Absolutely More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys . . . Encouraging & Supporting Our Volunteers!

All this month I'll be talking about encouraging and supporting your volunteers! I've written about this quite a bit, but since I believe it is such an important part of children's ministry, I'm talking about it again! 

Volunteer encouragement and support are two of my favorite parts of children's ministry! Your church and my church have each been gifted with volunteers who faithfully serve in the various areas of our ministries. While these people certainly do not serve for our thanks, it absolutely is appropriate to take the time to thank them! I have always enjoyed the ministry of appreciation - what could possibly be more fun than taking the time to thank and encourage those who serve as volunteers in our churches? There are many ways to thank and encourage your volunteers so throughout this month we will look at how to plan an entire year of volunteer support and encouragement!

So, let's begin this month with looking at just one fun area of volunteer encouragement . . . encourage by providing a mailbox for each volunteer! I was recently asked about this, so I thought I'd share it with you again. I found Stackable Paper Trays from our local office supply store were ideal to use as mailboxes as they could be placed in each classroom, tagged with the volunteer’s name on a mailing label and even stacked on top of each other. Every other week I put a newsletter - which we will talk another day - in their boxes and then the weeks in-between newsletters I put a little surprise in the boxes. This is a great way to show your volunteers, in a tangible way, they were thought of each week.

Encourage by providing little “surprises” each week, every other week or at least once a month! I’m including a few possible ideas for surprises to get you started!

1. Purchase small post-it-notes for each volunteer and tag with, “We’re stuck on you!”
2. Give each volunteer a pen or pencil with a tag which says, “You’ve got the ‘write’ stuff! We’re glad to have you as part of our Ministry team!"
3. Give each teacher a banana and tag with, “Our ‘bunch’ wouldn’t be the same without you! We’re so glad you’re part of our Ministry Team!”
4. Give each volunteer a Riesen’s Chocolate and tag with, “There are so many ‘Riesens’ we are thankful you are part of our Ministry Team!”

Encourage parents and kids to leave notes of appreciation in their volunteer's "mailboxes", too. :^)

What do you do to support and encourage your volunteers?  Please plan to join me all this month as we talk about how to help our volunteers know they are truly appreciated! Please also take a moment to "like" About the Childrne's Department on Facebook if you haven't already, and tell people you know about us so they can join in our conversations!