Working with Volunteers

Volunteering is at the heart of Christian service and discipleship.  We also often term it stewardship of time and talents. Whether working with children and young people, helping serve tea and coffee after a service, becoming a Reader or other authorised Lay Minister, or serving on the cleaning rota; our churches are dependent on volunteers.

Working Well With Volunteers

Working With Volunteers is a helpful online resource produced by Church Urban Fund and the Church of England Lay Training Adviser. (The link takes you through to a search page with links to each of the themes below.

The new online resource offers 7 themed guidance sheets around working with volunteers and associated templates that parishes can adapt.

The 7 themes include:

  1. Clarifying Tasks
  2. Taking on Volunteers
  3. Building Good Relationships
  4. Encouraging Development
  5. Tackling Difficulties
  6. Agreeing Principles
  7. Managing Formalities

Faithfully Volunteering

An excellent resource called Faithfully Volunteering has been produced with support from Church Urban Fund (CUF) by Church and Society in the Diocese of Liverpool.

This provides a really helpful guide to thinking about a range of issues such as:

  • Recruitment, screening and selecting volunteers
  • Assigning roles and responsibilities
  • Training
  • Expenses, support and supervision
  • Health and Safety
  • Equal opportunities
  • Confidentiality