When Asking Your Volunteers to Give More Is a Good Thing

Here are three areas upon which to focus that will leave your volunteers wanting more and make volunteering for ministry attractive to new volunteers as well.

One of my favorite ministry testimonies comes from a parish I worked with a few years ago. They have two different discipleship group leaders who, since beginning to lead their group, have had spouses also express interest in joining a group. This is a beautiful sign of fruit being born in the lives of leaders in that parish. The joy and growth that they are experiencing through discipling others is something that their spouses see and desire as well. It’s not like it’s an easy task for both spouses to lead a group (trust me, my wife and I know!), but the sacrifice brings great rewards.

I can remember teaching a religious education class many years back. I am confident that the only thing my wife would’ve seen after an average class was me throwing the teacher’s book in the corner and not wanting to think about class again until the next week. What is it about the experience of these volunteers that makes what they are doing different than other approaches? What is it that’s so inviting and seems to draw out a deeper commitment of time to the parish and its efforts to disciple others? Here are three areas upon which to focus that will leave your volunteers wanting more and make volunteering for ministry attractive to new volunteers as well.

Your Ministry Provides Community for the Volunteers Involved

One of the best things you can do for your volunteers is to provide opportunities that will build community among the volunteers themselves, giving them a place to be with other leaders who desire to grow as well. Learning from others and facing challenges together creates an intimacy that makes it very difficult to leave even if you wanted to.

Your Volunteers are Growing Spiritually as a Result of Being Involved

If you can cultivate an atmosphere where volunteers understand the importance of being a disciple first and commit to growing as a disciple, it will not take long for them to see that God has them leading a group not just for those involved, but to form and grow themselves as well.

Your Volunteers are Seeing the Fruit of Discipleship

Anyone who has been involved in ministry for some time knows the feeling of seeing someone encounter Christ for the first time or take that next step in their relationship with Him. It reminds us of the many graces that God has given us over our lifetime and fills us personally in a profound way. When volunteers are enabled to effectively foster discipleship within those of your parish, they will see this and it will change them.

Accomplishing these things is not easy, but it is possible. I truly believe that establishing a discipleship focused ministry model in a parish helps to properly orient the ministries toward providing these types of opportunities for volunteers. I’m certain that this is why I have seen more fruit born in the lives of the those involved in discipleship focused ministry than in the participants, which is exactly what we need!