Sometimes, volunteers are hard to find! There are some people who are just not good working with children or don’t feel comfortable working with kids. But then there are those who are good with children and just do not have the time available to lead on a weekly basis. Sometimes it is difficult to find people to serve even once a month. It would be great to have one wonderful, committed volunteer leading each Sunday School classroom.
But I don’t always have that. Maybe you don’t either. As I have worked in my church over the years I have had to be practical. I sometimes have a two person team leading a class where the teachers teach every other week. For another team, it works better to have two weeks on and then two weeks off. In Children’s Worship, which meets during the worship time, a class is typically shared by three leaders who lead kids for 3 weeks with six weeks off.
At a recent meeting with other children’s ministry directors, we wondered if we are making volunteer positions so small that the people do not have the time to impact the lives of the children? In our desire to staff our classrooms, have we lost part of what we are trying to do for the kids? Is it effective for volunteers to serve only once a month? Are they able to build a relationship with the kids and lead them effectively? Has our culture lead us to a point where we are sacrificing our kids’ faith formation because our adult schedules are too full?
