Motivating volunteers in the church

I've just started reading a new book The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised] by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.  The book is based on a 10-year study of 200,000 managers and employees and is obviously written primarily for business leaders and managers.  However, even though I have just started reading the book, I am finding some principles that can certainly transfer to ministry leaders as well.  We often note that leading volunteers in a church is difficult because there is little we can do to motivate them.  When we say that we are probably referring to the fact that they are not getting paid.  As this book, and other studies, point out, money is not a primary motivator for most people.  A much more important motivator is recognition and appreciation for their work.

The authors write, "79 percent of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.  Sixty-five percent of North Americans report that they weren't recognized in the least bit in the previous year."  Over three-fourths of people who quit their jobs do so because they did not believe anyone appreciated their efforts.  It had nothing to do with money.  They refer to another study that asked employees what they really wanted from their jobs.  Number one was the opportunity to grow on the job, number two was recognition, and number three was pay.  Again, recognition was more important to these employees than their salaries.

If we transfer this thinking to the church it's easy to see that recognition and appreciation is what will motivate our volunteers, and yet I'm not sure that happens very often in many churches.  I think back to my pastoral ministry, and I can remember two individuals who were very involved in the life of our church.  They faithfully served for many years in a number of capacities.  In time, both dropped out of active involvement.  One told me she was burned out from all she was doing and needed to step back.  She never became as involved in our church as she was previously.  Another individual left our church and never told anyone why.  Until recently.  I was talking to him recently and he confided that the reason he left our church was because he felt burned out with all he was doing and didn't know what to do about it.  Chances are there were others who felt the same thing that I am not aware of.

As I began reading the reasons why people left their jobs I realized it was the same reason these two individuals dropped out of their church roles.  Our church never did anything to intentionally recognize our workers.  I might make a comment once in a while from the pulpit about a specific activity and the persons leading it, but that did not happen nearly often enough.  Like too many church leaders I'm afraid I assumed their dedication to God and to our church was enough for our volunteers. As a pastor I should have known better.  What pastor has not had periods when he or she felt unappreciated by the congregation and thought of leaving for another place of service?  Why would we not recognize that those who volunteer in our churches might feel the same way?

If we want people to engage in the life of our churches we need to do a better job of demonstrating our appreciation for their work.  We need to recognize those who are doing an excellent job.  Such recognition needs to happen publicly and privately.  We must become very intentional about showing our appreciation.  We can do that by having appreciation dinners, by making sure they have the resources they need, by providing learning opportunities for them so they can grow in the ministries they are doing, by speaking words of appreciation to them at various times, and by asking them what challenges they are facing in their tasks.  This is certainly not an all-inclusive list; you need to find the methods of expressing appreciation that will work best in your church.  But, the key thing here is that you become much more intentional about demonstrating that appreciation.

I seldom recommend a book until I've read all of it, but this one has really spoken to me in the first few pages.  I think it's a must read for church leaders.  You can order it by clicking on the title above.