Church volunteers are hard to find

ROUND ROCK, Texas – At the Round Rock Church of Christ, longtime member Kay Whitehead was eager to return to ministering to children.

This summer, Whitehead got back to coordinating the toddler class. She is a kindergarten teacher in Round Rock, north of Austin, and has been ministering to children at her church for 33 years.

“It was more difficult to find all the people we needed, but for me there was no doubt,” she said. “I told our ministers that I was there. I’m ready when you’re ready.

The Round Rock Church is like many Churches of Christ across the country bracing for a return to normalcy, resuming ministries that were cut short for months when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Some congregations saw their participation decline as they urged members to return to their volunteer roles, forcing church leaders to rethink ministries at all levels. From children’s ministries to community engagement, ministry teams question whether members will re-engage at previous levels.

According to a report by Barna, 84% of parents are concerned about the long-term impact of the pandemic on their children. Parents of young children in particular, often isolated from other families and their church families, faced many complex decisions.

As an educator, Whitehead said she knows the value of socialization that religious environments can offer to growing children and at the expense of cutting their Bible lessons.

“It is important that children get to know Jesus and the word of God,” Whitehead said. “I hope our children learn this in their homes, but it is so important that they see other people in their lives who love God too. “

Robin Marrs, Minister for Children for Round Rock, has stepped up his efforts to recruit volunteers and hopes that more, like Whitehead, will see the value of serving children.

So far, Marrs has seen a decrease in attendance and commitment for a church that has generally experienced active engagement. The church, which has just under 400 adult members, previously had 100 volunteers for its ministry to children.

“One hundred adult volunteers represent a huge percentage of our church, much higher than other churches our size,” said Marrs. “And even with that much, it’s usually not enough.”

By the end of July, half of those people – 48 to be exact – had signed up for the new school year. But amid concerns over the Delta variant, another handful of those volunteers withdrew their pledges.

Over the past few years, Marrs has set up a table in the foyer for people to sign up for positions. This year, she opted for personal conversations, phone calls, emails, frontline announcements and social media posts, covering any connection she had with members with her request for volunteers.

“As I feared, we’ve had so few people engaged that we meet with the elders to try to figure out how we can still offer so much to our families with fewer people,” said Marrs. “And that will probably require a change in our worship structure.”

She diagnosed a few reasons why people don’t go back to their old jobs. “There are older members who have served for years, and this was their first break,” said Marrs. “Anyone looking for a way out, COVID has given them a way out. And we’ve had people who have made a habit of not coming in person or acclimating now to the “come in, out” mentality of not volunteering on a Sunday. “

Marrs also noted that enormous apathy appears to have set in, and some members spoke of fear of working with children again given the risks of the coronavirus, especially the delta variant.

Overall, this posed a problem for personnel ministers and alumni as they looked for potential solutions to bridge the growing gap between wanting to get back to normal and not having enough workers to do everything that was being done before.

Marrs said she feels church leaders and families are at a crossroads and need to stop and reassess what needs to be done and what can be done.

“People really don’t want to get involved in anything,” Marrs said. “It’s going to take time, and I mean years, a few more annual lifecycles, for people to re-acclimatize.”

Prior to March 2020, Round Rock had a first and second worship service with a Bible class in between, as well as children’s worship environments and a nursery during both services. But the church suspended all in-person gatherings from mid-March to mid-June last year, closing for about 12 weeks in total.

In the months that followed, the church had cut back on Sunday offerings which gradually expanded over the past year. Now the church has resumed two services, both with optional masks. Children’s environments, minus the nursery, are only offered in the second service. Some Bible courses also resumed in mid-September.

But even for a church that maintained a constant flow of in-person gatherings, Round Rock faced the difficult task of rebuilding its new normal, which had ripple effects throughout the congregation.

“When we can’t provide a full environment for kids, it’s obvious and the demographics of our services change,” said Marrs. “The first service gets noticeably older with the older members, and families come to the second service when there is a place to go for their children. So now we ask leaders, “Are we ready to change to lighten the burden? “

The larger image

The problem facing the Round Rock Church of Christ is not isolated.

It sums up bigger issues of engagement that churches face after a tumultuous year in which children’s ministry and other volunteer centers have often suffered.

Travis Irwin spent 12 years as an involved minister for the Church of Christ in Athens, Tennessee. Since his retirement at the end of 2020, he has consulted the Churches of Christ on issues related to engagement and volunteering and has seen several dynamics at play.

One challenge in finding volunteers that Irwin observed: the abrupt end of so many ministries last year. Many churches have erased their schedules for anything but a worship service – offered only online, in many cases – for an extended period of time. And as they resisted the viral outbreaks, they found it increasingly difficult to revert to anything that was offered before.

Some churches appear to hibernate, Irwin said, likening the lack of returning volunteers to groundhogs hiding in their holes in the winter. Others have stepped up their community-driven efforts and have been successful in keeping members connected in creative ways. He said small groups and former assets checking members are key to maintaining participation.

“When it comes to volunteers, you can’t just put something in the newsletter and expect people to flock to volunteer for you anymore,” Irwin said. “People haven’t had to volunteer for over a year, and they’ve entered another rhythm. “

Despite a general desire for a return to normalcy, Irwin urged churches to take the time to reassess the future of each ministry to see if they were functioning, being effective, and fulfilling their mission statements.

Remembering the DNA of the Church

Round Rock Discipleship Minister Matt DeLano worked alongside Marrs to connect with members and bring them back to pre-pandemic levels of volunteerism. DeLano expressed hope that the fall means greater participation in the life of the church.

“We have already built a culture in our church where serving our community is something we do in our DNA,” DeLano said. “We must understand that to be a disciple of Jesus we must be active in the life of a community.”

“We must understand that to be a disciple of Jesus we must be active in the life of a community.”

While they can’t go back in time, Marrs and DeLano said they wished the conversations about reimagining the future of volunteering in Round Rock had started much sooner.

The two agree: The fallout from the pandemic has given the church space to reflect and re-imagine the future.

“Everyone has asked these questions about what’s important after this last year,” said Marrs. “The church is not exempt. But I want to ask, “Is the old normal what we want?” We have the possibility to re-evaluate everything. And I totally agree, let’s start from scratch; Let’s do it differently, and do it better.

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