I have been in nearly ever position on a tech team for my church as a volunteer. From running the whole sound board to creating the graphics and running MediaShout to setting up and operating the webcast of services. The power of your volunteer tech team really relies on the group that you put together and so you need to have the perfect pitch for your group. You are not the only people within your church searching for highly qualified volunteers and if your congregation is as busy as ours, they probably do not even have time for one group, let alone two.
So how do you put together the perfect pitch? You could do something like below.
Of course, that takes a lot of work, is flashy, and may seem like you are trying to sell some high expectation when in reality we know that these positions are not actually that glamorous. (Really? A suit and flashing lights?) It isn’t the glamor or stardom that made me want to volunteer. Below are three purposeful goals to consider when recruiting volunteers.
- Praise The Team You Already Have The biggest marketing technique that has the highest return on investment within a church is word-of-mouth. How you encourage, empower, equip, and treat your current volunteer team will say so much to people who are interested in serving in the church. Literally praise them every event they help out with. Among the craziness of last minute worship changes, rebooting the crashed computer, or trying to get the gain right on the sound board, simply throw them a genuine compliment. At the same time, get the senior or worship pastor regularly to praise the team from up front. Church tech teams are frequently lost in the mix and you need to be their advocates.
- Encourage Them To Have A Voice In The Creative Process. I have been on several teams where I was simply expected to run sound. This creates an expectation that you must be the monkey in the back pulling the levers and honestly have no input in the service. But us nerds have some amazing ideas that we could really own and potential that unfortunately gets lost in the shuffle of the weekly program. It took a youth worker who allowed us to speak into the service to come up with videos of the congregation serving and sharing through testimonies that inspired me to actually start seventy8 Productions. You always have the ability to graciously say no to ideas, but showing that you value their opinion by hearing them may speak more into them than your service. And who knows, they may go on to do amazing things for the kingdom of God.
- Reward Them. The gifts can be as simple as a Starbucks card once every six months along side a hand written note or as thoughtful and encouraging as sending them to the Echo conference. Either way, show them you care through something more than words. These little thoughts of gifts will speak volumes! Maybe the best gift that I received as a volunteer is when the ministry paid for pizzas and let us use the building to have several midnight Halo tournaments that would last until dawn. Loved it!
So go for the flashy stuff if you want, but a simple slide can get the word out too. I guarantee that these three tips will bring in more quality and dedicated volunteers in the long run. Tomorrow, we will look at how to get the right volunteer for the tech job.
What would your tech volunteer pitch look like?
Steve Steiner says
Several midnight Halo Tournaments that would last till dawn, or a conference… maybe I am just too easy to keep happy but the days of Halo sound better than a conference at this point (though the conference would probably have more practical application here).
seventy8Productions says
No doubt!