Depending on the job, some volunteers serve every week, some serve every month, some serve several months out of the year. Here is an overview of who they are, and a look at a few key areas of the ministry.
Roughly 60% of our volunteers currently have children in the children’s ministry. (That means they are parents of kids age infant-6th grade).
40% of them do not have kids currently in the children’s ministry (either because they are teens, young adults, parents of older youth, or older people).
Roughly 15% are older than 55 years old or older. (YEAH for seniors serving in children's ministry! The saints of the church! we love them).
About 42% are male, 58% are female. (That's a lot better than many churches which have almost all women in children's ministry, we are intentionally getting men involved!)
A Few Key Areas...
In the nursery…
42% of the volunteers currently have kids in the children’s ministry, and .7% are male (only one male!).
In the general security volunteer team…
19% of the volunteers have kids in the ministry, and 81% DO NOT have children currently in the children’s ministry. Most of the security volunteers are senior adults who don't have young kids.
70% of the general security volunteers are male (that's awesome! male majority here! maybe need to get some of these guys to go to nursery...?)
Sunday school
83% have children currently in the children’s ministry (the few who are not parents are youth who assist the teachers), and 38% are male.
In the midweek ministry team…
69% of the volunteers currently have kids in the children’s ministry, and 33% are male.
What does this say about our children's ministry volunteers? Several things: for one-- we are doing well with getting diversity in our volunteer teams, but we can always do better! We can intentionally recruit people who don't have young children (like teens, college students, and senior adults), and we can intentionally recruit more men! In fact, we can even recruit people who don't even like kids! (note: I'm not saying people who volunteer in those roles do not like kids... the point being there are many different spiritual giftings and abilities that can be valuable in children's ministry) Because there is SUCH a huge variety of roles in which one can serve the children's ministry, we can use volunteers to help run the computers, greet the parents, organize and plan events, serve food, and much more!
Also, we are thankful to have a huge percentage of our volunteers who are parents of kids in the ministry, and compared to other churches, the amount of parental involvement we have is uncommon and excellent! That's great news! Parents are taking leadership and getting involved in their kids' spiritual lives!
We are so thankful for each and every volunteer who serves in the children's ministry. This is such a wonderful team of people to get to serve with! I am excited to spend time celebrating their service and thanking them at a Christmas Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon this Sunday after church, it will be a red carpet event where the volunteers are the guests of honor!
-Lynne