4 Jobs for Your Check-In Volunteer
Photo from Center Pointe Christian Church
You’re fifteen minutes into your kidmin service. Your volunteers are all busy taking care of the kids who are here. Just then, a flustered parent shows up with 3 kids in 3 different age groups, and she needs to check them in just so she can get a few minutes of respite and Jesus.
It’s definitely an inconvenience for you, and a disruption to what’s happening in the service. But what to do?
Some children’s ministries shut down their check-in station once service begins, leaving that flustered parent to deal with their kids in service or just go home. However, I advocate never closing check-in. I’ve even checked in kids with 15 minutes left!
To facilitate never shutting down kidmin check-in, I have a check-in volunteer who stays at the booth from 30 minutes before service until 15 minutes after service ends. They’re obviously busy before service, and they can help with check-out. But what about in between? Do they just stare at the wall? Do they help with crowd control? Or can they do something else?
If you ask a volunteer to just stare at the wall for an hour, they’re not going to stay in that position for long. However, you can give them specific things to do that will fill their time and still serve that flustered parent no matter how late they arrive.
I’m indebted to my wife, my all-time best check-in volunteer, for coming up with most of these jobs.
1. Double-Check Your Check-Ins
Whether you have manned (my preferred), self, or a hybrid check-in, there will most likely be errors. Someone checked into the wrong service. A kid went to the wrong classroom. Maybe the system went down and it’s finally fixed. These problems should be few and far between, but checking each classroom against the roster will help alleviate these problems before they become bigger ones at check-out.
I always like to check in my volunteers too. When I had a large team in multiple rooms it was easy to miss if someone didn’t make it. So, I ask my volunteers to check in. But they’re not always great at remembering. They may come in late. They may get caught up in my pre-service meeting. They may just forget.
As my check-in volunteer double-checks the kids, they also check in volunteers. This way when I track my numbers, I know who was where and when.
2. Complete Initial Visitor Follow-Up
Hopefully, your ministry has a good flow of visitors every week. But even if you don’t, when you do have a visitor there is some paperwork that needs to be done. If you follow my advice here for check-ins, you’ve put the most essential information in the system, and the rest is on a visitor card. While the check-in volunteer waits for service to finish, they can easily put that information in, which is a huge help on Monday morning. You may need to get them permission to access and edit the database. Some churches (like mine) make those people jump through hoops before they can see what’s there.
In addition to putting in their information, I give them my follow-up postcards. The volunteer can address the card and write a personalized note. You can even give them stamps so that all you have to do is drop them in the mail. This way your visitor gets a personalized follow-up postcard in just a few days, which helps them to come back again.
Depending on how many visitors you have, this could take the entire time or just a few minutes. Either way, that’s one less thing you have to do during the week.
3. Bathroom Monitor
This one only works if your public bathroom is near the check-in booth.
In one church I served, the kids and adults had to share the same bathroom, and it was right next to the check-in booth. So, I asked my check-in volunteer to serve as bathroom monitor. They would stand in the hallway and make sure the kid was safe. If the kid needed help, they could offer it. They also made sure the kid came back into kids church in a timely manner. Without that monitor, it was way too easy for an unruly kid to start wandering the halls. (It happens.)
Having them serve as bathroom monitors keeps the service running. My small group leaders don't have to break away to make sure a kid gets there and back safely. This also means my rule of two is maintained in every classroom. In addition, it removes a volunteer position. Asking a volunteer to double up their role saves you a lot of additional recruiting work.
4. Count and Report Offering
In every kidmin I served, I had a lot of change. We did a missions push every month and literally asked kids to bring their pennies. When I was at my largest church, it would not be unusual to have nearly a hundred dollars in coins.
Because of this, the counters hated counting my offering. It took too long, and many times I turned it in when they were close to done. I got a lot of nasty looks. So, I bought a coin counter and started counting and rolling my offering before I turned it in. It wasn’t long before I realized my check-in volunteer could do this. It took a little training to show them how to use the coin counter and log the offering correctly. But by the end of service, I had an offering bag with everything counted and rolled. All I had to do was drop it off to the counters so they could verify.
I still caught mean looks because it was always late, but at least most of their work was done.
With all of these jobs, your check-in volunteer still keeps an eye on their station. Kidmin is a ministry to kids, but it’s also a ministry to the parents, especially the overwhelmed ones who just need a break. They know they can rest easy and worship while their kids are taken care of and learning about Jesus.
Your check-in volunteer can be one of your most valuable volunteers. They can do much more than welcome kids and make sure everyone is safe. They can accomplish many of the admin and safety tasks that may be too small for a dedicated volunteer to do. Ask more of your volunteer and serve your families. Who knows? That flustered parent and her kids just may come to Jesus by the end of service.
You’re fifteen minutes into your kidmin service. Your volunteers are all busy taking care of the kids who are here. Just then, a flustered parent shows up with 3 kids in 3 different age groups, and she needs to check them in just so she can get a few minutes of respite and Jesus.
It’s definitely an inconvenience for you, and a disruption to what’s happening in the service. But what to do?