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People want to help – you just have to ask…

If you want to grow your church, increasing volunteerism is one of the fastest ways. While it takes a lot of courage to ask your friend or neighbor to come with you to church – asking your close friends to help you on the weekend where you volunteer is really easy. Our friends are almost always willing to help when we ask…especially when it’s something simple (not helping you move).

Step One – Develop a culture of serving

Churches know they need to grow to stay alive, but they often have a closed mindset relating to growth. So, the first step is to prepare the members of your church to welcome non-believers to your church. Our recommendation is to simply ask your congregation this – if Christ were to visit your church tomorrow, how many of your friends and neighbors would he want you to tell about His gospel message? The answer should be, “all of them.” A logical follow on would be he would want you to help them find a way to hear that message. The end result, you have to become a church willing to invite people to your church to hear the gospel message.

Step Two – Create a position for everyone to volunteer

Ask everyone in your church to serve in the church in any capacity that interest them. Have everyone just do something…even if it’s only one weekend every 6-8 weeks. Create volunteer positions for literally every single person in your church. Explain that if people are going to come to your church to hear the gospel message, you better have lots of volunteers to welcome them and care for them.

The best scenario is that you have two services at your church and half of your congregation volunteers and one and attends the other and then they switch.  This may sound silly, but watch and see how you can double the size of your church with this method.

Step Three – Invite your best friend to come help you

Inviting your best friend or relative (who doesn’t already go to church)  to church on Sunday might be difficult if you’re just inviting them to hear the message…it’s a difficult ask. But asking them to come help you serve in the area that you enjoy serving is pretty easy. Let’s say you serve on the Tech team. You enjoy hooking up wires and making the services work from a technical point of view. There’s a good chance you have friends with similar interests. When you go to your friend and tell them you need help with the tech on Sunday, most are almost anxious to help you out. 

Here’s the key…once at the church, have them help you set up and do whatever you do. Then introduce them to others on the team. Most of our friends are very willing to meet new friends with similar interests. Have the person stay with you all every minute of the time you serve. Don’t have them attend the next service. Just have them serve with you. Chances are they will hear the message while you are serving. Invite them back a few weeks later explaining you need help again (not every single week at first). After the third time they help you, tell them that the team (by now they’ve met everyone on the team and have begun to form mild friendships) meets for coffee during the week (your bible study). Ask your friend to join you. Finally, ask your friend if they would join the team serving – and explain that it doesn’t matter if they belong to or attend the church. You just need the help. 

We’ve seen people serve for over a year before they accept Christ as Lord and Savior…but come every weekend to volunteer and serve…because they’ve made friends.  If you want more detail on how to do this, we recommend attending our six-week Church Goals class. Follow this link for more information: https://bit.ly/ChurchGoalsClass