowledge they need to be a light in your ministry!

 

This is a guest post generously provided by our friends over at Wonder Ink.