Ways to Show Volunteer Appreciation

Show Notes

⚡️ Episode summary

As you build healthier and robust volunteer teams, relationships are key. And an important part to building deeper relationships with your volunteers is to show your appreciation of them. So what does volunteer appreciation look like? Here are some ideas to help boost your creativity as you think about integrating appreciation into your regular rhythms of team building.

⚡️ Links and resources

• The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm
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⚡️ Transcript

Jeanette:

In April of 2022, the United States officially proclaimed a whole week for volunteer appreciation. April 17th to 23rd to be exact. And thus, entered volunteers into the long line of other appreciation weeks we celebrate throughout the year, and while having a dedicated time to appreciate and celebrate volunteers as well appreciated. In order to create a healthy volunteer culture that thrives and grows, churches need to have an ongoing practice of integrating appreciation into its regular rhythms and processes. We'll discuss how to do this and share ideas in today's episode.

Bryan:

Hey, friends. Welcome to another episode of the Church Juice Podcast. Whatever your title or role is at your church, this podcast is created as a way to give you the marketing tools, resources, and community that you need in order to do your job well and energize church communications.

I'm Bryan Haley. I'm the producer of Church Juice, and I'm joined as always by my awesome co-host who you have already seen, jeanette Yates.

Jeanette:

Hey, Bryan.

Bryan:

Hey, how are you?

Jeanette:

I'm good.

Bryan:

Awesome.

Jeanette:

Two coffees in, ready to go.

Bryan:

I don't know if you know this. I'm not a coffee drinker. Did you know that?

Jeanette:

Stop it.

Bryan:

Yeah. I don't do coffee.

Jeanette:

No, I did not know this.

Bryan:

Yeah.

Jeanette:

Do you drink caffeine in any other way-

Bryan:

Oh, I'll drink so all day long.

Jeanette:

... or just like a non-caffeine purpose. Soda?

Bryan:

Or, sorry, Pop.

Jeanette:

What's your favorite soda? Oh, excuse me.

Bryan:

Coke. I'm a Coke fan. Yeah, it's almost...

Jeanette:

Good. At least you're drinking the right soda.

Bryan:

That's true. Yeah. No, I'm a all day. You give me a McDonald's Coke, I will love you forever. But yeah, no coffee here-

Jeanette:

Yeah, just to stop. Yeah [inaudible 00:01:44]-

Bryan:

... also, no Coke. I don't have any caffeine right now, but hey, we are glad you're here. Sorry for the tangent, but we are talking about volunteering.

Jeanette:

I think people needed to know though. I think they care about our caffeine habits.

Bryan:

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see.

Jeanette:

Maybe.

Bryan:

Yeah. We are excited to talk today. We're wrapping up our series on volunteering, building volunteer teams, talking about volunteers in the communications role. So, we thought that we would spend some time today giving you some tools, some helpful ideas, and just talk through how to appreciate your volunteers as you build your dynamic volunteer team, because it's important, right? Showing appreciation is important.

Jeanette:

Let's talk about that, actually. Let's go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room.

Bryan:

All right.

Jeanette:

Which is, yes, we're talking about this today, so obviously we think it's important. But a lot of times in churches that I've worked with or been around... I'm in the south, so within a spitting distance of my house, there's about 10 churches. I've been around churches most of my life, and a lot of times there may be a volunteer luncheon or something at some point in the year. But in general, there's this idea that serving is part of our calling as Christians as Christ followers, and therefore recognition is a slippery slope or just something that's awkward because this is something you're supposed to do as part of your Christian service or-

Bryan:

Yeah. Christian duty.

Jeanette:

... or value. So, yeah, Christian duty. And so, how do we appreciate in a way that is really celebrating the hero who is Jesus, right? But also, recognizing the individuals who give up their time, and why is that so important, maybe even now in today's world?

Bryan:

Two, I think that there is... You just said that Jesus is the hero, but there is an element. Your volunteers are the heroes. They're what makes ministry happen on Sunday, right? Without them, you couldn't do a whole lot. You are limited both in time and capacity and skills and all of that if it was just you, so your volunteers really are heroes here and making ministry happen.

But going back to I guess your original point is this motivation where this is our Christian duty, this is what we do, so I don't need to honor you or recognize you or appreciate you because you're doing it for the kingdom or you're doing it for the gospel, and so your reward will come in heaven, right? Or your crown in heaven will get another jewel because you're serving a nursery. But in reality, and you said this before we started recording, so I'm just sealing your thunder, but we spend our time, and we spend our energy, and we are going to choose things where we feel most appreciated.

So, if you want your volunteers to choose serving in the nursery or whatever it is, they're going to choose that when they feel appreciated. Otherwise, I can go look for that. I can go find fulfillment somewhere else, right? So, I do think that there is an element there that I guess there is a balance between. Yeah, I do this as part of my call as a Christian, but also as the leader, we want to make sure that our volunteers feel the value and feel appreciated.

Jeanette:

Yeah, and I think there are ways that you can do that. That you can show appreciation that still keeps the focus on. Like you mentioned, you're the hero. We're celebrating you because you are not just opening a door, not just changing a diaper, you are building the kingdom of God. You are serving the kingdom of God. That's why we celebrate you today. So, I think that there are ways that we can keep the focus and continue to inspire and encourage those volunteers in a way that is both honoring to them and honoring to their calling.

Bryan:

Yeah. And practically speaking too, as you are building your volunteer team, that involves recruiting people, that involves training them. And so, really showing appreciation or honoring or celebrating whatever word you want to put on this, that is part of keeping your volunteers, that's part of sustaining your team. We talk about this in marketing too. It's a whole lot easier to keep your current volunteers or customers or whatever than it is... And cost effective too, than it is to recruit and get somebody new, right? So, we want to do everything we can as the leader of this ministry to keep people engaged and want to serve in this ministry, and so showing appreciation is a valuable way to spend your time and energy, and that is investing in relationships too, and showing appreciation, whatever that looks like.

And so, we're going to dive in a little bit about some different ways that you can show appreciation and what that looks like to help you build out your volunteer team, but also build those relationships too.

Jeanette:

And I think this is so important. One of the first things that we wanted to talk about, as we talk about the importance of and sharing ideas today about volunteer appreciation, volunteer celebration, is that you really want to think about that as you're creating your yearly budget for your church and for your ministry. So, maybe you're like, "Well, I'm not. I'm just in my wheelhouse." That's fine. But make sure that serving your volunteers is part of your budget and everybody has a different budget, but some of that budget should go to some of the different ways we're going to be talking about volunteer, appreciating your volunteers for sure.

Bryan:

Not everyone can say, "Hey, I want X amount of dollars just for volunteer appreciation in the tech ministry." Right? I realize that's not a reality, but as you think about your budget for the year and as hopefully, you're involved in some level in the budgeting process, but whatever you're doing, the purpose for building that into your budget, the appreciation into your budget is because it involves planning, so now you are being purposeful, you're being intentional.

So, even if it's just part of your regular programming budget, you should think through, "Hey, I want to be able to spend this much money on gift cards or on taking people out to coffee." Or however you're going to show appreciation.

Think through how you want to use your ministry's budget to do that. And maybe it's a line item, maybe it's just part of your overall budget, but think through and be intentional about, "Hey, I want to spend X amount of dollars." Or "I want to commit this to investing in my volunteers." And that's where I think that thinking through your budget for the next year, ministry year, however you guys do that, I think that's a good way to just think ahead and be intentional about what you're going to do and how you're going to show appreciation.

And it takes some planning too, but that investment is important. And so, starting at the very top, the budget, how you're going to spend money, that's important.

Jeanette:

Yeah. Another thing I was thinking about as you were talking about planning and thinking things through as you're planning budget wise or thinking about that, you already start to come up with some ideas, right? Of like, "Okay, well I kind of want to be able to do this or that, so I'm going to need to make sure it's 52 weeks in a year." Yada, that's kind of stuff.

But also, you want to consider when you're thinking like, "Well, I don't Yeah. I'm not my love language is words of affirmation. So, I'm really good at that. I am not really good at coming up with gift give." Some people's words are... Some people's love language is gift giving or something like that.

So, I think one of the things that you can do when you're like, "How do I even figure out what is to do?" Of course, you can... If you're in relationship with your volunteers, which hopefully you are, and hopefully these people, you might get some ideas that way.

But also, one of the things that Jason Young and Jonathan Malm talk about in their book The Come Back Effect in regard to bringing guests back. Keep people coming back, is how the volunteers should help remove barriers.

So, you don't think of yourself as opening as parking, and I think we probably talked about this in some of our other episodes with Maryanne. You're not parking, you're removing the barrier of them not knowing where to park. That's a barrier for them, right?

In the same way we think about our volunteer, we should say to ourselves, we should be thinking, "What barrier can I remove from my volunteer on Sundays?" Like, "What barriers can I remove for them?" So, my parking lot attendants get really thirsty, and they have to walk all the way in over there and into the fellowship hall and get the... Or I can have a cooler outside that has water bottles in it for them. And that is a way to show that you appreciate and understand their potential problems, that they're encountering their barriers and you're not only showing them you appreciate them, but then also their able to stay where they're supposed to be.

Bryan:

Yeah. Anything that we can do to lower the barrier of entry into volunteering is important. We've talked a little bit about that, like you said, but when we talk about keeping volunteers or appreciating volunteers, we want to lower that barrier too. We want to make it as easy as possible to show up every Sunday or however often they're serving. We want to make it as easy as possible for them to enjoy serving and enjoy volunteering. It should be a joyous time, and not something that we feel is laborious or intensive or whatever that emotion might be.

So, if that means taking a cooler outside for your parking lot gas in the middle of summer, so they have water available, awesome. It takes you what? 10 minutes and $20 [inaudible 00:11:41]. That's an easy way to show people that you care and that you're investing in them, and I think that's a great tangible way. And I think tons of ministries have these same things. If you have multiple services, what can you do for your volunteers who are serving in both in between the service time? Or what does that look like in your context? What are you guys doing there?

Jeanette:

I know just another example of removing barriers for volunteers. We have a pretty huge vacation Bible school at my church, and it requires a lot of volunteers, like over a hundred, and many of them are youth. I would say we probably have 85 youth, and then we probably have another a hundred or so adults. But a lot of our volunteers are youth, and so we make sure that they know, "Hey, we've got you covered for breakfast. We've got you covered for lunch. We have coffee. We have waters. We have everything you need." Because then they know I don't have to do anything but show... just get to church. I just get there and show up, and they're going to feed me. I don't have to do all that stuff. And for youth in the middle of summer telling you, teenager, that's good news, just show up and [inaudible 00:12:56] they're going to take care of me.

Bryan:

Yeah. And I think both of these examples are what you're talking about really at its core is hospitality. I realize that not everybody's gifting is in hospitality. So, maybe part of what investing in your volunteers and showing appreciation is getting someone onto your leadership, volunteer or otherwise who is gifted in hospitality and can think through for you or with you how to show better hospitality, how to care better for those volunteers.

I think one of the most important ways you agree with this, I know this, but one of the most important ways that you can show appreciation to your volunteers is simply the investment of your time and getting to know your volunteers.

You talked a little bit ago, Jeanette, about love languages, and knowing your own love language, that's how you give gifts, that's how you receive gifts. When you know your volunteers, you know how to show them appreciation. You know that they are words of affirmation person, and so, that's how they want to receive appreciation from you.

That only comes when you know them. And so, investing of your time is critical, and that should be a big part of your weekly or monthly or whatever your hours during the week should go into investing in your volunteers.

Jeanette:

My children start. I probably should have just invited her to come on here, honestly, Bryan. She could have taught us a lot, but one of the things that she says a lot of times as you know, she's really good at delegating also. So, she has a lot of people that help her in her ministry. But one of the things, the reason she does that is so that she can have time to sit down, not only with the parents of the families that she's serving, but also with her volunteers. So, she will, and I'm sure she has a spreadsheet or something, but she makes sure that she has coffee with her volunteer.

She will she go through the effort of scheduling that with you so that she has time to just talk to you about life. She's not going to ask you to do anything. She's not going to give any kind of criticism or feedback of what you're doing necessarily other than to just say, "I really appreciate you spending the time and spending the effort." And then because she gets to know you as a volunteer, then she's able to do those things that you like. I know that she knows that I'm a words of affirmation person, so she lays it on thick, which is, I love.

Bryan:

You only know those things when you invest your time, and you get to know your volunteer as well. That creates not just of a relationship, but also that commitment between the two of you really as you build deeper relationships, that commitment for serving and for leading Well, and that's why I think it's so important that we spend a big chunk of our time just investing in the people that we get to love and serve as our volunteers.

Jeanette:

Another thing I think that does too, when you are developing those relationships, which is really the whole point, Maryanne talks to us all the time about they are volunteers are the mission, right? Yes, you're getting to know their problems, their concerns, maybe where they are in their own faith journey, but also, they're getting to know you as a person, not just as the person who calls them and begs them [inaudible 00:16:10], right. They're getting to understand you as a mom or as a husband or as leader of a non-profit or whatever else you do in your life, an avid runner. You get to learn that on your... They get to learn that about you, and that is also part of the relationship building. Not just that you're gathering data about them, but also that you're able to share as my church and many churches around the world like to say, do life. You're doing life with them.

Bryan:

When we think practically about how to appreciate, how to celebrate, how to honor our volunteers, one of the best ways that you can show appreciation for your volunteers is to celebrate publicly among your volunteer team. So, maybe that looks like... If you guys do an after ministry or after event debrief, point out somebody who did something awesome that you saw or that you've heard, and show it to the crowd, show it to everyone in the team and tell them just how much you appreciate that, even if it's just something small.

Another way would be to highlight volunteers on social media. Do a volunteer of the week even have a Facebook group or whatever your social media looks like. Highlighting volunteers, celebrating them publicly is a great way to honor people and both tell the story of what's happening in your ministry. Tell the story of your volunteer, and also invite people into the journey that God is already at work in, and you are just inviting them into. And I think that celebrating... Rick Warren says that "What is celebrated is repeated."

So, as we celebrate and as we honor our volunteers in a public manner, in a forum that is not just one on one, but it's one on many, and you're pointing them out in an honoring way, that's going to make a huge difference if that's built into the culture of your team and your ministry.

Jeanette:

Now, I do want to put on my social media manager hat for a second and talk about this, celebrating volunteers on social media. I love this. Love it. We don't have time today, but I'm telling you, one story of one volunteer can be like 30 pieces of content. Okay?

When I was working at my church, I know I've talked... I think I said this in the last, when we did the episode with Maryanne, but there was this the [inaudible 00:18:32] have I told you the story, the candlewick ladies? These women came to church every week to clip the candles. Nope, they've been doing it for 20 years. I saw them sitting on a park bench. I took a picture, I wrote a brief little thing for Instagram, shared it on Facebook. It turned into a blog post that got tweeted out. They felt appreciated. Other people learned, somebody turns candlewicks. That's the thing we do.

So, it informed people like, "Hey, that's a volunteer opportunity that didn't know existed." That thing but it celebrated their friendship, their long lasting service to our church, they're their journey as friends. So, I think, yes, it is as simple as taking a picture and saying, "This is Bryan. He's our volunteer of the week. He does a great job parking the cars every week, and helping people get to the right place." That's a perfectly fine thing, but just know social media manager to social media managers out there. I'm talking to you. That could be a lot of content just saying.

Bryan:

So, there are some other ways that you can show appreciation. We talked so far about three main areas. Thinking through how to invest your time, how to invest your finances, your budget, celebrating publicly events. And there are different ways that you can show appreciation that are out of the ordinary too, that are maybe once a year or every so often. And those are great ways to build camaraderie for your team. It's a great way to build relationships peer to peer for your volunteers. It's a great way for you to honor them again, publicly.

There are some really great ideas for honoring and showing appreciation for your volunteers. We talked about just briefly... A minute ago, we talked about sharing on social media. That's a great way to celebrate. Another good way for you to show appreciation for your volunteers is even to host an annual event like a gala or some volunteer appreciation dinner. Make it nice. Make it like you are serving them. You are making sure that they are fed well, that they are taken care of. It is a way for you to honor them by you serving them, because they are spending their entire year serving your ministry and the things that are part of your responsibilities in the church, and that's a big part of your role. So, investing in them in that way too, I think be creative in how you think of events like this.

And as we wrap up this conversation, I would love to hear from you as you watch or listen to this episode, what you're doing to show appreciation? Or what ideas you have to show appreciation for your volunteers? Because there are tons of ways that you could invest your time and energy and money into appreciating and celebrating your volunteers.

Today. We've spent half hour talking through why it's important. Here are some ideas, but I would love to hear how you are actually doing it or what you are planning to do. So, join our Facebook group if you haven't already, and yeah, jump into the conversation. Let me know. I would love to hear from you, how you show appreciation for your volunteers.

Thanks for listening to the Church Juice podcast. If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe wherever you're listening today. It would mean a lot if you took the time to leave us a review as well. The review just helps other church leaders find the podcast, so we can continue to serve and support churches by energizing communications.

And by the way, we'll continue today's discussion in our Facebook group. You can find the link to our group along with today's show notes at churchjuice.com/podcast.

Jeanette:

The Church Juice Podcast is a listener, supporter, production of ReFrame Ministries. Family of programs designed to help you see your whole life reframed by God's gospel story. Church Juice is produced by Bryan Haley with postproduction by Minimal Media Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information about Church Juice, visit churchjuice.com. For more information on ReFrame Ministries and our family of programs, visit reframeministries.org.