Recruiting Strategies Part 1: How to S.T.A.F.F. your Children's Ministry

At my church the back-to-school season is one of the busiest times of the year in Children’s Ministry.  Everyone is done with summer vacation and returning to church.  That means our kid numbers spike, and we have to work hard to make sure our leader numbers are strong. 

If you’re in the same boat we are, that means you’re constantly recruiting.  For us we build teams of core leaders who serve weekly and then fill in the gaps with subs and monthly parent helpers.  Our goal is to always recruit out of vision and not desperation, but the reality is that we do need a certain number of volunteers in the room to open the doors. 

So how do you that?   How do you staff your rooms week in and week out?  I’ll share more specifics in the coming weeks but here are five general principles our team uses to guide our recruiting process.  We use the acronym S.T.A.F.F. to help us remember them. 

1. Start early.

The earlier you start working on leader coverage, the easier it is.  This is one area where you cannot procrastinate.  Starting early gives you time to make contacts and get a response.  If your contacts can’t serve this weekend, you’re going to need extra time to reach out to more people and time to hear back from them.  An early start takes the pressure off and give you time to fill the gaps.

2. Think ahead.

Look at the next month, season and year to identify any weeks you know you’re going to be light on coverage.  Think through school breaks, holidays and special events in your community.  When are leaders likely to be gone?   Has anyone already told you’re they’re going to be out in the weeks or months ahead?  How can you start working now to cover these weekends? 

3. Ask for help.

When it comes to recruiting you only know so many people to call.   That’s why you need to reach out to others and tap into their networks for potential volunteers and substitute leaders.  A few weeks ago, I jumped in to help recruit subs for a campus where I don’t normally serve.  I started by asking campus staff who lead in other departments who they knew.  Then I went to some of our key Children’s leaders and asked for ideas of who might be willing to help.  Don’t shoulder it all yourself.  Reach out to your staff and volunteer teams for ideas.

4. Finish strong.

It’s not enough to make a bunch of contacts for the weekend.  You have to get people across the finish line.   If you’ve sent emails but haven’t heard back from folks, follow up with a text or make a phone call.  The week I was helping recruit subs, I was following up with prospective leaders all the way through Saturday.   Also, make sure that any new leaders or substitute leaders know where to go and what to do.  Send them any curriculum and safety guidelines they need to follow. 

5. Follow up. 

Monday follow-up is one of your best recruiting tools for future Sundays.  Did you have any leaders who didn’t show up without letting you know why?  Reach out to them and find out what happened.   Make sure everything is okay and let them know you missed them.  This could be an opportunity to make a special touch if they were sick or in crisis or just to tell them how critical they are to the ministry.

Also, send thank you cards, texts and emails to any substitute leaders as well as your core leaders who need some extra encouragement this week. 

The S.T.A.F.F. acronym isn’t a recruiting a silver bullet, but it does give you some guiding principles that will help you with leader coverage if you put them into practice.

Children's Ministry Recruiting Videos

Help Kids Discover a Big God from Big Picture Show on Vimeo.

Are you looking for an engaging way to connect with potential leaders?  Maybe it's time to try a creative video in your weekend service.

Every spring our church gives us the opportunity to craft a fun video piece to cast vision and invite people to serve in Children's Ministry.  It doesn't solve all of our recruiting challenges, but it does give us a much-needed shot in the arm, yielding dozens of new contacts who we can mobilize for ministry.

If you want to give this a try in your church, here are a few tips that I use when writing the video scripts each year.

1. Find a fun commercial to inspire you.
You can either do a straight-up parody of a commercial or you can use the commercial as a jumping off point to create something that works for you.  See if you can guess which commercials inspired the videos I've included in this post.

2. Include cute kids.
You want to reach people who love kids.  Put cute kids in your video if you want to connect with their hearts.  If you can show compelling video from your Children's Ministry environments, and it makes sense in the video, go for it.

However, if you don't have good footage or it doesn't fit with the video, leave it out.  Notice the last two videos I included don't have any scenes from Children's Ministry.

3. Keep it short.
We aim for 30-45 seconds with every recruiting video we shoot.  Anything longer will lose your audience.  Always leave them wanting more!

Here are the videos we've used over the last several years.  Huge props to the Southland Creative Team for making these videos look amazing!  It pays to surround yourself with talented people.

I hope these videos will inspire you to find ways to creatively showcase Children's Ministry in your church.


Be Unforgettable. from Southland Christian Church on Vimeo.
When I Grow Up from Southland Christian Church on Vimeo.
Children's Volunteers from Southland Christian Church on Vimeo.

Diary of a New Campus: Discovering New Leaders

In the wild world of Children's Ministry we live or die by our leaders.  If we have a healthy, vibrant leadership culture, there's nothing we can't do, but during those lean seasons when our team gets stretched, it can be, um, interesting.  

In my last post I gave you a snapshot of our leader situation now that we are just a few weeks into this whole three campus church thing.  You can check out that post here to see the score card.

Long story short, we have a strong core of committed leaders, but also some big needs to fill.  Our new campus launch has maxed out our leader reserves and forced us to get creative on how we move forward.

So how do we  fill those needs without sounding needy?  How do we discover new leaders without settling for just anyone?

Does Your Children's Ministry Know How to Play Hard to Get?

When I was in college, I had two friends who fell at opposite ends of the dating spectrum.   We'll call the first guy Hank.  Hank wanted to be in a relationship more than anything on earth . . . and everyone knew it!  All he ever talked about was meeting girls and finding Miss Right.  He constantly lamented the fact that there just weren't any good ladies left out there.

In the other corner I had a friend we'll call Charlie.  Charlie never talked about his dating life.  Ever. And yet, Charlie had women betting down his door.   I'm telling you, they absolutely flocked to this guy.  Why?  Because he knew how to play hard to get.  

Charlie was confident in who he was and where he was going.  He had goals and a clear direction in life.  He also had really high standards for who he dated.  His life did not revolve around being in a relationship.

Hank?  Hank would have gone out with anyone with a pulse.   He was so obsessed with finding a wife he didn't have much to offer even if the right girl came along.  Great guy, but very needy.

I know this question sounds a little weird, but if your ministry were a person, would anyone want to date it, or better yet, marry it?  Would your ministry be more like Hank or Charlie?   Is it a healthy, vibrant, attractive place or does it reek of desperation?