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Encouraging more members of your congregation to volunteer helps them give back to the church and community, build friendships, and strengthen their faith. It’s also a way to attract new members who share your church’s values.
However, it can be challenging for your members to find time to volunteer regularly, especially for those with demanding schedules. As a result, some churchgoers may hesitate to serve, especially if the opportunities require an ongoing time commitment.
That’s why you need to offer a variety of different church volunteer opportunities that suit various levels of time commitment, interests, and skills. This allows more church members to share their God-given abilities through serving the church and the community.
Here is a comprehensive list of volunteer opportunities to help engage your congregation and create a strong volunteer base.
Holidays and special events are essential to the church calendar. Volunteer activities around these events can provide one-time or short-term volunteer opportunities that often require several people.
Some holiday and special events ideas include:
Some events may require more jobs than others. However, consider having either a director or small group committee to ensure the event planning stays on track. You’ll need church volunteers who can help plan, organize, and gather necessary resources and those who can help set up, take down, and on the day of the event.
Finally, here are some best practices for recruiting volunteers for these holiday or special occasion events:
Families often are seeking opportunities to do things together and have an active role in the church. Providing family-friendly volunteer opportunities can allow your members to bond as a family and with other church members while doing meaningful work.
Here are some family-oriented opportunities to choose from:
For some activities, you may need to coordinate with local organizations such as a food bank or homeless shelter. Be clear about time commitments and the minimum age limit of volunteers, so families with kids of varying ages can know if the opportunity is right for them.
Another option is to look for specific volunteer positions that address current needs either within your church or community.
These opportunities may be one-time events or in response to something occurring in your church or community. They also can be liaison positions so your church has someone who local service or community groups (e.g., homeless shelters, food banks, libraries, fire department) can directly contact when they have a need or volunteer opportunity.
Some examples of specific volunteer positions for key needs include:
Pro Tip: If your congregation is open to helping in cases of natural disaster, talk with local groups like the American Red Cross to see if they’d provide special training or a workshop so those who want to be “on call” for these opportunities feel prepared to help for the type of disasters that may occur in your area.
There are many opportunities for volunteers within the church who want to work with children. These roles can focus on teaching bible study, scriptures, and fostering spiritual growth or help with core academic studies like reading, writing, and math skills.
Some teaching and childcare opportunities include:
For any church volunteer positions working with children, prioritizing safety should be your first concern. This means having all volunteers complete background checks and establishing protocols for check-in and check-out so you know each child is returned to the right adult at the end of events.
Ideally, you should also create a space for different age groups, like infants, preschoolers, elementary school aged kids, etc.
Church volunteering in the youth ministry can be a rewarding experience that makes a significant impact on younger church members—helping to deepen their faith and create relationships.
There are many opportunities for people of different ages to get involved, including:
When setting up a youth ministry, the coordinator and committee can help establish the larger goals and mission of the youth ministry. However, talk with the younger church members to see what types of activities they would enjoy to help increase interest and engagement.
You’ll also want to provide specialized training for church volunteers, who are taking on a mentoring role to ensure they understand their purpose, limits, how to handle difficult situations and emotions, and have effective communication skills. For people working directly with children, it’s also a good idea to perform background checks to ensure safety for your kids and staff.
You likely have people in your congregation who have backgrounds and special knowledge in technology, sound, video, online streaming, and lighting.
You can create volunteer positions to help with your church’s audio/visual and other technology needs. This production team can help with special events and regular services. They can help with managing your cameras, and even sharing your church videos on social media and your website.
Depending on the interest in your congregation, you could even create rotating teams so those involved only volunteer once or twice a month.
Creating a music/worship team can provide ways for members to share their musical gifts and lead the congregation in meaningful worship.
These opportunities can involve creating a:
This volunteer group focuses on providing assistance to those in your congregation who are experiencing acute or chronic illness, difficult/life-changing events, dealing with loss, and more. Most of these volunteer opportunities are flexible and can have varying time commitments.
Volunteers can provide help by:
Pro Tip: If you have church volunteers who drive members to appointments, services, or on errands, you’ll want to ensure they’ve completed a background check, application, and have a valid driver’s license. Also, check with your local laws to see if there are other requirements.
Missions can be a powerful way to combine community service, spiritual growth, and cultural immersion. While many missions are geared toward serving individuals in other countries, you can also create local outreach opportunities as well.
Some examples of global and local mission outreach include:
The hospitality team helps new and existing members feel welcome and connected with the church. They are a friendly face that visitors and members can turn to when trying to build connections with the church.
There are a variety of opportunities within this team, including:
Each of these roles can make a huge difference in how people relate to your church.
The discipleship team focuses on helping adult members grow their faith and spirituality.
This team can create different types of groups depending on the needs of your church, such as:
Church administration volunteers provide behind-the-scenes support to help staff members and ensure the church office and groups run smoothly.
Church volunteers can help by answering and making phone calls, returning emails, assisting with registration, maintaining the church’s website or blog, data entry, making copies, supporting other teams and small groups in your church, and more.
However, for admin volunteer roles, it is important to clearly communicate the role, expectations, and time commitment.
Facility volunteers help ensure your church and the grounds are well-maintained, clean, safe, and welcoming.
These can include one-time opportunities, such as updating the church playground, fixing something broken in the church, or painting a room. You also could have ongoing positions where volunteers regularly inspect aspects of the church or grounds or help with seasonal tasks like clearing leaves or snow.
For instance, for seasonal activities, like clearing leaves, maintaining the grounds, or clearing snow, consider getting teens involved to provide a way for them to meaningfully give back.
As you bring on more church volunteers, coordinating and making sure everyone is on the same page becomes a bigger task. There’s where an all-in-one church engagement platform, like Subsplash, shines.
To find out just how much Subsplash tools can help manage volunteers, increase your giving, and boost engagement with your community, [.blog-contact-cta] connect with a ministry consultant today! [.blog-contact-cta]
