{"id":773535,"date":"2022-03-25T05:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=773535"},"modified":"2022-03-23T22:02:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T03:02:47","slug":"preparing-your-volunteers-for-easter-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/preparing-your-volunteers-for-easter-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing Your Volunteers for Easter Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like death, taxes, and Nickelback, Easter is a reality. The good news is it&#8217;s a better reality than those other three examples (let&#8217;s face it: atrocious pop music and the cornerstone of Christianity don&#8217;t mix).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully you&#8217;re preparing your <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">church <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for the celebration: services are being planned, worship is being rehearsed, and sermons are being crafted. <\/span><b>But how is your <\/b><b><i>volunteer <\/i><\/b><b>prep coming?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Here are eight practical ways to get there:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>1. Talk it up. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don&#8217;t rely on all-church stage announcements. Talk to your volunteer teams about what&#8217;s coming, service additions, and how they can help. Start now. There are four weekends between now and then, and you should have an Easter-related conversation in every one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>2. Remind them of the win. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Statistically, your church will have more lost people in the crowd than any other weekend of the year<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (with the possible exception of Christmas Eve). Don&#8217;t let your team lose sight of that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>3. Go big. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Easter is not the time to get minimal. I believe that<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dfranks.com\/2014\/09\/10\/can-you-have-too-many-volunteers\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you can never have too many volunteers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. So dream a little. If volunteer numbers weren&#8217;t an issue, where would you add teams? Where would you add value for your guests?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>4. Consider a volunteer-only service. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than juggling schedules and added options, why not provide a special service just for your volunteers?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Same service format as Sunday morning, but with the added bonus of praying specifically for what God will do through your teams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>5. Attend one, serve two. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your church hosts multiple services anyway, you know you should be asking your team to<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dfranks.com\/2013\/03\/26\/why-we-say-attend-one-serve-one\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">attend one, serve one<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. For Easter weekend, challenge them to serve two, and double your numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>6. Teach shoulder-tapping. <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0764427563\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0764427563&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=dfrankscom-20&amp;linkId=RZ7ONR4YSTZ3VE2M\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> coined this phrase, and it&#8217;s the best way to build your team. Empower your volunteers to leverage their relationships and invite new volunteers to serve alongside them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>7. Provide training. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don&#8217;t just recruit and dump. That&#8217;s the quickest way to get a one-and-done volunteer. Schedule a guest services training in order to get your new folks on the same page and instill confidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><b>8. Honor their relationships. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully your volunteers will be inviting unchurched friends to attend Easter services with them. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help them think through how they can invite friends <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">serve<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but if you&#8217;re going to err, err on the side of those friendships.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How are you preparing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> volunteers for Easter?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This post originally appeared on <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/dfranks.com\/2016\/02\/24\/practical-ways-to-prep-for-easter\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dfranks.com<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like death, taxes, and Nickelback, Easter is a reality. The good news is it&#8217;s a better reality than those other three examples (let&#8217;s face it: atrocious pop music and the cornerstone of Christianity don&#8217;t mix). Hopefully you&#8217;re preparing your church for the celebration: services are being planned, worship is being rehearsed, and sermons are being&#8230;","protected":false},"author":8242,"featured_media":773537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,179,175,186,177,178,176,196,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-first-impressions","category-grow","category-health-and-metrics","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-revitalize","category-staff-and-organizational-issues","category-worship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preparing Your Volunteers for Easter Sunday | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like death, taxes, and Nickelback, Easter is a reality. 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