9 Warning Signs Your Volunteers Don't Feel Appreciated

Responsible and intentional student ministry in church and para-church organizations are not the sole responsibility of the lead guy or gal who is paid to love students. Yes, the lead youth worker has a significant role to play in the development of ministry culture, outreach and discipleship strategies, and mentorship models but they – YOU – can’t do it alone. In fact, any attempt to do so usually results in ineffective ministry, pastoral burnout, or the youth worker developing a Messiah-complex.

Mission and ministry never happen alone, in a relational vacuum. Youth ministry is always connected, always within the bounds of a community, always led, and always with the dedicated support of a good team around you. Your volunteers are absolutely key to your ministry!

A dream team of volunteers is not something you happen into by accident. Passionate, motivated, dedicated, trained, and deployed volunteers who are with you through hell or high water are the ones dreamt of but – for some reason – often the hardest to attract.

So I’ll give you a hint: instead of trying to attract these illusive super-volunteers, start with the ones you have. Train them. Engage with them. Love them. Give them real responsibility. Encourage them. Spend time with them. Call them on their stuff. Pray with them. And be there pastor.

In the mean time, I’ll give you a short cheat-sheet of how to know when your volunteers are feeling de-valued and under appreciated. If you catch them early, you’ll still have a chance to save your volunteers before they bail on you.

You know your volunteers do not feel appreciated if:

1. You Don’t Have Any Volunteers.

2. Your Volunteers Are Chronically Late, Don’t Show, or Leave Early. 

3. Your Volunteers Have Lots Of Excuses Why They Didn’t Show. 

4. Your Volunteers Give the Bare-Minimum to the Cause. 

5. Your Volunteers Aren’t Attracting New Volunteers. 

6. Your Volunteers Talk Trash About You or the Ministry. 

7. You Have High Volunteer Turnover. 

8. Your Volunteer Team Doesn’t Include Professionals, People Older Than You, or the Highly Educated. 

9. You Are Exceptionally Busy.

In an age where the market for available volunteers is tighter than ever and everybody – not-for-profits, churches, schools, and businesses – all want to capitalize and leverage volunteer hours for their organization, having a strategic plan for recruiting, training, deploying, and managing volunteers is a make or break. Simply, organizations with a large volunteer base grow and develop attracting more volunteers while organizations with little or poorly managed volunteers are usually on life-support.

I know who I’d rather volunteer for. What about you? What about your people? Who are they volunteering for? 

Jeremy Postal is the director of Whistler School, a bible and discipleship school based out of beautiful Whistler, BC. He is passionate about building communities of restoration & creativity with Christ as the focus. You can also catch him regularly on his blog at www.jeremypostal.com or connect via Twitter @JeremyPostal.