Dear Children’s Minister,

Thanks so much for inviting me to your training. I am sure that your seminar on Record Keeping and Food Hygiene in Children’s Ministry will be very interesting. I know that it is very important that as a leader in our church I go to our training meetings but unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it this time….

Regards, your committed kids’ ministry volunteer.

We all know that training in ministry is important, so why can it be so hard to get ministry volunteers to come to training?

Sometimes it is because of their past experiences with training. For example, the last time they went to training they found that:

• It wasn’t relevant to their ministry.
• The trainer spoke for the whole time and gave them a lot of information so there wasn’t time for discussion or practical application.
• The training was put on at a time that was difficult to get to.
• The training was boring.

But it may also be their attitude to training:

• I’ve been doing this a long time and I don’t need to be told how to do it.
• It’s enough that I volunteer; I can’t be expected to use up my time at training.
• I know more than anyone else at that training, so what is the point of going?
Here are some things we can do to enthuse and excite our volunteers in children’s ministry to come to training:
• Be enthusiastic about the training. It is important that not only the children’s minister, but the senior minister encourages volunteers to go to the training. This can be achieved by the senior minister talking about the training in church. Even more encouraging is when the senior minister attends the training.
• Make sure that we are providing training that will be helpful to our volunteers. It is important to identify the areas where our volunteers need to increase their skills and knowledge. We can do this by watching them in their roles, and by asking them.
• Think about the environment where we do our training. Try to provide a welcoming and comfortable space. Have some good food.
• Get our ministry volunteers involved in the training. Acknowledge their experience and ask them to run a training session in their area of expertise. Provide lots of opportunities for sharing ideas and experiences within our sessions.
• Be respectful of people’s time. Start and finish when we say we will.
• Get feedback from our training so that we are constantly improving what we do.
• Make it clear from the start that participating in training is a part of the role.

And finally,

• Make it fun.
• Make it worthwhile.
• Make it encouraging.
• Spend time praying.

Dear Children’s minister,

I am so excited about our next training; I always learn so much at these meetings. See you on Thursday,

Regards, your committed kids’ ministry volunteer.

Feature photo: ozlady