Connection

Just as it is not enough to merely invite individuals to church and neglect to truly connect them to the church body, it is not enough to invite members into ministry without following up with a secure connection to one or more ministry opportunities. 

With as many members as Saddleback Church has, we on the ministry team have tried to establish a plan to ensure that effective connection happens. Below are some examples of connecting techniques. 

Champion connection – Put into place volunteer connectors on every team, someone who serves to connect volunteers to the team by:

Welcoming and acquainting the volunteers to the team and team members. 

Explaining team procedures. 

Attending connector meetings for continual training and updates. 

Collecting volunteer opportunities from the staff. 

Making sure volunteers attend an orientation and fill out a volunteer profile. 

Connect where the potential volunteers are – At a weekend service, set up a patio/foyer table for volunteer interest. In the case of the Internet, provide the ministry descriptions and the ministry leader’s contact information on the church Web site. If an individual simply walks into your church looking for a place to serve, be sure to have volunteer coordinators and/or connectors on hand and ready to answer questions. 

Capture key data – Make it a priority to gather specific information from each volunteer that will ensure that they are serving in the right place. For example, we like to find out what a volunteer’s abilities (what they love to do) and availabilities (when they can serve) are. An additional significant tool that the ministry team at Saddleback uses is the S.H.A.P.E. profile, filled out by members and looked over with a trained S.H.A.P.E. guide during the one-hour S.H.A.P.E. Discovery session. The profile encompasses every aspect of a person’s S.H.A.P.E. (Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experiences), and it is incredibly helpful in determining the best place for a member to serve. 

Contact the individual personally – We emphasize personal communication from the ministry leaders to their volunteers as this lets the volunteers know that they are not simply one number among many. We have found that e-mail follow-up can be extremely efficient and convenient, but it is not the most effective form of communication. 

Going beyond inviting to actually plugging a volunteer into ministry is the ultimate goal for you, for ministry leaders and their team, and especially for the members themselves so that they can experience the thrill of serving God through serving their church body.