When I ask pastors what their greatest leadership challenges are, one thing makes almost everyone’s list.  “I need more volunteers,” they say.  

When I ask what they’re doing to recruit volunteers, they talk about Sunday morning announcements and recruitment fairs.  They talk about promotional slides before service and social media posts.  They invest time, energy, creativity and cash into getting the volunteers they need.  But does it work?  

If success is measured by a long-term increase in the number of active volunteers, then no.  It doesn’t work.  It gets lots of names on lists.  It might even get people to an orientation meeting.  Six months later, however, there isn’t a measurable improvement.  

So what can we do?  The single most powerful recruitment strategy that I discovered throughout decades of ministry is found in this one sentence: “You know what you’d be amazing at?”  

One caveat:  it only works if you pay enough attention to people to know that it’s true.  If you see someone relating to a child well in the lobby, tell them they’d be amazing at children’s ministry.  If you see someone walk into church with their laptop, tell them they might be a great fit for media team.  

The greatest thing about this recruitment strategy is that you can teach all your team leaders how to do it in under 90 seconds.  The second greatest thing is that it’s based on complimenting people so there’s no fear of rejection involved.  

Think I’m making it too easy?  Here’s my challenge: use this with three people every week for a month.  If you don’t discover I’m right, I’ll give you a free coaching session and we’ll craft another recruitment strategy that’s specifically tailored to your needs.