KidMin | Anatomy of a Volunteer Kick-off
Let’s face it. Volunteer orientations can be boring. We have to lay out policy changes, room schedules, other business-y topics. We have to do this. The law requires it in several states. But who said sharing this information had to sound like a shareholders meeting at a sinking Fortune 500 company.
This year we planned our Volunteer Orientation with one goal in mind:
Less Meeting. More Party.
Here’s the rundown:
Check-in:
Think mixers. You know those cheesy BINGO games. They actually work at getting volunteers to talk and mingle. We had specific square written to help leaders begin to know each other and hear each others stories.
During this time volunteers could grab some light snacks and have their name-tag picture taken.
Welcome:
Once we welcomed the volunteers into the room, we recapped the BINGO game and awarded prizes to the people who filled out the board, has served in Kidmin the longest, and the person who is serving for the first time who’s attended the shortest amount of time.
The real point of the welcome was to set the tone for the eventing, break the ice, and get the party started. To do this, we took a song parody from ReThink’s “Ovations” DVD. And yours truly got my Bon Jovi on and belted out “Dead or Alive” ala funny-song-about-volunteering-in-kidmin.
Vision:
Brian VanderArk, our Senior Pastor of Family Ministries, gave a short 10 minute talk on why we do what we do. It was simple. It was memorable.
Policies and Procedures:
Here’s the moment where people start to doze off. They’ve heard these multiple times, but they need to hear them again. We decided to make these fun with short sketches showing what NOT to do or poke fun at the fact we do them.
Modesty: We staged a short runway show with the new uniform in Discovery Village: Full painters coveralls complete with hood.
Check-in Procedure: Clueless check-in person playing Angry Bird who obliviously allows kids into the room much to the chagrin of Mom.
Emergency Line: Joe Volunteer called at 8:00 on Sunday morning from his timeshare in Florida to tell us we wasn’t gonna make it. He’d send a post card. This is SO not why we have an EMERGENCY line.
Snow Days: Person wrapped in a blanket goes to a window to notice that we’ve got snow, “We can’t POSSIBLY have church this morning!” Oh, but we do.
Stranger Danger: Person dressed in trench coat, sunglasses, and fedora walks through the room and finds a seat next to a volunteer. He’s is politely escorted out of the room even though he was “only watching the children.”
It’s not rocket science to make these fun, but keeping these policies light actually hits the mark at helping volunteers see they are important.
Breakouts:
After we finished the policies and procedures, we broke everyone out into their serving groups: Nursery, Preschool, and Elementary. The point of these was not to give specific information about individual roles, but rather to elevate those roles as important.
We reviewed curriculum and relationships.
I took the elementary teams through the kidmin hour by highlighting the relationships a child has at each given moment. I highlighted that each of these relationships–from a smile from a greeter at the door to a worship leader on stage to a small group leader investing in a child’s life–matters to the overall end in mind: Helping a child come to expect that God can be trust no matter what.
We had a great few nights at each campus with our leaders. I’m so thankful that while God calls us to serve his church, we’re not called to do this alone. He raises up hundreds of leaders at Ada Bible Church who love on kids and families and make each child feel loved and liked as they enter our ministry. I’m so excited for what God will do in our ministry this year.
