Category Archives: Staffing – Recruitment

As communicated in the Staffing Ministry section of the site, staffing includes a number of elements beginning with the need to know where you are headed. After completing a ministry assessment, you will be able to more accurately determine who to recruit to best accomplish these objectives. Placement of people into ministry takes on a greater purpose than merely filling positions. This big picture perspective gives you all the more reason to adequately train and support the people you recruit as you know their contribution matters and it is working toward the common good.

To most effectively work within this big picture, staffing must be seen as ministry and not mere administration. This kind of focus provides some safeguards in staffing.

How the Big Picture Safeguards Staffing

Click on the links to learn more about each of these four aspects of the big picture in staffing.

1. In staffing you can get so consumed with filling positions and scheduling workers that you actually forget why you are doing it.

The Big Picture in Staffing begins with the church’s purpose because it is about working in cooperation and alignment with God.

2. If not careful, staffing can turn into managing or controlling people so that you actually treat them more like tools to be manipulated than people.

The Big Picture in Staffing demands the exercise of Body Life principles because people are important.

3. Sometimes attention can become more on what people do and how they serve than who they are and their need to also be served.

The Big Picture in Staffing is best fulfilled through shepherding because helping people grow into Christ-likeness is going to make them more effective in serving.

4. In the busyness of all there is to do in staffing, it is so easy to simply plow forward in our own efforts according to what we think is right.

The Big Picture in Staffing requires much prayer because the objective is to follow God’s purposes and design for the Body which requires His heart and His choices.

For more help with staffing, check out this resource: Staffing Ministry Manual

Ministry Fairs usually consist of display booths, tables, or stations in a large room or different rooms to showcase the various church ministries and present opportunities for serving within them as well as a general representation of the church’s ministry philosophy.

Ideas for what to include in a ministry fair:

Here are nine ideas for how to showcase ministry opportunities in a variety of ways:

People – greeters to welcome and guide people on where to go; ministry leaders and workers in the various ministries who are available to chat and answer questions

Pictures – still pictures of the ministry, current workers, resources used in the ministry (collage, posters, display board, flip through album on the table, appreciation wall of current workers)

Play – hands-on, interactive, and fun ways of learning about the ministries (trivia and other types of games – especially good to keep children engaged but adults often enjoy them too, door prizes, festive decor, music, crafts for kids, puppets or dressed up characters that mingle, etc.)

Prayer – availability of a place and/or people to pray about how God might want them involved and/or to pray for the different ministries; take-home cards/sheets with prayer requests from the various ministries

Printed – information about the ministry (info cards, fact sheets, handouts, brochures, flyers that include a contact person), ministry descriptions, contact cards for follow-up

Projected – PowerPoint presentation about the ministry or a video of the ministry in progress (project on wall, screen, TV, computer)

Program – short opening or closing program, mini-workshops put on by various ministries, brief skit

Props  –  show real or symbolic representations of that which pertains to the ministry; curriculum or other resources used in the ministry

Provisions – promotional items, refreshments, beverages  (available at display tables or a cafe set-up)

What you do should grow out of your purpose in having a ministry fair and a good deal of planning the best way to go about it.

For suggestions of gifts used in different ministries, check out this resources: Ministry Handbook: Spiritual Gifts in Use

If you are going to do it … do it well.  People need to see that serving in the church is something honorable and something about which to get excited.  Presentation communicates worth so do it well.

A ministry fair doesn’t have to be big.  Just do whatever you do, well.  If you only set up a table or two then that table or two must well represent.

Elements Needed When Planning a Ministry Fair

Carefully consider the suggestions in the following elements of your planning efforts so you do whatever you do, well:

Planning Team:

• Involve representatives from the various ministries, preferably ministry leaders.  Their involvement will help bring coordination, ownership, and hence a greater cooperation.
• Assign responsibilities based on gifting and interests.

Planning Process:

• Pray throughout the entire process.  Consider recruiting a prayer team.  As in anything you plan, you must trust God from start to finish to guide and use it to His glory.
• After a time of prayer for God’s guidance, begin with a season of brainstorming regarding the theme of the ministry fair and then the various aspects of the fair.  You do not have to be locked in to the way you have done it before or have seen others do it.  Brainstorming ideas will help you get beyond tradition to what will work best for your current situation and people.
• After more prayer, evaluate the ideas in light of their feasibility and usefulness toward achieving your goals, staying open to God should He want to stretch you, and then choose the best approach.

Planning Calendar:

• Strategically plan the date.  Schedule it a year in advance to avoid conflicts with other church events.  The date of the fair should benefit the recruitment process but provide sufficient time to recruit without putting pressure on people to make immediate decisions. Recruitment should be an on-going process and not a one shot effort.
• Strategically plan the time to have it on that date.  Will you piggyback on times people are already there?  Will people come early, stay late, or can it be a part of the normally scheduled meeting/program?
• Strategically plan what should precede the fair (i.e., teaching or preaching series).
• Strategically plan when to implement details and who will be responsible … a timeline for when tasks must be completed.

Planning Budget:

• Talk with your church’s leadership to learn how much money can be designated for it.
• Brainstorm ideas for how to do the fair first and then allocate funds to the various expenses.  Guard against boxing yourself in by funding.
• Look for alternative ways of securing funds or resources needed if the budget is not sufficient or non-existent.

Planning Agenda:

• Pick a theme that will be used in promotion, decoration, on handouts, nametags, etc.  — A theme is what will distinguish one fair from another and help build excitement for yet another ministry fair.
• Choose the best location based on the number of people expected to attend, how you need to set up, where people can easily be directed to it.  Use maps, signage, and greeters to guide people.
• Determine how to decorate to help build atmosphere but also provide logistical attention to flow.  Decorations should be bright, cheery, and geared around the theme.
• Decide if you will have refreshments and what they should be or other fun events to peak interest  (door prizes, games, etc.).
• Begin promotion of the ministry fair early enough, often enough, and in a variety of creative ways to build interest.
• Make sure ministry descriptions are up-to-date for all positions, or develop them if not currently available.
• Have a plan for how to help people know if their spiritual gifting fits a position. (class/testing prior to or perhaps a means of testing at the fair and also a means of listing spiritual gifts used to accomplish the various ministries)
• Plan how to best facilitate people making connections. (i.e., name tags for ministry leaders or better yet, for everyone; those whose primary responsibility is to greet people and guide them to find whom/what they need; way for people leave contact info that guards privacy – i.e., box to put interest card into or immediately enter into a computer database)
• Set up a strategy for following up potential recruits.  Initial follow-up should happen soon after the fair.  Do not wait until the interest wanes.
• Determine how you will thank ministry leaders & other who helped plan and set up the ministry fair.
• Build in a time of evaluation after the fair … not just how well the fair went at the time but also the results it engendered in terms of connections and recruitment.

If you are going to do a ministry fair, do it well.  Adequately plan so it communicates the value in serving an Almighty God.

More:  Recruiting Volunteers for Christian Ministries

For suggestions of gifts used in different ministries, check out this resources: Ministry Handbook: Spiritual Gifts in Use

Before planning a ministry fair, or deciding to have one, first determine your goals.  What are you hoping to accomplish by having a ministry fair?  Good reasons do exist for having a ministry fair.

Once you know what you hope to accomplish, then make sure your planning works toward those goals.  Always keep the goals in view.

Possible Goals for Having a Ministry Fair

Here are some example goals and the implications of those goals:

1)  To get people excited about serving

2)  To showcase the various ministries in the church and ways people can serve within the ministries

3)  To make connections between prospects and ministry leaders

4)  To enhance the recruitment process for filling ministry needs

Of course, ministry fairs aren’t the only way to get people excited about serving, showcase the ministries in your church, make connections, and help with recruiting.  But, they are one way.  And, ministry fairs in and of themselves won’t fully accomplish these objectives.  But, they can be a complimentary means to a church culture regularly aiming toward these objectives.

How well ministry fairs work for you will likely be determined by how well you plan them … the next post.

For suggestions of gifts used in different ministries, check out this resources: Ministry Handbook: Spiritual Gifts in Use

Have you noticed how many people are volunteering these days in their communities or even traveling to assist in far away disaster areas?

For years we have complained that people are too busy to serve.  Is it that they are too busy or that they are investing their time and efforts elsewhere?  I have long contended that people find the time to do what they feel is important.  Maybe we need to start asking ourselves why people don’t value serving in the church enough to make it a priority.  Why isn’t serving God in and through the church perceived as important, as a worthy investment of their time?

I believe part of the reason is that for too long the church (generally speaking) has acted like a second rate organization, slow to change, and quick to minimize both the service and servant.

Perhaps we’re not doing this intentionally but it happens when we fail to invest adequate planning and hence lack excellence in what we do.  It happens when we expect people to do things the way they have always been done and aren’t willing to accommodate to their needs and interests.  It happens when we recruit in the church parking lot or use guilt or manipulative tactics.  And, it happens when we do not adequately train people for ministry or fail to say “thank you.”  It happens!

And where local churches are trying to change, people still have perceptions of what the church has been like and so they continue to move cautiously.

Negative Perceptions That Go Into the Problem of Recruiting Volunteers

Here are some problem areas responsible for such perceptions and suggestions for what we need to do to start changing perceptions about volunteering in the church:

— little value perceived in serving

We need to promote a cause worth their involvement. Cast a vision for serving.  Promote the difference they can make for eternity.

— narrow or inward scope

We need to be more outwardly focused, to make a difference in the world around us.  Build up the saints to grab hold of the big picture.  Communicate the truth of the Gospel in non-verbal, as well as verbal, means.  Feed the hungry, help the poor, assist those in crisis … in Jesus’ name.  People should not feel guilty for serving in their communities.  Rather, we should come along side of them with encouragement and resources.

— shabby recruitment efforts

We need to ramp up our efforts.  Invest time and effort into promoting, recruiting, and placing people in ministry.  Don’t rely on announcements in the bulletin or from the pulpit.  Take time to personally talk with people in a non-rushed setting.

— limited choices in how to serve 

We need to think outside of the box.  Tap into people’s gifting, passions, and availability.  Be willing to change.  Offer short-term as well as long-term opportunities for serving, low or no prep as well as higher preparation tasks, behind-the-scenes as well as upfront settings, inside the walls of the church as well as out in the community, etc.

— minimal assistance given in serving

We need to come along side of people.  Let people know how you will train, support, provide materials, and encourage them and then follow through.

— low expectations in serving 

We need to raise the bar.  Build in some accountability, along with assistance to do better.  Where little is expected, little is given.

— minimal expressions of affirmation and appreciation

We need to demonstrate authentic body life.  Let people know how much they are valued.  Everybody has a part.  We need each other.  Don’t take people for granted.

Do you want people to get more involved in the church?  Ask what kind of perceptions they might have about serving in your church.  Then, under God’s guidance, begin the process of change.

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