How to recruit, train, and inspire volunteers.
Leading volunteers.
One of the biggest challenges to any Worship Pastor/Leader is leading volunteers. There are never enough, they are too busy to practice, they aren’t at the level you want them to be, or a myriad of so many other obstacles to having and keeping a healthy volunteer team. I want to share a few things that I believe have helped our ministry stay healthy in this area. I’m just going to scratch the surface, but I know these things will help you.
Cast vision and hold out expectations: You need to have a vision for your ministry that is Biblically-saturated and attractive to other musicians and tech in your church and/or community. When you have a clear vision, you are able to lay out clear expectations and tie those expectations back to the vision. When you do that it is easier to have a hard conversation. For us this looks like this: Hey Johnny, you know our vision is to create environments where our church can go all in with their worship. You keep coming to rehearsals unprepared and that is weighing down our musicality on Sundays. Can you help me understand why there is a pattern of unpreparedness? When you’re at your best, it helps us play better, and that serves the song in an excellent way, which undergirds the truth and inspires our church to sing with all their hearts. See? Now, it’s not about how bad Johnny played guitar, but about him serving the vision.
Call your volunteers to something greater: The flip side to the coin of #1 above is to call your volunteers to something greater. Instead of beating them up and saying “why don’t you practice?” or “Is this not important to you?” Show them the glory of Jesus and how their gift, when sharpened, glorifies God even more fully.
Create easy on-ramps with regular rhythms: Are you recruiting? Have a plan. For us, this looks like holding auditions twice a year followed by a “Bridge Workshop” where we share our DNA, lay out expectations, and do some training on basic rehearsal prep and rehearsals themselves. Are you training? Have regular, predictable ways for your team to train. It can be an online resource. It can be workshops. It can be one on one lessons. Make it easy for your volunteers to know where their growth opportunities are. Are you inspiring? Make sure your volunteers know what the song is supposed to sound like. Get the resources to them weeks in advance so they have enough time to prepare. When there is clarity on the nuts and bolts of how to prepare for a Sunday, more often than not, your volunteers will rise to the occasion and will be inspired to do better.
Good gets good: This is a fruit of the above 3 points, but it’s worth mentioning. Good gets good. Meaning: the more you can improve your musicality, spirituality, technicality, and other areas of excellence, the more you will naturally, just by playing on a Sunday, be recruiting by leading worship well. A bass player comes into your church, sees and hears and experiences your gifts being used humbly, and they will want to join in, because it is excellently done. Good gets good.
Regularly check in on your worship fam: Go to coffee. Send a text. Go to dinner. Make the most of the time between services. Send emails with spiritual encouragements. Regularly check in on your team. Relational leadership goes way further than functional leadership. Know your team, pray for them, and invest in them. Use ministry to get people done… never use people to get ministry done.