Encouraging Millennials to volunteer is a
mixed experience for church leaders. For many church leaders, they are
discouraged when it comes to getting Millennials involved. For other church
leaders, they have had success connecting Millennials to the life of their
church.
Regardless of your experience, it’s vital for the longevity of your church to
encourage Millennials to volunteer. Millennials are the largest living generation in the
United States, which means you need to have a strategy (like
yesterday) to lead Millennials to volunteer.
To help you along your way, here are five ways you can encourage Millennials to
volunteer at your church.
#1.
Lead with purpose
Millennials are more inclined to support
causes; not specific organizations. Practically speaking, as you strive to
encourage Millennials to volunteer, connect with their passion for working with
specific causes, which leads us to the next point.
#2.
Share stories
Millennials tend to be pragmatic. They want to
see how your church is practically extending the love of Christ to your church
members, community, and around the world.
To illustrate God's work in and through your
church, you can do several things, such as: Encourage the members of your
church to share how God transformed their life, highlight stories from
different ministries of your church, and invite missionaries or leaders or
volunteers of community services to share stories.
Sharing stories will illustrate God’s work in
the life of individuals and his work through the church in the community, which
will help Millennials to see that their efforts are not in vain.
#3.
Provide ongoing opportunities
InThe
Millennial Impact Report, the researchers discovered that
Millennials prefer to volunteer on a continuum basis. In other words,
Millennials desire to engage in many different ways instead of serving in one
ongoing position.
To meet this need among Millennials, be open
to providing opportunities to volunteer that don’t require additional training,
short-term opportunities to serve, such as a few days or for a few weeks a
year, and digital opportunities, like helping your church to raise money online.
#4.
Make volunteering wholistic
In a healthy trend, Millennials view their
life holistically. In general,
Millennials prefer for everything they do to connect with their vision and
aspirations for life. To tap into this desire, you can do two things as a
church leader.
First, Millennials are more likely to
volunteer when they can use their skills. In The Millennial Impact Report from 2015, they
shared that “77% of millennials said they’re more likely to volunteer when they
can use their specific skills or expertise to benefit a cause.” So, to
encourage Millennials to volunteer, find ways to connect volunteer
opportunities to their skills.
Second, Millennials are interested in self-improvement.
As a church leader, you can connect with this aspiration among Millennials by
challenging them to learn new skills and face unique challenges in new
volunteer opportunities.
#5.
Hire Millennials
This year, Elevation Church was considered one
of the 100
Best Workplaces for Millennials. At the time of this survey, Elevation
Church employed 165 Millennials, which makes up 80% of their entire staff.
After observing Elevation Church’s work and
staff, Brady Shearer of Pro Church Tools said, “If you want to reach Millennials, then you need to hire
Millennials.”
To move your church in this direction, create
volunteer leadership opportunities for Millennials, and hire them as you are
able. Having Millennials on your staff will not only help your church reach
other Millennials, but it will also help you to encourage Millennials to
volunteer.
How do
you encourage Millennials in your church to volunteer?
Share your experience in the comments below.