Video Transcript: Resourcing Volunteers

So I've mentioned before that I was the children's ministry director in my own church for 14 years, and Tori and I worked in that area together.  And it really allowed me to understand the importance of resourcing volunteers.   Churches run, because you got up in front of church one day and said, oh, we need some help, and whatever, and we're inviting people into this opportunity but we don't always give them the tools that they need to do their job to be part of that community.  And so, again, once again, while there are so many different ways to do this, I guess I'll show you just some of those tools that I think are really helpful -  books, or videos, or things to have around as you are equipping volunteers.  Sometimes it's actual tools.  Like, we have equipment.  We have hand fidgets and the hand tools, and we have a wiggle seats, and we have many of the items that we've been talking about.  But I think a lot of it with volunteers, two things that I have found not only with children, but also with adults.  

Number one:  I think we need to give them training in general.  We need to get them to say Oh, I'm expecting an adult with varied abilities, or adults with varied abilities in my Sunday School adult class.  Or, I'm expecting children of all abilities in my preschool class or in my youth group, whatever that position might be.  I'm expecting worshipers of all abilities in my setting right here.  So again, we need to be ready to equip people.  

A course like this, that you, thank you to CLI for putting something like this together.  This is one of those ways that you equip leaders so that it's not a surprise when you have someone who needs to have access to a hearing loop or who needs to think creatively about how are we going to maneuver our sanctuary so this person can be part of us here, or how are we going to deal with the fact that we have three people who are very sensitive to noise, or whatever that might be?  This is an equipping course.  This is to say, look, please expect persons of all abilities to be part of whatever you are overseeing.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for this initiative and CLI to say this is important.  This is important.  

And whether you see that person now, you will that person is coming in.  It might have been a person you have served on the governing board with; a person who has been your advisor, the person you have lived with and you've gone to their house for dinner.  And now this person is in the Memory Care Center and you are the one that's going to visit that person.  You will need tools.  Whether that's for a child, whether that's for a person that we think of who may have Down syndrome, whether that's for an individual who's just decided, forget it, I'm not going back there because I have ADHD and this is too hard.  Whatever the situation might be, you will need to have this perspective.  

So how do we get that training into people's lives?  So again, is it books?  Is it having little short TED talks that are available to people in your community?  But I think we have just tried to pour on the resources, including a lot of short videos that people can benefit from as well.  So we need to equip our volunteers.  

We also need to acknowledge, and so I think there's this in general equipping, but we also for our volunteers, need to equip people and our leaders, specifically.  So again, that's where those personalized plans come in.  We've talked about that.  But imagine, people want to know that there is support.  

So let's just say that you are a 10th grade youth group leader, and all of a sudden, you have been introduced to Simon and Simon has just sort of tore up your group.  And what do we do?  So we've had some training in general.  We know that certain kids might have some unique behaviors.  We've listened to Tori's thing, and we've done a lot of offensive things.  And, and we've got some things in play.  Yes, we're prepared.  We got all of this stuff going on.  But can we get some help?  Who do we go to for help?  How do we get an answer?  And I think that has been a really important layer that I found on staff at church as well as in my role that I play in serving a multitude of congregations.  

We, at All Belong, there often that comfort layer to say, boy, if we're stuck, we've got a membership with All Belong, we can just call them and they'll help us through this situation.  So again, we had that with a particular church.  They had a child who showed up and in both the boys club and the children in worship time; this was not going well.  They tried a lot of tools.  They had been expecting people of all abilities.  They just didn't know what to do with this particular child.  

So again, we stepped in, and we've done some things through the phone and actually shown up at that Church because that was a local opportunity.  But a lot of coaching we can do over the phone, but we're there.  We're there to support.  So I think that that's important.  It doesn't need to be us.  But do you have some people in your community that can step in and do some of that?  Do you have somebody in your church?  Maybe they don't want to do something consistently, week by week, but they are willing to be on call to be that extra pair of eyes or idea person, so that they can step in.  I think volunteers feel more comfortable if they have had training in general, some tools some equipping, but they also know who to go to if they have a question.  

So who is that shredded cheese person in that department?  Who does that worship pastor call if they need to do some brainstorming?  Who does, who does the person call who's watching this toddler and they know that toddler should be walking or should be saying something by now and they're not?  Who does that person go to?  Who's the shredded cheese for the leadership in your church?  If you can name that, and promise support, it goes a whole long way in allowing those individuals who are your frontline to have that place of comfort.  

So what tools do you have in general, but then also, can you offer that promise of support, if something happens.  Here we go; we've got All Belong to back this up, or we've got this person we can call, or we call this person first and then we call All Belong.  You know, what do you need in order to allow people to breathe and go, we got this, we got this.  It's okay.  We know this is God's vision.  We're confident because we've talked about that.  We know this is God's blueprint for our group here.  And now, we're comfortable knowing that there will be an answer to this. We don't know what to do this week, and maybe not next.  But that solution, that opportunity to talk about this is coming.  

So again, who do you have?  Who are your resources, and who can be that Oh, my word, this is not going well person that this person can call or just an individual who says, you know, I noticed we have a person now who called out while I was preaching, what are some ways that I can handle that?  I think that those are really, really important tools.  I need somebody to ask.  

So again, how can you structure that in general training, but then, and specific training through a personalized plan, but then this sort of, okay, we really don't know what to do training?  And what's your plan for that?  I think that that helps volunteers a lot. 

Again, that great true false thing, getting quick statistics and opportunities to people, your volunteers, your people who work in the programs in your community, they need to know that the people that are under your care that this is important.  So by using some of those statistics to call people into this, you just once look at the rates of pregnancy terminations for persons with Down syndrome.  Use that statistic, would you?  And then you challenge the people in your congregation to change that statistic by the way we honor that child before that child's ever born; by the way we talk about who that child is going to be in and to our community.  

So again, that quick, true-false of here's a statistic; what do you think is a true-false?  Give the answer, and then use that as a platform to pull people into the mission and the opportunity that you have within your congregation.  

And then I would also hasten to say, please, please, please, as you're working with any volunteers or congregation in general, make it scripture based.  We talked about that.  What's your platform?  Why are we doing this?  We're not doing this necessarily to meet a law of the land.  We're doing this at the direction of how God wants us to set up community, how He wants to live with one another in community.  And as we roll out that carpet, as we put out that floor mat where we are going to plant our feet and stand, we might not have all the answers but when we're confident on the mat we're standing on, it makes a whole lot of difference how you interact with an individual on Sunday, or on Wednesday night.  

So again, just my thinking through my own days as children's ministry, training in general, and then the opportunity to have specific information around individuals through personalized plans.  But then also that Oh my goodness, what do we do? sort of plan and person to go to.

Shredded cheese throughout really creates that beautiful aroma to God. I know that, we got that, you remember that part?  But also that shredded cheese is this comforting ingredient that allows your volunteers to function even if you don't have all the answers on this day.  

So just wanted to share some of those things and everything we do, let's stand on Scripture and truly use your church to make heaven noisier place.  So we're going to make the section a little bit smaller because I want enough section or enough time for our final section.  But I hope you've gotten some ideas now on equipping your volunteers and are looking forward to spreading that perspective and that joy of serving together in the kind of community your congregation hopes to create and is creating with one another.  Have a great day.