The easiest way to retain (and disciple) volunteers
I am grateful to live in a small home with a big view. I love being outside to enjoy it whenever I can and naturally expected others would, too.
Surprisingly, my patio table and chairs weren't enough to get people to venture out 10 yards to see the "bigger view" where a small lake appears with wildlife and a golf course surrounding it.
I had to coax them to the edge of the lawn. They would be taken in by the expansiveness of the view once I led them there, but they seldom stayed out there to enjoy it.
That’s when I became a genius in my own mind and bought some $17 chairs from Lowe's and dragged 2 of them to the edge of the lawn along with a small table I made to hold drinks.
All of a sudden when people came over, they bee-lined for the best view in the house—the one they would consistently forfeit before.
Why? Because I unwittingly created an environment that made it hard for people to resist what I wanted them to experience.
I made it easy for them to do the thing I knew they would love… IF they gave it a chance.
That’s the incredible power of environments.
Environments are an essential ingredient of your assimilation system (you can read about that here).
But there’s one environment that is an unexpectedly powerful tool in the hands of a Sherpa leader.
It’s been crucial for our volunteer placement, retention, and development.
It’s created a family-feel on our team.
And it lives within a 15-minute time slot.
I absolutely love pre-service huddles.
Huddles are an environment where people naturally move to higher ground both spiritually and in their personal impact.
They do NOT offer a devotion on a Sunday (I mean, they’re already hearing a message in worship...).
They do NOT add 10 minutes of housekeeping and announcements to everyone’s calendars.
They need to build skills, wisdom, and community — if you’re not doing that, it will feel disjointed and unnecessary.
Here’s the weekly huddle framework I’ve used to great success so far:
Information (yes, you still need information - but limit yourself to a minute. seriously.)
Inspiration (get their eyes up above whatever they walked in with, or the tasks they’re about to do. this is where you engage them)
Prayer (prayer connects us with God and with each other, and of course it’s a staple)
That’s what goes into each huddle.
But there’s also a monthly rhythm I’ve fallen into that really works for us. It makes me sure that I’m keeping things fresh.
Week 1 - VISION
Week 2 - TRAINING
Week 3 - APPRECIATION
Week 4 - PRAYER
[Week 5 - Dealer’s Choice (I usually go with Training)]
It helps me make sure I’m keeping things well-balanced and bringing the whole team on a real development journey — not just throwing together a last-minute “inspiring thought from the verse I just read today on YouVersion” (we’ve all done it…) .
This all looks great on paper and in theory.
But the best part of pre-service huddles is the RESULTS.
This is what pre-service huddles do:
➊ Pre-service huddles give you a ready-made environment to engage your volunteers—not just use them to perform a task.
Your volunteers are as much the object of your ministry as those they serve, just in a different way.
Pre-service huddles insure the right kind of engagement necessary for developing a ministry that will truly develop people.
➋ Pre-service huddles make recruitment and retention much easier.
Creating a volunteer engagement cycle that includes weekly face time with each other and yourself (or another trusted leader or staff) makes your ministry the one everyone wants to serve on because people are known and cared for in a contagious way.
➌ Pre-service huddles automate the aspects of your leadership that you are most concerned about forgetting.
These include often forgotten essentials like vision casting, training and development, appreciation, and the critical function of prayer.
Because they are a regular part of these short but meaningful pre-huddles, you don’t have to search the calendar to plan opportunities to make them happen each year!
➍ If you want to make followers of Jesus (disciples), then you have to recruit them to a TEAM, not just a JOB.
Pre-service huddles create that team environment for them.
Jesus formed the model for us: huddle people together in a group and work through the issues they have with the task they’ve been given, other people they serve and serve with, and the personal issues they have within themselves, in real time. Brief and debrief. Send them out in pairs so they are not alone.
This makes sure they are not just responding to a planning center schedule, but are being noted for their faithfulness and growth.
This allows someone to know when it is time to go the next level with them like Jesus did.
How to (realistically) start or reinvent what you’re already doing.
I know. You’re already strapped. You’ve got plenty on your plate, and you don’t know where and when you’re going to plan creative, engaging, and unique agendas for each week.
And, you’ve got to GET everyone there in the first place!
If you’re not already doing pre-service huddles:
➡️ Decide how to rearrange the call time for each role (try for just 10 minutes, and take 5 minutes off the role if possible)
➡️ Give your teams 2-3 weeks’ heads up about the time change — remind them each time you email/text, and tell them in-person.
➡️ Share WHY! Excitedly tell them about what kinds of things you’ll be doing, how you want to grow everyone in their skill and influence, and how this will build up the TEAM atmosphere like never before.
➡️ Start really well. Have special snacks or food at the first few. Plan meaningful activities, prayer experiences, a drop-in from the lead pastor, or significant training moments. Make sure your first month rocks.
If you’re already doing them, but need to reinvent:
➡️ Plan out your first month of upgraded experiences so you’re very sure you’ll be able to deliver consistently, instead of just a flash in the pan one week.
➡️ Send everyone a message leading up to your first upgraded huddle, telling them what’s going to be different this week! Tease the snacks (good food literally always helps!), tell them what you’ll be doing or learning, and ask them specifically to make sure they are there (because most likely, a good portion skip the current one… right?)
➡️ Thank everyone for coming. And it’s ok to admit that the huddles up to that point might have been lacking vision or substance (if you feel that way). Your team will be happy you’re working hard to serve them better.
➡️ Ask for feedback. Make this a conversation so you’re not always guessing what they want to do.
And finally—here’s how to fully plan 52 Pre-Service Huddles… in about 15 minutes.
I’ve been doing these for years. I’ve hit big home runs. I’ve had plenty of flops.
I get asked for ideas all the time on what I’m actually doing week to week. And it makes sense - there are lots of land mines you’re trying to avoid…
how to make training bite-size, helpful, and memorable
how to do vision without feeling preachy
how to make things fun (but not cringy)
how to pray together without just ending up praying for a few people’s second uncle with a stubbed toe
That’s why we pulled together 52 tried and true pre-service huddle plans, in their entirety, for you to customize and use with your team!
These are the best of the best from the last 7 years of weekly huddles.
They’re fun, interactive, power-packed, and memorable.
My hope is that these can save you loads of time AND level up your huddle environment.
And they’re perfectly balanced for you, too…
12 Vision Plans
16 Training Plans (for those 5th Sundays)
12 Appreciation Plans
12 Prayer Plans
You can easily “cherry pick” huddles from these 4 categories, using as much or as little as you want to adapt them to your context.
And because they are virtually plug-and-play, handing them over to your emerging leaders to run point on is a great way to equip these men and women as they grow in ministry as well.
My backyard is my favorite room in the house.
When I sit in one of those chairs with a friend, a cigar or a glass of wine, or sometimes just by myself with a journal, it brings me peace, a heart of prayer and an authentic connection if someone is with me.
I don’t know what it is. It happens naturally. It’s just the right environment for the right thing.
If you want to see movement and growth in your volunteers, don’t start another Bible study. You don’t even have to do a bunch of 1 on 1s.
Just create a the right environment through a 10 to 15 minute huddle… and watch what happens.
TO CHEW ON WHILE WE CLIMB
Use these questions to debrief and plan with your team or volunteers.
➊ What environments in our church are accomplishing significant results in the realm of volunteer development?
➋ Do you have any experiences with truly great pre-service huddles? How has that experience (or lack thereof) influenced how you do (or don’t do) pre-service huddles?
➌ What’s a realistic, but still ambitious, goal for implementing (or reinventing) pre-service huddles on your team? (set due dates and assign owners!)
➍ How much time and effort could the 52 Huddles package save you this year?
