Sometimes we’re afraid to offer training to our volunteers. We don’t want to be perceived as micromanaging dictators – we want to be the good guys! We tell ourselves people are smart and don’t need anyone to boss them around anyway.
However, things look very different from the eyes of the volunteer – especially a new volunteer. To understand how they feel, imagine I recruit you to help set up a hotel ballroom for a large church conference for hundreds of people. It’s a big job, it’s a complex job, and it’s an important job.
But now imagine that the only training and instruction I give you is to “go in there and make yourself useful .”So, you walk through the ballroom doors and see a frantic hive of activity. Some people are setting up chairs, others are laying cable, a few more are building the stage, some are setting up lights, and others are unboxing technical equipment. What will you do, and what do you think you’ll feel like at that moment?
Lack of proper volunteer training:
Creates emotional paralysis and fear
The first thing you’re likely to feel in this situation is fear. You don’t know what to do or how to do it, so you’ll feel paralyzed. This paralysis quickly changes to ever-rising levels of anxiety. The whole experience feels terrible. You don’t want to look like an idiot or disappoint anyone, yet there’s nothing you can do about it.
Undermines trust in you and the organization
The next thing you’re likely to feel is resentment. What kind of moron would give you such a complex and important job without instruction or direction? You’re going to conclude that I set you up for failure quickly, and I’m not a competent leader. You may even conclude that the whole organization is run like a circus and all the leaders are clowns.
Removes the possibility of scoring a win
How do you score if there isn’t a net?
If I give you a job without adequate training, then you have no way of scoring because I haven’t given you a goal. If you don’t clarify what winning looks like, then they’re not going to know if they’re winning. That’s why it is so important to explain the task and the significance of the outcome we’re trying to achieve.
The lesser motivated people will drop out
Suppose you’re like most people; if you get thrown into a situation like setting up a ballroom with no further instruction, you’ll drop out. After all, you don’t know what to do, you’re having a horrible time being paralyzed and useless, and you’re working for a complete moron. You’re out of there. I’m sure you can think of something more important to do.
The more motivated people will go rogue
If you’re not like most people, you’ll stay in that ballroom and make up your own job, your own goals, and your own way of doing it. If you’re going to be led by a moron, you might as well do things yourself. After all, some leadership has got to be better than no leadership. If I don’t like how you’re doing things, then that’s too bad. I had my chance to give directions, and I blew it.
So now you know what it’s like to volunteer for me if I don’t give you sufficient training and direction. The next step is for you to look in the mirror.
How do you know if you’re making the same mistakes?
Do your new volunteers look hesitant?
Their lack of confidence is directly related to their lack of training. Volunteers need to know what to do, how to do it, and the big why behind the task.
Do your existing volunteers lack respect for you and/or the church leadership?
Something has happened (or failed to happen) that has caused this lack of confidence. Maybe you’ve failed to adequately explain the why, the what and the how of the job, but you may also have failed to explain the heart and attitudes behind the job. It’s vital, in any volunteer position in the church, to clarify 360-degree relationships:
How I treat the people I serve.
How I treat the people I serve with.
How I treat the people I serve under.
It would be best if you did everything you could to earn back their respect. Don’t expect them to have attitudes about a job that you didn’t explain to them.
Do your volunteers seem to be unmotivated?
You may have lacked clarity on the big “why” behind the task and how it contributes to the eternal mission of the church.
I recently visited a church where a disinterested teenager at the front door glanced at me and muttered “welcome” to me. He didn’t even look at me long enough to finish his one-word greeting before he was bored-ly staring off into space.
This was fundamentally a training problem. You see, the teenager was trained to say “welcome” to everyone. He was not trained to make everyone feel welcome. Without the all-important desired outcome, this was just a dumb job they couldn’t get anyone else to do. Did that teenager understand that his job could change the eternal destiny of entire families? No, because no one explained it to him.
Do you have a problem with volunteer retention?
Unfortunately, there can be many causes behind this. Maybe it’s a lack of training. Perhaps you haven’t clarified the win. Possibly you haven’t created a positive and encouraging environment to volunteer in. Whatever the issue, you need to find out what’s happening.
Fortunately, whatever is going wrong is almost always your fault. Although that doesn’t sound like good news – it is. If a problem is your fault, you have the power to fix it. If your problems are someone else’s fault, you’re a helpless victim who can’t do anything. Fortunately, volunteer retention problems are your fault which means there are problems you can solve.
Do you have a problem with volunteers going rogue?
The biggest issue here is usually clarifying relationships and attitudes: how we treat the people we serve, serve with, and serve under. Close behind this is clarifying the what’s, how’s, and why’s behind the role in question. People need to know what their supposed to do, how they’re supposed to do it, and what this is all supposed to accomplish. If you haven’t been clear on these things, don’t be surprised when people fill in the blanks on their own – you didn’t really leave them many alternatives.
Our job description is given to us as pastors by God Himself, not to do good works instead of our people, but to equip our people to do good works. This means that it’s not only our job to train volunteers but also our job to be excellent at training volunteers.
John works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a strategic thinker who has pastored urban and rural churches, traditional and on the cutting edge. He is a passionate evangelist who is committed to rapid church growth by creating churches that unchurched people love to attend. With his church planting, multi-service, multi-site, and church merger experience, he regularly trains leaders, coaches church planters, and helps other pastors lead their churches into new growth.