It’s time to do those last-minute pleas for volunteers. Do any of the following sound familiar?

“We need three more teachers in our preschool department or we won’t have a class for those precious little ones. You don’t want them to miss hearing about Jesus, do you?”

“Our preteen class has gone through three different teachers in the past two years. I just know God has the right person for the job and I hope you’ll talk to me after service today.”

“Our Sunday School Superintendent was called home to Jesus last week after serving for 53 years. We’re looking for someone to replace her. Please contact the church office if you’re interested.”

“Our small-group ministry needs 10 leaders for groups that start next month. If God’s put it on your heart to serve in this ministry, please call Pastor Gregg and he’ll get you plugged in.”

You’re only laughing because you’ve heard these announcements before… maybe last Sunday. Worse yet, you may have been the one who actually said those things out loud in front of a congregation. So, how’d that work out for you?

Please don’t think I’m out to embarrass you (OK, maybe a little) as much as commiserate with you, as I’m also guilty of those very same “recruitment” techniques.

A couple years ago, my friends in the media department here at Group asked me to be in a video shoot. It was quite exciting to think about. I arrived at the ranch location, out in the foothills of the Rockies, to discover that I was going to spend the morning being chased around a corral by a guy on a horse. A very big horse. The guy was going to pretend to lasso me and I was to run away from him with great fear.

Long story short: It was a promotional video for that year’s VBS program, for recruiting volunteers. The humorous point of it was: There’s no need to drag people into volunteering.

If that’s true, why do so many of us get caught doing just that? Over the next few articles I hope to share a process that will provide many qualified and willing volunteers for your ministry with much less stress on you. You may want to go back in the archives to check out some of my previous articles on starting up your ministry properly. Doing the foundational work on why your ministry exists, what you hope to accomplish and what roles you need filled are crucial elements that need to be addressed before you get to successful volunteer recruitment.

In this article, I’ll lay the groundwork for making the approach to a potential volunteer. These days, bulletin announcements, invitations from the pastor on Sunday morning, and catching people in the lobby after church simply don’t garner the response or the quality volunteers you need to be successful. The method that works best takes much more time, effort and intentionality.

So here’s Step 1: Know the job you’re asking the volunteer to do. This seems like a no-brainer, but trust me when I tell you there are many, many people out there who can’t clearly articulate what they need from their volunteers. Take the time to think through every aspect of the job you expect to be accomplished. For example:

• What will the volunteer do? Lead, teach, coach, train a group of 5, 10, 15, 20, once a week, month, year?

• Beyond the actual leading, what sort of prep work will the role require? Two hours a week, planning meetings once a month, a weekend training event?

• How long do you expect this commitment to last? One month, six months, a year, longer?

You need to know these details and more — monetary costs, who supervises the role, what success in this role looks like, among others. Reviewing and deciding what you’ll actually be asking a volunteer to do will be extremely helpful for both of you. It’s a process I guarantee, will raise your awareness of what you’re actually asking from your volunteers.

It’s also best to get all this down in writing. Years ago, advocates of this approach encouraged writing a full job description. Unfortunately, in our litigious society, the use of the term “job description” provided an opening for some disgruntled volunteers to sue for back pay. Sad, but true. So, you don’t need to formalize this in a job description and create a document that you’ll share with your prospective volunteer. But consider distilling things down to a bullet point list of responsibilities so both of you know what’s at stake and how to pray about it.

That’s enough to digest for now. Might I suggest a little homework? Think of a role that you know you’ll need filled or suspect you’ll need filled in the future. Then come up with a comprehensive description of the role. It might even be fun to do this with a long-standing current position, just to see if there are details you’ve forgotten about through the years.

Take this seriously. Set aside a good chunk of time to reflect, assess and write. Share it with one or two others to see if you’ve missed anything. This’ll serve as your guide next month when we begin to dig into just how to structure a volunteer role.

Tim Kurth served as a Director of Christian Education in the Midwest for more than 20 years. During that time he assisted churches in starting a variety of volunteer ministries. He’s a husband, father, author and speaker. He and his wife Elizabeth live in Loveland, Colorado, where he serves as Camp Project Leader with Group Workcamps Foundation.