This name first came up in a conversation about how we can help those people who turn up every week as volunteers to do youth and children’s ministry.
They receive no payment, they have probably had little or no formal training, but they arrive each week and provide the backbone for discipleship of our young people. There are far more of them than there are paid youth ministers, but we can so easily just assume they will turn up week after week. What can we do to help Mrs. Jones?
Recruit
Sound obvious? But how you recruit is vital. You are looking for people who have a passion for young people and who love the Lord Jesus. That’s a given. If they have some training in a child/student related field, that’s helpful but not essential. Some of the best youth ministers I have worked with have not been specifically trained in youth ministry. God has gifted them in a special way to work with young people. Such people are to be grabbed but not abused. They may only have limited time to give.
Appreciate
When someone has done something for a number of years, it’s so easy to take them for granted. Apart from obvious encouragement, you can take an interest in how they are balancing up all the aspects of their life. It’s easy to assume this is all they do and fail to realise they are juggling many other activities. It doesn’t take long to send all your volunteers a card on their birthday and maybe have a celebration meal now and again.
Care
It is often true that volunteers miss out on their own growth as believers. Their groups may well be at the same time as the church service, so they rarely receive any teaching for their own benefit. Unless you have two services, there is no simple answer to this. It can be done in the context of a gathering of volunteers — rather than a brief thought to start the meeting, ask your pastor to repeat his sermon to the people who missed out. If they don’t get food, hungry people have less to give to others.
Value
One simple way for people to feel valued is to give them the resources they need. If it’s hard work to do the job then help out. Setting out rooms or getting the right pieces of equipment out all takes time. Could that be done by someone else? There are sometimes people in churches longing to be used who may not be ‘up front’ people but could easily prepare a room for use. This shows Mrs. Jones that she is valued for her teaching — not her ability to move 20 chairs every week.
Equip
There are places where training can be had and should be used. It’s another way of expressing value, so should be done.
So don’t assume Mrs. Jones will always be there. One day she may decide she’s had enough and the sole reason will be the lack of support.
Dave Fenton is the Training Director of Root 66, which runs training courses for youth ministries across the UK.
