Five-Minute Mentoring: Guiding Volunteers Beyond the Welcome Mat in Ministry | Season 5: Episode 8
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Have you ever considered that welcoming new volunteers is just the first step on a much longer journey? That’s precisely the focus of our latest episode on Making Sense of Ministry. In this Five-Minute Mentoring episode, Brian Lawson walks you through a critical step in nurturing a volunteer toward long-term success. Get ready to discover the secrets to building a committed, long-term team—because the truth is, when you think you can finally take a breath after onboarding, that’s when the real work begins.
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Lawson: 0:00
Youth Ministry Institute Original Podcast. Welcome to the Making Sense Ministry podcast, the podcast designed to help you lead well in your ministry, transform lives and impact generations. I’m Brian Lawson here with another five-minute mentoring episode. So you’ve collected all the paperwork you need, you’ve run the background checks, trained your new volunteers on your safe sanctuary or child protection policy. You then introduce them to the young people and leaders in the ministry area you serve. You’ve onboarded them, given them the tools and now you can just sit back and coast. No need to worry about that volunteer or that role again. Right?
Wrong. That volunteer who just joined your ministry still needs you to lead them, support them and guide them toward becoming a long-term successful volunteer. Sure, it might be nice if you could just get them started and then move on to something else, but that’s just not what’s best for them and, in truth, it’s just not what’s best for you.
So after they have volunteered for a couple weeks, perhaps two weeks, you will need to schedule time to meet for coffee, tea, milkshakes, yoga, a round of golf or even go lawn mower shopping, if that’s your thing. During your time together, you want to ask questions and listen, and you have three primary areas that you want to ask about.
The first is about their experience thus far. So maybe you start out with so tell me, how was volunteering your first two weeks different than what you expected it to be, or what surprised you? What is something you’ve learned about the young people? Your goal in this first portion is to understand the experience they are having. You want to hear about the joys and notice the potential struggles that they are going to face. This point in the conversation is an excellent place for you to show support and that you are there for them as they walk this new road.
The second area you are asking about is the ministry as a whole. This time together is a fantastic opportunity for you to gain new insight into the ministry. Often we are so close to the ministry that we have blind spots. A new volunteer has fresh eyes and they can see things that you may easily be overlooking. So you remind them about the mission and ask them how you see that, how they’ve seen that in their first two weeks, for instance, you might say something like our mission is to reach, grow and serve so that young people grow in their relationship with Jesus. Have you seen us reaching, growing or serving these first two weeks. Maybe they can give you an answer, or maybe not, but at least give them a space in case they’ve observed something that you haven’t. Next, move on to asking them about volunteers. How is interacting with other volunteers been? I mean, after all, we want to make sure that this volunteer fits well with our current volunteers and we also want to make sure our volunteers are being welcoming to other new people.
Finally, you want to find any roadblocks that may keep them from becoming a long time thriving volunteer. Ask the new volunteer what has been challenging or what things are unclear in the ministry that you can talk through. How can I help you continue feeling more confident as a volunteer? Is there anything I can do to help you be successful? Then, after it is all said and done, pray with them, offer your continued support and thank them and, while you’re at it, go ahead and schedule another follow-up conversation with them in four to six weeks. The first six months you want to keep checking in on how they are doing. This is your opportunity to help them build a good foundation as a volunteer and, in truth, those first six months are a time that they can quit pretty easily, because they can get discouraged, confused, feel like they’re not making a difference, and if you would meet with them regularly during those first six months, you’re going to make a significant difference in how long they will last.
So, friends, that’s all I have for you today. I hope that this has been helpful. If it is, I hope that you’ll share it with your friends. Share it in your ministry groups, leave a rating and review.
And now go schedule that meeting with your new volunteer. Hear about their experience, learn about your ministry from them, find out what is challenging to them and set them on a course to becoming a long tenured volunteer in your ministry. Until next time, friends, I hope we’ve helped you make sense of this thing we call ministry. To learn more how we might guide you towards success in youth or children’s ministries, head over to yminstitute. com.
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