Appealing for Volunteers From the Pulpit??

“Please make sure to ask for VBS volunteer sign ups this Sunday, Kristen. Oh, and make sure you have the sign up sheet ready on the table in the foyer.”

Most kidmin leaders have been asked to make an appeal for volunteers up front on a Sunday morning. Some kidmin leaders have asked their senior leader to make the appeal. But why are more and more churches are moving away from pulpit appeals for volunteers? Here’s why some churches won’t do pulpit recruitment anymore-and why I still advocate for the pulpit appeal anyway:

What can go wrong with pulpit recruiting in the main service for kid’s ministry?

1. Attracting the wrong people. The major drawback to the pulpit appeal is that you typically get a lot of sign-ups from people who should not work with children. Also, most high-quality leaders will not respond to an open “cattle call.” That is not universally true; I have picked up some amazing leaders from pulpit appeals. But I have also had sign-ups from people who were legally restricted from having anything to do with children, people who had been asked to leave the children’s ministry years ago, people with anger management issues, people who hated children, or people who just signed up for everything. And I think you know what I mean when I say some people are just not a fit for children’s ministry. This problem is made much worse if the pulpit appeal was done incorrectly. If someone pleaded and begged from the stage saying, “We are desperate. We just need anyone. It’s so easy anyone can do it. Just sign up and we’ll get you in there,” now you really have a problem. You may have to tell someone who signed up, “We are desperate, for anyone at all, anyone can do this job—but we do not want you.” That gets personal and hurtful. And it typically makes the church look heartless and hypocritical. Do not fall into this trap. You can avoid it by not doing pulpit appeals. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. You can avoid some of this embarrassment by doing the appeal correctly. Be honest with people! The ministry is for children, and you cannot take everyone. Everyone in the church can and should find a place to serve, but not everyone can serve in children’s ministry. You are going to find people who are a right fit for children’s ministry. Do your background checks; some will be weeded out right away. Some churches require references from the last place the volunteer served, which can help weed out a few more. Ask other staff and key volunteers about the history of a person at that church. Above all, trust your gut. If you just don’t “feel a peace” about putting someone in a children’s class, please listen to that warning. It has served me well. You do not have to be insulting, but that person can probably find another place of ministry in the church. Your priority here is the safety and well-being of the kids.
2. Dropping the ball on follow-up. One pitfall of the pulpit appeal happens when your team fails at follow-up. The pulpit appeal is a great way to get a lot of names of people wanting to learn more about serving. But each and every one of those names must be contacted, sometimes more than once (or four times). It is a mistake to simply expect that all of those people are now “committed,” then to celebrate, thinking they are all showing up to help on Sunday. The sad fact is that when it is all said and done, only about one-quarter of the people who sign up for a pulpit appeal will actually work out as viable children’s ministry volunteers. Some will never call you back. Some went home and changed their mind. Some sign up for everything and are too embarrassed to tell you they are overcommitted. Some will be disqualified due to something in their past (child-abuse conviction) or in their present (alcohol addiction). Some will come the first day and then not show the next. So why do this recruiting thing at all? (Insert yell of frustration and throwing hands up in the air in despair here.) We recruit because that 25 percent of people who sign up and do become great leaders are worth the work involved to bring them onboard. Keep going after these people; they are like gold when you do find them. No matter what the reason, if people are signing up and they are not getting a call back, it looks bad. It looks bad for you, for the church and for the kids’ area. You look disorganized, ungrateful, and unprofessional. It discredits you and hinders any future recruitment. I spoke with an amazing volunteer a few weeks ago, a pediatric nurse with years of experience in children’s ministry. Out of curiosity I asked her, “Mary, why didn’t I get you back here helping me sooner? You are amazing!” She answered, “Because five years ago under a different pastor I signed up to help in kids’ ministry after a pulpit appeal and no one ever called me. I even called to ask about it, and no one called me back. I was so hurt that I did not ever sign up to volunteer again. I felt like they lied from the stage by saying, ‘We are badly in need of help.’ And I did not want to be a part of anything so disorganized anyway. If they cared so little for people that they can’t make a phone call, how are they treating their volunteers?” Ouch
3. But what about all the other departments? What about equal time? Usually when a church is moving away from pulpit appeals, this excuse (con) is raised. It typically goes like this: “If we let you make an appeal for leaders in kids’ ministry, to be fair we have to let every area of our church—all 347 of them—make an appeal, and we will never have another church service again! It will just be nonstop begging for helpers!” My response has always been to quote Andy Stanley, “Who says we have to be fair?” No, you do not have to let every single area have equal time from the pulpit. Why does the kids’ ministry sometimes need that extra bump? Well, for starters, the kids’ ministry needs more volunteers than just about any other area in the entire church. Everywhere I have been, the kids’ area has held more than half of the church’s volunteer base. The ratios of adults to children that need to be maintained mean that more leaders are required. Since these are our kids we are talking about, not just anyone will be able to serve there. We need the best, highest-caliber leaders with our kids (parents should all agree here too). A good rule of thumb is that a healthy kids’ ministry of any church should make up about 25 percent of the church as a whole, plus parents, and volunteers, which means anything you say from the pulpit about the kids’ ministry already affects about 60 percent of your church. Kids’ ministry is an all-church endeavor. It has to be. Kids’ ministry has never been nor can it ever be self-sustaining. Yet it is one of the only ministries in the church that meets during the main service, off in its own area, where many have no idea what is going on in there. Shouldn’t the right hand know what the left is doing? Asking the kids’ ministry leaders to recruit that many quality leaders with no representation in the main church body is like telling them to double their brick quota with no straw. Studies show that the majority of families are choosing their churches based predominately by what is offered for their kids. The recruiting of these leaders is absolutely mission critical for the church as a whole. Lead pastors of fast growing churches know this and make sure to give that kids’ ministry a visible, credible shot in the arm every chance they get.
4. All by itself, a pulpit appeal will not reach the whole congregation: The average “committed Christian family” in the United States attends their church 1-2 Sundays a month. That means that if you rely one five minute announcement, made on one Sunday morning, you are not going to come anywhere near getting your message to the whole congregation. Fifty to sixty percent of the congregation is not there because they are on vacation, sports, sick etc. And of the people who ARE at your church on any given Sunday, you probably won’t reach everyone. Some are serving elsewhere (greeters, parking lot.) Some are in the bathroom or badly distracted. A pulpit appeal cannot be counted on to reach the entire congregation if used alone as the only means of recruiting.

BUT- Here’s Why I Still Believe in Pulpit Appeals (in addition to, not replacing, other methods)

The main win from a pulpit appeal, if done well and especially if your senior leader does it, is that it shouts to the entire body like a bull horn: “OUR CHURCH VALUES CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. WE VALUE THIS MINISTRY. IT IS PART OF OUR VISION AND MISSION. IT IS IMPORTANT AND YOU SHOULD BE A PART OF IT.” Every children’s pastor needs this kind of backing to see some mountains move. In a day and age when some churches are making the decision to not do any pulpit pushes anymore, I still can see the value in showing your whole church that the kids’ ministry is there and growing. You have to remember, most people sitting in the adult service have no idea what is going on in that other room. Out of sight, out of mind. If, as the kids’ leader, you have any opportunity at all to speak to the congregation as a whole about the kids’ ministry, take it. Go speak for those kids, those volunteers, and for the parents. Speak well and gain church-wide credibility for a ministry that is a part of your church. Let them know the kids’ ministry is not just child care in a far-off room. Be clear about the successes. Share some testimonies!

How about YOU? Does your church do recruitment from the main stage? Why or why not? Do you still believe it is a good idea? Thank you for what you do for Jesus and His kids- love and prayers, Trisha

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

Lowered Expectations and Teeny Tiny Asks-The Truth About Under-Asking

Why do we “under-ask” in recruiting and why does it matter??

Oh, I know, you are thinking, “But I’m constantly asking!” I’m not referring to how often you ask; I’m referring to how big you ask. Most children’s leaders under ask. It comes from that age-old survival mentality we discussed. This starts with an appeal fraught with loads of apologizing. The thinking usually goes something like this: “Wow, we are so desperate, and maybe we would get a lot more help if we ask as little from people as possible! Let’s make the work seem so easy, with no prep, as if anyone can do it. We just need a warm body in there, or we gotta close the class. It’s so simple that it’s trivial. Just take your turn and get through it!”

Besides reeking of babysitting and desperation, the mistake of under asking chases off great leaders for this reason: time. Have you ever noticed that despite our many modern conveniences, faster modes of communication and transportation, thousands of labor- and time-saving devices, we are busier and more stressed than ever? Studies show that people today actually have more leisure time now than they did 40 years ago. So why are people busier and more stressed than ever before? They are driving their kids to soccer, ballet, and speech meets, working a lot more hours to make ends meet, and then volunteering at their kids’ schools. These people are tired. 

So why is it a mistake to downplay what you are asking them to do? To make it sound as small and easy as possible? Because people are constantly bombarded with opportunities and demands to work or serve, but most of them are a blur of things that nearly anyone could do. People get really tired of being guilted into all of those areas too. Trust me, people! I’ve done the 1:00 a.m. baking of three dozen cupcakes that my child told me about that evening so that I am not the “bad parent” who wouldn’t help with the fourth-grade bake sale. But in this world where people have limited time to give, we still have a longing to be part of something meaningful that will live on when we are gone. We want to use the gifts with which God uniquely created us. We want to be a part of something amazing. We want the sacrifice of the time we gave to matter. 

Even with being so busy, volunteerism in the United States has never been higher. But people are not going to give a moment of that precious time to something that anyone could do by just showing up. We want to be where we are needed and can make a difference, where our skills and gifts play an integral part on a winning team. No one is going to deliberately sign up for the team that just announced it is losing. That investment of time must go where it will bring the greatest return. The surprise for me in my many ministries has been that I find more gifted invested leaders when I ask big. I ask and expect a lot, and that attracts people who want their gift of time to matter. For example, we once asked for people to help in a classroom once a month for a two-month commitment with no set-up or extra work required. We had almost no takers. Then that same month, I made a push for fine arts team leaders. I made it clear they would have to be there almost every Saturday for two hours rehearsing, live up to a strict code of conduct, come prepared to lead devotions and pray together, and learn to lead the younger leaders. I had so many responses that I had to rotate teams and make a waiting list. I am not promising you that same result. What I am saying is this: When the need is big, you may need to ask bigger. How important is kids’ ministry to you and the future of your church? How about to God? So much is riding on the next generation and their relationship with Jesus Christ. Don’t the kids deserve a bigger ask? Think of the United States Marine Corps’ new slogan, “We except commitments, not applications.” 

Need proof? How about the most amazing ministry recruiter of all time—Jesus. How did he go about recruiting a team to launch His brand spankin’ new church?

First He prayed. A lot. Sometimes He spent all night praying. Before you say that sounds cliché, have you really spent quality time in prayer asking God to give you the right people in the right positions?

Second, Jesus asked big. He said, “Leave everything—your job, your family, your house, your money, and come follow me right now.” And they did. They must have sensed His authority and His vision, and they felt called to Him and His ministry. Later He kept saying things like, “I am going to die for this new church, and most of you are going to die for this cause too.” WHOA! Not the pep talk we are used to getting!

Third, Jesus never apologized or begged anyone to come on board. Show me the verse where He guilted someone into “just filling that spot for a couple weeks till we can figure things out.” Didn’t happen! How can you come closer to Jesus’ way of recruiting? Pray, ask, and leave behind all apologizing, begging, and guilting.

Here are a few more tips for asking bigger and better.

1. Don’t say “anyone can do it.” No one is going to sign on as a “warm body” for a position that even a monkey or a warm mannequin can do. People are looking for something that will challenge them, use their skills, and make a difference for eternity.

2. Don’t minimize the importance of what you are asking them to do. No job serving Jesus and His kids is unimportant. One wise children’s pastor decided to change the way that volunteers looked at serving in the nursery. He said, “We will no longer advertise for ‘just caring people to hold babies’.” He instituted a simple curriculum for the nursery, the first of its kind. Then he announced that every baby would be introduced to worship songs, every baby would begin to learn a Bible verse, and most importantly, every baby would be held and prayed for each and every Sunday service because he wanted every child in his ministry to feel the love and presence of God, to know the joy of singing praise, to start early loving God’s Word. WOW!

This of course, added a lot of new duties and much more commitment to the nursery leaders. As you probably guessed, his leaders loved it. They finally felt that the ministry they had been doing was valued and meant something. All of the sudden he had people signing up left and right. Not because it was the easiest or had the “least prep.” They signed up because they wanted each of those precious babies to know the love of God from day one. Every area of children’s ministry matters. We should never undersell the work involved.

3. Don’t say, “minimal commitment.” Ask volunteers to commit (usually a written commitment works best). How long should you ask your leaders to volunteer for? Well, usually forever is too long. Don’t leave the commitment open ended. Have a time limit in case the volunteer is not a correct fit for kids’ ministry. Most churches go with either a 9-month (school year) or one-year commitment. I’ve seen a lot of elementary and pre-K ministries use a school-year commitment and nursery to age three ministries use a one-year commitment. (The children are not in school yet).

4. Hold a high standard. Include with your commitment form a code of conduct that matches your church’s vision and mission. Be specific and put in writing what you want them to do. For example:

● Arrive 20 minutes early.

● Participate in a volunteer opening prayer rally right when you arrive.

● Be prepared to open the doors promptly at 10:00 a.m.

Let volunteers know in writing that they may be asked to step down if they are found in breach of that commitment. Find out what gifts and talents they bring to the table and incorporate those giftings into that class schedule! Got a puppeteer who signed up to help in the 4k classroom? Get him (and his puppet) telling that story ASAP. Each leader should be fully invested in the ministry. People who find their place to serve stay. Floating people leave. We have a big job. Let’s get them to it! Ask them to be a part of a team. Ask them for their time, talents, and heart. Ask them to partner with you in reaching lost people for Jesus!

How about you? How have you made a “big ask” of your volunteer leaders? How did it go?

Love Always- Trisha

Excerpt from Amazon’s “Your Children’s Ministry From Scratch”

Photo by Liza Summer on Pexels.com

Tell YOUR Story to the Kids

Photo by Katerina Holmes on Pexels.com

Okay, so perhaps Leviticus or Ecclesiastes is a bit weighty for this Sunday’s
preschool class. Still, let’s not underestimate our little one’s capability to
understand the things of God. The key is explaining the wonders God has done in
a way that children can understand. a common misperception I have seen
among Christians is the thinking, “Spiritual things should be kept from children
until they are older and better able to understand them.” This kind of thinking is
exactly opposite from what God has laid out in scripture. Look at Deuteronomy
6:6-7 :“Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite
them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you
are away, when you lie down and when you rise.” There are many such
commands in God’s word to tell your children all about the wonderful things god
has done and said. And the command was not limited to the parents! It was the
parents first responsibility yes, to tell their children about the love and law of God,
But it was the whole congregation’s duty to keep retelling the stories of God’s
goodness to all of the children! The Israelites disobeyed God’s command to
instruct their children, and the result was: “Another generation grew up after
them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Then
the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord… they abandoned the
Lord.” Judges 2:10-11a These children grew up never knowing about the God who
delivered their grandparents from slavery or parted the red sea for their parents
to walk through on dry ground. They never learned anything about the Lord, so
when they grew up, they chose to have nothing to do with God.

As we look back on a year so full of healing, growth and miracles- I wonder- do
our children know all of the wonderful things God has done for us???? Do they
know how we first met Jesus??? When God answers a prayer for us, be it
financial, physical, or spiritual, do we let our children know that we know a God
Who cares enough about us to answer with power? I believe that when our
children reach the “age of accountability”, they will each make their decision
concerning Jesus Christ based on their experiences up to that point. We cannot
make that decision for them. But we can shape their early experiences to point
them to Jesus. When john the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “are you
the Christ or do we look for another?” Jesus did not give them all a lesson in
systematic theology, or assign them a great book to read. He simply said, “go
tell john, what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the
good news preached to them.” Matthew 11:4 When our children ask us,
”Is Jesus the answer, or do we look for another?” (and if they don’t ask out loud,
they will think it some time in their lives), we need to be prepared to tell them
over and over the wonderful things God has done for us- both in the past and this
week. If we honestly cannot think of anything recent to tell – no current answers
to prayer- then we must pray for more, believe God for more. And when God
answers in a big way, remember- your testimony of God’s goodness in front of

the church on the weekend will never be as important as your testimony in your
mini-van on the way to church. Go be that living message to your kids!

In His Service, Pastor Trisha