Church volunteers help drive the growth of the church.

Without these vital volunteers, churches often struggle to execute their ministries and services. After all, the work of volunteers comes from the heart of people who would love to honor God through serving the church.

One observation often seen among volunteers at church is that it’s natural for them to offer their time, talents, and resources. In fact, you won’t need to nudge them to volunteer.

However, there are certain circumstances when, in Jesus’ words, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Often, there are a lot of activities that the church needs to accomplish but finds it difficult to do so because of a shortage of help.

So as church leaders, you make announcements at your Sunday service or through your website that the church needs more volunteers for the different ministries. 

You even go as far as discussing the importance of church volunteerism in your sermons. 

Despite all these efforts, you may find that the volunteer turnout did not meet expectations. 

So, what’s the next step you can take to actually get more volunteers involved in the church? 

It may be time for you to connect with your church members at a formal but personal level.

We have designed this article to illustrate a sample letter asking for church volunteers, which you can use as a resource to inspire others to volunteer.

To make this task easier, we’ve outlined this straightforward letter-writing framework you can easily apply.

1. Identify the details of the recipient

It’s best to know who you are addressing with this letter. That includes pertinent information like the recipient’s complete name, address, and contact number.

In formal letter writing, these details are what you often see on top of a letter, and they are typically structured in this manner:

January 1, 2022

JOHN B. DOE

Number 4, Privet Drive

Seaport Village, San Diego

Dear Mr. Doe:

Doing this gives the impression that you, the writer, offer personal affection to the reader and that you genuinely know the person you are asking for help. Lastly, ensure that all details are accurate and updated.

Simply put, do your research before you send your letter.

This is where good church management software (ChMS) can really help you in collecting and organizing church members’ personal info.

Check out how Tithe.ly’s ChMS makes managing church data more efficient for church leaders like you. 

2. State your purpose for writing this letter

The first few lines of your letter must directly articulate why you are communicating to this person. 

It must function as a headline that captures the recipient’s attention to continue reading for more details in the next lines. Instead of beginning the letter’s body with irrelevant information, as many people are guilty of, you can establish this letter’s urgency by stating your purpose right at the start.

“I am writing on behalf of our church to humbly ask your help to be one of our church volunteers needed for the preaching ministry.”

This is particularly critical to remember in writing your letter. Most people lose track of the essential message of the letter because of all the details.

To make the request even more compelling, add a personalized note that states the qualification of the recipient based on recorded observations.

You can include appealing statements like:

• The church has seen you grow.
• I have noticed your exceptional skills and talents.
• Your previous efforts have not gone unnoticed.

Add some details, and you’re sure to make the recipient feel good and continue reading. But make sure that you are genuine with your statements, too.

If you’re still having trouble looking for church volunteers, this article, How to Get People to Volunteer at Church, can inspire you to get started.

3. Include details about the volunteer work

Having stated the letter’s purpose, you can now proceed to write the supporting details about the volunteer work. 

Here’s a framework to make your supporting details more concise:

• Present a quick overview of the program of interest.
• State the work in which the recipient can specifically help.
• Show tangible information like date, time, and venue.

Check out our article, How to Build (and Manage) a Community of Volunteers, to discover the exact details you need to help your church volunteers grow.

4. How can they contact you?

Letters requesting church volunteers need confirmation. It’s not just the same announcement you declared at church or on your website.

You have to find a way to make them reply to you.

The easiest way to do this is to let the recipient know the best way they can reach you. Most importantly, offer a personal touch by inviting the reader to a face-to-face meeting at church. This will undoubtedly make the convincing process more compelling.

5. Link back to your letter’s purpose

It’s a good practice to thank the recipient for taking the time to read the letter and consider your request.

But an even better letter-writing practice is to create a call-to-action that links back to why you have written to the member.

This technique could be as simple as writing a linking statement like this:

“I hope you accept this God-given opportunity to share your talent, time, and treasure as a mentor to serve the Lord through the church.”

This serves as a subtle reminder highlighting the main idea of the letter, which is to show that church volunteers are needed for the church’s welfare and that volunteering for the church can be a blessing. 

Sample Letter Requesting for Church Volunteers

Now, let’s piece the elements of this framework together and look at a sample letter requesting church volunteers:

January 1, 2022

JOHN B. DOE

Number 4, Privet Drive

Seaport Village, San Diego

Dear Mr. Doe:

I am writing on behalf of our church to humbly ask for your help as one of our church volunteers needed for the preaching ministry. The church would be delighted to have you join as a Brother-Facilitator in training more preachers. 

Your active participation in the church, especially when I have listened to your discussions and speaking opportunities at church, is highly admirable and positively influential. Undoubtedly, the church sees great potential in you to train more preachers.

In line with that, our church has scheduled the “Young Leaders’ Preaching Workshop” to be conducted every Saturday from January to May 2022. The training is designed to mentor more potential preachers in our church so that our preaching ministry can extend our mission to even more people and places. Each training day consists of several activities like seminars on public speaking, intensive Bible reading, and speech critiquing. The session is scheduled from 6:00PM to 7:30PM. Finally, the culminating activity is a Preacher’s Conference which aims to showcase their transformation and exhort them for the mission.

Please confirm if you are willing to volunteer now or need clarification about this activity. You can reach me through my e-mail, jgray@rgchurch.com, or my mobile phone # at 123-456-7890. You may even drop by my office at church so that we can talk, too.

I hope you accept this God-given opportunity to share your talent, time, and treasure to serve the Lord through the church.

Thank you very much!

In Christ,

Jason Gray

Executive Pastor

Rising Grace Church, San Diego 

Time to Write

Writing a letter requesting church volunteers is one way to inspire more church members to help in the church’s ministries and services. The key to writing this letter is to be formal yet personal and concise.

The framework and the example above can guide your train of thought in articulating your request. You can always add more details as needed.

For more updated and relevant resources to help your church grow, feel free to check out Tithe.ly.