If you have challenges getting
volunteers to attend training meetings, you're not alone. Borrow
these best practices for boosting your meeting attendance.
- Create a compelling reason to come. Don't just
promote ministry skills and calendar updates. Include and highlight
"can't-miss" experiences in the meeting invitation.
- Build community. People have two primary
motivations behind their ministry involvement -- it's a social
opportunity and they get to serve God. If you don't provide a
positive sense of community and fun interaction, people will find
all the reasons in the world why they can't make a ministry team
training meeting.
- Start and stop on time. A lack of punctuality
communicates disorganization and irritates schedule-pressured
people, so honor their time.
- Include informal interaction and refreshments.
This 10 to 20 minutes may be the only time some people can "push
pause" during the week. Limit this time, though, for the sake of
the more task-oriented people.
- Teach lessons that help the minister and the
individual. For example, teach children's ministry staff
how to improve their parenting skills, not just in the context of
ministry. Personal growth and self-help are strong motivators.
- Tell stories. Your team members love to hear
that they're making a difference. Most adults don't see what's
happening in the children's areas, and kids often don't speak their
appreciation, so convey it for them. Let your staff hear stories
from parents and kids.
- Communicate value. Remind people in advance
how excited you are to see them at the meeting. When people are
absent, drop a friendly note, email, or voicemail, to let them know
some of the fun stuff they missed. Give them an overview of the
meeting. Make it positive, but don't just ignore their
absence.
Alan Nelson
Fort Collins, Colorado
This article is excerpted from Children's Ministry Magazine.
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