If you value what people value most, they will then value what you value most. In North American culture what people value most is their children. Smart churches understand this. Let’s face it, parents will even go to a poorly led church if it has an incredible children’s and preschool ministry. But when you have great senior leadership with an incredible children’s ministry, you most likely have a thriving, growing church.
Two of the best children’s and preschool leaders I have ever met are Aaron Collier, Children’s Pastor at Piedmont Church in Marietta, GA and his wife Karen, who serves as the church’s Preschool Director. Recently the couple sat down for an interview on the Orange Kids Podcast.
The subject was communicating with volunteers. Aaron and Karen dropped one piece of leadership gold after another. So much so I had to make their content available to you. This applies to all church leaders, not just those in the children and preschool area. You can listen to their full interview HERE.
The following are 39 Habits Of Highly Successful Children Pastors And Communicating With Volunteers I gleaned from Aaron and Karen’s interview:
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Embrace Technology – “We schedule them (volunteers) online… because people respond well online.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Have High Capacity – “We manage about 130 people per month.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Proactively Communicate To Their Volunteers – “Every week they get a communication from us on the Wednesday before and the day before at 2:00 PM.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Understand Relationships Are The Foundation Of A Successful Ministry – “Volunteers are all about relationship.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Have A Volunteer Training System – “We have about three trainings a year we do with them.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Express Appreciation By Saying “Thanks” – “They get a t-shirt because t-shirts are our way of saying ‘Thanks.'” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Enlist Those Most Invested In The Success Of The Ministry – “90% of our volunteers are people that have babies through pre-teens.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Are Generous – “For our trainings, we do a lot of giveaways to get people there.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Are Fun To Be Around – “We like to bring the fun factor.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Make Sure The Children Are Safe – “Initially, they have to go through something we call Reducing The Risk. We have to make sure every child is safe.”
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Get To Know Their Volunteers Personally – “If you’re not taking people to lunch, weekly, monthly, then you’re doing it wrong. You have to get to know them personally.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Keep The Relationship With Volunteers Before The Role Of Volunteers – “Always keep the relationship before the role.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Get Some Of Their Best Ideas From Volunteers – “Some of the best ideas we get and some of the best training tips are from our people.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Know The Experts Are The Parents – “The experts are the parents who do this every single day.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Vet The Volunteers First Before Enlisting Them – “It’s a process we go through to make sure our insurance and all our people are good with the things we are able to do and sure kids are safe.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Know Safety Is The Most Important Thing – “Safety is the most important training tip you can give anyone.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Build Safeguards Into The Ministry – “We always make ensure two adults are in any room.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Are Approachable – “Being approachable. That is important for us as ministry leaders.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Should Be Visible – “Long gone are days when you sit in your office every Sunday morning. You should be the most visible person in the world.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Lead By Example – “If you don’t get on the ground with your army, you’re telling them you are better than them.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Go To The Orange Conference And Are Continual Learners – “We go to the Orange Conference. Literally, the Sunday we got back from the Orange Conference we have a training.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Disciple Their Volunteers As Well – “Our goal is to help connect them to what the kids are going to be learning to what’s going on in their lives going on right now.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Are Excited About What They Are Doing – “If you’re excited about what you’re doing the people are going to be excited.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Give Clear Next Steps – “Every Sunday looking people in the face and saying, ‘I want to encourage you to love on these kids and here are three ways you can do it.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Glorify Jesus – “Remind you’re people that if it’s a hard morning Jesus is still going to be glorified… The Gospel never changes.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Have A Burden For The Gospel – “Cast the vision of the burden and burden is The Gospel is real is now.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Create A Community Of Volunteers Who Share The Gospel Together – “Let’s spread the Gospel together.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Know Every Volunteer Matters – “When five people catch the vision, five people can cast the vision to others… The few can create so many more.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Are Friends With Their Volunteers – “They’re our friends… Become friends with your volunteers. Do life with them.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Retain Volunteers – “You retain volunteers far more who are your friends.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Know What They Don’t Know – “Sometimes we don’t know when our volunteers need encouragement.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Are Not Perfect – “We’re not perfect.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Tell People They Are Thankful For Them – “We are so thankful you are here.” – AC and KC to their volunteers
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Make Their Volunteers Feel Valued – “If you include their families (in celebrations), they are going to feel so valued.” – KC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Write Personalized Handwritten Notes – “My absolute favorite is handwritten cards and birthday cards… Write a birthday card. It’s not that hard.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Always Make Time For People – “There’s always time for people.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Always Make Time to Celebrate People – “There’s always time to celebrate someone.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Always Make Time To Hear People – “There’s always time to stop and hear someone.” – AC
- Highly Successful Children’s Pastors Love Their Own Kids – Aaron and Karen are proud parents of a newborn little girl named Hattie Ray, as they mentioned multiple times throughout the interview 🙂
If you have not done so already, I can’t recommend enough you attend this year’s Orange and ReThink Conferences on May 1-3 in Atlanta. It is the finest three days of Christian leadership training you will attend all year. Simply click HERE or on the image provided to learn more and sign up!