As we learned last month, recruiting twentysomethings to volunteer requires personal invitation, is usually helped by food and fellowship (preferably with the opposite sex), and meets a legitimate need (and isn’t just a “pet project”) within your church. So you’ve done all of that, and you’ve got them in the door. Of course, they’ll naturally figure out what you want them to do, how you want them to do it, and have plenty of enthusiasm to go around, right?

Think again.

While you might believe that the tough part is over just because you got them here, the truth is that your job is just beginning. How you proceed will have a powerful effect on motivating (or demotivating!) these new servants. Here are the keys, as described by the twentysomethings themselves.

Give them tasks that fit their gifts—and the authority to succeed

Like most people, twentysomethings don’t like looking or feeling stupid doing something they have little or no ability to do, and twentysomethings can be their own harshest critics about how they do a job. Like most of us, they don’t want to fail—in your eyes or their own—so it’s important to set them up for success by considering their gifts and assigning them a task accordingly.

“The last thing in the world that I will ever volunteer for again is teaching kindergarten and 1st grade Sunday school,” says Meyers. “Why? Some of us are gifted and others are not. I was not.”

“I think the key is to find out what people like to do,” says Chelsea. “I love cooking, so it was easy for me to volunteer to make refreshments for all the VBS teachers last summer.”

For them to feel motivated, twentysomethings need the sense of real responsibility, and the authority needed to accomplish the assigned task.

“Our generation wants to participate, but we want real ownership and inclusion,” says Adam. “I don’t think we want to be part of a mass-movement of volunteerism; I think we want to know that our contribution matters.”

“If you want twentysomethings to help on a regular basis,” says Heather, “make us feel like we’re needed and will be missed if we aren’t there. If I’m helping out, give me some responsibility…we want to be part of the team in some fashion.”

Throughout the three years he was with them, Jesus gave his disciples various assignments of increasing levels of responsibility, all with the necessary authority to carry out each one of them. As recorded in Mark 3:14, “He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” They did that and more, all because Jesus trusted them with responsibilities he must have thought they could accomplish and in conjunction with the authority needed to get them done.

Give them proper organization

Though they may come across as “laid back” or “easy going”, twentysomethings are very conscious of poor or haphazard organization. They’ve been raised in a culture that frowns on inefficiency. This is not all bad, as they might make your ministry more efficient…if you give them a chance to speak and then listen to their evaluation.

“We are such efficiency, product-oriented people,” says Jess. “We want well- organized, efficient projects to volunteer for. The reality is that those who need us to volunteer typically can’t get things together, and we aren’t willing to give up a lot of time for little result.”

“The worst feeling in the world is volunteering for something, and then standing around because it’s poorly organized,” says Tower. “I like helping, but I hate wasting my time, and everyone else’s.”

It’s not that twentysomethings are the most organized people in the world; by their own admission they’re not. In fact, it’s because their lives are so jumbled with processes that they’re still trying to establish, that most are desperate to be around someone (anyone!) who is organized in order to experience the peace that they’ve heard can accompany stability.

In Luke 14:28-30, Jesus teaches in the context of being a disciple the importance of counting the cost not just to lay a foundation for a new tower, but to make sure the tower can be completed, “For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him” (Luke 14:29). The same principle applies to working with twentysomething volunteers: Before you start recruiting, make sure you allocate enough resources (time, budget, etc.) to organize the volunteers you get. Otherwise, not only might those labors be in vain, but you might well be “ridiculed,” which will kill your volunteer program in no time.

Give them involved leaders and invested co-workers

Remember, twentysomethings may not be nearly as interested in your cause as they may be in who is leading and walking alongside them in it. Who you ask them to follow will make or break your best motivation efforts.

“An involved leader helps to fan the spark [of motivation]; an aloof leader smothers it,” say Keith. “Passion can spread from the top down in an organization. The passion of a leader is sensed quickly by others, and the lack of passion is felt just as quickly. The more volunteers who have a passion for the cause, the more motivated everyone will be.”

“Other good volunteers make me want to volunteer,” says Tower. “Nobody wants to work with that person who annoys the tar out of you. You want to work with people who build each other up.”

Twentysomethings can sometimes come across as if they could do things better by themselves. But this is just their way of protecting themselves from disappointment in their search for accessible leaders and fellow laborers. There is a shortage on real inspiration these days, and they need and want to be around leaders who are confident and competent to lead. (As well as wanting to be around other volunteers who are secure and satisfied to serve.)

Here again, Jesus is a model for us. No leader before or since has been as clear and committed as Christ at recruiting and motivating others toward fulfilling a mission, and few groups of people have responded as faithfully as the disciples in moving forward together as they followed Christ’s lead. Matthew tells us that after the resurrection, Jesus reappears to the disciples and commissions them to “go and make disciples,” but he ends this directive with the assurance that “…surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). The task was the “what” of the mission; that Jesus would be with them in doing it was the “how” and the “why” and that made all the difference in the world.

In our final installment next month, we’ll look at how to retain twentysomethings in your volunteer ministry (and yes, believe it or not, it can be done).

Craig Dunham is co-author of TwentySomeone: Finding Yourself in a Decade of Transition (WaterBrook). On staff with The Navigators for 11 years, Craig and his wife, Megan, work with twentysomethings as part of the Glen Eyrie Group, the camp and conference ministry of The Navigators.

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