ASSOCIATION UPDATES

We’ve made several exciting enhancements in the past month!

1) We have added an online poll to the Church Volunteer Central Web site. In case you missed them online, here are the results of the first three polls:

What is the most challenging part of volunteer leadership for you?
56% Recruiting
26% Equipping/Training
7% Motivating
6% Retaining
4% Directing
1% Other

Is your current ministry role based upon your spiritual gift(s)?
88% I've done a spiritual gift analysis and my role mostly fits
0%   I've done a spiritual gift analysis and my role doesn't fit
12% I don't know my spiritual gift(s), but I think this fits me
0%   I don't know my spiritual gift(s), but this isn't it!

The area of ministry where we face the most challenge finding enough volunteers is:
67% Children’s Ministry
17% Youth Ministry
11% Adult Ministry
0% Worship Ministry
5% Administrative & Background Ministries

We encourage you to vote every week to help us all better understand the state of volunteer leadership in the church. Once you have cast your vote, you’ll see the results so far that week.

2) Another big change is that all of your workers can now take our online spiritual gift assessment. If you click on the Assessments link in our tools section, you will see that we’ve added the ability for you to invite others to take the spiritual gift survey. This is a critical part of the process of guiding all believers into their gift-based ministries.

3) We have doubled the member discount on resources in our online store! Members have been receiving a 10% discount on purchases in our store, but we want to make sure everyone can get the things they need to be successful in equipping ministry so we have doubled that. Now our members will receive at least 20% off (some items have already been marked down even further) when they make purchases in the Church Volunteer Central store.

4) The other big changes we’ve made in October are things you can’t see…at least not yet. We’re busy putting together the most exciting enhancements to our Web site since Church Volunteer Central began! We don’t want to ruin the surprise by giving away too much yet, but some of your fellow members have been involved in the design process and they unanimously agree that it is going to be far easier to find exactly the resource you need! Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write us with your suggestions. You’re about to see dramatic evidence that we’re listening.

5) Last month we asked you to participate in a survey on which topics you'd be most interested in Church Volunteer Central developing workshops about. You prioritized them this way:

Help, I Need More Volunteers: How to Get them. How to Keep them!
Why People Don't Volunteer at Church, and How to Fix It
The Attitude of Gratitude: Volunteer Recognition That Works
Selecting the BEST Volunteers for Your Ministry
How to Design Ministry Descriptions that Attract Great Volunteers
Planning & Organizing for Volunteer Effectiveness
Better Safe Than Sued: How to protect your kids, your volunteers, and your church

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