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Step-by-Step Guide to Coordinate Easter Church Volunteers

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Without the help of generous volunteers, major church events like Easter and Christmas services wouldn’t happen. Volunteers selflessly give their time and hearts by making new visitors feel welcome, teaching in children’s church, running your sound booth, and more. Easter is a great time to gather new volunteers, cast vision, and create a memorable experience for your members and guests.

In the following step-by-step guide, we’ll prepare you for managing your volunteers and increasing your engagement with them this Easter season:

Six Weeks Until Easter Volunteer Countdown

Call for volunteers from the pulpit and ask your existing team to recruit their friends. It’s important to talk about the heart behind Easter more than your need for volunteers. During the Easter season, volunteers have the opportunity to be tangible expressions of the gospel to a new family. Be sure to cast vision instead of simply expressing needs. 

Gather the names of all potential volunteers and assign them positions. Share those names with each team captain before your big kickoff meeting.

Five Weeks Until Easter Volunteer Countdown

You’ll want to have an outline of your entire Easter service by this time. Gather your volunteer leadership team and talk through your outline with them. Create a responsibility matrix and assign leaders over each domain. Everyone will need to know who’s in charge of each activity and who to go to if there’s a question they can’t answer.

This includes:

  • parking
  • which entrances to use
  • greeters
  • what to do if you run out of supplies, etc.

You’ll want to let them know they should be extra friendly on Easter and have a visitor-focused mindset. If a new person arrives, have a greeter walk them to their seat or the bathroom instead of telling them where it is. They should answer any questions they receive. 

Four Weeks Until Easter Volunteer Countdown

Plan an Easter volunteer kickoff event for all your volunteers. This is a chance for them to get to know you and the volunteer leadership team. The senior pastor and leadership team should give their vision for the day— what they expect and the opportunities the volunteers have.

During this meeting, every team should split up and walk through their part of the Easter service. This is the first rehearsal and a chance for the volunteers to ask questions. You can practice tithes and offerings, the transition between elements, the kid’s ministry, etc. The leads should encourage each volunteer team to pray for their area of ministry and those they are shepherding. 

The leads should give a written game plan to each team member. It should include:

  1. The details of the position
  2. Your contact information
  3. Instructions on how communications will take place (if your church management software has volunteer scheduling, it will help streamline the process)
  4. Where they can get resources for their role 
  5. Which service(s) they’re serving at

Three Weeks Until Easter Volunteer Countdown

With only three weeks until the big event, you’ll want to contact all volunteers through your church management software. Again, volunteer scheduling is a key feature you can take advantage of here. They can also let their team lead know if they’re sick and not planning on attending the event. 

Two Weeks Until Easter Volunteer Countdown

Start assembling thank-you gifts for the volunteers. At this point, you should know your final numbers. You’ll want to send communication with details for the day. Remind them where they need to be, the best service for their family to attend, any changes in the plan since the initial kickoff meeting, and what time they should arrive.

One Week Until Easter Volunteer Countdown

Consider sending volunteers an email with a video from the pastor sharing vision and asking all volunteers to pray for the event. It can be short, but it’s a nice touch and lets volunteers know that they’re appreciated. This is also the deadline for volunteers to let team leaders know if they can’t attend, so they can find a replacement. It may be good to have a few alternates just in case some volunteers get sick or don’t show up.

The Day Before Easter Volunteer Countdown

A final communication should come from the ministry leaders and remind volunteers of all the key details— what time to be there, what to wear, and best practices.

Easter Sunday: Volunteers in Action

Volunteers should show up an hour before the service to do a final walk through and make any necessary adjustments. They should check-in in a designated volunteer area and refreshments should be waiting for them. After check-in, they should report to their leaders. They can also pick up their volunteer gift, or ministry leaders can walk through the classrooms and hand gifts to each volunteer.

One Week After Easter 

Each volunteer should get an email summarizing the great things that happened at the service, including personal testimonies if possible. The goal of this email is to make volunteers understand they made a tangible difference in the kingdom this Easter. While the volunteers are still excited from the event, your ministry leaders now have an opportunity to expand their volunteer teams, remind them of the vision of their ministry, and explain the needs going forward. This is a great time to recruit and train new volunteers, especially because VBS and youth retreats are coming up soon.

Next Steps

If you’re looking to keep your volunteers and members organized, check out SimpleChurch CRM, a church management software with features built just for supporting volunteer coordination. Check out their free 60-day trial (hint: test it for Easter volunteer management!). You’ll be able to improve the way you connect and present opportunities. Use it to send reminders, communicate effectively (they can reply and inform you that they’re coming — or need to cancel!), optimize requests by targeting only qualified volunteers, or set applicant limits if you only need a few people.  SimpleChurchCRM also features child check-in, $0/month giving, integrated background checks, and a mobile church app all in one convenient program.

Tom Kline
Tom Klinehttps://ministrybrands.com
Since 2008, Tom has helped churches thrive with technology and best-practice. He's passionate about how software can equip churches to dramatically impact their community. He's also passionate about his wife and three children, Frisbee Golf, and Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Tom currently serves as the Client Experience Director for Elexio, a Ministry Brands company.

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