With many restrictions lifted, volunteers are beginning to return. As a Christian leader, what should you expect? And how should you deal with it?

1). Expect a mad breakout! Air traffic increased by 500% on Memorial Day weekend. There is a mad rush to travel, to take a break. Picture a wild crowd crashing a Beatles’ concert or fans flooding a stadium for a big football game. Volunteers have been isolated, locked up for over a year. It’s time for a breakout!! Who can blame them?

At least in the US, volunteer activity follows a cycle. January 10-to May 15 represents a highly active period, when volunteers make progress, stay in touch, and are more available. Traditionally volunteer response wanes from May 15-August 15 as holidays, vacations, weddings, and graduations take place. However, this year expect that response time to slacken much more. Don’t be surprised if normally faithful volunteers don’t even respond. That is not a sign of disinterest in your mission, but an indicator of a volunteer’s need for personal restoration.

What can I do? Lowering expectations and extending considerable

An unexpected day off affords me the opportunity to catch up on things I’ve neglected, cross off overdue items on my to-do list, or do some real strategic thinking. COVID-19 has opened up far more than a day. We along with our volunteers may be trying to replace...

Question: Our church has an unwritten rule that we don't recognize volunteers because it is flattery. That doesn't "feel" right, but how do I distinguish between flattery and recognition? Answer: On the surface it may be difficult to differentiate between flattery and...

by Al Newell "Begging” for volunteers makes long term recruiting worse. Desperate pleas create diminishing returns, dulling the ears of prospects. Worse yet, “begging” cheapens the value of the ministry position itself. Consider a dad of a teenage girl placing a sign...

Why Leaders of Volunteers must master the skill of conflict resolution with volunteers? If you’re a leader of volunteers, you’re going to experience conflict. That’s why at the Executive Course in Volunteer Ministry Development one of the subjects we address is dealing with volunteer conflict.

Deathblow #1: Transactional volunteer programming replaces transformational ministry. Transformational volunteer ministries bleed the cause of the ministry, emphasize the connection to the gospel and experience changed lives. They are more concerned with the calling...

Golf great Ben Hogan said that when a person stands over a golf ball, every natural inclination is wrong. For instance, I once swung so hard that the ball lifted two inches straight up and plopped back down in a fresh, deep divot. Lifting my eyes too quickly and bending my knees were just a few of my instinctive tendencies that were all wrong.

To approach the topic of whether an organization should invest in strategies to garner donors or approaches to recruiting volunteers may be like asking a rabid football fan who’s going to win the big game. My bias: I am a volunteer ministry development consultant. Yet, over twenty years of experience in consulting and training countless leaders of Christian organizations and churches has definitely informed my opinion.

PAM has become a friend of mine, no not the female name, the famous cooking spray. PAM makes cooking so much easier. I would know since I routinely use it as I cook. Besides crafting beautiful fried eggs…well maybe just overly cooked fried eggs…OK…barely edible eggs (my wife, the chef is hovering over me as I write), I also create a pretty mean scrambled egg dish. (Now my wife reminded me, that I only make scrambled when I break the yokes). My culinary expertise extends to the grill, where I have been known to grill up some pretty tasty salmon (Somehow I can actually do this.)

As the summer turns, American football is not the only endeavor that kicks off its season. Ministry activity explodes in the fall. Whether to serve the homeless, care for families at our church or love children by collecting shoeboxes, leaders are preparing themselves and volunteers to enter the playing field.

American football kicks off. It’s not just an expression; it literally kicks off. A kicker boots the ball into the air toward the opposing team. Have you ever noticed how American football announcers make a big deal when a kicker makes a tackle?