You have a new idea; your church has a newly clarified vision; your organization is pursuing a new initiative.  For whatever reason, you have to lead in a new direction and you need a volunteer team to do it.  Where do you start?

One simple truth I’ve discovered after 13 years of working in a church is this: Building volunteer teams is hard. It is not like building a team of paid staff.

There are a whole host of dynamics that make building volunteer teams unique.

The tension of asking too much and burning them out vs. not asking enough and making the role seem trivial; the challenge of scheduling evening and weekend meetings; the varying modes of preferred communication; the frequent lack of any sort of succession planning; the delicacy needed to move a volunteer who is not performing well, etc.

Regardless of the challenge, volunteers are the backbone of any church that is successfully carrying out its mission, and building teams is a skill that every church leader needs to learn to nail.

So, how do we do it well?

Here are 7 guidelines for building volunteer teams that you can use to not only build a new team but also breathe new life into your existing one.

 

1. Clarify the Why Together

Why do you absolutely need to build this team? How will the future change as a result of its work? In other words, what is the vision?

The team will need to be crystal clear on the answers to these questions, but contrary to popular opinion, it doesn’t mean that you need to have it all wrapped up in a bow before forming the team.  While the lone ranger, charismatic, visionary who gets struck with a clear picture of the future while on some personal retreat makes for a better story, most visions need to be processed and clarified over time in the context of community.

“People support the worlds they help create.” – unknown Don’t be afraid to let the team clarify the vision together. Click To Tweet

You need a compelling enough story to recruit people into, but you don’t need to give them the final chapter of that story. Let the team write the ending together.

 

2. Define the What

Even though your vision may not be neatly tied up before you start, you do need to know what the work of the team will look like in its initial stages. What type of work will you be doing on this team? Will you be planning events, doing research, conducting interviews, coaching others, creating visual or written content?

What do you imagine the team will have accomplished 6-12 months from now? Work backward from there to determine the type of tasks that you need to be doing first. Chances are good that Phase 1 will be a research/listening phase, followed by a process of vision clarification, before moving on to the final stages of strategy and implementation.

Regardless of the direction, the goal here is to create a job description and a roadmap that you can give to prospective members that will help them quickly determine whether or not they’re the right type of person for this team.

 

3. Find the Who

After the why and the what, you need the who. Who are you going to recruit to be on this new rockstar team of yours?

Let’s start with the obvious: You need the type of person that can do the work you identified in the previous step. Not everyone who steps up spontaneously to that announcement in the bulletin is going to have the competencies you’re looking for, so either hand-select people you know can do it or have a proper screening process that will weed people out who aren’t the right fit.

Saying no to a willing volunteer isn’t cruel.  Allowing someone to struggle in a place that doesn’t line up well with their gifts is. We end up holding them back from being able to say yes to another team where they will thrive. Don’t just let anybody on the team.

What else are you looking for in a team member? Many things, potentially, but let me mention just two:

Expertise and relevant representation. Ensure you have the right mix of perspectives around the table, a broad enough knowledge base represented, and a relevant diversity in demographics.  The young adult’s team, for instance, probably shouldn’t be made up exclusively of married folks in the 55+ category.

Influencers. If this team needs to produce a significant change in the overall life of the church or organization, make sure you have people with significant influence and credibility on the team. You need a team with a high level of respect, or you won’t have the voice that you need to have. Before you write this off as too cold or “too corporate” for church life, remember, it’s the same principle that Paul uses when he lays out qualifications for church leadership.

 

4. Have a Plan for Onboarding

Often a neglected piece, you need to have a plan to quickly get people up to speed and creating momentum as soon as possible.  Not only with the original members, either; if you need to bring on a new team member six months down the line, how will you integrate them well without repeating the last half a year’s worth of meetings for them?

Rather than simply focusing on information and skills, concentrate on orienting them towards the values and vision of the team.  Yes, they need the information and the details, but understanding the culture and direction will allow them to feel like an owner and creatively contribute to the work much sooner.

Working through key resources can be a great way to point team members hearts and minds in the right direction early on. Think beyond just books and make use of additional tools like podcasts, articles, and videos. For great online content, you might want to check out places like TrainedUp, Ministry Grid, or RightNow Media.

 

5. Give Them the Keys. And Whatever Else They Need.

You don’t need a bunch of minions on your team; you need leaders and managers.  You need to create a shared sense of ownership as quickly as possible and avoid the pitfall of volunteers believing that they’re helping out on your team. Great volunteers don’t help you; they own ministry alongside you.

As the leader, you need to learn to give away the keys to responsibility.  Yes, real responsibility, not just token tasks to make them feel involved.  They might succeed, and they might fail. Your job is not to control them but to coach them.

While you’re at it, give them some other things they’ll be needing as well.  Like money. Nothing like being told you’re on a team that’s going to change the world and finding out you don’t have a line in the budget anywhere.  What does the team need to win? Tech? Give them tech. Space? Find them space. Expertise? Point them towards the right resources.

A volunteer’s time is precious; don’t waste it by not setting them up for success.

 

6. Build Trust Quickly

Don’t assume that people will come on board trusting each other. In fact, assume that there is some level of suspicion over each other’s motives and suitability for the team and you’ll have a better sense of the work cut out for you as the leader.

Without trust, you don’t have a team; you have a group of individuals who happen to be gathering at the same place at the same time. Click To Tweet

Here are just two of the questions your volunteers are asking of the team that will determine their trust levels:

1. Do you care about me?

Be intentional in forming a culture of community among this team. I know it takes extra time, but it has to be about more than just work when you get together. Unlike your coworkers where you have the opportunity to build relationships over coffee breaks, banter in the hallways, and head off to half-day retreats, volunteers will primarily interact with each other during your meetings or programming times. You need to accomplish more in that time together than you would in a meeting with your staff team. Laugh together, pray together, and share stories of your lives outside of work.

You may also want to consider moving your meeting out of that cold boardroom or classroom with the fold-up table and chairs and into someone’s home once in a while.

2. Are we really on the same team?

Trust erodes quickly if it feels like people are using the team to accomplish there own personal agendas. If there is not a common vision and set of goals, people will naturally develop their own, and these will cause friction if they stay hidden.

Remove suspicion by fostering as much honesty and transparency as possible in the group. As a leader, work at creating a safe place and developing the skill of facilitating debates while also maintaining a fierce commitment to unity.

 

7. Don’t Build Silos

You’re building a new team, not a new organization. This initiative needs to weave into the life and purpose of the larger body. It needs to be able to exert influence on other areas as well as be influenced by other areas. Your team will need to learn from, share systems and resources with, and collaborate with other teams.

As the leader, you are the primary link to the larger church or organization, so the responsibility for alignment rests on your shoulders. Regularly remind your team of the vision and values of the organization and help them see how their work connects to that bigger picture.

As the link between the team and the organization, you will need to communicate the purpose and work of this new team to others, particularly those above you in the hierarchy. Take the opportunity to practise 360-degree leadership here. If this new team is to succeed, you will need the support of others.

You’re not Google X. Don’t act like a sequestered skunkworks division in some giant firm. You need to integrate your team into the larger organization.

 

What’s your Take?

Building volunteer teams from scratch is difficult, and you want to get those initial steps right to build momentum and set yourself up for long-term sustainable change. I’ve highlighted a few guidelines above, but the list is certainly not exhaustive.

What else would you add? What have you done with your teams that has worked well? We’d love to learn from you and hear your comments below.

Thanks for being here.

-Dan