Colorado Church Treats Volunteers with Care

Theory about volunteer recruitment is fine (See page 4, Need More Volunteers? Try the Personal Approach), but how does it work in real life?

Chances are that no one knows better how to recruit, train, and treat church volunteers than Dea Brayden, the paid volunteer coordinator at Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Colo. (633 members), a church with a reputation for cultivating and caring for volunteers.

Brayden prefers the title “shared ministry facilitator.” She helps JUC friends and members find opportunities that suit their talents and interests. Regarding volunteerism as ministry and treating volunteers as individuals is much of the reason JUC is successful at keeping its volunteer positions filled.

“We’re not interested in just plugging someone into a slot,” she says. “We want to find out what people are passionate about and where their interests lie so that we can help them find something that is meaningful to them.”

It wasn’t always so. There was a time, Brayden said, when new members were left to their own devices. “We’d say, ‘Oh they’re new. Let’s leave them alone for a year. We don’t want to overwhelm them.’ But now we’re realizing they joined the church because they want to be part of a community and they want to feel needed. They’re often just waiting to be asked to do something.”

Brayden seeks out volunteers at every turn. At church functions she always sits with someone she doesn’t know. JUC sets high expectations for its volunteers, which helps both them and the church, she said. These expectations are established in the following ways:

• In JUC’s Path to Membership sessions, participants are told they will be expected to volunteer in some way. Everyone is requested to sign up quarterly (and is paired with a veteran) to be an usher, greeter, make coffee, or help in the nursery.

• Within six months, Brayden sits down with each new person and they talk about that person’s background, interests and passions, and what they bring to JUC. “If you don’t ask, you’re never going to know what they would do,” she says. “We try to find out what keeps them coming back and what brings meaning to their life.” At the same time Brayden shares information about JUC. This early contact lets the person know the church is interested in them and that they have a responsibility to serve the church in some manner.

• A good job description, Brayden says, is the best defense against volunteer turnover. “If they know what they’re signing up for,” she says, “they’re more likely to stay with the job.”

• Letting others see what volunteers do makes a big difference. “We involve members very heavily in our worship services,” Brayden says, “and I think that when others see them up there they come to realize they could do that also. They see volunteering as something doable. And meaningful.”

Brayden is paid for 12 hours per week and that may be increased this fall. She’s developing a volunteer support committee to help her make contact with people. “In a church of 660 people I can’t get to everyone,” she says. Brayden also works closely with JUC’s leadership nominating council, helping identify people who would be good candidates for the board of trustees and other positions.

She encourages other congregations to hire volunteer coordinators and/or a new member coordinator (JUC has both), something she sees as vital to any sizable congregation. “We didn’t have the money when we first did it,” she says. “We just did it. It really helps your church become a place where people feel welcome and needed.”