How to Celebrate Your Volunteers After Easter
It's Good Friday as I write this, and for many of us in ministry, that means Easter festivities are officially underway. I've written about following up with guests and celebrating with your family, but there's one group you simply cannot do Easter without.
Your volunteers.
You can do all the prep in the world leading up to the day, but it's your volunteers who greet the guests, lead worship, teach the lessons, and hold the babies. Instead of sitting in the pews on the most sacred Sunday of the year, they are choosing to serve. They are using their gifts and talents in the hope that someone might come to Jesus.
It's our job as leaders to honor that.
Here are four ways to mark Easter with your team and celebrate what God has done.
1. Give Them a Day to Recoup
In my years as a full-time pastor, the Monday after Easter was always a recovery day. Sometimes we'd come in for a half day to get the follow-up process started and then go play. We'd head to the pool or the beach as a staff. Bottom line, it was a day to celebrate what God had done and decompress after the pressure of such a big Sunday.
Your volunteers need that same grace. Especially the ones who gave up an entire weekend serving at your events. So on Monday, if you reach out at all, keep it simple. Share a win, then go quiet. Better yet, consider giving them the following Sunday off.
You can only serve out of a full cup. If your volunteers are always pouring out without time to refill, burnout is inevitable. And they poured out a lot this weekend. Give them room to rest.
A lot of churches are experimenting with family services on Palm Sunday and Easter. Consider trying one the week after Easter too. It gives everyone a chance to breathe before you're back at full speed for Mother's Day.
2. Celebrate the Wins
It's easy to go home after a big Sunday and slip into a doom spiral, replaying everything that went wrong. That tendency can come from your own perfectionism or the Enemy. Either way, don't listen to it. Instead, look for the wins and celebrate them.
Was your attendance up? Did you see salvations? Are people signing up for baptism?
Gather that information and share it with your team. Send an email or a quick text during the week. Bring it up at your next pre-service meeting and take time to talk through the good things that happened.
People want to serve on teams that win. But if you never show them the scoreboard, they'll never know how they're doing. This post can help you find the wins, and this one can help you share them.
3. Send Thank You Cards
One of the most common questions I see in Kidmin Facebook groups is some version of, "How do you appreciate your volunteers?" I’ve used crafts, parties, and branded merchandise. Those things are fine. But the single most effective way to show appreciation is a handwritten thank you card.
I've given away a lot of stuff over the years. The one thing volunteers personally thank me for, every time, is the cards. They're not going to think twice about the cute pencil with the tiny Jesus on top. But they will take that card and put it on their fridge.
Yes, it takes time, especially if you have a large team. It's still worth it. If you want to go beyond cards and do a little more to show your appreciation, this post can help.
4. Evaluate Your Service
Don't do this on Monday. Don't even do it on Tuesday. Sit with the emotions of the day and thank God for what he did. But by the end of the week, gather your team and talk through the good and the bad.
Your evaluation team could be your top-level volunteers, fellow staff members, or a handful of dedicated parents. Or if you really enjoy meetings, all three. Each group will bring a different perspective on how the day went.
When you meet, start with the good. If you haven't nailed down all your wins yet, this is a great time to do it together. Write them down so you can pass the good news along to your broader team and congregation.
After you've spent as much time as possible on the wins, move to what could be improved. Everyone's natural instinct is to jump straight to what went wrong, but if you skip the wins, you'll walk out of the meeting discouraged. Talking about what went well first keeps the conversation positive and energizing.
Write down the improvement ideas too. That way, when your next calendar planning meeting rolls around, you can pull them up and actually implement them. An unevaluated experience is a wasted experience.
This post has questions that can help guide your conversation.
Easter is the biggest day on the ministry calendar, and it couldn't happen without your volunteers. Take some time next week to rest, reflect, and celebrate what God has done. Then turn around and make sure your team knows how much their sacrifice meant.
Doing these four things won't just prevent burnout. It will reinvigorate your team and set you up well before you're back in the middle of planning the next big event.
Happy Easter!
