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Lack of Volunteers
By Alisa J. Linn
Mar 25, 2003, 17:10
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This article was written in response to a question regarding a lack of
volunteers specifically in the preschool department but the principles apply
to a lack of volunteers in any children's ministry area.
Many Children's Pastors/Christian Education Directors deal with a lack of
volunteers. The difficulties with a lack of volunteers can often be overcome
by more effectively expressing the need to the congregation and/or overseeing
pastor (or whichever staff person you report to.)
With the congregation, it is important to emphasize the ministry
responsibility of each believer as stated in scripture. This scriptural view
of ministry responsibility should not only be the emphasis from the
children's ministry leadership but from the whole pastoral staff when
referring to any ministry positions in the church. Ephesians 4:12,13 says
that the purpose of the pastors, prophets, evangelists, and teachers are not
to do all the ministry but rather to "prepare God's people for works of
service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity
in the faith and in knowledge of the Son of God and become mature." If God's
people are not prepared to do works of service, or do not respond to God's
call for their involvement in ministry, the body will not have the unity,
maturity, or knowledge of God that it should. Needless to say, God would not
make it the purpose of the leadership to prepare God's people for works of
service unless it was essential that the congregation be involved in
ministry. Verse 16 emphasizes this point again, saying that the body of
Christ is only built up in love "as each part does its work." Ministry to the
children is part of the individual believer's ministry responsibility to God
and to the other members of the body of Christ and is vital for spiritual
growth and unity. (It should be mentioned that the time in the nursery,
preschool, children's church, etc., should be made ministry so that the
people feel it is important to be involved. Programs should be run in such a
way that they give young children a positive, caring experience in church
that will carry over into their feelings for God, as well as provide some
Biblical teaching in each class. They are even Baby Bible programs for
infants.)
There are times where the problem with a lack of volunteers stems from the
leadership that oversees your area not realizing the significance of the
problem. This, too, can often be greatly improved by wisely expressing the
need to the leadership. First, it's important to realize that the problem
with the lack of volunteers should be approached with the overseeing
leadership not as a complaint but as an issue for the safety and well-being
of the church body. For example, let's say that your preschool workers are
ready to quit because 2 of them are working with 20 kids instead of the
required 4-5 workers for every 20 preschool kids. The leadership cannot
possibly understand the frustration of the workers because of not being in
the situation and not being the person directly responsible for handling the
workers' concerns. However, most leadership can understand the danger of
litigation and you expressing the concern in these terms puts the situation
into a format that they can relate to. If any preschool child falls and gets
cuts or bruises, etc., and there is less than the required amount of adults
in the room, it is legally considered neglect. Not only can the church and
volunteer be sued in cases of neglect, but the pastoral staff and board. This
possibility makes the concern personal! Again, do not express the situation
as a complaint, but as a matter of concern for the well-being of the church
body. For litigation, all that needs to take place is for one child to fall
or be hit by another child and the workers to not have seen what took place
because there were too many preschoolers to watch every individual child at
once. And, that easily happens if just a couple of children are crying and
the workers are focused on comforting them. Another point of concern with
regard to possible litigation and the proper number of adults in the room is
realizing that teenagers cannot replace adults when it comes to being legally
safe; they are not considered to have the same level of experience and
abilities to deal with emergency situations. When the leadership takes into
perspective the danger to career and finances facing he and the staff for
possible neglect, the concern becomes one that he/she understands and feels
personally. In other words, you are now more wisely and effectively
expressing the need in a way that the leadership can relate to and easily
feel a personal motivation to see it resolved.
What about practical ways to implement changes? As mentioned earlier, after
the pastoral staff as a whole can view the need in a way that creates an
understanding of the needed change in the situation, it is still important
that the leadership teaches the body about their responsibility to each other
and God to be involved in ministry. Future recruiting efforts should be
approached from the aspect of accepting God's call to find their individual
places in ministry and taking advantage of the opportunity to bless the body
and help it mature in Christ.
If, after all else, your congregation does not respond to the opportunity to
minister to your preschoolers voluntarily, a mandatory involvement of parents
is what most churches implement. [As with all workers for children, work
through your church lawyer to develop a proper application form and screening
program for all your church workers.] Scripture states that it is the
parents' responsibility to train up a child in the knowledge of God, so if
there is a lack of workers, it is the responsibility of the parents of the
preschool children to fill this ministry before it is the responsibility of
congregation members with no children. Non-parent volunteers should be
welcomed, but if there is a shortage of help, it is necessary for the parents
of preschoolers to fill in the gaps. This usually involves one parent out of
the family of each preschooler working one service a month. It can be a male
or female parent, but one parent needs to serve. There will always be some
ruffled feathers but the transition can be reasonably easy depending on how
it's presented. Often the mistake is made of first presenting it as a
parental responsibility that's being neglected. This is often due to parents
who are refusing to work because they are tired of taking care of their
children all day at home. It should be presented first as a ministry
opportunity, second as a scriptural responsibility to the body, and last as a
responsibility because he/she is the parent of the child and chose to have
that child. If the parent still refuses to work, most churches implement the
policy that the nursery is there for them to personally use (to change
diapers, nurse, etc.), but they cannot drop the child off for others to take
care of all month long if they are not willing to work one service a month
and fulfill their scriptural commitment to their child and the body of
Christ.
Lastly, if neither the overseeing leadership or the congregation respond,
there is the consideration of your personal spiritual well-being and that of
your family. You cannot possibly fill in for everyone else's lack of
commitment to your church body and, hence, risk losing your health and/or the
time that you need to minister to your own family (spouse, children, etc.).
Your first responsibility, other than your personal relationship with Christ,
is to your own family, then to your ministry. If anyone does not provide for
his own family, he [she] has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever
(1 Tim 5:8). Providing for one's family involves more than financial
provision; it involves time and care. You may need to draw boundaries to
limit your personal amount of ministry responsibilities if others refuse to
fulfill theirs so that you will still have the time/energy you need to
minister to your family.
© by Alisa J. Linn
Children's Ministry Today
info@childrensministry.org
© Copyright 2003 by Children's Ministry Today
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