Greg Atkinson

Most ministries benefit from a ministry fair, where those interested can obtain more information about serving in a ministry. It is often a time for those who don’t know ministry leaders personally to get to know them better and make connections that can last a lifetime.

I was recently asked why an IT ministry didn’t take advantage of a ministry fair to recruit new volunteers for their team. The problem with IT/media ministries is that most people that like technology are quiet people. They see things so clearly that they believe that if someone wanted their help, they’d ask. This isn’t about ego, it is about how they see the world and the church - it just makes logical sense to them. What they don’t realize is that you have to let people know about your passions and interests. They never make this connection and they miss out on the blessings of using their skills for the local church.

So, how does a church reach out to potential IT and media volunteers? Here is a step-by-step guide for recruiting tech-saavy volunteers within your church:

1. Identify all areas within your church that utilize technology - A/V gear PCs, servers, network closets, or any other technology used to support the church. Examples include: soundboards, projectors, streaming audio/video encoders, switches, cat 5/6 cable, and DSL/Cable/T1/T3 trunks
2. Plan a technology tour 10 minutes after each weekend church service for one weekend, with the idea of showing a “behind the scenes tour of the technology used to make church service happen”
3. Announce this tour from the pulpit or in the church bulletin 1-2 weeks prior to the tour, and again on the day of the tour. Ask them to meet you at the first location of the tour, most likely a sound booth or something easy to find
4. Take the group to each location within the church and speak about how it is used to make church service happen
5. After the tour, ask them to fill out a simple form with their name, email, home phone, and what area(s) they are most interested in volunteering
6. Follow-up with an email or phone call the same week to find out their availability and schedule a time to chat further about their skills and placement opportunities
7. Be prepared to create new opportunities to utilize the skill sets of those that want to get involved, as most technologists prefer to stick with what they know when they first sign up but will be open to trying new things later

Being a tech geek myself, it has only been a few years since God took me out of my position of shyness to developing other leaders within the church. How did I go from being a shy, solo technology guy to leading leaders? Well, it started by attending the very same kind of technology tour 8 years ago by another leader in the church!

Appeal to the technology interests of others by meeting them where they are at whether than making them meet you on your terms. You’ll be amazed at how your IT and media ministries will grow!

–
James Higginbotham
http://www.churchdirector.com - Volunteer scheduling tool
http://www.agileministry.com - Volunteer recruiting and leadership
http://www.bluejazzconsulting.com - Software consulting

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Churches, Communication, IT, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.