W4 How to work with volunteers

A DIY training aid

First published on this website in August 2024 as A57 and last updated in February 2025 as W4

Synopsis

This is the fourth ‘DIY training aid’ in this series of workshops. It is, at heart, a write-up of my own training event on this topic, making the material available so that anyone can run an event on working with volunteers. It can of course also be for individual use. It comes with a series of 13 hand-out sheets for group use.

There are three sections, each taking a different lens to the theme.

Understanding people looks at why people do and do not volunteers both in the world and in church. We need to understand how people as people react to the concept of volunteering.

Mobilising disciples covers the idea of all-member ministry by investigating three approaches: church-centred, people-centred and kingdom-centred.  This section then shows different approaches to fitting Christians to roles they might play.

Supporting workers emphasises that volunteers need to be given practical support through the church environment, printed information, a team approach and personal affirmation.

There is a set of 13 hand-out sheets to accompany this material which can be accessed here:

This workshop was updated in February 2025 with minor amendments and a new reference code of W4.