A Look Back . . . and a Look Forward! Recruit, Support, Encourage and Train Volunteers!

As I began to write About the Children's Department I said I love recruiting volunteers . . . this is so true! I always looked at it as being on a treasure hunt . . . volunteers are a treasure, a gift from the hand of God! They are there in our churches - some of them know who they are, and others do not . . . yet! Recruiting is the opportunity to help people discover the joy of serving . . . and there is certainly a lot of joy to be had in serving in children's ministry!  I've posted a lot about recruiting . . . how to plan a month of recruiting, how to screen volunteers, gave you eight complete recruiting themes and plans and more! Check my blog and look at the tab on the top for recruiting to find my posts on recruiting!

In addition, I've posted about supporting, encouraging and training your volunteers as well . . . which are certainly lots of fun! After all, what is more fun than telling someone "thank-you" and then planning opportunities to show your appreciation! I always planned two big appreciation events throughout the year - an appreciation dinner in the Spring and a Holiday Open House the weekend before Thanksgiving - and every other week I gave each volunteer a little "surprise" to say "thank you!" It is all so much fun!

We always made training mandatory - training for VBS each year and then before our Fall ministries kicked off we had another mandatory training for Sunday and Mid-week ministries. Of course, training can be a lot of fun! Our trainings were always interactive as we walked our volunteers through the materials they would be using . . . and of course had lots of food! We have tried special training opportunities - such as Sunday evening electives - which I really liked as well.

In the coming months I'll continue to help you countdown to and plan a Holiday Open House and will post about recruiting and training your volunteers as well! So, what do you do to recruit, support, encourage and train your volunteers?