May = Volunteer Recruiting! Recruiting Volunteers for Your Children's Ministry!

As I've been saying, I'm a huge fan of focusing your church for the entire month of May on the many opportunities to serve in the children's ministry! Back in February I talked for an entire week about planning a month to recruit and then provided a number of recruiting plans complete with themes and ideas for making a recruiting video. I hope you chose one of those to use - or developed your own - and are beginning your month of recruiting! By recruiting in the month of May for your children's ministry you are able to reap the following benefits -

• focus the attention of the people in your church on the value of the children's ministry!
• identify and screen your volunteers before the business and hit-and-miss of the Summer!
• plan to train your volunteers in the Summer so everyone is ready to go when the Fall arrives!
• make use of the Summer to find volunteers to fill any positions remaining open at the end of May.

There is no shortage of positions to fill in the children's ministry, so let's take a moment to consider recruiting people to serve with your elementary children.

Elementary children are often energetic and can have short attention spans - especially 3rd grade boys! Relationships are very important to elementary age children - they really do not want to be "left out". It is very important to bring people into the lives of children who can encourage them to grow in their walk with Jesus . . . so consider the following -

• be absolutely certain all volunteers are at least 16 years old, have all been thoroughly screened and trained.
• hold training opportunities for your volunteers at least once a year - twice would be better.
• try to recruit someone who is a nurse or paramedic so at least one volunteer in your children's ministry has a background enabling them to know what to do in the case of an emergency.
• consider recruiting a couple older ladies who will be the children's ministry grandmas! These ladies would visit classrooms from time to time - at least once a month - and could be the primary people who send out birthday cards, get well cards and who give children the opportunity to experience the nurturing a grandma can give - many children do not live near their grandparents, so this could be an incredible opportunity for your church to provide this connection for at least some of the children in your church!
• look for people who are comfortable talking with children - let them know building the relationship with the children is the key - if your church utilizes a large group/small group curriculum, not all volunteers will have to "teach" lessons.
• match potential volunteers according to their gifting - this is very important so your volunteer will be able to enjoy serving and will commit to do so long term!

Most importantly, hold up the children's ministry as an unique place to serve where you are able to have a lasting impact on a life! Children matter and the children's ministry is where we build on the foundation which has been laid by parents and your preschool ministry and help children learn to know and walk with Jesus - for their entire life!