Author name: Jake Douglas

church facility management

The Church Facility Management Conference You Can’t Miss

Keeping the church buildings and grounds clean, safe, and well-maintained isn’t easy. It’s also one of those roles that doesn’t get much attention unless something goes wrong. How many “comments” would you hear if the A/C died during a Texas summer?!. Thankfully, the team at Smart Church Solutions knows all about properly maintaining church facilities. They’re hosting a virtual conference on church facility management that you simply can’t miss. Here are a few details about the upcoming Virtual Church Facility Management Conference: Who is Smart Church Solutions? If you’re not familiar with them yet, Smart Church Solutions is an incredible resource for church facility managers. They provide consulting to church leaders on church facility stewardship along with eSPACE, their facility management software. eSPACE helps you schedule events, manage work orders, track assets, coordinate preventative maintenance, and more. They also offer several free resources and eBooks to support church leaders as they seek to be faithful stewards of the facilities God entrusted to them. What can you expect to learn from the Virtual Church Facility Management Conference? Detailed cleaning and maintenance recommendations, budgeting tips, managing facilities and technology, and more are just a few topics they’ll cover at the conference. Speakers include: Tim Cool, Founder of Smart Church Solutions Nathan Parr, Facility Specialist at Smart Church Solutions Thom Rainer, Founder & CEO of Church Answers Colby May, Founder of LIT Consulting David Fletcher, Founder of XPastor …and more! This is a virtual (online) conference, so there’s no travel or lodging expenses to deal with. The conference sessions will be live on September 14-15. Recorded sessions will be made available to those who register. However, you’ll want to tune in live for Q&A during each session. What are the details? Date: September 14-15 Where: At your computer How to Register: Click here to register today Cost: $50 (receive 20$ off with the code “VELOCITY”) The team at Smart Church Solutions are top-notch professionals with a passion for serving the local church. If you have any responsibility for maintaining church facilities, this is an excellent opportunity to learn from the best at a very reasonable price.

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How to Prepare for a Natural Disaster

Growing up in Oklahoma, AKA “Tornado Alley,” I’ve seen the horrible impact that natural disasters can have on a community. Tornados can destroy homes and businesses within seconds. Wildfires, floods, and hurricanes can also lead to lost lives and severe injuries. Oftentimes, infrastructure is damaged and disrupted. As a church leader, you’ve likely considered how to protect the church facilities during natural disasters. Additionally, your congregation can serve the local community and help others recover. Here are a few tips on how to prepare before a natural disaster strikes: #1: Know the risks in your area In Oklahoma, we all knew when tornado season began. We stayed informed on the weather forecast and planned accordingly if forecasters predicted possible storms. There are probably natural disasters that are common in your part of the country. Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods tend to occur in various regions. Know the potential threats to your area and how to handle each. #2: Confirm insurance coverage Contact your insurance agent to review the church’s insurance coverage. Keep documentation about the church’s insurance coverage accessible by a few leaders within the church. #3: Develop a decision-making process Right after a disaster strikes is not the time to try and figure out a plan of action. There are several decisions that the church leadership team will need to make in the hours and weeks after a disaster. Laying the groundwork before a disaster happens will make it much easier to react quickly and decisively if needed. Here are a few decisions you might have to make after a natural disaster: Talk through these issues with your church leadership team. Document the decision-making criteria and process, then communicate it to those involved. #4: Create a disaster response plan Talk through various scenarios with your team and document how you would handle each. Scenario: Earthquake during a church service What do you have the congregation do to take cover? How do you keep children safe and then reunite them with parents? Scenario: Rising floodwaters Do you recruit volunteers to lay sandbags around the church building? What electronic equipment do you need to move to higher ground (either in the building or elsewhere)? Scenario: Forecasted Hurricane Do you board up the windows? Lay sandbags? Move certain items inside? Document how you’ll handle each situation, who has authority to make what type of decision (and have more than one person named for each), and how to communicate those decisions (see #5). Also, contact local first responders to get their input on your plans and see if they have any additional recommendations. #5: Develop a communications plan If you decide to cancel Sunday services or close the office mid-week, how will you communicate that to staff, volunteers, members, and the community? Will you use email, text messages, your church’s mobile app, social media posts, church website, recording on church voicemail, and/or your outside signage? Choose which methods work best for your congregation and document that process. Also, decide how you’ll communicate updates after the initial crisis is past. If your church building sustained damage, how will you communicate that information and let people know when you’ll have services again (whether at your current building or a temporary location while repairs are made)? #6: Decide how to help the community through a crisis Your congregation can make a big impact serving and helping the community recover. However, it’s best if you have a basic plan ready before it’s needed so you can respond quickly and with excellence. Consider how to gather information from the congregation about their ability to help with disaster recovery. Find out which members of the congregation have specialized skills or equipment that would be helpful in a cleanup situation. Note in the church management system (ChMS) which members are electricians, plumbers, contractors, construction company owners, carpenters, or medical professionals. Develop a response plan that includes contacting these individuals to request their help with church-led cleanup efforts. Also, first responders and medical professionals will likely be in high demand in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Develop a plan to support them in various ways as they work long hours to serve the community. Finally, discuss how your church could coordinate teams to remove debris, search for anyone trapped under the rubble, and distribute needed food and supplies. Plan ahead for how your church would serve your neighbors in a difficult situation. Talk with local nonprofit agencies and other churches to see if you could work together to serve the community if needed. #7: Adopt a church Whether you live in an area prone to tornados, earthquakes, or other natural disasters or not, consider adopting another church that may need your help someday. This could be a church where you know the pastor or one that’s somehow connected with your congregation. Whatever the case, talk with their leadership team and discuss how your congregation could serve theirs in the event of an emergency. After all, they’re your brothers and sisters in Christ. We should be proactive about helping out family and the communities in which they live. Don’t wait until the storm has already come to reach out (although that’s certainly still helpful). Start the conversation before there’s a need and discuss how your church could help should that day arrive. None of us likes to think that our community could be hit with a tragic event. However, we must be prepared if we want to protect our congregation, church facilities, and serve our community. Should disaster strike, having a plan will enable you to lead with confidence. Your church can be a calming presence in your community, providing hope and help in a challenging situation. Be prepared. Plan ahead. Pray for your community, comfort those who’ve lost loved ones or homes, support them, and help them recover. Be the hands and feet of Christ to each other and to your community.

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How to Improve Communication Between Departments

Have you ever been frustrated with another department at your church? Wondered why they just don’t “get it”? It’s possible they feel the same way about you. If you’ve ever heard of “departmental silos,” you know this refers to departments that seem to operate independently and don’t share information readily with others. This creates inefficiencies, duplicate work, and a decline in morale. It’s important to improve communication between departments so you can work as a cohesive team. As an organization grows and you add team members, it’s easy for departmental silos to develop. One group doesn’t understand what another group is doing (or why) and when that crosses their path, conflict ensues. Another issue arises when departmental leaders don’t communicate and then present conflicting information to their teams or even the congregation. Here are several ways to get rid of those silos and improve communication between departments: #1 – Educate A lot of the frustration is caused because the team in Dept A doesn’t understand what the team in Dept B really does or why they should care. Start dealing with this issue by having a leader from each department give a 3-5 minute update in an all-staff meeting. The updates should include an overview of that department’s goals, what they’re currently working on, any challenges they’re facing and how the other departments can help. It’s also great for each leader to mention how another department has helped them succeed on a specific goal or at an event. #2 – Point Out Interdependencies Accounting can’t provide accurate financial reports to senior leadership without the right documentation from each department. The Media team can’t create an awesome announcement video without details on the latest Kids’ event from that department. The point is that we need each other to succeed and to serve the church with excellence. We intuitively know this, but sometimes we need a reminder. #3 – Cross-Train We’ve all had situations where we needed “all hands on deck” to pull off an event or handle an emergency. It’s also not uncommon for a staff member to change roles and move into a different department. Prepare for those eventualities by cross-training staff members on each other’s jobs. Have each staff member perform one of their key tasks with another team member shadowing. As they job shadow, have them document the task. This helps them learn the process and ensures you have up-to-date documentation. You’re probably wondering when anyone would have time for this effort. If necessary, cancel one staff meeting a month (or cut it short) to give everyone a chance to shadow someone from a different department. #4 – Ask Questions When you start planning a new event, announcement, or service, ask yourself this question: “Who will this impact and which department(s) should I involve?” For example: If you’re in the Children’s Ministry and are planning a fun summer party complete with inflatables, you might ask this question and realize you need to talk with the Facilities team. They can help you figure out where to put the inflatables, what to ask the vendor about how they’re secured to the ground, etc. #5 – Lead by Example This goes for everyone, really, but especially if you lead a department – never speak poorly of another department in front of your team. If there’s an issue, go directly to the leader of that department immediately to address the concern. #6 – Focus on Serving As followers of Christ, we need to follow His example and serve. Even if another department is driving you nuts, pause and consider the larger goal before “speaking your mind.” You’re all trying to achieve the same thing – reaching people for Christ and making disciples. Keep that in the forefront as you deal with the administrative details that go into working at a church. #7 – Share a Meal It’s harder to assume the worst about someone after talking about your favorite sports teams or your kids’ latest antics over a meal. Head out to lunch with a few members of other departments and get to know each other. You can “talk shop” a bit, but focus mostly on developing great friendships. Departmental silos and the resulting miscommunications, frustration, and tension can hinder your team’s ability to serve with excellence. Break down these walls and open up a path to greater teamwork and collaboration. Making the effort to improve communication between departments isn’t a simple undertaking, but it’s always worth the effort.

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5 Ways to Prevent Child Abuse in the Church

As a church leader, you want children and their parents, to feel safe at church.  This includes supporting parents as they work to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6.  That’s why I’m sure news stories regarding churches within the Southern Baptist Convention, what happened at NewSpring, and incidents within the Catholic Church must have hit your heart and served as painful wake-up calls that we have work to do to prevent child abuse within our churches. It’s tempting to think “that could never happen at my church”.  However, these tragic crimes have occurred in churches of various sizes, denominations, and in a variety of locations.  Predators don’t care about the people they hurt or about the impact on your church – they only care about themselves. We must, as we read in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Fortunately, there are several practical steps you can take to prevent child abuse in your church. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and do not attempt to provide legal advice. Please speak with church legal counsel to ensure your church’s policies adhere to applicable laws and regulations.   #1: Conduct Background Checks If you’re already doing background checks on potential staff and volunteers, excellent.  Please continue to do so and re-run those checks on a regular basis. However, remember that a clear background check simply indicates an individual hasn’t been caught.  It doesn’t prove they have never or would never abuse a child. In addition, not all background checks are created equal. Some vendors search more databases than others. Some jurisdictions are better about recording issues than others.   If you haven’t started performing background checks yet, look here for vendors to consider. Bottom line: A background check is the minimum you should do to screen a potential employee or volunteer.  It’s an excellent place to start, but it isn’t the finish line. #2: Complete an Extensive Interview Process As you look to hire new employees, you probably already go beyond a single interview and reading through the candidate’s resume.  After all, you’re about to bring someone onto your staff who will have influence over the spiritual growth of others. You certainly don’t want to bring someone on-board who is a “sheep in wolves clothing.”  People will look at them as spiritual leaders. In addition, this potential staff member may have direct contact with young people at your church.  This means you’ll want to conduct in-depth interviews and contact the candidate’s references including previous ministry employers.    Take time to get your own impression of the candidate’s character.  This may require several interviews and having elders or other staff members talk with the candidate as well.   Check out this list of interview questions from the Vanderblomen Search Group to spark ideas for what to ask candidates.   In this article, Richard R. Hammar of Church Law & Tax provides several recommendations for preventing child abuse.   #3: Carefully Screen Volunteers We all know getting enough volunteers can be a challenge.  If we put additional requirements in-place, that can make it even more difficult to fill all the needed volunteer positions.   However, the potential consequences of NOT properly vetting a volunteer vastly outweigh the inconvenience of a more rigorous process.  You don’t want to tell a heartbroken parent that you didn’t screen the offending volunteer more closely because it was “too hard.” This more in-depth process should at least apply to any volunteer who would serve around minors. What should be involved in screening potential volunteers? #4: Establish (and strictly enforce) Protective Policies To make sure all staff and volunteers are aware of your church’s policies regarding children, you’ll need to document those policies and require training.   In addition to initial training, constantly reenforce these policies: The idea here is to keep these policies in front of staff and volunteers on a consistent basis. If someone does not follow the policies, you need to enforce consequences.  This could mean reassigning a volunteer, removing them from volunteering, or even firing an employee who fails to follow the policy.   Everyone needs to understand that you will not tolerate breaking these rules as they exist to protect all parties involved. Adopting a zero-tolerance stance isn’t easy, but you may only have to do that once to get the point across. Here are several policy points to consider: #5: Incident Response If someone reports abuse by church staff or volunteer, immediately report this to the applicable authorities.  When appropriate, gather church leaders together and prepare to respond to questions from the media and from the congregation. In addition, your church’s insurance company may require that you notify them in the event of an allegation of abuse. Talk with your church’s legal counsel about your legal obligations regarding receiving reports of alleged abuse against a minor.  Include those requirements in your church’s policies and procedures, then train all staff and volunteers on how to adhere to them. On a Personal Note… I’ve tried to approach this topic from a standpoint of providing practical tips.  However, the reason I felt compelled to write this piece is how I felt after reading news stories and thinking about my children.  Like most parents, I am fiercely protective of them. The thought of how they and our family would be affected should they be abused at church is unfathomable.  I would much rather have a staff member tell me that childcare isn’t available because they didn’t have enough qualified volunteers than have something awful happen. There are likely parents in your community who are wary of bringing their children to church after hearing these news stories.  Please invest the effort now to review and tighten up your church’s policies and procedures. Then educate your congregation on the steps you’ve taken to protect

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What Makes People Hesitant to Volunteer at Church?

You need volunteers. You need them in the nursery, greeting at entrances, checking in children, making coffee, running sound, and much more. If you’re running short on volunteers, consider how you’re presenting the opportunity to serve. There are several unknowns that makes people hesitant to volunteer at church. Here’s what makes people hesitant to volunteer at church: #1 – They don’t know what you’ll expect. Potential church volunteers need to know what they’re getting themselves into. You probably wouldn’t apply for a job (much less accept it) if you had zero information about the expectations and responsibilities associated with that role.  Potential volunteers feel the same way. Develop a brief description for each volunteer role that includes the following: #2 – They’re worried about failing. What if a volunteer signs up for a certain role and realizes a few weeks in that it’s a bad fit? You need to give new volunteers a graceful and shame-free way out. If they serve in the bookstore for a couple of Sundays and realize they’re better suited to be a greeter, make that an easy transition. Let potential volunteers know they can try out a role for a few weeks before making a longer-term commitment. #3 – They don’t know what volunteer role to sign up for. You’ll have better success with volunteers if you take the time to match each person to the role that’s the best fit for him/her. You can have them take a personality and/or spiritual gifting test. You could also take 5-10 minutes and talk with the individual. Get to know potential volunteers and then assign them to a role you both think they’ll enjoy and be successful in. #4 – They don’t have a clear reason to volunteer at church. Now, most potential volunteers won’t come right out and ask you why they should serve. However, it’s something we all consider at least subconsciously. Why should I serve? If you can’t answer that one question, answering all of the others listed above is a waste of time. They have children to raise, bosses to report to, errands to run, and a ton of other responsibilities.  If they don’t know why serving is important (for them and for others), then serving won’t be able to compete with all the other items on their to-do lists.  Help them see how they can easily get started and how vital their participation is to the vision of the church. After all, this isn’t just about why you need people to serve in the nursery. This is about why followers of Christ should serve others. Weave that answer into your communications about serving at your church. Volunteering helps us grow in our relationship with God, make life-long friends, and enjoy the feeling that comes from knowing we’ve helped someone else. Help potential volunteers understand why, remove any mystery about your expectations or the commitment involved, and help new volunteers get acclimated quickly. This isn’t an overnight solution. However, if you’ll take the time to answer those questions you’ll end up with more volunteers who’re passionate about serving.

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How to Budget for Church Events in 3 Easy Steps

Part of your responsibilities as a church leader is to be an excellent steward of church finances. Events tend to be a significant portion of church ministry. Therefore, it makes sense to budget for church events and monitor them closely. Here are three easy steps to budget for church events and keep your ministry on track for the year.  Step #1: Determine What Events You’ll Host This Year In a recent blog post, I mentioned the importance of planning church events a year in advance. The first step to planning in advance is to determine early which events to host throughout the year. Facilitate a meeting with church staff and put all potential events on a large wall calendar (erasable is best). This is a great visual that helps you see what the year might look like. Next, host a follow-up team meeting to review the calendar with department leaders, the Executive Pastor, and the Senior Pastor. Discuss potential workload issues for your staff as well as budgets for each event, which leads us into Step #2. Step #2: Create a Budget for Each Church Event  Next, you’ll need to create a budget for each individual event. Here’s a list of items you should account for when creating a detailed budget:  Step #3: Review the Budget Depending on how your church handles the annual budgeting process, budgets for events may roll up into each department’s budget for the year. Regardless of how this is handled, you should review each church event budget before approving the event to take place. If an event is too costly, you can likely scale it back instead of canceling it altogether. That’s why reviewing is such an important step in the budgeting process. Church event planning can quickly get out of hand if there isn’t a clear process. To help you stay focused, shortcut the budgeting process with this Event Budgeting Template (see below).

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How to Create a Church Event Request Form

Are you responsible for planning events at your church? If so, there are several pieces of information you’ll need before getting started. Setting up several meetings to obtain those details can be time-consuming. Instead, reach out to the ministry department (or senior leader) who’s hosting the event with a simple, yet comprehensive church event request form. Having a standard form to use in gathering information will save you time, and frustration, in the long run. Here’s what to include in a church event request form: Facilities Because you’ll most likely be using your church facilities for your event, it’s important to know as much as you can about where and when this event will take place. Start with these questions: Catering Most events involve some type of food or catering. Find out food and refreshment needs with these questions: Communications Getting the word out about the event is how you’ll reach your attendee goal. Gather this information to maximize your communications. Childcare If you have parents attending, providing childcare might be a good option. Security Talk with your church’s security team to find out what information they’ll need to determine an event’s security requirements. Here are a few questions they may need you to answer (the key here is to know if arrivals and/or departures will happen during daylight hours): Finances Make sure you know the overall budget for your event as well as how it’s broken down. These questions should get you the details you need: Event Registration Like communications, event registration is key to hitting your attendee goal. No matter how registration is set up, it should be a simple process. Here’s the main question you need answered: Volunteers Without volunteers to help with the event, you’re more likely to go over budget and become overworked. Here’s what to ask: How to Gather this Information Now that you know what questions to ask, create an online church event request form so you can send a URL link to the person requesting the event. Consider creating separate forms for each ministry department so they don’t get overwhelmed with the length of a consolidated form.  You can easily combine their answers into a single document once they respond. If it’s the requestor’s first time completing the form, you may want to fill it out with them as they get comfortable with the process. Also, make sure to explain to your church staff why you need them to provide all of this information. Most people don’t like filling out forms, but if they know WHY you need all this detail (and that by providing it now, they have a much better chance at a successful event), they’re less likely to complain about it. When to Gather this Information Ideally, your church leadership team decides what events to host a year in advance. From there, if you’re responsible for planning events, you should start gathering information at least 6 months before an event. Of course, more time is needed for bigger events and less time for smaller/less complicated ones. In conclusion, the church event planning process is going to go a lot smoother if you take the time to collect information about the event up front. To learn even more about pulling off successful church events, check out my book The Church Event Planning Toolkit.

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2 Keys to Retaining Church Volunteers

The challenge with recruiting volunteers is it’s not always sticky, meaning just because you’ve signed up several new volunteers doesn’t mean they’ll stick around. After learning a few lessons the hard way, I know a thing — or two — about keeping your volunteers coming back. What’s the secret to retaining church volunteers? You have to effectively onboard and train them. Here’s how to develop a successful onboarding and training plan. #1 – Onboarding Before you get to the details of training for specific roles, you must first get all your onboarding to-dos checked off. Start by vetting your volunteers through background checks, interviews, and by checking references. This is especially important for those volunteers seeking to serve around children, in security roles, or with your church’s finances. If a volunteer is given the green light, find out where their interests, skills, and availability intersect with your church’s needs. Then, assign them a role! Once you’ve given an assignment, I highly recommend giving your volunteer a trial period of about a month. This is helpful for both you and the volunteer in determining if the role is a good fit before either of you makes long-term commitments. #2 – Training No matter the role, every volunteer position will require some level of training. Even if you think a job is self-explanatory, it’s important to provide clear directions so volunteers understand your expectations. If you don’t do this, things will probably not get done to your standard. Pointing out the “wrong” in their work when you never trained them the “right” way is one reason why volunteers quit. Set them up for success from the start and they’re more likely to stick around. Working with Children While it’s true that all roles require training, some roles will inevitably need more than others. As mentioned before, volunteers working with children, in security roles, or with your church’s finances will require extensive vetting. They will also need more specific and sensitive training. Ensuring the safety of your church members should be your top priority when recruiting volunteers. Taking the extra step to properly train them is beneficial to not only them but to the members they serve. Tips For Your Training Program Keep in mind, these training sessions don’t need to be lengthy and arduous, but they should happen often. Try conducting them at least once a month and provide handouts during the training for reference. It’s hard to expect anyone to remember everything you tell them, so providing documentation will help to reinforce the main points of the training. Plus, some people just learn better by reading. Take your training program a step further by assigning each new volunteer a mentor. The mentor should be another volunteer who has served in their specific role for at least a few months. This gives the new volunteer an opportunity to get to know someone else on the team and learn from them. It also communicates to the volunteer mentor that you trust him/her to help the new volunteer succeed in this role.  This is key if your goal is to increase volunteer retention. When it comes to retaining church volunteers, remember: nobody enjoys being recruited for a job and then not told how to properly do that job. Your volunteers have taken time out of their lives to serve their home church. Now, it’s your turn to take the time to help them help you. For more reading on leading the volunteers in your church, check out my book “The Volunteer Management Toolkit (Church Edition).”

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How to Get Feedback that will Help You Retain Volunteers

For most churches, recruiting volunteers is crucial to the success of your mission. Though a lot of effort goes into this recruitment process, it’s not always enough to keep those volunteers helping long term. Learning how to gather feedback from volunteers will allow you to make changes so you can retain volunteers for a long time. If this is a familiar struggle, ask yourself what your church is doing to encourage volunteer retention. Often, in the midst of recruitment and everyday church functions, retaining efforts get overlooked. When implemented, however, there are several strategies to improve retention and communicate more clearly with your volunteers. If you want to find out what’s working and what isn’t, request feedback from current volunteers. After all, they’re the ones checking in children, talking with parents, seeing jams in the parking lot, hearing comments from guests, and more. When you take the time to ask for their input, you’ll gain more insight into the happenings of your church, while showing them that you appreciate their service. Here are two methods for gathering feedback that will help you retain volunteers. Method #1 — Run An Annual Survey of All Volunteers One easy way to survey volunteers is to use an online tool like SurveyMonkey. You can create the questions, send out a link to the survey via email, and collate responses quickly. Keep the survey at a reasonable length (no more than 10 questions) to ensure people will take the time to fill it out. Here are several sample questions to ask: #1 – How long have you been serving at <church name>? If you don’t have records of when each volunteer started serving, this is a useful piece of information. If your church has been around for 20 years, but the average volunteer has only been serving for less than one year, you may have a high volunteer turnover issue. #2 – Why did you decide to start serving? This helps you identify people’s motives for serving. It can also reveal what communication methods worked best in getting people to sign up to volunteer (personal invitations, announcements during a service, the desire to meet more people, etc.). #3 – How did you get started as a volunteer? Did this person sign up on the church website or talk with a staff member about serving?  Did they fill out a card and put it in the offering plate? Knowing which signup methods have been the most popular can aid your decision-making process when it comes to which methods to promote the most. #4 – How would you describe the process of signing up to serve? By asking this question, you’ll learn whether or not your signup process is a smooth one. Maybe there was a glitch with the signup software you used, maybe it wasn’t clear who they should contact to sign up, or maybe it took weeks for someone to follow up with them. This is all good information you need to know. #5 – Have you made any new friends from serving? A sense of community is often what draws people into volunteer work. In my own experience, I’ve seen 94 percent of survey respondents say they made new friends as a result of volunteering at church. This is a great statistic to mention when you invite people to volunteer. #6 – Did you attend a training session and receive any documented instructions before you started serving? If not, you either don’t already require training before someone starts serving or there’s a hole in the process. Every volunteer role needs at least some training. It might consist of a 20-minute session with a short handout or something much more in-depth based on the role. Providing training helps you retain volunteers since they’ll know what you expect and how to accomplish it. #7 – What do you think prevents more people from serving at <insert church name>? When you’re on staff at a church, it can be challenging to see things from a newcomer’s perspective. Getting insights from volunteers on this topic will help you make adjustments as needed. #8 – Have you invited anyone to serve at <insert church name>? If not, has your experience in serving kept you from recommending that others volunteer? Volunteering with friends is a huge draw for some. If volunteers aren’t encouraging their church friends to also help, this could be a sign that there are issues within the volunteer process. #9 – Do you feel appreciated and valued as a volunteer? If not, please let us know what we could do to change that, because, we really do appreciate you! We all like to be recognized for doing good work, especially if we’re not getting paid for it. Make sure your volunteers know that their work is appreciated and their time valued. Strive to show them how their work has positively impacted your church’s mission. #10 – What else should we know about serving at <insert church name>? We want to improve and need your honest feedback to help us get better. This last question is so crucial. Give them some space to include their thoughts, concerns, or even praises that give you more information as to how you’re meeting volunteer expectations. For all surveys, make sure to set a deadline — I suggest two weeks — for volunteers to respond. This gives them enough time to give thoughtful answers but not so much time that they forget about it. Method #2 — Meet With Volunteer Leaders Hopefully, you have volunteers who lead various teams for weekly services (parking, greeting, bookstore, etc.). If so, ask those leaders to meet with you as a group at least once a quarter.  Here, come prepared with snacks, pen and paper, and a list of questions to ask. Here’s what to ask: The biggest takeaway here is to listen WAY more than you speak during these meetings. You may receive unpleasant feedback that makes you feel defensive. Resist the urge to

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Top 5 Event Registration Tools

When it comes to planning church events, gone are the days of handwritten signup sheets and manually entering attendees into spreadsheets. With the use of online forms, you can now refocus your church’s attention to creating an impactful event for guests. If you’re gearing up for your next planning session, first check out these top five event registration tools to use for your church events. 1. Eventbrite Arguably one of the more well-known online event registration sites, nearly 800,000 event organizers used Eventbrite in 2018 alone. Some of its main features include professional event registration pages that are compatible on any device; organizer-friendly capabilities to collect registration information and email attendees registration summaries; and easy setup for different tiers of registration and discounts. Eventbrite also has a Facebook Integration function. This has proven to double registrations for free events and increase sales by 20 percent for paid events. Price: There are Essential, Professional, and Premium packages with varying functions depending on need. You can also try Eventbrite’s service for free before committing. 2. Planning Center Church events often require gathering several details about attendees and their needs at the event. Planning Center offers customizable options that allow you to create attendee types with their own pricing or special requirements. Using Planning Center as your church event signup also allows you to give attendees the option to purchase extras like T-Shirts, workbooks, or other special event accessories. There’s even a Church Center mobile app that congregations “can use to check in their families, give, join groups, manage their personal profile, and register for events.” Price: Planning Center is priced based on the number of attendees you’ll expect to register. Though there is a 30-day free trial, packages range from $14 to $199 per month. 3. Google Forms A survey administrative app, Google Forms has all the same collaboration capabilities as its other G-Suite siblings. It also has event registration options that allow you to collect email addresses, create polls and pop quizzes, and store all your survey data neatly in its app or viewable in Sheets. Just like the other G-Suite programs, Google Forms is free to Gmail users and allows other team members to add content in real-time. Price: Free! 4. Tithe.ly Events Tithe.ly was designed specifically with churches in mind. From simple registration forms to user-friendly online payments, Tithe.ly Events has everything you need for every type of event. Like other tools on our list, this online church event registration site has customizable features for age, merchandise, and multiple ticket types. Price: Tithe.ly has four plan options that range from $0, with no credit card required, to $99/month. Check out its pricing page to learn more about each option. 5. Your Church Management System (ChMS) Most church management software systems include the capability to create online forms for event registration (including processing payments). Check with the staff member who manages the ChMS for your church to see if it includes online event registration functionality. Price: This will likely be free since you’re already paying for church management software. With one of these tools in your repertoire, setting up registrations for your next church event should be easier than ever.

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