A recent study on volunteerism¹ discovered that one of the things that keeps people from serving is disorganized supervision. How can you make sure that your team is happily organized and structured so that your volunteers can serve effectively and efficiently?

Have ministry descriptions in writing. Each person on your team should know why they’re there. A ministry description lists the purpose, goal(s), and primary responsibilities of that position. Including an estimated time commitment also helps them know if they can realistically dedicate the time needed for the position.

Hand out a list of everyone’s ministry descriptions and review them as a group. Knowing what everyone else on the team is doing can prevent confusion and accidentally doing other’s tasks. When you provide some time to discuss everyone’s passions and gifts, you may find that people’s ministry descriptions can be refined to better fit the person and improve the team.

Set values and procedures for working together. What will be important to your team? Excellence? Teamwork? Flexibility? Starting and ending on time? How are people expected to work together? Pick a few key items that you feel your entire team should understand in order for everyone to work well together. Share these guidelines with them so that everyone starts on the same page.

Plan as far in advance as possible. With the hectic lives we all lead today, people appreciate being given assignments and deadlines as far out as possible. When you have your first meeting, give your team the calendar of all of your meetings for the rest of the term at once. Plot out major milestones and date them in advance so people can plan their schedules better.

Set a purpose and agenda for your meetings. “We’re meeting because this is our appointed time, even though we don’t have an agenda.” What a team morale killer! Send out an agenda before the meeting, listing the items of discussion. People can then come to the meeting prepared, because they can think, do research, complete tasks, or get materials ready before you meet. It’s also a good idea to assign someone to be the point person for each agenda item; agenda items that have no point person tend to get lost and forgotten.

Understand your volunteers’ working styles. Are your people by-the-book types who want to be given fine print for their responsibilities, or do they want to know the general guidelines and be allowed to run free to finish things their way?

Detail-oriented, structured types appreciate having a specific outline of what they’re to accomplish and how to do it. They thrive when they are given specific instructions so that they can feel like they’re on track. On the other hand, spontaneous, big-picture people will feel frustrated and confined when given such detailed instructions. Let them run free, but have them report progress back to you so you can make sure they’re staying on track.

Understanding how your people like to have their work structured helps them use their God-given personality in getting things done, leading to increased satisfaction in their ministry. Next month we’ll discuss ways to improve communication within your team.

This is a brief excerpt from the leadership article Angela wrote for Church Volunteer Central. You can read the complete article—with many more tips—in our Idea Depot by clicking here.

Angela Yee is the Director of Serving Ministries at Fremont Evangelical Free Church, in Fremont, California. She also does writing and speaking about organizing for ministry. For more information on Angela, see www.summitstarpress.com.
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¹ Rees, Erik. http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=7094

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