Jason Young - The Volunteer Survival Guide: Your Question-and-Answer Resource for Volunteering

Jason Young is a hospitality and leadership coach and communicator. He was formerly the director of guest experience at Buckhead Church and North Point Ministries, a nationally known network of churches with 36,000 people in average weekly attendance. He has also worked with numerous organizations, including Ford Motor Company, Life.Church, and Chick-fil-A. Jason has written for numerous publications and enjoys creating the Saturday Rundown, a Saturday morning email with practical ideas on hospitality and leadership. Learn more at jasonyounglive.com. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jonathan Malm runs SundaySocial.tv and ChurchStageDesign Ideas.com, reaching more than 70,000 church leaders each month. He has begun multiple businesses and consults with churches regularly on guest services and creative expression. You can find him in San Antonio, Texas, writing, cooking, and drinking way too much coffee. Jonathans first church leadership book, Unwelcome , is available on Amazon in print and digital forms. He and Jason are also the authors of The Come Back Effect and The Volunteer Effect .

Books by Jason Young and Jonathan Malm

The Come Back Effect

The Volunteer Effect

The Volunteer Survival Guide

What Does It Take to Be a Great Volunteer?

STORY : Jonathan

Dennis was one of the first people I met while volunteering with the welcome team at my church.

He had a great smile, high-fived everyone he saw, and made people feel like they were walking into a party thrown just for them. I remember thinking, Id like to be more like Dennis in my role here.

I assumed hed been on staff at a church before or, at the very least, been volunteering with the welcome team for years. As I got to know him, though, I realized that wasnt the case. He worked in the Air Force doing cybersecurity. And he hadnt been on the team that longonly five months, about as long as I had.

The fact that he was such an amazing volunteer confused me a bit. Technically, Im the expert. Ive written books about volunteers and welcome teams and church stuff, yet he was better than me. He was so enthusiastic and happy, and he made everyone who walked into the room feel special. It felt like he had been waiting for you to show up all morningeven if youd never met him before.

Between services one Sunday, I told him, Youre incredible, Dennis. How are you such a great volunteer? It seems like youre always here.

His normally bright smile slid off his face, and he got serious. Church has been a bit of an oasis for me, to be honest. Im going through a really rough breakup, and my ex-girlfriends making trouble for me at work. I dont like to think about what Id be doing if I wasnt here at church all day. So I make it a priority to be here. Its kind of like therapy for me, really.

We talked a bit more about the details of the situationI didnt want to rush through his storybut I was still curious about his role. So when I felt like it was appropriate to bring it up again, I said, But why are you here all the time? Do our leaders just schedule you every week? Do you make yourself available for that?

Oh, Ive never been scheduled, he said. Is that how they do it?

Hold on a second! I said. You arent even officially on the team?

Nope.

But you have the volunteer badge and everything. Did you just ask someone where they were one day and put one on?

Pretty much, Dennis said. I saw people high-fiving guests in the front and I thought, I can do that. So I asked someone where the badges were and started doing it.

My jaw dropped. I was so surprised by his answer, I didnt even know how to respond.

Eventually, I realized we should probably get him on the official team. I called my team leader over and introduced him to Dennis.

That interaction made me analyze why Dennis was such a great volunteer. I dont know if he even realized how good he wasit was just instinct for him. But I realized I wanted to be more like him. I wanted to be a great volunteer.

What we know about you is that you want to be a great volunteer. Nobody gets into a new rolewhether volunteer or paidto be mediocre. You want to feel like you bring something significant to your team.

We all get into volunteering for different reasons. Do you see yourself wanting to do one of these?

Make friends. Youre new at church and want to get connected.

Have fun. You see those social media posts of people laughing and hanging out while serving, and you want to be part of that.

Serve God. You want to be part of something bigger than yourself. Gods done so much for you; you want to do something for him.

Make a difference. Theres a need at church, and you have the talent or resources to meet it.

Develop your skills. You dabble in photography and want to get better. Its part practice, part learning from the rest of the team members.

Stay in the atmosphere. Youre like Dennis, and you want to be at church whenever the doors are open. Volunteering is a way you can do that.

Those are all great reasons to volunteer, and your story is probably a combination of a few of them.

Thats one of the beautiful things about churches. We all come from different backgrounds, personalities, and motivations. But were all part of the church, the greatest thing Jesus ever built on this earth. We all want to see the church succeed.

So what does it take to be a great volunteer? Jesus gave us a model. His disciples were squabbling about who would be the greatest among them. The story goes like this:

Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slavejust as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt. 20:2528 NIV)

Jesus made it clear that it wasnt a title that would make us great. It wasnt power to tell people what to do. It was serving. Serving others makes us great.

Now, youve already joined the volunteer team. Youre already serving others. So according to Jesus, youre already becoming great. But we believe there are five specific elements that make you great at serving on a volunteer team.

Grateful

Let every detail in your liveswords, actions, whateverbe done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. (Col. 3:17 Message)

Being a great volunteer starts with a sense of gratitude. You get to be a representative of Jesus. What an honor! Whether thats changing diapers, clicking buttons, parking cars, taking pictures, or shaking hands, youre helping build the church. Think of the Boeing employee who uses the tray table they helped assemble. Or the Apple employee who designed that button on the right side of iPhones. It might be a small contribution, but they can be grateful and proud that they got to be part of it. They might even point it out to their kids: See this? I got to help build it.

We want to encourage you to volunteer as a representative of Jesus and be thankful for the opportunity. Its a privilege to serve God. Remember that being great is all about serving others.

Responsive

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:34)

One of the greatest gifts you can give your volunteer leader is to be responsive to their communication. If they schedule you to serve, let them know quickly whether or not youll be there. While no feels like a negative word, they would rather hear that than wonder whether or not youll be there when youre scheduled. Remember, your volunteer leader is dealing with many different pieces each week. They might not remember that youd scheduled a vacation. They more often see a bunch of blank spaces on a page they need to fill. So be quick to communicate with both your leaders and fellow volunteers. This will also help keep assumptions from coming into the mix, which can taint relationships.